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East Oregonian
Friday, May 31, 2019
Railroad
Church: Congregation sells historic church and moves out
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395, to provide furloughed
UP employees with infor-
mation about what resources
will be available to them.
On Tuesday, city man-
ager Byron Smith also told
the Hermiston City Coun-
cil that the city, Greater
Hermiston Area Cham-
ber of Commerce, Oregon
Employment Department
and CAPECO are planning
to partner on a job fair on
June 10. The details are still
being planned, he said, but
the idea is to have poten-
tial employers from the
area on hand to discuss job
and training opportunities
with anyone looking for a
employment.
“We anticipate opening
it up to everyone, but it will
specifically target (former
UP employees),” he said.
Councilors
expressed
concern for the impact the
situation was having on
families.
Some of the area’s larger
employers who struggle
to stay fully staffed have
already been taking advan-
tage of the surge in inter-
est by advertising openings
at places such as Two Riv-
ers Correctional Institution.
The Port of Morrow cre-
ated a flier showing 62 dif-
ferent job openings at port
businesses.
Not all jobs are created
equal when it comes to pay
and benefits, however.
Guy Haight of Pendle-
ton saw his last day on the
job Saturday. He and his
wife Susan Haight said they
were worried about what
kind of work might be avail-
able locally for a 56-year-old
machinist.
“We have a mortgage and
kids at home,” Susan said.
Guy said he didn’t even
find out he had lost his job
directly from UP — he saw
information about the lay-
offs online on his day off.
Scores of layoffs over the
past six months were rough,
he said, but with 19 years
seniority he hadn’t expected
to be one of them.
“We didn’t think it would
go this far,” he said. “We
didn’t think they would
actually shut down the
shop.”
He said he enjoyed work-
ing at Hinkle and would
miss his coworkers there.
“There are a lot of good
people out there,” Susan
added. “They don’t deserve
this.”
A flyer being passed
around Pendleton recently
raised eyebrows, as it adver-
tised a Union Pacific event
June 7 to “hear how you can
build a future with Union
Pacific Railroad.”
Tim McMahan, UP
spokesman, said the event
was for tribal members in
partnership with the Con-
federated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation, and
is “an outreach effort that
discusses career paths and
best practices for those seek-
ing career opportunities.”
extremely difficult decision
to make, but we realize this
church is an albatross. It’s
a beautiful albatross, don’t
get me wrong, but it’s still
an albatross.”
A Portland real estate
investment
company
named Calibrated Valu-
ation LLC has put down
escrow money, said head
trustee John Taylor. He
expects the sale to close in
the next week. Time will
tell whether the church will
be renovated or razed.
The final service on Sun-
day seemed ordinary on the
face of it. All the elements
seemed familiar — hymns,
scripture, prayers and a
sermon. But things felt far
from ordinary. Hearts were
breaking.
“This is a difficult thing
we’re doing today,” Pastor
Jim Pierce prayed to God
in his soft Arkansas drawl.
“We need your help.”
The 35 people in the pews
said, “Amen,” then sang
”Gather Us In” as organ-
ist Judy Jenner accompa-
nied on the church’s origi-
nal 1906 pipe organ.
The service brought a
series of lasts at the old
church. The last time
11-year-old Talan Anderson
would light the candles. The
last recitation of The Lord’s
Prayer. The last benedic-
tion. The last time the wor-
shipers would be wrapped
in the rich reverberations of
the vintage organ.
Pierce took time to
define “the church” as
not the building, but the
believers who gather there.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Church windows glow Sunday during the final service at the Pendleton United Methodist Church.
During the last hymn,
Thompson and a few others
were too overcome to sing.
Tears glistened around the
sanctuary.
The worshipers stayed
after the last amen as Judy
Jenner played one last
piece, “All Creatures of our
God and King.” When she
finished, cheers erupted.
Jenner took a bow.
Jenner will continue to
accompany the services,
but on a portable keyboard
at Pendleton City Hall,
where the group will meet
until another spot can be
secured. Jenner will miss
the old organ.
“The clarity of pipes is
awesome,” she said. “I’ve
played pipe organs at other
churches, but this is proba-
bly the clearest tone.”
