WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
NEWS
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY HERMISTON SCHOOL DISTRICT
The Hermiston High School FFA veterinary science
team took first place during the state competition Nov.
18 at HHS, and will compete at next year’s National FFA
Convention & Expo. Team members are, from left: Isel
Tejeda Urenda, Adriann Stewart, Kennidy Baker, Dylan
Westfall and Jenna Wallace.
Hermiston vet
science team wins
state competition
By GEORGE PLAVEN
STAFF WRITER
The Hermiston FFA
veterinary science team —
composed of senior Dylan
Westfall, juniors Adriann
Stewart and Isel Tejeda
Urenda, and sophomores
Kennidy Baker and Jenna
Wallace — took first place
out of 21 schools that com-
peted Saturday, Nov. 18 in
state competition, hosted
by HHS.
Westfall also claimed
the top individual score in
the state, on what was his
18th birthday. Baker and
Wallace each had top-10
scores, at sixth and eighth,
respectively. All five mem-
bers will now put their
skills to the test at the 91st
National FFA Convention
& Expo, Oct. 24-27, 2018
in Indianapolis.
Leah Smith, Hermiston
FFA advisor, said she was
not surprised to see her
students win, but knew it
wouldn’t be easy.
“Vet science is defi-
nitely one of the most dif-
ficult career develop-
ment events we prepare
for,” Smith said. “They
put in countless hours (of
preparation).”
There are six parts to the
vet science event, each of
which requires extensive
memorization and quick
thinking. The first sec-
tion consists of hands-on
demonstrations for han-
dling and clinical proce-
dures, such as giving a shot
or applying a muzzle. Out
of 45 possibilities, the stu-
dents are given four tasks
to perform in front of the
judges.
From there, individu-
als must take a 50-ques-
tion multiple choice test,
a 10-question math exam,
written exam and iden-
tification exam which
includes different animal
breeds, equipment and par-
asites. Finally, the team
comes together for a 10-15
minute presentation, com-
plete with props. For its
presentation, the Hermis-
ton team focused on the
Veterinary Feed Directive,
a set of regulations under
the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration for use of
antibiotics in animal feed.
Wallace said the team
spent weeks practicing
every day at the school
until 9 p.m.
“It’s a lot of prepara-
tion,” she said. “You just
have to remember that, if
you push through, it will
probably make you a bet-
ter person.”
The victory was espe-
cially
sweet,
Tejeda
Urenda said, since the team
was actually robbed of the
chance to participate in last
year’s event, which was
held in Sutherlin though
icy roads kept Hermiston
from making the five-hour
drive.
“We were excited for
the chance to compete,”
Tejeda Urenda said. “It
was just really exciting to
see all the hard work and
dedication pay off.”
The Hermiston FFA
agriculture sales team also
competed at the state con-
test Nov. 18, placing eighth
out of 20 schools. Team
members included Wal-
lace, along with Deven
Hofbauer, Blake Betz and
Joseph Knight. Individ-
ually out of 83 students,
Wallace placed fourth
overall.
VenuWorks to run EOTEC starting 2018
The Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center
board has approved a deal
for VenuWorks to run the
facility starting Jan. 1, 2018.
The venue management
company will get $9,000 a
month plus a commission
on the sale of naming rights
and other sponsorships.
The board voted unani-
mously last week to autho-
rize board chair Byron
Smith to sign the five year
contract negotiated with
VenuWorks after some final
tweaks to language.
For its base management
fee, which will be in addi-
tion to payroll costs for a
general manager and opera-
tions staff, VenuWorks will
provide financial adminis-
tration, event booking, mar-
keting, sales and event pro-
duction assistance.
VenuWorks expects that
the city and county will
have to provide extra subsi-
dies the first year but will be
back to $75,000 annual con-
tributions by year three.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
An empty storefront has replaced Crazy Mikes Video on West Highland Avenue in Hermiston.
Small businesses face big hurdles to survive
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
Cyndie Traner heard a lot
of words of support for her
business over the years, but
words don’t pay the bills.
That’s what she told peo-
ple who came into the C&R
Mercantile in Hermiston for
the vintage shop’s going out
of business sale last week.
“People come in once a
year and say, ‘See, I support
your business,’ but you’re
not showing me with your
actions,” she said. “Actions
speak louder than words.”
It’s a theme she said she
has heard from other friends
who have closed their small
businesses over the years —
people want the business to
stick around as an option,
but they don’t spend money
there often enough to keep
the doors open.
