REGION
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
Stanfield finishing water
tower renovations
By NICK
ROSENBERGER
East Oregonian
Antonio Sierra/East Oregonian
McKennon Station looms over Pendleton on Monday, July 26, 2021. The McGregor Co. of Col-
fax, Washington, bought the facility from Pendleton Grain Growers on July 20.
Washington company buys McKennon
Station, PGG seed division
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pendle-
ton Grain Growers sold one
of its last properties in its
namesake city, but the PGG
banner will remain.
According to Umatilla
County property records,
The McGregor Co., a Colfax,
Washington-based agron-
omy and seed company,
bought McKennon Station
from PGG on July 20 for
$924,720. McGregor Co.
President Ian McGregor
confirmed the purchase and
added the company plans to
keep McKennon running as
a seed processing facility
under the PGG brand.
The McGregor family had
been farming wheat in East-
ern Washington for decades
by the time they spun off
their commercial fertil-
izer and equipment busi-
ness into its own company
in 1956. McGregor Co. now
serves 48 locations in three
states and operates facilities
in Adams and Milton-Free-
water. McGregor said the
company has operated its
own seed division for the
better part of 30 years and
acquiring a seed-processing
facility in Pendleton offered
the company some advan-
tages. Although McGregor
Co. already operates three
seed processing plants,
McKennon Station will be its
only seed processing facility
in Oregon.
But McGregor Co. isn’t
just acquiring the McKen-
non Station building, located
south of Interstate 84 near
the Umatilla County Jail,
but PGG’s entire seed divi-
sion. McGregor said the PGG
seed team is small, but collec-
tively has more than a centu-
ry’s worth of experience in
its field. McGregor Co. will
retain the McKennon Station
staff and continue to operate
the facility under the PGG
brand.
“It’s not about the assets,”
McGregor said. “It’s about
the people.”
McG regor said t he
company is keeping the
PGG name to maintain the
trust farmers built with the
former co-op but also is being
transparent with customers
about the change in owner-
ship. PGG did not respond to
a request for comment as of
press time Monday, July 26.
Once an omnipresent
organization across East-
ern Oregon, PGG already
had begun selling assets by
the time members voted to
dissolve the co-op in 2016.
Retail stores in Hermiston,
Athena and Milton-Freewater
were sold into private hands.
Mid Columbia Producers
of Moro purchased PGG’s
energy division and United
Grain Corp. of Vancouver,
Washington, acquired the
co-op’s upcountry grain
elevators and terminals.
PGG’s Pendleton assets
have taken longer to switch
hands. Besides the McKen-
non Station sale, PGG sold
its former energy building
at 1210 S.W. Dorion Ave. to
Hines Meat Co. and recently
completed an auction for its
former headquarters, retail
showroom, automotive
service center and warehouse
at 1000 S.W. Dorion Ave.
Realty Marketing/North-
west declined to comment on
who the winning bidder was,
and Umatilla County Records
had not received sales infor-
mation as of July 23.
Mayor goes in for a splash
STANFIELD — For a
century the Stanfield water
tower has stood over the
town and provided a recog-
nizable landmark for gener-
ations of locals, and now,
after three years of work, the
50,000-gallon water tower
nearly is complete with
renovations.
With painters adding
their finishing touches in
the next two weeks, Stan-
field residents will be able
to see the completed tower
with up-to-date metalwork,
a fresh coat of paint and new
lighting, according to Scott
Morris, Stanfield’s public
works director.
Morris said an inspec-
tion a few years ago of the
out-of-use water tower had
shown deficiencies in the
structure, and the faced
the choice of either tearing
down the tower or fixing it
up.
The price to tear it down,
however, was the same
price to fix it. With this in
mind, the city manager put
out a survey to gauge public
support for the two options,
and the consensus was to
keep it.
“For a good portion of the
people who have been here
for a long time, they wanted
to see it stay,” Morris said.
Like for many in Stan-
field, the tower is an import-
ant fixture for Morris and an
important part of the town’s
history.
According to histori-
cal city minutes, a special
council meeting was held
Oct. 2, 1919, to accept bids
for the construction of the
new city waterworks. Pitts-
burgh-Des Moines Steel
Company won the bid to
install the tower for $9,410
and finished construction
in 1920. The whole water
system was approved with
a 20-year loan of $30,000 —
or about $470,000 in today’s
dollar value.
And, with the 150-foot
tower visible from Inter-
state 84, it has been a marker
for generations of families
coming home.
Morris explained when
he was a child and return-
ing from trips to Portland
with his family, they’d see
the tower and get excited
they were almost home. He
Cecili Longhorn/Contributed Photo
The Stanfield water tower has stood for more than 100
years, and while the city no longer uses it, it remains a local
landmark. The water tower is undergoing the final stages
of renovations, including fresh coats of paint.
said the tower is a logo and a
landmark for the town.
When Stanfield resi-
dents decided to refurbish
the water tower, planners
and city officials decided
to split the $180,000 budget
into thirds. Construction
began in October 2019, with
the first year dedicated to
fulfilling different Oregon
Occupational Safety and
Health requirements and
fixing structural issues. The
second year was focused on
metalwork and finishing up
the structural repairs, while
the third year was focused
completely on painting,
which was done by the Pitts-
burgh Paint Company.
Along with updating
structural issues and paint-
ing an additional “STAN-
FIELD” on the other side of
the tower, the team decided
to add programmable lights
to the tower. The illumina-
tion was red, white and blue
lights for Fourth of July, but
can change the colors for
various events, holidays
and special occasions, such
as blue and gold for Stan-
field High School’s gradu-
ation.
Morris is glad residents
wanted to keep the water
tower, and they were able
to keep an important part
of the town alive.
“This is us,” he said.
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Kathryn Brown/East Oregonian
Pendleton Mayor John Turner stands under a water feature Sunday, July 25, 2021, at the
new spray park at Til Taylor Park in Pendleton for an “exclusive pre-reveal” of the park
to the mayor, members of the Pendleton City Council and the Pendleton Parks and Rec-
reation Commission. The event came on the 101st anniversary of the murder of Umatil-
la County Sheriff Til Taylor, the park’s namesake, and preceded a yet-unplanned grand
opening. Construction on the park remains ongoing.
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