NEWS
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
HeRMIsTOnHeRaLd.COM • A3
Hermiston City Council OKs contract for industrial park
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edITOR
The city of Hermiston
is on its way to making the
South Hermiston Indus-
trial Park more “shovel
ready” after city council-
ors awarded a bid for a $1.6
million construction proj-
ect at their Monday, May 24,
meeting.
The project will extend
Southeast Campbell Drive
down to East Penney Ave-
nue, pave an undeveloped
right of way for Southeast
10th Street connecting to
Highway 395, create a new
road leading into Port of
Umatilla-owned property,
and add water and sewer
lines in the area.
The council awarded
to contract to Tapani, Inc.
of Richland, Washington,
which was the apparent low
bidder of four bids.
“All four of these bids
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File
Meyer Distributing, a distribution company headquartered
in Jasper, Indiana, plans to construct a new $11 million
warehouse at this site located at 975 E. Penney Ave. in
Hermiston, pictured in April 2021. The property is part of the
South Hermiston Industrial Park, which is getting $1.6 million
in new roads, water and sewer lines.
were within $100,000,”
Assistant City Manager
Mark Morgan said.
The city previously
formed a local improvement
district to help fund the proj-
ect, which affects 20 property
owners, Morgan said. Half of
the project will be paid for by
a federal Economic Develop-
ment Administration grant,
10% will be covered by the
city and Umatilla County,
and the remaining 40% will
be paid for by the property
owners in the district, allo-
cated by frontage.
The council had been
planning to pass amend-
ments to the city’s sidewalk
ordinance and an ordinance
renewing the city’s franchise
agreement with Cascade
Natural Gas. But accord-
ing to the city’s charter, at
least five councilors out of
the eight must vote for ordi-
nances to pass, and only four
councilors were present on
Monday.
The council did have
enough people for a sim-
ple majority vote on the bid
award and approval of a pro-
posed wayfinding sign pro-
gram in Hermiston.
According to City Plan-
ner Clint Spencer, the sign
program started with discus-
sions about downtown park-
ing lots, which are free to
use but often underutilized
as people don’t know where
but the project is meant to
take place over five or more
years and the city could
choose to cut back on the
number of signs as well. The
city has $48,000 in urban
renewal dollars set aside for
the current fiscal year to take
care of all the parking sig-
nage downtown.
The city is currently
redoing one of its parking
lots, located at the corner
of East Gladys Avenue and
Northeast Second Street.
City Manager Byron Smith
noted that some businesses
surrounding the lot will have
their water or sewer service
shut off for a day at a time
during the project.
He said they should be
better served by the result-
ing parking lot, however,
which will feature 11 addi-
tional spaces, better paving,
new landscaping, new light-
ing and two electric vehicle
charging stations.
they are or who is allowed to
park there. A plan to create
a system of signs pointing
people to free parking grew
into a full-fledged wayfin-
ding sign program that will
use a system of coordinated,
decorative signs to direct
visitors around the city.
The proposal includes
large
signs
marking
entrances into Hermiston
and downtown, pointing
the way to attractions, pro-
viding informational kiosks
and maps, marking trails
and displaying the names
of parks. Spencer said they
want to make it easier for
drivers to find common des-
tinations for visitors, such
as the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center, Kennison
Field and Good Shepherd
Medical Center.
Spencer said the esti-
mated cost for every sign
location on the list of pos-
sibilities is about $805,000
Hermiston High School
Honor Walk set for May 27
Gov. Kate Brown announces
$1 million vaccine lottery
HeRMIsTOn HeRaLd
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs edITOR
Community
members
will have a chance to honor
graduating seniors from
Hermiston High School
during the Honor Walk on
Thursday, May 27.
The tradition started last
year as a way to allow stu-
dents’ friends and family to
cheer for them while crowds
were not allowed to watch
graduation because of the
pandemic.
It returns for a second
year on Thursday. Accord-
ing to a news release from
Hermiston School District,
seniors will take a class pic-
ture in their class T-shirts
in the bleachers at Ken-
nison Field at 6:30 p.m.
before donning their caps
and gowns and leaving the
high school campus on foot
at 7 p.m.
They will exit Kennison
Field, led by the marching
band, onto Highland Ave-
nue heading west, then turn
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File
Hermiston High School graduates march during an honor
walk on May 29, 2020. The event returns this year on Thursday,
May 27, 2021.
north on Seventh Street to
Orchard Avenue, where they
will loop back around to the
north parking lot of the high
school. Friends, family and
other supporters are invited
to stand along the route with
signs and cheer.
There will be fireworks at
the Hermiston Butte to cel-
ebrate afterward, starting at
9:30 p.m.
Graduation itself will
take place on Thursday, June
3. All seniors will gather in
the Purple Gym at the high
school by 5:30 p.m. to hear
speeches, which will also be
livestreamed on the Hermis-
ton School District website
and HSD Communications
YouTube channel and avail-
able for future viewing.
After the speeches, stu-
dents will be presented their
diploma one at a time in the
main commons area. They
will be allowed to have six
guests of their choosing
present.
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