REGION
Saturday, April 29, 2017
East Oregonian
EOTEC: Road name
change would hinder
neighboring businesses
EOTEC ‘wall of honor’ approved
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The wall recognizing
donors and contributors to
the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center will be 40
feet long and 6 feet tall, the
board decided Friday.
“It’s a huge recognition
of our community and how
they stepped up,” fundraising
committee member Nate
Rivera told the board.
The design he presented
required 30 feet to fit all of the
plaques, but board members
agreed they needed to add an
extra 10 feet to keep space
available for donors to future
phases of the project.
The wall will be located
outdoors and plaques will
be manufactured by the
same company that did the
donor wall at Hermiston’s
Kennison Field. Rivera said
the event center, barns and
rodeo arena will also include
a plaque listing contractors
and subcontractors who
worked on them.
The wall design Rivera
presented listed members
of the EOTEC board, city
council and county commis-
sion from when construction
of the event center began, but
board members said former
board members like Chet
Prior and Dennis Doherty
also deserved recognition.
They also doubled-checked
with Rivera that there was
recognition for people like
Rep. Greg Smith, who helped
Continued from 1A
be an “absolute nightmare”
for his business.
“I’m
100
percent
against it,” he said.
He said Gary Culp
Machine and his secondary
business Gear Tec, which
manufactures and sells
tool kits nationally, would
be hurt when mail from
customers and suppliers
was lost in the confusion.
There would also be a cost
for updating everything
from legal paperwork to
advertising.
During a public hearing
before the county commis-
sion on Wednesday, Culp
recommended that the city
instead change Airport
Way to Municipal Airport
Way, and commissioner
Bill Elfering said that was
one option the county could
bring to the city before
making a final decision.
Others testified they
would go through similar
expense and inconve-
nience, and presented the
commission with a petition
with 34 signatures, repre-
senting 17 addresses on
Airport Way. The language
of the petition also stated
that there is “no system of
checks and balances” on
EOTEC since the project’s
partners are the city and
county and they are the
ones making decisions
about things like renaming
Airport Road.
Chris Waine, a resi-
dent of Airport Road who
estimated he lives about
half a mile from EOTEC,
said the clearest example
of the city and county’s
conflict of interest on
EOTEC is with noise
complaints.
He said the pounding
bass from weddings,
quinceñeras and other
parties held at EOTEC on a
regular basis can be heard
from inside his home. The
noise used to go as late
as 2 a.m., he claimed, as
people technically stopped
their events at midnight
but played music during
“cleanup.” After frequent
complaints, the noise
usually stops at midnight
now, Waine said, but it still
disrupts neighbors’ way of
life.
“The neighbors don’t
feel midnight is a reason-
able time,” he said. “We
don’t go to bed at midnight.
We have to sit there and
listen to the bass going
boom boom boom while
trying to sleep.”
When
Waine
complained about the
noise, however, he was told
by the city that since his
residence was outside the
city limits the city’s noise
ordinance did not apply
to his complaints. He was
then told by the county that
since EOTEC is inside the
city limits the county had
no authority to enforce its
noise ordinance on events
at EOTEC.
He also said that neigh-
bors end up acting as “hall
monitors for EOTEC” as
party-goers
sometimes
park along Airport Road
or on private property
after events, “getting high
or getting busy” in their
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Cement work around the rodeo arena at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center
continued Friday.
bring millions of dollars of
state funds to the project,
and George Anderson, who
provided pro bono legal
work and wrote the very
first donation check EOTEC
cashed.
During Friday’s meeting
contractors Carl Hendon of
Hendon Construction and
John Eckhardt of Knerr
Construction said work
continues to move along on
the project. Board member
Dan Dorran said he has fun
spotting new things that have
gone in every time he visits
the site.
Hermiston finance director
Amy Palmer reported that
51 events have been held at
EOTEC from the beginning
of the fiscal year through the
end of March, generating
$43,800 in event revenue,
and events planned through
the rest of the year should
bring that total to $69,400.
Event expenses have come in
at $9,300 so far, she said, “so
there’s a fair amount of profit
there.”
During a city council
meeting Monday, answering
a previous request from city
councilors, Palmer said the
city has contributed about $2
million so far to EOTEC in
the form of in-kind expenses,
starting with a donation of
land valued at $1 million and
including infrastructure and
staff time.
The
EOTEC
board
approved a $5,000 grant to
the Umatilla County Fair
on Friday for marketing
purposes, using Tourism
Promotion Assessment funds
gathered from the hoteliers.
Vijay Patel, who represents
the hoteliers on the board,
suggested that the board
ask hoteliers to provide an
estimate after the 2017 fair of
how many rooms were filled
as a direct result of the event.
Budget proposal promises investment,
new revenue from UAS, marijuana
East Oregonian
Following years of cutting
back Pendleton city govern-
ment, local officials are ready
to reinvest in the city.
City manager Robb
Corbett said the city’s budgets
are trending up, and the
recently released 2017-2018
budget proposal continues
that trend. It would boost the
total budget to $74.6 million
from $61.5 million budgeted
for the current fiscal year.
Most of the increase is tied
to the $10 million fire bond
on the ballot. If that measure
doesn’t pass May 16, the
city will remove it from the
proposal before the council
adopts the budget June 6. But
there are new expenditures in
there, too.
Thanks in part to new fees
and rate hikes, the city plans
to spend $1.8 million on road
repairs and $7 million for
water utility improvements
and replacement.
