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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.