HERMISTON — The city of Hermiston is on its way to making the South Hermiston Industrial Park more “shovel ready” after city councilors awarded a bid for a $1.6 million construction project at their Monday, May 24, meeting.

The project will extend Southeast Campbell Drive down to East Penney Avenue, 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 the contract to Tapani, Inc. of Richland, Washington, which was the apparent low bidder of four bids.

“All four of these bids were within $100,000,” Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan said.

The city previously formed a local improvement district to help fund the project, which affects 20 property owners, Morgan said. A federal Economic Development Administration grant will pay for half of the project, the city and Umatilla County will cover 10% and property owners in the district, allocated by frontage, will pay the remaining 40%.

The council had been planning to pass amendments to the city’s sidewalk ordinance and an ordinance renewing the city’s franchise agreement with Cascade Natural Gas. But according to the city’s charter, at least five councilors out of the eight must vote for ordinances to pass, and only four councilors were present May 24.

The council did have enough people for a simple majority vote on the bid award and approval of a proposed wayfinding sign program in Hermiston.

According to City Planner Clint Spencer, the sign program started with discussions about downtown parking lots, which are free to use but often underutilized as people don’t know where 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 wayfinding 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, providing informational kiosks and maps, marking trails and displaying the names of parks. Spencer said the city wants to make it easier for drivers to find common destinations for visitors, such as the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center, Kennison Field and Good Shepherd Medical Center.

Spencer said the estimated cost for every sign location on the list of possibilities is about $805,000, 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 fiscal year to take care of all the parking signage downtown.

The city also is redoing one of its parking lots, at the corner of East Gladys Avenue and Northeast Second Street. City Manager Byron Smith noted some businesses surrounding the lot will have their water or sewer service shut off for a day at a time during the project.

The resulting parking lot, he said, should provide better service, featuring 11 additional spaces, better paving, new landscaping, new lighting and two electric vehicle charging stations.