NEONOW FILE PHOTO
Umatilla County residents gave feedback on the proposed layout design for the Eastern Oregon Trade & Event Center (EOTEC) Tuesday evening.
Members of the EOTEC Authority Board brought copies of the site plan to Hermiston City Hall and opened the floor to questions and comments.
“We’ve worked with all the stakeholders and we’ve got lots of input,” said EOTEC Authority Board Chairman Chet Prior. “Now we think we’re close enough to what we would consider the final design that we want to get any other input from anybody.”
Attendees asked about various aspects of the design, including traffic flow, the amount of parking space, and the square footage of the event center, and how all of those factors will affect county fair operations in particular.
The main entrance to the Eastern Oregon Trade & Event Center will be on Airport Road, just east of Highway 395. A contestant entry and service entry will be on Ott Road. The EOTEC Authority Board is working to get funding to pave the portion of Ott Road that reaches from the EOTEC property to the highway.
The plan currently includes a parking lot with almost 700 spaces, an RV park with 100 spaces, and an area for contestant and overflow parking. Large lawn areas will also serve as overflow parking. No longer will residents of downtown Hermiston need to race for parking spaces along the streets during fair week.
Also, a separate driveway will make livestock pickup much easier than at the current fairgrounds.
Unless plans change, the main portion of the event center building will be 21,000 square feet, excluding a number of breakout rooms. The main room will contain moveable partitions.
In function, this building will replace Thompson, Hoeft, Cooper, and Price Halls as well as the fair office.
“The fair will have all the space indoor that it has now,” said EOTEC Board Member and Umatilla County Fair representative Dan Dorran. He explained that if additional exhibit or vendor space is needed, the fair will consider using solid-walled, air conditioned tents.
Hermiston resident Jesus Rome voiced his excitement about the project.
“I think it’s long overdue,” he said.
Rome asked how suitable EOTEC will be for family-centered programs other than the county fair.
“This facility has different zoning, so the opportunities become greater for different types of events than what we’ve been able to hold in the past,” said Dorran. The zoning laws for the current fairgrounds restrict late-night music and other disruptive noise — a restriction which will not apply on the EOTEC property.
The Eastern Oregon Trade & Event Center will fill 53 acres of the 97-acre property, whereas the downtown property is only 27 acres, Dorran said.
He also addressed the fair-related events not currently held on the Umatilla County Fairgrounds during Fair Week. The board hopes to change that situation on the new property.
“We’re one of the only fairs in the state where our 4-H fashion show is not on our grounds and is not during our fair,” Dorran said. “It’s the same thing with our horse show. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a true county fair again, (with) the fashion show, the dog show, the horse show — all of those things that we think about when we think about a county fair — at the same time?” Attendees also raised questions about the project’s funding.
EOTEC is a public entity owned by the city of Hermiston and Umatilla County. Umatilla County Commissioner and EOTEC Board Member Larry Givens explained that funding will come primarily from a lottery grant which was secured by State Rep. Greg Smith.
“I think the admin fees that the state took out of that (grant) left the city with just a little under 7 million (dollars),” he said. “We sold the fairgrounds for another $3 million; and then, a number of years ago, we started a fair-moving fund that has $450,000 in it.”
Also, a federal grant which was originally intended for the replacement of Thompson Hall has been transferred to this project.
Currently the construction budget rests at just under $10 million, Givens said. Use and lease fees of the facility will provide operating funds, which the city and county will supplement if necessary.
Several residents have shown concern over how this project might affect the tax base. Givens explained that since the county tax base is set, by law it can’t be raised.
“The county does not intend to have a tax bond proposed to help support this,” he said. “That’s why they’re promoting this through lease fees and user fees. The city of Hermiston and the county want this to sustain itself. But until they get to that point, we will continue putting what would have been our county fair dollars — because it is our county fair, even though it says EOTEC.”
He emphasized more than once that taxpayers will not be paying additional taxes to fund the project.
“It will not cost you extra tax dollars,” Givens said. “Even if we proposed a bond issue, people would have to vote on it.” Because the project involves no tax levy or bond, there has been no public vote.
“We had people from the community come to us through years of discussion to commit to a self-imposed Tourist Promotion Assessment,” Dorran said. “That’s the assessment on a motel night — one dollar a night, 25 cents on an RV space. We understand the tax issues and we understand the limit. Our own hoteliers in this community said, ‘We can’t wait on the county; we’re going to do this as a city,’ and self-imposed that TPA. We will spend what we have, and that’s what we think we have the money to spend on.”
The Eastern Oregon Trade & Event Center will be constructed in phases as funding becomes available. Construction on the infrastructure currently is scheduled for late 2014. EOTEC’s goal is to host the Umatilla County Fair and Farm-City Pro Rodeo in 2016.
For more information, visit the EOTEC website or call the Authority Board at 541-289-9800.
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