WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
NEWS
HART ridership increases in its second year
Shelters, schedule
changes make bus
more user-friendly
There’s a misconception that the HART is
only for the elderly or disabled, but only 39
percent of riders fall in that category.
HERMISTON HERALD
Ridership for Hermiston’s pub-
lic bus system is on track to rise 75
percent in 2018.
The HART, run by Kayak Pub-
lic Transit on behalf of the city,
began in January 2017.
The fixed-route bus is free
to any member of the pub-
lic and runs Monday through
Friday
from
approximately
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
According to numbers provided
by the city, the HART had 168 rid-
ers in its first month of existence
and 283 riders in November.
Ridership has continued to
climb, with 355 riders in April, 386
in May and 459 in June.
“We knew that this is the type
of service that people will have
to learn and get used to, but once
they do, that ridership would
really start to climb,” assistant
city manager Mark Morgan said
in a statement.
During the HART’s first year
the city and Kayak adopted sev-
eral changes to the route, eliminat-
ing little-used stops and adjusting
the schedule to make it more user-
friendly and allow for more circuits
per day.
The city also installed bus shel-
ters at some locations, and route
information is now integrated with
mapping systems such as Google
Maps.
Morgan said he believes HART
is now “a very usable system with
no real changes planned.”
He said there is still a miscon-
ception that the HART is only for
the elderly or disabled, but rider-
ship data shows only 39 percent of
riders fall in that category.
For more information visit ctuir.
org/general-tags/hermiston-hart or
call dispatch at 541-429-7519.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
The Hermiston Hart shuttle makes a stop at Fiesta Foods in 2017.
Mabbott named interim city manager; funds dispute continues
Former city
manager says
$4 million quarrel
with county is still
undecided
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
Tamra Mabbott will
serve as Umatilla’s interim
city manager while the
city conducts a nationwide
search for Russ Pelleberg’s
replacement.
Pelleberg resigned last
week to become the new city
administrator of Newport,
Washington. His official last
day is July 27 but he will be
on vacation after July 13.
Mabbott joined the city
of Umatilla in August 2017
in the newly created com-
munity development direc-
tor position, leaving Uma-
tilla County after 15 years
as planning director. Her
additional duties as interim
city manager start July 14
and include a 5 percent
pay bump for the duration.
According to salary data
provided by the city of Uma-
tilla in the fall of 2017, Mab-
bott’s salary was $96,624
and Pelleberg’s salary was
$110,000.
City councilor Mel Ray
said during Umatilla’s July
3 city council meeting that
the decision of who to name
as interim city manager was
“one of the hardest decisions
I’ve made since I’ve been a
councilor.”
“We looked at this from
every angle,” he said.
The council spent more
than two hours in execu-
tive session June 28 after
Pelleberg’s announcement
and spent more time behind
closed doors last week
before Michael Roxbury
made a motion to appoint
Mabbott as interim city man-
ager. Roxbury, Ray, Mark
Keith and Ashley Wheeler
voted in favor while Selene
Torres-Medrano and Roak
TenEyck voted against.
Earlier in the meeting,
councilors approved a let-
ter of congratulations and
thanks to Pelleberg, and
took the time to thank him
in front of the audience for
fostering new growth and
change in the city during
his two years as city man-
ager. Roxbury said Uma-
tilla has had many city man-
agers but he was not sure he
could point to one who has
“moved the bar as far as you
have.”
Pelleberg said he would
certainly be back to check
on Umatilla’s progress, and
that he had been proud to
be able to talk of new hous-
ing in Umatilla and reve-
nue growth without raising
taxes, while getting together
with other city managers
whose cities struggled with
those things.
“A lot’s happened,” he
said.
SIP agreements
The council also dis-
cussed Strategic Invest-
ment Program payments
that Vadata Inc., a subsidi-
ary of Amazon, will make to
the county on three building
projects. Two — in the Port
of Umatilla and off Lind
Road, known as the Bon-
ney property — are in Uma-
tilla city limits, while a third
off Westland Road south of
Hermiston is in the county.
