REGION
Saturday, September 16, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
Bus driver shortage ruffl es routes Council PENDLETON
could ban
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
tobacco use in parks
The Hermiston School
District has received several
complaints this school year
about irregular bus timings
for students, including early
pickups and late dropoffs.
School
district
and
Mid-Columbia
Bus
Company employees say
the issues are largely due to
a shortage of drivers and to
adjustments of routes that
often happen at the begin-
ning of the school year.
The district contracts
with Mid-Columbia Bus
Company, which serves 49
total school districts and
19 in Eastern Oregon. The
regional bus barn serves
Hermiston, Umatilla and
Stanfi eld.
Several parents have
complained to the Herm-
iston School District in the
past few weeks about their
children being picked up
too early or too late by their
school buses.
Brad Wayland, Hermis-
ton’s director of operations,
said the district is aware of
complaints and has been
working with MidCo to
resolve issues.
“We have had issues
raised. Most have primarily
been late bus times,”
Wayland
said.
“We’re
working through the issues.
We’re making sure they get
the info from our end, and
I’m making sure they have
student names and all the
information they need.”
Wayland said the district
has 16 normal routes, as well
as several special education
routes. In the past few weeks,
he said, the bus company has
received help from drivers
that usually work in other
areas.
Wayland said for the
2016-2017 school year,
MidCo received about $1.5
million to contract with the
Hermiston School District.
However, he noted, not all
of that money came directly
from the Hermiston School
District. More than half,
he said, came from state
funding and some from the
Booster Club.
“Some
transportation
is for fi eld trips, clubs, the
football team,” he said. “So
there’s some reimbursements
from the club itself.”
Wayland
said
the
school district pays a small
percentage of the funds
for MidCo’s contract, but
he didn’t know the exact
number because it changes
every year.
Cindy
Nicholson,
MidCo’s Regional Director
of Operations, said the
New REACH lease,
ODOT partnership
also on the table
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan
Mike Marcum, a bus driver with MidCo, returns from a route.
Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan
Buses parked in the Mid-Columbia Bus Company lot.
company is aware of
complaints, whether they
come directly to the MidCo
offi ce or are relayed from
school districts with whom
they contract.
She said the main problem
they’ve faced this year has
been a driver shortage.
But she said they are
actively recruiting drivers,
and have tabled at a recent
job fair, as well as handing
out several hundred fl yers.
“Since school started,
we tested three (potential
drivers) last weekend, and
we’re testing three this
weekend,” she said. She
added that once someone
gets hired, it takes about
four weeks of training and
certifi cation before they can
start driving a route.
They also recently began
a new recruitment tactic,
offering grants to school
districts that refer drivers to
MidCo. Once the person has
been hired and has worked
for MidCo for 60 days, the
company will donate $300
to the district to be used for
a school-related activity. So
far, the company has made
two referral-based donations
to the Umatilla School
District.
Nicholson said the key to
managing all the day-to-day
changes that happen with
routes is staying in constant
communication with the
school districts.
“Brad (Wayland) is very
good at communicating with
us if something happens, and
how we address it,” she said.
She said the company is
also experimenting with apps
that would allow parents to
track where their student’s
bus is.
If a child is missing or got
on the wrong bus, she said,
all buses have to stop and be
in communication with each
other and the school via radio
until they fi nd out where that
child is. Sometimes, she said,
communication
between
the schools and buses gets
muddled.
Recently,
parents
complained
that
their
students were asked to
leave school early to get
on the bus. Nicholson said
that incident was due to a
misunderstanding, where a
bus driver went to pick up
her own children, and the
teacher misunderstood and
released other children from
the class as well.
The local bus barn
currently has 41 drivers.
“We’d love to have 10
more,” Nicholson said.
Drivers sometimes have to
double routes, especially
when they have to drive to
after-school activities. The
company transports about
3,000 students in the Herm-
iston, Stanfi eld and Umatilla
area.
“We always get a few
that register a little late. If
you add one person in, it
throws off the whole route,”
Nicholson said. “You think
you have it right, and then
another kid comes and you
have to redo the schedule.”
Entire routes can also get
off-schedule if a school gets
out late.
“Drivers have to go
straight from the elementary
school to the high school,”
she said. “If the elementary
school is a bit off, it throws
the high school off.”
Part of the challenge with
retaining drivers, she said,
is that it’s a part-time job.
Many who seek out the work
eventually leave when they
fi nd a full-time position.
Nicholson
said
the
company has been dealing
with the shortage by pulling
in drivers from other loca-
tions. She said the company
is also trying to become
more accessible to the public
if they have concerns.
“We’ve added a couple of
different phone lines, and we
hired another full-time offi ce
staff this year,” she said.
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan
at
jramakrishnan@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4534
Rock blast at Port of Umatilla clears way for road
More online
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
For video of the blast visit
www.eastoregonian.com
An explosion at the Port
of Umatilla on Thursday
night is helping pave the
way for a new $3.5 million
road connecting the port
with industrial land owned
by the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation.
Apollo Inc., a general
contractor based in Kenne-
wick, planted charges deep
inside a basalt cliff face near
Launch Lane Thursday for
a carefully controlled blast
that created a mountain of
new gravel to be used during
construction of the paved
road this fall. The port is also
donating sand to the project.
In 2013 the legislature
appropriated $3.5 million to
the CTUIR “for the purpose
of acquiring, developing and
constructing a 1.5 mile road
extension connecting the
Port of Umatilla to certain
industrial lands.”
