Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current, February 19, 2020, Image 3

Hermiston herald., February 19, 2020, Page 3, Image 3

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Newspaper Page TextNEWS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 City addresses alternatives for new city hall What are the alternatives? By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR A proposed $9 million price tag on building a new city hall has sparked a lot of questions in Hermiston, and the city is looking to provide answers. After few residents attended the city council meeting on Feb. 10 where an overview of the proposal was presented to coun- cilors, city staff made the same presentation again on Tuesday, at 12:30 p.m. at the Harkenrider Senior Activity Center and 6 p.m. in the Lanham Room of the Hermiston Public Library. After the East Orego- nian and Hermiston Herald broke the news of the price on Tuesday, many resi- dents questioned on Face- book why the city couldn’t just repair its current build- ing, which was damaged in a ﬁ re, or renovate another building it already owns. “Are there no options other than to destroy a per- fectly usable (by *some- body*, even if not the city) building?” Judy Gorm- ley wrote. “Can we really afford to throw away that building and spend $$$$$$$ on a huge new one?” Other residents called it an “outrageous price,” said they would rather see $9 million go toward help- ing the homeless, or wor- ried that their taxes would be raised. Several asked why the city wouldn’t sell the current building, use the money to renovate the Hermiston Community Center and move in there. During Monday’s coun- cil meeting, city manager Byron Smith said the city had hired Architects West in 2017 to look at the city’s options for building a new city hall. The ﬁ rm came up with ﬁ ve different propos- als, which Smith said were all “within 10% of each other” in terms of estimated price. Those options were: • Expand and modern- ize the current city hall • Demolish the current building and build a new one on site • Turn the current Hermiston Public Library into a new city hall • Turn the Hermiston Community Center into a new city hall • Build a new city hall on currently undevel- oped land “The one that scored the best was to rebuild on the existing site,” Smith said. If the city chose not to pursue a new city hall at this time, it could also use the approximately $175,000 insurance payout to repair the smoke and ﬁ re damage to the current building. How do they stack up? On Wednesday the city released a document going into detail about the pros and cons of each option that the city considered. Adding on to the current city hall was ruled out due to the limited space on site. There would not be much room to build out, and the building was built before the Americans with Dis- abilities Act of 1990. If the ONLINE The city’s 6 p.m. public meeting on Tuesday night took place after the Hermiston Herald’s print deadline. For a report on the meeting, see www. hermistonherald.com or see next week’s Herald.” Floor plan contributed by city of Hermiston city were to expand or do extensive remodeling, the building would have to be brought up to ADA stan- dards, and many of the required improvements, such as adding an elevator, would take up signiﬁ cant space. Three other options — building on a new site or remodeling the library or community center — could give the city extra money to work with by selling the current city hall. However, particularly with the current damage to the building, city staff expressed concerns about being able to sell it. “Marketability and rede- velopment of the current City Hall are highly ques- tionable, potentially creat- ing a blighted property at the heart of downtown,” staff wrote. The memo also expressed reservations about remod- eling the Hermiston Com- munity Center, noting that the building was already 60 years old and had originally been intended as a grocery store. According to the esti- mates by Architects West, it would need “extensive work” that would come within 10% of the cost of the proposed new building. The memo stated that the community center serves “a number of needs in the community” and the city would need to put money into upgrading other facili- ties it owns to make up for losing the space. Not mentioned in the memo was the fact that a private buyer, yet unnamed by the city, has expressed interest in purchasing the community center for a dif- ferent use. That question could also come before the city council at some point (the city would not be able to sell the building without a public vote). Remodeling the library would require similar ADA updates as expanding city hall, and would require the city to ﬁ nd a new location for its library. And build- ing on a vacant lot would require the money to pur- chase that lot. What is the recommended plan? In the plan recommended by Architects West, the city would spend a total of $9 million — about $700,000 of which would go toward remodeling the basement of the Hermiston Public Library into a makeshift city hall during the con- struction period. The idea would be to perform the remodel in such a way to make the basement more usable to the library in the future. The rest of the money would go to a two-story building plus basement — with each of the three levels about 9,200 square feet — on the current city hall site at 180 N.E. Gladys Ave. The building