A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2015
FROM PAGE A1
AGREEMENT:
amark lot, which was not
annexed into the city with
the other lots in 2010.
continued from page A1
Also included in the
right into those discus- purchase from the port is a
sions. Nothing is going to 3.1-acre lot, adjacent to the
happen to that property, northern Draper lot, around
one way or another, un- the northeast corner of the
til we have those discus- golf course. Ward said this
sions.”
lot is currently zoned for in-
Ward said, eventually, dustrial use but will be con-
the city plans to recover sidered with the other lots.
the purchase cost by sell-
After several months of
ing or leasing the land. negotiations behind closed
In total, the city will pay doors, the Port of Umatil-
$219,687 for approximate- la Board of Commission-
ly 16 acres, two of which ers approved the land sale
are not currently owned by last week, and city leaders
the port.
ZHUHSOHDVHGWRWDNHWKH¿-
The city will immedi- nal step Tuesday to end the
ately pay $40,000, plus dispute.
$3,687 in attorney fees, to
Mayor Dave Trott
John P. Hammer Properties thanked Councilman Roak
for the 1.95-acre lot direct- TenEyck, who initiated the
ly north of Aramark Uni- negotiations, mediator Joe
form Services. Ward said Franell and Ward for their
the city would temporarily efforts to reach the agree-
loan itself the necessary ment and said it was “a re-
funds from the Riverfront ally good day” for the city
Development Project.
and the port.
The city will then pay
“What we have accom-
the port four annual in- plished through negotia-
stallments of $44,000 be- tions and discussions with
ginning July 1. Ward said, the port has really shown,
EHFDXVH WKH ¿UVW SD\PHQW in terms of the ability, the
coincides with the start of willingness and the desire
WKHQH[W¿VFDO\HDUFLW\RI- for the city, that we can ef-
¿FLDOVZLOOEXGJHWIRUWKHVH fectively partner with the
SD\PHQWVEXWPXVW¿UVWGH- port,” he said. “This is a
termine the revenue source beginning to, one would
for the additional funds.
hope anyway, a rather last-
The property to be pur- ing relationship.”
chased from the port along
TenEcyk said the ac-
Bud Draper Road includes complishment was “mon-
a 3.12-acre lot directly umental.”
south of the Aramark lot
“It’s a big day, and it’s
and four 1.95-acre lots going to have positive re-
north of the Hammer lot. percussions for a very long
With the purchases, Ward time,” he said.
said the city would own
Port General Manager
all of the lots in the Draper Kim Puzey said city and
Subdivision except the Ar- SRUW RI¿FLDOV KDG EHHQ
VACCINATIONS:
continued from page A1
letters to parents inform-
ing them their children are
missing vaccinations and
would not be allowed to
attend school unless an up-
dated record was turned in
by National Exclusion Day
because many of those par-
ents choose to inoculate.
“In 2009, we sent out
over 1,200 letters,” Wal-
dern said. “That was short-
ly after they introduced that
all seventh-graders had to
have the Tdap (tetanus,
diphtheria and pertussis
vaccine) and all children
have to have the (hepatitis)
A (vaccine).”
Waldern said in 2013,
that number dropped to
770. In 2014, the coun-
ty sent 702 letters, and
this year 608 letters were
mailed.
“It is steadily going
down, which is good,” she
said.
In individual school
districts across the region,
superintendents say unvac-
cinated students are not a
serious concern because
few parents choose not to
vaccinate their children.
In Hermiston, Director
of Special Programs Jon
Mishra said parents of
about 30 students received
letters in the mail stating
their children would not be
permitted to attend school
Wednesday unless they re-
ceived the necessary vac-
cinations. That number, he
said, is about average in re-
cent years.
In other districts, of
the students who were ex-
cluded, many received the
necessary vaccination and
returned to school. Mc-
Nary Heights Principal
Bob Lorence said, of the
680 students, four missed
school Wednesday, and, as
of Thursday, three of those
students returned to school
with updated vaccination
records.
At
Umatilla
High
School, no students were
excluded, and only two
students turned in vacci-
nation exemption forms.
