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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2019)
REGION Wednesday, June 26, 2019 East Oregonian A3 Hermiston looks to roads to recruit businesses Ready-made access to property makes land more attractive to potential developers By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian HERMISTON — If you build it, will they come? That’s the question Herm- iston city councilors grap- pled with Monday night as they discussed whether to go after funding for two new roads leading to commercial and industrial land. Ready-made access to property makes it more attractive to potential devel- opers. But there is no guar- antee that once a new road is built that the expense will pay off — something Pendle- ton knows well after spend- ing $9.5 million to construct Barnhart Road in 2009. A decade later, the prom- ised new development there has yet to materialize. “I think we need to be careful, because the ‘build it and they will come’ model hasn’t worked well in East- ern Oregon,” Hermiston city councilor John Kirwan said Monday. The roads the council dis- cussed Monday would be smaller than Barnhart Road and not be paid for by loans, however. Commercial access During a work session Monday, city staff presented a plan that would increase access to about 15 acres of undeveloped commercial property on the north side of Walmart. Currently the land has access off of North- east Fourth Street, but staff are proposing a new road that would run east-west along the property, connect- Staff photo by Ben Lonergan ing Fourth Street to High- way 395 just north of Roger’s The site of a proposed road linking Northeast Fourth Street and Toyota and giving potential Highway 395 in Hermiston across the street from Home Depot. businesses coveted access to Hermiston’s busiest traffi c ect would add a road across nel it into the road project. corridor. from the traffi c signal run- In a hypothetical example, “Our biggest challenge is ning in a north-south direc- a property might be worth 395 frontage,” assistant city tion, connecting Theater $50,000 and pay $5,000 manager Mark Morgan said Lane to Harper Road in front (10%) a year in property of recruiting new retailers of Home Depot. taxes. If a restaurant were and restaurants to Hermis- The project could be built on the property and its ton. “They want direct visi- paid for in two ways: a local value increased to $200,000, bility and frontage on 395.” improvement district or an taxing districts such as the He said businesses often urban renewal district. city and fi re district would take into account traffi c With an LID, the city continue to receive $5,000 fl ow when deciding where to would come up with a for- per year while the additional locate. One popular restau- mula to split the cost of the $15,000 would be diverted to rant chain told the city it new road among the project’s the urban renewal district. won’t locate anywhere where neighbors and place a lien on The money would take fewer than 25,000 vehicles the properties. If 60% of the longer to accumulate than a pass per day, and Hermis- property owners opposed, local improvement district, ton’s busiest intersection they could block formation and would depend on prop- (Elm Avenue and Highway of the district. erty values increasing. But 395) only sees 22,000 trips In an urban renewal dis- property owners and devel- per day. trict the city would freeze opers looking at the property The new intersection with the tax rate in a certain zone, wouldn’t be charged extra Highway 395 would include then skim off any extra rev- for the improvements. a traffi c signal. A possible enue generated by increases “The assumption is that if second phase of the proj- in property value and fun- we form the (urban renewal) district and development occurs, we will say ‘You still have to pay property taxes, but those taxes are going directly to these improve- ments that you would other- wise have to pay for,” Mor- gan said. While councilors were interested in the idea of new roads to boost the attractive- ness of commercial land, they said they would need more information — includ- ing the cost of the proj- ect — before making any decisions. “Right now I could go either way,” Kirwan said. Industrial access During its regular session, the city council set in motion a different local improve- ment district, located in the South Hermiston Industrial Park near Ranch & Home. If the project is fi nalized, it would be Hermiston’s fi rst LID since 2004. The district would require neighboring properties along Campbell and Penney drives to pay to pave the remainder of Campbell Drive, install water and sewer mains in the area and create what would essentially be a new road — called Southeast 10th Street — connecting East Pen- ney Avenue to Highway 395 across from Bellingers and creating access to a piece of industrial land owned by the Port of Umatilla. “It’s important to note that the right-of-way for Southeast 10th exists, legally and on paper, but if you were to go out there, there’s noth- ing — not even a goat trail,” Morgan said. He said at least 50% of the project could be paid for by a federal Economic Development Administra- tion grant that the city is eli- gible for based on large lay- offs at Hermiston Foods and Union Pacifi c in recent years. The city would be willing to put in 8% of the matching funds needed for the grant and Umatilla County would be willing to pay 2%, leaving the project’s neighbors to pay for about 40% of the project instead of what would nor- mally be 100%. The council voted Mon- day night to complete a fea- sibility study for the LID, assessing how much money would need to be raised and how much each prop- erty would pay. That study will be presented during the council’s July 8 meeting, after