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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 2020)
NEWS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2020 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 Hermiston council discusses electric rate increase By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR Hermiston Energy Ser- vices is likely headed for a rate increase in 2021 after the Hermiston City Council discussed options for one during a Monday, Oct. 12, workshop. Councilors asked HES General Manager Nate Rivera to bring back detailed proposals for a few different rate increase options, but most said they were leaning toward a two- step increase next spring and fall rather than raising rates the entire amount all at once at the beginning of the year. Rivera said that he understood that more members of the community are struggling to pay their utility bills since the pan- demic. Right now 20% of HES customers are behind on payments, compared HELP IS AVAILABLE Hermiston residents facing fi nancial diffi culties who are struggling to pay their electric bill can fi nd options at uma- tillaelectric.com/my-account/energy-bill-assistance. Hermiston Herald, File An analog electrical meter measures power use on a local business for Hermiston Energy Services in May 2016. to a three-year average of 15% before the pandemic started. But Rivera also stated that if HES stays its cur- rent course, it will have a revenue defi cit of just over $1 million next year. “This is a horrible time in our community to have this discussion, but at the same time you guys need to understand where we’re at fi nancially,” he said. He said other than the 5% of its budget that is taken up with capital proj- ects, the utility’s costs are mostly fi xed “in and out” costs such as wholesale power purchases from the Bonneville Power Admin- istration and its labor con- tract with Umatilla Electric Cooperative. City Manager Byron Smith said the council should have been discuss- ing a rate increase in March or April, but in light of the pandemic HES had been dipping into its reserves to put it off for as long as possible. Rivera said in order to fi ll the anticipated $1 mil- lion budget gap, HES would need to raise rates by 12.9% overall. That could be done through fl at, across-the-board increases or a restructure of rates for various classes of customers. He said a general 12.9% increase would raise the average residential cus- tomer using 1,400 kilowatt hours from a bill of $111 to $121 a month. According to a rate comparison Rivera put together, that would move HES above Umatilla Electric Cooperative ($118 a month) but below Pacifi c Power ($159) and the state average ($176). The 12.9% estimate, he said, did not leave any room for extra increases to HES’s expenses that may crop up, such as a BPA rate increase or added regula- tions from the state. Mayor David Drotz- mann said while he under- stood the need to not bur- den taxpayers unduly, he has also appreciated the increased reliability HES has provided in recent years through capital improve- ment projects. He said as HES tries to tighten its belt, he hopes the city-owned utility doesn’t sacrifi ce reli- ability in the process. Councilor Roy Barron brought up some of the pro- grams that HES, UEC and some local agencies offer to help people with their utility bills, and he said he hoped those programs were being promoted, and that any rate increase is pub- licized well in advance. The programs got a major boost recently with dona- tions from Amazon Web Services and CARES Act money from the city desig- nated for helping residents in need. Umatilla County returns to COVID-19 watchlist By ALEX CASTLE STAFF WRITER Just weeks after its removal, Umatilla County became the fi rst county to be returned to the state’s COVID-19 watchlist on Fri- day, Oct. 9, Gov. Kate Brown announced in a press release. The county was removed from the watch list Sept. 18 but was added back the day after the state reported 481 COVID-19 cases on Thurs- day, Oct. 8, the most reported on a single day since the start of the pandemic. “Combined with yes- terday’s record-high state- wide case count, this is a sign that we must tread cau- tiously or we risk losing the gains we’ve made in slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Brown stated in the release. “My priority is getting kids in every county safely back in school — but that will become more and more diffi - cult if COVID-19 case num- bers spike.” The return to the watchlist has no impact on businesses’ ability to remain open or the guidelines for social gather- ings. It is used to inform state policymakers and the Ore- gon Health Authority about the spread of COVID-19 in individual counties and assist in prioritizing resources for those counties. The state determines whether a county will be on the watchlist by the number and rate of virus cases that can’t be traced to a known source of transmission, also known as the sporadic case rate. A county is added to the watch list if it reports more than fi ve sporadic cases and a sporadic case rate that exceeds 50 sporadic cases per 100,000 people during a S E N A L DESERT T N A R U A REST OUNGE & L two-week span. According to the Oregon Health Authority, Umatilla County recorded 42 sporadic cases (51.7 per 100,000) from Sept. 20 to Oct. 3. The county had recorded 27 and 31 cases in the two previous two-week windows, which amounted to 33.3 and 38.2 cases per 100,000 people, respectively. “Last week, we saw a jump there,” Umatilla County Public Health Direc- tor Joe Fiumara said. “Most of which are folks we’re just not able to connect with.” Fiumara said that can happen from people refus- ing to talk to contact tracers, not returning phone calls or not having a working phone number to begin with. “The fact is that means we don’t know where they got it,” he said. Umatilla County has also seen a jump the last two weeks in case totals alto- gether. According to the Ore- gon Health Authority, Uma- tilla County added 115 new cases of the virus from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2. Fiumara said about 15 of those cases were tied to a new workplace out- break that wasn’t identifi ed in the state’s weekly report. “We’ve defi nitely seen a little bit of an uptick,” Fiu- mara said on Oct. 9. “But we feel it might be dropping a bit again this week.” The Oregon Health Authority reported 88 new cases of the virus in Umatilla County from Saturday, Oct. 3 to Oct. 9. Fiumara said the coun- ty’s return to the watchlist won’t change any operations at the health department, but added it may be a reminder of the ongoing risk the virus poses. Call today to make an appointment with one of our certified Senior Health Insurance Benefit Assistance (SHIBA) representatives! Appointments are available in-person, virtual or via phone. WE ARE SAFE, BOWLING SANITIZED AND IS BACK! READY TO ROLL! 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