The city of Hermiston is working to upgrade five storm drains that tend to flood over during heavy rains.
At Monday night’s city council meeting, Hermiston Street Superintendent Ron Sivey received approval to seek bids from local contractors to upgrade two storm drains. Sivey received approval several weeks earlier to upgrade three additional storm drains on Southwest Seventh Street, Sunset and Wilshire.
The two storm drain upgrades approved Monday night will occur at Northwest 11th Street and Southwest Sandy Drive.
Sivey said Northwest 11th Street floods over the curb during heavy rains and flows onto the property of a home on the street. The drain on Southwest Sandy Drive takes two or three days for the water to clear the road after heavy rains, Sivey told the council.
Funding for the five projects will come from the city’s residential street maintenance budget. The storm drain project on E. Sunset Drive currently has a four-inch cross over pipe that will be replaced with an eight-inch PVC pipe. The Wilshire Avenue project will involve installing a collection box as well as an eight-inch pipe to the dry well.
The Southwest Seventh Street project will involve installing a dry well and eight-inch piping on two collection boxes. On Northwest 11th Street, a 15-inch pipe will be installed from a storm water collection box on the east side of the street to a collection box on the west side.
Over on Southwest Sandy Drive, a sedimentation chamber, dry well and eight-inch piping will be installed.
Also Monday night, the council approved the final plat for Phase 1 of the Castle Homes subdivision on West Highland Avenue across from Gotta Stop.
The council also approved several recommendations from the Hispanic Advisory Committee that sets rules for the administration of the committee. The approved recommendations include expanding the committee membership from seven to nine members; adopting new language for the committee’s mission statement; setting the regular meeting times at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the Hermiston City Hall; setting the schedule for electing a committee chairperson and vice chairperson; and establishing staggered three-year terms for the committee members.
The council rejected a recommendation from the Hispanic Advisory Committee to make it a requirement that all members speak Spanish fluently. Several council members said such a requirement would limit the number of potential committee members.
Also on Monday, the council approved the appointment of Nancy Brown to the Library Board.
