2A — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2020
REGIONAL
DAILY Grant gives aging building a new lease on life
PLANNER Baker Technical
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, May 12,
the 133rd day of 2020. There
are 233 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On May 12, 2002, Jimmy
Carter arrived in Cuba,
becoming the fi rst U.S.
president in or out of offi ce
to visit since the 1959 revo-
lution that put Fidel Castro
in power.
ON THIS DATE
In 1780, during the Revo-
lutionary War, the besieged
city of Charleston, South
Carolina, surrendered to
British forces.
In 1922, a 20-ton meteor
crashed near Blackstone,
Virginia.
In 1937, Britain’s King
George VI was crowned at
Westminster Abbey; his
wife, Elizabeth, was crowned
as queen consort.
In 1943, during World War
II, Axis forces in North Africa
surrendered. The two-week
Trident Conference, headed
by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill,
opened in Washington.
In 1949, the Soviet Union
lifted the Berlin Blockade,
which the Western powers
had succeeded in circum-
venting with their Berlin
Airlift.
In 1958, the United
States and Canada signed
an agreement to create
the North American Air
Defense Command (later the
North American Aerospace
Defense Command, or
NORAD).
In 1970, the Senate voted
unanimously to confi rm
Harry A. Blackmun as a
Supreme Court justice.
In 1982, in Fatima, Portu-
gal, security guards over-
powered a Spanish priest
armed with a bayonet who
attacked Pope John Paul II.
(In 2008, the pope’s longtime
private secretary revealed
that the pontiff was slightly
wounded in the assault.)
In 2001, singer Perry
Como died in Jupiter Inlet
Colony, Florida, at age 88.
In 2008, a devastating 7.9
magnitude earthquake in
China’s Sichuan province
left more than 87,000 people
dead or missing.
In 2009, fi ve Miami men
were convicted in a plot
to blow up FBI buildings
and Chicago’s Sears Tower;
one man was acquitted.
Suspected Nazi death camp
guard John Demjanjuk was
deported from the United
States to Germany.
LOTTERY
Megabucks: $1.2 million
7-12-16-19-20-41
Mega Millions: $248 million
5-20-22-61-70-4 x2
Powerball: $77 million
12-18-42-48-65—PB-19 x5
Win for Life: May 9
5-26-33-51
Pick 4: May 10
• 1 p.m.: 9-8-6-7
• 4 p.m.: 3-9-8-3
• 7 p.m.: 0-3-3-5
• 10 p.m.: 5-1-1-0
Pick 4: May 9
• 1 p.m.: 2-5-9-5
• 4 p.m.: 7-6-9-1
• 7 p.m.: 0-6-2-1
• 10 p.m.: 0-5-8-1
Pick 4: May 8
• 1 p.m.: 5-3-8-9
• 4 p.m.: 0-0-1-9
• 7 p.m.: 4-8-6-0
• 10 p.m.: 8-3-1-5
DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer, call
the offi ce at 541-963-3161.
TODAY’S QUOTE
“Mistrust the man who
fi nds everything good; the
man who fi nds everything
evil; and still more the man
who is indifferent to every-
thing.”
— Johann Kaspar Lavater,
Swiss theologian (1741-1801)
Institute gets grant
to clean up historic
school, enters into
deal with EOU
By Chris Collins
EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — Baker
Technical Institute has been
awarded a $500,000 federal
grant for its Brownfi elds
Program to continue work
to clean up the historic
Central School building in
Baker City.
The grant award was dis-
cussed during a half-hour
conference call Thursday
that included representa-
tives of the institute, mem-
bers of the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency’s
Region 10 Brownfi elds
Team, Oregon Business and
the local media.
BTI President Doug
Dalton and Sandy Mitchell,
marketing coordinator,
were on the call. Dalton
explained how the insti-
tute, a career and tech-
nical training center that is
part of Baker High School,
developed its Brownfi elds
Program.
What began as an envi-
ronmental science class
with an emphasis on
cleaning polluted proper-
ties in Baker City about six
years ago has developed
into a nationally recog-
nized program. And it now
includes a partnership with
Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity, La Grande, which will
begin offering a sustain-
able rural systems degree to
its students in September,
Dalton said.
Science teacher Robbie
Langrell oversees the BTI
program.
“Students who were here
at the time helped write
this grant and led commu-
nity meetings,” Dalton said.
“Now with the EOU part-
nership, we’re looking at
other projects in the Eastern
Oregon community.”
