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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2019)
LOCAL A6 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2019 Hermiston police arrest storage shed burglary suspect court documents. The theft involved ammunition, Hermiston police on coins, jewelry and more May 1 arrested Tyler Duane worth at least $10,000. Winterton, 28, of Police identified Boardman, in con- Winterton as a sus- nection to a recent pect and developed storage shed bur- a case for his arrest. glary. According Officers on May 1 to state court doc- contacted Winter- ton in response to uments, the victim a different matter, is Fred Maiocco, Winterton Hermiston police former superinten- dent of the Hermis- reported, but at the ton School District who is conclusion of that call for serving with the U.S. Army service they put the hand- cuffs on Winterton for the Reserves overseas. Hermiston police on burglary and booked him April 10 received a report into the Umatilla County about the burglary and Jail, Pendleton, on initial theft at one of the storage charges of second-degree units at 1835 N. First Place, burglary and first-degree according to the police and aggravated theft. BY HERMISTON HERALD Contributed photo Hermiston Emblem Club #215 recently installed officers, including Michele Dickmeier, Maxine Rice, Sheryl Goin, Coyla Bedord, Teresa Moncrief, Donna Laurence, Carol Goin, Serena MacPherson and Angel Smith. Feds back $9.5 million loan for new Hermiston hotel By PHIL WRIGHT STAFF WRITER Developers of a hotel in Hermiston received the OK for a federally backed loan of almost $9.5 million. The U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture Rural Development on Saturday announced it is guarantee- ing the loan to A-1 Herm- iston for the construc- tion of a new 85-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott. Old West Fed- eral Credit Union is pro- viding the 29-year loan of $9,472,500 at 5.2 percent interest. The total project is just shy of $11.4 million, according to the USDA. A-1 Hermiston, a subsid- iary of the A-1 Hospital- ity Group, has to come up with $1.9 million for its contribution. Taran Patel with A-1 Hospitality said the company was pleased to receive the USDA approval. “We are now working on final Marriott design and sourcing our gap fund- ing,” Patel continued. “There’s no current defin- itive timeline set, but we will be moving as quick as possible. A-1 Hospital- ity is excited to expand our footprint into the growing Hermiston market.” The Hermiston Plan- ning Department in December gave condi- tional approval for the hotel to occupy a spot near the Denny’s between High- way 395 on one end and East Airport Road on the other. That places the hotel within a moment’s drive of the Eastern Oregon Event and Trade Center. The site plans calls for a four-story structure more than 200 feet long and about 150 feet wide from the edge of the front awning to the back patio wall. According to the approval letter, the project must improve the front- age road along the edge of the property, the hotel cannot exceed 50 feet in height, and the Herm- iston Irrigation District gets to approve the site plan before the city issues building permits. City planner Clint Spen- cer said the land use zone at the site allows hotels outright, so there was no need for a review from the planning commission. Hermiston man injures head in motorcycle wreck BY HERMISTON HERALD A Hermiston man injured his head Fri- day when he crashed a motorcycle. Sgt. Adam Gregory with the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office said Nychal Gritz, 22, regained consciousness at Oregon Health & Science Univer- sity, Portland. Gritz, a former Herm- iston High School base- Emblem Club installs 2019-20 officers T eresa Moncrief was recently installed as president of Herm- iston Emblem Club #215 for 2019-20. The Hermiston woman also will take care of press duties for the organization. Overseeing the recent installa- tion ceremony were Coyla Bedord, supreme deputy and past state presi- dent; and Donna Laurence, past state marshal and past state president. Oth- ers installed include Michele Dick- meier, serving as pro-tem stand-in; Maxine Rice, financial secretary; Sheryl Goin, chairwoman of trust- ees; Carol Goin, recording secretary and corresponding secretary; Serena MacPherson, treasurer; Angel Smith, vice president and organist; Nancy Brown, chaplain; Marge Feyder, sec- ond trustee; and Lil Smith, historian. In addition, Bedord was installed as guard and first trustee and Laurence as marshal. Emblem Club members are recog- nized for charity work in their commu- nities, scholarships they provide, their dedication to patriotism, and their sup- port of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and our country’s vet- erans. For more information about the Hermiston Emblem Club, call Mon- crief at 541-564-0887. Graffiti on the rise in Hermiston By PHIL WRIGHT STAFF WRITER Incidents of graffiti are increasing in some parts of Umatilla County. Hermiston, Umatilla and Milton-Freewater have reported multiple com- plaints about graffiti, and some, maybe even most of it, indicates gang activ- ity. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said some of the spray paint vandal- ism in his town displays “distinctive markings” that carry gang associations, and his department is investigat- ing those crimes. The spike in graffiti has Hermiston police ask- ing who might be new to the area and behind the defacement. “Seeing an uptick this early in the year for graffiti does have me concerned as we move into the warmer months,” Edmiston said. Hermiston police does not track gangs per se, Edmiston said, but instead looks at numbers of assaults, disturbances and graf- fiti reports to gauge what’s going on. The department’s daily bulletin shows at least seven calls for graffiti over the past 30 days. Edmiston said retrieving comparable data from years past is diffi- cult, but there is no doubt his community is dealing with more graffiti than usual. He said the situation prompted him on April 24 to reach out to other law enforcement heads about the graffiti problems they are seeing, and right off Uma- tilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan responded. The two agencies plan to meet as soon as next week to dis- cuss the matter, exchange information, including from school resource officers, and consider how to nip the pro- liferation in the bud. Pendleton this season is experiencing more non- gang graffiti, police Chief Stuart Roberts said, such as spray paint displays of hearts, hashtags and love notes, as well as comments on the walls of restroom stalls. And, he said, there is bound to be graffiti under bridges where it could take a while before anyone sees and reports it. Hermiston gives owners seven days from the date of a notice to remove graffiti. If they don’t, the city will and can charge them for the cost. “We didn’t want to bog abatement down with too much red tape minutia,” Edmiston said, “and what we have has worked well.” Edmiston also said his department will continue to cite parents if their children are responsible for graf- fiti. That strategy in the past helped clear some cases. Gina Miller, code enforcement coordinator for Umatilla County, said cit- ies tend to have more prob- lems with graffiti, so Herm- iston and other local towns are not alone. She serves on the board of the Oregon Code Enforcement Associ- ation and attends its confer- ences twice a year. She said cities regularly request pre- sentations for dealing with graffiti. ball player, rode off from a party near Stanfield when his friends noticed he was gone for 30-40 minutes. They looked, found Gritz crashed near North Loop Road, Stanfield, and at about 7:40 p.m. called 911. Gregory said it appeared Gritz went around a corner too sharply and struck his head. Gregory said Gritz remains there and has inju- ries but is awake and doing well. Mark your calendars! 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