LOCAL NEWS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2019
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Riverfront Park remains closed due to fl ooding damage
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Jayati Ramakrishnan
Hermiston city councilors and Umatilla County
commissioners break ground on a site in Northeast
Hermiston where a new water tower will soon be
constructed.
Hermiston breaks
ground on new
water tower
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
A small crowd turned
up at the northeast edge
of Hermiston on Wednes-
day, to see the site where
a water tower will soon
stand.
City councilors and
county
commissioners
broke ground on a site at
Northeast 10th Street and
East Punkin Center Road,
where crews will start
working on a $4.1 million
water storage and system
expansion project.
It’s expected to accom-
modate more than 1,000
new homes in Hermiston
in the next 10 years.
The project will be
funded by a partner-
ship between the city and
Umatilla County, with the
county dedicating $2 mil-
lion over four years. The
city will furnish the rest of
the costs.
Additionally, the Infra-
structure Finance Author-
ity will loan $500,000 to
the city and to the county
each year, starting in sum-
mer of 2020, as part of
the two entities’ enterprise
zone agreement.
City Manager Byron
Smith said they hope
construction on the mil-
lion-gallon water tank
will be done by the end
of 2019. The project will
include installation of
about 2 miles of water
main, in the neighborhoods
of East Theater Lane,
between Northeast Fourth
and Northeast 10th streets,
along Northeast 10th
between Theater Lane and
Punkin Center Road, and
East Punkin Center Road
between Northeast Fourth
and 10th. The entire proj-
ect is expected to be com-
pleted in mid-2020.
Hermiston
Mayor
David Drotzmann said the
new water tower will mean
Hermiston can accommo-
date more people, and keep
up with overall growth. He
said the location of the
water tower will make it
feasible for developers to
build homes on about 300
acres of residential land
that previously wouldn’t
have had adequate access
to water.
“This is about address-
ing one of the coun-
cil’s main goals,” he said.
“Affordable housing for
the community. It’ll allow
us to keep employees here
in town, recruit people.
When we work with our
partners at the county and
the school district, amaz-
ing things can happen.”
Umatilla County Com-
missioner George Mur-
dock said the city is capi-
talizing on its location, and
its resources.
“In terms of agricul-
ture, we are clearly one
of Oregon’s most produc-
tive regions,” he said. “We
add further value through
the kind of partnership we
are celebrating here today.
Umatilla County is proud
to be a partner with the city
of Hermiston in a $4 mil-
lion project that we mutu-
ally hope will lead to the
construction of a thousand
new homes.”
Threads of Life unveils quilt
The public is invited
to an event that celebrates
lives touched by organ
donations and transplants.
The Threads of Life
quilt unveiling is Satur-
day from 1-3 p.m. at Pend-
leton Center for the Arts,
214 N. Main St. The event
also serves as a way to raise
awareness about the criti-
cal need for organ donors.
Hermiston resident Cindy
McIntyre, who received a
life-saving heart transplant
nearly fi ve years ago, will
speak at the event.
Coordinated by Donate
Life Northwest, the quilt
is comprised of individual-
ly-designed squares created
by community members
honoring donors. The quilts
celebrate the lives of trans-
plant recipients and offers
hope to those still awaiting
transplants, including 3,000
people in the Pacifi c North-
west, according to statistics
provided by Donate Life
Northwest.
For more information,
contact
503-494-7888,
info@donatelifenw.org or
visit www.donatelifenw.
org/content/quilts.
The water has mostly
receded from Riverfront
Park in Hermiston, but the
park remains closed due to
fl ooding damage.
At least one large tree has
fallen over, and the park is
covered with a thick layer
of silt and piles of debris
ranging in size from twigs
to logs. The section of the
Oxbow Trail that connects
the trail to the park has
crumbled, and parks man-
ager Jason Barron said other
parts of the walking path
around the park have been
structurally compromised.
The rest of the Oxbow
Trail and the new Highland
Trail are intact and remain
open.
“People are still able to
get out and use our walk-
ing path system, we just ask
they refrain from using Riv-
erfront Park until we can get
in there and assess,” he said.
Since the ground was
still covered with thick, wet
mud, Barron said last Thurs-
day that his crew was going
to let the park dry out until
at least Wednesday before
getting in there to assess
damage and start hauling
away debris. They don’t
want their equipment to get
stuck or tear up what grass
is left.
He said the city would
work hard to get the park
back in usable shape as
quickly as they could. Some
projects might take more
than a few days — the city
will probably bring in porta-
ble restrooms, for example,
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Hermiston
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until they can clear out all
the silt that washed into the
restroom building.
