REGION
Thursday, May 19, 2016
East Oregonian
HERMISTON
HERMISTON
Passing on the baton
Dunsmoor to
step down as
band director
New ire district
means less tax
revenue for city
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
By JENNIFER COLTON
East Oregonian
For four years, Paul
Dunsmoor has conducted
the Hermiston band program
through concerts, parades,
football games, state compe-
titions and one big trip to the
Holiday Bowl in San Diego.
Next month, the director
of bands will turn over his
baton.
Dunsmoor’s wife, Eliza-
beth, has been accepted to a
graduate program in marine
renewable energy at Plym-
outh University in England.
Dunsmoor hopes to take a
position in music in the area
and continue his career and
studies. After Elizabeth’s
graduation, the couple will
relocate based on her career
path — and Hermiston,
unfortunately, is inland.
Sean McClanahan, current
band teacher in the Kiona
Benton City School District,
has been named Dunsmoor’s
replacement. Dunsmoor said
he will most miss spending
time with his students but
sees a positive future for the
band.
“The kids have really
taken on the attitude that
they are what makes the band
great and they are going to
do what they can to help the
new director. That is huge,”
Dunsmoor said. “I think
the band program is going
to continue to grow. I truly
believe that this is one of the
best high schools in the state.”
When Dunsmoor took
over the program four years
ago, the bands were struggling
with attendance, low morale
EO ile photo
Hermiston High School music teacher Paul Dunsmoor directs the Hermiston High
School band during the district wide music concert in February 2014 in Hermiston.
Contributed photo
Sean McClanahan will be
the next Hermiston School
District band director.
and scheduling conlicts.
Since then, Dunsmoor has
worked with administration
to reschedule classes allowing
for, among other things,
students to take both choir
and band without conlicts.
Dunsmoor has grown the
marching band almost 50
percent to 140 students and
has expanded the program
to include three large band
ensembles: concert band,
symphonic band and wind
ensemble, in addition to jazz
band and percussion groups.
Both the percussion
ensemble and the wind
ensemble have competed at
state, and in December the
marching band traveled to
San Diego and took the ield
at the National University
Holiday Bowl — the irst
major trip for the band since
1994. The band returned
home from that trip with
every possible award in their
division: overall grand prize,
best music, best percussion,
best color guard, best
marching, best drum major
and best general effect.
“When I got here, it was a
transition, trying to raise the
morale of the kids and bring
up our numbers,” Dunsmoor
said. “I feel like the kids are
happy.”
The positive changes have
earned Dunsmoor love and
respect from his students.
Earlier this year, a former
student nominated him for
an “Inspirational Teacher
Award” from Eastern Oregon
University. Dunsmoor will
conduct his last two concerts
with Hermiston High School
over the next few weeks. The
spring concert for the percus-
sion and jazz band will be at
7 p.m. Thursday, May 19,
and the spring concert for the
wind ensemble and concert
band will be 7 p.m. June 1.
Following the concert,
June 7 will be Dunsmoor’s
last day as a teacher. He
will turn over practices and
summer events to McCla-
nahan.
“If I make it through
without any tears, I’ll be
impressed,” he said. “I’m
going to try.”
———
Contact Jennifer Colton at
jcolton@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4534.
Umatilla Co. approves law enforcement upgrades
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla
County’s
Community Justice Depart-
ment, jail and dispatch
all received the go-ahead
Wednesday to purchase
of thousands of dollars in
equipment upgrades
The county board of
commissioners
heard
requests Wednesday morning
from each department.
Community justice sought
ive transdermal alcohol
detectors for $17,000 to
monitor participants in the
county’s drug court or people
serving sentences for driving
drunk.
Tammy Sundin, the
department’s
oficer
manager, told the board
smartphones can track the
devices. She said the depart-
ment has been upgrading
its monitoring equipment
and this would continue that
work.
Jail commander Capt.
Stewart Harp was back before
the commissioners to seek
approval for a $22,917 elec-
tronic ingerprint machine
for the jail. The board already
approved $20,477 for a
previous request, but Harp
said the company no longer
has that model. But it can
provide the more expensive
option immediately, though
there is a possibility the
cheaper option may still
come available.
Commissioner
Larry
Givens said he did not want
the county to get suckered
on the deal. County attorney
Doug Olsen advised that
approving the request now
ensures the county gets the
equipment. County computer
technology expert Riley
Wortman said the old inger-
print machine is from 2003
and becoming obsolete.
The third request also
was to replace outdated
equipment. The sheriff’s
ofice dispatch center needs
new computer servers for a
total of $56,600. Workman
said the current servers are
working but past their useful
life.
Dispatch
commander
Capt. Kathy Lieuallen said
the next upgrade would be in
six more years. She did not
want to push beyond that,
she said, because of changes
in technology.
The money for the
upgrade is already in the
budget. Commissioner Bill
Elfering said the new funding
formula that dispatch users
agreed to also ensures money
will be there for future
improvements.
The board of commis-
sioners passed all three
requests 3-0.
Transportation committee coming to Eastern Oregon
East Oregonian
The state legislature’s
Joint Committee on Trans-
portation Preservation and
Modernization will be able
to see some of Eastern
Oregon’s
transportation
needs irsthand when it
holds one of its meetings in
Hermiston this summer.
