I don’t understand. We Umatilla County taxpayers built a county building in Hermiston (Stafford Hansell Government Center) without the vote of the taxpayers and are now in the third or fourth year of an interest-only loan of $1.2 million dollars. The building was built larger than the county needs and excess space is rented out to non-county organizations. We (Umatilla County taxpayers) are now going to buy another building in Hermiston (Broun Medical Building) for $600,000 with a mortgage of $500,000 to $600,000 (without a vote of the taxpayers) for the county fairgrounds office.

Why wouldn’t someone think that perhaps the fairgrounds personnel could be set up in the Stafford Hansell building, if in fact they need a new office? At the same time, county departments are being asked to cut large dollar amounts from their individual accounts to balance this upcoming budget. If I am wrong in my understanding of this issue, I would be more than happy to apologize for these comments – but if I am right, I would need to share that I am highly disappointed and getting tired of this indebtedness form of thinking. What do you think?

Ron Stevenson

Pendleton