A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2018
NEWS/FROM A1
Torres-Medrano named 2018 Citizen of the Year
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
Umatilla city councilor
Selene
Torres-Medrano
was named 2018 Citizen of
the Year at Umatilla’s Dis-
tinguished Citizens Award
Banquet.
Torres-Medrano
has
been active in serving the
community of Umatilla and
recently organized a series
of activities for May’s
Mental Health Awareness
Month.
She works for Umatilla
School District as an ELL
Family Outreach Coordina-
tor, and previously headed
up the citizen commit-
tee that helped the district
pass a bond to make needed
improvements to Umatilla
schools.
Those who nominated
her described Torres-Me-
drano as “driven to mak-
ing changes in town” and
someone who never quits.
Business of the Year
went to Banner Bank,
which has a branch in
Umatilla. Those who nom-
inated the bank noted its
staff go “the extra mile” in
customer service and are
always willing to help at
community events around
town.
The George Alan Curtis
Award is given each year
to a Umatilla resident who
contributes to remembering
Umatilla’s past and enhanc-
ing its future. This year
two awards were given, to
Salud Campos and Nanci
Sandoval.
Campos is the treasurer
of the chamber of com-
merce and was recognized
during Friday’s banquet for
her “ready smile and laugh,
her welcoming personality
and the manner in which
she shares her love for her
community.”
Sandoval is Umatilla’s
city recorder and has been
instrumental in Landing
Days, the 3 on 3 basketball
tournament and the city’s
bilingual newsletter.
The Umatilla Police
Department and Uma-
tilla School District also
presented awards at the
banquet.
From Umatilla School
District, Sarah Blake, Josy
Torres, Lizette Ames and
Kyle Sipe were recog-
nized as this year’s Bridge
Builders.
Blake is a teacher in the
district’s bilingual kinder-
garten classroom and helps
with the after school pro-
gram, parent classes, youth
track and transportation.
continued from Page A1
County
commissioners
Not all incumbents in
Umatilla County retained
their seat. County commis-
sioner Larry Givens was
unseated by John Shafer,
Athena mayor and sheriff’s
dispatch supervisor, while
Rick Pullen forced a run-
off with incumbent George
Murdock.
Shafer received 52.3 per-
cent of the vote.
Shafer, several members
of his family and close sup-
porters gathered for election
night in the meeting room
at the Pendleton Oxford
Suites. Chatter and the clat-
ter of dinnerware died down
while Shafer and the crowd
awaited the election results
on the county’s website.
About a quarter past 8 p.m.,
the cheers erupted.
Beating
an
incum-
bent with years of experi-
ence is not easy, Shafer said
as he thanked family and
supporters.
He also dabbed away
tears, joking, “My eyes are
sweating a little bit.”
Of 45 voting precincts
in Umatilla County, Sha-
fer won 28 and Givens took
17. Support for Givens was
heavier in Hermiston and
Stanfield, while Shafer won
much of the east side of the
county. Both candidates are
from northeastern part of the
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY NANCI SANDOVAL
Umatilla Chamber of Commerce president Jeff Wheeler
poses with Selene Torres-Medrano after she won the 2018
Citizen of the Year at the Umatilla Distiguished Citizens
Award Banquet.
BY THE WAY
ELECTION
November, when incumbent
Lori Davis will face chal-
lenger Mark Gomolski in a
run-off.
Gomolski gained the
most votes of that race, at
36.2 percent, with Davis
gaining 32.7 percent. Can-
didate Jackie Linton came in
third at 30.9 percent and will
therefore be excluded from
the run-off between the top
two candidates in the gen-
eral election.
Gomolski, who is retired
and moved to Hermiston
in 2015 from Chicago, is
currently a member of the
Hermiston School District
board, which meets on the
second and fourth Monday
of each month at the same
time as the city council. He
said if he wins it would be
a good opportunity to ask
the school board to vote to
change its meeting nights,
since he knows people in the
community who would like
to attend both.
Gomolski said the fact
that he and Linton com-
bined got more votes than
Davis showed that Hermis-
ton residents were ready for
a change at city hall.
“It shows people are fed
up with the current adminis-
tration and who is in there,”
he said.
Incumbents Jackie Myers
and Doug Smith retained
their seats, however, despite
having challengers. Myers
received 55.6 percent of the
vote running against Kyran
Miller, while Smith received
61.7 percent of the vote. His
challenger Michael Engel-
brecht never did any cam-
paigning and had pub-
licly announced in April
that he was dropping out of
the race due to a change in
employment.
Torres works in the dis-
trict office and is known for
building bridges with the
district’s Latino community
and for sharing her artistic
talent to brighten up district
property.
Ames works in the office
of Umatilla High School
and is a “familiar pres-
ence at all things Uma-
tilla,” cheering on students
and taking photos that they
can use to remember their
extracurricular activities.
Sipe has worked for
Umatilla School district for
18 years, serving as a math
and science teacher, basket-
ball coach, football coach
and robotics coach.
Umatilla Police Depart-
ment honored Thalia Leon
as Reserve Officer of the
Year and office admin-
istrator Kylie Baker as
Employee of the Year.
BTW
continued from Page A1
Jackie Myers
Roy Barron
county.
Shafer said he plans to
work for the sheriff’s office
right up until he takes office
in January 2019. And before
dealing with mental health
services and other issues
he brought up on the cam-
paign, Shafer said he plans
to get the pulse of county
government.
“First I want to meet with
all the county department
heads,” he said. “I want to
make sure we’re on the same
page. ... I definitely want to
hear from the department
heads right out of the gate.
