A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2016
LOCAL NEWS
City approves
New drainage basin at Newport Park collecting stormwater
senior center
plans with
extra investment
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The city of Hermiston
has decided to add a base-
ment to the new senior cen-
ter planned for downtown.
The city council ap-
proved plans for the Har-
kenrider Center on Monday
night, including a $550,000
basement that would come
from the city’s general fund
reserves.
The rest of the building
would be paid with the re-
maining $1.63 million from
a Community Development
Block Grant. The city will
pursue other options for
the $200,000 needed for
the parking lot, but could
eventually end up paying
for that too if other possible
funding sources don’t pan
out.
“$2 million doesn’t go as
far as you’d think it would,”
grant director Larry Fetter
said, referring to the origi-
nal grant amount.
The current Herm-
iston Senior Center on
the fairgrounds is 5,500
square feet. The plans ap-
proved Monday include
a 7,200-square-foot main
level (including great
room, reception area, kitch-
en, storage, two breakout
rooms and an ofice) and
a 3,800-square-foot base-
ment with elevator access.
Cutting back the main
loor plan from the $2.5
million design presented
a month ago to the $1.6
million design presented
Monday came with some
sacriices, and members of
the senior center told the
council they were unhappy
with the changes.
Virginia Beebe said
changing the ireplace from
a double-sided one in the
center of the building to
one against the wall meant
people would end up look-
ing out the window instead
of at the ireplace.
“If we’re going to have
a ireplace it belongs in the
middle of the building,” she
said.
There were also con-
cerns that the kitchen size
had been reduced — de-
spite still being 50 percent
larger than the current se-
nior center kitchen — and
that the senior center bus
would be parked in a secure
area at the public works de-
partment instead of an on-
site garage.
City administrators and
councilors responded to the
concerns by pointing out
that the previous plans had
included everyone’s wish
list, but budget constraints
made it impossible to pay
for everything on the list.
“We all have big dreams,
but we also have pocket-
books those dreams have to
answer to,” Mayor David
Drotzmann said.
Previously, there had
been some debate about
whether it was worth
spending $550,000 to add
a daylight basement. Coun-
cilor John Kirwan said he
heard from several constit-
uents that they hoped the
city added the basement
because it had been a long
time since the city had
made a major investment in
the downtown area.
Contractually, the se-
niors will always have
priority use of the build-
ing. But after ive years
the building can also be
used by the community for
events ranging from yoga
classes to private wedding
rentals.
“Bringing people down-
town is hard to put a price
tag on, but I do believe a
basement makes this more
marketable,” Fetter said.
The city’s next step
is to reine the approved
loor plans into architec-
tural blueprints and put the
project out to bid, starting
construction in October and
inishing sometime in sum-
mer 2017. The seniors will
have to leave their current
center in May 2017, when
Hermiston School Dis-
trict begins demolition of
the fair and rodeo grounds
where the center is located.
City Manager Byron
Smith said the city could
pull the $550,000 from the
general fund reserve and
still maintain the reserve
levels required by city
council.
The neighborhood around
Newport Park experienced some
looding as last Wednesday’s
storm overwhelmed rainwater
collection systems across Herm-
iston, but it would have been
worse without renovations to
the park.
In the fall the city removed
elements of the park’s softball
ield, including the dugouts, and
lowered the ield 18 inches so
that it would act as a drainage
basin during storms, like the one
that blew through the area on
Wednesday and illed the new
basin to overlowing.
Hermiston Parks and Recre-
ation Director Larry Fetter said
after the softball ield’s eleva-
tion was lowered there were oth-
er storms that would have lood-
ed the neighbors’ homes in the
past, but the water was diverted
to the park instead. During those
times the ine silt in the soil kept
the park looking like a lake for
days afterward, but Fetter said a
series of gravel “dry wells” the
city has since installed under the
surface of the ield should make
the water drain much more
quickly in the future.
“It did a great job of collect-
ing water, we just want it to
drain out of there,” he said.
Right now the ield doesn’t
have any grass on it, but Fetter
said the city will hydroseed the
playing ield in the next week
or so, and it will take four to six
weeks after that for the grass to
be ready for use.
“It’ll come up pretty quick-
ly,” he said.
The project was controversial
for community members with
fond memories of playing Lit-
tle League baseball and softball
at Newport Park. But the city
council greenlighted the proj-
ect after hearing the city kept
having to pay insurance claims
to neighbors whose homes sus-
tained substantial water damage
when it rained enough to over-
whelm a nearby city pump sys-
tem.
The city doesn’t schedule
Newport Park for regular use by
any teams, but there are some
groups that use it unoficially for
extra practices. Fetter said once
everything is put back together
they should be able to still use
the ield for batting practice or
pick-up games unless there was
a recent storm.
“We appreciate the neighbor-
hood being patient,” he said.
He said the city is incorporat-
ing a similar but much smaller
drainage basin into its expan-
sion of Sunset Park on Fourth
Street to combat looding there.
EOTEC:
continued from Page A1
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
The Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center’s main event
building opens to the public May 13.
tion,” Smith said.
Some of the events al-
ready scheduled for EO-
TEC, such as the Farm-
City Pro Rodeo and private
events like weddings, would
take place in Hermiston no
matter what. But Smith
said Heather Cannell, EO-
STAFF PHOTO BY DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Mike Arreola, working for the City of Hermiston, surveys a looded Newport Park in
downtown Hermiston on Thursday morning after a rain storm Wednesday night, May 4.
STAFF PHOTO E.J. HARRIS
A rain-water collection basin was created in the softball ield of Newport Park to stop
looding in neighborhood houses around the park in Hermiston.
TEC’s business manager, is
talking with home and gar-
den shows and other events
that haven’t taken place in
Hermiston in the past.
“There just hasn’t been
a place large enough to do
that,” Smith said.
Once the event center
piece of the project opens
Friday, there is still much
work to be done.
Designs for the livestock
barns to be used for the
fair and other agricultural
events are complete and
ready to go out to bid, with
a bid package for the rodeo
arena not far behind. Con-
tractors will also need to
be hired to complete small-
er projects such as food
stalls, restrooms, fencing,
landscaping and lighting.
And the EOTEC board is in
negotiations for the water
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