Hermiston City Council considers buying back land

By on Monday, December 11th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

HERMISTON – The Hermiston City Council will meet at 7 p.m. today. The meeting is in Council Chambers of Hermiston City Hall and the public is welcome to attend.

One item on the agenda is approving the purchase of about 44 acres of land at the South Hermiston Industrial Park for a little less than $2 million. The land is what remains of the Cook Industrial Site, which was purchased by a cloud computing company that is building a data center.

It was determined that the site originally purchased was an estimated 44 acres larger than needed. The city is considering buying the land back to maintain local control over SHIP.

The council members will also begin consideration of returning the prosecution of A misdemeanor cases to municipal court. The city turned prosecution of those cases over to the Sixth Circuit Court and the Umatilla County District Attorney’s Office in 2014. Now, the municipal court says it can begin handling those cases again.

The meeting is also streamed live on the city’s You Tube channel.