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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2018)
BULLDOGS PICK UP TWO MORE WINS SEE PAGE A10 » HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS • INSIDE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2018 $1.00 HermistonHerald.com INSIDE MANHUNT A HERMISTON MAN WAS CHARGED WITH VEHICLE THEFT AFTER ALLEGEDLY STEALING A SHERIFF’S OFFICE VEHICLE WHILE HANDCUFFED, THEN CRASHING IT PAGE A6 VACATION DEBATE HERMISTON SCHOOL BOARD WILL VOTE ON WHETHER TO MATCH THE DISTRICT’S SPRING BREAK WITH WASHINGTON OR OREGON PAGE A8 LIFEWAYS ON NOTICE MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDER AGREES TO ACTION PLAN PAGE A3 E A S T E R N • O R E G O N •T R A D E•A N D • E V E N T• C E N T E R ALL IN “This is a little scary, but this community has never backed down from a challenge.” Mayor David Drotzmann Hermiston to take full control of EOTEC By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER T BY THE WAY No Winco plans for Hermiston Construction on Herm- iston’s planned festi- val street downtown is expected to start the fi rst week in February. Hermiston city plan- ner Clint Spencer said the plan is for “substantial” completion by Memorial Day with all fi nal pieces of the project wrapped up by June 15. The street, located on Northeast Second Street between Gladys Avenue and Main Street, will fea- ture decorative brickwork, landscaping, lighting and the ability to close off the street for events. Instead of curbs, the sidewalk will be divided from the street by bollards or trees for a more pedestrian-friendly feel. Later phases will stretch the festival street to the new senior cen- ter and toward the Herm- iston Community Center, as well as adding a possi- ble water feature and other design elements to the public parking lot across from City Hall. • • • If you enjoyed read- ing “The Iguana Tree,” the book that kicked off Hermiston’s One Book, One Community reading program in 2013, we have STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS George Anderson of Hermiston speaks in favor of the City of Hermiston taking full control of EOTEC on Monday at a special joint meeting of the Hermiston City Council and the Umatilla County Commissioners in Hermiston. The city of Hermiston and Umatilla County have decided to part ways in the management of the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. he city of Hermiston will take on twice the control but also twice the risk on the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center after agreeing to take sole own- ership of the project. The Hermiston City Council and Umatilla County Board of Commissioners each voted unanimously on Monday night to negotiate a dissolution of the original intergovernmental agreement that formed EOTEC as a 50/50 partnership in 2013 and transfer full owner- ship to the city by March 1. “This is a little scary, but this community has never backed down from a challenge,” Mayor David Drotzmann said. Under a proposal presented by Commis- sioner George Murdock, the city would take full ownership of and liability for EOTEC on March 1, in addition to taking on Ott See EOTEC, A16 See BTW, A16 Data center cooling water could be pumped to farms Hermison reuse project inspired Umatilla’s new idea By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER A water re-use project by the city of Hermiston has inspired Umatilla to imagine new ways to use water com- ing out of the region’s data centers. Umatilla city manager Russ Pel- leberg shared details of the project, which the city hopes to begin con- struction on later this year, at the Oregon Water Coalition’s annual membership meeting in Hermiston on Tuesday morning. The $3 million project would sep- arate Umatilla’s commercial waste- water from its domestic fl ows, allowing the city to send water from current Amazon data centers at the Port of Umatilla, a planned data cen- ter off Lind Road and any future data centers to irrigation canals for agri- cultural use. Future phases would include an industrial wastewater treatment plant at the port and stor- age ponds for keeping reuse water during the winter when it is not needed for irrigation. Pelleberg said data centers use “a ton of hydraulic capacity” for cool- ing purposes, but the water coming out the other end and into the city’s sewer system is still “very, very clean.” “It didn’t make sense to treat clean water,” he said. See WATER, A7 STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS This new irrigation pump station will be used to pump recycled water to the West Irrigation District from the Hermiston Wastewater Treatment facility in Hermiston.