The city of Hermiston will have a new traffic signal and turn lane near Good Shepherd Medical Center and will have to pay just a quarter of the project’s million cost.
Through an agreement with the hospital and with funding from a state grant, the city will pay $400,000 of the $1.6 million project. Half the project’s cost will come from a state grant and the hospital has agreed to pay the other 25 percent.
On Monday, the Hermiston City Council approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the hospital. The agreement came as a result of the hospital announcing in the spring of 2014 that it would be expanding its facility, which was expected to create 58 new jobs. As a result of the new employees and expansion of the hospital, Good Shepherd forecast an additional 300 trips to the hospital per day.
“They want an additional turn pocket at Elm and 11th,” said Assistant Hermiston City Manager Mark Morgan. The city had previously identified the intersection at Elm Avenue and 11th Street as the top priority for its Transportation System Plan and began working with the hospital to partner up in paying for the project.
The city and hospital worked out an agreement in which each entity would pay for a quarter of the signal project’s cost, with the state grant covering the other half. The grant, however, is contingent on the hospital create at least 58 new jobs through its current expansion projects. If the hospital were unable to create those 58 new jobs, the entire cost of the traffic signal project would have to be fully funded by the hospital and city.
The agreement between the city and hospital calls for the hospital to pay 75 percent of the signal project if it were unable to create the 58 new jobs, with the city paying the remaining 25 percent. The hospital, however, has indicated that it has already created more than 58 new jobs and is in the process of verifying those new employees with the state.
The project, which is expected to begin either in December 2016 of January 2017, will also provide for better drainage of storm water at the intersection.
Hermiston City Manager Byron Smith said the city has already budgeted for the cost of the project.
