REGION
Friday, July 5, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
Hermiston School District makes final payment on pre-2008 bonds
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Herm-
iston residents will see a tax
break after the Hermiston
School District made a final
payment last month toward
all bond debt incurred prior
to 2008.
The district expects
school bond property tax
rates to decrease by an esti-
mated 40 cents per $1,000
of assessed value for area
homeowners. Its general
fund property tax will stay
at $4.87 per $1,000.
{p dir=”ltr”}“I think
obviously this isn’t some-
thing that happened over-
night. It’s the result of the
district taking financial
responsibility very seri-
ously,” Superintendent Tri-
cia Mooney said.
In 1999, $39.9 million
in bonds were approved to
fund expansions and remod-
eling. In 2004, the district
refinanced the bonds to
shave off almost $1.6 mil-
lion dollars for taxpayers
and lower the interest rate.
Not all of the district’s
bonds were paid off —
another bond for $69.9 mil-
lion, which was approved in
2008, helped to replace West
Park and Sunset elementary
schools and Armand Lar-
ive Middle School. The pay-
off dates for those bonds are
June 2026 and June 2029.
Voters rejected a bid
for a $104 million bond in
NEXT MEETING
The next Hermiston School
District board meeting
will take place at 6:30 p.m.
Monday at the district
offices, 305 S.W. 11th St.
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Sunset Elementary School was built using a bond passed in 2008.
All school bonds passed before the 2008 bond are now paid off.
2017 that would have built
a new elementary school
off Theater Lane, replaced
Highland Hills and Rocky
Heights elementary schools
with new buildings and
expanded the high school.
The district’s Facility Plan-
ning Committee has been
studying options for smaller
bonds.
“Our elementary schools,
middle schools, and Herm-
iston High School have con-
tinued to see rapid growth
in the number of students
we serve, and we expect this
growth to continue into the
future,” Mooney said.
She stated bond funding
has allowed the school dis-
Oregon FFA receives $1.43M in state funding
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
SALEM — The Oregon
FFA, an agricultural education
and leadership organization,
will receive funding from the
state this biennium for the first
time in eight years.
House Bill 2444, relat-
ing to agricultural education,
flew through the Senate on
June 30 by a 27-0 vote. The
bill appropriates $1.43 million
to the Oregon Department of
Education for FFA to provide
financing for enrollment, lead-
ership development and the
coordination of 24 state-level
competitions.
The funding will help make
fees for joining the FFA obso-
lete. The fees have imposed
a barrier for students tak-
ing agriculture classes who
can’t afford the $20 to join the
FFA, said JD Cant, co-chair
for Advocacy with the Ore-
gon Agriculture Teacher’s
Association.
There are almost 7,000 stu-
dents already enrolled in the
Oregon FFA. Cant said the
funding could help as many
as 5,000 additional students,
who already take agriculture
classes, become enrolled in the
intracurricular program.
The bill also appropriates
$600,000 in grant money, to
extend contracts for FFA advi-
sors into the summer.
Many advisors already pro-
vide engagement in projects
and mentoring over summer
break. Cant said a lot of one-
on-one happens during the
summer months. He, along
with other agriculture teach-
ers, wouldn’t stop working
during the summer because
they want to continue their
programs. But the educators
are doing the work for little to
no compensation.
Cant, who teaches in Elgin,
has worked around 60 days
during the summer, only to
receive compensation for 24.
He said the minimal pay can
make recruitment of agricul-
ture teachers difficult.
“It’s hard to pull someone
out of industry for teaching
when the industry pays better,”
Cant said. “We don’t get into
this profession to be rich.”
Rep Greg Barreto, R-Cove,
who could not be reached for
comment, initially introduced
the bill in collaboration with
the Oregon Agriculture Teach-
ers’ Association.
Two similar bills for pub-
lic funding of the FFA were
floated in 2017. The OATA pro-
cured a lobbyist to help spear-
head the effort, but both failed
BRIEFLY
TRCI reports in-custody death
to pass through Legislature.
“We thought we were on
the right track in the 2017 ses-
sion. I love to think you can get
it right the first time, but I don’t
think that’s the process any-
more,” Cant said.
For years, Wes Crawford,
also co-chair of the OATA,
said there had been talk of
trying to win back some state
funding.
“It’s been quite a long pro-
cess,” he said.
In the past, the Oregon
FFA was funded by the Ore-
gon Department of Education.
But as funding declined over
a period of two decades, the
FFA became reliant on private
funding, primarily through the
FFA Foundation.
“Now that there’s state
funding present, it’s not going
to replace private funding, it’s
to aid it,” Crawford said.
UMATILLA — An inmate died in
custody Tuesday afternoon at Two Riv-
ers Correctional Institution in Umatilla,
according to the Oregon Department of
Corrections.
