NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2020
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Food truck pod to stay on Orchard Avenue
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Hermiston’s food truck pod
will make its permanent home
at its current location on the cor-
ner of Southwest Third Street and
Orchard Avenue.
The Hermiston City Council
voted during their July 13 meeting
to make improvements to the site
rather than try to move it to another
location. They had previously
studied possible sites at Butte Park
and Newport Park, but voted unan-
imously July 13 that Orchard Ave-
nue was the best option due to its
lower cost and prominent location
across from the Hermiston Post
Offi ce and McKenzie Park.
“Everybody knows where it is
right now,” councilor Doug Prim-
mer said.
Mayor
David
Drotzmann
expressed concern that the location
was hot and unshaded compared
to the grassy parks, but coun-
cilor Manuel Gutierrez said when
he gets tacos there he just walks
across the street to McKenzie Park.
The food truck pod, which
closes each winter, is in its second
year. It began as a pilot program
in the summer 2019 with trucks
parked in a municipal parking lot.
Afterward, councilors agreed that
it should continue in the same spot
for another season while the city
studied possible locations.
Now that the council has decided
to keep it there permanently, the
city plans to add water and sewer
hookups, similar to campsites at
an RV park, along with shade and
other amenities. City Planner Clint
Spencer told the council that Pat-
rick Hunt, who currently manages
the pod for the city, had been work-
ing with fi ve or six other vendors
who had expressed interest in par-
ticipating in the pod. He said some
of them had been held back by
the health department not approv-
ing new licenses for food trucks
during the pandemic, while others
had said they would be interested
if water and sewer hookups were
made available.
On Monday, the city coun-
cil also voted to join other cities
around the country in a lawsuit
against the Federal Communica-
tions Commission for restrictions
it recently placed on cities regard-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The Hermiston City Council voted during their July 13 meeting to keep Hermiston’s food truck pod at its current
location on the corner of Southwest Third Street and Orchard Avenue and upgrade the site.
ing their ability to control their
rights-of-way.
In the past, cities have been
able to set fees for telecommuni-
cations companies to place devices
on power poles, and set rules about
how they look. The FCC’s change
in rules sets a cap on how much
cities can charge and restricts
them from creating rules about
aesthetics.
Drotzmann said the change was
meant to pave the way for compa-
nies to be able to roll out 5G tech-
nology faster, but it would hurt
taxpayers.
“Now they’ve made it a point
that we can hardly charge any-
thing, and potentially it will cost
us money to engage with these
projects, and so the taxpayers will
eventually end up paying addi-
tional fees rather than these big
corporations paying fees,” he said.
The council voted to allow the
city to participate in the litigation
up to $5,000 in legal fees.
The council also voted to renew
its contract with Anderson Perry &
Associates as its city engineer for
projects, such as new sidewalks,
roads and utilities. City Manager
Byron Smith said city staff were
very pleased with the job the com-
pany had done since they were
hired in 2015.
During the time for councilor
comments, the council discussed
a trip that some of them took on
Saturday, July 11, to the shelter in
Walla Walla, Washington, run by
the Walla Walla Alliance for the
Homeless. A Hermiston nonprofi t
called Stepping Stones is propos-
ing a similar project for Hermiston.
The project would involve
small huts, restrooms and a com-
munity building behind the Agape
House on Harper Road that would
be available to homeless residents
for use in the evenings if they abide
by certain rules.
Councilors brought up some
questions and concerns about what
they had seen to Cathy Lloyd of
Stepping Stones, who was pres-
ent at the meeting. Primmer, for
example, said the Stepping Stones
plan involved having volunteers
work to check people in during the
evenings, which is how the Walla
Walla site usually works, but after
COVID-19 hit, the state of Wash-
ington has mandated that homeless
shelters be available around the
clock while everyone was required
to stay at home.
“If you have 24/7 people,
you’ve got to have 24/7 people
keeping an eye on it, and where’s
that money going to come from?”
he asked.
He also brought up concerns
that the proposed site in Hermis-
ton was so close to Theater Sports
Park.
Lloyd said that the Walla Walla
shelter had received grant money
to staff the shelter 24 hours a day,
and said that Stepping Stones
would make it clear to guests that
they would be barred from using
the shelter if they got in trouble for
trespassing or loitering at the park.
Drotzmann had questions and
concerns of his own about the bud-
get and Stepping Stones’ ability to
keep the project staffed, but also
said that business owners in Walla
Walla had expressed apprecia-
tion that giving homeless residents
their own place to sleep, bathe and
use the restroom had reduced prob-
lems with them doing those things
downtown.
Councilors also discussed their
concern about rising COVID-19
numbers in Hermiston during the
time for councilor reports.
Councilor Roy Barron made an
impassioned plea for all Hermis-
ton residents to wear masks. While
councilors and staff were masked
at the meeting, a few attendees
were not.
Barron said people who care
about their neighbors, and who
care about the Latino community
and agricultural workers that have
experienced especially high rates
of COVID-19, will wear a mask.
“If you want school to be open
in the fall and for there to be no hic-
cups whatsoever for kids return-
ing back to school, you’ll wear
a mask,” he said. “If you want
businesses to remain open, and
for them not to suffer any longer,
you’ll wear a mask.”
Hermiston School District
Superintendent Tricia Mooney
backed up Barron’s message by
saying that with COVID-19 num-
bers as high as they are in Uma-
tilla County, school won’t be able
to reopen completely with all chil-
dren back to school every day in
the fall.
