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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2020)
NEWS A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020 Fair: Continued from Page A1 and talking her animal up to potential auction buyers — something she’ll miss doing this year. But even with just a photo to show bidders, she said she had faith that the community would come through for its youth as usual. Last year, the auction raised more than $600,000 total for participating stu- dents, who often use the money for everything from college savings to buying their own head of cattle. “It’s such a vital thing that the community is not just going to forget about it,” she said. Emily Lillegard, 16, of Stanfi eld, said on Monday, Aug. 10, that dropping her lamb Bandit off was prob- ably going to be a little harder than saying goodbye during the auction, because she wouldn’t have spent all week with Bandit. She said raising a lamb is still rewarding, hard work, however, even if she didn’t get to do the usual showmanship activities at the fair. The absence of most of the usual fair activities was also hard for the adults who usually participate. Gay and Alice Newman were set to be the fair parade’s grand marshals this year, after more than four decades of participation in the fair. Between the two of them, the “dynamic duo” have served on various fair com- mittees, as leaders of 4-H and FFA, on the fair board, as a fair court chaperone Council: Continued from Page A1 which the city plans to cover using payment from enter- prise zone projects and from Umatilla County. The county plans to lease space in the new city hall. The agreement between the two entities would give the county about 5,000 square feet of space for up to 15 years in exchange for $3 million, about $400,000 of which would be represented by the county giving the city its building at 435 E. New- port Ave. The city council voted unanimously to authorize staff to execute the issuance of full faith and credit bonds up to $9.6 million. Park plan During the Aug. 10 meeting the council also approved a new open space master plan for parks and recreation. Parks and Rec- reation Director Larry Fetter told the council that the plan does not commit the city to spending any money, but rather provides a vision cre- ated out of a yearlong pro- cess of research and gather- ing community feedback. “I just want to remind you this plan is intended to be visionary, inspirational, to provide alternatives and partnerships to create new park facilities and recreation programming,” he said. The 20-year master plan, which the council discussed in depth during a July 13 workshop, includes a well- ness center with an indoor pool likely built on the old fairgrounds near the high school and a multi-fi eld sports complex across 11th Street from Good Shep- herd Medical Center. It also includes new neighborhood parks, trails and improve- Staff photo by Ben Lonergan A goat peers from its pen in the livestock barn on the fi rst day of the 2020 Umatilla County Fair Modifi ed Youth Livestock Show on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. and as volunteers in nearly every capacity possible at the fair. Gay Newman said they would miss being able to have their usual level of participation, but they were still helping weigh animals on Tuesday morning, Aug. 11. He said the fair has always been his family’s “big thing” and it was tough not being able to enjoy all the normal trappings of fair week, even if they under- stood why. “I miss it,” he said. “You don’t get to talk to the kids and listen to their stories and see the excitement on their faces.” Still, he said, the com- munity has always been supportive of the fair and he has faith that they will be back in strong form next year. “We’ll get through this,” he said. Anna Browne, 4-H coor- dinator with the Oregon State University exten- sion center in Hermis- ton, said 4-H participants were uploading home- made showmanship vid- eos for judges to watch, and the community can watch confi rmation of the animals each day through a video feed Hermiston School District has cre- ated on its YouTube Chan- nel at youtube.com/c/ HSDCommunications. A link to the video, as well as livestock scores, photos, winners and more, are being posted on the Umatilla County Fair Youth Livestock Auction page. 4-H youths have also been participating online by holding live competi- tions over Zoom for cate- gories, such as cooking and public speech. “It’s been a bit of a learn- ing process,” Browne said. “Some things we’ve done have been fun, just differ- ent. I appreciate the kids who have been willing to take the risk with the video format.” ments to current parks, such as Steelhead Park. City councilors praised the plan. “It’s a very good, all-in- clusive parks plan,” said Jackie Myers, who sits on the parks and recreation committee. “There’s a little bit for everyone.” and someone would put a house and some barns there, resulting in about $58,000 in property taxes and $15,000 in base utility fees for the city over the next 20 years. If the city were to make an agreement with a devel- oper specializing in senior citizen housing develop- ments, Morgan estimated that if a developer put in a $3 million assisted living facility and a 28-unit duplex development the city would get $1.14 million in prop- erty taxes and $1.8 million in base utility fees over 20 years. He said the development would provide a psycholog- ical buffer against the treat- ment plant for other potential developers for land farther south of the plant, and such a development would create jobs and provide more hous- ing options for the wave of retiring Baby