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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2018)
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2018 LOCAL School district completes safety projects, maintenence By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN STAFF WRITER STAFF PHOTO BY JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN Manuel Velasco hands out popsicles to the people on the Walchli Farms float. For more photos, see A15. All’s fair in Hermiston Parade By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN STAFF WRITER F or a chance to see Nev- erland, Optimus Prime and Paul Bunyan up close, the city of Hermiston turned out in droves. When the Umatilla County Fair Parade began Saturday evening, the side- walks were packed as a bevy of floats representing local businesses, school groups and service clubs glided around Hermiston, tossing candy to eager kids. Floats ranged from elab- orate — a Peter Pan themed float built on a street sweeper, from Connell, Washington — to traditional, with groups of people on horseback, pickup flatbeds, or on foot. For many, the parade was about pride in their city and in their group. “We’re the 2017 busi- ness of the year,” said Maria Garavito of Atkinson Staff- ing, referring to the Herm- iston Distinguished Citi- zen’s Award. “We feel proud of our workers, so this is for them.” The Tillamook float had people from all aspects of their company on board, including employees’ families. “Everybody from the plant manager to people that do sanitation,” Gon- zalo Rodriguez, Tillamook’s safety manager, said. While many groups handed out candy, some stayed on theme with their businesses. Tillamook handed out individual cheese packets and wooden ice cream spoons. Walchli Farms handed out watermel- ons, off the back of a vehicle carrying an enormous inflat- able slice of their signature fruit. “We wanted to show some pride in the product,” he said. Some people reversed roles — Manuel Velasco of Templo Abarim was hand- ing out popsicles and water to parade participants as the parade passed by the church, on Seventh Street. Church members are usually in the parade, but this year they didn’t have a vehicle. “We still wanted to be a part of it,” said Doria Velasco. On the sidelines, some people watched for their favorite floats, while others wanted to be surprised. “I’m looking for some- thing new,” said Saul Chairez, who was watch- ing the parade with family on Highland, across from Hermiston High School. Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann rode in one of several trucks representing the city of Hermiston. “I dialed in some better weather,” Drotzmann said. He said he was pleased with the variety of parade entries, and liked some of the new features this year, like the fair kickoff party on Main Street, and using the old fairgrounds as a gather- ing area for the floats. State Rep. Greg Smith and his wife Sherri were this year’s grand marshals. They’re Morrow County residents, but the Smiths said they attend the parade and fair every year. Smith said his favor- ite float, other than a huge Paul Bunyan and Babe from Ranch and Home, were the local Future Farmers of America floats. “That’s what the fair is all about, families, kids and community,” he said. Though the parade drew people from neighboring counties and Washington, one spectator changed time zones to be there. “We traveled 2,852 miles,” said Karen Flabetich. She and her daughter, Sarah, live in Maui. Flabetich grew up in Hermiston, and came back to visit her relatives. “But we wanted to come so my daughter could see the fair,” she said. She recalled riding her bicycle in the fair parade with her neighbors when she was young, and winning an award for their costumes. When teachers and students come back to Hermiston schools in the fall, they’ll notice some changes. Maintenance and grounds staff have worked on a few major projects this summer, addressing some of the needs that would have been covered by a bond that failed last year: a new roof for Sandstone Middle School, and fenc- ing around Rocky Heights and Highland Hills ele- mentary schools. District operations director Brad Wayland said the chain link fences around Rocky Heights and Highland Hills will be about four feet tall. “Those are some mea- sures to try and secure the sites a little better,” he said. “We can’t make it like a prison, but we need to make sure there’s a lit- tle more of a deterrent for the flow of folks passing through.” Wayland said both those buildings are open-cam- pus plans, and security upgrades for them were prioritized on the bond. Facilities supervi- sor Martie McQuain said those schools may staff the gates during busy times to monitor who was coming through. Last summer the dis- trict made some safety upgrades to West Park and Sunset elementary schools, setting up a system that allows doors to hallways with classrooms to be closed with the push of a button any time the school goes into lockdown. The district also built entrance areas with windows, where a front office worker could observe people coming in and let them in by pushing a button. While the hallways door project has been com- pleted, the front entrance project has not. “Right now, the over- all system doesn’t work with that,” Wayland said. “We’re looking at trying to upgrade that.” Sandstone Middle School’s roof repairs are complete, a project Way- land said was high on the priority list from the bond. He said the roof cost about $850,000. Though capacity was one of the main concerns for the district, Wayland said they did not add any modular classrooms this year. “We will look at that over the course of the fall,” he said. McQuain said they rear- ranged some classes to make better use of space. “Sandstone had a smaller class in a big- ger room,” he said. “We moved that around, and tried to fill in all the gaps we have.” Wayland noted there were also a few empty classrooms that were used for testing and other pur- poses, but did not have a class in them full-time. The district is reno- vating the two remaining buildings on the old Uma- tilla County Fairgrounds, Thompson and Hoeft halls. Hoeft Hall will be used for storage and equipment, and Thompson Hall will be used for special educa- tion classes. They made upgrades to the kitchen, made the bathroom hand- icap-accessible, and built a wall inside the building to separate the area where students will be from a recycling area. GoodHealth LIVE Free Orthopedic Joint Seminar CUSTOMER APPRECIATION & LAWN PARTY August 22 • 11am-3pm Live Music | Free Food | Raffle and Giveaways Gas Discount | Bounce House and more! 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