She said the district keeps hav-
ing to refi ne its plans to tailor to
specifi c rules, grade levels and
building layouts, but in the end
parents can expect a hybrid ver-
sion of school with some online
learning and some in-person inter-
actions. The district will then be
prepared for fully online learning
during temporary closures sparked
by outbreaks.
She said it won’t be ideal, but
it is the reality the district is work-
ing with.
“I’m heartbroken for our kids
that lost what they lost in the spring
with an abrupt closure,” she said.
“I’m heartbroken for the kids that
are going to lose what they’re going
to lose next year when we can’t
have our kids back the way that we
need to have our kids back.”
Drotzmann said the city has
several large facilities at its dis-
posal, and that he would be inter-
ested in seeing the city offer up use
of those facilities if it can help pro-
vide more socially distanced class-
room space for the district to work
with. Other councilors said they
liked that idea, even if it involved
some sacrifi ces on the city’s part.
“The school district has been, in
recent years, very good about what
we can do with (their facilities),
and I think it’s time for us to pay
it back,” councilor Jackie Myers
said.
Hermiston makes plans for new parks and trails in next 20 years
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
A 20-year parks master
plan for the city of Herm-
iston envisions adding sev-
eral new parks, trails and
an indoor recreation center
to Hermiston over the next
two decades.
Consultants from the
planning fi rm Cameron
McCarthy presented a draft
of the plan to the city coun-
cil during a work session on
July 13. They worked with
city staff and the Herm-
iston School District to
put the plan together over
the past year, using feed-
back from focus groups,
pop-up booths at commu-
nity events and an online
survey that got more than
700 responses.
“I’m very, very pleased
with the work they have
done for us,” parks and rec-
reation director Larry Fet-
ter said. “The quality of this
work is exceptional.”
Colin McArthur, a prin-
cipal at the fi rm, told the
council that at 4.6 acres of
park land per 1,000 res-
idents Hermiston has a
lower than average ratio of
parks per capita for a city
of its size. Looking at pro-
jected growth for Hermis-
ton, the city would need to
add 22.5 new acres of parks
just to maintain the current
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan, fi le
People walk the trails at Riverfront Park in Hermiston in early
May.
ratio, McArthur said.
The draft plan suggests
and prioritizes 22 projects,
including a 67,000-square-
foot “health and wellness”
center that would include
an indoor pool. McArthur
said that was the highest
priority expressed in feed-
back from residents. The
preferred location for the
facility would be on the old
fairgrounds behind Hermis-
ton High School.
Another major proj-
ect would be a regional
sports park on the corner of
G OOD S HEPHERD C OMMUNITY H EALTH F OUNDATION
2020 FALL GRANTS
Good Shepherd Community Health Foundation
awards Fall Grants annually to qualified
organizations for the betterment of health needs
within our local service communities.
The deadline to submit a Fall Grant
application is July 31st, 2020.
Applications can be
made online at
gshealth.org/foundation/awards
or call the Foundation office at
541-667-3419
for further information.
Northwest 11th Street and
Elm Avenue, where a disc
golf course currently sits
across from Good Shepherd
Medical Center. McArthur
said a fi rst phase would
add off-street parking and
four fi elds that could be
used for soccer, lacrosse
or other sports. A second
phase would add four more
fi elds and a third would add
nighttime lighting.
“Hermiston does seem
ready and primed for a
complex of this caliber,” he
said.
The plan includes adding
a dog park to Butte Park and
improvements to the soccer
fi elds there, and improving
Steelhead Park to add picnic
shelters and a boat ramp for
small, unmotorized craft.
At Riverfront Park, the city
plans to move the parking,
restrooms and playground
equipment to the south side
of the park, which doesn’t
usually fl ood when the
Umatilla River overfl ows.
The
school
district
allowed the plan to include
some planning of possible
parks on its property, includ-
ing adding a playground,
lacrosse fi elds and a trail to
the Field of Dreams off of
Diagonal Boulevard. The
plan proposes a new neigh-
borhood park, tentatively
titled Gettman Park, on land
the school district owns off
Gettman Road near Armand
Larive Middle School.
McArthur
said
the
developers of the Cimma-
ron Terrace and Legacy
subdivisions in the north-
east part of Hermiston
plan to add parks to their
developments.
A proposed park ten-
tatively titled Baker’s
Pond would turn property
along Elm Avenue east
of Walmart into a “natu-
ral area park” with a trail
winding through the ponds
and other natural habitat
Neighborhood
Books & Gifts
• Used books
• Audio books
• Homeschool
• Book related gifts
• Much more!
Michael and Judy Gormley, Owners
279 E. Main Street • Hermiston, OR 97838
(541) 626-3504 • neighborhoodBG@yahoo.com
NeighborhoodBooksandGifts
already there.
The city hopes to build
a “teen adventure park,”
including a skate park, on
North First Place across
from the fi re station.
In addition to parks, the
plan also calls for new trails
connecting different parks
around Hermiston, such as a
trail from Belt Park to Har-
rison Park that would then
connect to the Oxbow Trail.
City councilor Roy Bar-
ron asked McArthur why
sprucing up the basketball
courts across from New-
port Park wasn’t on the list,
when the courts are well-
used and in need of repair.
McArthur said smaller proj-
ects like that would fall
under the “continuing main-
tenance” category.
Fetter told the council
that the plan, which will
come back to the coun-
cil for adoption after some
fi nal tweaks, does not allo-
cate money for the projects
outlined or set anything in
stone. It is merely meant
to be a guide, based on the
community’s priorities.
“It’s very comprehensive
in its presentation, but there
will be other opportunities
that will arise,” he said.
priorities
A hundred years from now it will not matter what My bank account
was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the
world may be different because I was important in the Life of a Child.