Boomers. Mary Gill told the coun- cil her property ran along 75% of the property’s south- ern border, and other fam- ily members own other land nearby. She asked that the city consider selling the property to her family at fair market value. She acknowl- edged that she would plan on making a boundary adjustment that would pull the property back into the county, meaning the city wouldn’t make additional money from the property, but said she didn’t think the site was a good location for housing. “The thought of having duplexes on that side of my property breaks my heart,” she said. The council voted unani- mously to allow city staff to market the property to devel- opers and see what types of proposals those developers were willing to put forth. Land surplus Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan proposed the city use what is known in the business world as the “razor and blade” approach to recoup some of its invest- ment on a 20-acre property known as the Green Prop- erty on the south side of the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The razor and blade strat- egy refers to giving some- thing of value away or sell- ing it cheaply in order to cause people to spend more money later on — such as a razor company selling a razor handle at cost to hook people into buying profi table replacement blades from the company again and again. The city purchased the Green Property for $420,000 in 2006 with the idea of using the land to cool down recycled water coming out of the treatment plant before it hit the Uma- tilla River. Tests on the site to that effect did not pan out, Morgan said, and now the city pumps that water into irrigation ditches instead of the river during the summer. Morgan said because the city removed the home and barns that had been on the property, and then built monitoring wells, it is highly unlikely that if the city put the entire property up for open auction that it would get what it paid for. He said judging by sim- ilar property in the vicin- ity, the city would likely get about $325,000 at auction Steel on the inside where it matters most. Shops Garages Commercial Industrial www.WSBNW.com 855 • 668 • 7211 Sandy, OR S199169-1 Homeless discussion Call For An Appointment: Toll Free 1-855-525-4677 Hermiston: 1050 W. Elm St., Ste #220 Hermiston, OR 97838 541-289-4601 Kennewick: 8901 W. Gage Blvd Kennewick, WA 99336 509-735-1100 Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Volunteers check in animals on the fi rst day of the 2020 Umatilla County Fair Modifi ed Youth Livestock Show on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Volunteers show market lambs on the fi rst day of the 2020 Umatilla County Fair Modifi ed Youth Livestock Show on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, all animals were shown by the same group of volunteers and members of the public, and those who raised the animals were required to watch via livestream if they wanted to take part. During the Aug. 10 meet- ing, the council also dis- cussed a variety of other topics, including ways COVID-19 continues to impact the community. Mayor David Drotzmann said he seemed to be seeing a lot of “new faces” on the street and asked Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston if it seemed like there had been an increase in Herm- iston’s homeless population this year. Edmiston said the department doesn’t make any offi cial counts of home- lessness in Hermiston, but he had noticed an uptick in calls for service relat- ing to transient individuals. He said for the fi rst 10 days of August, 39% of the calls the day shift responded to involved a homeless resi- dent, and 30% of calls on the night shift. “It’s to the point where I’ve had several conversa- tions with the city manager,” he said. When Drotzmann asked 541-567-0272 2150 N. First St., Hermiston August 11th-16th Call ahead and use our Drive thru. Purchase a face mask inside for $5-$7 20 % OFF • META LAB GRAVIOLA CBD OIL • BOB’S RED MILL OATMEALS ASSORTED KINDS whether they were people who had previously lived in the area but were newly homeless or had recently moved to the area, Edmiston said some people are Herm- iston residents “we have dealt with over the years and are now transient.” But he also said the depart- ment arrested one person from Washington who spe- cifi cally told them he had come to Hermiston to wait for the possibility of getting a hut through the Stepping Stones project that a pri- vate group has proposed as a way of creating additional shelter for the homeless in Hermiston. Edmiston said there were other reasons a homeless individual might move to Hermiston as well, including Oregon’s continued steps in decriminalizing controlled substances. He said some individuals with mental ill- nesses also prefer to live in rural areas with fewer men- tal health services available so they won’t be “forced” into treatment. Drotzmann reminded the audience that the city is using some of its federal CARES Act stimulus money to create a new rental and mortgage assistance pro- gram through the nonprofi t CAPECO, which people can access if they are struggling to keep their home. Smith noted that the city’s planning commis- sion will be discussing pos- sible changes to the city’s zoning rules on Wednes- day, Aug. 12, at 7 p.m. at the Hermiston Community Cen- ter that would allow emer- gency shelter projects, such as Stepping Stones, to exist. ( &))% ) ))&) )% %))#)) ( '))')%!) !) )% ))&)) ( )% ) ))"% ) $ ( )% )%) )" ( ))%))))) )&"r)% ) $ &))$) ) Take & Bake Pizzas, Salads, Wraps Smoothies & Juices to go. Sidewalk Sale Clearance Clothing 50% OFF Reg Retail Please maintain 6 feet social distancing while in the store.
