Council also OKs deal for Good Shepherd Health Care System to get police presence

HERMISTON — The Hermiston City Council approved a preliminary engineering report and declared the city’s intent to form a local improvement district to bring Northwest Second Street up to city standards.

Northwest Second is a gravel unimproved street between West Elm and West Cherry avenues, which provides direct access to three lots with industrial businesses and two undeveloped industrial lots used for storage.

All five lots access Northwest Second Street.

In a staff report to the council, Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan said the Oregon Department of Transportation is scheduled to erect traffic barricades on West Elm Avenue to better manage traffic flow through the Elm Avenue-Highway 395 intersection. The barricades will eliminate the ability for left-hand turns into and out of Northwest Spruce Avenue.

“The barriers make Spruce Avenue essentially right in, right out only,” Morgan said. “So, any traffic coming from the north looking to come onto Spruce will no longer be able to do that.”

Morgan said the only remaining access on Elm Avenue to the active businesses on Northwest Second Street for vehicles coming from the northeast will be on Second. Similarly, the only Elm Avenue access for vehicles coming from these businesses looking to go west will also be on Northwest Second.

Morgan said this will significantly increase the amount of traffic on the unimproved Second Street, which has been an unimproved roadway due to two main factors.

The first is non-remonstrance agreements. The city of Hermiston’s standard requires that when structures are built on a tax lot, the road in front of it must be built. Developers can avoid building a road by signing an NRA, which means developers do not have to develop the street to build on their property. But, Morgan said, when a local improvement district is proposed, they waive their ability to formally oppose its formation. Two of the five tax lots on Northwest Second Street have NRAs.

The second reason the street has not been improved is the city requires undeveloped lots within the city to pay to improve their street frontage at the time they develop.

Due to the impending increase in traffic on the unimproved street, the recommendation is to form an LID to improve the street to city standards.

The engineering report estimates the cost of improving Northwest Second Street to be $580,000.

An LID levies the cost of the road onto the abutting properties, which benefit from the street in amounts proportional to their frontage. Property owners can pay their share of the costs all up front or over a period of time. Morgan said the city has successfully created 322 LIDs, primarily to develop roadways. He said the city used LIDs extensively from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

“It’s a tool that is certainly there and available to us,” he said.

With the approval of the feasibility report and authorization to declare the city’s intent to form an LID, the city council will hold a public hearing May 12 and then decide on forming the LID. The design of the project could be available by summer or fall with construction beginning in the spring of 2026.

Morgan said declaring an intent to form an LID “does not commit the city to any additional costs. It does not commit the property owners to any additional costs.”

If the council gives its approval to form the LID following the May 12 public hearing, the $580,000 cost of the project will be split between the five property owners. Each owner’s share will depend on the square footage of their property fronting Northwest Second Street. Estimated costs for each property range from $67,700 to $135,744.

Morgan said the city will mail the property owners a notice of the hearing date and provided them with information on the scope of the project, its estimated cost, methodology for assigning costs and an estimated cost assigned to their property. They also will have the chance to submit written comments for or against the proposed LID.

On a related, but separate issue, Morgan said the city will make similar improvements to the portion of West Dogwood Avenue that is unimproved. The city, however, would pay for those improvements at an estimated cost of $225,000.

Hospital to pay for police presence

Also at the meeting, the council approved an agreement to hire four new officers to provide police presence at Good Shepherd Health Care System on a 24-hour basis with the hospital paying all the costs. The plan is to have one officer on site at the hospital during each shift.

“They would basically pay the costs of four additional officers,” City Manager Byron Smith said. Those costs include salaries, benefits, taxes, along with training, and equipment costs.

“From a police department standpoint, we see a lot of different benefits as far as safety is concerned,” Smith said. “Hospitals are kind of soft targets that people have been attacking in different scenarios. It allows us to potentially help conduct investigations.”

Smith said the hospital already agreed to the plan.

Councilor Josh Roberts said such agreements between hospitals and police departments are “hugely beneficial.”

He asked what would happen to the four additional officers if the hospital decided to opt out of the agreement at any time.

“We can’t absorb the costs under the current scenario,” Smith said. “If that were to happen next year, we would have to lay people off.”

Councilor Allen Hayward said he’s worked in a hospital in the past that had similar agreements with the police. He said the presence of a police officer on site provides a sense of security to nurses and staff.

“I think Good Shepherd probably would keep it going because they will start getting feedback from their nurses saying, ‘Hey, this is helping us.’ So, I can see them probably keeping this going.”

Councilor Jeff Kelso was in support of the agreement. He said in discussions with an HPD officer, he was told an officer called to the hospital can be pulled away for hours. Kelso said the contract allows for an officer assigned to the hospital to leave and assist if a major incident occurs elsewhere.