IDOL SINGING IN STANFIELD TONIGHT,
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2018
INSIDE
RACE IS ON
Hermiston voters will see
several contested races for city
council on the ballot in May.
PAGE A3
POTHOLE DEBATE
Whose responsibility is it to fill
in the holes on East McKinney
Avenue?
PAGE A6
HermistonHerald.com
PAGE A4
$1.00
FULL
RESPONSIBILITY
Should Hermiston become
sole owner of EOTEC?
BIRTHDAY TIME
Local schools celebrate Dr.
Seuss’s birthday for Read
Across America.
PAGE A13
BY THE WAY
Cinco de Mayo
moving to EOTEC
Hermiston’s
annual
Cinco de Mayo celebra-
tion will be moving to the
Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center this
year.
The burgeoning event
outgrew its original loca-
tion at McKenzie Park, then
outgrew its next home in
downtown Hermiston after
crowds reached roughly
5,000. Last year the event
— stretching over two days
and including everything
from fireworks to carnival
rides — was held at Butte
Park.
The Cinco de Mayo cel-
ebration will take place
the first weekend in May
at EOTEC, 1705 East Air-
port Road. Keep an eye on
future editions of the Her-
ald for more information as
the date gets closer.
• • •
The Umatilla County
Fire District 1 had quite
the busy Wednesday last
week, dealing with three
fires within a span of 10
minutes.
Fire Chief Scott Stan-
ton said the first two fires
— a structure fire at East
Beech Street and a field fire
at Feedville Road — came
in 90 seconds apart. Within
10 minutes, he said, Uma-
tilla Rural Fire Depart-
ment called UCFD1 for
assistance on a structure
fire of their own.
“With Echo Fire assist-
ing, we were able to han-
dle all three fires although
See BTW, A14
FILE PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Visitors to the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center come and go during an open house for the event center building in 2016.
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
H
How might this affect me?
ermiston city council-
ors will have a big deci-
sion to make Monday.
The council will be
deciding whether the city should
take on the full risks and rewards
of owning the $17 million East-
ern Oregon Trade and Event Cen-
ter. Currently, the city and county
share equal responsibility in the
project.
The meeting takes place at 7
p.m. on March 12 at Hermiston
City Hall, 180 NE Second St. and
will include opportunity for pub-
lic comment. An agenda packet
with the official agreement is
expected to be available online
at www.hermiston.or.us/meetings
by Friday afternoon.
City manager Byron Smith
said the city and county have
made good progress on the agree-
ment since Umatilla County
Commissioner George Murdock
first proposed the idea of the
If you’re a taxpayer in the city, a best-case scenario is that EOTEC becomes a thriving, self-supporting
asset for the city that regularly brings in visitors from out of town for events. A worst-case scenario would be
that EOTEC has major unexpected maintenance issues and fails to make the expected amount of event rev-
enue, causing a financial liability for the city that takes away from the city’s ability to fund other services at
current levels.
As for county taxpayers, the county will either miss out on revenue from EOTEC, dodge a financial bur-
den or merely be one less “cook in the kitchen” for a project navigating normal ups and downs.
If you’re affiliated with or a supporter of the Umatilla County Fair or Farm-City Pro Rodeo, there could
be pros and cons to the change. Members of both boards have complained that it has been confusing to figure
out if they should talk to the county, city or EOTEC board about an issue, and having the city in charge could
streamline the process and help EOTEC be run more smoothly and efficiently.
On the other hand, there has been some debate about whether the top priority for EOTEC should be host-
ing a successful fair and rodeo, or if the top priority should be financial sustainability the other 51 weeks a
year. At previous meetings, some city councilors have made comments supporting the vision that EOTEC
needs to be a successful venue year-round. Increased lease costs could also have an affect on the fair’s budget.
county leaving EOTEC in Janu-
ary. The board of commissioners
plan to vote on the deal on Thurs-
day at 9:15 a.m. at the Umatilla
County Courthouse in Pendleton,
before passing it over to the city
for approval.
Below is some background
information about the proposed
change.
What is EOTEC?
The Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center is located on about
90 acres of ground on East Air-
port Road south of Hermiston. It
includes an event center, barns,
rodeo arena, partially completed
RV park and grounds for host-
ing the Umatilla County Fair,
Farm-City Pro Rodeo and other
events such as trade shows and
livestock auctions. There is also
room to grow — about 40 acres
of the 90-acre footprint — that
stakeholders hope will some-
day hold added features such as
an amphitheater and event center
expansion.
See EOTEC, A14
Hermiston Chamber gets $1 million for new building
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
As the Oregon Legislature
wrapped up on Saturday, it passed
on a capital construction bill that
includes $1 million for a new build-
ing for the Greater Hermiston Area
Chamber of Commerce.
It was something that Josh Burns,
chair of the chamber’s board, said the
chamber was “very excited” to hear.
“This will benefit our members
in a more visible and more suitable
space for the chamber that has ade-
quate meeting space as well as the
room and the facilities and the tech-
nology for workforce development
training,” he said. “... Personally I’m
really excited about this because it
will help us create even more value
for our members and our city.”
The chamber has been looking
for new quarters for almost a year,
after the city of Hermiston notified
them that the parks and recreation
department would be taking over
operations of the Hermiston Confer-
ence Center (now being rebranded at
the Hermiston Community Center)
where the chamber had traditionally
been located. In January, they moved
into a smaller space in the Corner-
stone Plaza on South Highway 395,
but always considered it a temporary
solution.
Now, Burns said, the chamber’s
board will work on design and find-
ing a piece of property that will best
fit the facility’s purposes.
The capital construction bill allo-
cated the money to the “Hermiston
See CHAMBER, Page A14
HH FILE PHOTO
Greater Hermiston Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Debbie
Pedro shows off the reception area of the chamber’s temporary offices at
the Cornerstone Plaza in this January file photo.