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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2020)
NEWS A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020 Umatilla County Fair selects 2020 court Former queen to serve as chaperone By TAMMY MALGESINI COMMUNITY EDITOR The Umatilla County Fair is excited to announce that four young ladies have been selected to serve on the 2020 fair court. Princess Kyleigh Sep- ulveda of Hermiston, who served on last year’s court is returning for 2020. Joining her as ambassadors of the fair and county are Keeva Hoston, also of Hermiston, and Baylee Marshall and Brielle Youncs, both from Pendleton. According to a written statement from the fair office, all are 11th grade students, except Youncs, who is a sophomore. Along with playing soft- ball, Sepulveda enjoys showing swine and is look- ing forward to continuing to show her support for the fair by participating in commu- nity events while working to achieve her goals. Sepulveda said one of her most rewarding experiences last year was assisting with the Rascal Rodeo. The event offers hands on rodeo activ- ities for individuals with physical and devel- opmental disabilities. Hoston has been showing at Manning the fair since she was a Cloverbud — an informal youth development program that introduces kids to 4-H — and has continued in 4-H ever since. In addition to her involvement in FFA, Hoston enjoys participating on her high school dance team. In addition, she volunteers with high school clubs and com- munity events. Marshall has shown at the fair as an FFA stu- dent and has been involved with the fair for a number of years. In addition, she’s participated in other live- stock shows throughout the county. A busy student-ath- lete, Marshall values her leadership roles in FFA, as well as enjoying volunteer activities in the community. In addition to entering static exhibit entries as a 4-H and FFA member, Youncs has shown livestock at the fair. She enjoys playing bas- ketball and softball, as well as being involved with sev- eral service organizations. Youncs plans to continue working towards achieving leadership goals with FFA. In other fair court news, Rebecca (Lindstrom) Man- ning has been selected as the new chaperone. A former member of the fair court, the Pendleton woman served as queen in 2010. According to a writ- ten statement from the fair office, as a longtime fair vol- unteer, Manning is excited to mentor and lead the young women of the 2020 fair court. She’s also involved with the Blue Mountain Community College rodeo program and other events in the community. “Rebecca’s unwaver- ing support of the Umatilla County Fair and of the coun- ty’s youth is contagious. We are fortunate to have her step into this influential role,” the statement said. The court will be offi- cially crowned during the fair’s annual appreciation dinner later this month. The 2020 Umatilla County Fair is Aug. 11-15. For more information, contact fair coordinator Angie McNal- ley at 541-567-6121, fair@ umatillacounty.net or or visit www.umatillacountyfair.net. County on lookout for lawyers By JESSICA POLLARD STAFF WRITER A staff shortage at the Umatilla County District Attorney’s office means Dis- trict Attorney Dan Primus is taking up more cases in the courtroom himself. When fully staffed, the office employs nine dep- uty attorneys to aid the chief prosecutor in filing charges for criminal cases. But one deputy on leave, and another recently leaving the office to pursue private practice on top of an already existing vacancy means right now there are just six. “We’ve been short by at least one deputy district attorney for over a year,” Primus said. “Workloads are significantly heavier right now.” As a result, some crim- inal cases are sitting in the dark. “It’s not what you want. The longer a case sits, it doesn’t make it easier to prosecute. You want to move when the witnesses can have a better recall. You don’t want stuff to go stale,” Primus said. “I don’t want people’s cases to sit.” He added that the DA’s office made a commitment to prosecute every case that comes their way, but that meeting the goal is becom- ing increasingly difficult. Umatilla County and its deputy district attorneys reached a new labor deal in February 2019 that resulted in a 2% pay increase for the next three years. Salaries for positions at the office vary by experience, and currently range between $4,890 and $9,598 per month, accord- ing to county officials. Primus believes the rea- son for the shortage could have to do with the rural location of the job. “We’ve tried to recruit. It’s difficult,” he said. “We’re not getting appli- Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Patrick Hunt scoops coleslaw on a pair of sausages at the Southern Twain BBQ food cart at the food cart pod on the corner of Orchard Avenue and Third Street in Hermiston in November 2019. City gives food truck pod the