WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2018
COMMENTARY
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Hermiston’s rough
draft of history
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
C
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
OPINION
ombing through old editions
of the Hermiston Herald to put
together our regular Hermiston
History feature this month gave me a
few chuckles.
Sometimes it was the story itself
that made me laugh, such as the
account of three city councilors who
had their water shut off one morning
after insisting that the city get tougher
on delinquent bill-payers. Other times
it was a reporter’s particularly dry
sense of humor that caught my eye,
or the story from 25 years ago that
breathlessly reported on a fancy new
form of payment called the “debit
card.”
The dusty old volumes comprising
the Herald’s “rough draft of history”
take the reader on a journey more than
a century long, chronicling the day to
day concerns of a society coping with
world wars, changing social norms
and a radical transformation of tech-
nology. But through all the changes,
the thing that stuck out to me the most
was how many things have stayed the
same.
Seventy-five years ago mothers and
fathers and grandparents were spend-
ing their Friday nights in bleachers
cheering on their favorite high school
athlete, and the Hermiston Herald was
there too. I showed our sports reporter
Alexis Mansanarez a lede from a 1943
high school basketball story that could
have been written word for word by
her today, if you overlooked the fact
that Boardman athletes no longer go
by the Yellowjackets.
It’s nice to know that experiences
and fandoms that have bonded our
communities for decades continue
today, although I’m sure Hermis-
ton football fans are happy the scores
of the Hermiston-Pendleton rivalry
games have looked a little different
in more recent years (when search-
ing for something in our archives, I
once found a story that described how
Hermiston’s first-string, second-string
and third-string quarterback were all
out with injuries mid-way through the
season).
While the sports section has stayed
much the same, other sections of the
paper have shifted over the years. The
society pages of 100 and 75 years ago,
chronicling Mrs. John Smith’s dinner
party and a visit from the Johnsons’
daughter, no longer exist.
But who hasn’t logged into Face-
book to see photos from the Smiths’
Christmas party and the Johnsons’
daughter’s visit home from college?
As one of the reporters who would
have to call Mrs. Smith to ask about
her party, I am more than happy to
crowd-source today’s “society pages”
to social media.
Many of the phone calls I do make
are the same calls that reporters old
enough to be my parents were mak-
ing. Schools were too crowded, down-
town needed revitalization and the
housing shortage was a major concern
25 years ago too.
On the other hand, Hermiston has
made good headway on some of its
issues. Crime — especially of the
gang-inspired variety — is down sig-
nificantly from the 1990s. Murder
and assault were a much more fre-
quent star of the Hermiston Her-
ald’s front pages in decades past. The
city’s budget is more stable than it
was in the days before city manag-
ers. Women and people of color are
quoted more often, and with titles like
“city councilor.”
The stories in the Herald’s archives
become more interesting when you
remember that the people writ-
ing them didn’t know how things
would turn out. Those reporters writ-
ing about the desperate need for res-
idents to donate their hunting knives
and ammunition to “the boys” in the
trenches of World War II didn’t know
the United States was going to prevail
against Hitler.
Today, Herald reporters face the
same uncertainty. We don’t know
whether the season-opener we’re cov-
ering is the beginning of a winning or
losing season. We don’t know whether
the city’s latest project is going to
work as planned. But we will be there
to record what happened, and 25 years
from now a reporter who perhaps
hasn’t even been born yet will get a
good laugh over what a crazy world it
was in 2018.
0
Umatilla County
Commissioners saved
our local fair
The Umatilla County
Commissioners should be
lauded for being a partner in
building EOTEC. They, the
city of Hermiston, Farm-City
Pro Rodeo, and Fair Board
saved the Umatilla County
Fair.
Around eight years ago
the County got an estimate
of $8 million to $10 million
to simply bring the decrepit
downtown Hermiston fair
site up to code. The county
did not have the money and
if the money was spent the
site was still inadequate with
absolutely no parking. The
commissioners asked other
county communities if they
wanted the fair and if they
could provide facilities. There
was no interest.
Because of this, the
staggering cost to bring the
old fairground up to code, and
a 30 year interest in Hermiston
of moving the fair out of the
middle of town, EOTEC was
conceived as a home for the
fair and much more. This was
agreed upon by the unanimous
approval of the Umatilla
County, city of Hermiston,
Farm City Pro Rodeo,
Umatilla County Fair and
Hermiston School District. An
intergovernmental agreement
was signed by the county and
Hermiston with EOTEC to be
built and jointly owned.
After years of daunting
work, a new $17 million
facility was built, giving
the Umatilla County Fair a
wonderful home and providing
95 acres of grounds for a trade
center and the rodeo — $12
million of that money coming
from the state of Oregon —
money which would have
gone elsewhere except for
EOTEC being built.
In building EOTEC, the
commissioners, city, rodeo and
fair went “where no one has
gone before,” to use a phrase
from an old space series. But
they got it built — with no real
bonded debt.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The city of Hermiston will take over full ownership and liability of the
EOTEC facilities in spring of 2018.
But when you “go
where no one has gone
before,” sometimes you
have to adapt to conditions
when you arrive at your
destination. That is what
the county commissioners
are doing. They realize that
the ownership, operation,
management and liability
of EOTEC would be better
placed with just one entity —
the city of Hermiston.
While much county money
has been spent on EOTEC to
date, with more to be spent in
the next few years, those sums
pale when you look at the $8
million to $10 million cost
of renovation the county was
faced with — or the loss of
our county fair.
We should applaud the
commissioners for their
realism and for saving the fair.
George Anderson
Hermiston
Can we call EOTEC
a money-losing
disaster yet?
I remember hearing how the
Eastern Oregon Trade & Event
Center was going to be great. I
remember the great idea of the
partnership between the city
and the county. I remember
the support from investors,
the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, the
Umatilla County Fair members
and the city. I remember how
the EOTEC board was formed.
That was 2013. The future
seemed bright. It seemed like a
great plan was in the making.
But that was then; this
is now. The 2017 fair was
a success, but afterwards
that’s where the story goes
south. The city will be taking
over EOTEC, the county
partnership is over. The city
says it loses $1,000 a day on
EOTEC. The county fair had
a contract to lease the grounds
for $10,000; now it will be
$100,000. No one seems to
have planned for the 350-odd
days after the fair.
Costs skyrocketed,
disagreements arose with the
residents of Airport Road
on noise, water, traffic, and
construction problems. No one
cared much after the fair was
over.
Now, the city has decided to
end the 2013 agreement with
the county. Did you know that
ahead of Monday’s meeting
between the county and the
city? Do you know how much
debt EOTEC is in? Do you
know that the city is paying
$9,000 a month to a company
to run EOTEC?
Do you know anything
that the city does with your
money? Did anyone ask
you before they voted if you
are OK with this? I don’t
remember any public hearings,
do you, before they voted?
Now I am waiting to see
how many tax dollars will be
needed to pay to take over
EOTEC. Watch out for a new
tax. I guess the bottom line is,
do any of you care how your
money is spent?
Mark F. Gomolski
Hermiston
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