Before Wednesday, 48 stu-
dents risked being excluded
at Clara Brownell Middle
School, but 43 records were
returned by the deadline.
2I WKH UHPDLQLQJ ¿YH VWX-
dents, the school hadn’t
heard back from them as of
Thursday.
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District, two students were
excluded Wednesday, and
one returned with updated
records by Thursday. In the
Echo School District, seven
students were excluded this
year, and only two had not
returned by Thursday.
Waldern said the fact
very few people have vac-
cine exemptions in Umatil-
la County compared with
the rest of the state is good
because the risk of contract-
ing a harmful and possibly
deadly disease is dimin-
ished. What concerns her,
she said, is that the number
of exemptions in the state
KDVULVHQVLJQL¿FDQWO\LQUH-
cent years. According to the
CDC, Oregon exemption
rates have increased from 1
percent in 2000 to its cur-
rent 7 percent.
Waldern said as the
number of people who
don’t vaccinate increases,
so does the risk for poten-
tially harmful and deadly
diseases spreading across
the state and into Umatil-
la County. One of those
diseases, in recent years,
has been whooping cough,
which can be deadly for in-
fants, she said.
“Whooping cough con-
tinues to be an epidemic,”
she said.
Waldern said three cases
of whooping cough have
been reported in Umatilla
County since last fall. She
said one was an adult male,
one was a teenager who
hadn’t received the Tdap
vaccination and the other
was a school-aged child
who had been vaccinated
six years prior.
Waldern said while the
vaccine is not 100 percent
guaranteed to ensure that
people won’t get the dis-
ease, the risk of getting the
full-blown disease is great-
ly reduced.
“If you have gotten
ERRVWHUVZLWKLQWKHODVW¿YH
years, it is pretty safe to as-
sume that you are not going
to get the disease,” she said.
“But if you do have the
working on the agreement
for months, and he was
pleased it received unan-
imous support from the
council.
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have is we’re no longer
HPEURLOHG LQ WKLV FRQÀLFW
with one of our partners,”
he said. “We couldn’t move
forward without this.”
Puzey said the price
determined was fair for
all parties based on recent
land sales with similar in-
frastructure and access.
He said, although the land
is valuable, the port owns
other property to continue
promoting economic de-
velopment.
“This was prime prop-
erty, and we think it was a
great location for the kind
of activity that had been
begun with the Aramark
project, which we intend-
ed to continue,” he said.
“To the degree that we are
not able to continue along
those lines, that is unfor-
tunate, but there is other
suitable (port) land and
considerable acreage less
suitable for other industri-
al purposes.”
Puzey said the port
owns 40 acres of industri-
al property near DuPont
Pioneer in Hermiston and
also has a land sale pend-
ing on U.S. Highway 395
in Hermiston.
While working on the
agreement with the city,
Puzey said, he has been
simultaneously
looking
into alternative sites for the
industrial warehouse that
spurred the dispute, but he
is not prepared to announce
any developments yet.
booster shot, and if you do
come down with whooping
cough, you are going to get
a much milder case.”
Waldern said parents
who choose not to vacci-
nate are not only endan-
gering their children, they
are also other putting other
children at risk, especial-
ly if those children have a
compromised immune sys-
tem.
“That is always a con-
cern for any parent whose
child is being treated for
any type of cancer,” she
said. “If somebody brings
something to school, they
KDYHQRDELOLW\WR¿JKWWKDW
off at all.”
As a result, Waldern said
parents of those students
often take their children out
of school until it is safe for
them to return.
“Unfortunately, parents
cannot get the names of
the kids who are not immu-
nized,” she said.
Waldern said people
choose not to vaccinate for
a variety of reasons.
“Sometimes they don’t
want to put a foreign sub-
stance in the body,” she
said. “Sometimes they
don’t believe the illnesses
are as bad, mainly because
they haven’t seen them.
There are other people
who are on a very different
schedule, and their children
tend to get behind, but there
is no real one strong reason
people state when they are
making that decision.”
Waldern said she per-
sonally believes everyone
should vaccinate.
