Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2015)
REGION Tuesday, April 7, 2015 HERMISTON East Oregonian Page 3A HERMISTON City looks for feedback Trailer’s value increases by 65 percent valuation, so she said they toilets a place has. Using that “It would probably fall on landscape ordinance paid the taxes. But she ques- information speeds up the as- apart going down the road tioned how the county in- sessment process, he said. anyway,” she said. By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian town properties with nowhere to plant trees or grass, sub- stitutes such as planters and Hermiston’s Communi- decorative lighting can be ty Enhancement Commit- submitted for approval. Developers will have to tee wants to see more green apply for a landscaping per- around Hermiston. The committee is seeking mit with the city planning public input on a proposed RI¿FH WR JHW WKHLU SODQV DS- landscaping ordinance that proved. The fee for the permit would require plants and will be determined by the city other decorative elements be council if the council passes incorporated into new devel- the ordinance. In a memo to the city plan- opment. “Together, these elements ning commission before it of the natural and built en- reviewed the draft ordinance, vironment contribute to the city planner Clint Spencer visual quality, environmental said in helping the Commu- health and the character of the nity Enhancement Commit- community,” the ordinance tee draft the ordinance, city staff studied similarly sized reads. Under the proposed or- Oregon cities, most of which dinance, which will eventu- already have some sort of ally make its way before the landscaping rules in place. city council, plans for new Medford’s 32-page ordinance multi-family dwellings must regulates landscaping down to include landscaping on at least the distance between sprinkler 15 percent of the developed heads, while Ontario’s merely property. New developments dictates the amount of ground in industrial and central com- to be covered. “The city has approached mercial zones must cover at least 3 percent of the property. ordinances from the short And landscaping is required and simple path in the past,” for 6 percent of the developed Spencer said, advocating for site in outlying commercial an approach more similar to Ontario’s. zones. The draft of the ordinance Landscaping in the ordi- QDQFH LV GH¿QHG DV ³WUHHV can be found online at www. shrubs, typical organic ground hermiston.or.us/landscap- covers and lawns” as well as ing-ordinance-draft and the “courts, plazas, walkways, community feedback meeting benches, sculptures, fences, will take place May 7 from or decks” built in conjunction 4-6 p.m. at City Hall, 180 with the greenery. For down- N.E. Second St. in Hermiston. By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian A Hermiston woman is stuck between an old trailer and a property tax bill that jumped 65 percent in a year. But Umatilla County tax assessor Paul Chalmers said that’s a product of the real estate market, not a county mistake. Karen Haga said she and her husband own four trailers they rent in order to help fund their retirement. One of those trailers is a 1970 Golden West model at Vista Park Mobile Home Park, 1800 N.E. 10th St., Hermiston. County tax records show the trailer went from an assessed value of $10,760 in 2014 to $17,130 last year. Haga missed the end-of- year deadline to appeal that Hermiston School District is looking into changing the venue for graduation after an online petition gathered al- most 900 signatures. The petition asks the dis- trict to consider moving the ceremony from the Hermis- ton High School gym to Ken- nison Field to allow for more family members to attend. “I just know that for my family, the amount of tickets isn’t enough,” petition orga- nizer Tracy Gammell said. Gammell has a son gradu- ating at the end of the year and said the six tickets allotted to each student would leave out some of their extended family who want to attend. To gauge interest in approaching the school board about making a change, she created the peti- tion on change.org and post- ed it to her Facebook page, where it took off. “I couldn’t believe how many people also felt that way,” she said. The petition has 891 signa- tures and counting. Briana Cortaberria, district FRPPXQLFDWLRQV RI¿FHU VDLG the district is aware of the pe- tition and staff are compiling a report on the logistics of making the switch. She said the report will be presented at a school board meeting, most Based on the type of man- ufactured home Haga owns and its 1,368 square feet, the property tax for 2014 was $252. Chalmers said that is a jump over the $165 from the year before, but the as- sessment from 2013 was an anomaly — it was too low. He showed that in 2012 the property’s value was almost $14,000, so in 2013 it should have been closer to $15,000 or $16,000. Haga said while she main- tains the 45-year-old home, she does not think she can sell it, nor can she trade it in because of its age. And mov- ing it to private property and hooking into sewer, water and electricity would cost about $5,000. Selling the mobile home, though, is not out of the ques- tion, according to Rachael Reynolds, data analyst in the FRXQW\DVVHVVRUVRI¿FH,QIRU- mation she provided showed three mobile homes similar to Haga’s in size, age and class sold in the county last