REGION
Thursday, March 9, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
HERMISTON
New director
takes helm of
watershed council
School district to host forums to
discuss $104 million school bond
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Collaboration is key
for
management
and
restoration of the Umatilla
River, and Michael Ward
is confident he can be the
emissary to build
those
relation-
ships.
Perhaps no job
is as important
for Ward, 29, as
he settles into
his new role as
executive director
of the Umatilla
Basin Watershed Ward
Council.
“It takes a lot
of people coming together
to make these projects
happen,” Ward said. “We’re
excited to work with all
those groups.”
Specifically, Ward said
the watershed council relies
on working with landowners
as well as partner agencies,
including the Umatilla
County Soil and Water
Conservation
District,
Oregon Department of Fish
& Wildlife, Department of
Environmental Quality and
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion.
In recent years, the
watershed council has
joined with local partners
on a project to remove the
Dillon Dam near Stanfield,
which is finally expected to
happen later this summer.
Agencies have also nearly
completed a final draft of
the Birch Creek assess-
ment, which is intended to
identify projects to bolster
steelhead habitat.
“We’re hopefully going
to get everybody at the table
and rely on their expertise,”
Ward said.
Ward was hired by
the watershed council in
November, coming from
the small mountain town
of Leadville, Colorado,
where he led the county
chamber of commerce. But
environmental work was
always his passion, he said,
and his lifelong goal was to
eventually wind up on the
West Coast.
Ward grew up in
southern
Appalachia,
earning his bachelor’s
degree in history from the
University of Alabama
and master’s degree in
business leadership from
Shorter University, a
private Christian college
in Rome, Georgia. While
at Alabama, Ward also
studied and worked in
the university’s geology
department,
conducting
water and soil tests.
Healthy watersheds can
harbor an entire culture and
way of life, he said, as it did
on the Etowah and Coosa
rivers in Alabama and
Georgia.
“Now, I’m lucky enough
to be in a position
where I can work
in the field and
hopefully have a
positive impact,”
he said.
After gradua-
tion, Ward moved
to
Colorado
where he started
working
with
Outward Bound
USA and as a
snowboard instructor in
Breckenridge. He also cut
his teeth writing grants for
Great Outdoors Colorado,
which works to preserve
state parks, trails, wildlife
and rivers.
When the opportunity
came to succeed Jon Stal-
dine at the Umatilla Basin
Watershed Council, Ward
said he and his family were
instantly sold. The first time
they visited Pendleton was
during the Round-Up in
September.
“We fell in love with it
here,” he said.
Ward arrives with his
wife, Emily, their 2-year-old
daughter Tillie and identical
four-month-old twin boys
Knox and Davis. He said
they are looking forward
to getting involved in the
community.
As for his role at the
watershed council, Ward
said he is looking forward
to seeing the Dillon Dam
project through, removing
a year-round barrier for
salmon and steelhead. The
Birch Creek watershed
assessment is also entering
its final draft, with a public
meeting scheduled for April
in Pilot Rock.
Ward said he plans
to reach out extensively
to landowners later this
spring, and will be seeking
funding to help agencies
tackle future proposals.
“I’m excited to serve
the long-term goals of
our organization, and also
work with landowners to
preserve their way of life,
too,” he said.
Ward is in the process
of redesigning the council’s
website, at www.umatil-
lawc.org. More information
about the Birch Creek
assessment can also be
found at www.bcaap.net.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
BRIEFLY
Kindergarten
2017 registration
starts April 3
HERMISTON — The
Hermiston School District
will hold its spring
kindergarten registration
from April 3 to April
14. Parents of children
who will be entering
kindergarten in fall 2017
can go to any of the
district’s five elementary
schools between 8:30
a.m. and 3:30 p.m. daily.
Children must be registered
at their attendance area
school, according to district
boundaries. Boundary
information can be found
at hermiston.k12.or.us/
boundaries, or by calling
the schools.
To be eligible for
kindergarten this fall,
children must be five years
old by Sept. 1, 2017.
