WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
Herald Business
City supports transportation package, crime lab
BRIEFCASE
Latino Business Network
hosts resource fair
An informational forum to
connect people to employers
and services in our region is
planned in Hermiston.
The Latino Business Net-
work is hosting the Commu-
nity Agricultural Workers and
Employers Resource Fair.
The free event is Wednesday,
March 8, from 5-7:30 p.m.
at the Hermiston Conference
Center, 415 S. Highway 395.
A free dinner will be served
by Fiesta Foods.
Vendor applications are
available at the conference
center or www.hermiston-
chamber.com. For more in-
formation, call the chamber at
541-567-6151.
Workforce board
offers help
Money is available to
manufacturing and health
care companies in Eastern
Oregon to assist with retrain-
ing current employees.
The Eastern Oregon
Workforce Board has ded-
icated $40,000 through the
Incumbent Worker Training
Program. This could include
training in new or advanced
skills that enable an employ-
ee to multi-task or be more
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@HermistonHerald
productive.
The program is limited to
businesses in the manufac-
turing or health care sectors.
Priority is given to applicants
who demonstrate that funding
could assist them in avoiding
a layoff, downsizing or clo-
sure, or would provide reten-
tion opportunities by upgrad-
ing employee skills as a result
of the training.
For more information, call
Tara Bishop at 541-278-5688.
For more about the Eastern
Oregon Workforce Board,
visit www.eowb.org.
Nominations open
for assistant award
The Hermiston Chamber
of Commerce is seeking nom-
inations for the administrative
professional of the year.
People are encouraged to
nominate their administra-
tive assistant to be recognized
during a special Administra-
tive Professionals Day Lun-
cheon. The event is Tuesday,
April 25 at 11:45 a.m. at the
Hermiston Conference Cen-
ter. Tickets are $20 each or a
table of eight for $140. In ad-
dition to all nominees
Nominations are due by Fri-
day, April 14. For more infor-
mation, contact 541-567-6151,
info@hermistonchamber.com.
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The Hermiston City
Council voiced its support
for a state transportation
funding package Monday
with an official resolution
urging the legislature to
pass one.
The council also threw
its support behind fund-
ing to keep the Oregon
State Police crime lab in
Pendleton open and fund-
ing detectives on the Blue
Mountain
Enforcement
Narcotics Team.
Mayor Dave Drotz-
mann said the Legisla-
ture has been promising a
transportation package for
a couple of years now, so
it would be great to finally
see it happen.
The full list of ma-
jor road projects the city
would like to tackle car-
ries a bill of about $43
million. The city’s annual
budget for street projects
is about $300,000 a year.
“We need some help,”
Drotzmann said.
One of the first projects
the city would like to take
on is a $7 million over-
haul of North First Place
between Highland Avenue
and Elm Avenue. Assis-
tant city manager Mark
Morgan said the project
would include widening
the road, putting in side-
walks, adding turn lanes
and installing traffic sig-
nals where First Place
intersects with Highland
Avenue and Orchard Av-
enue.
When school gets out
for the day or for lunch
both intersections are
highly congested, some-
times to the point that they
block emergency vehicles
trying to leave the fire sta-
tion.
The city would also
like to extend Gettman
Road on the southern side
of town so that it connects
to Highway 395. The road
currently ends at First
Place, but extending it
would create another path
to Highway 395 for resi-
dents on the south side of
town, relieving conges-
tion on Highland Avenue.
“As we continue to
grow to the south we need
to look at how to provide
additional
connection
from Highway 207 to
Highway 395,” Morgan
said.
The project would cost
$2.5 million, Morgan said,
not including the cost to
pave the portion of Gett-
man that already exists.
A third major project
the city would like to ac-
complish using transpor-
tation package dollars
would be realignment of
Harper Road, Geer Road
and First Place where they
create a confusing three-
way stop stretching across
the railroad tracks. The
project would cost $1.5
million.
“It’s a mess,” Morgan
said of the intersection,”
but obviously it’s a chal-
lenge due to the alignment
of the railroad and the
roadway.”
Other projects on the
city’s to-do list include
widening 10th Street near
Sandstone Middle School
and Highland Hills El-
ementary School for $8
million, building a bridge
to connect Punkin Center
to Interstate 82 for $15
million, improving Sec-
ond Street’s connection
to Highway 395 near the
Hermiston
Conference
Center for $2 million and
developing a new road in
the city’s industrial area
for $3 million.
Those projects won’t
happen without state or
federal funding.
Without state funding
the area will also lose
three drug detectives on
the BENT task force and
the entire forensics lab in
Pendleton.
Hermiston
Police
Chief Jason Edmiston
said that if the crime lab
in Pendleton closes, forc-
ing law enforcement in
Eastern Oregon to use
the one in Portland, it
will take longer for evi-
dence to travel back and
forth from the lab, lon-
ger for that evidence to
be processed, longer for
analysts to come out to
testify at trials and longer
for them to drive out to
Eastern Oregon and col-
lect evidence from major
crime scenes.
“A lot of people already
believe justice is slow,” he
said. “Stand by if the fo-
rensics lab closes, because
it will get even slower.”
Drotzmann said Gov-
ernor Kate Brown’s pro-
posal to close the lab was
an example of her acting
against Eastern Oregon.
He said if the state takes
such a valuable resource
away it will “speak poor-
ly” to lawmakers’ treat-
ment of Oregonians on
the eastern side of the
state.
Contact Jade Mc-
Dowell at jmcdowell@
eastoregonian.com or
541-564-4536.