REGION
Thursday, February 25, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
Hermiston utility rates set to increase by 2.15%
The increase is an
automatic update
tied to infl ation
with the community, and it
grows with the plan, and it’s
not something where we have
to come out and ask for a 15%
increase every few years,” he
said.
Water and sewer reve-
nue pay for maintaining the
city’s water and sewer infra-
structure to prevent leaks
and other failures. Assistant
City Manager Mark Morgan
presented an upgrade to the
city’s capital improvement
plan, which lays out the water,
sewer and street projects the
city plans to accomplish over
the next fi ve years.
The plan was fi rst adopted
in 2019 and will be updated
every two years. Morgan said
based on guidance from the
capital improvement plan, the
city accomplished 14 road,
sewer and water projects
totaling $2.7 million over the
past two years, ranging from
repaving 11 blocks of Herm-
iston Avenue to replacing
one-half mile of 1920s-era
water mains.
Water and sewer projects
scheduled for the next five
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Water
and sewer rates will increase
by 2.15% for Hermiston resi-
dents starting in March.
The increase is an auto-
matic update tied to infl ation.
When the city council passed
a water and sewer rate restruc-
ture in 2018, the restructure
included a signifi cant increase
for most customers at the time,
with larger water users paying
higher rates. The 2018 ordi-
nance also included a provi-
sion that, starting in March
2020, rates would automat-
ically increase yearly based
on the Engineering News-Re-
cord Construction Cost Index
as of December of the preced-
ing calendar year.
Last year, the index rose by
2.15%.
According to a memo
in the agenda packet for
East Oregonian, File
Wasterwater churns in the aeration basin before being sent through a fi lter to remove or-
ganic matter at the Hermiston Wastewater Treatment facility in Hermiston. Water and sewer
rates will increase by 2.15% for Hermiston residents starting in March.
the Monday, Feb. 22, city
council meeting, the aver-
age water user’s combined
water and sewer bill would
increase by about $3.06 in
August (the highest usage
month of the year) and $1.73 in
January (the lowest).
Mayor David Drotzmann
said the council had been in
an uncomfortable position in
past years of raising rates by
a large amount at a time after
years of no increases. Now, he
said, the smaller increases by
infl ation should help keep up
with rising construction costs
for continued maintenance of
the city’s water system.
“Now we’ve put a pathway
and plan in place that it grows
years include replacing a
40-year-old booster station,
four lift stations, 3 miles of
aging water lines, and the
membrane that fi lters water at
the recycled water treatment
plant. On the street side, the
city plans to realign the inter-
section of Geer, Harper and
River roads and use funding
from the Oregon Legislature
to rebuild North First Place
between Hermiston and Elm
avenues. The total cost of
capital projects planned for
the next fi ve years is just over
$20 million.
Councilor Maria Duron
said when rates went up in
2018, she was one who didn’t
understand why they went up
so much, but she appreciated
that city staff have put out so
much information online to
lay out exactly how the money
will be used.
“Thank you for making it
so clear,” she said. “I was read-
ing through it, like, ‘OK, now
I get it, now I understand,’ so
putting it out there for people
to have access to the informa-
tion is so laudable.”
LOCAL BRIEFING
Welcome back, students
Hermiston plans
airport upgrade
Sherwood
Elementary
School Assistant
Tammy Hillmick,
dressed as
Scooby Doo,
welcomes
students back
on Monday, Feb.
22. Hillmick
made sure
students were
comfortable
getting off the
bus to prepare
for their fi rst day
back to school.
Contributed Photo
HERMISTON — A
planned $2 million improve-
ment project at the Hermis-
ton Municipal Airport will
mostly be covered by state
and federal grant funds.
The airport reconstruc-
tion project, scheduled for
the summer of 2021, will
improve the apron where
aircraft park while load-
ing and unloading cargo or
refueling.
According to a news
release, the Federal Avia-
tion Administration will
provide 90% of the funds
for the project, and requires
a 10% match.
The city of Hermiston
announced last week that
the Oregon Department of
Aviation awarded the city
$150,000 for the project,
which will cover 75% of the
city’s required local match
to the FAA funds.
The city had previously
been planning on using
the $69,000 in CARES
Act federal stimulus fund-
ing the airport received in
spring 2020 to cover the
local match.
