NEWS
A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2020
County approves Stanfi eld-Echo enterprise zone
By ALEX CASTLE
STAFF WRITER
A pair of western Uma-
tilla County communities
are getting their own enter-
prise zone.
Once included in a joint
zone with Umatilla, the cit-
ies of Echo and Stanfi eld
will have their own tool to
stimulate business growth
in the area starting Feb. 5
after the Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners
approved the designation
last Wednesday.
“This zone is looking
down the road for future
development,” Echo City
Administrator David Slaght
said. “It’s some enticement
and encouragement for
investors. We’re right along
I-84. We’ve got access to
interstate commerce right at
our front door.”
Enterprise zones allow
certain industrial and man-
ufacturing
construction
projects to be granted a
three- to fi ve-year property
tax exemption. The Stan-
fi eld-Echo zone will span
a total of 4.44 square miles
and include the city limits
and urban growth boundar-
ies of both cities. Language
in the designation permits
hotels, motels and destina-
tion resorts to be included in
the potential tax exemptions
as well.
Both cities were previ-
ously included in an enter-
prise zone with Umatilla,
which was revised in 2019
to add areas along Umatil-
la’s urban growth boundary
and excluded Stanfi eld and
Echo.
Shortly after Umatilla
redrew the zone, Slaght
was hired by the city of
Echo in May and Ben Bur-
gener was brought in as the
city manager of Stanfi eld in
September.
“Both of us were brand
new to our jobs, and when
we stepped in we real-
ized they had essentially
excluded us and left us out
here alone,” Slaght said of
the previous enterprise zone.
Slaght said it made sense
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The Umatilla County Board of Commissioners approved the creation of a Stanfi eld-Echo
enterprise zone during a meeting last week.
and was more feasible for
the cities to work together
in applying for the zone
designation.
In Echo, Slaght said the
city council is working with
potential local investors and
are in the process of devel-
oping strategies and goals
for the new zone.
However, Slaght said the
language allowing hotel,
motel or destination resort
projects to be eligible for tax
exemptions could be crucial
for a future development
along the interstate led by
Kent Madison.
In 2017, Madison fi rst
came to the city with an idea
for a 132-acre development
that would include doz-
ens of homes, a hotel, RV
park, commercial and indus-
trial projects and even some
greenery.
According to Slaght,
Madison has approached
the city about continu-
ing the project, but plenty
remains to be done for it to
materialize.
“I don’t know where it’s
going, but I didn’t want to
leave that off the table,”
Slaght said.
The cities had to seek
and eventually received
consent from the Port of
Umatilla for the designa-
tion, and the zone was addi-
tionally co-sponsored by
the county.
“I think it gives them
fl exibility with it and own-
ership of it,” Commissioner
Bill Elfering said at Wednes-
day’s meeting.
No Airport Road hearing set yet despite neighbors’ request
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Umatilla County has put
an Airport Road construc-
tion project out to bid, but
no hearing date has been
set regarding a petition
by neighboring property
owners to vacate 13 feet
of right-of-way along the
road.
Engineering work for
the project, which would
widen and improve the
road to better handle traf-
fi c in and out of the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event
Center, turned up a dis-
crepancy between where
property owners had previ-
ously been told their prop-
erty line was and where
the true property lines run.
Some owners have fences,
trees or other assets sitting
on the 13 feet that actually
belongs to the county.
County
Commis-
sioner Bill Elfering said
he couldn’t say much on
the issue, because neighbor
Chris Waine has involved
attorneys. But he said that
the county previously met
with each of the neighbors
along the road about their
concerns, and made offi cial
offers of mitigation or tem-
porary use licenses.
In many cases, neigh-
bors will be able to keep
using the right-of-way, Elf-
ering said.
“We’re trying to disrupt
their life as little as possi-
ble,” he said.
He said at the time, the
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neighbors the county had
talked to had seemed satis-
fi ed with the compromises
it worked out with each of
them.
Waine gathered signa-
tures to support asking the
county to vacate the 13 feet,
however, and turn it over to
the neighbors. He said he
has been disappointed by
the county’s handling of the
issue, and the fact that they
had not taken any action so
far on the petition.
“I think the county’s
doing the wrong thing,” he
said.
He has also questioned
whether the county’s sur-
vey department is correct
about property boundaries,
and said there are discrep-
ancies between the legal
description of his property,
physical measurements he
has taken, county records
and other elements.
“The county says, ‘This
is what we say and ulti-
mately we’re right,’ but
I think this is a situation
where there could be mul-
tiple truths,” Waine said,
calling it “a mess.”
Waine continues to
gather as much information
he can about past survey-
ing and property lines in
the area, but said he doesn’t
know what he will do yet.
In the meantime, the
county is putting the proj-
ect out to bid and plans to
complete it before the 2020
Umatilla County Fair in
August at EOTEC. During
the board of commission-
HH fi le photo
Trucks make their way down Airport Road near the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Event Center on May 1, 2019.
ers’ Jan. 15 meeting, pub-
lic works director Tom Fel-
lows told commissioners he
was confi dent that the $1
million from the Legisla-
ture for the project would
cover the work planned
for Airport Road, but he
isn’t sure how much money
might be available to pave
part of Ott Road on the
other side of EOTEC.
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