“I believe that, to pro-
tect kids, protect adults,
protect those who are vul-
nerable and simply can’t
get the shots, it is the safest
option,” she said. “It is so
much easier on the child to
develop antibodies through
an immunization. If they
get the disease, they have to
become very ill to develop
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HIGHWAY 395:
step,” resident Terry Miller
said. “I think there’s a lot of
EHDXWL¿FDWLRQ WKDW FRXOG EH
continued from page A1
done with (Highway) 395.
After conducting inter- It’d make us look like a city
views of stakeholders in the instead of a town.”
area, Hovee generated a list
Resident Tom Bryan said
of strengths and weaknesses. he was glad the process in-
Local and regional growth, cluded planning and obtain-
large, inexpensive sites and ing input from the commu-
lower tax rates outside city nity and, if the improvements
limits make the area attrac- actually happen, they would
tive, he said, but excessive SUREDEO\EHQH¿WWKHDUHD
WUDI¿F VSHHGV SRRU LQWHUQDO
“I think that area is going
streets off of the highway, to be developed, and if it is, it
lack of municipal water and needs to have some guidance
sewer, rigid zoning and an because the way it’s going
unkempt image are issues that right now, it’s just kind of
could be improved.
piecemeal,” he said. “I think
Based on the report, the it will be a pretty good thing if
committee is recommending they don’t raise my taxes and
business owners in the area run us out of water.”
form an association and partner
Denny Culp, who owns a
with the county to review the machine shop in the corridor
zoning as well as create lon- but wasn’t at the meeting,
ger-term plans to address the said, although he agrees the
other issues.
area could be improved, the
After the presentation, two VROXWLRQVZRXOGEHGLI¿FXOWWR
homeowners in the corridor achieve.
said they thought improve-
“It all looks good on paper,
ments to the area would be but, when it comes to reality,
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you have to have some guys
“I think it’s a really neat doing some stuff,” he said.
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
The North Highway 395 Technical Advisory Committee
presented a report detailing possible improvements to the
corridor between Hermiston and Umatilla.
those antibodies.”
Waldern said the vac-
cines are also very safe, and
research on their effects and
potential side effects is con-
stantly being done. She said
there are no links between
immunizations and autism.
Proposed Senate Bill
442 would make immu-
nizations mandatory for
students attending public
schools in Oregon, which
would end all non-medical
exemptions.
“Washington, California
and Oregon are looking at
eliminating that (option),”
Waldern said. “That think-
ing kind of makes sense,
but, at the same token,
they are going to get a lot
of public pressure. That is
forcing an awful lot of peo-
“What we don’t want to do is
do things that are counterpro-
ductive.”
He said many of the busi-
ness owners in the area are
hard working but “hard-head-
ed,” and he wasn’t sure who
could lead a business associa-
tion and inspire participation.
He said he opposes creating
a local improvement district
that would cost his business
money to improve the infra-
structure but supports seeking
grants for improvements.
Culp said the corridor has
improved during the last 27
years, but he thinks reducing
the speed limit on the high-
way would also help.
“It’s a war zone out here
in the evenings,” he said. “I
can’t get on that road at night
to get home. If it was 45 miles
per hour, it wouldn’t hurt my
feelings at all.”
At the presentation, Elfer-
ing said working with ODOT
to try to decrease the speed
limit may help solve the prob-
lem.
Umatilla County Planning
Director Tamra Mabbott en-
couraged people to contact
her or one of the committee
members if they were inter-
ested in the effort moving for-
ward. In addition to Elfering
and Watkinds, the committee
is comprised of Bryan Me-
delez, BJK Transport; Ken
Dopps, Eastern Oregon Ma-
chine; Zeno Marin, Hendon
Construction; Vicky Villareal,
Krome Trucking; Arlin Phil-
lips, NW Crane Service; By-
ron Grow, Payless Lumber;
Shane Clayson, DuPont Pi-
oneer; William Kik, Sanitary
Disposal; Deon Magnuson,
Sears; and Kari Christiansen,
Sherrell Chevrolet.
ple to make a decision that
they are not ready to make
… It will be interesting to
see how that turns out.”
For more information on
vaccination rates in Ore-
gon, people can go to http://
public.health.oregon.gov/
PreventionWellness/Vac-
cinesImmunization/Pages/
research.aspx.