Friday, June 16, 2017
OFF PAGE ONE
BMCC: Smith first of family to graduate from college HERMISTON: Gas tax would
Page 10A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
He completed a drug
treatment program and
worked a steady job at
Keystone RV. Eventually,
his mind drifted to his dream
of college and he finally
enrolled at BMCC in 2013.
A setback came a year
ago, when a seizure forced
Smith’s body into a backbend
so severe that it fractured his
back in 10 places. He spent
a month in a care facility,
learning how to walk again.
He entertained thoughts of
giving up his college plans.
“For the first time since
I started this new positive
chapter in my life, going to
BMCC, I felt like my hopes
and dreams were again
impossible to achieve,”
Smith said. “I struggled in so
many ways that my mind had
pushed me to the breaking
point and I felt like giving
up. Then, out of the blue, I
started to receive phone calls
and visits from the amazing
staff here at BMCC.”
He thanked them for
“love, kindness, compassion
and devotion to my success.”
“I am living proof that
it doesn’t matter how old
you are, what you grow up
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Charles Wood performs a native song called the
“Honor Song” during the commencement ceremony
on Thursday in Pendleton.
believing is real or what
obstacles you may encounter
along your journey,” Smith
said. “Anyone can change
the course of their life,
anyone can achieve what
they set out to accomplish
and dreams can save lives.”
Now that he has earned
his Associate of Arts Oregon
Transfer degree, his next
stop is Oregon State Univer-
sity where he plans to study
psychology and sociology.
He hopes to continue his
studies until he earns his
doctorate.
Smith’s class at BMCC
includes 393 graduates
ranging in age from 17 to
66, a dozen military veterans
and 142 who graduated with
high honors. Nine graduates
earned high school diplomas
and Associate of Arts Oregon
Transfer degrees simultane-
ously. His fellow “Blue U”
grads listened attentively to
Smith, their tassels hanging
off the right side of their
royal blue mortar boards.
The second student
speaker of the night, Sarah
Bonner, echoed Smith’s
assessment of BMCC as
a nurturing place. The
Montana-raised infielder on
the college softball team and
officer in Associated Student
Government said support is
never far away.
“The encouragement and
love that our staff have is
seen in every building all the
way to our amazing Presi-
dent Cam Preus,” Bonner
said. “As we walk through
these halls no student is
unimportant, overlooked or
left to fail.”
Bonner will pursue a
bachelor’s degree in health
and human performance
and later a master’s in sports
medicine.
Later, as Smith walked
across the platform during
the conferring of certificates
and degrees, he grinned at
his cheering fellow grads,
received his diploma, shook
the hand of BMCC President
Camille Preus and lifted his
diploma folder high while
flashing an unconstrained
grin.
Christopher Smith, the
first to graduate from college
from his family, had done it.
Now, on to the next dream.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
CHAMBER: City plans to remodel upstairs of the library
Continued from 1A
fully space for a conference
room where groups like
the chamber’s Leadership
Hermiston class could meet.
He said the city is willing to
let the chamber continue to
hold some of its traditional
events like the Business
2 Business luncheon and
the Distinguished Citizens
Awards banquet at the
conference center.
The chamber’s new
space would also have to
be affordable for a not-for-
profit organization.
“We don’t have a lot of
resources, so it is going to
take some creativity for us,”
Burns said.
During the meeting in
April when the city council
voted to end its contract with
the chamber, passions ran
high as chamber supporters
turned out in force to testify
they felt it was disrespectful
to try to put the chamber in
a basement. They said the
city had seriously damaged
its relationship with the
chamber in the way it had
handled the situation and
complained about a lack of
communication.
Since that time, however,
Burns said he felt relations
between the city and
chamber had improved, and
he personally appreciated
how “open and transparent”
Mayor David Drotzmann
has been their meetings
together to discuss ways for
both entities to continue to
be partners moving forward.
“The fact that the city
offered us any location
illustrated that the city wants
to keep working with the
chamber, because they didn’t
have to do that,” Burns said.
He said the chamber is
still interested in running a
visitor center for Hermiston
in the future. If the city
follows through on longterm
plans to remodel the upstairs
and exterior portions of
the Carnegie Library and
possibly turn the upstairs
into some sort of visitor
center and museum, he
said the chamber would be
interested in discussing a
partnership involving the
building at that point.
Assistant city manager
Mark Morgan said the
chamber’s declination to
use the Carnegie Library
basement at this point might
change the design of the
remodel slightly but wasn’t
deterring the city from
putting the remodel out to
bid on Thursday.
“We still need office
space in general,” he said.
In January the city
will be moving the parks
and recreation staff to the
chamber’s current office
in the Hermiston Confer-
ence Center. The plan had
been to move the building
department from the upstairs
of the Carnegie Library
HHS: This year’s graduating class was 332 students
Continued from 1A
district would bring the issue
before the school board this
fall.
“The challenge is that our
crowds are growing, and we
can only accommodate the
same number of people. This
year we allowed each student
to have five tickets for family
members, and last year it was
six. I anticipate it would go
down to four next year, and
that’s just too few.”
Maiocco said this year
about 300 people watched
the graduation on a screen
in the auditorium, and more
overflowed into the school
commons. There were 1,800
in the gym, not including
the students and staff on the
floor. This year’s graduating
class of 332 students came
from a school population of
about 1,600.
Of the three options the
district is exploring, Maiocco
said there are some chal-
lenges with each.
“We’re taking another
look at the Bulldog stadium,
Kennison Field,” he said.
But he noted several
disadvantages to using that
facility, including the lack
of air conditioning, and the
distance between the crowd
and graduates.
“And it only provides a
couple hundred more seats,”
he said.
The
EOTEC
rodeo
grounds are another option,
Maiocco said, that would
not address the problem of
outdoor heat.
