The Hermiston City Council will consider a resolution at tonight’s meeting to create its own gas utility to serve industrial customers.
The resolution comes after the city and Pioneer Seed ran into an impasse in their efforts to get Cascade Natural Gas to expand service capabilities to Pioneer’s Hermiston plant. In a memo written last week prior to his retirement as city manager, Ed Brookshier told the council and Mayor Dave Drotzmann that without expansion of natural gas services at the city’s southern industrial site, future growth by Pioneer seed will likely not happen.
Earlier this spring, the city and Pioneer seed were informed by Cascade that any improvement to natural gas services would cost $2.3 million – up from an earlier estimated cost of $450,000. Brookshier said Pioneer learned of the major price hike just as it was beginning to install a new drying facility.
“This was a five-fold increase in cost in a period of less than two years,” Brookshier wrote. “It effectively stopped the project.” Brookshier said discussions with Cascade over the cost have been “totally non-productive.”
Also on tonight’s agenda is a public hearing on a proposed grant application for funding to build a new senior center in Hermiston. The existing center is scheduled for closure at the end of next year.
Clara B. Fitzgerald will also be sworn in to fill the seat of George Anderson, who resigned from the council in June. Tonight will also be the first meeting for the new city manager, Byron Smith.
The council will also hold a work session at 5:30 tonight to continue its work on updating the city charter.
The regular council meeting begins at 7 p.m.
