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.
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