In order to complete
the enrollment process,
parents are asked to bring
the student’s birth record,
social security number,
proof of residence and
health/immunization
records. Spanish translation
services will be available.
Cause of power
failure still
unknown
HERMISTON — About
4,000 Umatilla Electric
Cooperative customers
were without power for an
hour Tuesday night, but
officials from the company
and Bonneville Power
Administration are still
working to figure out the
cause.
The fault occurred near
the McNary Substation
on a 500-kilovolt line that
runs about 20 miles to the
Calpine Substation south
of Hermiston, according to
BPA spokesperson David
Wilson.
“Two lines were slapped
together, but we don’t know
the cause,” Wilson said. “It
could be wind, a bird could
have flown into it — they’re
investigating the cause.”
The power went out at
about 7:30 p.m. and was
restored around 8:30 p.m.
Steve Meyers of
Umatilla Electric
Cooperative said customers
of multiple power
companies were reported to
have lost power, including
across the river. He said
customers in Hermiston
and Stanfield lost power.
“Nine times out of ten,
an issue originates within
our electrical system and
we know the cause,” he
said. “But this outage
originated from outside our
system.”
———
Briefs are compiled
from staff and wire reports,
and press releases. Email
press releases to news@
eastoregonian.com
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
The Hermiston School District will
host several sessions Friday to discuss
its bond issue, which goes before voters
in May.
The $104 million bond would
complete several projects in the district
that will address safety concerns and
the district’s quickly expanding student
population. The initial cost to taxpayers
is expected to be 90 cents per $1,000
assessed value and take 22 years to pay
off. Currently, local property taxes for
education are $4.09 per $1,000 in value.
During the district’s meetings at 7
a.m., noon, and 7 p.m. at the Hermiston
School District offices on 305 S.W. 11th
St., district employees and members of
the bond’s political action committee
will present information about the bond
and answer questions or concerns raised
about the bond.
The major projects the bond plans to
address are:
• Building a new school on district-
owned property at Theater Lane.
• Demolishing and replacing Rocky
Heights and Highland Hills elementary
schools on their current properties.
• Making repairs and renovations at
Sandstone Middle School, including the
parking lot.
• Expanding Hermiston High School
into the old Umatilla County Fair-
grounds, which the district now owns.
Much of the expansion is aimed
at accommodating a growing student
population.
Superintendent
Fred
Maiocco said the district anticipates a
growth of around 150 students per year
for the next few years.
In order to keep up with that growth,
he said the district will need to expand
its high school capacity and build
another elementary school.
The high school expansion would
increase the school’s capacity from
1,600 students to 2,000. Currently, the
district uses 34 modular classrooms
for overflow, but in two years district
officials predict they may need as many
EO file photo
Students leave their modular classroom units on the first day of the 2016
school year at Rocky Heights Elementary School in Hermiston. Hermiston
voters will decide on a $104 million bond in May that will replace Rocky
Heights and Highland Hills, build a new elementary school and expand
the high school.
as 50. Although it wouldn’t eliminate
the need for modular classrooms, the
expansion would alleviate some of the
need for the portable buildings.
Improving the fairgrounds would
also include moving Weber Field, and
creating room for potential future proj-
ects such as sports fields, parking and a
garden.
Hermiston residents are in the middle
of paying off two other school district
bonds — one passed in 2004 that went
toward construction of Desert View
Elementary — and another passed in
2008. The 2008 bond, a $69.9 million
measure, replaced Armand Larive
Middle School, Sunset Elementary and
West Park Elementary and will be paid
off in June 2029.
Maiocco also said while this bond
would address the district’s short-term
population growth, the district would
likely have to issue another bond in 10
years.
The district is currently searching
for property that could be used to build
a second high school — something
Maiocco said they will look into once
the high school population hits 2,000.
There are also safety concerns with
some of the current elementary schools,
Maiocco said. Rocky Heights and
Highland Hills elementary schools — at
53 and 37 years old, respectively —
are built in California style, meaning
they have outside hallways and more
entrances than the newer buildings,
making it more difficult to monitor who
goes in and out of the school.
