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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 12, 2019)
LOCAL NEWS Wednesday, June 12, 2019 HeRMIsTOnHeRaLd.COM • A3 PLAYING A WAITING GAME business in Adams, Weston and Athena this year. Inter- net access opens up oppor- tunities for the town’s 350 residents to see a doctor from another city over video chat, telecommute to a high- er-paying job, shop online for items not found in town or get a college degree with- out leaving home. “Adams is a very small rural town, and this will expand our borders,” she said. The town currently has only a single inter- net provider with what she described as very slow and unreliable wireless internet. “Any time we have weather conditions it will go out,” she said. Jennifer Spurgeon, mayor of Weston, also described struggles in her town of almost 650 residents, some of whom can’t event access the unreliable wireless inter- net due to geographical constraints. “It’s hard to quantify the time lost to the slow- speed internet,” she said, noting that her husband, a real estate appraiser, spends many hours of his job wait- ing on documents to upload or download. Athena mayor Rebecca Schroeder echoed those thoughts. “It’s a real positive,” she said of faster internet. “Peo- ple can work in a small town, live in a small town and be part of the fabric of the community and yet take their business to the next level.” Farmers also benefit from rural internet access, as the technology allows them to tap into precision irriga- tion, self-driving tractors, long-distance monitoring of field conditions and other cutting-edge agricultural technology to boost produc- tivity and efficiency. Franell said that EOT is starting out with fiber-to- home connections in East- ern Umatilla County, but in the future the company will likely extend wireless inter- net outside city limits for agricultural use as well. He said he plans to com- plete a survey of residents of Athena, Weston and Adams to gauge their internet lit- eracy, then provide some classes on how they can better use their new, faster internet connection. Huawei blacklist could put a damper on progress for rural broadband By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER In a storage room at East- ern Oregon Telecom, a wide stack of cardboard boxes each bear the flower-shaped Huawei logo. The equipment inside was originally destined to become part of EOT’s grow- ing broadband network. But after the Trump admin- istration placed the Chi- nese-based Huawei on a trade blacklist, the equip- ment may be destined to stay in the box. Eastern Oregon Tele- com CEO Joseph Franell and other internet service providers who rely on Hua- wei’s inexpensive prod- ucts are waiting for clarifi- cation on what the blacklist means. There has been talk of forcing providers to not only stop installing new Huawei equipment, but also rip out and replace what they already have in their systems. “There are lots of ambig- uous mandates out there,” Franell said. It started in April 2018, when the Federal Com- munications Commission posted a notice of proposed rule-making, signaling the government was consid- ering a restriction of cer- tain types of gear from Huawei based on wor- ries that the Chinese com- pany could pose a national security threat. Later Con- gress included language in the 2019 National Defense Authorization excluding technology from Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese tech company, from all gov- ernment systems. Last week President Don- ald Trump issued an execu- tive order banning purchase of communications equip- ment from companies con- sidered by the administration to pose a national security threat, and the Department of Commerce placed Hua- wei on a trade blacklist. In a White House speech Trump called Huawei “very dan- gerous” but also said that he could see the tech company staff photos by e.J. Harris Eastern Oregon Telecom CEO Joseph Franell shows one of the company’s cable modem termination systems they purchased from Huawei. Eastern Oregon Telecom CEO Joseph Franell has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s ban on technology made by Huawei. included in a trade deal. Franell said many Hua- wei products are 40% cheaper than he can get any- where else, and they some- times makes products he can’t buy from a U.S.-based company. He showed off a cable modem termination system that he pushed Hua- wei to start exporting to the United States after seeing one during a tour of a facil- ity in China. “Cisco makes cable modem termination sys- tems, but they don’t make them like this,” he said. “These are remarkably scaleable. [Huawei] brought this equipment to the United States on my request, and now I don’t know if I’ll get to keep it.” In addition, he said, Hua- wei equipment is the most reliable in his network. In the past five years he has only had one equipment fail- ure from a Huawei piece — a level of reliability he said he has not been able to find elsewhere. There are concerns within the government, however, that infusing crucial rural networks with technology from China could open up those networks to spying and sabotage via “back doors” installed in the hardware. “The U.S. Government has determined that there is reasonable cause to believe Boxes of electronic compo- nents from the Chinese tele- communication giant Hua- wei sit idle in a store room . that Huawei has been involved in activities con- trary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” the Department of Commerce report read. Franell acknowledged spying is a possibility — the United States was caught installing its own back doors in exported technology in the past, and it stands to rea- son other countries would employ similar techniques. He said if there were ever any evidence that were hap- pening with Huawei, he would move to purge the risk from his network with- out waiting for the govern- ment to give the direction. If the government forces rural internet providers to replace all the Huawei equipment in their systems, Franell said it wouldn’t put EOT out of business. “For us, it would be a dis- traction,” he