OFF PAGE ONE
Friday, January 10, 2020
East Oregonian
A7
EOTEC: Planning commission votes for parking shuttle requirement
Continued from Page A1
manager Al Davis’ com-
ment that EOTEC’s event
center was booked “pretty
much every weekend”
through fair week.
“There are not very many
options to replace this build-
ing,” Phil Hamm said.
Margaret Saylor agreed,
noting the community cen-
ter also had amenities
EOTEC didn’t, such as a
stage.
“I just can’t conceive of
a city only having a facility
like EOTEC,” she said.
Davis said average atten-
dance for weekend events at
EOTEC, which range from
fundraisers to quinceañeras,
was about 500. He said
organizers of smaller events
in the 200-300 range didn’t
like using EOTEC as much
because the size of the great
hall made the event look
empty, but private options,
such as the Maxwell Event
Center, couldn’t hold crowds
that large. He also noted
both EOTEC and the com-
munity center often hosted
events on the same night.
He said his phone started
“ringing off the hook” when
the East Oregonian pub-
lished an article announcing
the possibility of a sale of
the community center.
“So it’s your expert opin-
ion not to get rid of this valu-
able building?” commission
member Ben Sargent asked
Davis.
“It’s my expert opin-
ion to stay out of it,”
Davis responded, drawing
chuckles.
In response to a question
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan, File
The sun sets over the carnival at the Umatilla County Fair in 2019.
from the commission, City
Planner Clint Spencer con-
firmed the city would not be
able to sell the community
center in secret, but would
be required by law to hold
a vote of the city council in
a public meeting, advertised
ahead of time, where public
testimony would be taken.
The topic came up as the
planning commission dis-
cussed parking at EOTEC.
It was conducting its annual
review of the variance the
city obtained from the com-
mission in 2016, promising
to meet certain conditions
in exchange for not provid-
ing as many paved parking
spaces as would normally be
required by city ordinance
for events with more than
2,000 attendees.
In January 2018, the com-
mission chastised EOTEC
— then jointly owned by the
city of Hermiston and Uma-
tilla County — for flout-
ing several of the variance’s
conditions in 2017, includ-
ing the requirement to only
use the Ott Road entrance
in case of emergency and
to submit various plans and
permits before the fair.
In January 2019, the
planning commission put
a moratorium on new con-
struction at EOTEC because
the city had not yet submit-
ted a written parking plan
as required by the variance.
The decision was a contrib-
uting factor to the decision
to not build an RV park at
EOTEC that had originally
been planned for construc-
tion in 2019.
On Wednesday, Spen-
cer suggested to the com-
mission that they extend
the deadline for the park-
ing plan out another year, to
2021, because the city had
still not submitted one.
Davis said the city’s
EOTEC advisory board was
still working on an over-
all strategic plan for the
site, and based on the slow
progress he thought it could
be as long five years before
anything else — such as RV
park intended to raise reve-
nue for EOTEC or the office
and storage space that had
been promised to the Uma-
tilla County Fair — was
built on the site.
The potential sale of the
community center com-
plicated things as well, he
said. It had always been a
long-term goal of EOTEC
to expand the event center
eventually, but that expan-
sion might look different
depending on whether the
city still had a community
center.
If it did not, he said, the
advisory board might write
the plan to include a separate
community center facility
on site rather than just add-
ing more rooms onto the end
of the event center building.
“It’s part of the conver-
sation the advisory board’s
having, but how do you stra-
tegically plan for something
that you don’t know is going
to happen?” he said.
In light of the unfinished
strategic and parking plans
for EOTEC, the planning
commission voted to amend
two conditions of the vari-
ance. They added a require-
ment that shuttles be used
for the fair and rodeo week
and that event organizers
and the city work to deter-
mine whether any other
events with more than 2,000
attendees needed a shut-
tle to keep up with parking
demand. They also extended
the deadline for the parking
plan from 2020 to 2021.
Snow: The avalanche center hosts its annual backcountry festival Feb. 7-9
Continued from Page A1
for 10 years, Connelly
Brown, owner of Wallowa
Alpine Huts and progenitor
of the center, said it is not
supported by a U.S. Forest
Service employee, a require-
ment for an avalanche center
to issue danger ratings.
“The closest official cen-
ter is the Northwest Ava-
lanche Center in Seattle,
which covers the whole
coastline and the Cascades
down into Oregon, but our
snowpack is different over
here,” Brown said.
Wallowa Alpine Huts
serves the northern and
southern Wallowa Moun-
tains and hosts nearly 500
skiers a year. Brown said
typically when a backcoun-
try skier looks at the home-
page of an avalanche center,
most of the polygons that
outline an avalanche cen-
ter’s region are colored. The
polygons outlining the ter-
rain forecasted by the Wal-
lowa Avalanche Center is
gray and outlined in blue,
indicating there is infor-
mation for that area but no
color-coded rating, such as
green indicates low danger
while red indicates a high
danger.
Brown said most of the
ski community that flocks
EO Media Group Photo/Steve Tool, File
Chief Joseph Mountain in the Wallowas is a popular place for backcountry skiing and a com-
mon place for avalanches. Through the center’s website, advisories are posted once or twice
a week. Victor McNeil, the center’s director, is also one of three avalanche forecasters in the
region.
to Northeast Oregon is from
outside the area and is used
to the color-coded rating —
and need to read the advi-
sories and observations
carefully.
“Because we can’t post
the color-coded system, ski-
ers have to read the conver-
sation on our website, which
takes more participation and
afterthought,” Brown said.
Skiers and snowmobil-
ers will also call outdoor
recreation retailers that sell
Oregon Sno Park permits,
like Outlaw Motorsports in
Enterprise, to get the local
snow report.