which the council can decide to abandon the idea or hold the necessary public hearings to pursue an LID. If 12 of the 20 neighboring property owners oppose the LID it won’t happen. “It’s exciting when you can get a 60% match on your dollar,” mayor David Drot- zmann said. “That makes it much more palatable.” Umatilla County Jail upgrade included in capital construction bill By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian UMATILLA COUNTY — Amid rapid developments in the Oregon Legislature on Tuesday, several Eastern Oregon counties got good news out of the capital con- struction committee. Two capital construction bills, headed for a vote in the House and the Senate, con- tain millions of dollars for Eastern Oregon projects — including $1.6 million for a renovation of the Umatilla County Jail. “I’m elated,” Sheriff Terry Rowan said. He had lobbied for the funding in 2017 but did not get it. The project will help the jail better accommodate inmates brought in with a medical issue, drug addic- tion or mental illness. Rowan said that a “volatile” popula- tion was landing in jail more often these days and the cur- rent setup inside the jail isn’t equipped with an area where inmates in crisis could be temporarily housed while they were stabilized. Rep. Greg Smith, R-Hep- pner, said the jail funding was his “number one issue” going into the capital con- struction funding process. The jail in Pendleton lies outside of Smith’s district but serves much of his dis- EO File Photo Two capital construction bills, headed for a vote in the House and the Senate, contain millions of dollars for Eastern Ore- gon projects — including $1.6 million for a renovation of the Umatilla County Jail. trict. He said he worked with Rep. Greg Baretto, R-Cove, and Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath- ena, on getting the jail and other priorities for the region funded. “I think folks are going to fi nd we had a pretty success- ful session,” Smith said. There had been some rumors fl oating around that a walkout by Senate Repub- licans might damage their districts’ prospects of get- ting projects like the jail funded, but Hansell’s district ended up with several proj- ects in the capital construc- tion bills even though he was still out of state as of Tuesday afternoon. Pendleton had cause for celebration after the commit- tee included roughly $5 mil- lion to Blue Mountain Com- munity College for an indoor riding arena project that will benefi t the college and Pend- leton Round-Up. Another $1 million was earmarked for a surface water-pumping project in Umatilla County benefi tting agriculture. Smith said in the past he was often focused on fund- ing for “roads and pipes” but this session he was focused on projects that would help children and families more directly. If the capital construc- tion bills pass, Umatilla Mor- row Head Start will get $1 million to expand access to early childhood education for St. Anthony Provider Spotligh t working families in Herm- iston and Morrow County. The Port of Morrow will also get $1.4 million to expand its early learning center. Eastern Oregon Univer- sity will see a windfall of $3 million to replace the grand staircase in Inlow Hall and $14 million for a residence hall. Smith, who sits on the capital construction commit- tee of the Joint Committee of Ways and Means, has drawn scrutiny during the session for how his infl uence as a legislator interacts with his private job as an economic development consultant. One contract includes running the Small Business Development Center at EOU. As House Bill 5050 and 5005 passed out of com- mittee Tuesday afternoon, there was still a question of whether it would get a vote on the Senate fl oor as Sen- ate Republicans had left the state several days earlier in order to deny the Senate a quorum and prevent a cap- and-trade bill from passing. On Tuesday morning, how- ever, Senate President Peter Courtney said there were no longer the votes on the Dem- ocratic side to pass the cap- and-trade bill, prompting talk of the missing senators returning. Smith said he hoped to see Senate Republicans return to Salem this week to pass the capital construction bills and other important legislation, particularly budget bills. “I’m excited to have my colleagues back in the build- ing,” he said. “They did a good job standing up on an important issue, but we have constitutional obligations.” PENDLETON LINEBACKER’S CLUB HALL OF FAME WEEKEND SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Friday, June 28th Hall of Fame Reception Pendleton Convention Center 5:00 - 6:45 p.m. • Cocktails Dinner & Auction (Dinner $35) 6:45 p.m. • Introduction of Hall of Fame Inductees 9:30 p.m. • Close Saturday, June 29th JD Ward, DO. OB/GYN is now accepting new patients. Obstetrics and Gynecology Education: Boise State University, Western University of Health Science Board Certifi cation: Board Certifi ed American, Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology Insurance Accepted: Most major insurances, Medicare, Medicaid Special Services: Obstetrics JD Ward, DO. OB/GYN 3001 St. Anthony Way Pendleton, OR 97801 Call for your appointment today 541.966.0535 FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.SAHPENDLETON.ORG 29th Annual Don Requa Memorial Golf Tournament Wildhorse Golf Resort 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. • Registration 8:00 a.m. • Shotgun Start 1:00 p.m. • Awards 1:00 p.m. • Lunch (Golf $70 per player) Pendleton Linebackers Hall of Fame 2019 Inductees • Casey Hunt • Jon Peterson • Sarah Keeler • Mike Hodgen • Sara Jane Rosenberg • Bill McCrae • Michael Corey • John Fossatti • Drew Larson • Mike Rickman • Leon Ransom • Chuck Jenson • Sue Johnston The 1963-1964 Buckaroo Football Team 2019 Scholarship Recipients Kirk Liscom & Aiden Patterson