said. “But for some other companies it could be catastrophic.” Replacing $500,000 worth of Huawei equipment would likely cost about $1.2 million for a company to purchase more expensive parts from other compa- nies, reengineer their system and expend the labor for the installations, he estimated. Even if the government reimburses them afterward, he said, “If you’re into it for $20 million, where do you get the money?” It could easily put some rural providers out of business. Importance of rural internet Eastern Oregon’s most rural cities know the strug- gle it can be to get the inter- net service so important to modern life, and the last thing they want to do is go backward in that effort. Debbie Sutor, mayor of Adams, said she is excited that Eastern Oregon Tele- com will be extending fiber internet to every home and City council adopts new budget $1 million smaller By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER The Hermiston City Council adopted a budget on Monday night that was roughly $1 million smaller than the current fiscal year, thanks to several large con- struction projects that are now off the books. Revenue increases from the city’s growth were bal- anced by a 25% increase in costs associated with the Public Employees Retire- ment System. Mayor David Drotz- mann said the state needs to get PERS spending under control soon, before the day comes when the city is forced to make cuts to ser- vices such as parks or police. He said the city was lucky to have increases in property tax revenue to assist in cov- ering the rising costs. “A lot of other rural cit- ies aren’t that fortunate,” he said. Beyond increased prop- erty taxes, the city has turned toward other ways to fund projects. The adopted 2019- 20 budget included sev- eral major water and sewer projects, in part funded by a March increase in water and sewer rates. While residents have been encouraging each other on social media to ask the city council to rethink its utility rate increases on Monday, only one person actually showed up to voice a com- plaint. She said she had been “shocked” to see her bill almost double and was con- cerned about the increase’s impact on residents. During time for council comment at the end of the meeting, councilor Rod Har- din said he was sympathetic to the problem, as his own increase in his water bill has caused him to rethink his water usage habits. “It’s a challenge, but see- ing what we have on the budget as far as water proj- ects and sewer projects, it needs to be done,” he said. “I understand it, but it does hurt.” Before Monday’s regu- lar meeting, city councilors spent an hourlong work ses- sion discussing the strategic plan for the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center. They agreed that getting water rights to the new fair- grounds should be the top priority, as it would feed into other goals such as landscaping. Previously one of the council’s top goals had been creating an RV park at the site that could rent out spaces year-round and bring in revenue to make EOTEC self-sustaining. But after a disagreement about where the park should be located derailed plans to complete the park this summer, they sent it to their EOTEC advi- sory committee. The committee is rec- ommending that the city do some minor upgrades — limited electricity and a dump station — to the grassy area currently serv- ing as an RV park during the Umatilla County Fair, and put plans to build a full RV park next to the rodeo arena ! ED R IT FFE LIM E O M TI SAVE $100 off new termite protection* CORNERSTONE 1055 S. Hwy 395, Suite 313 Hermiston, OR 97838 541-289-5454 • Fax: 541-289-5456 www.hermistoncornerstone.com SAVE $50 off initial pest service with annual contract* *Offer expires 06/30/2019. Offer available to residential customers who purchase a new pestfree365 plan on or after 02/15/2019 This offer does not apply to commercial pest plans. The $50 discount will be deducted from the initial service. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Offer details subject to change. CALL TODAY! 877-234-2178 on hold indefinitely. Councilor John Kirwan supported moving the RV park down on the strategic plan’s goals list and mov- ing a proposed multi-sport, sports field area up the list. He pointed out that no orga- nizations had expressed interest in helping fund an RV park, but several entities had already said they would be willing to make a signif- icant investment in fields that could bring major tour- naments for sports, such as lacrosse, to Hermiston. He and Drotzmann both pointed out the economic benefits of bringing in more sports tournaments, and of giving more of the commu- nity a reason to feel owner- ship over EOTEC. Other councilors voiced their own opinions about what should work its way up the priority list — Doug Primmer said the city needed to beef up its secu- rity at EOTEC to protect what was already invested, while Jackie Myers said the hard-to-find location needed more signs pointing people in the right direction. Councilors also agreed that a marketing plan, new fair offices, landscaping and more meeting space should be high priorities in the stra- tegic plan. PET OF THE W EEK Sally is around 6 years old and is a heeler. She loves her people and can be protective of them. She is a sweet cuddle bug who loves to hang out with her foster mom all day. She is very playful and the water hose is one of her favorite things. Sally has typical heeler tendencies so please research the breed before filling out an application. She is kennel and potty trained. Vaccinated, microchipped and spayed. SALLY Mark Sargent, DVM • Brent Barton, DVM Eugenio Mannucci, DVM, cVMA • Jana von Borstel, DVM, cVMA Small and Large Animal Care Mon: 8-6 Tue - Fri: 8-5 Sat: 8-12 Emergency Service 541.567.1138 MEET 80489 Hwy 395 N Hermiston www.oregontrailvet.com PLACE YOUR AD HERE! Contact Audra at 541.564.4538 Today! If interested please go to fuzzballrescue.com and fill out an application. If you are not able to adopt, but would like to foster or donate, visit fuzzballrescue.com or you can mail in donations to Fuzz Ball Animal Rescue, PO Box 580, Hermiston, OR 97838