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144th Year, No. 83
REGONIAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2020
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WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Hermiston
mulls new
city hall
UMATILLA RIVER FLOODING
Facility comes
with a $9 million
price tag
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — A new city hall
for Hermiston would come with an
approximately $9 million price tag
if the city council approves the idea
this year, City Manager Byron Smith
told the council on Monday night.
The price would include about
$700,000 of renovations to the base-
ment of the Hermiston Public Library
so that city staff could use the space
during the 18-month construction
period, and the rest of the cost would
go toward building a new city hall on
the same site as the current one.
Preliminary designs show a two-
story building with a basement, with
each of the three fl oors about 9,200
square feet in size. The municipal
court would move into the new build-
ing, freeing up space for the police
department in its current building,
and would also move the building
department and other staff out of the
old Carnegie Library.
Marcus Valentine, of Architects
West, said the city’s current building
at 180 N.E. Gladys Ave., a renovated
bank building fi rst built in 1965,
is not ideal. The building is split
between fi ve levels but does not have
an elevator, and its restrooms, coun-
cil dais, counters and some hallways
are not conducive to someone in a
wheelchair. City staff have also out-
grown the building, causing them to
spread to other buildings, and there
are security issues.
“It’s clearly defi cient in a lot of
respects,” he said.
The concept he presented Mon-
day is one that he and Smith said
would be much more accessible and
more effi cient for city staff. Only
two people instead of four would be
needed to staff the front counters, for
example. There would also be room
to grow, and Smith said there was
another government agency that had
already expressed interest in leasing
space in the basement until the city
needed it.
Meanwhile, city staff could use the
basement of the library, which Smith
described as “very underutilized.”
Valentine said architects had been
talking with library staff about what
would make the basement more
usable, and had been told one of the
main problems was that the layout
made supervision diffi cult. He pro-
posed a renovation to the basement
that would remove or shift many of
the walls, making it more ideal for
a makeshift city hall, but also cre-
ating a space that would be much
See City hall, Page A8
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
An unmarked Pendleton Police Department vehicle patrols the Riverside neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon in Pendleton. Pend-
leton Police Chief Stuart Roberts said that the department has been increasing patrols through impacted areas to dissuade looters.
Protecting property
Law enforcement increasing
its presence to deter potential
looters from taking advantage
of vulnerable homes
By ALEX CASTLE
East Oregonian
T
HORN HOLLOW — Nate Fuller
couldn’t sleep early Monday morn-
ing. After talking on the phone
with a friend about the risk of loot-
ers going through people’s homes,
his mind was stirring with concern. So at
about 3:30 a.m., he got up and made his
way down to his family’s home in Thorn
Hollow on the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Last week, fl oodwater surged through
the community and fi lled the neighbor-
hood’s homes with feet of water, washed
out yards, completely destroyed a small
bridge and left the Thorn Hollow Bridge
folded and impassable due to structural
damage.
Nate, his wife, Chantel, and her father,
Bill Koskela, went to the house that after-
noon needing to retrieve their dogs and
Nate’s BiPap machine, which he could die
without.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Nathan Fuller, right, indicates where he has begun to cut away drywall in an attempt to
dry out his Thorn Hollow home on Sunday afternoon as American Red Cross volunteers
Cody Hubert, left, and Juanita Daggett conduct a damage assessment of the area.
MORE INSIDE
Umatilla County, Oregon state and local city offi cials know people have questions
following last weekend’s historic fl ooding, and they’ve been working in tandem to
predict the answers needed. Page A3
See Property, Page A8
District fears fl ood could further hurt enrollment
Pendleton district says 30
students displaced by fl oods
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Much
of the water has receded
from the Pendleton area
following last week’s Uma-
tilla River fl ood, but the
Pendleton School District is
concerned that some of its
effects may be permanent.
At a meeting Monday,
Julie Smith, the district’s
director of special pro-
grams, told the Pendleton
School Board that 30 stu-
dents were displaced as a
result of the fl ood.
The fl ood was felt
acutely at Washington Ele-
mentary School, which
serves students in the heav-
ily fl ooded areas like Riv-
erside and the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. Smith
said about 40% of Wash-
ington’s students were
absent on Friday, the day
after the fl ooding began.
The district responded
to the displaced students
by offering counseling,
providing free or reduced
lunches, and encourag-
ing them to fi ll out a liva-
bility assessment from the
Red Cross to determine
needs for housing assis-
tance. Schools are also
trying to connect families
with emergency resources
from the Salvation Army,
See Schools, Page A8
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A school bus travels through the Riverside neighborhood on Tuesday af-
ternoon. The Pendleton School District said that approximately 30 stu-
dents have been displaced by last week’s fl ood. The fl ood was felt acute-
ly at Washington Elementary School where 40% of students were absent
on Friday, the day after fl ooding forced the evacuation of the Riverside
neighborhood.