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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 27, 2019)
COMMUNITY WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2019 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 Holiday tree lighting scheduled for Dec. 5 By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR When the city of Herm- iston picks a Christmas tree, it’s go big or go home. The tree lighting up Hermiston’s Festival Street this year is the biggest yet, altering the downtown sky- line as it stretches above the rooftop of the two-story Union Club. Parks and recreation director Larry Fetter esti- mated the top is about 45 feet above street level — a few feet taller than trees of years past — but it’s the width that’s really impressive. “It took up two lanes of traffi c (while transporting it),” Fetter said. “It’s defi - nitely broader.” Five years ago, drivers passing Northeast Second Street were doing double takes as they checked to see if a 30-foot pine really was sprouting up from the mid- dle of the road. RDO Equip- ment had donated the tree to the city, which decided the best way to put it up was to jackhammer a hole directly into the middle of the road next to city hall. There was some grum- bling from taxpayers about the practicality of digging a hole in a perfectly good road, but the city hoped the lights would draw shoppers down- town, and the tree-lighting ceremony was a hit. Each year since, the light displays on the tree and sur- rounding block have gotten bigger and brighter. The city turned the street into a year- round “festival street” host- ing a variety of events, and there are nightly light shows throughout December. “It’s become quite a spec- tacle,” Fetter said. The city has always used trees that were slated to come down that year any- way, to avoid waste. This year’s tree was donated by the Hermiston Seventh-day Adventist Church. The church’s original building burned down in 2018, and the tree that now sits down- town was in the way of con- struction for the new church being built. Mark Black, the con- tractor for the church, said construction is on sched- ule for completion some- time during the summer of 2020. The burned-out build- ing was recently demolished Staff photo by Ben Lonergan A Umatilla Electric Cooperative line-truck uses its crane to stabilize the tree as it is cut on Monday. Staff photo by Ben Lonergan road as it moved downtown with a police escort. Finally, the tree was lifted back up and gently lowered into a hole in the festival street that is covered by a manhole cover most of the year. Fetter said parks staff will once again string the thousands of lights verti- cally instead of horizontally, which allows them to pack more lights on and doesn’t require driving a truck in cir- cles around the tree. The city will host a “Win- terfest” tree-lighting cele- bration on Dec. 5 starting at 5:30 p.m. on the festival street next to city hall. The tree lighting will take place at 6:15 p.m. with entertain- ment before and after by Hermiston High School’s Majazzsty jazz choir, the Hermiston High School jazz band and Gems & Gents Cheer Group. Santa Claus will be available for photos, there will be food vendors on site, and the event coin- cides with downtown mer- chants’ First Thursday sales and giveaways. For the rest of the month, the festival street will fea- ture light shows each half hour from 5-8 p.m. Monday through Friday. The holiday season will end with a New Years Eve fi reworks show and giant watermelon drop. Umatilla Electric Cooperative employee Cody Ridant uses a chainsaw to clear branches from the base of the tree prior to cutting it down. and steel beams are rising up to take its place. He said he was happy they were able to work out the timing to donate the tree to the community. “It’s going to be a beau- tiful tree,” he said. “It’s a good gift from the church.” On Monday, a crew from Umatilla Electric Cooper- ative carefully moved the massive tree over the course of three hours. They trimmed branches off the bottom, cut it down and used multiple boom trucks to pick it up and lay it down sideways on wooden stands designed to keep the branches from get- ting crushed underneath. The thick tree seemed to swallow the fl atbed trailer, trailing its branches over the NW Shade Co LLC Solar Shades, Screens, Retractable Awnings & More! “Enhancing the Art of Outdoor Living” 509-308-1354 License #188965 www.nwshadeco.com 102 E Columbia Dr. Kennewick 99336 Potential fi fth candidate announces bid for county commissioners seat HERMISTON HERALD A fi fth candidate could be entering the race for Umatilla County Board of Commissioners. At last week’s Pendleton city council meeting, Hol- lyJo Beers of Milton-Free- water announced she was planning a run. As of last Wednesday she had not fi led the paperwork with Umatilla County, but Beers referred to herself as a candidate at the meeting and has until March 10 to make her campaign offi cial with the county. Other candidates are Dan Dorran, Mark Gomolski, Patricia Maier and Jonathan Lopez, all of Hermiston. The Pendleton council meeting Nov. 19 became an impromptu candidate forum as three of the candidates introduced themselves. Lopez, Beers and Maier all used their time during the public comment section to provide the council with some biographical informa- tion about themselves and answer the occasional ques- tion about their platforms or views on local issues. The Position 3 seat is being vacated by Commis- sioner Bill Elfering, who is retiring from the board after two terms. 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