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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 29, 2019)
FROM A1 A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2019 LAYOFFS Continued from Page A1 Contributed photo by Craig Lockwood Shawn Lockwood, left, and Erin Chowning work on the quilt that they created for Chowning’s grandson Cole Smith. QUILT Continued from Page A1 help with the quilting part. It was Lockwood who taught Chowning how to quilt. Neither of them had ever tried to do a T-shirt quilt before, but with the skills they already had and some hints from YouTube tutorials they figured it out. “It was so much easier than I thought it would be,” Chowning said. The project, with 40 dif- ferent squares, took about three weeks to complete. Lockwood said she has been quilting her whole life, but this was the most fun she ever had with a quilt. “I loved this project from start to finish,” she said. The two women joked that they loved the quilt so much they weren’t sure if they were actually going to let Smith have it. Lockwood doesn’t do the stitching for other peo- ples’ quilts anymore, other than for the Quilts of Valor project for veterans. But she relented on helping her good friend, and was glad she did it. “I told Erin, even if he didn’t appreciate it now, as an adult he will look back and cherish it, and he will know what love his grandma put into it,” she said. In the center of the quilt is a square of jersey with Smith’s high school number — 12 — in purple and gold. It’s the inverse of his dad Shane Smith, who wore the number 21 when he played for the Hermiston Bulldogs. The squares tell the story SELECT NEW 2019 TACOMAS UP TO of Smith’s basketball career, but they also tell the story of a close-knit team. The six graduating seniors on Herm- iston High Schools’ roster grew up playing together, most of them since third grade. The team finished their senior season with a 15-8 record. Now, Smith said, they will go their separate ways after graduation on June 6. Smith is still weighing his options — he got accepted to Eastern Oregon Univer- sity, but is also considering an electrician apprenticeship with his dad. Wherever he goes next, he’ll have his quilt to remem- ber his basketball days, and the friends he made there. “I enjoyed spending time with my teammates, how close we got,” he said. 3 , 000 OFF $ MSRP gress are pushing UP for more answers about the cuts. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Demo- crats, expressed their con- cerns about the job cuts in a page-and-half letter May 22 to Lance M. Fritz, chair- man, president and CEO of Union Pacific Corporation. The decisions to reduce jobs at Hinkle Yard, close the supply warehouse and the mechanical locomotive shop, the senators stated, “will devastate this rural community by hamstring- ing the economic opportu- nities and stability of the entire region.” While the railroad’s employees can relocate to other yards, they worried “the potential outmigra- tion of much needed fami- ly-wage jobs in rural East- ern Oregon will do serious long-term damage to the local economy and tax base.” Paul Chalmers, direc- tor of assessment and tax- ation for Umatilla County, said the total assessed value of Union Pacific’s property in the county is about $169 million, and the Hinkle Yard accounts for about 32 percent of that, or roughly $52 million. The yard’s real market value, he said, is closer to $140 million. What Union Pacific decides to do with the yard could affect the value and thus the taxes on that prop- erty. The railroad could cut jobs, for example, in a move to make Hinkle more automated. That could increase the property value. But even major improve- ments seem unlikely to replace the economic loss from the jobs. Union Pacific offered $25,000 signing bonuses for electricians to work at Hinkle in 2018, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, and the jobs averaged $40,000 in pay the first year and $60,000 the next. That pay, not including the bonus, works out to an average of $24 an hour. Using that estimate, the total payroll for the 195 jobs exceeds $9.7 million a year. Using the common eco- nomic development trope that every $1 in the local economy goes through seven trades, the payroll from the 195 jobs mul- tiplies to more than $68 million. According to data in the city of Hermiston’s annual financial report issued in June 2018, Union Pacific was the city’s fifth-largest employer at roughly 500 employees. At the top of the list was Con-Agra Foods, at 1,600 employees, followed by the Wal-Mart Distribu- tion Center, Good Shep- herd Medical Center and Hermiston School District. Assistant city man- ager Mark Morgan said in an email that Hermiston is working on a “small indus- trial lot project” with the Port of Umatilla to bring about 50 acres of industrial parcels (one of 5 acres in size) up to “shovel-ready” status. The project will extend roads and utilities to the parcels and connect the area on the southern edge of town to Highway 395. A summary of the proj- ect lists the need for eco- nomic diversity as a driver behind the project, noting that in the past when large employers such as Hermis- ton Foods have closed it has been a “major blow” to the economy. The city hopes bringing in more options for employment at smaller operations will help. “[Last week’s] announcement by UP only underscores why the Mayor and Council are committed to diversifying our employ- ment base through this project,” Morgan said. Union Pacific delivers freight to the Port of Mor- row in Boardman. Ryan Neal, the port’s executive director, said he did not SELECT NEW 2019 TUNDRAS UP TO anticipate the port would sustain adverse effects from the cuts at Hinkle. But like others, he called the losses devastating for the area, particular because they are family-wage jobs. “We don’t ever want to see those go away,” he said. In response to Union Pacific’s announcement, Neal said, the port issued one of its own showing a total of 62 job openings at businesses operating at the port, including a physical security manager for Ama- zon, maintenance mechan- ics for Pacific Ethanol Inc. and Lamb Weston and forklift operators at Lamb Weston and Boardman Foods Inc. Union Pacific started cutting jobs at Hinkle in October 2018. Wyden and Merkley stated in the letter those layoffs hurt agriculture producers and other shippers, who reported “difficulties reach- ing Union Pacific staff to resolve problems, or even reach a customer service representative.” Union Pacific’s “failure to work with Oregon ship- pers,” the senators con- tinued, could create more congestion on freeways and undermine the state’s transportation infrastruc- ture. And the closure of the Hinkle mechanical loco- motive shop would reduce oversight inspection of trains carrying hazardous loads through rural Oregon communities To better understand the effects of eliminating the jobs, Wyden and Merkley asked Union Pacific a series of questions about levels of workers and investments at Hinkle. The senators asked Union Pacific if the Fed- eral Rail Administration reviewed workers’ safety concerns at Hinkle and other Oregon facilities since the company started layoffs in October. 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