Hermiston City Hall funding hits speed bump

Published 4:30 pm Tuesday, April 28, 2020

HERMISTON — A new city hall for Hermiston could take longer than originally planned, after one of the city’s funding sources was impacted by COVID-19.

After a heating system fire and smoke damaged Hermiston City Hall in December, the city council agreed in February to pursue a $9 million project to build a new city hall on the same site and remodel the basement of the Hermiston Public Library.

The council added a caveat that they would only go through with the project if funding was available, however, including money the city expected to have from a “major” but yet-unnamed enterprise zone project being planned for Hermiston. On Monday, City Manager Byron Smith told the city council that the company involved had put all new capital projects on hold for the time being, in light of COVID-19.

“At this point, the COVID impact on that company has been too severe, so they’ve put all investment on hold,” he said. “But the other company, Amazon, looks to be moving more quickly on their projects, so we’re hopeful that will move forward.”

He also said the government agency wishing to pay to lease part of the new city hall was still interested, and staff are still working on other sources of funding.

The announcement came at the end of a 2½-hour city council meeting and hourlong work session.

During the lengthy meeting, the council also voted to initiate proceedings to vacate a 526-foot undeveloped portion of East Ridgeway Avenue between Northeast Eighth Street and East Diagonal Boulevard.

The action came at the request of Santiago Communities, the developers for a 199-space manufactured home park there that the city’s planning commission approved in December. The vacation would give them extra space to provide required setbacks for homes.

City Planner Clint Spencer said the property is currently “just a goat trail” and the city had no plans to ever develop it into a road after traffic engineers determined it would not intersect with Diagonal Boulevard at a safe angle.

On Monday, Smith notified the council that the city had acquired a 0.8-acre parcel of land at the intersection of Geer and Harper roads, where the city plans to create a realignment of where the two roads intersect with Umatilla River Road and the railroad tracks. The council had previously authorized staff to acquire the land, using eminent domain if necessary.

Instead, the owner, listed as Tommy Huxoll on tax records, agreed to sell the land for $95,000. Smith said the land was appraised at $65,000 but the city could easily have spent $30,000 in legal fees going the eminent domain route.

Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan said it will take longer than expected to gather state gas tax revenue to pay for the project, because “no one is driving right now.”

Other actions on Monday night included: