LOCAL
Wednesday, september 11, 2019
HermIstOnHeraLd.COm • A3
Airport Way Discovery Center opens for pre-K
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
Tucked between the roar
of train whistles and the
soaring sound of planes,
the Airport Way Discovery
Center opened its doors to
60 preschoolers last week.
It’s been a long time com-
ing, according to Umatilla
Morrow County Head Start
executive director Maureen
McGrath.
When
the
agency
received federal grant fund-
ing for the project back in
2016, they were hoping to
open up a center the fol-
lowing fall, but had trou-
ble finding the right loca-
tion that would meet federal
requirements.
They were able to strike
a good deal with the city
of Hermiston for the city
property on Airport Way,
where the Discovery Cen-
ter now stands, according to
UMCHS associate director
Dan Daltoso.
A transportation depot
for Hermiston-area UMCHS
buses is currently under con-
struction at the location.
Currently, UMCHS’s trans-
portation depot is on Diag-
onal Road.
Following
the
start
of classes at the Discov-
ery Center, the Downtown
Center for Early Learning,
located on Main Street, is
being repurposed as a train-
ing site for housing person-
nel focused on health and
safety.
“It is always there
though, if something hap-
pens and we need a class-
room,” McGrath said.
The downtown center
staff photo by ben Lonergan
Becky Sanchez, left, holds a doll for one of her students at the
Umatilla Morrow County Head Start Airport Way Discovery
Center on Thursday morning. The Airport Way preschool has a
capacity of 60 children split between three classrooms.
staff photo by ben Lonergan
Children play at the Umatilla Morrow County Head Start Airport Way Discovery Center on
Thursday morning.
opened last spring, and pro-
vided full-day classes for 40
preschool-aged children.
The new center on Air-
port Way has capacity for 60
children, with three class-
rooms and separate office
spaces for teachers who pro-
vide the full-day classes.
“If we can give teach-
ers a space away, it gives
opportunity for reflection,
and for people to have dia-
logues about best meeting
children’s needs,” McGrath
said.
The offices also have
two-way mirrors, so teach-
ers can keep a watchful eye
over classes while also hav-
ing a separate space for one-
on-one meetings.
When 4-year-old Blake
Griffin — who attended
the downtown preschool —
fell while playing outside
the Discovery Center ear-
lier this week, he couldn’t
have been happier, accord-
ing to his mother Mariaha
Wilhelm.
“Blake likes the grass
outside, and he didn’t get
hurt,” Wilhelm said. “Kids
need to not be enclosed.”
The previous preschool
only had play space avail-
able on padded asphalt.
Wilhelm said she was
excited to bring Blake to the
new preschool.
“Blake is really smart. I
Council votes to pave Theater Lane early
City council reviewed city
manager Byron Smith’s
performance Monday
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
The unpaved portion
of Theater Lane between
Northeast 10th and North-
east Eighth streets will be
done sooner and for less
money than expected after
the Hermiston City Coun-
cil voted Monday to add it
to the water tower project
already in progress.
Premier Excavation and
Anderson Perry & Associ-
ates are currently working to
build a new one million gal-
lon water tank on 10th Street
and place new water mains,
including one down Theater
Lane.
The original plan was to
place gravel back over the
pipe and pave Theater Lane
sometime in 2020, but assis-
tant city manager Mark
Morgan said as the timelines
“grew together” and gas tax
revenue came in at higher
than expected rates, it made
sense to combine the proj-
ects into one, using the same
contractors and engineers
already onsite, saving the
city about $100,000 on what
had been expected to be a
$625,000 project. The proj-
“I CAN’T SEE WHY
WE WOULDN’T DO THAT.”
Hermiston mayor David Drotzmann
ect may be able to be com-
pleted in the fall instead of
next spring, as well.
“I can’t see why we
wouldn’t do that,” mayor
David Drotzmann said.
Two residents and city
councilor Jackie Myers
expressed a desire to see
the hill on Theater Lane
re-graded to a slope that
would increase visibility,
but Morgan said that would
push the project’s cost far
above what the city has the
budget for.
After the council met
in executive session for its
annual review of city man-
ager Byron Smith’s perfor-
mance, the mayor broke a
rare tie vote on an amend-
ment to Smith’s contract.
The amendment would
give Smith a one-time infu-
sion of three extra weeks
of vacation time into his
accrued bank of paid time
off. It would also give
Smith a 50% match for up
to $3,000 of deferred com-
pensation he puts toward
a retirement plan. The
amendment did not include
an increase to Smith’s base
salary.
Councilors John Kir-
wan, Jackie Myers, Rod
Hardin and Lori Davis
voted no on a motion to
approve the amendment as
requested, with Roy Bar-
ron, Doug Primmer, Man-
uel Gutierrez and Doug
Smith voting yes. Drotz-
mann broke the tie with a
yes vote, noting that Smith
had gotten strong reviews
on his job performance and
in his five years at the helm
only one department head
had left the city for another
job.
“I want to congratulate
you on another successful
year,” he said.
The council’s agenda
was shorter than expected
after Umatilla County’s
health department asked
to delay a discussion about
support for a tobacco retail
license that would charge
retailers a fee to fund an
annual inspection program.
The
regular
coun-
cil session was preceded
by a work session to
hear updates from Uma-
tilla Electric Cooperative
and Hermiston Energy
Services.
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council that UEC was the
25th largest electric coop-
erative in the country out
of 814 last year in terms
of the amount of electric-
ity sold. More importantly,
its residential rates were
in the lowest 2% in the
nation. All of its rates com-
bined were the very lowest
out of all 814 electric coop-
eratives at 4.55 cents per
kilowatt hour compared
to 10.91 cents on average
nationally.
However, both Echen-
rode and HES general man-
ager Nate Rivera said they
would likely need to raise
rates in a few months after
Bonneville Power Admin-
istration announces an
expected rate increase for
wholesale power Oct. 1.
“I cannot say we can
absorb all of that again,”
Echenrode said.
Rivera echoed that sen-
timent, noting that whole-
sale power made up more
than half of HES’s costs.
Only a small portion of
HES’s costs are controlled
by the municipal utility
directly, Rivera said, and
they had already tightened
their belts as much as pos-
sible to absorb the last rate
increase without passing it
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school was all about breath-
ing techniques and simple
life skills. She said she’s
using counting and patterns
to incorporate math themes
into the learning.
Dennis Julian, the new
Head Start director for
UMCHS, said the new loca-
tion presents opportunities
to partner with the indus-
tries who also call Airport
Way home. He hopes kids
will soon be able to visit the
airport.
“Where we find ourselves
here, we’re not in a neigh-
borhood,” McGrath said.
“But we are smack-dab
in the middle of science.
We have an airport across
the way, a railroad that runs
behind us. This is going
to ignite children’s imagi-
nation around science and
technology.”
felt his social skills needed
preschool. Having a sched-
ule has helped him,” she
said.
Daltoso added that not
having an on-site warming
kitchen in the previous loca-
tion meant transportation
costs were adding up.
“(We were) trying to
do services in a location
that wasn’t ideal for kids,”
he said. “We were able to
put together a pretty nice
facility.”
Daltoso said the Down-
town Center for Early
Learning had more spacious
classrooms, but that the size
of the rooms doesn’t mat-
ter so much as what teach-
ers are able to accomplish
within them.
Michelle Childs, a pre-
school teacher at the new
center, said the first week at
80489 Hwy 395 N
Hermiston
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