WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
LOCAL NEWS
City, county ask for long-term EOTEC plan
By JADE MCDOWELL
Staff Writer
The Hermiston City
Council and Umatilla
County Board of Commis-
sioners agree it’s time to lay
out a long-term plan for the
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center.
During a joint work ses-
sion Monday the two gov-
erning bodies discussed
the need to come up with
a concrete operations plan
as soon as possible, and to
increase the focus on mar-
keting so that the center is
busy year-round and not
just during the Umatilla
County Fair and Farm-City
Pro Rodeo.
“The fair and rodeo are
an event, one month out
of the year,” city council-
or John Kirwan said. “We
should be looking two to
three years out.”
He said it seems the EO-
TEC board’s focus has been
on getting the project done
in time for the 2017 fair
and rodeo, and it should
be making sure the center
is busy year-round so that
the city and county aren’t
saying “we need taxpayer
money to keep this going.”
He also said that city
manager Byron Smith, who
chairs the EOTEC board,
is spending about 20 to 25
percent of his time on EO-
TEC, taking away from
other city concerns. That
can’t be the case forever, he
said.
Smith and county com-
missioner Larry Givens,
who also sits on the EO-
TEC board, told Kirwan
they share his concerns.
Givens said the center does
not have bonds to pay off,
which puts it ahead of most
event centers in terms of
becoming profitable. How-
ever, when it comes to mar-
keting he said one current
problem is that business
manager Heather Cannell
— currently the center’s
only employee until a new
administrative
assistant
starts in February — is
shoveling snow, cleaning
bathrooms and setting up
tables in addition to trying
to book events.
“Sometimes when you
try to save a dime it costs
you a dollar,” he said. “We
may be at that point.”
Cannell said it is also
hard to market a half-fin-
ished project, because
people want to know how
many seats the rodeo arena
will have or what day the
barns will be finished, and
she can’t tell them for sure.
“I rented to an RV ral-
ly and had to call and say,
‘Please still come, but we
won’t have any grass for
you,’” she said. “... I don’t
want to over-promise and
under-deliver.”
She said since the event
center building opened in
May 2016 there have been
40 events at the center, gen-
erating about $36,000 in net
profits, and she has 43 more
events booked so far into
early 2018.
Councilors and commis-
sioners asked Smith and
Givens to go back to the
EOTEC board and ask for
an operations and staffing
plan to be ready in the next
month or so for the two
partners to review a second
joint work session.
They acknowledged it
might mean some invest-
ment by the city and county
up front to pay for a direc-
tor focused on marketing
and making the center via-
ble long-term.
“It’s going to cost a lit-
tle, but Byron can’t run EO-
TEC forever,” mayor David
Drotzmann said.
The city council gave
the county commission a
heads-up that it would be
making a formal request
to change the name of East
Airport Road, where EO-
TEC is located. The city
has been getting complaints
from truck drivers, contrac-
tors and others who ended
up lost on the adjacent Air-
port Way.
During Monday’s work
session the city and coun-
ty also received updates
on construction. John Eck-
hardt of Knerr Construction
said things are on sched-
ule to break ground on the
barns by Jan. 30 and finish
them by July 14.
“We do not have a lot of
flexibility in our schedule,”
he said.
Carl Hendon of Hendon
Construction said work on
the rodeo arena has contin-
ued with heaters and insu-
lating covers over the con-
crete where possible to push
through the cold, snowy
weather. The original “ag-
gressive” schedule would
have had the arena finished
before June 1, but due to the
long stretch of below-freez-
ing weather Hendon said
that date is now June 14.
In response to a ques-
tion from the city council
about the safety of pouring
concrete during such cold
weather, Hendon assured
them that all the tests have
shown the concrete has
cured properly and is as
strong as it needs to be.
“It’s not going to fall
down,” he said.
The EOTEC board has a
meeting Friday at 7 a.m. at
the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center.
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