WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2022
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
Greg Smith
makes off er
on Vale
newspaper
By ANTONIO SIERRA
Local lawmaker off ered
$35,000 for the publication,
not including employees
Hermiston Herald
Greg Smith’s off er to buy the
Malheur Enterprise came in a
postscript.
An email exchange between
Smith and Les Zaitz, the publisher
and editor of the small weekly
newspaper in Vale, over an edito-
rial led to an off er to take the Enter-
prise off the market.
According to the email chain
obtained by the Hermiston
Herald, Zaitz wrote to inform
Smith, the state representative
for District 57 and the Malheur
County economic development
director, that he intended to pub-
lish an editorial critical of Smith
and asked him for comment.
“I’m preparing an editorial
for next week about the Mal-
heur County Court’s management
of your company’s contract,” he
wrote. “You will, in part, get a pass
because you can’t be blamed by
taxpayers for getting what you can
as easily as you can. But the issue
of your truth-telling is another
matter. You lie. By that, I mean
you declare as fact something you
know to be false.”
Smith responded by saying he
wouldn’t respond to “negative sup-
positions,” but also added Malheur
County residents were “begging”
Zaitz to sell his newspaper and that
it had no support.
“P.S. … if you need a buyer for
the paper, I’ll pay $35,000 cash,”
he wrote at the end of the email.
“No employees included.”
Later in the chain, Zaitz told
Smith he would share Smith’s off er
with the public.
“Let’s see what the commu-
nity — and the state — thinks of
your idea of buying a paper to shut
it down,” he said. “Thanks for the
off er. We’ll be in touch.”
Smith followed-up by clarify-
ing he would not shut the Enter-
prise down if he bought it.
“I already have staff in place
that would run the paper quite
well,” he wrote.” I never said it
would be shut down.”
In a response to a request for
comment, Smith provided a writ-
ten statement.
“The Malheur Enterprise, a pri-
vately owned company, publicly
announced it was for sale,” he said.
“Gregory Smith and Company,
also a privately owned company,
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald
A no trespassing sign on March 9, 2022, warns people away from the site of the Shearer’s Foods plant.
LAID OFF
nity organizations on projects,
including food drives, family
activities and job fairs, to bene-
fi t its former employees.
“We will continue to pro-
vide counseling services to
those aff ected and will do what
we can to help them fi nd other
employment,” the letter stated.
Nictakis ended the letter
with thanks to local businesses
and government representatives
for their support.
“Please continue to put our
Shearer’s Hermiston family in
your thoughts through this diffi -
cult time,” Nictakis stated.
Shearer’s says goodbye to
231 workers who had been
employed at the plant
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
The devastating fi re last
month at the Shearer’s Foods
facility in Hermiston has led
the company to end employ-
ment of the men and women
who worked there. And the city
is without a sure sign the com-
pany will rebuild.
Shearer’s Foods CEO Bill
Nictakis made the announce-
ment in a press release Tuesday,
March 8.
“After assessing the damage,
it’s clear that the destruction is
too great to quickly rebuild and
begin production in the near
term,” according to Nictakis.
“Unfortunately, it would take at
least 15-18 months before we
could resume production. We
have not yet decided the future
of the Shearer’s Hermiston site.
This has led to the very diffi cult
decision to end employment for
our team members.”
Dealing with the fallout
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald
A backhoe sits ready for use at the Shearer’s plant in Hermiston,
March 9, 2022.
The company has reported
it employed 231 people at the
plant.
Nictakis stated the company
is “exploring opportunities to
relocate team members inter-
ested in working in our other
plants” and has “provided a
severance and benefi ts continu-
ation package to recognize the
eff ort and tenure that has gone
into making the site successful
over the past years.”
He continued, “We will do
everything we can to support
our Shearer’s family during this
transition.”
According to the press
release, Shearer’s Foods has
been teaming up with commu-
This is a situation that has
driven people to tears, accord-
ing to Mark Gomolski, Agape
House director.
