WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald
Elizabeth Doherty, 16, stands in front of the Hermiston City Council and city offi cials at the end of her fi rst city council meeting Monday, March 28, 2022. Doherty is one of the city’s
new youth advisers.
YOUTH ADVISER
Hermiston City Council opens door for input from select high school students
precalculus and U.S. history.
And she was the recipient of the Out-
standing Young Citizens Award this
year at the Hermiston Chamber of Com-
merce’s 52nd annual Distinguished Cit-
izens Awards.
Drotzmann said she also would learn
a lot about how government operates,
and Doherty concurred.
“Being a youth adviser will be good
for me,” she said.
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
T
he Hermiston City Council at its
meeting Monday, March 28, wel-
comed its fi rst youth adviser.
Hermiston City Manager Byron
Smith and a teacher at Hermiston High
School arranged for the new youth
adviser program. Twelve students were
chosen to comprise this group, and up to
three youth advisers would be invited to
each city council and every committee
meeting. They have a table right next to
city councilors.
A few days earlier, Hermiston
Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan
explained the new advisers would be a
fi xture in future meetings. While they
would not be allowed to vote, they would
have ring-side seats to witness council
proceedings and have the opportunity to
speak and advise city government.
Morgan called it a learning opportu-
nity for both government offi cials and
the students.
Beginning with just one
As the meeting started, Hermiston
Mayor David Drotzmann looked out
at the youth advisers’ table and won-
dered aloud if the advisers had been
scared away. Only one member, Eliz-
abeth Doherty, was present. She is an
Objections to SHIP
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald
Elizabeth Doherty, youth adviser, thanks the Hermiston City Council for allowing her to
be part of the meeting Monday, March 28, 2022.
active student who takes part in the FFA,
Key Club and HOSA — Future Health
Professionals.
Smith said attendance likely would
be inconsistent because a student’s life
is busy. On March 28, Hermiston High
School was hosting student conferences.
Likely, councilors stated, the missing
advisers were tied up with their con-
ferences or performances at the high
school.
Granddaughter of a former Umatilla
County commissioner, Doherty said she
is familiar with the politics of the area.
She knows the people and the region
itself, she said, as her family has lived in
the area for four generations.
Doherty, born in Arizona, was
brought here when she was only a year
old to join other family members already
long established here.
Now 16, she said she has taken
part in many school and community
activities. In the 4-H, she serves as
the vice president of the Hermiston
High School branch and the president
of the Blue Mountain group. In addi-
tion to participating in other clubs
and sports, she takes advanced place-
ment classes — physics, language,
The fi rst real action of the night came
in discussion of the South Hermiston
Industrial Park.
A few property owners, one after the
other, stood before council and objected
to fees charged to them for an enhance-
ment project that they did not feel ben-
efi ted them.
The property owners claimed the
“city was not honoring its part” of a deal
that would reduce costs to SHIP lot own-
ers. They called it unfair, and they called
for the city to revisit past promises.
The city council and the mayor
agreed with the property owners and
agreed to write a new ordinance, rather
than pass the one set before the council.
This new ordinance will be presented at
a future meeting.
See, Adviser/Page A8
Judge orders Two Rivers to follow its own mask rules
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
A federal magistrate judge this
week found some Oregon prison staff
at the Two Rivers Correctional Insti-
tution in Umatilla have not followed
the prison’s own pandemic-related
mask rules. In a court order signed
March 21, the judge required prison
offi cials to follow their policies.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie
Beckerman largely ruled in favor of
Aaron Hanna, a prisoner at Two Riv-
ers. Hanna asked the court in Octo-
ber to force prison offi cials and cor-
rectional offi cers at Two Rivers to
comply with the Oregon Department
of Corrections policy on masks.
Specifi cally, Hanna alleged prison
leaders “acted with deliberate indif-
INSIDE
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
A federal magistrate judge in a court order March 21, 2022, required offi cials at the state prison to follow their
mask policies.
ference to a substantial risk of seri-
ous harm in violation” of the Consti-
tution’s Eighth Amendment against
cruel and unusual punishment “by
failing consistently to comply with
and enforce ODOC’s mask policy.”
The ruling comes as Gov. Kate
A3 Merkley talks health care,
Russia at Umatilla County town hall
Brown lifted the statewide mask
mandate for indoor public spaces
beginning March 12, though masks
requirements still apply to settings
such as health care facilities.
Corrections
offi cials
also
“acknowledge that a mask man-
A4 We share our excitement over
a project to digitize our archives
date continues to apply inside most
areas of Oregon’s correctional insti-
tutions,” Beckerman wrote in her
opinion.
The Department of Corrections
declined to comment on the ruling.
In early March, DOC Deputy Direc-
A6 Hermiston High School Band
Boosters host talent show
tor Heidi Steward noted in an agen-
cy-wide email that masks were still
required in all prisons.
“Our goal is to move away from
mask-wearing in our institutions as
well, but our plan must be approved
fi rst, and it will be a phased-out
approach,” Steward wrote.
In her ruling, Beckerman requires
corrections leaders and offi cials at
Two Rivers to comply with their own
mask policy, saying it’s in the pub-
lic’s interest.
The Department of Corrections
argues “that although their mask-
ing compliance may be imperfect,
they have acted reasonably under the
circumstances,” Beckerman wrote.
“Defendants set the bar too low.”
See, Prison/Page A8
A9 Hermiston school adds vend-
ing machine for books