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WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2019
HermistonHerald.com
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District to try for
new bond
in November
NO TEXTING
Hermiston Police
Department was awarded
a grant to crack down on
distracted driving.
PAGE A3
SPUDFEST
Formerly known as
Funfest, a family-friendly
event will take over
downtown on Saturday.
PAGE A5
Bond would replace Rocky Heights,
add elementary school
NEW LAWS
Legislators refl ect on the
2019 session, plus 14 new
laws you should know
about.
PAGE A8
BY THE WAY
Stanfi eld
names parade
winners
Stanfi eld named the
winners of its Fourth of
July parade this week. See
page A13 for photos from
the holiday.
Overall fi rst place went
to the Desert Shrine Club
lead by Jim Leitch. Sec-
ond went to Jim Morris
and his 1955 M38A1 Mil-
itary Jeep and third was
Petsense driven by Yazell
Chavez.
Category winners were
Shirley Pettit and Tony
Erickson (classic car),
local motorcycle riders
(new vehicles), Glory Rid-
ers of Oregon (horses),
American Legion Post
37 (royalty), Scott Har-
vesting driven by Patrick
Scott (farm), Stanfi eld
FFA
(youth/fraternal),
Patriot Auto Glass (busi-
ness) and Hermiston
Warming Station with
Teesie Hill and Sandy
Francis (miscellaneous).
The pie-baking con-
test winners were Jen-
nifer Baros (fi rst place
adult), Kylee Ranson
(second place adult), Beth-
any Woodall (third place
adult), Taylor Carnine
(fi rst place junior), Kate-
lyn Smith (second place
junior), Will Smith (third
place junior) and Jory
Carnine (fourth place
junior).
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
he Board of Education unanimously
approved a recommendation during
Monday night’s school board meet-
ing to put an $82.7 million bond
measure on the ballot this November.
The bond would not raise school bond
taxes past current levels, according to the
district.
“I personally am very excited about
the outlook for this,” school board mem-
ber Ginny Holthus said. “[The proposal]
addresses the overgrowth in our district.”
The bond would fund a number of proj-
ects, including the replacement of Rocky
Heights Elementary School with a larger
capacity building on the same property and
the construction of a new elementary school
on property owned by the district on Theater
Lane.
The bond would also fund a multi-class-
room annex for Hermiston High School,
See BTW, Page A2
Rocky Heights Elementary School would be replace with a new, larger school on the same
property if a school bond is approved by voters in November.
See BOND, Page A14
Staff Photo by Jessica Pollard
The proposed bond would fund the
replacement of Rocky Heights Elementary
with a higher capacity building.
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
T
Hermiston hopes for more restaurants and retail
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
8
08805 93294
2
From Red Robin to Costco,
everyone has a wish list of restau-
rants or stores they wish were closer.
Those businesses have their own
lists of what they need in a new loca-
tion, however, and some communi-
ties don’t measure up. A city might
have too few people, too much com-
petition, not enough local spending,
too low of a median income or be
too far away from an interstate.
Companies today are able to ana-
lyze exactly what makes for a suc-
cessful location and what each com-
munity has to offer, Hermiston
assistant city manager Mark Mor-
gan said.
“There are companies out there
that know more about Hermiston
than we do as far as the market,” he
said.
Companies can go beyond look-
ing at the number of people living in
a market, for example, and see how
many locals are actually shopping
there. Consultants like Retail Coach
put together analyses by using cell-
phone location data from the many
apps that make their money by qui-
etly tracking users’ location and
selling the information.
“Your cellphone knows where
you live because it knows where
you sleep at night,” Morgan said.
From there, a company can ana-
lyze how many Hermiston residents
are shopping or eating in the Tri-Cit-
ies, or create a “heat map” of sorts
showing where visitors to a certain
Hermiston store are coming from.
“If you really want to help drive
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
See RETAIL, Page A14
Panda Express is tearing down the former India Kitchen building in
Hermiston’s commercial corridor to build a new restaurant.