REGION
Saturday, March 11, 2017
HERMISTON
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
EOTEC approves leases Traffic stop ends with self-inflicted gunshot
and operations plan
East Oregonian
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center board
approved an operations plan
and leases for the Umatilla
County Fair and Farm-City
Pro Rodeo at its Friday
meeting.
The operations plan,
which will be vetted by the
Hermiston City Council and
Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners during a joint
meeting March 20, calls for
the hiring of a general manager
for EOTEC who would hire
and supervise staff, oversee
day-to-day operations, market
the center and perform other
managerial duties.
The manager would
oversee an administrative
assistant and custodial staff,
and would report to the
EOTEC board, which would
in turn report to the Hermiston
City Council and Umatilla
County Board of Commis-
sioners.
Larry
Givens,
who
represents
the
county
commission on the board,
acknowledged questions that
had been brought up recently
by city councilor John Kirwan
and commissioner George
Murdock about whether the
city of Hermiston should
manage EOTEC more directly
and whether the county should
continue to be a partner. He
said people “jumped the gun”
on that conversation, but said
sometime down the road there
could end up being changes.
“This is a good start,” he
said.
The project’s two anchor
tenants will be the Umatilla
County Fair and Farm-City
Pro Rodeo, and on Friday
the board approved leases for
both. The fair will pay $10,000
a year to lease the fairgrounds
for six weeks each summer,
including the three weeks
before the fair and two weeks
after. The lease agreement
also includes storage space, an
office in the event center and
access to the board room for
fair board meetings.
The rodeo’s lease of
the rodeo arena also runs
at $10,000 per year, which
covers a 90-day period.
Included in that lease is
naming the arena the Farm-
Countil meeting
rescheduled to
March 20
HERMISTON — The
Hermiston City Council
meeting and work session
scheduled for Monday has
been moved to March 20.
The meeting will
take place at the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event
Center, 1705 E. Airport
Road outside Hermiston,
starting with a joint
work session at 6 p.m.
between the council and
the Umatilla County
Commission regarding
EOTEC.
The council’s regular
session will begin at 7 p.m.
City Pro Rodeo Arena,
leaving open the possibility
that with the rodeo board’s
consent EOTEC could add a
corporate sponsor’s name.
The fair and rodeo will pay
for their own utilities and will
be responsible for custodial
work and repairs caused by
their events.
During Friday’s meeting
the board got good news on
the construction side as John
Eckhardt of Knerr Construc-
tion reported that the company
had found some “value
engineering” opportunities to
save money on construction,
and with that in mind had
made the call to use overtime
work to make up for the lost
time caused by snow storms
in December and January.
“We have done that, and
we are on schedule,” he said.
Carl Hendon of Hendon
Construction also reported
that the rodeo arena was still
on track to be completed by
mid-June.
The project’s overall
manager is Frew Construc-
tion Group, which has been
subcontracting with Knerr
Construction in recent months
as its on-site partner. In an
effort to continue momentum
on construction, the board
approved new agreements
on Friday transferring the
Knerr subcontract directly
to EOTEC and reducing
payments to Frew Develop-
ment Group by $6,000 per
month.
A 36-year-old Pendleton
man pulled over by police
for a traffic violation shot
and killed himself Friday
afternoon in his vehicle in a
southwest Pendleton neigh-
borhood.
His identity was not
released by press time.
Oregon State Police is
leading the investigation.
According to Pendleton
police chief Stuart Roberts,
officers approached the
vehicle on SW 41st Street
during a traffic stop about
3:30 p.m. and a shot rang
out from inside. Because the
vehicle had tinted windows,
the officers couldn’t tell if
passengers were inside or if
more shots would follow.
When they finally got a
clear look moments later,
they found a man with a
gunshot wound to his head.
They pulled the man out
of the vehicle, started CPR
and an ambulance took him
to St. Anthony Hospital,
Pendleton. He was later
pronounced dead, according
to OSP.
Roland Eidam, a neighbor
who lives on Southwest 44th
Street, said he was taking his
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Oregon State Police investigate the scene of a police traffic stop that ended with
a suicide Friday on Southwest 41st Street in Pendleton.
afternoon walk when he saw
police pursuing the suspect
vehicle.
After the car pulled over
on Southwest 41st Street,
Eidam said two or three
more squad cars arrived
on scene within a matter of
minutes. The neighborhood
is home to a number of
children, Eidam said, and he
was relieved none of them
were hurt.
“I was worried about the
kids more than anything,” he
said.
Farther down Southwest
41st Street, neighbor Bill
Corwin said he heard
shouting, followed by
what sounded like a single
gunshot. Shortly after that,
he saw officers open the car
door and drag the suspect
out of the vehicle, where
they performed CPR until an
ambulance arrived.
