Hermiston, Oregon

of Hermiston”was the inspiration for the name. Byron Smith, CityManager of Hermiston tells of two recent projects that have positively impacted the community in a variety of ways. Smith reports, “In the project we’re calling ‘Festival Street,’we took a block of a downtown street and, for approximately $1 million,made it much more conducive to host- ing festivals, community gatherings, etc.-almost a plaza-type location.We took out curbs and gutters, so walking is easier; added a lot of electric and decorative elements; and increased the number of street trees.That whole project was the result of our downtown urban renewal planning process.” The second project is a new community seniors’ center.According to Smith,“When our high school did an expansion, the former seniors’ center was taken out of service. So, the city worked with our seniors’ group on a $3 million project to more than double the square footage of their previous build- ing.We improved the parking and really spruced up and changed the face of the entire area.We’re call- ing it the Harkenrider Center, after long-time Herm- iston City Councilman and Mayor Frank Harkenrider, who unfortunately passed away in 2017.” The Festival Street project received Urban Renew- al Area funding,which is essentially tax increment financing.The city borrowed money against future revenues generated by new development and redevelopment in the downtown.A large chunk of funding for the Harkenrider Center was through a CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) that came from the federal government and was passed through the state of Oregon.The City of Hermiston put in the remaining money to add some significant square footage to the building, and also paid for the parking lot and other improvements. HERMISTON, OREGON Hermiston’s population has been slowly and steadily growing at a pace of about one to two per- cent for the past 15 to 20 years. Currently, there are 18,200 residents in the city.The mainstay industry is agriculture. Potatoes, onions, and other field crops including sweet watermelons are grown in the region; many of those potatoes are also processed locally, as French fries,Tater Tots, and related food products.And there is big news on the employment front,with the arrival of a new tech-based industry in the area that brings with it fabulous possibilities. As Smith explains,“A company called Vadata Inc. –owned byAmazon–has already been building, and has more plans to build, a large number of data centers here.We are expecting some really good jobs to come online over the next 10 years, as they continue to add square footage and more buildings to their campuses.That’s a really great growth area for us, at this point.” One of the challenges with this growth, especially regarding the data centers, is the need for more hous- ing for workers with higher income jobs, as well as the infrastructure that additional housing development neces- sitates.With that in mind, the City is now in the planning stages of building a new water tower in the northeast quadrant that will take care of two problems.“First,we need more storage to accommodate the growth we’re experiencing,” says Smith.“Secondly,we need to improve the water pressure in that quadrant.With that,we hope to encourage the development of 300 to 800 new housing units. Some of those housing units are more dense versions–townhomes and apartments.We’ve also been in good discussions with developers who are interested in potentially BYRON SMITH MAYOR