A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
FROM PAGE A1
STANFIELD:
continued from page A1
a lot of years — but this used
to be a busy area. It seems like
6WDQ¿HOG LV GU\LQJ XS 7KH
small communities aren’t
vibrant anymore.”
Barton said she lives be-
WZHHQ6WDQ¿HOGDQG+HUP-
iston, where she works and
does most of her shopping.
Without the antique store,
she said there wasn’t much
LQ6WDQ¿HOGWREULQJKHUWR
town.
Jason Sperr, a city coun-
cilman and school teacher
LQ6WDQ¿HOGVDLGKRZHYHU
the building is in an ideal
location for another busi-
ness to locate. Situated at
the southeast corner of the
only stoplight in town, he
said the structure is one
of the main things people
see while driving through
6WDQ¿HOG
“It’s a sad day for the
business that’s closing,
but it’s an opportunity to
bring in another business
that could thrive like the
Elephants Trunk,” he said.
“Hopefully, this build-
ing will go to something
6WDQ¿HOGUHVLGHQWVFDQHQ-
joy and also highlight the
town to non-residents.”
City Manager Blair
Larsen said the city has
QR ¿QDQFLDO VWDNH LQ WKH
building, but he is inter-
ested to see what will hap-
pen to the property.
“I think it represents
a tremendous opportuni-
ty for the city and who-
ever is willing to make
the investment,” he said.
“That building is an in-
credible building. It has
a lot of space. It’s a great
old building that could be
put to a lot of great uses.
For the city, it’s particu-
larly important because
it’s seen as the anchor of
whatever downtown we
have left.”
He said the property
is in a commercial zone,
VR WKH PDLQ ÀRRU PXVW EH
dedicated to a commercial
XVH EXW WKH XSSHU ÀRRU
could be used residential-
ly. An alley behind the
STUDENT:
continued from page A1
started,” Evans-Renteria, who
primarily sings tenor, said.
“They kind of showed me the
ropes and taught me most of
the stuff I know today, and
I’m extremely grateful for it.”
Evans-Renteria said he
got to sing as a member of a
high school choir as a junior,
when his family moved to
Hermiston, and he has further
developed his love for sing-
ing under the tutelage of HHS
teacher Joshua Rist.
“It’s not that I like choir
more,” he said. “I enjoy mu-
sic in general, but I guess with
the voice there’s a more per-
sonal connection to it.”
At HHS, his vocal chops
have improved to such a point
where he will perform in the
state choral competition May
2, singing “Ideale,” a piece by
the Italian composer Paolo
Tosti, and “Love Sounds the
Alarm,” a Baroque composi-
tion by Handel.
Evans-Renteria said he re-
alized the full impact singing
could have on an audience
when he attended a perfor-
mance of the opera “Carmen”
in Portland and was touched
by what he heard.
“I just think it’s a really
neat opera because it’s set in
Spain, sung in French and
performed by Americans,” he
said.
Evans-Renteria said his
love for opera developed
when he started listening to
different types of music.
“Musicals led to opera,
and opera just has some of the
most beautiful music in cre-
ation,” he said.
building would provide
access for a drive-through
window, he said, adding
he is optimistic about the
future.
“The city is happy to do
whatever we can to work
with anyone who would
like to invest in the com-
munity with these spac-
es that are available,” he
said. “There are a number
of commercial properties
that are for sale, and the
city is willing to do what-
ever it can to grease the
wheels, to put people in
contact with the right peo-
ple.”
The storefront to the
west of the former antique
store is one of the other
vacant properties in down-
WRZQ 6WDQ¿HOG DIWHU (FKR
Bike and Board recent-
ly moved to Pendleton.
Except for a martial arts
studio, the only remain-
ing business on the block
is Fun Fashions Boutique,
which opened in October.
Owner Kathy Baker
said business has been go-
ing well at the boutique,
and she hopes the building
on the opposite side of the
block will not remain va-
cant.
“I’m hoping somebody
will come and buy it and
maybe open up a place
to eat or a pub or maybe
something for the commu-
nity,” she said. “There’s a
lot of potential here. It’s a
great little place.”
