HERMISTON, Ore.-The City of Hermiston released an update on its 2025 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) this week.
An outline of water, wastewater and street improvements that the city may need to undertake to protect access to utilities and safeguard the financial health of the City, the CIP is available to view online.
“The CIP takes all the needs the city can reasonably foresee, looks at the available resources and develops a plan,” said Mark Morgan, Hermiston’s Assistant City Manager.
The CIP takes into account aging infrastructure that may need to be replaced, looks at overlapping projects to save time and money and schedules large-scale projects so they can be budgeted.
“The CIP is not about expansion,” said Morgan. “For the most part it’s about maintenance, how do we maintain what we have?”
Hermiston’s water, sewer and street departments all provide input during the development of the CIP by working with engineers to come up with design and cost estimates that are then used to build the actual plan.
The CIP is a rolling five year plan that is updated every two years, according to Morgan. The latest CIP was adopted in January and allows Hermiston to focus its energy on the most-deserving infrastructure projects before the next scheduled update to the plan in 2026.
All in-progress, planned and potential projects in the CIP are listed online through the City, including the projected and actual cost of each.
“We try to be as transparent as possible,” said Morgan. “Showing the estimated and actual costs keeps us accountable.”
Prior to 2018, Hermiston had no proactive plan for infrastructure maintenance or replacement, according to Morgan, an ineffective process that meant the City had to borrow to cover any emergency repair projects.
Hermiston revised water and sewer rates for residents in 2018 to help maintain a reserve fund that the City can spend in support of critical infrastructure projects. Utility rates are now adjusted yearly based on an automatic inflation index.
The CIP is funded through utility rates, gas taxes provided to Hermiston from the State of Oregon based on population, utility franchise fees for the use of city right-of-ways, grants and system development charges
“The CIP allows us to maximize the benefit of the money we’re trusted with by being more efficient,” said Morgan.
