WEEKEND EDITION
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HERMISTON’S FAVORITE COFFEE
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MARCH 19-20, 2016
140th Year, No. 111
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
REAL ESTATE IN HERMISTON AND PENDLETON
HOUSE HUNT
New builds don’t keep up
with demand in Hermiston
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Building permits for new homes are being approved
every month in Hermiston, but there is still a demand
for more housing in the area.
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brisk turnaround time between when many houses are
put on the market and when they’re sold.
“If you price it right, it will sell very quickly,”
Lezlee Gonsolley, a broker for Preferred Realty, Inc.
said.
Hermiston has been a seller’s market for years, but
Gonsolley said 2015 was a particularly busy year and
so far in 2016 she’s seeing a noticeable shortage of
inventory across town. That’s good news for people
looking to sell their home quickly, but it can be frus-
trating for people looking to buy.
“People say, ‘I want to sleep on it,’ and the next day
there are two other offers besides yours,” she said.
The best thing potential home-buyers can do to
give them a leg up over competing offers, she said,
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approval letter ready to show sellers.
The city awarded building permits for 40 new
single-family homes and one duplex in 2015. That
number was down from 47 single family dwelling
permits in 2014. Since the beginning of 2007 the city
of Hermiston awarded building permits for a total 345
new homes and 88 new apartment units, but the city
has grown by more than 2,250 people in that same
time period.
The real estate website Trulia lists 93 houses and
28 residential lots currently for sale in Hermiston from
various sellers.
Builder Luke Pickerill of Bend-based MonteVista
Homes, which is currently building new homes in the
Highland Summit development, said the demand for
new houses is there but a few issues in Hermiston,
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the company from being more aggressive. It’s hard
to bring them from the Tri-Cities, he said, because
many Washington contractors don’t want to earn the
Oregon’s
marijuana
tax returns
set record
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
New houses are on the market in the Highland Summit
neighborhood in the east side of Hermiston.
Pendleton looks to new housing
to keep its workforce in town
where.
After years of stagnation, the
city’s housing market is starting
:KLOH FLW\ RI¿FLDOV ORQJ to see signs of life.
Although the 21 housing
suspected commuters dominated
Pendleton’s workforce, it’s much permits issued in 2015 is a 45
larger than some initial estimates. percent decrease from the year
According to the U.S. Census before, it still represents the
Bureau’s Center for Economic second highest rate since 2008.
A majority of those housing
Studies, 57.2 percent of the 7,741
people primarily employed in units were in Pendleton Heights,
a planned 72-unit development
Pendleton live out of town.
That trumps a 2011 housing that started taking residents in
study that estimated that 30 2015.
percent of Pendleton’s workforce
See PENDLETON/14A
population commuted from else-
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
There are currently 24 rental units in the Pendleton Heights
housing development with another 72 units in the
planning phase. Staff photo by E.J. Harris
See HERMISTON/14A
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revenue from recreational marijuana sales was
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far where recreational sales have been legal-
ized.
The Oregon Department of Revenue
reported Thursday that the agency collected
about $3.48 million in recreational cannabis
taxes in January.
Although each state’s tax structure differs,
O r e g o n ’s
tax receipts
e x c e e d e d Tax rolls
even
state First month marijuana
economists’ tax revenue for states
expectations, after legalizing the drug:
b o o s t e d Oregon ................. $3.5M
in part by Colorado ................. $2M
an already Washington ......... $1.1M
r o b u s t
medical
marijuana industry and a three-month period of
sales before the tax took effect.
State economists had projected $2 million to
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subtracting the cost of regulating the market,
said Mazen Malik, senior economist with the
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has yet to calculate the overall cost of regula-
tion, he said.
“It is probably too early to make the
conclusion on what is the overall picture out
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improve as we go on. It might be that this is the
trajectory of these things and we would end up
with more money than we thought.”
Colorado and Washington were the only
states to precede Oregon in collecting taxes on
recreational marijuana. Alaska, the only other
state where recreational sales are legal, is still
writing regulations for the industry.
Washington collected less than $1.1 million
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the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board
and the Washington Department of Revenue.
The state levied an excise tax of 25 percent at
every level of sale from producer to consumer
when the recreational program started in 2014.
The tax rate now stands at 37 percent only at
the consumer level.
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recreational marijuana in January 2014 totaled
more than $2 million. That state charges an
excise tax of 15 percent at the wholesale level
and a 12.9 percent sales tax on other recre-
ational marijuana transactions.
While Oregon’s revenue on recreational
marijuana exceeded expectations, Oregon
allowed sales for three months before charging
See POT TAX/14A
STORK AWARD WINNERS IN UMATILLA COUNTY
Dispatchers deliver — this time, two babies
center’s computer system,
allowing other dispatchers to
see what was happening.
Tracy LeGore worked at
Kim Winnett was just
rolling through another shift the station next to Winnett
on June 30, 2014, as an emer- and overheard the situation.
gency call-taker in Umatilla When the call information
County’s dispatch center. popped up on the computer
She handled thefts, domestic display, LeGore told Herm-
violence — the usual calls iston to send an ambulance.
Winnett said she stayed
that day.
Then a frantic man was on the phone the whole time
on her 9-1-1 line with four with the soon-to-be father,
RU ¿YH RWKHUV \HOOLQJ LQ WKH while LeGore fed informa-
tion to the ambulance crew.
background.
³7KLV ZDV D ¿UVWWLPH They estimated the ambu-
baby,” she said. “There was a lance took as long as seven
minutes to reach the family.
lot of shouting going on.”
Winnett said about the
The family was out in the
county, miles from a hospital, time the crew arrived, the
and the mother was about man on the phone yelled,
to give birth. Winnett typed “The baby (is) crowning!”
Then she heard the baby
the where and what into the
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
cry. It was a girl.
Winnett, LeGore and
fellow 9-1-1 operator Tabetha
Koehler are recent recipients
of Stork Award pins from the
Association of Public-Safety
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for helping deliver babies in
emergency medical instruc-
tions. The trio recounted their
experiences helping families
deliver babies.
LeGore said dispatchers
rely on their training to stay
calm, as well as a binder of
step-by-step instructions for
all kinds of emergencies. It
includes two pages about
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
how to help deliver a baby.
A trio of 9-1-1 operators — Kim Winnett, Tracy LeGore
Koehler’s moment came and Tabetha Koehler — recently received Stork Awards
around 7 a.m., Nov. 23, 2015, for helping deliver babies by giving instructions over
See STORK/14A
the phone. The Association of Public-Safety Communi-
cations Offi cials gives the award.