WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL NEWS
Judge Daniel Hill to be promoted to Brigadier General
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
Col. Daniel J. Hill of
Hermiston will soon be Brig-
adier General Hill after a
promotion as Assistant to the
Chief Counsel of the National
Guard Bureau.
Hill, a Umatilla County
circuit court judge, will serve
as an advisor to the Judge Ad-
vocate General of the Army
and assistant to the National
Guard Bureau’s Chief Coun-
sel starting June 1.
Hill has been serving as
State Judge Advocate, the top
legal position in the Oregon
National Guard, since 2015.
He said he will be able to
fulfill his new national posi-
tion part-time from Hermis-
ton while continuing to serve
as a circuit court judge. On
occasions that the National
Guard job does require travel,
the Oregon Judicial Depart-
ment will provide someone
to fill in during Hill’s absence
so that the work of the court is
not disrupted.
As assistant to the Chief
Counsel, Hill said his job
duties will include being a
liaison between various parts
of the Guard’s legal system
and interactions with the
Active Component and the
U.S. Army Reserve,
working on Judge Ad-
vocate management
policy, supervision
and rating of National
Guard military judg-
es, reviewing profes-
sional
misconduct
complaints and other Hill
military law matters.
“It’s kind of a facilitator
role,” he said.
Hill said he will be the first
person to fill the position in its
current form, so it is “going to
be kind of interesting to see
what I get handed.”
General Michael L. Sten-
cel, The Adjutant General for
Oregon, stated in an email an-
nouncing the promotion that
Hill is an example of a “true
citizen-soldier.”
“Col. Hill’s selection is
a testament not only to his
performance in the Oregon
National Guard, but also to
his proven abilities and years
of service as a circuit court
judge in Umatilla County,”
Stencel wrote.
A news release
from the 6th District
Circuit Court congrat-
ulated Hill and called
the new position and
rank a “well-deserved
promotion.”
Oregon Supreme
Court Chief Justice
Thomas Balmer con-
gratulated Hill as well.
“That is a great honor, but
if your service in the National
Guard is anything like your
service in OJD, not a surprise
at all!” he wrote. “We are
proud of you and wish you
every success in your new
duties.”
Hill said the promotion is a
“good career capstone” and he
looks forward to the challenge.
“I think it’s going to be a
change of pace, looking at
the world differently, from a
higher policy level,” he said.
“... I’m looking forward to the
different perspective.”
Hill graduated from Herm-
iston High School, obtained
an associate degree from Blue
Mountain Community Col-
lege, a bachelor’s degree from
Oregon State University and
a law degree from Willamette
University. He also earned a
master’s degree in strategic
studies from the U.S. Army
War College in 2014.
He went into active duty
for the Army as a first lieu-
tenant with the Judge Ad-
vocate General’s Corps in
1987 and joined the National
Guard in 1991, deployed to
New Orleans for Hurricane
Katrina relief in 2005 and
Afghanistan in 2006, with
both deployments as the Task
Force Staff Judge Advocate.
Hill is also currently the
presiding judge for Oregon’s
Sixth Judicial District in
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties.
EOTEC vandalized over weekend
Hermiston police report-
ed that the Eastern Oregon
Trade and Events Center
was vandalized over the
weekend.
No suspects have been
identified as vandals caused
about $2,950 of damage to
property and equipment.
Police received a call
from EOTEC vice-chair-
man Dan Dorran on April
30 around 11 a.m., reporting
that someone had flipped an
aluminum bleacher against
a fence and climbed into a
secure storage lot belong-
ing to the Umatilla County
Fair. While inside the lot,
the vandal(s) started a John
Deere Gator and tore up
the gravel in the storage lot.
They caused $1,800 worth
of damage at the lot, about
$750 worth of damage to the
bleachers and $400 worth of
damage to the Gator.
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston said no
cameras are in the area, so
the police do not yet have a
way to identify the suspect.
Man arrested in Hermiston after shooting incidents
Hermiston Police have arrested
Cesar C. Jimenez, 26, at a coordinated
high-risk traffic stop Monday at North
First Place in Hermiston. Jimenez was
taken into custody for his involvement
in an incident this weekend.
According to police, at about 3:45
p.m. April 29, Jimenez, a Pendleton
resident, arrived at a home in the 600
block of West Standard Avenue bran-
dishing a rifle. He got in a verbal al-
tercation with a former girlfriend, and
then allegedly fired several rounds
into the front and back tires of a 1998
Honda Accord, which had four peo-
ple in it. The vehicle’s occupants, one
adult and three children, were unin-
jured.
Jimenez was lodged in the Umatil-
la County Jail on charges of felon in
possession of a weapon, unlawful use
of a weapon, recklessly endangering
and criminal mischief.
Jimenez is also believed to have
been responsible for an incident in
Morrow County the same day, which
left one man in the hospital with gun-
shot wounds.
“We believe Mr. Jimenez is re-
sponsible for a rash of criminal activ-
ity that took place this weekend,” said
Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmis-
ton. “Because of the seriousness of
the potential crimes involved, our de-
tectives engaged in proactive surveil-
lance of Mr. Jimenez and were able to
locate him in a neighboring communi-
ty. Our detectives followed a vehicle
Mr. Jimenez was in and coordinated
a traffic stop via radio with marked
Hermiston PD units,” Edmiston said.
