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.
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