Now, the news release
from the city stated, those
CARES Act funds can be
used to add a 2-inch overlay
of new pavement on Airport
Way, which is the only road
leading to the airport.
According to the news
release, while the airport
has mostly served recre-
ational aircraft, agricultural
businesses and corporate jet
traffi c, it has more recently
seen an increase in cargo
shipping through compa-
nies, such as UPS, with
two to three fl ights per day
bringing in packages.
Umatilla County
reports one new
COVID-19 death
PEN DLETON —
Umatilla County Public
Health announced one new
COVID-19-related death on
Tuesday, Feb. 23, according
to a press release.
Umatilla County’s 81st
death with COVID-19 is
a 63-year-old female who
tested positive on Dec. 17,
2020, and died on Jan. 2 at
her residence in Umatilla
County, according to the
press release. The individ-
ual had underlying medical
conditions.
— EO Media Group
Remembering the last ‘big one’
PPP
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
L
East Oregonian, File
Jeff Swanson wades from his home with belongings in the
fl oodwaters of the Umatilla River near Cayuse on Feb. 8, 1996.
The result was severe fl ood-
ing across the Pacifi c North-
west, resulting in eight deaths,
mostly in Western Oregon.
Property damage estimates
given at the time ranged from
$500 million to $1 billion,
and The Oregonian reported
21,843 people were evacuated
from their homes.
In Umatilla County, many
of the same areas that fl ooded
in 2020 were also under-
water in 1996. The Feb. 13,
1996, edition of the Hermis-
ton Herald led with a front
page photo of Umatilla School
District’s athletic complex
underwater — described in the
article as “knee deep,” while in
2020 the water there reached
4 feet.
On the east side of the
county, Tom Groat, public
affairs manager for the
Umatilla County Emergency
Management Offi ce in 1996,
reported that 24 people had to
be rescued by helicopter from
the fl ood waters, and there was
“quite a bit of damage” to roads
stretching from Reith to Echo.
The East Oregonian
mentioned about 30 residents
were busy piling sandbags at
River View Mobile Estates as
the waters crept higher. Homes
along the north fork of McKay
Creek had fl ooded, the paper
reported, and areas of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
were underwater.
“A portion of Cayuse Road
lost one lane to the Umatilla
River above Homly, and in
other areas it had eroded to
within three feet of the yellow
line,” the paper reported.
“The Thornhollow-Gibbon
area remains closed to traffi c
because of deep water over the
road.”
Coverage of the time
compared the event to the last
major fl ood in the state, which
took place about 31 years
earlier in December 1964 and
January 1965, and set peak
fl ow records at the time. The
U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers reported those floods
caused more than $1.8 million
in damages at the time and
“heavily” flooded Umatilla
County communities, includ-
ing Adams and Echo.
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UMATILLA COUNTY
— As longtime Umatilla
County residents surveyed the
rushing waters of the coun-
ty’s fl ood of 2020, it brought
to mind another scene, from
1996.
The county marked the
25th anniversary of the fl ood
of 1996 — generally consid-
ered the last “big one” before
2020 — on Feb. 9.
When an East Oregonian
reporter found Hermiston
Irrigation District Manager
Annette Kirkpatrick surveying
where fl ood waters had over-
topped the district’s gates along
the Umatilla River during the
2020 fl ood, she immediately
made the comparison.
“Even ‘96 wasn’t as bad as
this,” she said at the time, echo-
ing the thoughts of others inter-
viewed that day.
The numbers bear out
that, at least in terms of water
height, the 2020 flood was
worse. In 1996, the Hermiston
Herald reported that water in
the Umatilla River had been
clocked at 16,000 cubic feet per
second in Pendleton on the day
of the fl ooding, compared with
less than 700 earlier that week.
In 2020, water levels
reached more than 20,000 cfs
at their peak.
According to a National
Weather Service report, the
1996 flood was caused by
a convergence of weather
patterns. The preceding fall
and that winter had seen
precipitation in the Pacific
Northwest at 125% above
normal, according to the
weather service, with “tremen-
dous amounts of snow” falling
in a short period of time in late
January, followed up by a deep
freeze.
“The weather pattern
changed dramatically in
early February, with a strong
subtropical jet (pineapple
express) bringing warm, moist
air to the region, which resulted
in very heavy rain and rapid
snowmelt,” the NWS website
states.
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