City limits host islands of county lots

By Terry Murry on Wednesday, May 4th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

HERMISTON – The city of Hermiston doesn’t have a single line drawing its boundaries. Instead, it’s more like a patchwork quilt, with county property surrounded by city tax lots in many areas.

“One that has the biggest part is there on Northeast North Street behind Harbor Freight,” Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan said. “That road has quite a patchwork in there.”

Morgan said that slowly, those patches are being absorbed by the city, sometimes due to a stinky issue.

“The most egregious ones in terms of a single tax lot that’s surrounded by city limits end up getting filled in basically when their septic systems fail,” Morgan said. “If they’re close enough to a city sewer, DEQ requires that they hook up to it. We don’t allow anybody to hook onto a city sewer unless they’re in the city limits.”