Baker said many peo-
ple drive through Stan-
¿HOG HYHU\ GD\ 6KH VDLG
many people do not “give
it a chance” despite many
great features, such as the
library and schools.
“I think any business
could do really well here,”
she said. “It’s just getting
our town built up again
that’s really, really im-
portant. We used to have a
lot of business here. ... It
used to really be busy, and
I think we just need to let
people know that we want
businesses back in here
because they can attract a
lot of business with (High-
way) 395 going through
here.”
Despite his fondness for
choir, Evans-Renteria said he
hopes he will never have to
abandon his musical instru-
ments.
He intends to pursue both
at Oregon State University,
which he will attend this fall.
Evans-Renteria said both Rist
and band director Paul Dun-
smoor went to OSU, and he is
impressed with the quality of
musicianship there and hopes
to hone his musical skills
even further.
He said he intends to pur-
sue a music degree and has al-
ready begun studying a bit of
music theory in preparation.
As a freshman, he wants to
try out for the undergraduate
vocal performance program,
as well as the Meister Singers
and the wind ensemble for
both trombone and eupho-
nium. As a music major, he
will be required to take piano
lessons, and his instrument
lesson will be in voice, Ev-
ans-Renteria said.
“But in the rare free time
that I have, in practice ses-
VLRQV,¶OOGH¿QLWHO\EHZRUN-
ing on the trombone and eu-
phonium,” he said.
After college, Evans-Rente-
ria said he would like to attend
a premier music conservatory,
such as Juilliard, and receive
his master’s degree or perhaps
join an opera company.
His ultimate goal with
music, however, is to touch
people the same way he was
affected by hearing “Car-
men,” and he prefers to do
that singing.
“If I can’t be an innovator
then I want to be someone
who people turn to for in-
spiration,” Evans-Renteria
said.
IF YOU USED THE BLOOD
THINNER XARELTO
and suffered internal bleeding, hemorrhaging,
required hospitalization or a loved one died while
taking Xarelto between 2011 and the present
time, you may be entitled to compensation.
Call Attorney Charles H. Johnson 1-800-535-5727
CANDIDATES:
continued from page A1
broker, has operated a
Pendleton-based private
appraisal business for 36
years, appraising light
industrial and commer-
cial real estate. He has
appraised property for
the Port of Umatilla and
Port of Morrow and nu-
merous other agencies
and served on the Pend-
leton Planning Commis-
sion for 10 years.
Below are each candi-
date’s answers to a few
of the questions asked by
moderator Tamra Mab-
bott during the forum
Monday.
• What do you see as
the greatest challenge
for the Port of Umatilla?
Franell: “The Port of
Umatilla is compared
almost daily with the
Port of Morrow, and the
two are not the same.
You know, one’s above
the dam, one’s below
the dam. One is pretty
much almost completely
flat and sandy and easy
to build on. The Port of
Umatilla is rocky and
sloping toward the wa-
ter; it’s much more dif-
ficult to build on. While
some of the facilities at
the Port of Umatilla are
actually better than the
facilities at the Port of
Morrow, this compari-
son, I think, is counter-
productive. So, instead
of always pointing the
finger over in the county
of Morrow and saying,
‘Why can’t we be like
them?’ I think we ought
to look at what assets
do we have and begin
to leverage those, and
there are significant as-
sets. Again, the potential
at the Port of Umatilla
is significant. So I think
that that’s the biggest
barrier we see. The big-
gest challenge that the
Port of Umatilla faces is
this unfair comparison
between the two ports.”
Imsland: “The port
is split up between —
they’ve got the land (for
development) that they
have helped set up that’s
available in a variety of
communities. Pendleton
has the properties down
there around Keystone.
Out here, where UPS
and FedEx is, you’ve
got that. You’ve got the
properties that are south
of Hermiston here... that
they work closely with
the city and get the in-
frastructure ready and
as close to turn-key as
it can be. Then you also
have the river. So, back
to the challenges, I think
one of the — being a
port and being a ship-
ping center at the cross-
roads of the railroad,
Interstate 82, 84 and the
river. Right now, I think
if we can get things
cleaned up down in Port-
land, that might be one
of the bigger challenges
because we want to con-
tinue, I assume, to keep
that port active here. It
doesn’t have to compete
directly with the Port of
Morrow, but we’re going
to be recognized for be-
ing in that area.”