green light for another year By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR Hermiston’s food truck pod experiment was such a success in its first year that the city is looking to expand it. “I definitely think we should continue this,” city councilor Doug Prim- mer said. “It’s proven its worth.” The city adopted a pilot program for the food truck pod in 2019, set to run from April 1 to Oct. 31 in the parking lot on Orchard Ave- nue across from the Herm- iston Post Office. They provided garbage cans, a portable restroom and pic- nic tables, and Hermiston Energy Services installed a pole that provided lighting and electricity to trucks on the site. City planner Clint Spen- cer told the council during their Monday meeting that the original goal was to have at least four trucks on site the entire summer, but they ended up having two to three there most of the time. However, for the trucks on site, the season ended up being so success- ful they asked to extend the season through the end of November. Patick Hunt, who ran Southern Twain BBQ there, said he doubled his sales from when he was parked in Pendleton previously, and he no longer had to haul his truck to Pendleton from his Hermiston home. “The community’s pumped about it,” he said. “They’re waiting for us to bring them more vendors.” He said the main bar- rier to getting more trucks in was the lack of pota- ble water and wastewa- ter collection on site. A lot of vendors were inter- ested until they were told they wouldn’t have those things, he said. He and Spencer also noted difficul- ties with getting customers to park in the lot across the street like they were sup- posed to, instead of pulling up to the trucks. Hunt suggested that there might be some ben- efits to moving the pod somewhere like Butte Park, where they would be near the aquatic center, splash pad, Funland playground (once it’s rebuilt) and soc- cer fields. Councilors said they considered the experiment a success, and supported continuing it in some form. “It’s a testament of suc- cess that (Hunt) doubled his sales, and we had a local Hermistonian coming back and selling here,” Roy Bar- ron said. The question was whether to invest in water spigots and other more per- manent amenities in the current site or look at mov- ing the food pod some- where else. In the end councilors voted to reopen the food pod in its current location in April, giving them time to collect information and make a decision on creat- ing some sort of nicer, more permanent site in the future. WHAT’S NEW Staff photo by Ben Lonergan, File Umatilla County District Attorney Dan Primus discusses the legal system and his route to becoming a lawyer during a career day at Pendleton High School on Oct. 23, 2019. With the District Attorney’s Office down three lawyers, Primus is back in the courtroom arguing cases. cants or enough people to apply. I don’t think that Umatilla County is unique to that.” It’s an issue that Defense Attorney Kara Davis, assis- tant director at Intermoun- tain Public Defender Inc., said she knows well. In early 2019, the Blue Mountain Enforcement Nar- cotics Team made more than 50 drug-related arrests during “Operation Wild- fire.” The operation also added additional charges for more than a dozen offend- ers who were already serv- ing time. Davis said it’s part of what caused a spike in the number of cases Intermoun- tain has taken on. As a result, the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services recently authorized additional funding to add a 10th attorney position at the private, not-for-profit firm. That position has been open for a month, and Davis said they’ve received just one application. That per- son, she said, was also the sole applicant for a position at the DA’s office. “We’re not even getting people applying. It’s typi- cal, when the market is good we get less applicants.” Davis said. “People want to live in Portland, and near Portland.” She said in the past, some applicants for public defender roles at the firm have outright said they’ll take an offer in the Willa- mette Valley if one comes along. Davis added that the shortage at the DA’s office isn’t affecting attorneys at her firm, except that some proceedings that used to be efficient are now taking days. Kelly Stephens, office manager at Blue Moun- tain Defenders LLC., noted that the staff shortage at the DA’s office could cause more financial burden on all sides when it takes lon- ger for charges to be filed on cases involving the same defendant. “It’s financially beneficial for everybody when every- thing’s grouped together,” she said. ON YOUR SCREEN? Find out with our SCREENtime Entertainment Guide! PLUS+ :KDW·V1HZLQ6WUHDPLQJ 6SRUWV=RQH <RXU&DEOH/LQH8S 0LQG%HQGLQJ3X]]OHV %HVW%HWV &HOHEULW\3URÀOHV 6WRULHV SCREEN time Inserted into East Oregonian (daily) and Hermiston Herald (Wednesdays weekly) contact circulation@eomediagroup.com or call us today! 800-781-3214