Robert Jones, 71, passed away in the
infirmary. The Oregon State Police have
Jones
been notified.
Jones entered DOC custody on Octo-
ber 30, 2008, from Clackamas County with an earliest
release date of January 29, 2023.
TRCI is a multi-custody prison in Umatilla that
houses approximately 1,800 adults in custody.
Lexington schedules budget hearing
after city closure
LEXINGTON — Mayor Marcia Kemp has scheduled
a budget hearing for the Lexington City Council after the
council’s failure to pass a budget by the end of the fiscal
year closed city government.
The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Lex-
ington City Hall, 425 F St. Kemp is also holding an infor-
mal community meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at city hall to
discuss the issue.
The city council was supposed to pass a 2019-20 bud-
get with appropriations last Thursday, but only one city
councilor showed up, denying the quorum needed to get
the budget passed before the start of the fiscal year. As a
result, the city of 238 lost its authority to spend money.
Kemp said she consulted with the League of Oregon
Cities to make sure the council could legally hold a bud-
get hearing on Tuesday, when she hopes the issue will be
resolved. City council meetings in Lexington have got-
ten heated in recent months, and as a result she said she
has asked for a deputy from the Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office to attend both meetings
Hermiston police buckling down on distracted driving
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Last
year, the Hermiston Police
Department handed out almost
200 citations for operating a
motor vehicle while using a
mobile electronic device and
for careless driving. Now,
thanks to a grant, the depart-
ment aims to hand out more
distracted driving tickets.
The
department
has
received a $4,000 Distracted
Driving Enforcement Grant
through Oregon Impact, a non-
profit that advocates against
impaired and distracted driv-
ing. The grant will provide
about 60 hours of overtime
specifically focused on dis-
tracted driving.
According to the Oregon
Department of Transportation,
there are four types of dis-
tracted driving — visual, audi-
tory, manual, and cognitive.
One of the most prominent
behaviors, which can involve
all four types of distracted
driving, is cellphone use.
Between 2013 and 2017,
20 people in Oregon died and
over 1,500 have been injured
due to crashes involving cell-
phone use behind the wheel.
This includes 158 people who
were injured while in the car
with a driver between the ages
of 16 and 18, who was using
a cellphone at the time of an
accident.
“There’s a significant dif-
ference between talking on
a cellphone and texting on
a cellphone,” said Hermis-
ton Police Department Chief
Jason Edmiston. “There may
be some sort of justification
for someone talking on a cell-
phone. Texting on a cellphone,
there’s no rhyme or reason.
Pull over if it’s that important.”
The grant is the first of its
kind received by the HPD,
which also pursues grants sup-
porting high visibility and DUI
enforcement.
The HPD has an officer
whose main focus is traffic
patrol. Edmiston said he usu-
ally responds to crashes, and
that traffic patrol goes beyond
catching distracted drivers.
“A lot of criminal activity is
mobile,” Edmiston said.
A routine traffic stop could
result in the return of stolen
property, or in the discovery of
clandestine substances.
Edmiston said the depart-
ment has investigated multiple
crashes that involved pedes-
trian use of cellphones.
The number of crashes
in the city of Hermiston
has increased 10% the past
five years as population has
expanded from over 17,340 to
18,200 people.
When the HPD makes a
traffic stop for distracted driv-
ing, they’ll issue the maxi-
mum fine for the Class B traf-
fic violation, which is $1,000.
Second offenses, or first-time
offenses that result in a crash,
can expect a maximum fine of
$2,000 for a Class A violation.
Edmiston said he expects
the amount of citations to
increase in Hermiston for the
duration of the grant.
“Traffic citations are no
fun, but they’re not the end of
the world,” he said.
Edmiston’s connection to
distracted driving is more than
just professional.
In 2016, his great-niece,
Alexxyss Therwhanger, 19,
was involved in a deadly crash
south of Pilot Rock. She was
living in Hermiston at the time.
Investigations later revealed
she had been using her cell-
phone periodically during
the trip.
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“That was a 19-year-old
who hadn’t experienced life
yet,” he said. “She had every-
thing in front of her and made
one mistake. We’ve all made
mistakes, but that one cost
her dearly.”
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trict to address the need for
increasing capacity.
Hermiston School Dis-
trict is the largest in East-
ern Oregon. According to
a report from the Facil-
ity Planning Committee on
the HSD website, HSD is
projected to exceed over-
all capacity next year and
increase 9.2% by the 2022-
23 school year.
The increase is expected
to require additional modu-
lar classrooms for students.
“We take seriously our
financial obligations to pay
bonds off on time and clear
debt off our books. Thank
you to the voters who have
supported our students
and school district over the
years,” Mooney said.
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