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PAGE A4
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2015
SPORTS PAGE A7
YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
City moving Arts Festival features new attractions
ahead with
Entertainment
schedule
utility plans
BY SEAN HART
HERMISTON HERALD
The Eastern Oregon Arts
Festival Saturday in down-
town Hermiston will feature
local arts, food, entertainment
and more.
BY SEAN HART
HERMISTON HERALD
City officials will dis-
cuss the next steps in
becoming Oregon’s first
city-owned natural gas
utility after the appeal pe-
riod to challenge a court
ruling confirming the
city’s authority lapsed.
City Manager Byron
Smith said a Umatil-
la County Circuit Court
judge ruled March 27 that
the city could establish a
gas utility and replace the
current service provider,
Cascade Natural Gas. He
said Cascade did not ap-
peal the decision within
the allowed 30-day time
period and has no further
recourse.
Smith said city offi-
cials now plan to further
research constructing a
transmission line to ser-
vice the city’s southern
industrial area but have
no plans to service res-
idential customers. The
plan originated after an
expansion at a DuPont
Pioneer seed facility was
halted when Cascade re-
vised previous cost esti-
mates to increase gas ca-
pabilities at the site.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Former Hermiston resident Brandi
Dayton, who created this piece of
art, is one of the artists scheduled
to display her work at the Eastern
Oregon Arts Festival Saturday in
downtown Hermiston.
The free event, sponsored
by the Desert Arts Council
and the city of Hermiston,
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Second Street and East Glad-
ys Avenue.
Desert Arts Council Pres-
ident Mary Corp said she is
excited for this year’s festival
and a new juried group art
show.
“I’m delighted with the
number of artists that we
Saturday, May 9
10:15 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Hermiston High
School Jazz Band
11:15 a.m. to noon: Round Up City Cloggers
1:15 p.m. to 2 p.m.: Joe Lindsay and
Cory Cooley — country and folk music
2:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.: Showtime Girls
Dancers
3:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.: TC Latin Fusion
SEE ART/A2
CINCO DE MAYO SUCCESS
SEE UTILITIES/A6
TODAY’S WEATHER
Mostly sunny
High: 68º Low: 39º
OUTLOOK
• THURSDAY
Partly cloudy
High: 76º Low: 41º
• FRIDAY
Partly cloudy
High: 80º Low: 45º
Walla Walla Ballet Folklorico dancers perform a traditional dance at the Hermiston Cinco de Mayo festival Sunday.
A complete weather forecast is
featured on page A2.
Fiesta draws in
about 6,000 people
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and join the conversation.
BY JESSICA KELLER
HERMISTON HERALD
The annual Cinco de
Mayo festival in Hermiston
attracts more people to the
event every year, and Sun-
day was no different as area
families descended on down-
town to listen to music, enjoy
Mexican food and vendors
and take advantage of the
FOR LOCAL
BREAKING NEWS
www.HermistonHerald.com
See more Cinco de Mayo photos on page 12
newly added carnival.
Event coordinator Eddie
De La Cruz said organizers
estimated about 6,000 people
attended this year, which was
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“I drove around to see the
streets in the afternoon,” he
said. “We were pretty packed
through Gladys, Main —
all those parking lots were
packed.”
He said they were pleased
with both the turnout and
how the festival went.
“We’re very excited,
we’re happy, content, that
it got done the way it got
done,” De La Cruz said.
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the event featured a carni-
val, something organizers
discussed adding last year,
which Hermiston Parks &
Recreation Director Larry
Fetter arranged. De La Cruz
said the carnival, with rides
and games, was a popular
feature and drew more peo-
ple to the festival.
“Bringing in the carnival,
we had a lot more families,”
he said. “It was more of a
community event.”
The day started with the
JESSICA KELLER PHOTO
annual parade before the
crowd settled into the main
event area in front of the stage
in by City Hall. This year, the
festival featured brief presen-
tations introducing the Cinco
de Mayo queen and princess-
es, a comedy show, dancing
horse competition and musi-
cal entertainment throughout
the day.
Next year, however, De
La Cruz said Cinco de Mayo
Committee members want
to break the festival into two
SEE FIESTA/A2
School media specialist
shares love of reading
spends much of her time in one
or more of the elementary school
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books using the library search cat-
alogue or steering them to books
they will be successful at reading.
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elementary school libraries is sup-
porting students in acquiring read-
ing skills.
BY JESSICA KELLER
“At this point, I would call it
HERMISTON HERALD
my dream job,” she said.
On any given day, Hermiston
As a classroom teacher and
elementary media specialist Kristi growing up in a family of educa-
JESSICA KELLER PHOTO
Smalley can be found with two of tors, Smalley said she has always
her favorite things: children and understood the importance of liter- Hermiston elementary media specialist Kristi Smalley, right, speaks with
books.
acy. Although she had never before Rocky Heights Elementary School second-grade teacher Jonna Kopta
$OWKRXJK WKH ¿UVW \HDUV RI entertained the idea of becoming a following a session with her students in the Rocky Heights library recently.
Smalley, who is in her 21st year as a media specialist for the Hermiston
her 33 years in education was as
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School District, will receive an IMESD Crystal Apple Award May 20.
a classroom teacher, Smalley now
Smalley one of
four Hermiston
educators to receive
Crystal Apple award
Hermiston Herald $1.00
© 2015 EO Media Group