He also said he wants to
meet with incumbent com-
missioners Bill Elfering and
George Murdock, who is on
his way to a November run-
off against challenger Rick
Pullen.
Murdock was the top
vote-getter with 45.4 per-
cent in the race for county
commissioner position 1,
while Rick Pullen pulled
30.5 percent and Tom Bailor
received 23.8 percent. That
sends Murdock and Pullen,
both of Pendleton, down the
road to a runoff.
Murdock said he is happy
to be the front-runner with
a sizable lead and look-
ing forward to time off the
campaign. Seeking political
office, he said, tends to get
in the way of work.
Doug Smith
research and 4-H programs.
Mary Corp, director of
the Columbia Basin Agricul-
tural Research Center and
OSU crop and soil science
professor, said she was sur-
prised by the results, espe-
cially in Umatilla County.
“Of course I’m disap-
pointed it didn’t pass,” she
said. “We talked to a lot of
people, and had a lot of pos-
itive responses from folks
about how Extension has
impacted their lives.”
She said she understood
that it’s always challeng-
ing to pass a new tax, and
that the sticking point here
may have been convinc-
ing people about the impor-
tance of funding agricultural
research.
Circuit Court
Rob Collins was elected
to the open Circuit Court
judge seat in the 6th Judicial
District, beating Michael
Breiling 60.6 percent to 39
percent.
Both Pendleton attor-
neys trekked to their respec-
tive law offices Tuesday and
attempted to focus on work
rather than whether they
would win. Collins spent the
early evening in another role
as Round-Up Director, host-
ing Portland Rose Festival
princesses in town to spend
time with the Round-Up
Court. After dinner at the
Let ‘er Buck Room, Col-
lins drove home to find a
houseful of ecstatic people
ready to celebrate with their
candidate.
“There was a lot of peo-
ple cheering me, greeting
me,” Collins said. “It was
pretty cool. Everyone was
quite jubilant.”
The attorney quieted for a
moment.
“I feel excited that people
have expressed that kind of
confidence in me,” he said.
“It’s really gratifying.”
Collins will take the
bench in January. He said
he will spend the next seven
months easing out of the law
practice he shares with his
brother, Michael Collins.
Extension District
The voters spoke clearly
on election night: there will
be no OSU Extension Ser-
vice District for taxpay-
ers in Umatilla and Morrow
counties.
Umatilla County voters
declined to approve the new
district by 63 percent to 37.
The measures proposed a
property tax increase of 33
cents per $1,000 of assessed
value. The tax would have
raised about $1.7 million
per year in Umatilla County,
and $700,000 in Morrow
County, and the money was
slated toward operations
for the Extension Service
like staffing and equipment
costs, as well as agricultural
EARTHLINK INTERNET
Pendleton as soon as regu-
latory hurdles are cleared.
The Pendleton Treatment
Center will offer metha-
done and Suboxone — two
medications used to com-
bat addiction to prescrip-
tion painkillers and heroin.
The clinic won’t start
receiving clients until
the complicated regula-
tory process wraps up and
staff members are hired,
an undertaking that could
take a couple of months or
more.
Methadone clients will
arrive at the clinic at 118
S.W. 20th in Pendleton
each morning for their daily
doses. As they prove their
commitment and reliabil-
ity, they earn the right to
take doses home instead of
having to return each day.
Dispensing will take place
between 5:30 and 9:30 a.m.
• • •
A number of students
came up W-I-N-N-E-R-S
during the InterMountain
Education Service Dis-
trict’s Spelling Contest.
The Tuesday, May 8
event was held at Blue
Mountain Community Col-
lege in Pendleton. Partici-
pants had already won divi-
sion spelling contests at
their schools. The local stu-
dent winners include:
MORROW COUNTY:
Division
1
(first-fifth
grades) third place: Dakota
Seufert, Irrigon Elemen-
tary School. Division 2
(sixth-eighth grades) sec-
ond place: Jozen Byers,
Irrigon Elementary School;
third: Axel Paredes-Ro-
sales, Windy River Ele-
mentary School
U M A T I L L A
COUNTY: Division 1
(first-fifth grades) second
place: Adriel Ibarra, Stan-
field Elementary School;
third:
Eden
Enkey,
McNary Heights Elemen-
tary School. Division 2
(sixth-eighth grades) sec-
ond place: Luis Tejeda,
Clara Brownell Middle
School.
“IMESD is pleased
to congratulate all of our
spelling contest winners
and would like to thank all
the students who devoted
time to compete this year,”
said Lizette Berryessa,
IMESD spelling contest
coordinator.
• • •
Echo
recently
announced winners of
its “If I were Mayor
Contest.”
The top students entries
included illustrations by
Logan Kellan Smith, post-
ers by Emma Pollick and
Jacee James, and an essay
by Lillian Wallis.
Winners received cash
OREGON CAPITAL
INSIDER
prizes, which was donated
for the contest and promo-
tional items from the city of
Echo.
• • •
The Bonneville Power
Administration presented
former Umatilla resident
James Burns with the
Administrator’s
Unsung
Heroes award, one of its
highest honors.
The award was pre-
sented at BPA’s 2018
Administrator’s Excellence
Awards, an annual program
that honors those who have
made “exceptional” contri-
butions to BPA or the utility
industry.
Over the course of his
career Burns worked as an
electrical engineer for BPA
for 41 years, supporting
safe and reliable operation
of the power grid through-
out the Pacific Northwest.
“He spent countless
hours deciphering massive
amounts of data, recon-
structing events and formu-
lating corrective actions, all
while mentoring others to
perform this critical work,”
according to a news release
from BPA.
———
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