would include room to grow, would move all municipal court func- tions out of the public safety building and would move the building depart- ment out of the old Carne- gie Library. Staff have proposed pay- ing for the building with a 30-year loan at less than 3% interest, which would require the city to come up with about $439,000 per year for payments. Smith said that the city could use Enterprise Zone payments in lieu of taxes from com- panies such as Amazon to cover the cost. Hermiston Police Department has busy year The department received more calls, and made more stops in 2019 By JESSICA POLLARD STAFF WRITER New statistics detail- ing annual crime and patrol numbers in 2019 show that from a policing stand- point, things are looking up for the Hermiston Police Department. In 2018, trafﬁ c stops in Hermiston dipped more than 1,000 below the 10-year average as ofﬁ - cers were reshufﬂ ed in the wake of staff illnesses and absences. “2018 was a horrible year for trying to stay ahead,” said Police Chief Jason Edmis- ton said. “We expected a rebound in 2019.” That’s exactly what the department got. In 2019, trafﬁ c stops saw a 36% upswing from 2018. Total issued citations increased by 29% to 6,593. Calls for service increased by 3%, which Edmiston acknowledges is a small jump, but it means a lot, after the consolidation of the Hermiston Dispatch Center with Umatilla Coun- ty’s Regional 911 Dispatch Center in 2014 may have made it harder to track calls. “As the population con- tinues to trend up, the calls for service are trending up. Everything is encouraging,” he said. He added that an increase in calls for service demon- strates a level of trust between civilians and law enforcement. But it would seem more of those calls may have been about violent crimes in 2019. The city’s 10-year annual average for violent crimes is 35 per year. Since 2017, Hermiston has averaged more than 40 violent crimes a year and 2019 was no dif- ferent, logging 45. The city also saw a jump in reported aggravated assaults — 34 in total in 2019 compared with the 10-year average of 22 cases per year. For Edmiston, that jump is part of something bigger. “(The increase) is from a trifecta of technology, the public acting more violently, and legislative changes.” Edmiston attributed a possible rise in aggressive behavior to continual drug decriminalization in the state. In addition to crime and patrol statistics, the Herm- iston Police Department tracks records requests. And all through 2019, the depart- ment saw a 39% increase in information requests, from 2,730 to 3,801. “What we’re hearing, Solar Shades, Screens, Retractable Awnings & More! “Enhancing the Art of Outdoor Living” 509-308-1354 and what we believe, is that because we’re so respon- sive, people come to us for information,” he said. Edmiston added that recently the records depart- ment adopted new software to simplify the tracking of information requests. “That increase is pretty signiﬁ cant,” he said. “Because of that, we’re add- ing another position.” Later this year, the police department intends to cre- ate another administrative ofﬁ ce position to help ﬁ l- ter requests more quickly and keep the police station lobby open as frequently as possible. “At the end of the day, we try to be transparent,” Edmiston said. “We need to get our hands around this.” And in terms of state- level data, the agency is waiting. Edmiston said that likely this summer, state-mandated data tracking trafﬁ c and pedestrian stops for smaller and medium-sized police agencies is anticipated to debut. It’s the same type of data that in 2019 showed Port- land police were twice as likely to perform searches on black people than white people. But Edmiston isn’t too worried about the pros- pect of such disproportion- ate numbers in growing Hermiston. “I think we’re going to be somewhere in the middle. I don’t think we’ll see huge spikes,” he said. As for the rest of 2020, Edmiston said a ﬁ ve-year contract for body cameras will be renewed. Come sum- mertime, the agency will hire its third school resource ofﬁ cer. “I’m kind of just hop- ing for a status quo kind of year,” he said. Save the Date Feb. 28th and 29th OPEN HOUSE License #188965 www.nwshadeco.com 102 E Columbia Dr. Kennewick 99336 PET OF THE W EEK Little Meno is just a little over a year old. He was born blind. He is super loving, funny, playful and needy. His forever home will need to be with someone who is always home or can take to work with them. No children under 12, as he is only 4.8 pounds and can get hurt easily. Can not be left unattended outside. We will require that he has at least 3 visits with someone before he goes home with them. MEET MENO Mark Sargent, DVM • Brent Barton, DVM Eugenio Mannucci, DVM, cVMA • Jana von Borstel, DVM, cVMA Small and Large Animal Care Mon: 8-6 Tue - Fri: 8-5 Sat: 8-12 Emergency Service 541.567.1138 80489 Hwy 395 N Hermiston www.oregontrailvet.com PLACE YOUR AD HERE! Contact Audra at 541.564.4538 Today! If interested please go to fuzzballrescue.com and fill out an application. If you are not able to adopt, but would like to foster or donate, visit fuzzballrescue.com or you can mail in donations to Fuzz Ball Animal Rescue, PO Box 580, Hermiston, OR 97838 FACTORY REPS ON SITE LOCALLY BUILT • NO SHIPPING COSTS 1201 Southgate, Pendleton Or 97801 Call 1-800-459-4836 • www.thompsonrvinc.com Hours: Friday the 28th 8:00am to 8:00 pm Saturday 9:00 am - 4:00 pm