“Unfortunately
the
EOTEC building is not big
enough,” he said.
With nothing in the region
on the Oregon side large
enough to hold such large
crowds, the district has also
begun looking across the
river. Holding graduation
the Toyota Center would
be a major change, but
mitigates some of the issues
the district is looking to
address. Maiocco said this
year, the district sent a team
up to review a graduation at
the Toyota Center, and felt
it may be a good option for
Hermiston.
“The basic rental would
be less than $10,000 to rent a
facility,” Maiocco said. “But
that’s not the only cost. We’d
look at transportation, all
logistics.”
But he added that Herm-
iston already spends about
$10,000 on graduation, even
at its own facility.
Maiocco said the district
is currently analyzing its
options.
“We’ll certainly take
public input, and provide
all kids of opportunities for
that,” he said. “But ulti-
mately, it’s a school board
decision.”
Maiocco said the district
aims to find a solution to
its graduation issues for the
upcoming school year.
OPENINGS FOR OPERATORS OF
NEW RETAIL LIQUOR LOCATIONS
into the current parks and
recreation offices at city hall
so that they can be next to
the planning department.
But Morgan said now the
city is looking at moving the
planning department into the
Carnegie Library instead,
and offering space for city
engineers Anderson Perry
& Associates, plus Umatilla
County Fire District 1’s
fire marshal, to hold office
hours there each week so
that developers can have a
“true one-stop shop” in the
Carnegie Library and city
employees across the street
in city hall would have more
elbow room.
Morgan said over time
the city plans to also remodel
the upstairs of the Carnegie
Library and to repair the
roof, retaining wall and
other exterior features.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
need to be approved by voters
Continued from 1A
natural gas, cable and tele-
communications.
“Before we start to
develop what that plan looks
like, we really need to have
an idea of what the resources
are going to be,” assistant
city manager Mark Morgan
said.
In a 12-page memo to the
committee, Morgan recently
laid out the city’s main
options for raising money
for street projects: increasing
franchise fees to 7 percent,
adding a $5 surcharge to
utility bills or adopting a 5
cent gas tax.
Outside of the city’s
control, but also a possible
revenue stream, is the major
transportation package the
legislature is hoping to pass
before the end of their 2017
session. If the bill passes as
currently written the city
would receive additional
street maintenance revenue
from the state’s plan to raise
the gas tax by 14 cents per
gallon, in addition to funding
a multi-million dollar over-
haul of First Place that would
include traffic signals at its
intersections with Highland
Avenue and Orchard Avenue.
Other street projects the
city’s public infrastructure
committee
is
looking
at listing in the capital
improvement plan include
paving roads like East
Theater Lane, overlays on
various worn-out streets and
extending Gettman Road to
Highway 395 so that it can
be used as another major
east-west corridor through
town.
Morgan said even if the
state’s transportation bill
passes, the committee is still
leaning toward a recommen-
dation to raise franchise fees
as well.
He said the problem
with a flat $5 utility fee on
city water and sewer is that
the burden of paying for
street projects would fall
completely on residents
within Hermiston city limits.
Hermiston’s
population
is about 17,750 but there
are 37,000 people living
within a 10 mile radius of
the city. About two thirds
of the people who work
in Hermiston don’t live in
city limits, and more than a
third of people living within
Hermiston School District’s
boundaries don’t live in city
limits either.
Many of those people
still drive Hermiston roads
almost daily, however.
“They’re
buying
groceries, they’re bringing
the kids to school,” Morgan
said.
Increasing franchise fees
(currently at three to five
percent) to seven percent of
gross revenues would leave
it up to the service providers
to decide how to pass the
cost onto customers. It
would also shift more of the
burden to larger customers
like Wal-Mart. Both of those
factors mean some of the
cost would likely be spread
to people who drive Herm-
iston roads daily but don’t
pay city property taxes.
Gas taxes would capture
some
non-Hermiston
residents, but Morgan said
Hermiston’s gas stations
sell 35 percent less fuel
than the an average city of
Hermiston’s size. That’s
because commuters heading
into Hermiston usually meet
a fuel station — Space Age
and Pilot off of Interstate 84,
Short Stop off of Diagonal
Road and Umatilla stations
off Interstate 82 — before
they get into city limits. An
extra gas tax on stations
inside city limits would give
highway stations an even
bigger competitive advan-
tage and likely encourage
people to fill up outside of
Hermiston more frequently.
A gas tax would also need
to be approved by voters.
Morgan said the public
infrastructure committee will
know before it is done with
the capital improvement
plan what the legislature
does with the transportation
package and will be able to
factor in that revenue or lack
thereof into the roads portion
of the plan. Other portions,
including water and sewer
infrastructure, will likely
be paid for by utility rate
increases over time.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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OLCC is recruiting applicants for new retail liquor locations. The open recruitment
process is a market-driven effort to improve customer convenience by expanding
retail liquor locations with a measured, but consistent amount of growth.
The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is accepting applications and aiming to add new
retail liquor locations in the following counties:
Baker County
Crook County
Deschutes County
Gilliam County
Grant County
Hood River County
Jefferson County
Morrow County
Sherman County
Umatilla County
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Wallowa County
Wasco County
Wheeler County
Applicants are evaluated on background, knowledge and work experience in:
• Retail business management
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For additional information on open recruitment for new retail liquor locations and application information, visit:
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Questions can be directed to OLCC.RetailServices@oregon.gov or call 503-872-5020 (toll-free 1-800-426-
2004, Dept # 62). Provide your name, email address and phone number. Applications can also be picked up
at 9079 SE McLoughlin Blvd., Portland, OR 97222.
An application with a business plan must be received at OLCC’s main office in Portland at the above
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Additional open recruitments for these areas and others in the state may occur in the future.
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