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.