Eventually, some busi-
ness owners like Traner
decide they’re done.
“I lost a lot of time with
my husband,” she said. “I
lost a lot of money building
something for my commu-
nity that I could have been
building up my own home.
I just got tired of doing so
much for so little in return.”
According to the federal
Small Business Administra-
tion, about a third of busi-
nesses fail within the first
two years and only half
make it past five. Those
odds are what have helped
inspire “shop local” and pro-
small business movements
like Small Business Satur-
day, which encourages peo-
ple to shop at a small busi-
ness the Saturday after
Thanksgiving.
Traner can name a lot of
businesses that have come
and gone in the last few
years around Hermiston —
home deçor shop Indulge,
florist Bloomz, barbecue
restaurant Sharon’s Sweet
Treats and Catering, cloth-
ing shop Bare Necessities,
craft store Defining Details,
UFO Gaming, Crazy Mike’s
Video and steakhouses
Stockman’s and Stet’s, to
name a few.
Often those spaces don’t
stay empty for long, how-
ever, as a new group of
entrepreneurs decide to
take a gamble on opening
their dream business. UFO
Gaming has been replaced
by McLeod’s Bargain Bin,
Defining Details is now
Two96 Main and the former
Indulge space has been taken
over by N2N Integrations.
Susan Bower of East-
ern Oregon Business Source
said as new entrepreneurs
decide to take the plunge,
they face common chal-
lenges but they also share
ways to help mitigate those
challenges.
One of the biggest prob-
lems for new small busi-
nesses is having enough
capital to get started and
then ride through the rocky
times. Passion is an import-
ant ingredient to success, but
Bower said banks and poten-
tial investors are also going
to want to see a plausible,
concrete plan for financial
success before they are will-
ing to extend a line of credit.
“Having a business plan
is critical, and following that
plan is essential,” she said.
There are resources
available to teach would-be
entrepreneurs those types of
skills, including the small
business development cen-
ter at Blue Mountain Com-
munity College and work-
shops by the chamber of
commerce.
Business owners also
need to have enough money
in savings so their business
won’t sink in the first few
months as they start from
scratch and attempt to build
a customer base.
“You need some kind of
support to get through the
low times,” Bower said. “As
a business owner you’re the
last one to get paid, if you
even get paid.”
Bower said entrepreneurs
also need trusted advisors,
including an accountant
and an attorney, and some
sort of bookkeeping soft-
ware to keep their financial
information organized. She
said many business owners
feel like they don’t have the
money for those things up
front, but she said it’s some
of the “best money you can
spend early on” to make
sure the store or restaurant
gets off on the right foot and
doesn’t stumble into road-
blocks that could devastate
the business.
Other problems that can
sink a small business are hir-
ing the wrong employees,
not marketing enough, poor
customer
service/product
quality, not thinking outside
the box or being pushed out
by competition from other
stores or changes in con-
sumer habits.
County to add stop signs to Feedville/Edwards intersection
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
tanfield residents push-
ing to make a danger-
ous crossroads safer got
what they wanted. Uma-
tilla County Board of Com-
missioners voted 3-0 at
their meeting Wednes-
day, Nov.22, in Pendleton
to change the intersection
of Feedville and Edwards
roads into a four-way stop.
Heidi Carver and Angie
Connell of Stanfield said
they would be watching to
make sure the county made
good on its word.
Carver’s husband, Dustin
Scott, suffered serious inju-
ries in a crash at the inter-
section in September 2016
when another driver blew
through the stop sign at
South Edwards. The crash
also seriously injured a pas-
senger in that car and killed
its driver. And the crash
there in early November
S
seriously injured two teen-
age girls.
“I just feel if that intersec-
tion was a four-way stop,”
Carver told the board, “you
would decease drastically
the number of accidents that
are there.”
County Public Works
Director Tom Fellows said
the traffic at the intersec-
tion is “relatively low,” with
about 1,200 vehicles using
it a day. He explained the
county operates under the
federal “Manual on Uniform
Traffic Control Devices,”
which sets standards for traf-
fic signs and the like, and the
two stops there now exceed
the standard for the road’s
traffic.
Speeding, however, is a
problem though the intersec-
tion. Fellows said the county
a few years ago found 16
percent of drivers go too fast
to stop there. After he pre-
sented options, the commis-
sion voted to add the signs.
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