DIVE INTO THE ROUND-UP WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 MAGAZINE INSIDE TODAY $1.00 HermistonHerald.com INSIDE TRUMP TRIP Morrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack is heading to Washington, D.C. with other law enforcement to discuss immigration with President Donald Trump. PAGE A3 NEGLECTED Stanfield couple charged with 37 counts of animal neglect after dozens of pets seized from home. PAGE A6 HERMISTON EMPLOYMENT: Just add water TOUCHDOWN Hermiston makes a big first impression in the Mid- Columbia Conference with a 45-0 win over Pasco in football. PAGE A10 BY THE WAY Preus to leave BMCC Blue Mountain Com- munity College will be searching for a new leader after college president Cam Preus announced Tuesday afternoon that she is leaving to become executive director of the Oregon Community Col- lege Association. She has served as BMCC’s pres- ident since 2013, and her last day will be Oct. 31. Preus said that it has been an honor to serve BMCC. In her new job she will be representing all 17 of Oregon’s community colleges in Salem. “The Board now faces a significant challenge to replace one of the most outstanding presidents BMCC has ever known,” said Chris Brown, chair of the BMCC Board of Edu- cation said in a statement. The board will soon name an interim president and will hire a firm to con- duct a nationwide search for Preus’s replacement. • • • Mike Huckabee, for- mer Arkansas governor and Republican presiden- tial candidate in 2008 and See BTW, Page A16 FILE PHOTO Workers at John Walchli’s potato processing facility work the sorting table for a shipment of potatoes Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015 in Hermiston. By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER W hen it comes to attracting employers, Hermiston has a lot of advantages. Those advantages have helped spur job growth in the area: According to census data assistant city manager Mark Morgan shared with the city council recently, from 2005 to 2015 the greater Hermiston area was responsible for 83 percent of the job growth in Umatilla and Morrow counties. While the city has had a few setbacks since then — notably the closure of the Hermiston Foods plant — it has seen a steady flow of new jobs from employers such as Amazon, Shearer’s Foods, Good Shepherd Health Care System and the Holiday Inn Express that opened in 2017. The city sits at the intersection of two major interstates and a few state highways, with a rail line, port and a municipal airport thrown into the mix. The abundance of trans- portation options makes it a logical choice for shipping companies such as UPS and Fed-Ex and distribution centers such as Wal-Mart. The location near the Columbia River and McNary Dam also lends itself to cheap power and water, which draws in data centers and food-processing plants. But Morgan says Hermiston’s location is good for more than transportation and utili- ties. Most families have two incomes these days, and often when one person gets a job in the area they have a significant other who is looking for a new job, too. Choosing Hermis- ton puts them right in the middle of the labor- shed, with thousands of jobs in Pendleton, Boardman and the Tri-Cities just a half-hour commute away. “The formula is pretty simple around here: Just add water, and you will get jobs.” Mark Morgan, Assistant City Manager “Nobody wants to get stuck out on the bleeding edge of the employment pool,” Morgan said, citing a reason some people choose to work and live in Hermiston instead of Boardman. Morgan said when he meets with potential employers considering an expansion or new facility in Hermiston the number one ques- tion they have for him is usually whether they will be able to find workers to fill positions, which is why Hermiston’s central location is important. In some ways, Hermiston takes a less hands-on approach to economic develop- ment than Pendleton. The city of Pendleton has an economic development director and a full-time convention center manager, and also contributes money for the associate direc- tor of the Pendleton Development Commis- sion and a Pendleton Downtown Association director. It has focused on development of an unmanned aerial systems range at the Pend- leton Airport and moving forward with plans for an industrial park there. Hermiston, on the other hand, is relying on its parks and recreation department to run the Hermiston Community Center, has its city planner Clint Spencer taking point on the urban renewal agency downtown, isn’t finan- cially involved in the Hermiston Downtown Association and doesn’t have an official eco- nomic development director. The city has invested in economic devel- opment, however. Morgan credited Hermis- See EMPLOYMENT, Page A16 Treatment court offers way out of addiction By PHIL WRIGHT STAFF WRITER Alaska Koski liked what she saw Friday in Umatilla County’s new drug treatment court. “I think it looked really support- ive,” she said. “No one claps for you in regular court.” Koski is 27. She tried marijuana when she was 11, alcohol at 15 and got into hard drugs at 19. “I was 20 when I started shoot- ing up,” she said. She used methamphetamine and heroin. Police arrested her in early 2016 for meth possession. She said she came to a recent point where enough was enough and she wanted help. She said she has been sober since May 8. “I like feeling all my feelings,” she said. “I’m tired of numbing out.” Koski said she tried getting clean three times but they never took. Her probation officer recom- mended she apply for the revamped treatment court. “This is really like a second chance for me,” Koski said. “I come from a long road of addiction.” And treatment court offers her some real hope. Staff from state courts, Umatilla County Community Justice Depart- ment and Community Counseling Solutions, the court’s treatment pro- vider, teamed up to launch the court this summer after a lack of funding last year ended the local drug court program. Funding comes from a chunk of the $917,000 the county receives from the state’s Justice Reinvestment Act to divert offend- ers from state prisons. The new ver- sion of drug court has been running a few weeks with two clients. Koski and two others are new admissions. Dale Primmer, director of Com- munity Justice, said the court is on the front edge of taking referrals for offenders, and that’s a process. Court staff and others conduct back- ground checks and make sure the person is a good fit for the program. “We don’t work with low-risk people,” he said. Rather, the court provides structure and treatment for higher risk individuals. That structure includes attend- ing counseling sessions and writing weekly progress reports, and every Friday morning the clients have to See TREATMENT, Page A16 STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY Alaska Star Koski, 27, sits in a park on the grounds of her girlhood church in Mission where she says she feels at peace. Koski says she feels happy and excited to be on her recovery journey.