Gomolski said Shearer’s
supplied Agape House with a
list of all of the Hermiston plant
employees, and the nonprofi t
held a food drive March 4 for
them. Gomolski said CAPECO
— Community Action Program
of East Central Oregon — and
See Shearer’s / A8
See Smith / A8
Morrow County narrows focus on superintendent candidates
The fi nal choice will be
between one local resident
and two people from
out of state
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
The search for a new Morrow
County School District superinten-
dent is down to three.
One district employee, Mathew
Combe, is among the fi nalists. The
other two, Chester Bradshaw and
Jose Silva, are working in Idaho
and Nevada, respectively.
“Any of the three could poten-
tially do a good job for us,” Becky
Kindle, Morrow County School
District board chair, said.
The district released the names
of the prospective superintendents,
as well as information about each
candidate in a recent press release.
Bradshaw is superintendent at
Sugar Salem School District in
Sugar City, Idaho, near the state’s
INSIDE
border with Wyoming. The district
has about 540 students, according
to the National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics, while Morrow
County School District has closer
to 2,200. Bradshaw holds an edu-
cation specialist degree from Idaho
State University.
Silva is principal of the Kermit
R. Booker Sr. Innovative Elemen-
tary School with the Clark County
School District in Las Vegas. He
holds a master’s in education from
Sierra Nevada College and a doc-
torate of education from Argosy
University.
Combe is the director of main-
tenance and facilities and a princi-
pal in the district. Other credentials
include being a regional alterna-
tive education coordinator with
the Union Baker Education Ser-
vice District, as well as a master’s
degree in education from Sierra
Nevada College.
He works for Heppner Junior/
Senior High School.
The Teacher Standards and
A3  Latest fi lings alter picture of
commissioner races
Practices Commission of Oregon
fi led a report on Combe regard-
ing a matter in 2004 that resulted
in a 30-day suspension in 2009.
The report provides a stipulation
of facts, including an admission
of submitting one or more travel
reimbursement claims when he
was a teacher at Union Baker Edu-
cation Service District. It states
he claimed “mileage that he did
not incur while employed by the
UBESD.”
“He claimed reimbursement for
personal mileage when he actu-
ally drove a UBESD vehicle on
business, or when he did not make
the trip claimed,” the report states.
“Mr. Combe asserts that these reim-
bursements were actually related
to other, non-travel, work-related
expenses and that he had followed
his supervisor’s direction in cat-
egorizing them as travel-expense
reimbursement requests.”
The stipulation of facts
within the report also men-
tions that Combe “cooperated
A4  Hermiston workers shouldn’t
be crying at food banks
with, and assisted, law enforce-
ment offi cials in their investiga-
tion into wide-ranging allega-
tions of impropriety involving
a number of UBESD staff and
administrators.”
The conclusion of the report
is Combe did submit improper
claims for travel reimbursement
and his conduct “constituted gross
neglect of duty.”
School district looks for positivity in
new superintendent
Board Chair Kindle said she
was not concerned about the past
impropriety. She said the board
is happy with all of its remaining
candidates.
“We went through a long pro-
cess and spent a long time in our
screening committee and board
and reviewed all candidates,
and those were the ones that we
wanted to revisit some more,” she
said.
She acknowledged the fi nal
choice, whoever it is, will be fol-
A6  Heppner hosts beer and wine
festival, bull riding this weekend
lowing a superintendent who has
“done a good job.”
As the outgoing superinten-
dent, Dirk Dirksen said he is not
part of the selection process for
his replacement. He did, however,
off er a few words on the sort of
person he would like to see hired.
He said the person who ends
up fi lling his shoes should be “one
who looks into the future” and
makes decisions based on student
needs.
“We’ve just gone through a
two-year cycle where everything’s
been kind of, I’m just going to say,
in a bad place with mandates and
politics and things like that,” Dirk-
sen said. “We just need to work on
a positive attitude and a positive
outlook of what we’re going to see
in the future in education.”
The school district stated the
fi nalists would be gathered Tues-
day and Wednesday, March 15
and 16, for discussion. They were
scheduled to meet with staff , stu-
dents and community members.
A9  Three Hermiston chess
players going to state