HERMISTON WRESTLERS, SWIMMERS GO TO STATE » PAGE 8, 9
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
$1.50
INSIDE
MOVING FORWARD
NIMBY
Neighbors of a proposed
subdivision are concerned
about the traffic it will bring.
Page » A3
FLOOD MONEY
A walk-out jeopardizes a
proposed $11 million in
flood recovery for Umatilla
County.
Page » A12
DAM LETTER
Gov. Kate Brown supports
removal of the Snake River
dams.
Page » A13
BY THE WAY
Tugboat sinks
into Columbia
After strong winds
sunk a tugboat into the
Columbia River a few
miles east of Umatilla
on Monday, the Ore-
gon Department of
Environmental Qual-
ity said operations are
progressing to deal with
the impact of the sunken
vessel.
Laura
Gleim,
a
spokeswoman for DEQ,
said crews have been on
scene tending to the ves-
sel and have placed con-
tainment booms around
the sunken craft in an
effort to avoid fuel and oil
from spreading into the
river.
While environmental
agencies are concerned
about the 750 gallons of
diesel fuel the tugboat
is believed to have been
carrying, Gleim said that
divers’ inspections of
the tugboat have shown
the fuel tanks appear to
be undamaged despite a
3-foot gash in the ship’s
hull.
The 38-foot Tug Nova
was built in 1963 and is
owned by HME Con-
struction, a marine con-
struction firm based out of
Vancouver, Washington,
according to the compa-
ny’s website. The vessel
will be towed to Vancou-
ver for repairs.
Gleim said there have
staff photo by ben Lonergan
Hermiston city manager Byron Smith looks at the furnace of the Hermiston City Hall during a tour of the fire-damaged building Monday
night.
Hermiston City Council votes to move forward on new city hall
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
Two months after a fire damaged the
interior of Hermiston’s city hall build-
ing, city councilors unanimously voted
to move forward with the construction of
a new city hall building at a meeting on
Monday night.
“There’s never a good time,” said
Mayor David Drotzmann shortly before
the motion to vote. “It’s not a conver-
sation we started two months ago. It’s a
conversation we had for several years, to
figure out how we’re going to address the
inadequacies of city hall.”
City manager Byron Smith previously
recommended the council vote to build
a new city hall on the same site as the
old one and remodel the basement of the
library as a temporary office space for city
employees in the meantime. The project
would be a combined total price of about
$9 million.
He added at the previous city coun-
cil meeting that a new city hall space
would allow for the police department to
expand, as municipal court services cur-
rently located at the crowded public safety
building could be moved to the new city
building. He added that the library base-
ment renovation for the temporary city
hall would eventually benefit the library,
which could turn the more open floor plan
See BTW, Page A2
See City Hall, Page A14
staff photo by ben Lonergan
Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann inspects damage to the furnace at the Hermiston
City Hall ahead of Monday night’s city council meeting.
MORE INFORMATION
For more from Monday’s city council meeting, including an announcement that the city
is no longer considering the sale of the Hermiston Community Center, see Page A3.
Live Better U provides debt-free degree
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
8
08805 93294
2
Ashli Palmer’s career at
Walmart has funded two dif-
ferent college degrees, but
the company had a much
more direct hand in the most
recent one.
Palmer started at Walmart
at age 20, working as an
overnight stocker in their La
Grande store to help pay her
way through a bachelor’s
degree in business from
Eastern Oregon University.
Now, more than 15 years
later, she is the first Orego-
nian to graduate through
Walmart’s Live Better U,
which offers Walmart asso-
ciates the opportunity to
earn a college degree or
other certifications for only
$1 per day.
“I push this program
to everyone, because it’s
designed for people who are
working and have lives,” she
said. “They made it so easy
for working professionals,
and at such a great cost.”
Palmer has done “a lit-
tle bit of everything” for
the company over the years,
but currently works as the
human resources manager
at the Walmart Distribution
Center in Hermiston. When
Walmart announced Live
Better U in 2018, she jumped
at the chance to increase her
knowledge by pursuing a
bachelor’s degree in sup-
ply chain, transportation and
logistics management.
“It aligns perfectly with
what we do here,” she said.
Live Better U currently
offers about 30 different
degrees, as well as certifi-
cations such as pharmacy
technician, through various
institutions, with Walmart
picking up most of the tab.
In Palmer’s case, her degree
comes from Bellevue Uni-
versity. She started course-
work in October 2018, with
new courses every six weeks
involving homework, tests,
See Walmart, Page A14
staff photo by ben Lonergan
Ashli Palmer, the human resource manager at the Walmart
Distribution Center in Hermiston, recently completed
Walmart’s Live Better U program, a program that allows
Walmart employees to get a college degree for $1 a day.