The committee is tasked
with developing a compre-
hensive package of bills for
the 2017 legislative session
that will address transpor-
tation infrastructure needs
— including highways,
railways, bridges and ports
— across Oregon.
The committee has
announced nine meetings
for the summer, including
one at Hermiston High
School on June 29 at 2
p.m. Citizens are welcome
to attend and share their
priorities for state invest-
ment in transportation. The
committee’s visit also will
include a tour of the Port of
Morrow.
Rep. Greg Smith (R-Hep-
pner) is on the 14-person
committee and worked
to bring the committee to
District 57 for one of its
meetings. In a statement he
thanked House leadership
for allowing the committee
to travel to Eastern Oregon
to hear directly from local
communities and ports.
“Our region relies on
the transportation system to
connect communities and
export our commodities,” he
said. “I believe having the
committee travel outside of
Salem is the right decision.
This will help develop a
more robust and compre-
hensive package that will
beneit all of Oregon.”
Other meetings will be
held in Salem (May 25),
Portland (June 13), Ontario
(June 28), Eugene (July 20),
Bend (August 18), Newport
(Sept. 15) and Hillsboro
(Sept. 19).
“We want to hear from
Oregonians about their
transportation priorities,”
Sen. Lee Beyer (D-Spring-
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“This tour will give us the
chance to discuss shipping
routes with business owners,
trafic low with community
leaders; and congestion with
commuters. It will provide
the information we need to
create the right statewide
transportation for all of
Oregon.”
Voters’ decision to
approve a merger between
Hermiston and Stanield ire
districts will mean increased
ire and ambulance service
in the new district, but it
will also mean sacriices for
the city of Hermiston.
The new Umatilla
County Fire District 1 will
raise revenue from a prop-
erty tax rate of $1.75 per
$1,000 of assessed value,
an increase from the $1.20
per $1,000 that has been
funding Hermiston Fire &
Emergency Services.
As promised, voters
in Hermiston will not see
an increase in their taxes.
That’s because in 1990
Oregon voters passed
Measure 5, which limited
the amount of property
taxes a resident can pay to
$5 per $1,000 of assessed
value for education and
$10 per $1,000 for other
government services.
Once a city reaches the
$10 ceiling, as Hermiston
has, any new tax passed by
voters adds a new slice to an
already-full pie, shrinking
all of the other slices of pie
to make room. The process
is known as compression.
In Hermiston, the city
itself has by far the biggest
slice of pie, at a tax rate of
more than $6 per $1,000 of
assessed value. That money
pays for city departments
ranging from Hermiston
Police Department to parks
and recreation.
Mark Morgan, the assis-
tant city manager, said in an
email that the new tax rate
for Umatilla County Fire
District will divert approx-
imately $130,000 per year
that would have otherwise
gone to the city’s general
fund. So while residents
won’t be paying for the
new ire district directly out
of their own pockets, the
city will have to igure out
somewhere to make cuts.
“In short, there’s no
such thing as a free lunch,”
Morgan said.
That doesn’t mean that
the city was against the
merger, however. Recog-
nizing the importance of
ire and ambulance service
to the community’s safety
and livability, the city
council made an oficial
statement in support of
a consolidated district in
2015. That attempt to merge
the districts failed, but
voters approved a second
go-round Tuesday.
The
other
taxing
districts within Hermiston
affected by compression
are Umatilla County, the
Port of Umatilla, the county
radio district, the mosquito
control district and the
cemetery district.
Stanield, which is not
under Measure 5 compres-
sion limits, will see a 31
cent decrease in property
taxes with the new district
compared to the previous
Stanield Fire District rate.
Residents outside of Herm-
iston and Stanield will see
up to a 55 cent increase.
The increased taxing
rate and new ire district
will mean increased ire
and ambulance coverage
for the Hermiston/Stanield
area, which has been expe-
riencing delays in service
multiple times per month
when people have called
for an ambulance but one
has not been immediately
available.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Garbage rates to rise in Hermiston
East Oregonian
Hermiston-area residents
will pay more for garbage
service starting July 1.
Sanitary Disposal Inc.
has the garbage collection
franchise for the Hermiston
area. Company president
Mike Jewett told the
Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners at its
meeting Wednesday the
business needs to raise rates
7.5 percent.
Under the increase, the
monthly rate for a residential
35-gallon garbage container,
for example, will go from
$11.40 to $12.25 and a
90-gallon garbage container
will go from $17.10 to
$18.40.
Jewett explained the
Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality in
April raised its solid waste
rate to 58 cents per ton. The
previous rate was 30 cents
per ton. He also pointed
to the state’s impending
minimum wage increase as
a second factor.
Oregon’s minimum wage
of $9.25 an hour bumps up
$9.50 in July in Umatilla
and other rural counties,
then to $10 in 2017 and 50
cents more per year after
that through 2022. Jewett
said the inancial pressures
means Sanitary Disposal
will have to raise its rates for
the irst time since the start
of 2013.
The county’s Solid
Waste Advisory Committee
approved in April the
increase for the board of
commissioners to consider.
The county also published
a notice about the new
rates in the East Oregonian
to inform the public, and
no one sent complaints or
concerns.
The board of commis-
sioners approved the higher
rates with a 3-0 vote.
Jewett also said rates will
increase at the Desert Wind
Transfer Station, and that
will come before the board
after notice in the newspaper.