The $500,000 EPA grant
to BTI, most of which will
be used to clean up contam-
inants at the former Central
School built in 1917, was
one of fi ve grants totaling
$2.65 million awarded to
Oregon communities.
Most of the contami-
nation at the site consists
of materials used to con-
struct the building, such
as asbestos and lead-based
paint, with some amount
of PCB in light fi xtures,
Dalton said.
The money also will be
used for community out-
reach activities to help
determine a future use for
the building. Both high
do well in the competitive
process.
“It’s great redevelop-
ment for the community
and the level of commu-
nity engagement is quite
strong,” Griffi th said.
That the building
already has been through
preliminary assessment and
will soon be ready to go
forward with the cleanup
process also gained the
application favor from
reviewers.
“The engagement with
students is a strong com-
ponent as well, and the
tie-in with economic devel-
opment,” Griffi th said.
“Overall, it really mea-
sured up well with the grant
criteria.”
Dalton expressed
appreciation to Business
Oregon, which provided
grant funding for the ear-
lier assessment of the
Central Building. Karen
Homolac, brownfi elds spe-
cialist for Business Oregon,
also attended Thursday’s
meeting telephonically.
Dalton said he expects
the actual cleanup of the
historic building to begin in
the fall of 2021.
“When you use students
it does change things a little
bit,” Dalton said.
Federal funds help transit systems respond to COVID-19 challenges
By Alex Castle
EO Media Group
MISSION — Kayak
Public Transit has been
sidelined since March 23
due to the COVID-19 pan-
demic, but some extra pre-
cautions and federal funds
from the coronavirus relief
bill have the vital regional
resource preparing to offer
free rides again soon.
“Our primary concern
was the health of our pas-
sengers and staff,” said J.D.
Tovey, who is the planning
director for the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation and
oversees the transit pro-
gram. “We understand that
our passengers and com-
munities rely on us as an
economic lifeline in the
region, and we’re doing
everything we can to be
able to provide those ser-
vices again.”
Photo by Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
A sign posted on a Kayak Public Transit bus stop in Herm-
iston advises the route is not running due to COVID-19
concerns. The transit operator is working to reopen as
soon as it is possible to do so safely.
Tovey said Kayak,
which regularly provides
free rides on three fi xed
routes and four commuter
bus services that connect
16 different communities
between Umatilla, Morrow,
Union and Walla Walla
counties, is coordinating an
eventual return to service
with the CTUIR’s Incident
Command Team and its
reopening committee.
After initially increasing
sanitation protocols in
the fi rst weeks of the
COVID-19 pandemic,
Tovey said the CTUIR
didn’t want the service to
be the source of the virus
spreading throughout
Eastern Oregon.
While Tovey said Kayak
won’t return until it’s con-
sidered safe to do so, more
than $306,000 earmarked
for the tribes’ transit ser-
vices have them preparing
measures to make that
happen sooner rather than
later.
For starters, Tovey said
they recently placed large
orders for personal pro-
tective equipment, such as
masks and gloves, that will
be worn by every driver
and available to every
rider. The transit service
also plans to continue its
initial rigorous sanitation
methods, which Tovey said
included staff going from
completely wiping down
the bus the regular two or
three times a week during
fl u season to every single
day.
According to Tovey,
Kayak is also looking into
installing plexiglass shields
that would, in theory, pro-
tect bus drivers from inter-
acting with members of the
public.
“We want to be prepared
for whatever the long-
term effects of this all will
be, and begin serving the
region again as soon as we
can do so safely,” he said.
The federal funding has
also helped Kayak keep all
of its drivers and employees
on the payroll during its
extended closure.
“Fortunately, one of
the allowable uses for that
funding was to help keep
staff employed,” Tovey said.
Head Start preschoolers have an unusual commencement
By Bill Bradshaw
EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — It
was all smiles, purple hair
and multicolored tutus
Thursday as Head Start
workers in Enterprise and
Wallowa held unconven-
tional graduation cere-
monies for their charges
in these days of school
closures because of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Along with everything
else, Head Start has been
closed since March on state
orders in order to maintain
social distancing for fear of
the coronavirus outbreak.
Thursday would have
been the normal last day
for 3-year-olds, while the
4-year-olds were sched-
uled to attend through June
Umatilla County records
second COVID-19 death
EO Media Group
PENDLETON — Uma-
tilla County reported its
second death of a con-
fi rmed COVID-19 patient
on Sunday.
