WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2016
High hopes for transportation
bill as legislators visit city
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
Eastern Oregon oficials
have different ideas of how
to spend state transportation
funding, but they were all
united in one aspect of their
message to legislators visit-
ing Hermiston last week: It
is past time to update Ore-
gon’s transportation infra-
structure.
“Are we embarrassed
to live in a country that is
this progressive, and this
wealthy, and this smart and
we have such backward
transportation
systems?”
Port of Umatilla Manager
Kim Puzey asked.
He testiied Wednes-
day, June 29, at Hermiston
High School in front of the
Joint Interim Committee on
Transportation Preservation
and Modernization, a bipar-
tisan group of senators and
representatives tasked with
doing the groundwork for
a transportation spending
package lawmakers hope to
pass during the 2017 legis-
lative session.
Last year a bipartisan
group of eight lawmakers
hammered out a deal on a
$343.5 million transpor-
tation package that would
have increased gas taxes
and vehicle fees in order to
pay for road and bridge re-
pairs. But the deal fell apart
after Republicans and Dem-
ocrats couldn’t ind a com-
promise on whether to alter
the state’s newly passed
clean fuel standards, which
would have also raised gas
prices.
The two parties plan to
try again in 2017.
The joint committee was
in Hermiston to hear from
Eastern Oregon cities about
the top spending needs in
the area, followed by a two-
hour bus tour through Uma-
tilla County and Morrow
County to see the areas of
concern irsthand.
Rep. Greg Smith, R-Hep-
pner. started out the meeting
by thanking his colleagues
for making the trip to Uma-
tilla County. He gave ex-
amples of communities in
Eastern Oregon working
together and assured them
that his district was ready
and able to leverage any
dollars that came their way
into public projects that
would spur private invest-
ment.
“Often communities are
still ighting over what col-
or the dugouts on the Little
League ield are going to
be,” he said. “That is not the
case here.”
Later, Marv Padberg,
commissioner for the Port
of Morrow, echoed those
sentiments after giving the
committee a tour. He point-
ed out hundreds of millions
of dollars’ worth of eco-
nomic development, creat-
ing thousands of jobs, that
have come to the Port of
Morrow in the past decade
in part because of the way
state and federal dollars
were leveraged.
“My point today, if I
don’t get anything else said,
is that we turn this mon-
ey around,” Padberg said.
“... Just 10 short years ago,
when you came up over the
overpass, none of this stuff
was here. None.”
As local leaders antici-
pate the opportunity to snag
some of the hundreds of
millions of dollars that will
be up for grabs should a
transportation package pass,
here are a few projects they
proposed to the joint com-
mittee June 29:
• The city of Hermis-
ton would like to overhaul
North First Place, includ-
ing re-pavement, widening,
sidewalks and a redesign
of the intersection with Or-
chard Avenue next to the po-
lice station and ire depart-
ment. During Wednesday’s
hearing, Mayor Dave Drot-
zmann showed legislators a
picture of trafic backed up
at the intersection, creating
their own made-up turn lane
and blocking where a ire
truck or ambulance would
need to pass to respond to
an emergency.
The plan would take $7
million to complete, and
Drotzmann said it was just
one of $43 million worth
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LOCAL NEWS
of needed road projects to
keep up with Hermiston’s
growth.
“We can’t fund it with-
out your help and support,”
he said. “If we were going
to go out and try to fund
these projects on our own, it
would take 143 years.”
• The city of Stanield
would like to change the feel
of its Main Street — which
also happens to be Highway
395 — by planting trees,
adding medians and creat-
ing bulb-outs where there
used to be parking.
City manager Blair Lars-
en told the committee that
the lanes of travel would
be just as wide as before,
but the visual cues to the
driver would help prompt
people to slow down and
look for pedestrians. He
said he watched recently
as a speeding car passed
an elderly woman inside a
crosswalk so close by that it
knocked the cane out of her
hand. Some people refuse to
cross the highway on foot at
all, he said.
“The economic impact
of having a real, walk-
able Main Street would be
huge,” he said.
• The North Highway
395 committee, made up of
business owners and resi-
dents between Hermiston’s
urban growth boundary
and Umatilla’s, would like
to see a trafic signal add-
ed to Baggett Lane and the
road improved. The project
would create a safer route
for trucks from Villareal
Trucking, Medelez Truck-
ing, Reddaway Trucking,
Sanitary Disposal and other
companies to enter and exit
the highway.
“They’re going to man-
date that employees use that
route to get on and off 395,”
committee member Steve
Watkinds said. “And they’re
going to want to use it, be-
cause right now it’s so dan-
gerous to get on and off.”
• The Oregon Department
of Transportation would like
to move the Umatilla Port
of Entry, where semi-trucks
pull off to be weighed after
crossing into Oregon, from
Umatilla to a spot on I-82
just south of the Umatilla
River. The project, which
would cost an estimated
$20 million, would allow
trucks to continue on the
interstate instead of pulling
in and out of heavy trafic in
Umatilla, which would re-
duce congestion around the
interchange.