During Monday’s city
council meeting Larry Fet-
ter said it would probably be
two weeks before the park
was offi cially open again.
Barron said the fl ood-
ing, which caused the Uma-
tilla River to cover the park
for several days last week,
came at a bad time while
parks staff are busy getting
all of the city’s parks ready
for summer.
The city of Umatilla has
been dealing with its own
fl ooding problems after its
pedestrian bridge buckled
under the pressure of high
fl ood waters. While an early
rough estimate had pre-
dicted replacement costs
might run as high as $5 mil-
lion, city manager David
Stockdale later said engi-
neers had examined the
bridge and reduced the esti-
mate to $3.2 to $4.3 million.
Stockdale said the engi-
neers were not able to defi n-
itively rule the bridge a total
loss because the fl oodwaters
were still too high to prop-
erly assess the abutments.
But they felt fairly confi dent
it would not be salvageable.
The city had an 18-inch
water main running through
the bridge, and Stock-
dale said the engineers said
demolishing and replacing
the bridge with the water
main would be a $3.2 mil-
lion project. If government
agencies decide that the
water main needs to be run
under the river instead of
along the bridge, that would
bump the estimated project
cost up to $4.3 million.
The good news, Stock-
dale said, is Umatilla
County emergency man-
ager Tom Roberts said the
price tag might be what puts
the county over the damage
threshold to receive federal
and state disaster funds for
recovery. The city council
passed a resolution declar-
ing a city emergency last
week.
Stockdale said the city
wants to replace the bridge
as soon as possible, but it
will likely take more than a
year to do so.
Hermiston will stage “walk-in” for education on May 8
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Many teachers around
the state will stage walkouts
on May 8, to demand better
support for education from
the Oregon Legislature. But
Hermiston and Umatilla
teachers decided not to par-
ticipate in the walkout.
Instead, teachers from
each district will stage a
“walk-in,” holding an event
to send a message to legis-
lators calling for adequate
funding in schools.
Delfi no Osorio Gar-
cia, the Hermiston Asso-
ciation of Teachers pres-
ident, said there were a
few factors behind Herm-
iston’s decision to not join
the walkout. One, he said,
was that they didn’t want to
add more days to the school
year for students. If enough
teachers walked out and
school had to be closed, he
said, it would add a day of
school to Hermiston’s cal-
endar year, putting their last
day of school on a Monday
and running into summer
school.
“Our decision was, how
can we best support our
union while also doing
what’s best for our stu-
dents?” he said.
Garcia said the union
decided to hold an event
before school, at Hermis-
ton High School’s Kennison
Field at 7 a.m. on Wednes-
day, May 8, inviting district
administrators, school board
members, Hermiston Asso-
ciation of Teachers union
members, and people from
the Oregon School Employ-
ees Association. Participants
will listen to teachers speak
about the need for adequate
funding in schools.
“We haven’t ever funded
(schools) to where they
need to be, and they keep
taking away more,” he said.
Umatilla School District
Superintendent Heidi Sipe
said the district will be hold-
ing a walk-in on the same
day, which will look a little
different than Hermiston’s.
Community members will
start their day by listening to
speeches about the district’s
needs for funding. Then,
they can choose to go to any
of Umatilla’s three schools,
and spend a day doing “a
walk in their shoes,” seeing
what a typical day looks like
for Umatilla students. At the
end of the day, they can turn
in feedback about what they
saw and what they think the
needs and strengths of the
district are.
“So many people haven’t
been in a school since they
graduated,” Sipe said. “This
is an event for everyone.”
Oregon Education Asso-
ciation president John
Larsen said they are expect-
EARTHLINK INTERNET
ing more than 10,000 teach-
ers and staff across the state
to participate in the walk-
outs, which will include
marches, speeches, and
music performances in indi-
vidual communities.
“Basically, it’s to try and
bring attention to the dis-
parity of funding in our
schools right now,” he said.
“Our schools have got to be
funded.”
Larsen, who was a Herm-
iston High School language
arts teacher for 15 years
before stepping into the
statewide union role, said
there’s never been a state-
wide demonstration by
teachers like this in Oregon.
“This is completely
unprecedented,” he said.
“It’s the result of 30 years
of disinvestment from our
schools. We keep cover-
ing the pain and cuts in our
schools, and we can’t do
that anymore.”
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Staff photo by Jade McDowell
A section of the Oxbow Trail leading into Riverfront Park in Hermiston has collapsed after
being covered with fl ood waters for several days.
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