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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2018)
Page 8A East Oregonian FAIR: 2018 admission number about 82,000 Continued from 1A tors he believes the admission number was about 82,000 — about 800 more than what he calculated for 2017. Wagner said they sold about 40,000 tickets through TicketMaster. Wagner said there is no way to know for sure why gate sales were $40,000 less than the county budgeted for. He said a part of that comes from the fact that people who paid for reserved seating at the concerts are still supposed to pay for admission but were not counted in with gate sales this year. “That’s a pretty big hole there,” he said. That will be fixed next year, he said, as well as a mis- conception the public seemed to have this year that they could enter the fair for free before 9 a.m., when in fact only people working the fair were supposed to be let in during that time. He said the fair board will work to find and fix any other factors that might be depressing gate sales. The fair made up for the lower gate sales with increased revenue in other areas, such as concessions. Wagner said parking has also been a “huge boon” now that the fair has more of a “cap- tive audience” at the new fair- grounds outside of town. The budget Umatilla County adopted for 2018- 2019 shows that the 2016 fair (the last at the fairgrounds in the center of town) brought in $16,630 in parking, while the first year at EOTEC brought in $41,327. Inside the fair- grounds, beer concessions jumped from $13,272 in 2016 to $19,917 in 2017 while food concessions had a small increase and sponsorship dol- lars rose from $99,598 in 2016 to $158,010 in 2017. Wagner said it looks like it will end up being “about a wash” between the cost to hold the fair at EOTEC ver- sus the old fairgrounds. There are some cost savings with the newer facility, but the county also has to pay rent and bring in more rented items like pan- els that can be removed the rest of the year. Pahl, who said he plans to meet with the fair board soon about this year’s fair num- bers, said he thought it might end up being bit little cheaper to hold the fair at EOTEC once all the kinks get worked out. The fair has had four lead- ers in the past four fairs — longtime manager Peggy Anderson left for a new job, manager Don Slone was laid off after a year when the county decided to close the manager position, Cyndie Driscoll worked as an activ- ities and sponsorship coor- dinator for a year and now Angie McNalley has the title of fair coordinator. Wagner said he believes the fair has found the right staffing formula going for- ward and McNalley is a great asset to the fair. “We stumbled our way through and found our foot- ing now,” he said. Farm-City Pro Rodeo For the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, after fair week Den- nis Barnett said the final attendance numbers for the rodeo would fall somewhere between 16,000 and 17,000 people — similar to numbers for 2017, he said. The rodeo saw about a 5 percent increase in attendance between 2016 and 2017 when it made the jump from the old arena in the center of town out to EOTEC. Barnett said there was no doubt the extreme heat on Wednesday and Thursday of fair week encouraged some people to stay home, so bet- ter weather next year (2017 also saw temperatures over 100 degrees) could encourage some extra attendance. The rodeo itself went “out- standing,” Barnett said, and the rodeo board is always looking for ways to improve each year. They continue to make improvements to the arena, as well, and this year featured wrought-iron fenc- ing in the Chute 8 area and a new scoreboard. He called the Farm-City Pro Rodeo the “best rodeo on the west side of the Missis- sippi” and said when there are empty seats in the arena, peo- ple are missing out. “Everything’s there, we just have to get people there,” he said. The rodeo gained four new sponsors this year. The rodeo signed a lease with EOTEC for $10,000 a year, and Bar- nett said while that doesn’t create much of a cash flow problem for the rodeo, the organization does have extra costs now associated with debt service from the approx- imately $1 million it has put into building the mercantile building and other improve- ments to EOTEC. DEVELOP: Zoning and tax lot information provided Continued from 1A The project will cost about $55,000 and is scheduled to be completed by February or March of next year. It will include assessments of lands around Morrow County. McLane said the project will involve a lot of data col- lection and input. “We’re providing them with zoning information, tax lot information,” she said. The consultants will assess not only what land is available, but also what con- dition it is in. There may be land that has the potential to be developed but no access to services. “When we look at our five communities, all five have community water, but only three have community waste- water,” she said. Houses in Ione and Lexington oper- ate on individual septic sys- tems, while Boardman, Hep- pner and Irrigon have city services. “That’s a limitation on density for development that other communities wouldn’t necessarily have,” she said. The study will also look at other potential reasons for slow development in Morrow County. “Is it about a lack of devel- opers, are our processes too cumbersome? Is the price of land too much?” McLane said. “They may be able to give us some insight into the reality.” She said the project will look at a variety of long-term issues for the county. “Do we need to do an urban growth boundary expansion? Do we need to do different zoning?” she said. They may not get all those answers by the end of the study, but she said they hope to get a better immediate understanding of other things — such as the demand is for residential land in south Mor- row County. McLane said there may be a few opportunities for com- munity input, but the project is more focused on analysis. “There are clear stake- holder groups that (consul- tants) will want to ask ques- tions of. Builders, developers, real estate agents — people that have their thumb on the pulse of the housing market in Morrow County.” She said there is no spe- cific action that the county will take at the end of this project, but it will inform potential steps afterward. She said in the next cou- ple of weeks the firms will begin collecting data from the entire community. They will present some prelimi- nary findings at a meeting in early November. McLane said she was excited about the project, and that although Eastern Oregon is not unique in its need for housing, it has different needs than the rest of the state. “I don’t know what all the limits and constraints are, but hopefully this will illuminate some of them so we can tar- get them,” she said. Friday, September 7, 2018 OFF PAGE ONE CAMERAS: Boardman also using body cameras Continued from 1A a heightened situation,” Edmiston said. “Why wouldn’t we want our cam- eras rolling?” Camera footage has come into play in criminal investigations and prosecu- tions, he said, and Hermis- ton Municipal Court Judge Thomas Creasing has asked to see footage. “Any judge is going to want as much information as possible to make deci- sions,” Edmiston said. Local departments have cameras in their police vehi- cles, but Boardman is the only other local agency to use body cams. Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Rob- erts maintain he would like to bring on the cameras, but the cost is prohibitive. The basic recording sys- tem — from the cameras to data storage — would run a bit more than $70,000, Rob- erts said, “but to do it right would be about $100,000.” And Pendleton has more pressing needs, such as keeping its fleet of police cars running. “I can’t think of a week where we did not have at least one if not two cars red- lined or in the shop,” Rob- erts said, and that costs “eats up an entire line item in our budget.” The department has applied for a federal grant to cover the cost of body cams, but Roberts said he was not holding out hope for suc- cess. Similar efforts did not secure the crucial funds. The Pendleton chief also said some departments, including Boardman and Hermiston, jumped into the camera use early, when companies were offering sweet deals. Some depart- ments nationwide are find- ing subsequent contracts pack much higher costs, Roberts said, and are drop- ping their camera systems in spite of their obvious benefits. Edmiston pointed out Hermiston, Pendleton and other local law enforcement contract with the company Lexipol to provide policy and procedure manuals and training, and Lexipol has increased its price 40 per- cent in the last three years. But Lexipol’s team of law- yers keep up with “all the crazy case law” that comes out of federal courts and does a good job of updating the information, so depart- ments pay. Otherwise, he said, some city attorney would shoulder that work load. Edmiston said he expects the next contract for the body cameras to come with higher costs, but he does not see Axon asking for a sig- nificant increase, but rather something moderate. And hopefully, he said, even minor. The basic recording system — from the cameras to data storage — would run a bit more than $70,000, ... “but to do it right would be about $100,000.” — Stuart Roberts, Pendleton police chief New Unlimited with Payback The only unlimited plan that pays you back for data you don’t use. 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