year from a low of $14,000 to a high of $25,000. Haga said her daughter rents this home, so they plan on keeping it. She said she wants others to be aware their property tax burden could shift so suddenly, and she sure does not want the county to increase rates again. Chalmers stressed the county does not set property prices but only follows price trends. Umatilla residents see cleanup day payoff By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Sunshine and warm weather helped encourage Umatilla residents to “slam dunk the junk” on Saturday. Some people volun- teered for work crews to help clean up neighbors’ yards and public property. Others used the free dump- ing opportunity to do their own spring cleaning. “It looks like folks have been pretty active all week long in cleaning up their own places,” mayor David Trott said. He joined a group of volunteers who had been cleaning up the South Hill, hauling away an old couch, a water heater and a “hodge- podge of things” from the yards of private property owners who agreed to let the volunteers remove the eyesores. “We cleaned out a pretty sizable area,” he said. As the day wore on they switched to weeding around city hall. Nancy Sandoval, the city recorder, was one of the vol- unteers helping pull weeds. She said she likes the idea of encouraging residents to join in a communi- ty-wide cleanup day. “I think it creates a catalyst to let them know they have power to Hermiston to consider graduation at Kennison By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian creased the trailer’s value 65 percent in one year. Chalmers explained that Oregon law mandates coun- ties track changes in the real estate market for all property types, from unimproved lots to family housing to commer- cial buildings, and compares those values with the coun- ties’ assessed values. Coun- ties then send these sales ratio studies to the Oregon Depart- ment of Revenue for inspec- tion, and if they pass muster the counties use the studies to set the tax rolls. A couple of years ago the county opted to use square footage to calculate property values, he said, and not the component parts of a prop- erty, such as the number of likely the board’s April 13 meeting. Cortaberria said the dis- trict heard interest in the past — before the stadium improvements — of moving commencement to the foot- EDOO ¿HOG EXW WKH ERDUG GH- cided against it. This petition, she said, gives the district a good reason to look at what it would take to host graduation at Kennison. Gammell said she hopes that when all of the factors are considered, that it makes sense to move graduation out- doors, where the 2,200-seat stadium and sets of portable bleachers would allow for more people to attend. RE-ELECT Bryan Wolfe District 3 Umatilla Electric Board Member • Proven leadership & experience • Board member since 1996 • Certified credentials Paid for by Bryan Wolfe 80897 Wolfe Lane, Hermiston, OR 97838 For you or a loved one: LET’S TALK ABOUT LIVING WITH RELAPSING MS Join us for an MS LIVING EVENT. Hear from MS experts and others who are living with MS. Plus, get some answers about dealing with MS and information on an oral treatment. When: Friday, April 10, 2015 • 12:00 PM Pacific Where: Good Shepherd Medical Center 610 NW 11th St., Hermiston, OR 97838 Expert Speakers: Hui Zhang - Richland, WA A MEAL WILL BE PROVIDED. FREE PARKING. Call 1-866-703-6293 to reserve your space or register at mslivingevents.com EVENT ID: TR287584 Staff photo by Jade McDowell Volunteers help move a trailer full of discarded items from a yard in McNary during Slam Dunk the Junk. change their community,” she said. Over in McNary, Roak TenEyck and Judy Sim- mons were leading a team of four community vol- unteers in cleaning up the yard of a woman with three small children. Two truck loads and a trailer later, the team had to head back with the emptied vehicles to pick up another round of broken bicycles and cracked plastic tubs. The team leaders had driven through their as- signed zone earlier in the week and knocked on the door at problem properties, asking if they could come by on Saturday and help haul some things away. In many cases, Simmons said, people said they knew their yard was a mess or they needed to get rid of a set of rusting appliances. But for reasons ranging from a recent heart surgery to a lack of vehicle, they hadn’t done it. “We’re improving things little by little,” Simmons said. “It takes time but look at just the improvement we’ve made from last year. Properties are still clean. Once it’s done people can maintain it but they just get overwhelmed.” Last year was Umatilla’s ¿UVW 6ODP 'XQN WKH -XQN event, marking a sharp- ened focus on cleaning up the community’s image. Simmons said last year she had four pages of address- es that needed cleaned up in McNary. This year when she drove through with the VDPH FULWLFDO H\H VKH ¿OOHG up just one page. City manager Bob Ward, who was using his own truck to help transport gar- bage to dump sites, said the event was growing as the day went on. “It helps it’s a nice day,” he said. “People see us out and about and suddenly re- member they’ve got things too get rid of, too.” Given the growth from 8PDWLOOD¶V ¿UVW FRPPXQLW\ cleanup event to its second, he said he hoped one day the town will eventually “work ourselves out of an event.” ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536.
