TOP COWBOYS AND STOCK GO HEAD-TO-HEAD AT FARM-CITY PRO RODEO
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2019
HermistonHerald.com
PAGE A8
$1.50
INSIDE
MELON FEST
Hermiston will celebrate
its most famous fruit with
face painting, bath tub
races, free watermelon
and more on Saturday.
PAGE A4
BUDDY BENCH
T O FA I R W E E K
Armand Larive Middle
School’s Kindness Club
comes up with a new way
to combat bullying.
PAGE A6
FAIR WEEK
More coverage of the
Umatilla County Fair inside.
PAGES A9, A12, A13
BY THE WAY
Committee
selects
Funland
designer
After a day of inter-
viewing seven candidates
to handling design of the
new Funland playground,
the committee in charge of
the decision has selected
Wildwood Playgrounds
of Medford to complete
the work.
Parks and recreation
director Larry Fetter told
the city council he felt they
got the “best of the best”
when it came to appli-
cants, but Wildwood rose
to the top.
He said the Funland
committee will come back
to the city council in Sep-
tember with a preliminary
design concept, before
turning to the community
for their feedback.
On Sept. 20-22 indi-
viduals, families and busi-
nesses whose names were
engraved on the fence
pickets of the old Fun-
land playground will be
able to pick up their pick-
ets between 9 a.m. and
4 p.m. at the Hermiston
Community Center. At
that time Fetter said they
will be given informa-
tion about how to get their
name on the next genera-
tion of pickets, which will
be made out of recycled
plastic instead of wood.
• • •
Escape, a Califor-
nia-based tribute band,
urges people “Don’t Stop
See BTW, Page A2
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The Ferris Wheel spins
in a long exposure
image at the Umatilla
County Fair on Tuesday.
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Ayrin Davis, of the Farm City Wranglers, stands with her sheep as it is
auctioned off Saturday morning at the Umatilla County Fair.
nother Umatilla County
Fair is in the books.
Fair board chair Lucas
Wagner said it will still
be a few days before he
knows for sure whether
attendance was up or down, but
overall he felt the weeklong event
was a “great success.”
“We had a ton of compliments,”
he said.
Of course, there are always
things the fair can continue to
improve upon, he said, especially
as they look ahead to year for at
the Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center. There were lessons
in particular to be learned from
Friday night, when the fair and
Farm-City Pro Rodeo were paused
for an hour due to a thunderstorm.
Some people were mistakenly told
by law enforcement to evacuate
instead of being allowed to shel-
ter in place.
“The weather sure presented
some challenges this year,” Wag-
ner said. “It was so hot the fi rst few
days and so windy the last two.”
Still, he said he felt that this
year’s fair had the “best Thursday
we’ve had in several years” and
a better Latino Night than ever
before.
Al Davis, EOTEC’s year-round
general manager, told the Hermis-
ton city council on Monday night
that it looked like there were a few
more cars in the parking lot each
day than in years past.
He said use of the free shuttle to
the fairgrounds was up, landing at
260 people on Saturday.
“I think the fair’s happy and the
rodeo’s happy,” he said.
Livestock auction
Those involved in the annual
youth livestock auction on Sat-
urday were certainly happy. The
auction smashed the previous
record, bringing in $610,000 in
gross sales.
The previous record was
$494,000 in 2015.
See FAIR, Page A14
New city program will provide inexpensive rides to work
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
he city of Hermiston
continued to expand its
public transportation
offerings Monday by
approving a new program sub-
sidizing taxi rides to and from
work.
The West-End Workforce
On-Demand Ride Cooperative
— or WORC for short — will
use state transit tax funds to pay
for approximately two-thirds of
the price of a ride for workers
in the Hermiston, Umatilla and
Stanfi eld area.
“We’re always glad to take
state dollars and put them to
good use,” mayor David Drotz-
mann said.
Starting Sept. 2, area resi-
T
8
08805 93294
2
dents can bring proof of employ-
ment to Hermiston City Hall and
buy a punch card stamped with
the address of their employer.
Megan Green, a college
intern who helped put together
the policy manual for the pro-
gram, said rides must start or end
at the work address stamped on
the card, but the other end is up
to the rider.
“They could get picked up
from work and go to the grocery
store or go from a friend’s house
to work,” she said.
The cheapest punch cards —
limited to rides within Hermis-
ton city limits — are $2.50 per
ride. The other 65% of the cost
will be covered by money from
the state’s 0.1% payroll tax,
See RIDE, Page A14
EO File Photo/East Oregonian
Dale Orem, of Hermiston, climbs inside a Umatilla Cab Company taxi in 2015. Taxi
driver Mickey Trujillo stands by to close the door. The city of Hermiston approved a
new program subsidizing taxi rides to and from work.