• The port has a limit-
ed amount of resources.
... Given those limited
resources, how would
you prioritize the func-
tions of the port?
Imsland: “I’m not real
happy with increasing
our real property tax-
es, but in this case, it
wouldn’t hurt to have a
new tax base. Like our
community colleges and
whatnot, to at least have
some seed money to get
up to step two on some
of the projects that they
do. Again, Mr. Franell’s
much more familiar than
I am being with the port
there even for the few
months, so he probably
knows how the budget is
set up, and I’m not privy
of how their budget is
right now or where they
have shortcomings, but
this may be one of the
ways. It’s been talked
about, and it’s a tough
sales pitch. I put togeth-
er a bond to complete-
ly rebuild City Hall in
Pendleton, and we were
able to get it passed by
about 60 percent, which
was unheard of back
then.”
Franell: “Limited re-
sources are just the way
things are pretty much
everywhere, so, as a
businessman, you look
at where can you get
your biggest bang for
your buck. So when you
start prioritizing, that’s
the thing because every-
body has an idea of what
they can do to drive eco-
nomic development and
leverage port resources.
Clearly, the biggest bang
for our buck comes with
the water rights that the
port has and wise use of
those water rights. That’s
where we can get the big-
gest economic lift for the
least amount of money.
And then, I think the next
thing really is market-
ing what we have. Even
though I’ve lived here,
and I’ve been involved
in economic develop-
ment, I learned things
about the port the first
time I actually attend-
ed one of the port com-
mission meetings about
the capabilities: largest
refrigerated
container
capability along the Co-
lumbia-Snake River, the
most capable crane for
offloading, the fuel port
— there’s actually three
facilities there, one for
grain, one for fuel and
one for containers. Get-
ting the word out about
what that’s capable of
and then leveraging some
of the land resources that
we still have up there
through that effective
marketing so that we can
begin to see new industry
move into the area. But
water first, good market-
ing second.”
• What do you see as
the appropriate role of
a port commissioner:
to be involved with day-
to-day operations, to
set policy or something
else?
Imsland: “I’m going
to go with something
else. At one time we had
Marge Roff on there. We
had Tim Mabry. Both
fairly familiar with real
estate in the general area.
Some of the assets that I
think I can bring to it is
I worked on a variety of
appraisal assignments.
Some of them are too
large for me. With that,
I have a network from
Lewiston,
Spokane,
Boise, Idaho, Seattle,
Portland, San Francis-
co, and they’re special-
ists that come in to ap-
praise certain items like
that. With that is some
knowledge on what the
general trends with real
estate are, development
trends, what I’m seeing
with some of the land
leases and land sales of
port properties in other
areas and anything that I
could contribute for the
development of those
properties and regional
connections.”
Franell: “One of the,
I think, opportunities,
at least for me, as a port
commissioner and be-
ing a part of the com-
mission would be in the
area of advocacy. You
know, we talked about
the marketing delta be-
tween the Port of Mor-
row and the Port of
Umatilla and how their,
I think, perception is
less than what reality is,
as far as the opportunity
at the Port of Umatil-
la, and so advocacy, I
think, is a role of a port
commissioner. The port
manager can’t spend his
entire day marketing, so
that’s — he’s operat-
ing, he’s looking to the
future. And then it’s a
public entity, and it uses
public funds and public
resources, so I think the
port commission is re-
sponsible for oversight
just to make sure that
everyone feels comfort-
able that the port re-
sources are being used
to the best and highest
use for the members of
the port district.”
THEY KNOW
what’s going on in
state government
Isn’t it time YOU did?
O regon Ca pita l In sider is con cise origin a l reportin g on sta te govern m en t
a ctivity, people a n d tren ds delivered w eek ly via e-m a il
FREE THREE-WEEK
sample subscription
OregonCapitalInsider.com • 844-297-8634