NEWS
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
HerMIsTOnHeraLd.COM • A3
Hermiston trying food truck pod
his current spot.
He
suggested
that
the trucks in the pod be
required to close at 8 p.m.
since there are residences
nearby, but councilors
said the trucks should be
allowed to stay open until
10 p.m. like the other food
trucks in Hermiston.
The council voted unan-
imously to approve the
agreement with Todd.
“I look forward to the
food pod vendors we will
get, and the variety,” Drot-
zmann said.
BY JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Photo contributed by the office of bill Hansell
Skeeter Amstad, left, Sen. Bill Hansell and Senate President Peter Courtney stand in front of a
truckload of potatoes donated to the Oregon Food Bank by Amstad Farms.
Amstad Farms donates 65,000 pounds
of potatoes to Oregon Food Bank
By HERMISTON HERALD
Eastern Oregon isn’t
slacking when it comes to
participating in the gover-
nor’s annual state employee
food drive.
On Feb. 20, Amstad
Farms brought a 65,000-
pound truckload of potatoes
to the Oregon Capitol. The
company grows most of its
potatoes around Hermiston
and Echo.
Sen. Bill Hansell (R-Ath-
ena) and Senate President
Peter Courtney (D-Salem)
were there to welcome the
donation, which will go
to the Oregon Food Bank
to be handed out to fami-
lies in need across Oregon.
Hansell said in a statement
that the potatoes will feed
“hundreds” of people and
demonstrates District 29’s
position as one of the lead-
ing agricultural-producing
regions in Oregon.
“I am proud and grateful
to see such a generous dona-
tion from District 29 to the
Governor’s Food Drive,” he
said, thanking Skeeter Ams-
tad, JR Cook, Jeff Urbach
and Bill Brewer, president of
the Oregon Potato Commis-
sion, for making the dona-
tion possible.
It wasn’t the first time
Amstad Farms has donated
to the Oregon Food Bank
— the company is a regu-
lar contributor to Farmers
Ending Hunger, a nonprofit
started in Hermiston with
the aim of channeling fresh
produce and other farm
products into food banks.
Last week’s donation was
part of the governor’s state
employee food drive, which
runs through the month of
February. The tradition was
started in 1982 by Gov. Vic
Atiyeh. Last year’s food
drive raked in just over 3
million pounds of food.
Hermiston man arrested for domestic
violence, running over a woman
multiple injuries.
A Hermiston man was
Umatilla County Fire
arrested Thursday
District
crews
night and lodged in
transported
the
the Umatilla County
woman to Good
Jail on charges of
Shepherd Medical
domestic violence
Center, and she was
and assault, which
later flown to Port-
land for specialized
included strangula-
tion and attempting
treatment for some
to run over a woman.
of her injuries.
Jason
Eugene
Dungan
Police said they do
Dungan, 38, was
not know her status
arrested at Northwest 13th as of Friday afternoon.
Street late Thursday eve-
Police
investigation
ning. According to a Herm- revealed that Dungan and
iston Police Department the woman had been argu-
press
release,
officers ing verbally, but the fight
responded to a domestic dis- turned physical. Neighbors
turbance on NW 13th Street who witnessed the fight
around 6:35 p.m. Thursday, allege that Dungan stran-
and found a 47-year-old gled the woman and ver-
woman lying on the ground bally threatened her life.
with what appeared to be The neighbor intervened
By HERMISTON HERALD
and stopped the assault.
Dungan allegedly grabbed
the victim’s keys, stole her
vehicle and, according to
the witness, drove the vehi-
cle over the victim as she
was lying on the sidewalk,
nearly hitting witnesses as
well.
Dungan returned to the
scene around 11 p.m., was
contacted by HPD officers,
and was taken into custody.
He is lodged in the Umatilla
County Jail, and is charged
with second-degree assault,
unauthorized use of a vehi-
cle, strangulation, hit and
run with injury, reckless
driving, driving while sus-
pended, reckless endanger-
ment, criminal mischief,
failure to appear and failure
to pay fines.
New possibilities have
opened up for lunch breaks
in Hermiston.
On Monday the city
council approved an agree-
ment with Monica Todd to
run a food truck pod from
April to October.
The pod will include
four to eight food trucks
in the city-owned parking
lot across Orchard Avenue
from the Hermiston Post
Office, as well as portable
restrooms, trash recepta-
cles and seating.
Todd has food industry
experience, including pre-
vious work as general man-
ager of Nookie’s Restau-
rant in Hermiston. She will
recruit vendors, manage the
site and cover expenses for
utilities, trash pickup and
portable restroom main-
tenance. In return she will
be able to charge rent to
the vendors and keep any
profits.
“This is intended to be a
pilot program for this year,
and it’s pretty much, ‘What
you make you can keep,’”
city planner Clint Spencer
said.
He emphasized that at
the end of the year the city
could sign a new contract
with Todd for the same
arrangement or go in a dif-
ferent direction.
The city re-examined
its rules on food trucks last
year after citizens com-
plained they were too
restrictive. In a survey,
about 90 percent of respon-
dents said they supported
the idea of a food truck
pod.
Councilor Doug Prim-
mer said he loved the idea
of a food pod, but had con-
cerns about a private cit-
izen making money from
operations on city property.
Parks
and
recre-
ation director Larry Fet-
ter pointed out there is a
precedent — the owners
of the Tiki Hut at Butte
Park are allowed to sell
shaved ice on city prop-
Investments
erty in exchange for caring
for the splash park there.
And Mayor David Drotz-
mann pointed out that Todd
would be doing the city a
service by managing the
site for them.
Councilor Jackie Myers
expressed concerns about
the safety of the site. The
concept that Spencer pre-
sented showed the ven-
dors in a U-shape around
the edge of the site, with
an opening toward McKen-
zie Park and the post office.
She said she worried chil-
dren would leave the seat-
ing area and want to run
across traffic to the park.
Spencer said the city
could look at orienting the
opening toward the other
city-owned parking lot,
across Southwest Third
Street, instead and consider
options for signs reminding
people to slow down.
The city plans to install
lighting and an electrical
hookup on site so that each
truck doesn’t have to bring
a generator. The trucks
would be required to move
once a week. No more than
two trucks selling the same
type of cuisine would be
allowed, in order to encour-
age variety.
Spencer said Tacos Gar-
cia, currently at that loca-
tion, is actually on private
land just behind the city-
owned lot. That owner
would be free to sign a con-
tract with the pod or stay in
Hermiston’s
finance
director is hoping to bring
in a little more investment
revenue for the city.
On Monday the city
council approved changes
to the city’s investment
policy that would, for
the first time, allow the
city to invest in corpo-
rate bonds. Finance direc-
tor Mark Krawczyk said he
believed the city could be
more “aggressive” with its
investments to take advan-
tage of the strong stock
market while still minimiz-
ing risk for the city.
“I’m not trying to read
the tea leaves, I’m merely
trying to take advantage of
what the market says it is
willing to pay,” he said.
The policy Krawczyk
presented sets strict limits
on the city’s investments
in corporate bonds. Own-
ership will be limited to
no more than 35 percent of
the city’s portfolio, with no
more than 5 percent of the
portfolio held in any one
issuer. Bonds must be rated
AA or higher Standard &
Poor’s, Moody’s or Fitch.
The city would work with
an investment manager.
The amount of money
covered by the invest-
ment policy will represent
between $2 million and $15
million over the next three
years, Krawczyk said. He
said other Oregon cities,
including Milton-Freewa-
ter, also allow investments
in corporate bonds.
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