City facilities like the
Vert, the Parks and Recre-
ation office and the Pend-
2017-2018 Budget Proposal Summary
Total Budget: $74.6 million (21% increase)
Discretionary Budget: $16.8 million (4% increase)
Highlights: • $1.8 million in road repairs
• An estimated doubling of UAS range revenue
• $628,000 in airport improvements
• $25,000 in estimated marijuana revenue
• $130,000 in police department repairs and vehicle
acquisition
• $242,825 for parks and recreation department
improvements, including new parks office roof
• $240,000 for city hall complex improvements
• $650,000 for a fire engine and a rescue vehicle
• More than five additional part-time/reserve fire
fighters
• More than $7 million for water utility improve-
ments and repairs
• $58,100 for Pendleton Convention Center improve-
ments
leton Convention Center
will also receive money for
improvements.
For many of these proj-
ects, Corbett said the city has
been able to use carry-over
cash from the previous fiscal
year to make headway in the
city’s significant facilities
backlog.
The city is also expecting
revenue from two new
industries, although the level
of cautiousness varies when
it comes to predicting the
windfall.
As
the
Pendleton
Unmanned Aerial Systems
Range attracts more busi-
ness, the city is expecting
airport revenues it derives
from charges to services to
nearly double from $497,500
to $974,550.
The more than $2 million
in airport debt has remained
a concern for the city’s audi-
tors over the past few years.
That debt will increase again
this fiscal year, due to the
city purchasing a building it
wants to rent out to UAS
companies. But Corbett said
he expects the city to start
making a dent in the debt
in a couple of years if UAS
revenues continue to rise.
The city is taking a wait-
and-see approach to mari-
juana, projecting $25,000 in
revenue from the city’s share
of the state tax and the 3
percent tax it imposes itself.
Corbett said that because
the marijuana industry is so
new — only two marijuana
business are open while three
others are in some stage of
the regulatory process — the
city wanted to use a conser-
vative projection for the first
year.
The budget committee
will continue to hold meet-
ings through early May at the
latest. The budget is set to be
adopted June 6.
Two councilors to resign as new mayor picked
East Oregonian
Umatilla will gain a
mayor but lose two city
councilors on Tuesday.
The city council will
hold interviews and choose
between candidates Daren
Dufloth and Lyle Smith
during their regular city
council meeting. Included in
the meeting’s agenda packet,
however, are resignation
letters from council president
Mary Dedrick and councilor
David Lougee.
Smith is a former city
councilor and a planning
commission member who
has lived in Umatilla for 15
years. Dufloth is a former
city councilor and local busi-
ness owner who has lived in
the community for 19 years.
Both men are candidates
to fill the remaining term of
David Trott, who resigned in
March.
Dedrick
has
been
running council meetings
in Trott’s absence, but
submitted a letter of resig-
nation on April 13, effec-
tive at the adjournment of
Tuesday’s meeting.
“For personal reasons, I
feel that it is best for my well-
being not (to) be involved
with the city council
anymore,” she wrote.
Lougee submitted his
letter of resignation on April
15, effective immediately,
citing “on-going health and
personal concerns.”
The council meeting
begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday at
city hall, 700 Sixth Street.
541.278.2222
135 SE First Street, Pendleton
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8 - 5 pm on Fri
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vehicles.
Richard
Misener,
another neighbor, echoed
complaints about the noise
level during events and
said he was frustrated by
the lack of recourse.
“They think they’re
exempt from their own city
ordinance,” he said.
Smith acknowledged
that neighbors were in a
legal “no-man’s land” the
way the city and county’s
noise ordinances were
written, but said the city
had tried to be responsive.
“We have been trying
to be conscious of that
concern and make sure
things get shut down at
midnight,” Smith said.
He said recently after
a neighbor called dispatch
to complain about the
noise, a Hermiston police
officer headed to EOTEC
to see if he needed to tell
event-goers to quiet down.
He said, however, that the
officer reported that he
could “barely hear” the
noise while standing in the
parking lot.
Smith said Rotary Club
is donating trees to the
project and as those trees
grow they should help
provide a natural buffer for
noise.
Planting trees was one
of the suggestions made
by neighbors, but another
suggestion — that events
shut down at 10 p.m. —
Smith said would be more
difficult.
“People don’t want their
event to end at 10 and so
they would go somewhere
else,” he said.
Another
complaint
from neighbors has been
a lack of communication.
Mariah Murray said her
family came home one
day to see their fence and
trees along the fenceline
gone. She said someone at
the county told the family
that they had re-surveyed
the property and found that
the fence was actually on
EOTEC property. Later,
she said, they discovered
more trees had been
removed to make way for
new power lines running
to EOTEC.
“We do not have a
problem with change,” she
wrote in an email. “It is
inevitable. We are willing
to coexist. But there has
to be communication and
they can not just waltz in
and take what they want.”
Smith acknowledged
that there had been a
“miscommunication” with
the Murrays and also that
the fence could have been
restored more quickly than
it was.
He said that the city,
county and EOTEC board
understand that living next
to an event center instead
of an empty field is a hard
adjustment for neighbors.
They are striving to
improve their communi-
cation with neighbors, he
said, which is why they
went door to door and
invited them to a meeting
in March to air all of their
concerns. He said the board
is working to find solutions
for concerns voiced at the
meeting.
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Page 3A
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