NEWS
Wednesday, september 22, 2021
HermIstOnHeraLd.COm • A9
NEWS BRIEFS
Hermiston High School
graduate is among
Oregon Supreme Court
candidates
Umatilla County Cir-
cuit Court Judge Dan Hill is
seeking a promotion.
Gov. Kate Brown on
Sept. 14 announced a list
of candidates for vacan-
cies on the Oregon Court
of Appeals and the Oregon
Supreme Court. Hill made
the 28-candidate field.
Hill, presiding judge for
the 6th Judicial District,
which encompaasses Uma-
tilla and Morrow counties,
applied for appointment to
the open Supreme Court
position.
If selected, the Herm-
iston High School grad-
uate (Class of 1979) will
be taking a large step for-
ward in a career that already
has included many notable
achievements.
In a bio, he stated he sees
this as an opportunity to
continue his public service,
which started in 1987 with
the Legislature, U.S. Army,
then municipal court and the
National Guard and then the
circuit court.
He also brought up that
community involvement in
the Umatilla County Plan-
ning Commission and the
Blue Mountain Community
College Board of Directors.
He stated he believes
“advancing to the Supreme
Court would allow him to
continue public service in
a meaningful capacity, able
to best promote the rule of
law, fairness and equity for
all, in these complex times.”
His
judicial
career
includes highlights, such
as his 1990 election as the
municipal judge for Herm-
iston and appointment to
half-time circuit judge pro-
tem for Umatilla County. In
the appointment, he spent
three years hearing civil
post-conviction relief cases.
While serving as a judge,
he maintained his Hermis-
ton law practice and served
as a city prosecutor and an
army judge advocate.
Umatilla County voters
elected Hill to the bench in
2004, the winner of a three-
way race with the endorse-
ment of his predecessor.
Hill is in his third six-year
term.
Hill’s
military
ser-
vice was a direct commis-
sion into the Judge Advo-
cate General’s Corps in
September 1987. His ser-
vice included deployment
to New Orleans after Hurri-
cane Katrina and to Afghan-
istan. He retired as a brig-
adier general on May 31,
2020.
Hill is a graduate of the
U.S. Army War College
(2014), Willamette Univer-
sity College of Law (1986),
Oregon State University
(1983) and Blue Mountain
Community College (1981).
The governor is inviting
attorneys and members of
the public to comment on
the candidates by contacting
her general counsel, Dustin
Buehler at 503-378-6246
or by email at dustin.e.bue-
hler@oregon.gov.
Former Hermiston city
councilor files to rejoin
the council
David McCarthy filed to
run for one of the Hermis-
ton City Council seats up
for election on Sept. 10,
becoming the first person to
declare their candidacy for
the 2022 election.
Hermiston splits their
city
council
between
at-large seats, where all can-
didates run on the same bal-
lot and the top four vote
get elected, and ward seats,
where candidates run in four
separate races based on their
residency. In either election,
all Hermiston voters get to
vote on all the candidates.
A sales manager at
KOHU, McCarthy was
appointed to a vacant
at-large seat in May 2020.
His bid for a full term was
denied when he placed fifth
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Oregon National Guard Spc. Renay Monohan sanitizes and
cleans a procedure room on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in the
surgicenter at Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande. Monohan
is a local to La Grande, and works as a health care medic as
her regular job with the U.S. Forest Service. National Guard
members have been activated at a number of hospitals in
Eastern Oregon following a surge of COVID-19 infections and
hospitalizations.
in the November election.
McCarthy is now running
for a seat representing Ward
4, which is held by incum-
bent Phillip Spicerkuhn.
Filing for the ward seats
on the Hermiston City Coun-
cil and the municipal judge-
ship opened on Sept. 9 and
will close on March 8, 2022.
Election Day is on May 17,
2022, and should no candi-
date receive a majority of
the vote, the top two candi-
dates will compete in a Nov.
8, 2022 runoff.
Rennels dies in Two
Rivers Correctional
Institution
An Oregon Department
of Corrections adult in cus-
tody, Joshua Quentin Ren-
nels, died Tuesday, Sept. 14.
