REGION
Saturday, September 4, 2021
BMCC reviews FARM II after state cuts funding
College faculty see
more potential in
creating space for
drone program
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Once on
the precipice of construction,
Blue Mountain Community
College’s FARM II project
still is at the drawing board.
The basics of FARM II
remain the same: an indoor
rodeo arena with space for
BMCC classes west of the
Round-Up Grounds. The
Pendleton Round-Up Asso-
ciation would lease its land
west of Southwest 18th Street
to provide land for the proj-
ect. The city of Pendleton,
which also owns land in the
area, would make a deal with
the Round-Up to relinquish
its interest in the area.
What’s changed is FARM
II’s funding outlook.
While the state once
committed to covering the
entirety of the facility’s $13
million price tag, the most
recent legislative session saw
lawmakers slash the state’s
allocation from bonds from
$6.5 million to $3 million.
At an Aug. 20 meeting of the
BMCC Board of Education,
interim President Connie
Green explained how the
project lost more than half of
its funding.
“Even though we got it last
time and no one complained,
this time they did,” she told
the board. “Some complained
that we were not fi nancially
viable: ‘Why would you
give a college not fi nancially
viable money to do this?’ So
instead of getting the $6.5
(million) match, we got $3
(million).”
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A sign on Dec. 4, 2020, along Southwest 18th Street in Pend-
leton advertises the future site of Blue Mountain Communi-
ty College’s Facility for Agricultural Resource Management.
Connie Green, BMCC interim president, said in August 2021
the agricultural department has suggested the college use
FARM II for its unmanned aerial systems program rather than
the veterinary program, which has not grown much in recent
years.
With the support of Gov.
Kate Brown, the Oregon
Legislature approved the
full funding of FARM II in
2019 through a combination
of funds from bonds and the
Oregon Lottery. Blue Moun-
tain planned to get started on
construction following the
2020 Round-Up, but encoun-
tered its fi rst delay when the
college learned that it would
not get bond funding until
2021. But the college didn’t
make it to 2021 before the
COVID-19 pandemic hit,
tanking Oregon Lottery
funds as restaurants and bars
closed and canceling all of
the 2019 projects the Legis-
lature approved.
Over the past few
sessions, a group of local
leaders banded together to
lobby the Legislature for
regional projects like FARM
II and the Umatilla County
Jail renovation. Pendleton
Mayor John Turner, a former
Blue Mountain Community
College president, said the
group believes the state still
has federal stimulus dollars
available to cover the short-
fall. The group has a lobby-
ist in Salem who will try to
convince legislators to fully
fund FARM II at a future
session.
In the meantime, the
college is starting to recon-
sider what services FARM II
will off er once its completed.
In an interview after the
meeting, Green said the
college initially wanted to
feature veterinary studies
classes in addition to off er-
ing a permanent home to
the college’s rodeo team.
But Green said the veteri-
nary program hasn’t grown
much in recent years, and
now college faculty think the
space might be better suited
for a different academic
purpose. Green said the
agricultural department has
suggested Blue Mountain use
FARM II for its unmanned
aerial systems program,
where students could work
with drones in an enclosed,
controlled environment.
BMCC has endured
tumult over the past two
years. With student enroll-
ment continuing to fall and
the Oregon Department of
Correction restructuring its
contracts with community
colleges, Blue Mountain has
cut more than 42 positions
since 2019. With new BMCC
President Mark Browning set
to start on Sept. 7, the college
is attempting to restore its
enrollment while facing
competition for students
from Walla Walla Commu-
nity College, Columbia Basin
College in Pasco and Baker
Technical Institute. Through-
out all this, Blue Mountain
still is trying to secure fund-
ing for a new facility that will
require its own maintenance
and upkeep budget.
Green said agreements
with the city of Pendleton
and the Round-Up won’t be
fi nalized until FARM II is
closer to fruition, but in nego-
tiations with the city, munic-
ipal offi cials agreed to take
over event promotion and
management duties for the
college when its not in use by
BMCC. Green said that could
off er a source of revenue for
the facility that could off set
its maintenance costs. Green
added the set-up would bene-
fi t the city because it could
market FARM II, the Pend-
leton Convention Center and
the Vert Auditorium as a
package of venues for poten-
tial events.
Pendleton City Manager
Robb Corbett confi rmed the
details of the negotiations
but added the two sides had
not spoken about the issue in
several months.
Hermiston parks boss retires; city attorney is next
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Latin
music and happy chatter
fi lled Hermiston’s Harken-
rider Senior Center on
Wednesday, Sept. 1, as folks
gave a joyful send off to
Larry Fetter, Hermiston’s
long-serving parks and recre-
ation director.
Fetter retired at the end of
the week.
People often ask him if his
life in the parks and recre-
ation department resembles
the zany, antic-fueled TV
show, “Parks and Recre-
ation.”
“There’s some interesting
analogies,” he said.
From day to day, you
never know what will come
in through the door, he said.
During his tenure, people
came to him with new ideas.
When someone asks for a
dodgeball league, for exam-
ple, he is nonplussed. Sure,
he thinks. Why not?
During his time with
parks and recreation, he has
seen trends come and go.
Right now, family physical
fi tness activities are popu-
lar. He has helped organize
obstacle courses, a recent
children’s triathlon and the
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian/Hermiston Herald
Hermiston Parks and Recreation Director Larry Fetter talks
with guests Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2021, during a retirement party
in his honor at the Harkenrider Senior Center in Hermiston.
bathtub races at the city’s
Melon Fest.
