INSIDE PAGE A4
FUNFEST TO FEATURE FIRST SPLASH AND DASH TUB RACE SATURDAY
HermistonHerald.com
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018
$1.00
INSIDE
IN TRANSITION
Tamra Mabbot will act
as interim Umatilla
city manager during a
nationwide search to replace
Russ Pelleberg.
PAGE A3
LIGHT IT UP
Hermiston, Stanfield
residents celebrated the
Fourth of July with fireworks
and other community
events.
PAGE A8, A13
STATE CHAMPS
The Columbia Junior Girls
softball team are headed
to Arizona July 13-19 for
regionals.
PAGE A9
BY THE WAY
City looking for
feedback on
shipping containers
The city of Hermiston
is putting together an ordi-
nance regulating shipping
containers used as storage
and is looking for feed-
back from residents.
A survey is available
in English and Spanish on
the city’s website at herm-
iston.or.us. It asks whether
large metal shipping con-
tainers, sometimes known
as Conex boxes, should
be allowed in various
zones and whether the city
should place restrictions
on the number, location
and look of the containers
if they are allowed.
In June the city’s plan-
ning commission recom-
mended an ordinance that
would limit the shipping
containers to industrial
and commercial properties
only. City councilors had
mixed feelings about the
proposed ordinance and
asked that the public be
surveyed before the coun-
cil voted.
The survey is available
until July 22.
• • •
The Umatilla County
Fair is gearing up for its
second year at the East-
ern Oregon Trade and
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Customers wait for their orders at Tacos Garcia food truck recently in Hermiston.
City reconsidering
rules that restrict
operation and
number of licenses
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
T
he city council is chew-
ing on the possibility of let-
ting more food trucks into
Hermiston.
Hermiston’s mobile vendors
are currently capped at three,
and the limit is pushing some
businesses elsewhere.
Patrick Hunt, who operates
the Southern Twain BBQ truck
in Pendleton, said he would love
to bring some more diversity
back to Hermiston’s food truck
scene (all three licenses are cur-
rently held by taco trucks) but
he can’t unless the city council
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Alex Benitez, left, helps customers at a Tacos Xavi food cart in Butte
Park during the Fourth of July Celebration in Hermiston.
changes the rules.
Hunt, who lives in Hermis-
ton, said he applied for a license
at city hall a couple of years
ago but was told that all of
the licenses were taken. So he
started his business in Pendleton
See BTW, A7
instead.
“I didn’t really want to leave
Hermiston, because that’s where
I’m at and people know me, but
I was kind of forced to,” he said.
He was one of a few people
who testified in front of the city
council Monday after the city
opened an online survey about
possible amendments to the
city’s mobile food vending ordi-
nance. To illustrate what Herm-
iston is missing, Hunt and his
wife brought a crock pot full of
pulled pork and offered up sand-
wiches and sliders downstairs
after the meeting to anyone who
wanted a sample.
City planner Clint Spencer
told the city council that so far
625 people who have taken the
online survey, which closes July
15, said they were in favor of
the city increasing the number
of mobile vendor licenses from
its current cap, while 110 peo-
ple said the cap should stay the
same.
The
ordinance,
passed
in 2013, placed a cap on its
$500-per-year licenses and set
in place design and safety stan-
dards. It also stated that trucks
See FOOD, Page A14
Hermiston watermelon season is here
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO MEDIA GROUP
One of Eastern Oregon’s most
popular — and delicious — crops is
back in season.
Famous Hermiston watermelons
are nearing harvest as summer tem-
peratures rise into the 90s and triple
digits. High heat should help to ripen
the fruit quickly, and growers antic-
ipated they would begin picking in
earnest between July 10-15.
“I think we’re pretty much on
schedule,” Patrick Walchli, with
Walchli Farms, said last week.
“Quality-wise, it’s by all indications
looking pretty good, as far as the fruit
set.”
Hermiston watermelons may
be a niche crop in terms of overall
acres, with about 750 total, but fig-
ure prominently in the city’s identity
and civic pride. Driving north into
town on Highway 395, the Hermis-
ton logo emblazoned on the water
tower features a watermelon back-
drop along with the slogan, “Where
Life is Sweet.”
And it isn’t just the locals who
have a sweet tooth for Hermiston
melons. Shoppers can find the spe-
cially branded fruit in Portland, Seat-
tle and all across the West Coast.
Some shipments have even gone as
far as Texas and Georgia.
The secret lies in the region’s
sandy soil and desert climate, which
provides a perfect combination of
hot, dry days and cool nights. Water-
See WATERMELONS, Page A14
EO FILE PHOTO
Watermelons roll by on a conveyor belt on a melon sizing machine in July
2009 before being packed for shipping at Pollock & Sons’ production
facility outside of Hermiston.