McMillen-Smit appointed to fill vacancy on hospital commission

DAYTON–A former member of the Columbia County Hospital District's Finance Committee, Jamie McMillen-Smit, has been appointed to fill the Position No. 5 vacancy which resulted from the death of long-time Commissioner Jack Otterson.

McMillen-Smit was introduced at the district's commission meeting April 26 after being previously appointed on a unanimous vote then sworn in on April 25 by County Auditor Will Hutchens.

She is familiar with the health-care system not only as a member of the Finance Committee for the past two years, but also as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and firefighter with Fire District No. 2 in Waitsburg, where she currently serves as a captain, she said.

"A couple years ago, [Chairman] Bob Hutchens asked me to be on the Finance Board," McMillen-Smit said. "When Jack Otterson passed, he asked me if I would be a commissioner."

McMillen-Smit said she served on the Finance Committee with current commissioners Jim Kime and Hutchens, and that she is acquainted with Commissioner Barb Miller and Colleen Sproul.

She is the daughter of Joe and Sheila McMillen of Dayton and is a 1995 Dayton High School graduate. After high school, she worked at Tumac Machinery for five years, then moved to Nez Perce, Idaho, for 12 years, where she operated a day-care center and worked for an ag chemical and fertilizer company, Nez Perce Ag.

She then returned to the Touchet Valley and went to work at Dayton General Hospital. Having been certificated as an EMT in Idaho, she requalified and joined District 3 around 2013. Her stint at the hospital continued for about five years and in October, 2018, she bought Waitsburg Grocery, which she continues to operate.