“Things like that make
this job very interesting,” he
said.
When he started his career
in 1984, he began a parks
and recreation program
in Colville, Washington.
Youth soccer and basketball
were big. A 100-mile-long
ride around the area also
was popular. There were
brew-making events.
Here in Hermiston, tradi-
tional events, Festival Street
activities, tree lightings and
fi rework shows have become
mainstays. People expect
them, and his department
Tobias Unruh, owner
600 David Eccles Rd
Baker City, Oregon
hosts them frequently. One
event can draw 5,000 to
6,000 people.
Fetter has served as Herm-
iston’s parks and rec director
for 10 years. He said he was
proud to have been the direc-
tor during the third iteration
of the Funland Playground
at the foot of the Hermis-
ton Butte. Fetter said he has
heard from people visiting
from out of town who will
stay for up to three days just
for the playground.
He also said the city
will need to manage it
well. Funland Playground
reopened July 4 following a
community eff ort to rebuild
the site after a fi re burned it
down in 2019. A fi re in 2001
burned down the original
playground, which the city
built in 1996.
He called the destruction
of the previous playground
“heart-wrenching.” If the
completion of the new play-
ground was a highlight of his
tenure, the ruin of the old one
was a low. Ruled as arson, the
fi re pained Fetter and many
people in the community.
In anticipation of his
retirement, he and his depart-
ment created a park’s plan
update, which the city coun-
cil adopted. This sets the
development plan for parks
in Hermiston for the next
10 years. A wellness center
with an indoor aquatic center
is one of the showcase items
in this plan. It also includes
a trail expansion, making a
10-mile loop.
Hermiston City Manager
Byron Smith said Fetter
accomplished much in this
role and credited him with
making “a great vision for the
park’s department, for recre-
ation programs.”
The city is hiring to
replace Fetter and in the
meantime appointed recre-
ation manager Brandon Artz
as the parks interim director.
East Oregonian
A3
LOCAL BRIEFING
Two Milton-
Freewater homes
damaged in fi re
MILTON-FREEWA-
TER — A Milton-Free-
water home was destroyed,
another damaged and two
people were injured in a
fi re this week, authorities
said.
According to informa-
tion sent Thursday, Sept. 2,
by Milton-Freewater Fire
Chief Shane Garner, the
blaze began at 4:51 p.m.
Aug. 31, in a carport at a
home at 920 N.E. Fourth
Ave., Milton-Freewater.
The Milton-Freewa-
ter Fire Department and
Milton-Freewater Rural
Fire Department & EMS
responded to the scene.
Garner said the home
where the fi re started was
considered a total loss.
The fl ames also reached
another home at 1006
N.E. Fourth Ave., causing
minor damage.
Two people suffered
minor injuries during the
fi re and were treated by
paramedics at the scene,
Garner said. They were
transported to a local
hospital for further treat-
ment.
No injuries to fi refi ght-
ers were reported.
The cause of the fire
is under investigation,
Garner said.
TRCI reports fi rst
COVID-19 death
in months
UMATILLA — Two
Rivers Correctional Insti-
tution in Umatilla on
Thursday, Sept. 2, reported
its fi rst COVID-19 death
in months, according to
a press release from the
Oregon Department of
Corrections.
In January, the prison
repor ted at least 15
COVID-19 deaths in an
outbreak that saw more
than 600 adults in custody
fall ill. The outbreak
remains the largest among
Oregon prisons since the
pandemic started in March
2020.
With 788 total cases,
more AICs have tested
positive for COVID-19
at TRCI than at any other
prison in Oregon.
However, in March, the
prison completed off ering
COVID-19 vaccines to all
its AICs. In all, more than
73% of the prison’s AICs
were immunized at that
time. Since then, the prison
has reported just 21 cases,
according to state data.
Twelve of those cases have
been reported this month.
The prison’s latest
COVID-19 victim is a
man between 65-75 years
old who died in the pris-
on’s infirmary Aug. 31.
The state did not disclose
whether he had underlying
health conditions.
The prison has four
active COVID-19 cases.
Police arrest teens
at high school
following fi ght
HERMISTON — Herm-
iston police on Tuesday,
Aug. 31, arrested two teens
at Hermiston High School
after reports of a fi ght the
week before, and found one
was packing a gun.
Police Chief Jason
Edmiston in a post on the
department’s Facebook
page reported offi cers on
Aug. 26 at about 4 p.m.
responded to the 200 block
of Northwest 11th Street
after receiving a report of
several males in a phys-
ical fight. Suspects fled
before police arrived, but
officers spoke with two
potential victims and were
able to identify all persons
involved.
That led police to
contact a 16-year-old male
and a 17-year-old male this
week at Hermiston High
School and take the pair
into custody, according
to Edmiston, and because
they “had been very crim-
inally active over the last
year.”
Offi cers took the teens
to the Hermiston Police
Department and found the
16-year-old was conceal-
ing a small-caliber fire-
arm. Police arrested both
for third-degree assault,
and the 16-year-old on the
additional charge of unlaw-
ful possession of a fi rearm.
Police took both to Pend-
leton to be lodged with
Umatilla County’s juvenile
department.
Edmiston stressed the
police department tries
its best to refrain from
interrupting the school
day, but in this case the
circumstances and increas-
ing criminal behavior of
those involved prompted
the department “to move
forward at the end of the
school day and take the
individuals into custody.”
Police continue to
pursue a third individual.
As an active case involv-
ing minors, Edmiston said
he was unable to comment
further.
— EO Media Group
and Walla Walla
Union-Bulletin
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