NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
City council discusses Columbia Development
Authority rescinds vote
wayfi nding signs
on industrial land
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
The fi rst time Glen Swan-
tak of the design fi rm MERJE
visited Hermiston, he wasn’t
sure if he was allowed to
park in the parking lot across
the street from city hall, or if
it was a private lot.
“The fi rst time I came
here, I went to city hall and
I had no idea, really, where
to park,” he said during a
Monday, Oct. 26, work ses-
sion with the Hermiston City
Council. “I didn’t know if I
was going to get a ticket; I
didn’t know if I was going to
get towed.”
The city of Hermiston
hopes to fi x that sort of con-
fusion soon with the city’s
wayfi nding sign initiative,
which MERJE is designing
with the help of a local steer-
ing committee. The project
will place signs around town
helping people fi nd their
way to parks, trails, down-
town, municipal parking lots,
the library and other points
of interest around the city.
The signs could also include
informational kiosks, such as
maps of downtown.
The plan is for the signs to
have a cohesive, decorative
look tying them together and
beautifying the city in addi-
tion to being useful for visi-
tors. Swantak said those sort
of touches help signal to peo-
ple that the community cares
about itself.
“It’s 50% getting people
from point A to point B, but
the other 50% is really mar-
keting. It’s really about the
brand impression you give
people when they’re a fi rst-
time visitor,” he said.
Video of Swantak’s pre-
sentation, including photos
of what the various types of
signs will look like and where
they would be placed around
town, can be found on the
city of Hermiston’s Youtube
channel, at youtube.com/
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
MERJE/Contributed Photo
This drawing from a Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, presentation by
MERJE to the Hermiston City Council shows what a new sign
welcoming people into Hermiston might look like.
watch?v=oMHOIE3IXJw.
City Manager Byron
Smith said the city had not
budgeted funds to pay for
the entire citywide project
all at once, but will start add-
ing signs as money becomes
available. Swantak suggested
that instead of phasing the
project by area of town, the
city do it by type of sign —
replacing all the park signs,
for example, or the “Wel-
come to Hermiston” ones.
City Councilor Roy Bar-
ron said he liked the designs
and thinks the new signs will
help beautify the city, but he
said he would be interested
in seeing Spanish included
on at least some of the signs.
Swantak said for signs along
Highway 395 pointing to
attractions like the East-
ern Oregon Trade and Event
Center, including Spanish
would violate the Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion’s rules. But he said they
could look at incorporating
Spanish into other signs.
After the city council’s
6 p.m. work session, during
its regular meeting the coun-
cil approved annexation of a
one-half acre of property at
315 E. Theater Lane at the
request of the owner, Hum-
berto Medelez.
Acting in its role as the
Hermiston Urban Renewal
Agency, the council also
approved a façade grant for
145 S.W. Fourth St. The
property owner plans to
spend $36,229 to put new
siding and other improve-
ments on a house to turn
it into a business. The city
approved a $10,000 match-
ing grant.
During his presentation of
the city’s September fi nan-
cial report, Finance Direc-
tor Mark Krawczyk noted
in September the city’s cash
reserves had dipped below
the minimum reserve bal-
ance of $1,867,650 the city
council has set for the city, by
about $253,000. However,
Krawczyk noted the city had
spent about $333,000 on sup-
port to local businesses in
August and September, and
the state did not reimburse
the city for with CARES Act
dollars until October, bring-
ing the reserves back up
above that line.
He said revenue is down
$334,000 in the fi rst quarter
of the 2020-21 fi scal year,
mostly due to COVID-19.
But he said city departments
have also been very good at
cutting back their expenses
to make up for the decrease.
“There’s any one of a
number of municipalities
that would kill to have only
a 12% drop in their revenue,
so we’re very lucky relative
to a number of our fellow
cities around the state and
the country,” he said.
The Columbia Develop-
ment Authority board has
reversed a previous vote the
board took stating its intent
to deed industrial land on
the former Umatilla Chem-
ical Depot over to the Port
of Morrow and Port of
Umatilla.
