FROM A1
A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAy, JANuARy 9, 2019
Contributed photo
Lacey Wallis, Hermiston Community Bank branch manager,
presents a check from its annual holiday Charity Drive to Kriss
Dammeyer, director of Made to Thrive.
BTW
Continued from Page A1
HH file photo
Electrical equipment at a substation near the Umatilla Electric Cooperative office on West Elm Avenue help supply power to
Umatilla Electric and Hermiston Energy Service.
AHEAD
Continued from Page A1
The line, 5 miles long and
115 kilovolts, is in the final
stages of planning and per-
mitting. Meyers said the
line will provide service
to residential customers in
Hermiston, Stanfield and
Umatilla. Meyers said this
line is in response to a 30
percent increase in cus-
tomer demand for residen-
tial power over the last two
decades.
Meyers said the com-
pany is also constructing a
new substation in Morrow
County, south of Home-
stead Road. Called the Ore-
gon Trail Substation, the
new facility will serve irri-
gation and farming activi-
ties in the area.
Both those projects are
part of a nearly $65 mil-
lion plan for the next bien-
nium, Meyers said, which
includes other projects in
the region as well.
Greater Hermiston
Area Chamber of
Commerce
It is inevitable that 2019
will be a year of change for
the Greater Hermiston Area
Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber is cur-
rently searching for a new
chief executive officer after
former chamber director
Debbie Pedro, who served
in the position for 10 years,
resigned in December.
Chamber board presi-
dent Paul Keeler said parts
of the chamber’s path will
be charted by the incom-
ing director, who will bring
a “fresh perspective” to the
role.
“A lot will depend on
the new director,” he said.
In the interim, how-
ever, the chamber is mov-
ing forward with two large
projects. The organization
has received $1 million
HH file photo
Former Hermiston Fire chief Pat Hart speaks after being named Man of the Year at the
Hermiston Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Citizens Awards Banquet in 2017 in
Hermiston.
from the Oregon legisla-
ture to pay for a new build-
ing, which will include
offices for the chamber,
meeting space available to
businesses and an area for
workforce
development
programs.
More specific plans are
still being worked out,
Keeler said, but the cham-
ber is getting close to final-
izing a location.
“Plans are getting more
and more definite,” he
said. “We have a piece of
property we’re looking at,
and we’re hoping in 2019
to possibly even break
ground.”
$1 million won’t be
enough to cover the cost
of the entire business cen-
ter, so Keeler said the
chamber will be fundrais-
ing for the rest. To assist
in those efforts, the cham-
ber is starting a nonprofit
foundation, where dona-
tions to the building, Lead-
ership Hermiston ser-
vice projects and other
chamber programs will be
tax-deductible.
Hermiston Police
Department
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston said there
are a few changes on the
horizon in 2019. One, he
said, is that police officers
will start to work events at
Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center as contracted
employees of the company
VenuWorks, which man-
ages EOTEC. Edmiston
said the benefit to having
officers work under Venu-
Works is that it wouldn’t
affect their benefits as city
employees.
“The PERS liability
to the city is pretty sig-
nificant,” he said. ‘This
removes them from being
in overtime capacity.”
He said he has offered
that service to other local
companies and groups as
well.
The department is also
looking at some new traf-
fic enforcement plans. Lt.
Randy Studebaker said he
hopes they will be able to
implement a process that
police in Cheyenne, Wyo-
ming use.
“They do this every
Christmas — an officer
dresses up in a Grinch cos-
tume at a different loca-
tion, running radar, and
a stationed police officer
chases down the cars he
spots,” Studebaker said.
“It’s well-publicized —
they’ll be at this location at
10 a.m. on this day.”
Edmiston said they have
some trouble spots in mind
where they’d like to try this
— such as Highway 395
and Elm Ave., but logisti-
cally, it may be difficult to
have a police car stationed
in such a busy spot.
Nevertheless, they said
they hope to give the pro-
cess a try, although Stude-
baker said he wasn’t sure
about the costumes.
“It’s
unconventional,
but it’s well-publicized
ahead of time,” he said.
“Obviously our goal is vol-
untary compliance.”
• • •
In recognition of School
Board
Appreciation
Month, the Hermiston
School District recently
gave a shout-out on its Face-
book page to their board of
education.
The group of local cit-
izens are elected to the
board and do not receive
pay for their voluntary ser-
vice. The members include
board chair Karen Sher-
man, Dave Smith, Josh
Goller, Bonnie Luisi,
Mark Gomolski, Ginny
Holthus and Brent Pit-
ney, who was appointed
from a pool of five individ-
uals in November to replace
the seat vacated by Jason
Middleton.
For more about the
school board, including a
link to meeting agendas and
minutes, visit www.hermis-
ton.k12.or.us.
• • •
Made to Thrive recently
cashed in on the annual
Community Bank Charity
Drive. Kriss Dammeyer,
director of the Hermis-
ton-based nonprofit orga-
nization, received a check
from Lacey Wallis, Herm-
iston Community Bank
branch manager.
Each of the bank’s
branches in northeast Ore-
gon and southeast Wash-
PEDRO
Continued from Page A1
Her new role will take
her to the Columbia Devel-
opment Authority’s offices
at the Port of Morrow in
Boardman.
The CDA is a partnership
between Umatilla County,
Morrow County, the Port of
Umatilla, the Port of Mor-
row and the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation. About 7,500 of
the 19,700 acres of the for-
mer Umatilla Chemical
Depot were transferred to
the Oregon Military Depart-
ment for a training facil-
ity, but the CDA’s board has
been working with the U.S.
Army to transfer the remain-
ing acres to local control.
Some will be used for a
wildlife refuge, while other
sections have an industrial
zoning, and a strip of land
along Interstate 82 will also
be available for commer-
cial development. The CDA
plans to recruit businesses to
ington had a local nonprofit
organization it was collect-
ing money for. The bank
matched donations at 50
cents on each dollar, with a
maximum match amount of
$500 at each of its branch
locations. Over the past nine
years, the Community Bank
Charity Drive has provided
more than $194,000 to char-
ities throughout the region.
Founded in 2014, Made
to Thrive’s mission is to
stop the cycle of child
abuse, neglect and poverty
by providing opportunities
for the physical and emo-
tional benefits of sports,
adventure activities, music
and the arts to vulnerable
youth. For more informa-
tion, visit www.madeto-
thrive.org.
• • •
Special guests John
Witherspoon and Isaac
Butts of Wake Up Nation
will be featured during the
2019 Martin Luther King
Jr. March in Hermiston. In
addition to the march, the
event’s program is Mon-
day, Jan. 21 from 11 a.m. to
1 p.m. at the First United
Methodist Church. Call
John Carbage at 541-701-
7073 or see next week’s
Hermiston Herald for
more details.
———
You can submit items for
our weekly By The Way col-
umn by emailing your tips
to editor@hermistonher-
ald.com.
the property once the land is
transferred, and Pedro will
play a part in that in her new
role.
Greg Smith, who serves
as the CDA’s executive
director as part of a con-
tract between the CDA and
Gregory Smith & Company,
said in a statement he was
pleased to be able to hire
Pedro.
“The Columbia Devel-
opment Authority and I are
lucky to have Debbie join
the team,” he said. “She
brings to the job a wealth of
knowledge of the area and
the people associated with
the Umatilla Depot. Debbie
is someone who will jump
into the job immediately.”
To fill the vacancy left by
Pedro at the Greater Hermis-
ton Area Chamber of Com-
merce, the chamber plans
to have marketing director
Kelly Schwirse and board
chair Paul Keeler oversee
operations while the cham-
ber searches for a new exec-
utive director.
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