The church with its dis-
tinctive bell tower has dom-
inated the block since the
cornerstone was laid in
1906 on land purchased
for $4,000. Stones quar-
ried near Baker cost $1,500
and bricks from the Weston
Brickyard were $90. The
church
survived
sev-
eral fires: The first started
during a church dinner in
1954 and an arsonist started
four separate fires in 1977.
Pierce said the con-
gregation plans to put the
money from the sale in
the bank and wait a while
before making any dra-
matic moves. Proceeds of a
recent moving sale will also
be squirreled away.
The congregation also
will soon have to say good-
bye to Pierce and his wife
Lisa, who have been reas-
signed to a Methodist
church in Philomath. Pas-
tor Patty Nance will start
on July 1, shepherding both
Pendleton and Hermiston
congregations.
Pierce said his little flock
is in emotional pain at the
moment, but trying to focus
on God. In the past weeks,
he said, “they just sat in the
sanctuary and looked at the
stained glass and the organ
like they are planning a
funeral.”
John Taylor said he and
other members know they
made the right decision.
“Change is really an
opportunity. We’re trying
to look at it that way. But
it’s a bitter pill to swallow.”
Thompson, who was
baptized at the church,
couldn’t deny her distress.
“There was a part of the
service where I was sob-
bing,” she said. “I can’t
imagine not being here.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
Budget: General fund seeing 25% increase in PERS costs
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Capital projects
While Hermiston will
continue its investment into
new capital improvement
projects over the next year,
many of the projects slated
for 2019-20 will be less vis-
ible than recent undertak-
ings such as the new senior
center. The city plans to
upgrade the computer sys-
tem that runs its water and
sewer system, improve
a well and a lift station,
replace underground stor-
age tanks and expand the
Geer Road water line.
The biggest water-re-
lated project continuing into
2019-20 is construction of
the city’s new 1 million-gal-
lon water tank on Punkin
Center, which will boost the
city’s storage capacity and
open up hundreds of acres
for development.
On the street side, funds
are being put toward an
overlay of West Hermiston
Avenue, East Theater Lane
paving, and design work
on the planned realignment
of the confusing three-way
intersection between Geer,
Harper and Umatilla River
roads.
Police department
Changes to the Herm-
iston Police Department
budget signal changes to
how officers complete their
work.
The department is fol-
lowing a previous move
by the rest of the city to
lease vehicles from Enter-
prise instead of purchas-
ing them outright. Edmis-
ton said part of that change
will be to increase the num-
ber of patrol cars — giv-
ing each patrol officer their
own vehicle to park at home
instead of coming to the
police station and using a
shared vehicle during their
shift.
The new take-home pol-
icy will mean fewer marked
cars in the police station lot
and more parked on streets
around the city, where they
might inspire people to
slow down or think twice
about causing trouble in
that neighborhood.
“There’s going to be
enhanced
visibility,”
Edmiston said.
He said the new approach
will keep the department
from needing to expand its
parking lot.
In the past the depart-
ment has budgeted $94,000
a year to purchase two new
vehicles and “upfit” them
with the needed equip-
ment. The lease on 10 addi-
tional vehicles will come in
at $93,700 a year for now,
and Edmiston said they will
start saving substantially
on that lease five years from
now when the department
builds up and then uses a
reserve account to upfit
vehicles instead of folding
it into the cost of the lease.
Maintenance costs are also
included in the agreement
with Enterprise.
Capt. Travis Eynon said
studies have shown that
maintenance costs go down
and cars are taken better
care of when each patrol
officer is assigned their own
vehicle.
“People tend to take a
little more ownership with
the take-home vehicles,” he
said.
The department is also
switching to department-is-
sued cellphones. Instead of
sitting in their patrol car
entering notes on an in-car
computer, then returning
to the station to hand over
a sim card full of photos
for the records department
to upload, officers will be
able to input reports and
upload photos directly from
their phone on an app called
iRIMS.
When incidents happen
late at night, administrators
will be able to log onto the
system from anywhere to
see reports, GPS locations
of all on-duty personnel
and other information.
“We can see in real time
what’s going on instead of
having to come in,” Edmis-
ton said.
The app came at a one-
time cost of $10,000 and
the phones will cost the
department about $2,000 a
year, but will take away the
need for $4,000 computers
installed in each of the 10
new vehicles.
