NEWS
Wednesday, september 9, 2020
HermIstOnHeraLd.COm • A3
Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office prepares to add body cameras
By ALEX CASTLE
staFF WrIter
As calls for police accountabil-
ity reach each corner of the coun-
try, the Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Office is preparing to outfit its dep-
uties with body-worn cameras.
“I believe there’s been a lot of
commentary in the press and so
on about the use of the body cam-
eras and the need for departments
to have that available,” Umatilla
County Commissioner Bill Elf-
ering said at a county meeting on
Wednesday, Sept. 2. “I think we
have some liability outstanding if
we don’t have it, and I think it sig-
nificantly adds to the professional-
ism of our department.”
The city of Hermiston spent
$70,000 in late 2014 to give its
police department lapel-mounted
mounted body cameras for its
officers. Umatilla County Sheriff
Terry Rowan said the costs
associated with the cameras are
what delayed his department from
adding them until 2020.
HH file photo
In preparation for the cameras,
the Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners approved the sher-
iff’s office to purchase additional
equipment for $24,185 that will
expand its server space to store
footage and software to redact por-
tions of the footage. It will be the
first update to the sheriff’s office
server system for police footage
since it was implemented with the
department’s in-car video system
in 2012.
“It’s going to be essential to
have a server that’s sufficient
to cover both of those,” Capt.
Dave Williams said at the Sept. 2
meeting.
Hermiston Police Department
has been using body cameras since
2015. Police Chief Jason Edmis-
ton said in a recent interview with
the East Oregonian that he was
glad the union was “absolutely in
favor” of body cameras as a way
to keep both law enforcement and
citizens accountable during inter-
actions. When citizens make com-
plaints, it is helpful to be able to
review body camera footage to see
if an officer fell short, and provide
correction as needed.
“When we don’t put our best
foot forward we need to take
appropriate action,” he said.
Umatilla County Sheriff Terry
Rowan said there’s not a set date
for when the body cameras will be
deployed by the department this
year, and it may take two waves
of implementation before every
deputy is outfitted with one. How-
ever, he said the goal is to deploy
all of them by the end of the cal-
endar year.
Rowan said his department’s
wait on implementing them com-
pared to other area agencies came
from concerns about costs and
a first priority on expanding the
department’s number of patrol
deputies in the county.
“It’s always something we
knew we’d have to be creative
with in order to bring them to our
agency,” he said.
News editor Jade McDowell
contributed to this report.
Hermiston gets $1.5 million federal economic development grant
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edItOr
The city of Hermis-
ton made significant prog-
ress toward a planned proj-
ect in its South Hermiston
Industrial Park after the fed-
eral Economic Development
Administration announced a
nearly $1.5 million grant to
the city.
The city hopes to use the
money to make the industry
park along South Highway
395 more “shovel ready” to
attract new development,
creating 16 new parcels
in the federally approved
Opportunity Zone.
Improvements
being
considered would include
new water and sewer mains
between South Highway
395 and Penney Avenue
along an unimproved right-
of-way and into property
owned by the Port of Uma-
tilla. It would also include
paving the currently unde-
veloped Southeast 10th
Street right-of-way, turn-
ing it into essentially a new
road, and paving Campbell
Drive.
The
projects
aren’t
ready for a green light quite
yet, however, as the grant
requires a dollar-for-dollar
match from the city.
“While it is nice to
receive a $1.4 million fed-
eral grant, we still need to
come up with $1.4 million
ourselves,” assistant city
manager Mark Morgan said.
Morgan said the city,
Umatilla County and the
Port of Umatilla will pro-
vide about $900,000 of the
required match, and then
the city hopes to form a
local improvement district
that would require the sur-
rounding property own-
ers to chip in the rest. The
city council will have to go
through a public hearing
process and allow property
owners the chance to reject
the proposal if at least 60%
formally oppose it.
Rep. Greg Walden’s
office announced the grant
funding on Tuesday, Sept.
8, and applauded the EDA
for its contribution to
Hermiston.
“I’ve said it before and
I will say it again — the
Trump Administration and
Secretary of Commerce
Wilbur Ross continue to
deliver for Oregonians and
provide the support we
need in our part of the
state to help us recover
from some of the economic
impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic,” Walden said
in a news release. “This
money will support new
water
infrastructure in
Hermiston, helping to grow
Umatilla County reports 40th COVID death
HermIstOn HeraLd
Umatilla
County
reported the 40th death of
a county resident who had
tested positive for COVID-
19 on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
According to a press
release, the resident was
a 68-year-old male who
tested positive for the virus
on June 23 and died at a pri-
vate residence on July 16.
“The death certificate
listed COVID-19 disease or
SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of
death or a significant condi-
tion contributing to death,”
the press release stated.
Umatilla County Public
Health also reported 36 new
confirmed cases of the virus
stretching from Friday,
Sept. 4, to Tuesday, Sept. 8.
According to depart-
ment, there have been
2,795 total cases within the
county. This count includes
148 presumptive cases of
the virus, which refer to the
number of people who have
symptoms and a known
exposure to someone who
has tested positive but
have not yet tested positive
themselves.
If those individuals
test positive, they are then
recategorized as confirmed
A WORC taxi will get you to and
from your job anywhere in western
Umatilla County.
Anyone who comes in through the end
of December, can get four FREE punch
cards, which equals 40 one-way rides
to/from work.
Visit https://hermiston.or.us/public-transit
to find out how to sign up, and how WORC and the HART
bus service work together to connect Hermiston.
cases and removed from the
tally of presumptive cases.
Hospitalizations
have
declined to five as of Sept.
8.
Oregon Health Author-
ity reported 169 new con-
firmed and presumptive
cases of COVID-19 as of
12:01 a.m. on Sept. 8, bring-
ing the state total to 28,355
and 486 deaths of persons
positive for COVID-19.
the economy and jobs in
eastern Oregon.”
According to the news
release, the improvements
are projected to encourage
as many as 250 new jobs
and $70 million in private
investment in the indus-
trial park. Morgan said the
investment will allow the
city to place more focus on
supporting smaller light-in-
dustrial developments that
only need one to five acres.
Morgan said COVID-19
has had some “interesting
impacts” on costs of con-
struction materials since
the city first planned the
project in 2019, but the city
can always scale back how
far the new road extends
into the industrial park if
needed.
He said he was grateful
for Umatilla County and the
Port of Umatilla for under-
standing the need to develop
Hermiston’s prime indus-
trial land and “readily vol-
unteering” to assist in the
funding match.
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