WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2016
Council rezones McNary land to allow housing development
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The Umatilla City Coun-
cil agreed to rezone a portion
of McNary from commercial
to residential after a develop-
er made concessions in the
design of a proposed subdi-
vision.
Fastrack Inc. owner Ar-
nie Wick first approached
the council in March, ask-
ing for the entire 8.5 acre
property across from the
Quality Inn to be rezoned
from commercial to residen-
tial. He planned to build 38
homes on 8,500-square-foot
lots valued at $130,000 to
$160,000 each.
At the time some city
councilors called McNary a
“bedroom community” and
said the new housing could
spur growth, while others
said they were hesitant to
get rid of most of McNary’s
buildable commercial prop-
erty. There were also con-
cerns that the lots were too
small and the houses would
be sandwiched together.
In April, after two meet-
ings on the subject, the coun-
cil voted unanimously to re-
ject the request for a zoning
change.
Wick’s revised proposal
before the council on Tues-
day would expand the lots to
10,000 square feet and leave
the eight lots facing Wil-
lamette Avenue zoned for
commercial use, resulting in
a housing development with
24 new homes paired with
sizable yards.
“We’re capable of pro-
viding whatever it is the
community needs and what
everyone feels good about,”
Wick said. “It’s better these
things are discussed.”
Councilor Mary Dedrick
said she wasn’t sure that peo-
ple looking for higher-end
homes would be interested in
a home next to a mini-mart
and said she would like to
see the whole property zoned
residential now that Wick
had agreed to build on larger
lots.
Wick said the strip of
commercial property along
Willamette Avenue could
always be turned into a res-
idential zone later if the
council wanted to revisit it,
but approving his request for
a rezoning of the rest of the
property would let him get
started.
“This decision tonight is
going to keep Arnie going,”
City Manager Russ Pelleberg
told the council. “I think he’s
been held up long enough.”
The council agreed, vot-
ing 5-0 to direct the planning
department to draw up an
official ordinance rezoning
most of the property to resi-
dential.
Property dispute
On Tuesday the council
also heard an appeal for a
property dispute between
two Umatilla landowners on
Riverside Avenue, but decid-
ed to put off a decision until
Dec. 20 to give councilors
time to digest the extensive
testimony they heard from
both parties and their attor-
neys.
Tom and Janis Carey ap-
plied to the city this summer
for a replat of their property
Staff Writer
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The Umatilla City Council is looking for input on whether to
rezone areas of the McNary subdivision from commercial to
residential to allow a new housing development.
that would erase a 20-foot-
wide easement on their land
that currently allows the
neighboring property own-
ers vehicle access to the shop
at the back of their proper-
ty. City planner Bill Searles
granted the request.
Neighbors Teri and Kevin
Petersen appealed the deci-
sion to the city’s planning
commission, which reversed
it. The Careys are asking
the city council to uphold
Searles’ original decision.
Under Oregon law city
staff can erase a public ease-
ment during the replatting
process but not a private one.
A central question in the case
is whether the easement,
which is merely marked “ac-
cess easement” on the plat, is
public or private.
100 year milestone
This week marked the
100-year anniversary of
one of the city of Umatilla’s
most famous events, a polit-
ical coup known as the Pet-
ticoat Revolution that made
national headlines.
It was four years before
the 19th Amendment would
guarantee women the right
to vote, but in Oregon that
right had already been ex-
tended to them. Fed up with
the way the men were run-
ning the town, on Dec. 5,
1916, the women of Uma-
tilla quietly staged a write-
in campaign against their
husbands.
When the votes were
counted and recounted,
Laura Starcher had beaten
her husband Mayor E.E.
Starcher by 26 votes in a
town of 198 residents. She
was joined by female city
councilors Anna Means,
Florence Brownell, Stella
Paulu and Gladys Spinning
(two male city councilors
who had not been up for
re-election retained their
seats) along with city re-
corder Bertha Cheney.
Some newspapers of
the time mistakenly called
Starcher the country’s first
female mayor, but Argonia,
Kansas, had a female may-
or in 1887 and the town of
Kanab, Utah, elected a fe-
male mayor and all-female
town council in 1912 after
no men expressed interest in
running.
According to the Oregon
History Project, after Uma-
tilla’s Petticoat Revolution
“the council improved water
and electrical services, ap-
proved funds for street and
sidewalk projects, and or-
ganized city cleanup weeks.
Additional
accomplish-
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ments included new railroad
crossing signs, the founding
of a town library, replace-
ment of the city’s American
flags, institution of monthly
garbage collection, planning
for future community proj-
ects, and the appointment of
a city health official during
a 1918 smallpox epidemic.”
Starcher resigned from
her post a year early due to
health reasons and was suc-
ceeded by two more female
mayors.
Umatilla continues its
century-old history of fe-
male city councilors today
with Mary Dedrick and
Sharon Farnsworth. Dedrick
said Tuesday after the coun-
cil meeting that she enjoyed
being a part of that tradition.
“Women rule!” she said,
summing up her feelings on
the subject.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at j 541-564-4536.
After seven months
of negotiations, Uma-
tilla County and mem-
bers of the American
Federation of State,
County, and Municipal
Employees agreed on a
labor contract.
The county board
of commissioners on
Wednesday, Dec. 7,
voted 2-0 to ratify the
three-year deal that
includes cost of living
increases of 2 percent
each year for the 110
members in the local.
The contract is effec-
tive retroactively to
July 1, 2016 and runs
through June 30, 2019.
Bargaining began
May 9. Seth Moore
was the AFSCME rep-
resentative at the table
for the employees and
took to Facebook to
provide updates on the
negotiations. He also
used those updates
to criticize the coun-
ty’s team for a lack of
readiness and dragging
out the process. On
Aug. 31, both teams
asked for a mediator
to step in and help and
Commissioner George
Murdock reported in
October that negotia-
tions broke down.
Commissioner Lar-
ry Givens said pay was
the hurdle that caused the
need for outside help. The
union wanted more than
the county could afford,
he said, and both sides
were prepared to walk out
of the talks.
Moore agreed pay
was an issue. He said the
union would like to see
Umatilla County provide
pay comparable to coun-
ties with similar popula-
tions, such as Polk, Ben-
ton and Coos counties.
Moore called the contract
a compromise, but one
the members ratified.
County commissioners
in July 2015 gave coun-
ty-wide elected officials a
cost-of-living increase of
3 percent and increased
their own pay 7.5 per-
cent, making their salary
$86,273 a year. The in-
creases made the commis-
sioner pay comparable to
what Benton County pays
commissioners at the top
of its scale and about
$20,000 more than what
Polk and Klamath coun-
ties pay theirs.
Labor negotiations al-
ways give employees and
management angst, Giv-
ens said, and agreeing on
a new contract is a relief.
Commissioner Bill Elf-
ering said if neither side
gets everything it want-
ed, it’s probably a good
deal.
“I think that’s probably
the case here,” he said.
The matter of insur-
ance, though, is going to
bring both sides back to
the bargaining table in
2017. The county’s carri-
er, LifeWise Health Plan
of Oregon, is pulling out
of the state’s insurance
market. Jennifer Blake,
the county’s human re-
sources director, said
there are at least five in-
surance companies the
county can turn to, and
staff are working on seek-
ing bids as soon as possi-
ble.
Robert Pahl, the coun-
ty’s chief financial of-
ficer, added the county
is facing a “substantial
increase” in the cost of
health insurance of at
least 15 percent.
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