Parks and recreation
Hermiston’s
most
high-profile parks project in
2019-20 will be the rebuild-
ing of Funland Park, which
burned down earlier this
month. Parks and recre-
ation director Larry Fetter
said the park was not actu-
ally included in the budget
the council will look at in
two weeks due to timing.
Instead, the city will vote
on a supplemental budget
later.
“Unfortunately we don’t
know what the cost will
be to replace it, we don’t
know what the insurance
payment will be and we
don’t know what the gap
will be between fundrais-
ing and what’s needed,” he
said.
The biggest parks proj-
ect included in the budget is
a skate park, which will be
built on North First Street
across from the police and
fire stations in spring 2020
if the city secures a grant
from the state that uses lot-
tery dollars for public parks
projects.
The skate park will be
Phase I of a “teen adventure
park.” Phase II, planned
for 2021, will add a park-
our area, a BMX bike track,
rock climbing and other
features.
The total cost of the
two phases will run about
$1.2 million, but grants are
expected to cover about
three-fourths of that cost.
The full city budget,
which will go before the
city council on June 10, can
be found online at hermis-
ton.or.us/finance/budget.
Extension: Phil Hamm stepping down after 29 years at the Hermiston center
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age that one pretty well.
“And then along came
beet leafhopper transmitted
virulescent agent. I remem-
ber when we first knew we
had a problem ...,” Hamm
said.
“So, I asked potato grow-
ers to come and meet in our
conference room and we
tried to find out if there was
something that some of them
did that others didn’t do that
helped them get by, and we
found that those who treated
for another insect in late
May/early June had no prob-
lems, whereas those who did
not, did have problems.
“That was a case where
growers came together to
help other growers,” Hamm
said.
“Then there were things
like silver scurf,” Hamm
said. “We didn’t know any-
thing about it, and then we
found it is seed borne, and
we learned how to manage
that one.”
“Corn smut was a real
interesting thing,” Hamm
said. “I can remember the
Mitch Lies/For the East Oregonian
/Capital Press
Phil Hamm outside the Hermiston Research and Extension Center, where he has served as
first field I found corn smut
in. It was a half-circle of
sweet corn and I thought
it was a novelty. Well, that
novelty became a major
issue.
“George Clough, the sta-
tion’s research horticultur-
ist at the time, and I started
doing a variety trial and we
identified super sweet jubi-
lee and jubilee as being
highly susceptible, while
some of the newer variet-
ies were not,” Hamm said.
“At the time many of the
100,000 acres of sweet corn
grown in the basin were
planted to those two variet-
ies. I can tell you that none
of that is being grown now.”
Part of the legacy Hamm
leaves behind at the center
are the field days that today
are a regular feature of the
center. When Hamm started
as director in 2005, there
were no field days. Since
then, the center has held
three to four each year.
The field days pro-
vide researchers with an
invaluable opportunity to
share their findings with
growers and field men,
Hamm said, and exemplify
what Hamm is all about,
according to Scott Reed,
director of the OSU Exten-
sion Service.
“Phil never forgets the E
in HAREC (the Hermiston
Agricultural Research and
Extension Center),” Reed
said. “And it is a capital E,
because to generate new
knowledge is one thing, but
you need to put knowledge
to work.”
“Field days or anything
we do here is about the
growers,” Hamm said. “It
is not about us. We exist to
provide them the informa-
tion they need to be more
successful.
“And it is not like we are
sitting here like the May-
tag repairman in that old
commercial with our feet
up on the desk waiting for a
phone call. There is always
something. There is always
a need.”
Hamm leaves behind a
center equipped with state-
of-the-art laboratories and
other facilities that he said
were made possible largely
because of contributions
from the local community.
“Because of so many
people that have helped over
the last 10 years, this station
is situated to move forward
in a very positive way,”
Hamm said.
Hamm said he will miss
interacting with growers,
attending field days and see-
ing the center’s staff on a
day-to-day basis.
“I am certainly going to
miss the day-to-day oppor-
tunities I have to interact
with staff here and the stake-
holders that are so much
a part of what we serve,”
Hamm said.
He added that he and his
wife, Linda, plan to con-
tinue to reside in Hermis-
ton and be an active part of
the community. There will
be more fishing and hunting
involved, however, and less
work in his future, he said.