HERMISTON — The first time Glen Swantak of the design firm 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 first 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 session 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 fix that sort of confusion soon with the city’s wayfinding sign initiative, which MERJE is designing with the help of a local steering committee. The project will place signs around town helping people find their way to parks, trails, downtown, 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 addition to being useful for visitors. Swantak said those sort of touches help signal to people that the community cares about itself.

“It’s 50% getting people from point A to point B, but the other 50% is really marketing. It’s really about the brand impression you give people when they’re a first-time visitor,” he said.

Video of Swantak’s presentation, 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/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 adding 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 “Welcome to Hermiston” ones.

City Councilor Roy Barron 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 Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center, including Spanish would violate the Oregon Department of Transportation’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 council approved annexation of a one-half acre of property at 315 E. Theater Lane at the request of the owner, Humberto 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 improvements on a house to turn it into a business. The city approved a $10,000 matching grant.

During his presentation of the city’s September financial report, Finance Director Mark Krawczyk noted in September the city’s cash reserves had dipped below the minimum reserve balance 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 support to local businesses in August and September, and the state did not reimburse the city for with CARES Act dollars until October, bringing the reserves back up above that line.

He said revenue is down $334,000 in the first quarter of the 2020-21 fiscal 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.