He said on Monday afternoon,
Jimenez was still being interviewed
by detectives.
Umatilla Police Department, the
Umatilla and Morrow County sher-
iff’s offices all assisted with the inci-
dent.
Third student-built home nearly completed
Hermiston School Dis-
trict students have almost
finished their third home
through the Columbia Ba-
sin Student Homebuilders
program and are preparing
it for sale.
Located in the Field-
stone Crossing cul-de-sac
at 875 S.W. Angus Court,
it is listed at $379,000. The
public is invited to a grand
opening of the home, called
Fieldstone No. 3, on Friday,
June 9, from 1 to 6 p.m. The
students will host the view-
ing along with American
West Properties Hermiston.
Curt Berger, the student
home builder director, en-
couraged the community to
come and admire the stu-
dents’ work.
“Our students are excit-
ed for the opportunity to
show the completed home,”
he said. “They have done
a tremendous amount of
,,
-&
work.”
The structure is the third
of 11 homes that will be
built by the group of stu-
dents. The home has four
bedrooms, two and a half
bathrooms and a three-
car garage. It also has
many amenities including
a security system, a sur-
round-sound speaker sys-
tem, an outdoor kitchen and
a gas fireplace. It also has a
fully landscaped and fenced
yard.
Anyone interested in
scheduling a tour can call
541-564-0888.
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
Equipment runs along the railroad tracks through downtown
Hermiston during Union Pacific Railroad’s continuing
maintenence operations. Efforts to reach Union Pacific’s
media relations department but has not yet been provided
information about the project or how long it will last.
EOTEC ‘wall of
honor’ approved
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The wall recognizing
donors and contributors
to the Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center
will be 40 feet long and 6
feet tall, the board decid-
ed on Friday.
“It’s a huge recogni-
tion of our community
and how they stepped
up,” fundraising commit-
tee member Nate Rivera
told the board.
The design he present-
ed required 30 feet to fit
all of the plaques, but
board members agreed
they needed to add an ex-
tra 10 feet to keep space
available for donors to fu-
ture phases of the project.
The wall will be locat-
ed outdoors and plaques
will be manufactured
by the same company
that did the donor wall
at Hermiston’s Kenni-
son Field. Rivera said
the event center, barns
and rodeo arena will also
include a plaque listing
contractors and subcon-
tractors who worked on
them.
The wall design Rivera
presented listed members
of the EOTEC board,
city council and county
commission from when
construction of the event
center began, but board
members said former
board members like Chet
Prior and Dennis Doherty
also deserved recog-
nition. They also dou-
bled-checked with Rivera
that there was recognition
for people like Rep. Greg
Smith, who helped bring
millions of dollars of state
funds to the project, and
George Anderson, who
provided pro bono legal
work and wrote the very
first donation check EO-
TEC cashed.
During Friday’s meet-
ing contractors Carl Hen-
don of Hendon Construc-
tion and John Eckhardt
of Knerr Construction
said work continues to
move along on the proj-
ect. Board member Dan
Dorran said he has fun
spotting new things that
have gone in every time
he visits the site.
Hermiston
finance
director Amy Palmer
reported that 51 events
have been held at EOTEC
from the beginning of the
fiscal year through the
end of March, generating
$43,800 in event reve-
nue, and events planned
through the rest of the
year should bring that
total to $69,400. Event
expenses have come in
at $9,300 so far, she said,
“so there’s a fair amount
of profit there.”
During a city council
meeting Monday, an-
swering a previous re-
quest from city council-
ors, Palmer said the city
has contributed about $2
million so far to EOTEC
in the form of in-kind
expenses, starting with a
donation of land valued at
$1 million and including
infrastructure and staff
time.
The EOTEC board ap-
proved a $5,000 grant to
the Umatilla County Fair
on Friday for marketing
purposes, using Tourism
Promotion Assessment
funds gathered from the
hoteliers. Vijay Patel,
who represents the hote-
liers on the board, sug-
gested that the board ask
hoteliers to provide an es-
timate after the 2017 fair
of how many rooms were
filled as a direct result of
the event.
BUTTE CHALLENGE
%&'()*(*+
!
"##$
STUDENT
OF THE
WEEK
Cameron Sipe
Senior - Umatilla High School
Umatilla High School is nominating Cameron Sipe for
our student of the week. Cameron is one of the hardest
working kids I have ever met. Cameron takes pride
in being involved in a variety of activities at our high
school. She is the Senior Project Manager for our World
Qualifying Robotics Team, on the Executive Council
for our National Honor Society, been in leadership
roles for our Key Club and STLT club, and also a
member of our cross country team. She will graduate
in June as our valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA and at the
same time graduate with her AAOT degree. She will
attend Whitman University in the fall and will major in
Psychology and Spanish.
Proudly Sponsored By:
Proudly Sponsored By:
SATURDAY , MAY 6 , 2017
5K Run, 5K Walk, 10K Run, Kid's Butte Scoot
All races begin & end at Hermiston's Butte Park
DRAWINGS • FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Online registration & race information at
WWW.BUTTECHALLENGE.COM
All proceeds benefi t THE HERMISTON
CROSS COUNTRY PROGRAM
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
1411 6th Street, Umatilla, OR • 541-922-3001