According to a news
release from Umatilla
County Public Health, the
patient was a 64-year-old
man who tested positive on
April 29 and died May 9 at
Providence St Mary Med-
ical Center, Walla Walla.
The individual had under-
lying health conditions.
“We recognize that we
are in a very abnormal situ-
ation with an unknown end-
point and as such, increased
stress, fear and anxiety
among Umatilla County
residents is to be expected,”
the release said. “UCo
Health encourages Uma-
tilla County residents to
EO Media Group fi le photo
The Central Building was built in 1917 and originally served
as Baker High School in Baker City. The Baker Technical
Institute received a $500,000 federal to continue work to
clean up the aging structure.
school and college students
will participate with project
consultants in that work,
Dalton said.
Tim Hamlin is the
director of the EPA’s Region
10 Land Chemicals and
Redevelopment Division,
which includes Oregon,
Idaho, Washington and
Alaska, and has its head-
quarters in Seattle. Hamlin
also attended Thursday’s
meeting by telephone.
Hamlin said the goal is
to clean up and redevelop
properties, which leads to
job development and eco-
nomic development in
communities.
Hamlin noted grants are
awarded through a very
competitive application
process.
The BTI grant was
among 155 awarded nation-
wide in 151 communities
totaling more than $65.6
million in EPA brown-
fi elds funding through the
Assessment, Revolving
Loan Fund and Cleanup
grant programs.
Terri Griffi th, a Brown-
fi eld Project manager for
EPA’s Region 10, said
the community involve-
ment aspect of the Cen-
tral Building project helped
BTI’s grant application
continue to prioritize your
physical and mental health
during this time. Watch
for common signs of dis-
tress, such as changes in
appetite, diffi culty concen-
trating, diffi culty sleeping,
worsening of chronic health
problems, increased use of
tobacco, alcohol or other
drugs, and seek help if
needed.”
La GRANDE
AUTO REPAIR
975-2000
www.lagrandeautorepair.com
Joe Horst
30, said Lisa Collier, Head
Start education manager for
Wallowa and Union coun-
ties. Children turning 5 in
time will go on to kinder-
garten in the fall.
But there was no fear
Thursday, as workers
smiled, danced and sang
to their students as they
handed out completion cer-
tifi cates, packets of “readi-
ness materials” for the kids
going into kindergarten,
“summer fun buckets” and
resources for the families.
Among those resources,
Collier said, were toilet
tissue, food, soap, hand
sanitizer and “anything a
family discloses that they
need.” She said Head Start
workers have been deliv-
ering such items to their
students’ homes weekly
since the coronavirus
forced school closure.
Collier said 20 students
who live from Wallowa to
Wallowa Lake were invited
to the drive-through grad-
uation at the Head Start
center on NW 1st Street.
She said they planned to
drive to the home of any
child who was unable to
come to graduation, “so
nobody misses out.”
Earlier Thursday, in
Wallowa and Lostine,
another 17 students were
included in a “reverse
parade,” where workers
drove to each of their
homes to present the items.
It was evident the workers
were doing their best to
give the kids an upbeat
Starting the
funnest phase
of your life
experience.
“We sure miss them,”
Collier said. “This is not the
ending we were hoping for
and we hope it’s special for
them.”
It appeared it was special
and the feeling of missing
each other was mutual.
Not only did the kids enjoy
going through the fun
buckets and other materials,
some — like young Ellie
Washington — sported a
heart-shaped sign that said,
“I miss you so.”
Collier deemed the day a
success.
“It’s such a positive
thing. It’s fun,” she said.
“And right now, we need
positivity.”
VOTE FOR CHANGE, VOTE FOR EXPERIENCE
INTEGRITY
TRANSPARENCY
HARD WORK
EXPERIENCED
VETERAN
PRO 2ND AMENDMENT
BILL MILLER FOR SHERIFF
“In my mind there is only one candidate with the experience, certifica-
tion and, more important, the life experience to be in command of the
most important department in Union County government. Join me in
supporting and voting for Bill Miller for Union County sheriff.”
~ John Coote
“As I drive around our county, I see lots of signs that say “elect”
someone. This is not an election about who has the most or the
biggest signs, but it is about who has the qualifications, experience,
integrity, honesty and leadership to do the job.
Bill has all of these things, and he will always do the right thing.”
~ Bob Nelson
A few of my priorities:
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