Those lands are 195 acres,
located about a mile east of
Two Rivers Correctional
Institution. The road will
extend from Beach Access
Road past the Department
of Corrections property to
the edge of the CTUIR’s
acreage.
The tribes are also
partnering with the city of
Umatilla on a project to
extend city water and sewer
services to the site. The city
will take ownership of the
road and other infrastruc-
ture once construction is
complete. The upgrades
will make the property more
marketable for economic
development.
Stanfi eld City Council to mull updates to
nuisance ordinances, mobile food vendors
from a dehydration plant
run by 3D Idapro Solutions
at 405 N. Hooser Lane.
During its Sept. 5 meeting
the council said they favored
rules drafted by city staff
based on the city of Hermis-
ton’s ordinance, but wanted
to update noise ordinances
at the same time and get the
city’s legal counsel to sign
East Oregonian
Stanfi eld City Council
will discuss updates to
its nuisance ordinances
Tuesday.
The city has been working
to make its language on
odor nuisances more precise
after fi elding months of
complaints about bad smells
off on it fi rst.
The code amendments
are on the agenda for
Tuesday’s council meeting,
along with a discussion
about possibly creating
regulations for mobile food
vendors.
The council will meet at 7
p.m. Tuesday in city council
chambers, 150 W. Coe Ave.
40th Anniversary
SALE-A-BRATION SALE!
40
On Thursday water trucks
from Apollo Inc. wet the cliff
face and surrounding gravel
to help reduce the amount
of billowing dust after the
explosion. The spectacle
drew a few onlookers,
including port manager Kim
Puzey, a truck from Umatilla
Rural
Fire
Protection
District, Jason Middleton of
United Grain Corporation
and a herd of about 10 deer.
Middleton’s son Rian got the
honor of pressing the button
to set off the charges.
By the end of the Pend-
leton City Council meeting
Tuesday, the city could ban
tobacco use in all city parks,
take another incremental
step toward realigning
the Interstate 84 Exit 209
interchange and fi nd a new
home for a controversial
nonprofi t.
Mariah Hinds, the
Umatilla County Health
Department
tobacco
prevention coordinator, will
give a presentation to the
council that has already won
the support of the Pendleton
Parks and Recreation
Commission.
The council approved an
administrative rule in 2013
banning smoking within 25
feet of a park playground,
but it that did not apply to
the entirety of parks and
carried no penalties.
Police Chief Stuart
Roberts said in an interview
Thursday he would have
some concerns if the new
tobacco ban lacks enforce-
able penalties.
If a person reported
someone smoking in the
park but the cigarette was
already out by the time
police arrive and no one
claims responsibility for
smoking, the caller could
get frustrated when no cita-
tion is issued.
Additionally,
Roberts
said the police department
does have the resources to
consistently patrol parks for
smoking activity.
Roberts said enforce-
ment needs to be considered
when approving these types
of laws.
“We make new laws, but
we don’t really take them
off the books,” he said.
———
After operating out of
the Pendleton Recreation
Center for several months,
REACH Pendleton, a youth
outreach nonprofi t, is asking
the council for a long-term
lease.
But REACH is no longer
seeking use of the rec center
and is now requesting to
rent the old Pendleton police
station at 109 S.W. Court
Ave.
In its short history,
REACH
has
drawn
concern from community
members and city offi cials
for displacing existing
programs at the rec center,
the depth of its involvement
with local churches and
inaccurate crime statistics it
reported on its website.
REACH board member
Joe Jackson acknowledged
community concern in an
Aug. 29 letter to the city
council explaining the orga-
nization’s decision to fi nd a
new site.
“The proposed use and/
or lease of the Rec Center
building
by
REACH
brought about a consider-
able amount of community
worry and concern, and
though much of the voiced
concerns were not founded
on what had actually been
proposed, it has become
very clear that the commu-
nity would prefer to keep
the present use of the Rec
Center and not offer the
facility for lease,” he wrote.
In exchange for use of the
old police station, REACH
is proposing to rent the
building for $1 per month
on a one-year lease, in
addition to providing tenant
and liability insurance on
the facility.
Additionally, REACH
wants an option to extend
the lease to a second year
after the fi rst is over, and
to buy the building outright
after the lease is over.
———
The council will discuss
a proposed cost-share agree-
ment between the city and
the Oregon Department of
Transportation.
If the council approves
the agreement, the city and
ODOT could team up to
apply for a grant to cover the
costs of Phase 1 planning
and engineering work to
realign I-84 exit 209.
Current plans call for
the four-way intersection
of Southwest Emigrant
Avenue and Southwest
20th Street near Exit 209 on
Interstate 84 to be moved
west, where some homes
and retail spaces are now.
Instituting such a change
would require realigning
20th Street and building
a new road to access the
Southgate entrance and exit,
among other changes. The
city believes these changes
will alleviate traffi c.
Under the proposed
agreement, the city would
pay $300,000, ODOT
would kick in $71,890 and
the federal government
would cover the rest of the
$1 million to undertake the
engineering process.
“Without federal assis-
tance, (Pendleton) simply
does not have the fi nancial
resources at this time to
fund further project related
costs without incrementally
borrowing funds and taking
away local resources for
ongoing pavement preser-
vation,” City Manager Robb
Corbett and Public Works
Director Bob Patterson
wrote in a report to the
council.
The
city’s
current
estimates for the project’s
total cost range from $22.5
million to $31.9 million.
The council will meet at
7 p.m. at the council cham-
bers in city hall, 500 S.W.
Dorion Ave.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.
com or drop off to the attention of Tammy Malgesini at
333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211
S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-
966-0818 with questions.
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