REGION
Saturday, April 1, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
Cinco de Mayo grows, moves to Butte Park
“Our vision is for it to
be the largest Cinco
de Mayo celebration
in Eastern Oregon.”
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston’s Cinco de Mayo
celebration will be bigger than
ever this year after the committee
that runs the event decided to add a
second day.
“Our vision is for it to be the
largest Cinco de Mayo celebration
in Eastern Oregon,” committee
chair Clara Beas Fitzgerald said.
This is Beas Fitzgerald’s first
year being in charge of the event,
which will run May 6-7 in Butte
Park. The celebration will include
a parade, a speech by Portland’s
consul general of Mexico, a
carnival, food, entertainment,
competitions, a youth dance, an
adult dance and fireworks.
Planning for the celebration has
hit a few snags as it has gone along,
including a recent city council
decision — which Beas Fitzgerald,
who is on the council, called “disap-
pointing” — to not allow a beer
garden in the park during the event.
She said the revenue from the beer
garden would have helped cover
the cost of the bands and provided
seed money for next year’s event.
Instead, they will have to step up
their search for sponsorships.
The event has featured a beer
garden in the past when it took
place on Second Street outside city
hall, but there is a city ordinance
against alcohol in city parks.
“We’ve outgrown Second
(Street) and with breaking ground
on the senior center, it just isn’t
feasible,” she said. Construction
on the Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center grounds also ruled
that location out.
— Clara Beas Fitzgerald,
committee chair
EO file photo
Members of mariachi band Los Temerosos sing and play down Second Street during the 2016 Cinco de
Mayo parade through downtown Hermiston.
The upside of moving to Butte
Park is that there is room for addi-
tional carnival rides and vendors,
plus a place to set up a fireworks
show.
Beas Fitzgerald said Saturday’s
parade and entertainment will
feature all sorts of traditional enter-
tainers, including mariachi bands,
horseback groups and dancers. The
parade will begin at 1 p.m. at the
parking lot for the Oxbow trail and
travel east on Elm Avenue. Beas
Fitzgerald said they are encour-
aging community members to show
up with decorated children’s bikes
and costumed pets and join in the
parade.
Later that night, a youth dance
with a DJ will include a competition
to win a car, followed by a fireworks
show. Sunday night will feature a
“big-name band” that Beas Fitz-
gerald said she can’t announce yet.
“We want residents of the
community to have a reason to
come both days,” she said.
In the days leading up to the
event, organizers are holding a
competition for Cinco de Mayo
queen. Five young women have
posted videos about themselves
to the Hermiston Cinco de Mayo
Facebook page, and the three that
get the most likes by 8 p.m. on
April 15 will be this year’s Cinco de
Mayo queen and two princesses.
Beas Fitzgerald said in years past
a committee has chosen contestants
via essays and interviews, but this
year to simplify things “we’re just
going to let the public take over.”
The young women will partici-
pate in the Cinco de Mayo celebra-
tion, the annual Martin Luther King
HERMISTON
Barns begin to rise at EOTEC
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Construction on barns at
the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center has gone
vertical.
Now that the snow is gone
and the groundwork laid,
contractors are working to
raise the three large barns,
adding their silhouettes to
those of the event center and
rodeo arena on the EOTEC
grounds.
“It’s starting to look like
a fairgrounds out there,”
board member Larry Givens
remarked during the EOTEC
board’s Friday morning
meeting.
John Eckhardt of Knerr
Construction said work on
the barns is going well so
far. He expects paving for
the commons area where
vendors will set up shop to
be completed next week.
They are also working on the
donor wall, restrooms and
landscaping.
Eckhardt said securing
enough water to irrigate that
landscaping, in addition to
all of the other water that
will be needed at EOTEC
for fair week, continues to
be a challenge. The third
well that was dug did not pan
out, and well number four is
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Work has begun on the barns at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.
producing only 50 gallons
per minute. He said there
were other options available
besides wells, however, that
EOTEC chair and Hermiston
city manager Byron Smith
continues to work on.
Board member Dan
Dorran said he and Umatilla
County Fair board chair Gay
Newman looked at the pens
and panels being ordered for
the barns and they are very
pleased with the design.
“I’ve seen hog panels
across the U.S. ... and these
are pretty slick,” Dorran said.
On the rodeo arena
side, Carl Hendon of
Hendon Construction said
the concrete arena itself is
“substantially
complete”
and they are working to add
things like ADA ramps and
the gold buckle area. Fabrica-
tion of the bleachers is about
90 percent complete, he said.
“We’re on, if not ahead, of
the schedule we’re shooting
for,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
Jr. Peace Walk in January and serve
as volunteers at future city events.
Beas Fitzgerald said they will likely
make appearances at events like the
Umatilla County Fair too.
“I want them to have experience
meeting with other young ladies like
the Umatilla County Fair Court, and
from the Pendleton Round-Up,” she
said.
After previous organizer Eddie
de la Cruz moved, Beas Fitzgerald
said it has been intimidating step-
ping up as chair of the Cinco de
Mayo committee, which last year
gained 501(c)3 nonprofit status. But
she said fellow organizers Mark
Gomolski, Alex Hobbs, Isela Osario
and others have provided invaluable
time and effort to pull it off.
“I’m getting really nervous,”
she said. “It’s the first time for me
leading this. But I know everything
falls into place as long as there’s
people, food and music.”
She said the committee hopes to
create something that helps foster
pride in heritage for young Latinos,
but is also a fun, family-friendly
event for people of all cultures.
“We want them to feel included,
that there’s no borders,” she said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or
541-564-4536.
Expansion of self-serve gas
pumping headed to Senate
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A bill to
expand the hours of self-
serve gas stations in rural
counties in Eastern Oregon
is headed to the Senate,
after the House of Repre-
sentatives
unanimously
passed it Thursday, March
30.
The bill allows 24-hour
self service at stations in
certain counties. Those
stations would still be
required to have attendants
between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.,
however.
The legislation by Rep.
Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario,
expands on a law passed in
2015 that allowed self-ser-
vice between the hours of
6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in 18
counties with a population
of less than 40,000. The
idea was to protect trav-
elers from being stranded
in remote places.
Oregon is one of only
two states that prohibit
customers from pumping
their own gas at fueling
stations. The other is New
Jersey.
In Eastern Oregon,
some locally owned gas
stations have been at risk of
closure due to the expense
of hiring fueling attendants
to pump customers’ gas,
Bentz said.
“We are trying to
preserve these stations out
in the middle of nowhere
so that we have fuel avail-
able,” Bentz said earlier
this month.
The proposed change
affects 15 counties in
Eastern Oregon: Malhuer,
Union, Wasco, Hood River,
Jefferson, Crook, Baker,
Morrow, Lake, Grant,
Harney, Wallowa, Gilliam,
Sherman and Wheeler.
The original proposal
included Clatsop, Curry
and Tillamook counties.
However, opposition to
expanding
self-service
hours prompted proponents
to carve out those coastal
counties. Opponents feared
the change would threaten
the jobs of those who pump
fuel for a living.
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