Hermiston
Herald
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015
HermistonHerald.com
TOP SPORTS
STORIES OF
2015
Page 9
$1.00
Power lines
could be
headed south
Swim team dives into talent show
Page 6
Business page 4
STORIES OF THE
YEAR FOR 2015
STAFF PHOTO BY EJ HARRIS
ABOUT TOWN
Drop off Christmas
trees for recycling
next to Butte Park
The Hermiston Parks
Department is accepting
Christmas trees to be re-
cycled.
Christmas trees can be
dropped off at the lot ad-
jacent to Butte Park, on
Northwest Seventh Street
near West Elm Avenue.
Trees can be dropped
of at the location through
Jan. 29.
Morrow County
Schools to conduct
superintendent
evaluation
The Morrow County
School District Board
of Directors has called
a special meeting for
Monday, Jan. 11 at Sam
Boardman Elementary
School to evaluate Super-
intendent Dirk Dirksen.
The meeting will be-
gin at 5 p.m. For more
information, call the dis-
trict at 541-676-9128.
FILE PHOTO
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY MARK MORGAN
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
W
ith 2015 drawing to a close, we
offer this look back at some of
what the Hermiston Herald staff
considers some of the big stories
of the year.
EOTEC
The decade-long dream of a new home
for the Umatilla County Fair is close to com-
ing to fruition.
Vertical construction started this fall for
Top Left: The main building for the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event
Center is currently under construction but expected to available for
event use in the spring
Top right: Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center Authority
Board members Chet Prior, left, and Ed Brookshier inspect the
À rst construction contract for the EOTEC site before approving it.
Prior died in February and was succeeded by Brookshier as board
chairman.
Left: Joe Burns and his wife Arelene Burns.
Above: Hermiston Mayor Drotzmann, former Hermiston Mayor
Harkenrider, former Portland Mayor Bud Clark, Portland Mayor
Charlie Hales.
the building that will be the centerpiece for
the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.
It did not come quite soon enough for the fair
and Farm-City Pro Rodeo to make the move
to the new grounds in 2016. That will take
another year. But, the new facility will begin
hosting some event this year.
As 2015 comes to a close, efforts are still
underway to ¿ ll in the ¿ nal big pieces of the
¿ nancing pu]]le for the project.
The city of Hermiston and Umatilla Coun-
ty, combined with efforts to secure state fund-
ing and the sale of the existing fairgrounds
to Hermiston School District have provided
the bulk of the money for the project. Lo-
cal donors are still being sought to step up
to contribute about $2 million more dollars
to build a livestock barn, permanent seating
for the rodeo arena, pens panels and stalls
for the arena and water and electric hookups
for exhibitors in the extended stay part of the
grounds.
See THE year, A16
A look back: Most read stories online in 2015
News of crime and tragedy
drew the most attention on
the website
FILE PHOTO
Hermiston High School senior Stefano Peiris enjoys a Slurpee by the
machine at his parents’ 7-Eleven franchise in Hermiston He posted his
senior pictures taken at the store by 60 Minute Photo owner Tammy James
online and became a Twitter celebrity.
In the years before websites, the front
page of the paper was where you would
often ¿ nd the biggest or most important
stories, at least those most important in
the minds of editors.
Sometimes editors would put some-
thing lighter on the front page, for variety
sake, to offer up a mix of something soft-
er or sweeter to go with the salty, serious
fare.
But we never knew which stories were
the most read.
Today, at least with stories on our web-
site, we can easily see which stories were
See 2015, A3
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
The Hermiston High
School Á ute section
marches with their
bandmates during a home
football game. The band
will perform Wednesday
at Kennison Field as a
send-off for their trip to
the Holiday Bowl.
HHS marching
band performs
at Holiday Bowl
Band to perform at
Kennison Field before
leaving for San Diego
The Hermiston High
School marching band
will march today in the
parade and halftime at the
National University Holi-
day Bowl as the Univer-
sity of California Trojans
take on the Wisconsin
Badgers.
The event is the ¿ rst
time since 1994 that a
Hermiston High School
marching band has taken
a trip of this magnitude.
Those traveling to San
Diego include 92 band
members, six district
staff and 11 chaperones.
The Holiday Bowl
Parade is American’s
largest balloon parade.
It includes more than
100,000 spectators along
the parade route. It will
be broadcast live today at
10 a.m. in San Diego on
Cox Channel 4. The na-
tional broadcast is Sun-
day, Jan. 3 at 8 a.m. on
UniversalHD.
The Holiday Bowl
game is tonight 7:30 p.m.
It will be televised on
ESPN.