The change was a wel-
come one to the Umatilla
County Board of Commis-
sioners, which had opposed
the decision. County board
chairman John Shafer said
he appreciated the CDA’s
willingness to spend more
time considering the issue.
During a Thursday,
Oct. 22, meeting, the CDA
board voted unanimously to
rescind the original 3-2 vote
taken Oct. 8 to “memori-
alize” the board’s intent to
deed the industrially zoned
portions of the depot on the
Umatilla County side to the
Port of Umatilla for devel-
opment, and the portions
on the Morrow County side
to the Port of Morrow after
the depot is transferred from
the U.S. Army to the CDA,
and then the CDA disbands
seven years later.
Umatilla County Com-
missioner Bill Elfering and
Bill Tovey of the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation were
the dissenting votes during
the Oct. 8 meeting, stat-
ing the entities they repre-
sented were interested in
being the ones in control of
the lease on at least portions
of the Umatilla County
side. Afterward, Umatilla
County commissioners said
they felt “blindsided” and
“ambushed” by the deci-
sion, which had not been
listed on the agenda for the
Oct. 8 meeting.
Port of Umatilla Gen-
eral Manager Kim Puzey,
who had been the one to
propose the Oct. 8 vote,
made a new motion during
the Oct. 22 meeting that the
board’s previous action be
rescinded, “because it was
not on the agenda.”
Board members voted
unanimously in favor to
rescind the previous motion
to deed the land to the ports,
and did not discuss it further
in the meeting.
Prior to the Oct. 22 meet-
ing, however, CDA board
members had time to take
the discussion back to their
own entities they represent.
During its Oct. 21 meet-
ing, the Umatilla County
Board of Commission-
ers discussed adopting an
offi cial statement that the
industrial land should go
to the county instead of the
port. But Elfering, who rep-
resents the county on the
CDA board, said he would
prefer a motion merely urg-
ing the CDA to rescind their
previous action and take
more time to study and dis-
cuss the issue.
The
commissioners
adopted Elfering’s motion.
Morrow County Com-
missioner Don Russell rep-
resents the county on the
CDA board, and on Oct.
8 voted in favor of deed-
ing the land to the ports. At
the time, he stated it was
his understanding that had
“always been the plan” on
the Morrow County side,
since the Port of Mor-
row has more expertise
and money for industrial
development.
Commissioners
John
Doherty and Melissa Lind-
say thought the CDA’s
vote had been premature,
however, and on Oct. 20
the board of commission-
ers sent a letter to the CDA
stating a vote of that sig-
nifi cance should not have
been taken when it was not
listed on the agenda ahead
of time.
“This topic deserves to
be correctly noticed in an
agenda and allow all parties
to be prepared to discuss the
matter,” the letter stated.
Zoning maps show 1,872
acres of industrial land in
Morrow County and 1,278
acres in Umatilla County,
mostly along interstates 84
and 82. Other parts of the
roughly 20,000-acre former
depot have gone to the Ore-
gon Military Department
for a National Guard train-
ing center or are slated for
a wildlife preserve that will
be managed by the Tribes.
Umatilla County Com-
missioner George Murdock
said the county estimates
the Umatilla County side to
be worth about $20 million
to the residents of Umatilla
County.
During the CDA’s Oct.
22 meeting, the board also
discussed
preservation
of historical assets on the
depot, including portions
of the Oregon Trail and the
site of a munitions explo-
sion that blew up one of the
concrete storage igloos and
killed six people in 1944.
The board discussed
having Morrow County be
in charge of the south por-
tion of the Oregon Trail
slated for preservation, and
placing Umatilla County in
charge of the explosion site.
A collection of Ore-
gon Trail advocates have
been pushing for the CDA
to adopt a legally bind-
ing covenant protecting the
portions of the trail on the
depot forever, but the CDA
has not done so as it works
through the process of plan-
ning for mitigation or pres-
ervation of historical and
culturally signifi cant assets.
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