Page 12A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
CLOSURE: List mostly includes rural markets
Continued from 1A
identifying relocation oppor-
tunities within the Company
for esteemed leaders.”
In 2015, J.C. Penney
signed a 15-year lease exten-
sion on the building it occu-
pies in downtown Pendleton
and did some remodeling.
In February, however, the
corporation announced that
it was compiling a closure
list of stores that were not as
suitable for accommodating
the company’s “growth
initiatives”
in
beauty
products, home goods and
special sizes. The final list
mostly includes smaller
rural markets, which in
Oregon includes Pendleton,
La Grande, The Dalles and
Astoria.
Calls to the Pendleton
store by the media are being
directed to the company’s
corporate public relations
headquarters,
which
responded with an emailed
statement that said the deci-
sion to impact associates and
customers was difficult, but
the closures were made “after
careful analysis of store
performance, local demo-
graphics, ability to deliver
on the Company’s growth
strategies and proficiency
to execute a seamless omni-
channel experience through
online order fulfillment,
same-day pick up, exchanges
and returns.”
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
DATA: Each new center provides roughly 40 jobs
Continued from 1A
takes a lot of water and elec-
tricity to keep those servers
running without overheating,
which is why Umatilla and
Morrow counties are such
appealing locations.
Each new center provides
roughly 40 jobs with an
average salary of $68,000
per year. According to Jim
Footh, real estate develop-
ment manager for Vadata,
the company needs to
build multiple data center
campuses to provide backup
in case one of the buildings
goes down.
“We
cannot
create
that redundancy and risk
aversion by developing a
single, super-size data center
campus,” Footh wrote in a
letter to the Umatilla County
Planning
Department.
“Rather, to achieve redun-
dancy and risk aversion, our
campuses must be located a
few miles apart.”
The Westland site is
favorable because it is close
to existing high-voltage
power lines that serve the
Hermiston Generating Plant,
Footh said. Vadata has also
signed a letter of intent to
use the city of Hermiston’s
regional water system. The
data centers will require 400
gallons per minute of water
to keep the servers cool.
Byron Smith, Hermiston
city manager, said Vadata
will be required to pay
for improvements on the
system to accommodate
the increased capacity.
Smith said the city is also
discussing an extension of
the Hermiston Enterprise
Zone to give Vadata a break
on its property taxes.
“We’re still working out
the details,” Smith said. “We
anticipate that will come
very soon.”
In addition to the
proposed Westland campus,
Vadata is in the process
of building its fourth data
center at the McNary Indus-
trial Park east of Umatilla,
and has developed two sites
within the Port of Morrow’s
“This ends up being hundreds of
millions of dollars in investment.”
— Carla McLane, Morrow County planning director
East Beach Industrial Park
near Boardman.
Carla McLane, Morrow
County planning director,
said Vadata has eight data
centers either in operation or
under construction between
the two sites. The company
is considering a third
Boardman location, McLane
added, though nothing has
been filed yet.
The projects have proved
to be a huge boost to the
county’s tax base, McLane
said.
“This ends up being
hundreds of millions of
dollars in investment,” she
said.
Construction of new data
centers is happening so fast
at the Port of Morrow that
general manager Gary Neal
said he’s had trouble keeping
up. While the centers don’t
hire a ton of people, Neal said
they have helped to diversify
the local job market.
With the expansion of
the industry has come the
need for a specially trained
workforce, which is why
Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College now offers a
course in how to become a
data center technician. The
program, which is wrapping
up its second full year, will
soon be taught at the new
BMCC Workforce Training
Center in Boardman after
the facility opens later this
summer.
Instructor Pete Hernberg
said that among his most
recent class of students, only
one hasn’t yet found a job in
the field.
“There’s been rapid
growth in data centers, and
that has been driven by
growth in cloud technology,”
said Hernberg, referring to
the number of traditional
businesses that now use
cloud-based technology.
All that growth means
dollars and investment in
smaller communities like
Umatilla, which has seen
benefits from the McNary
data center campus. City
manager Russ Pelleberg said
construction brings 200-300
people into town, filling up
local restaurants and motels.
The creation of new
permanent jobs also means
the city is drawing interest
from housing developers,
one of whom Pelleberg said
is ready to move on a project
building 28 new homes.
“The more of these data
centers that are built, the
more people they employ
and the more it puts into our
economy,” Pelleberg said.