Craig Sipp, ODOT Re-
gion 5 manager, also told
legislators during their tour
that ODOT also wanted to
improve safety conditions
on Cabbage Hill, using tac-
tics that include more chain-
up areas, increased lighting
and variable speed limits
that adjust to the weather
conditions.
Fireworks spark fires across area
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
Fireworks on the Fourth
of July on Monday night
caused several ires in the
area.
One of the most visible
ires of the night was on
the Hermiston Butte, where
falling embers from the
city-sponsored ireworks
show lit up the south side
of the distinctive landmark.
The rest of the ireworks
were set off as planned de-
spite the blaze, but Umatilla
Fire District 1 Chief Scott
Stanton said the department
was on the butte for about
two hours total.
They had done a con-
trolled burn on the north
side of the butte a few days
earlier, but Stanton said
they didn’t do the south
side because as far as he
could remember that side
had never burned during a
ireworks show before.
“Usually with the pre-
vailing winds and the way
they shoot, we’re good,” he
said.
Stanton said there was
only one truck standing by
at the bottom of the butte
when the ire started be-
cause District 1 was also
standing by for the Stan-
ield ireworks show, in
addition to responding to a
dumpster ire and a separate
STAFF PHOTO BY DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Fireworks from Hermiston’s annual Fourth of July celebration
started a grass ire Monday at the Hermiston Butte.
brush ire at the same time.
In total the department
responded to six ires on
Monday, four of which
were caused by ireworks.
One not related to ireworks
was a structure ire on
Southwest 23rd Street ear-
ly Monday morning, which
caused signiicant damage
to the attic of a home.
Stanton said it seemed
like a fairly average Fourth
of July weekend.
“We’ve seen busier,” he
said.
In Ione, the ireworks
show was actually cut off
mid-show due to a ire
sparked by falling em-
bers. The all-volunteer ire
department couldn’t be
reached Tuesday, however
a post on the Ione 4th of
July Facebook page noted
that the show was short-
ened due to a brush ire
that started shortly after the
show began, but “our vol-
unteer iremen were on it
quick and have it out.”
Despite the ires, Nick
Bejarano, spokesman for
Good Shepherd Health
Care System, said the
Hermiston hospital didn’t
see any ireworks-related
injuries in the emergency
room over the weekend this
year, including smoke inha-
lation caused by ires.
He said the hospital,
urged people to carefully
read the directions if they
were going to set off their
own ireworks.
Less than an hour after
the Fourth of July week-
end oficially ended at
midnight, ireighters from
Hermiston and Pendleton
were called out to a large
brush ire on Highway 37
near Pendleton. Ciraulo
said it grew to about 500
acres, and there was a lare-
up again later in the day,
but so far there was no indi-
cation that it was caused by
ireworks.
Frew takes over as EOTEC general contractor
Frew will act as contractor
for remaining construction,
except for rodeo arena
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
A special meeting of the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center board on Fri-
day, July 1, clariies Frew
Development Group’s role
in the project going for-
ward.
The company will be
the general contractor and
construction manager for
all remaining components
— including barns, fencing,
lighting, landscaping and
food stalls — except the ro-
deo arena.
During the EOTEC
board’s June 24 emergency
meeting, John Frew, presi-
dent and CEO of Frew De-
velopment Group, told the
board that constant meet-
ings with stakeholders over
every detail were hindering
progress to the point that the
project would not be ready
in time for the 2017 Uma-
tilla County Fair and Farm-
City Pro Rodeo unless
changes in process were
made. The board voted to
give the company more
direct control by changing
their contract from project
manager to general contrac-
tor.
On Friday, however,
Frew said that further meet-
ings with stakeholders and
a promising pre-bid meet-
ing had persuaded him that
the rodeo arena should be
carved out from that role,
allowing the bid process
for a general arena contrac-
tor to continue. He said six
contractors showed up to
the meeting and allowing
one of them to get started
on work as soon as the bid
is awarded July 29 would
be just as fast as having
Frew Development Group
put together its own team of
subcontractors.
He said it has been made
clear to bidders that the are-
na needs to be completed
by July 21, 2017 at a cost of
$3.8 million.
“$3.8 million is the bud-
get, and if contractors out
there feel they can’t do it
then they’re wasting their
time,” he said.
On Friday the board
also voted to reject the two
bids for the barns. Both
bids came in more than $1
million over the $2.6 mil-
lion the EOTEC authority
has available, necessitating
changes to the design. Frew
said part of the problem was
that the construction indus-
try was “very, very busy” in
Eastern Oregon right now.
During the public com-
ment section Richard Meis-
ner, who lives on Ott Road
near EOTEC, said that
events held at the event cen-
ter building since it opened
in May have frequently
violated the city’s noise
ordinance, running until
as late as 1 a.m. He also
complained about a delay
in getting dust suppressant
laid down on Ott Road, and
about trafic after the events
heading east instead of go-
ing back up Airport Road
to Highway 395 as was in-
tended.
Byron Smith, the EO-
TEC board chair and Herm-
iston city manager, said the
city would investigate the
noise ordinance issue.
The board’s next meet-
ing will be July 15.
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