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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 2017)
T-WOLVES DOMINATE IN HERMISTON, EXTEND LEAD IN NORTHWEST REGION INSIDE SPORTS Hermiston Herald HermistonHerald.com WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017 $1.00 INSIDE 3 MINUTES WITH... MEET ROSIE SALINAS, THE ASSISTANT MANAGER OF THE HERMISTON BRANCH OF WASHINGTON FEDERAL BANK. PAGE A2 PROMOTION JUDGE DANIEL J. HILL TO BE PROMOTED IN JUNE TO NEW ROLE WITH NATIONAL GUARD. PAGE A3 TWO-DAY CELEBRATION CINCO DE MAYO EXPANDS TO A TWO-DAY EVENT IN A NEW LOCATION THIS WEEKEND. PAGE A4 HARKENRIDER CENTER TO BRING SENIORS COLLEGE BOUND ATHLETES FROM HERMISTON, STANFIELD SIGN LETTERS TO PLAY ON IN COLLEGE. PAGES A8-A9 DOWNTOWN BRIEFLY By JADE McDOWELL Staff Writer onstruction is now under way on a new and long-awaited senior center in Herm- iston to be known as the Harkenrider Center. Ground was broken in a ceremony last Wednesday for the new center. The Herm- iston Senior Center board and city haven’t al- ways seen eye to eye on design and future use of the building. It will be the exclusive home of the senior center for its first five years and in 2022 will expand to some community use in the evenings. But Kathy English, a prep cook for the center’s twice-a-week meals for seniors, said there was a lot to look forward to about the new building. “I actually think it’s going to be wonderful,” she said. “It’s going to be bigger and better for us.” Mayor David Drotzmann called the ground- breaking a “historic event” taking place amid major changes to Hermiston. Those changes in- clude a new trade and event center being built south of town and the sale of the former Umatil- la County Fairgrounds, where the current senior center sits, to Hermiston School District. “There is a lot of change going on, but this community does as it always does and rallies around a cause,” he said. Drotzmann said the Harkenrider Center wouldn’t be possible without collaboration from a number of entities, including the “guidance and leadership” of the senior center board, a 50-year lease of the site from Hermiston School District, a $2 million Community Development Block Grant from the federal government and $750,000 from the city of Hermiston. STAFF PHOTOS BY KATHY ANEY Above: Frank Harkenrider (right) stands with Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann at the offi cial groundbreaking of the Harkenrider Center in Hermiston on Wednesday. Top: Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann speaks to a crowd gathered at the site of the future Harkenrider Center on Wednesday at the offi cial groundbreaking. Frank Harkenrider, for whom the center is named, listens on. “IT’S KIND OF FULL CIRCLE. IT’S JUST KIND OF CRAZY, SO MUCH HAS CHANGED. BUT THIS IS HOME, AND TO HELP OUT WITH THE SENIORS, IT’S A BLESSING FOR ME.” See SENIORS, A14 KAREN BLAIR – SENIOR CENTER COOK Neighbors take issue with EOTEC noise Residents and business owners opposed to changing the name By JADE MCDOWELL Staff Writer Construction of the Eastern Or- egon Trade and Event Center will provide a bigger, better venue for events like the Umatilla County Fair, but that community benefi t has come with a price for the project’s neighbors. Property owners in the area have banded together to form the Herm- iston Airport Road Neighborhood Association to address nuisance complaints and to fi ght a proposal to change the name of Airport Road which they share with the project. The city of Hermiston has peti- tioned Umatilla County to change the name of the road where EOTEC is located in order to mitigate con- fusion with Airport Way, which also branches off of North Highway 395 but dead ends into the parking lot of the Hermiston Municipal Airport. City manager Byron Smith said delivery trucks and visitors fre- quently turn down the wrong road and have to turn around in the air- port parking lot and make a left turn back onto Highway 395. People in town may eventually get used to turning onto the right road, he said, but one of the goals of EOTEC is to bring in events that will attract out- of-town visitors too. “We want to make it easy to fi nd,” he said. The city chose to pursue a name change for Airport Road instead of Airport Way because they believed the word “airport” should stay with the road actually leading to an air- port. Airport Road residents and busi- ness owners, however, said the in- convenience of an address change for them would be signifi cant. Gary Culp of Gary Culp Machine said it would be an “absolute nightmare” for his business. “I’m 100 percent against it,” he said. He said Gary Culp Machine and his secondary business Gear Tec, which manufactures and sells tool kits nationally, would be hurt when mail from customers and suppliers was lost in the confusion. There would also be a cost for updating everything from legal paperwork to See EOTEC, A14 Activities off ered during Screen Free Week People are encouraged to read, play, think, cre- ate, get active and spend more time with family and friends during Screen Free Week. Organized by the Healthy Communities Co- alition Children’s Health Committee, some free ac- tivities are planned: • Monday, May 8 from 6-7 p.m. at Sunset Ele- mentary School, 300 E. Catherine Ave., Hermiston. People can play disc golf, participate in early child- hood activities, engage in parachute play and Food Hero recipe tasting. Free dental kits will be distrib- uted to kids. • Thursday, May 11 at 5:30 p.m. at Lovin’ Spade- fuls Community Garden at Good Shepherd Medi- cal Center, 610 N.W. 11th St., Hermiston. A walk and bike event for all ages. It includes Food Hero recipe tasting, a planting activi- ty and free dental kits for kids. For more information, contact Angie Treadwell at 541-567-8321 or ange- la.treadwell@oregonstate. edu.