Rennels was incarcerated
at Two Rivers Correctional
Institution in Umatilla and
died in the infirmary while
on hospice care. As with
all in-custody deaths, the
Oregon State Police have
been notified.
Rennels entered DOC
custody on Nov. 7, 2013,
from Marion County. His
earliest release date was
July 29, 2023. Rennels was
46 years old.
The agency is responsi-
ble for the care and custody
of 12,000 individuals who
are incarcerated in 13 insti-
tutions across the state.
Crash injures two
Round-Up contestants,
kills one
A crash Thursday night,
Sept. 16, injured two Pend-
leton Round-Up contestants
and killed another.
Oregon State Police
reported the crash occurred
at about 8:15 p.m. on the
eastbound side of Interstate
84 near milepost 193 where
a Volkswagen Jetta ran into
the rear of a potato truck.
Jate Frost, 20 of
Randlett, Utah, was driv-
ing the Jetta east with pas-
sengers Richard Schleicher,
24, of Stockton, Oklahoma,
and Jesse Hopper, 21, of
Magnum, Oklahoma. Edi-
berto Ramirez Carrillo,
31, of Hermiston, was driv-
ing the commercial vehicle
hauling potatoes.
The Jetta rear ended the
truck, and Frost suffered
serious injuries. An emer-
gency helicopter flew him
to Kadlec Regional Med-
ical Center in Richland,
Washington.
Hopper was in the rear
seat and also suffered serious
injuries. He was transported
to Oregon Health & Science
University, Portland.
OSP reported Schleicher
was in the front passen-
ger seat and suffered fatal
injuries.
Carrillo was not injured.
All three occupants of
the Jetta were contestants
at the Pendleton Round-up,
according to Oregon State
Police.
National Guard
activated at several
Eastern Oregon
Hospitals
National Guard mem-
bers have arrived at many
Eastern Oregon hospitals as
the COVID-19 pandemic
reaches its apex in recent
cases caused by the virulent
delta variant.
Saint Alphonsus Med-
ical Center, Baker City,
Wallowa Memorial Hospi-
tal, Enterprise, and Grande
Ronde Hospital, La Grande,
each have citizen-soldiers
on site to help, in addition to
the guard members already
at Blue Mountain Hospital,
John Day.
At least 20 guard mem-
bers were deployed to assist
in operations at hospitals in
nonclinical roles. The hos-
pitals moved to fill in gaps
with the National Guard sol-
diers, placing them in posi-
tions throughout the hospi-
tals as ancillary support staff.
Staff at the overburdened
health care centers more than
welcomed the added support
for roles such as front door
screeners, which clinical
staff often had filled.
“That helps us be able to
deploy our clinical people
back to clinical work,” said
Priscilla Lynn, president and
chief nursing officer at Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center
in Baker City.
Freeing up resources
for the health care staff
improves efficiency during a
time when worker shortages
abound across nearly every
industry, and when nurses
and other clinical staff have
been taxed by an unrelent-
ing 18 months of fighting a
pandemic.
“All of the entry level
positions across our county
— it’s difficult to fill those
positions, and we’re expe-
riencing that same thing,”
Lynn said. “We’ve had staff
out, difficult to fill-in posi-
tions that are open for a
really long time. So hav-
ing the guard here (means)
the staff is getting a little
reprieve. The staff is really
grateful. We’ve had an
exhausted crew.”
Blue Mountain Hospi-
tal District in Grant County
was one of the first places
where the National Guard
was activated after Gov.
Kate Brown’s emergency
order set in motion a surge of
nearly 1,500 citizen-soldiers
in support of health care
workers and hospitals. The
first 500 were deployed near
the middle of August, while
the remaining 1,000 were set
to be deployed and activated
in the following weeks.
Grande Ronde Hospi-
tal welcomed 10 National
Guard members on Sept.
13 to help support opera-
tions, according to the hos-
pital. Many of the recently
activated soldiers were La
Grande locals, including
National Guard Spc. Pamela
Fredrick, a native of Micro-
nesia who recently earned
her degree in communi-
cations at Eastern Oregon
University.
“I’m always ready when-
ever we get called in,” she
said. “We were told before-
hand that this might happen.”
— Hermiston Herald and
EO Media Group
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