Dustin and Lorien James
run the family-owned busi-
ness and are both experi-
enced snowmachine riders.
“Our mission is to
increase snowmobile users’
knowledge of avalanche
danger, which is prevalent
in our area,” Lorien James
said.
The Jameses said they
are a sponsor and supporter
of the center. For the past
three years, Lorien James
led a ladies snowmobile ride
that culminates in a din-
ner with auction and raffle
items bringing in more than
$2,000 — all donated to
the center.
James said they also sup-
port the center’s training
sessions.
“We participated in their
first companion rescue
course on this side of the
mountain and we are look-
ing to do some for Wallowa
County Search and Rescue.
It only does so much good
to wear the beacon — if you
don’t know how to use it you
are screwed,” James said.
Besides its well-main-
tained and updated website,
McNeil said the Wallowa
Avalanche Center offers a
1½-hour avalanche aware-
ness classes for both skiers
and snowmobilers. The cen-
ter also sponsors Level 1
and Level 2 three-day ava-
lanche courses each year in
Baker, Union and Wallowa
counties.
“We go back and forth
between targeting the snow-
mobile crowd and the ski
community,” McNeil said.
Snowstorms
dom-
inate the forecast this
week for Northeast Ore-
gon and McNeil said Jan-
uary and February are the
most active months for ava-
lanches, though they can
occur as soon as there is
snow in the mountains. He
said long periods of high
pressure, like the region
experienced in December,
is not good for snowpack.
“When there are long
periods of high pressure the
snowpack will stay fairly
weak and the surface of the
snow starts to deteriorate.
Snow on top of a weak load
or windblown snow are the
perfect ingredients for an
avalanche,” McNeil said.
The avalanche center
hosts its annual backcoun-
try festival Feb. 7-9, start-
ing at Lefty’s in Baker City
on Friday evening with a ski
movie and auction. On Sat-
urday, the Tip Rand Memo-
rial Backcountry Ski Race is
at Anthony Lakes Ski Area,
followed by free companion
rescue and snowpack assess-
ment clinics. Saturday night
there is another live auc-
tion and music by the band
“Bag of Hammers.” Sunday
the festival concludes with a
day-tour backcountry ski.
With no financial sup-
port from the Forest Ser-
vice, fundraisers in Port-
land, Seattle and elsewhere
around Northeast Oregon
are crucial to keeping the
center open.
“We are running on
a pretty small budget,”
McNeil said. “Considering
what we accomplish in a
year, we do quite a lot with
a relatively small amount of
money.”
Storms: 9 to 13 inches of snow is expected at Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90
Continued from Page A1
Pendleton, said.
Heavy snow will first hit
the Cascades before head-
ing east, Wister said, blan-
keting the mountains as well
as expected accumulation in
the Grande Ronde and Wal-
lowa valleys, followed by
a cold front pushing down
from the north early next
week.
Wister said starting Mon-
day, the cold air will filter
through the region bring-
ing a chance of snow in
the Columbia Basin and
the foothills of the Blue
Mountains.
“The moisture is com-
ing from the west, but there
is some cold, Canadian air
expected creating a complex
pattern of different upper
level patterns,” Wister said.
The Columbia Basin and
foothills will have daytime
highs in the 30s and over-
night lows in the teens,
MORE
INFORMATION
The National Weather
Service office in Pend-
lelton provides numer-
ous online tools to find
weather and clime data:
www.weather.gov/pdt/
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A snow gauge along Summit Road near Interstate 84 indi-
cates roughly one foot of snow on the ground as of Thursday
morning. Winter storms are expected to hit the region on
Friday, bringing additional snow to the higher elevations of
Northeastern Oregon.
while the mountain areas
will likely have highs in
the teens and 20s and sin-
gle-digit overnight low
temperatures.
The first storm should
settle across the Blue Moun-
tains by mid-Friday morning
and may put down as much
as 8 to 12 inches of snow,
while the following system
from the Pacific could bring
in as much as another 10 to
12 inches, Wister said.
Following a relatively dry
December, the snow fore-
cast is a welcome relief for
high elevation snowpack on
which irrigators and anadro-
mous fish will depend next
summer.
“The good news is the
mountains will get some
needed snow, but no one
likes to drive through heavy
snowstorms,” Wister said.
While Wallowa County
saw temperatures as high as
53 degrees early this week,
mid-week storms brought
about 4 inches to Mt. How-
ard, a 7,910-foot-elevation
mountain towering over
Wallowa Lake. The Wal-
lowa high country could
also receive as much as 2
feet in the coming 7 to 10
days.
The Tri-City Herald is
reporting that heavy snow
is still in the forecast for the
Cascade Mountains, where
a winter storm watch has
been issued for Friday and
Saturday.
Nine to 13 inches of snow
is expected at Snoqualmie
Pass on Interstate 90,
with another 3 to 7 inches
expected on Friday night,
Saturday and again Satur-
day night. Sunday 4 to 8
inches is forecast, the paper
reported.
I-90 was closed at 4 p.m.
Wednesday for about 90
minutes because of spin-
outs and collisions at
Denny Creek, 5 miles west
of the summit.
When it reopened, chains
were required.
To prepare for the com-
ing weather locally, Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation Spokesperson Tom
Strandberg spent Thursday
afternoon dropping off the
department’s winter driving
guides at truck stops around
the region.
“It’s typical winter sea-
son here in Eastern Oregon,”
Sandberg said. “People just
need to get their heads into
the winter weather mode
and be prepared, espe-
cially if they’re driving over
mountain passes or around
curvy roads. You never
know what’s around that
corner.”
ODOT also has crews
out and available 24 hours a
day in the region right now,
Sandberg said.
———
East Oregonian reporter
Alex Castle contributed to
this report.