Council also names new city park after longtime community activists

HERMISTON — The Hermiston City Council has put off a decision to form a local improvement district for at least six months.

The council at its meeting May 27 held a public hearing on an LID that would result in the paving of Northwest Second Street as well as the installation of curbs, sidewalks and stormwater infrastructure.

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

The LID would bring the street up to city standards due to what is expected to be significantly increased traffic on the street next year. 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 onto and out of Northwest Spruce Avenue, Morgan said, making the road “essentially right in, right out only.”

Local improvement districts are ways for cities to finance public streets, allowing cities to levy the cost of streets onto abutting properties that benefit from the street in amounts proportional to their frontage.

Under this proposal, the property owners will pay 100% of the improvement costs, which the city estimates at $580,000. Property owners would have the option to pay the costs upfront or pay over a 10-year period.

Morgan said the city of Hermiston has executed 322 LIDs, primarily to develop roads.

He also said the city will make similar improvements to the portion of West Dogwood that

is unimproved. But the city will pay entirely for those improvements at an estimated cost of $225,000, which will come out of the city’s street fund.

During the public hearing, Rhonda Schroeder, one of the owners of the lots, told the council she opposed the formation of an LID because of the cost and fears a paved street would result in more motorists speeding on the street.

“Our family owns all that and we’ve been there for about 50 years,” Schroeder said. “People do speed through there a lot. They take a lot of chances and it’s a major concern to us — the safety factor. We feel that something tragic will happen there if you pave it. We don’t want to make it more dangerous than it is already.”

Schroeder said the estimated cost of the project also is problematic.

“The projected cost is huge,” she said. “It’s $580,000, which is more than we make in 10 years.”

City Councilor Jackie Linton said she lives near the area and does not see a need for sidewalks due to the low amount of foot traffic. She made a motion to table the ordinance and direct staff to come up with a report of costs with sidewalks and use the savings to lower the cost of Northwest Second Street improvements.

Her motion died for lack of a second.

Instead, the council voted 7-1, with Linton in opposition, to suspend the ordinance to form the LID for not less than six months. The earliest the council can take up the issue would be in December.

In other action at the meeting, the council voted unanimously to name a new city park off Northeast Eighth Place as Sherman Park in honor of Rick and Karen Sherman.

Rick Sherman spent more than 50 years leading the Christmas Express program, delivering toys and food to local children. He also coordinated access and transportation for more than 300 children to receive care through the Shriners Hospital and served pro bono as fire board chairman since 1998.

Karen Sherman is a longtime member of the Hermiston School Board and has served on the city’s Community Accountability Board, a partnership between parents, the school district and the criminal justice system aimed at taking first-time offenders and working with them to ensure that their first offense is also their last offense.