Hermiston
Herald
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2015
HermistonHerald.com
WRESTLING
Bulldogs go 2-1 in
4-way tournament
Page 11
$1.00
ABOUT TOWN
dance
Local ‘stars’ to
for charity
FILE PHOTO
Kristi Smalley of Hermiston practices the waltz with dance instructor Seth Ward of Keizer while preparing for the Dancing
with Hermiston Stars 2015 competition.
By TAMMY MALGESINI
Community Editor
T
he newest group of Hermis-
ton “stars” will take the stage
in hopes of dancing their
way to victory while raising
money for a handful of local
nonpro¿ t organi]ations.
Presented by Desert Arts Council, local
residents will be partnered with members
of the Utah Ballroom Dance Company
during the third installment of Dancing
with the Hermiston Stars. Those learning
dance moves from the professionals in-
clude Dan Briscoe, Debbie Cissna, Blaine
Ganvoa, Cam Preus, Jesus (Chuy) Rome
and Shannon Snyder.
The event is Saturday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m.
in the auditorium at Hermiston High
School, 600 S. )irst St. The bo[ of¿ ce
opens at 6 p.m. and the doors open at 6:30
p.m. Advanced tickets are $35 for adults
and $17.50 for those under 18. Admission
at the door is an additional $5.
Event chairs Mary Corp and Karen Da-
vis said the event has become a highlight
of the Desert Arts season. Corp said the
community is great at helping local non-
pro¿ ts. The show, she said, provides a fun
way to provide ¿ nancial support.
See DANCE, A18
Briscoe
Cissna
Ganvoa
Preus
Rome
Snyder
PHOTOS OF THE CONTESTANTS CONTRIBUTED BY LUKES PHOTOS
City partners in NOWA’s ‘bureaucratic miracle’
First of three water
project phases gets
underway
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The Hermiston City Council has
signed on to help increase irrigation
capacity in the region, which could
bring as much as $1 billion in value
to the Umatilla Basin.
The council approved an inter-
governmental agreement that will
make improvements to the regional
water system and help the Port of
Umatilla certify its water right.
On Monday, Craig Reeder of the
Northeast Oregon Water Association
gave the City Council “very much
the Cliff Notes version” of why the
move was an important one during
an hour-long work session before
the council’s regular meeting.
“There is nothing not complicated
about what we are doing,” he said.
During the work session he e[-
plained that Hermiston is the focal
point of one of the premier places
in the world for growing non-citrus
crops. The region is under-utili]ed,
however, due to restrictions on the
amount of water that can be drawn
out of the Columbia River.
That’s about to change, thanks to
a landmark funding package passed
by the legislature this year allotting
$11 million in grants and $22 mil-
lion in loans for Umatilla Basin wa-
ter proMects.
“We can add another billion dol-
lars back into the regional econo-
my,” Reeder said.
The proMect is divided into three
phases. Reeder said that getting wa-
ter to crops involves a combination
of irrigation infrastructure and water
rights, so the ¿ rst phase will improve
the infrastructure and get the Port of
Umatilla’s water right certi¿ ed. That
will allow the port to lease part of
its water right — 100 cubic feet per
second — to boost agriculture in the
region.
The port signed an agreement in
March to lease the water right to
NOWA, capping nearly three years
of negotiations.
The second phase will involve
water conservation and mitigation
proMects further upstream, and the
third will push water into storage
areas, like dam reservoirs, when wa-
ter À ow is high so that it can be used
later.
City gives
EOTEC
permission
for $1.5
million loan
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The Hermiston City
Council gave permission
Monday for the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event
Center to take on up to
$1.5 million in debt to
¿ nish its proMect south of
town.
The EOTEC board
will ask Umatilla County
Commissioners to do the
same today.
The money is part of
a ¿ nancing plan that will
allow private and cor-
porate donors to pledge
large donations that can
be paid off over a course
of two to ¿ ve years while
still giving EOTEC the
capital to move forward
with construction imme-
diately. If a donor prom-
ised $5,000 a year for
¿ ve years, for e[ample,
EOTEC would borrow
$25,000 upfront and pay
it off with the $5,000 a
year.
City Manager Byron
Smith said the EOTEC
board is going to unveil
the details of the plan —
including how interested
parties can donate — to
the community tonight
during its public out-
reach meeting scheduled
for 6 p.m. at the Herm-
iston Conference Center.
He said the board en-
visioned the loan rep-
resenting a “potential
conglomeration of do-
nors” and would use the
EOTEC property as col-
lateral.
City Councilor Doug
Smith voiced a concern
about property, which
was originally donated
by the city for the e[-
press purpose of the EO-
TEC proMect, falling into
private hands in the case
of a default, but Byron
Smith said if the board
anticipated a default they
would be having a con-
versation with the city
before any decisions
were made.
“They can’t sell the
land without our permis-
sion,” he said.
EOTEC vice chair-
man Dan Dorran said the
proMect started out as a
“privately funded effort”
to build a new fair and
rodeo grounds on land
donated by the city, so it
made sense to be seeking
private donations now.
“I think this is Must a
natural process step,” he
said.
So far the proMect has
been almost entirely
funded with public dol-
lars, including $7 mil-
lion in lottery funds, $3
million from the coun-
ty from the sale of the
fairgrounds, $1.5 from
the state legislature and
$600,000 each from the
city of Hermiston and
Umatilla County earlier
this fall.
The City Council
approved the board’s
request for permission
unanimously, and also
approved a request for
permission to double the
Tourism Promotion As-
sessment.
Local hoteliers had
previously agreed to pay
$1 per room per night or
50 cents per RV space
per night toward mar-
See EOTEC, A18
See WATER, A18