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.
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