The district has conducted a few
surveys about the proposed bond. The
most recent one in October 2016 showed
that 46 percent of those surveyed were
in support of the bond, 48 percent were
against, and six percent were undecided.
Thus far, the political action committee
for the bond has raised about $18,000 of
their $30,000 goal.
–——
Contact Jayati Ramakrishnan at
541-564-4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
UMATILLA
City council moves on without mayor
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The
Umatilla
City
Council addressed city
business without a mayor
Tuesday night after David
Trott resigned from the
position last week.
Council president Mary
Dedrick will preside over the
council until a new mayor
can be elected in November.
Both she and councilor
David Lougee voted against
accepting Trott’s letter of
resignation.
The letter came after Trott
called a special executive
session meeting that he
stated beforehand was to
address several concerns
that had been brought to
him about city manager
Russ Pelleberg. The council
emerged from that meeting
without taking any action,
and later councilor Mel Ray
asked for a second closed-
door meeting to discuss
Trott’s behavior.
After Trott’s request that
the meeting be conducted
in open session was met
with resistance from some
councilors, Trott resigned,
writing that “a majority of
the council appears unwilling
to discuss recent issues in an
open public forum and would
rather conduct their discus-
sions behind closed doors
... attitudes like this show a
disdain and lack of respect
for the public that the mayor
and council represent.”
Councilors were split in
their assessment of Trott’s
resignation. Lougee stated
that while he did not always
agree with Trott, he thought
as mayor he had provided
experience and a balance
to the council that was
important.
“I believe him to be an
honorable man who was
trying to do what was best
for the city,” Lougee said.
He said that while he
would presume Pelleberg
was innocent of any alle-
gations against him until
proven otherwise, Lougee
did believe that there should
be a third-party investigation
when there were claims
against city staff.
Lougee also stated that
he, too, felt that too much
city business was discussed
outside of open public
meetings. He said when it
was publicly stated that “the
council” wanted former city
manager Bob Ward to retire
early, it was the first he had
heard of it, suggesting that it
had been discussed before-
hand by certain councilors
instead of going through
appropriate channels such
as a committee meeting or
council work session.
“We need to do things
openly,” he said.
Roak TenEyck took a
different view of Trott’s
resignation.
He
called
Umatilla his “own personal
paradise” he loves coming
home to. He said he can’t
stand idly by, then, as a
“self-serving person” with
an agenda tries to publicly
destroy the career of a city
manager who “has done
more in a year than some
people have done in total”
for Umatilla.
“Mr. Trott most definitely
needed to resign and that’s
about the only thing he and
I agreed on,” TenEyck said.
He said the information
that had been made public
was only one side of the
story and he stood by
the council’s decision to
promote Pelleberg to city
manager.
“I thought then and still
do now that he is the right
person for the job,” he said,
stating that Umatilla was
on the cusp of growth and
deserved a chance to grow.
His speech was met
with applause from several
members of the audience.
Despite the consternation
caused by Trott’s resigna-
tion, the rest of the meeting
moved through typical city
business without disruption.
The council authorized
Pelleberg to sign a lease
renewal with the Army Corps
of Engineers for portions of
the Lewis and Clark Trail,
authorized Dedrick to sign
an intergovernmental agree-
ment with the Department of
Energy, passed an ordinance
officially adopting the Youth
Advisory Council as a city
committee and approved a
contract with Portland State
University graduate students
who are helping Umatilla
create a downtown revital-
ization plan as a class project.
The students are hosting
an open house Friday at
Umatilla High School from
3-7 p.m. to solicit feedback
from the community on what
residents want Umatilla to
look like.
Pelleberg reported he is
working with cities from
the west side of the county
to pursue funding for a
trail along the Umatilla
River stretching from the
Columbia River to Stanfield
or possibly Echo. He said
he was delaying creation of
a Community Development
department for a month or
two until he could give the
council a detailed presenta-
tion about his plans for the
department and how duties
across city departments
would be reorganized.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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