The Strategic Investment
Program is a 15-year incen-
tive that communities can
offer to companies look-
ing to expand or build there.
State statute dictates the first
$25 million in real market
value of the capital project
is taxed at the usual rate. A
community service fee equal
to 25 percent of the proj-
A 2-year-old girl drowned
in a swimming pool on
Thursday morning, at a resi-
dence in Hermiston.
Hermiston Police reported
that at 9:49 a.m. Thursday,
they and Umatilla County
Fire District were dispatched
to East Main Street. A fam-
ily member of the child was
already conducting CPR.
Officers said despite efforts
by family, emergency per-
sonnel and Good Shepherd
Medical Center, the child
could not be revived.
Hermiston Police Captain
Travis Eynon said in a press
release that the department
would not release names
yet; there did not appear to
be anything suspicious, and
it appeared to be an acciden-
tal drowning.
“Tragedies such as this
are obviously painful for the
family,” he said in a state-
ment. “They are also hard on
our first responders as well
as our entire community.
Our thoughts and prayers go
out to the family during this
difficult time.”
Eynon said the girl was
found in the in-ground pool
shortly after she went miss-
ing from the yard. She and
her parents were from Utah,
and were in Hermiston visit-
ing family.
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,
when the city of Umatilla
signed onto the main SIP
agreement in August.
On Tuesday Pelleberg
said the city was still in
dispute with the county
about the $4 million annual
improvement payments, but
recommended that the coun-
cil sign a resolution support-
ing the county’s plan for the
second tier of SIP money:
the $500,000 community
service fee.
The county recently
approved an agreement to
give up its own portion of
the community service fee
and divide the funds among
six special districts, with
about 64 percent going to
Umatilla County Fire Dis-
trict #1. Mabbott said the
city had been “informally
approached” about giving
up its own portion to the
special districts too, but it
can’t afford to do so.
“We were not part of
these discussions, for the
record, but the good news
is the formula is one that
works well,” she said.
The council voted unan-
imously to support the deal
but made it clear they only
supported the decision on
the community service fee,
not the annual improvement
payments.
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re-use system expansion”
and “city share water system
expansion.”
The county has ques-
tioned that number, how-
ever, and in the July 3
agenda packet Pelleberg
included a new table titled
“City of Umatilla invest-
ments for Vadata projects as
of 6/28/18” that listed a total
of $3,126,719 in expenses,
almost all of which is cate-
gorized under a water reuse
project at the port site. It
only lists $22,713 in “water
and sewer service analysis”
for the Bonney site.
Melissa Ince, city finance
director, said in an email Fri-
day that was because costs
at the Bonney site “will be
much lower than anticipated
as VADATA has agreed
to fund the initial capital
improvements necessary to
get up and running.”
“With more infrastruc-
ture development/improve-
ment down the line there is
a strong possibility that the
City will incur more sub-
stantial costs but I cannot
put a figure to that at this
point,” she said.
Doug Olsen, the coun-
ty’s attorney, said in a recent
interview that as far as the
county is concerned, the $4
million issue was “finished”
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HERMISTON HERALD
ect, up to $500,000, is also
assessed, with more flexi-
bility on how it is divided
among the districts. Addi-
tional “annual improve-
ment payments” can also be
negotiated at company and
county discretion.
Umatilla County signed
a SIP agreement with Vadata
in August, and the county
and city have been in dispute
about it since. The county
negotiated a $4 million
annual improvement pay-
ment, and Pelleberg claims
the city should get at least
half of it since two-thirds of
the sites are inside city limits.
The county, however, created
a formula to split proceeds
from just the two projects
within city limits, and under
that formula Umatilla will get
roughly $1 million per year.
Pelleberg
has
pub-
licly stated that Uma-
tilla has spent $6 million
in staff time, infrastructure
improvements, roads, attor-
ney fees and other expenses
to accommodate Vadata
while the county has spent
“nothing.” A document the
city provided the county
in October titled “City of
Umatilla investments for
Vadata projects” listed $6
million for the Bonney site
alone, mostly for “city share
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between Pendleton and La Grande will be installed in 2019-2020 to
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