“I’m excited to see them stay
in the region here.”
As for additional infra-
structure, Pelleberg said
the city is working on a $3
million project that will
take non-contact cooling
water from the data centers
and route it to the West
Extension Irrigation District,
giving farmers more water
for crops. That project is
expected to break ground
later this year.
“We’ve worked hand in
hand with the West Exten-
sion Irrigation District,”
Pelleberg said. “It’s a total
win-win for everybody.”
Before the Westland data
centers can become a reality,
the Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners must
approve rezoning the prop-
erty from exclusive farm
use to light industrial. The
county planning commission
will hold a public hearing at
6:30 p.m. Thursday, March
23 to discuss the request.
The meeting will begin
at 6:30 p.m. at the Justice
Center Media Room, 4700
NW Pioneer Place in Pend-
leton.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
L i t t le
Saturday, March 18, 2017
FLIGHT: Pendleton is the only
EAS community in Oregon
Continued from 1A
communities across the
country that receive a EAS
subsidy to provide flights
to and from a “hub” airport
in a larger city. The DOT
is paying Boutique a $2.3
million subsidy to operate
flights between Pendleton
and Portland through 2018.
Without the subsidy
Chrisman said many small
airports would lose their
commercial air service
because it would be prohib-
itively expensive otherwise,
although he stopped short of
predicting the same fate for
Pendleton.
Chrisman said the subsidy
has attracted calls for elim-
ination in the past and has
managed to withstand it.
“It’s a pretty frequent
threat,” he said.
This is the second time in
two years the city has had to
defend its subsidy.
The DOT was intent on
stripping Pendleton of its
EAS status after it deter-
mined that provider SeaPort
Airlines did not have enough
boardings to justify its
subsidy.
Pendleton
switched
providers and successfully
requested a waiver from
the DOT that allowed the
city to keep its subsidy, but
the airport still had a gap
in service when SeaPort
suddenly ceased operations
and liquidated its assets.
For its part, Boutique also
voiced support for keeping
EAS in the budget.
“We offer 105 flights
per day, which average
68 percent full,” Boutique
CEO Shawn Simpson said
in a statement. “We fly 3-4
round trips daily offering the
residents an easy commute.
Not only do we provide
transportation for the EAS
communities
but
also
hundreds of jobs throughout
the U.S. In 2016 Boutique
Air flew around 115,000
passengers. We anticipate
doubling passenger traffic in
2017.”
While Trump’s proposal
flights through Portland
International Airport (PDX).
Driving to or from the PDX
requires over a three hour
drive and is simply not a
reasonable alternative for
most air travelers.”
Commercial
flights
wouldn’t be the only aspect
of the Pendleton airport that
could change if Congress
chooses to closely follow
Trump’s budget.
Trump’s office is also
proposing transferring air
traffic control from the
Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration to a “independent,
non-governmental organi-
zation,” which would also
apply to Pendleton’s control
tower.
Chrisman said privatizing
air control would have a
similar effect to eliminating
EAS — a private company
would gravitate toward
larger airports while towers
at rural airports would close
down.
Chrisman said he gener-
ally believes in principles
like the free market and
competition, but there are
things that need help from
the federal government.
“There’s a common
amount of critical infrastruc-
ture in the United States that
really requires (investment),”
he said.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
has
already
proven
controversial — it includes
slashing many domestic
and foreign aid programs
in favor of a $54 billion
increase in defense spending
— it’s Congress that has the
power to formulate and pass
a budget.
Sens. Ron Wyden and
Jeff Merkley, and Rep. Greg
Walden, R-Hood River, all
represent Pendleton, the only
EAS community in Oregon.
“Greg has been a
supporter of the Essential Air
Service program in the past,”
Walden spokesman Andrew
Malcolm wrote in a brief
email. “We are currently
reviewing the President’s
budget and its impacts on
eastern Oregon communi-
ties.”
In a September letter to
the DOT supporting Pendle-
ton’s waiver, Walden, along
with Wyden and Merkley,
offered more full-throated
support of the program.
“The EAS program
supports (and) provides crit-
ical air service for businesses
and residents throughout
Pendleton and rural Eastern
Oregon,” the trio wrote.
“Maintaining safe, reliable
and affordable air service is
a linchpin for business devel-
opment and expansion, helps
remove barriers of access
to urgent and specialized
health care services, and
serves thousands of passen-
gers seeking connecting
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