BULLDOGS PICK UP TWO MORE WINS SEE PAGE A10 »
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS • INSIDE
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2018
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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.