An article of clothing and
pair of shoes remained in the
roadway as officers taped
off the crime scene. Officers
shut down the street during
the investigation.
PENDLETON
Family and iguana unhurt in house fire
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton firefighters spray water on a fire on Southwest Goodwin Avenue
on Friday evening.
A fire did damage to a house in
Pendleton, but the family — and
their 20-pound iguana — were not
hurt.
Shawn Penninger, the assistant
chief of the Pendleton Fire Depart-
ment, said the department got the
call to 2600 S.W. Goodwin Ave. at
4:43 p.m.
Four
vehicles
initially
responded before the department
called for reserves and support
from the tribal and Pilot Rock
departments.
A family of three lives in the
house, and only one adult was
home at the time of the fire.
Firefighters removed an iguana
from the home and gave it oxygen.
Penninger said preliminary
investigation shows the cause of
the fire was improperly disposed
smoking material. Firefighters
cleared from the scene after about
two hours.
HERMISTON
Citizens quiz school officials on proposed $104 million bond
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Of those that attended
Friday’s sessions about the
proposed Hermiston school
bond, many seemed to feel
that the proposed changes
are valid, while others are
worried that tax increases are
getting out of hand.
The $104 million bond
would replace Rocky Heights
and Highland Hills elemen-
tary schools, expand Herm-
iston High School and build a
new school on district-owned
property on Theater Lane.
The bond would add 90
cents per $1,000 of assessed
value to the $4.09 Hermiston
residents already pay in
education taxes. However,
Superintendent
Fred
Maiocco reminded voters
that the tax will be shared as
Hermiston continues to grow.
“As new businesses are
added to the tax rolls, there
will be more people to help
with the tax burden,” he said.
The district is currently
paying off two other bonds,
one started in 2004 to fund
the construction of Desert
View Elementary School
and one in 2008 which
built new Sunset and West
Park elementary schools
and Armand Larive Middle
School. That bond was $69.9
million, and will be paid off
in 2029.
Maiocco also said one
of the reasons the district
wanted to pursue the bond
is to qualify for a matching
grant, funded by the state of
Oregon.
“Oregon is one of the five
states without some kind of
formal matching process,”
he said. If the district gets
the bond approved, they can
then apply to receive $5.7
million from the matching
grant program. Without the
bond, they’ll be ineligible
for that money. Several other
area school districts, like
Umatilla, Pilot Rock and
Milton-Freewater,
passed
their bonds and received
matching grants.
Some in the audience
were upset at the prospect of
more taxes and asked why
the district hadn’t thought of
more creative solutions to
some of the issues.
“I haven’t seen any out-of-
the-box thinking. It’s just
spend, spend, tax, tax,” said
Geri Weigum, a longtime
Hermiston resident. “In my
opinion, we’re not utilizing
what we have.”
Weigum said she wanted
to see Hermiston look into
year-round school, full-day
kindergarten or four day-per
week school to make better
use of district resources.
“We’re being taxed to
death,” she said. “I will not
vote for it.”
“There have been two
community-based commit-
tees that looked at all those
options,”
said
district
Director of Business Services
Katie Saul, in response
to Weigum’s comments.
“Those are options we have
(considered). But at this
point, the bond is the best
option.”
Another
audience
member, who was there
representing local construc-
tion companies, said he
would support the bond.
“Do I like to pay more
taxes? No,” he said. “But you
do what you have to.”
Several district employees
and board members were
present at the meeting to
answer questions.
District representatives
also discussed some of the
hazards of continuing to take
money out of the general
fund.
Hermiston School Board
chair Karen Sherman said
the main thing the school’s
“As a community, we need to make decisions about how we
want to educate our kids.” — David Drotzmann, Hermiston Mayor
general fund pays for is
personnel — and that it can’t
address any capital improve-
ment projects.
Currently the district
uses about 34 modulars as
classrooms, and could see an
increase to about 56 in the
next few years if the district
populations continue to
increase at projected rate.
“Every time we drag
a modular onto campus,
it takes money out of our
general fund,” said board
member Josh Goller, who is
also the chair of the bond’s
Political Action Committee.
“It’s not a viable long-term
solution for the district.”
District officials said the
expanded high school would
have 14 new classrooms,
which would offer space for
increased career technical
education classes.
Hermiston Mayor David
Drotzmann, who is on the
Political Action Committee
for the bond, said the
community has always been
supportive of its schools.
“As a community, we
need to make decisions about
how we want to educate our
kids,” he said.
“My kids are no longer
in school, but other people
helped me support them
when they were,” he said.
“I’m doing that for the next
generation.”
The district has conducted
several surveys to gauge
community support for
the bond. The most recent
survey, in October 2016,
showed that 46 percent of
likely voters supported the
bond, 48 opposed it, and six
percent were undecided.
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
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