BUSINESS
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
HeRMIsTOnHeRald.COM • A7
Downtown businesses ready to leave pandemic behind
By BRYCE DOLE
sTaFF WRITeR
It’s been a challenging
year for Laura Avila.
At 32, Avila has four
children, ages 5, 9, 11 and
15, and lives off the tips she
makes as a waitress at the
La Palma Mexican Restau-
rant in Hermiston. Tak-
ing care of her kids while
schools were closed was dif-
ficult, she said.
And earlier this year,
some of her friends and
family members contracted
COVID-19 — including
two of her children.
“It was really scary,” she
said. “They had a fever, their
Industrial
park will
provide
options for
Hermiston
By JEFF BUDLONG
sTaFF WRITeR
The effort to extend paved
roads, water lines, sewer pipes
and upgraded electrical power
to the South Hermiston Indus-
trial Park could provide Herm-
iston with the best of both
worlds.
Cities are constantly look-
ing to bring more businesses
and jobs to their community,
and the industrial park will
provide space for smaller, but
important, business to grow
while still leaving larger plots
of land available for bigger
tenants.
“We wanted to make sure
we were planning ahead of
time to accommodate those
smaller scale industrial users,”
Hermiston Assistant City
Manager Mark Morgan said.
“Allowing some of these
smaller industrial develop-
ments to take root allows us
not to be so beholden to the
large-scale operators.”
That doesn’t mean the city
would turn away large busi-
nesses looking to build or
expand in the area, it just pro-
vides Hermiston with more
options, Morgan said.
The land that will be avail-
able is aimed at the 10 to 50
employee operations and
the interest is there. The area
around Kelli Boulevard and
Campbell Drive has reached
about 80% capacity.
“Since we are now barrel-
ing toward actual construc-
tion, I have never seen so
much interest and transactions
taking place in the industrial
property down there,” Mor-
gan said. “I think people are
positioning themselves for
development.”
Morgan said businesses
needing between 1 to 5 acres
to build or expand a business
are ideal for the industrial park,
and will focus on construction
trades and the suppliers for the
agricultural operators.
The project, which is
expected to last four months,
has been a long time coming
for the city with discussions
beginning with the U.S. Eco-
nomic Development Adminis-
tration in November 2018.
“It has been a long road
and we are really bootstrap-
ping this to pull together
resources from here, there and
everywhere,” Morgan said.
“There have been a lot of folks
involved in this, so I am really
excited to see this finally com-
ing to fruition.”
Funding for the $2.5 mil-
lion project came from a vari-
ety of places, but the end result
will create 16 parcels of light
industrial property. The EDA
provided $1.46 million in a
grant; $1.16 million came
from a local improvement
district representing adjacent
property owners; $250,000
from the city of Hermiston;
and $50,000 from Umatilla
County.
Morgan said the adjoining
property owners will benefit
from the project because they
will see the improvements at a
cost of about 40 cents on the
dollar.
The city also reported the
EDA estimated the activ-
ity will lead to 250 jobs
and $70 million in private
development.
body ached. But I never got
it. I was tested and was neg-
ative. That’s why I got vac-
cinated. I didn’t want to get
sick.”
When pandemic restric-
tions were lifted at the end
of June, Avila, like so many
others, said she felt happy.
Business has remained
steady at La Palma — which
her parents opened using
their life savings in the mid-
2000s — and yet things still
picked up last week. Now,
her biggest hope, she said,
is for the community to stay
safe and healthy.
“We just don’t want to
lose the support that we have
by people getting sick,” said
Avila, who, along with her
coworkers, has been vacci-
nated against COVID-19.
For some business own-
ers and employees in down-
town Hermiston, it was a
wash of relief to have mask-
ing and distancing man-
dates lifted, allowing cus-
tomers to reenter businesses
smiling and carefree. But
for others, they are remain-
ing wary as COVID-19
variants are on the rise and
Umatilla County sits among
the least-vaccinated and
most-infected counties in
Oregon.
“All the guards are
going down, and there’s
great potential for problems
again,” said Michael Gorm-
ley, the owner of Neigh-
borhood Books & Gifts in
downtown Hermiston.
Because he is a 70-year-
old diabetic with a heart
condition, for which he is
undergoing testing, Gormley
said he plans to keep up the
plexiglass that divides him
and customers for at least
another year. He doesn’t
plan to make customers
wear masks and keep store
capacity down. But he still
is wiping down the counters
and doors with sanitizer and
wearing his double-layered
mask with books displayed
on the front. Just to be safe.
For others, seeing peo-
ple’s unmasked faces, their
smiles and expressions, has
brought joy and relief after
nearly 500 days of isolation
and fear.
Jeanine Dilley, a part-
ner at Bella Grace Bou-
tique, spent her day laugh-
ing and helping customers
as they checked out clothes,
home decor and makeup
while country songs such
as “Wagon Wheel” played
from the overhead speak-
ers. The shop had closed for
seven months, Dilley said,
until she and the other own-
ers reached out to the com-
munity through Facebook
and received overwhelming
support to reopen.
And some businesses on
Main Street are just getting
started, underscoring Herm-
iston’s growth even after
a pandemic year shuttered
businesses and ravaged
economies.
Martin Farias opened
Imparable’s Nutrition Cen-
ter around the first of the
year. Already, Farias said
he has helped more than
50 families with fitness and
nutrition plans. One of his
customers, he said, lost 60
pounds. He’s excited to help
more eager customers now
that fear is subsiding.
“All the big things in the
world,” he said, “happen
through crises.”
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