REGION
TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Morrow County
declares local
emergency over
nitrate levels
Declaration empowers commissioners to
‘act as an emergency management agency’
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
BOARDMAN —
Morrow County commis-
sioners have declared a local
state of emergency related to
water quality.
“Our legacy will be what
we are doing
now,” Com-
missioner Jim
Doherty said
Thursday,
June 9, in
a special
meeting with
Doherty
one agenda
item — the
emergency
declaration.
Doherty
recently had
involved
himself in
Lindsay
the testing
of Morrow County wells.
According to the commis-
sioner and Paul Gray, emer-
gency manager for Morrow,
68 of 70 tested wells showed
dangerously high nitrate
levels.
Gray, who was present at
the meeting, expressed spe-
cial concern for infants and
pregnant women. They are
particularly vulnerable, he
said.
He said he was seeing
people who knew of water
impurity but did not know
what to do about it. Some
people, he said, were
boiling their water before
drinking it, as they thought
this would help. Gray said
boiling only makes the
water worse.
The emergency dec-
laration would empower
commissioners to “act as
an emergency manage-
ment agency,” work to end
the emergency and coordi-
nate with state and federal
agencies.
In presenting the decla-
ration, Doherty spoke of the
nitrate issue as one of inheri-
tance. It’s a problem that pre-
vious generations gave to us,
and it’s one to which we are
contributing, he stated.
He said this is especially
unfair to Spanish-speaking
residents, people who
are harmed most by this
problem.
The problematic wells
are largely rural, the com-
missioner said. He identi-
fi ed the worst areas as being
places with high Hispanic
populations.
Boardman city water,
Doherty said, remains safe
to drink, as it has been tested
and has not risen to dan-
gerous levels.
In the meeting, there was
no mention of individual
polluters.
Commissioner Melissa
Lindsay, who attended the
meeting via Zoom, stated
she was concerned about
this issue. She called safe
drinking water a top pri-
ority. Still, she said, she was
unsure why the declaration
was being made at a special
meeting June 9 rather than
at the next regular meeting
of the board on June 15.
Doherty replied, saying
this is a big issue and
addressing it “should have
happened a long time ago.”
By signing this declara-
tion, he said, bottled water
would be sent to people the
following day, and water
trailers would be placed in
the area next week.
Still, Lindsay expressed
concern about local con-
trol, as she said she does not
want to release power to the
governor.
Gray reassured her
otherwise.
“This is our disaster,” he
said.
Morrow is not losing
its ability to govern itself,
he said, free of the sorts of
government mandates that
occurred during the pan-
demic. The emergency man-
ager added the county could
wait for the next meeting or
some other time, or it could
act now, potentially saving
lives.
Doherty said there
are around 1,300 wells in
Morrow County that could
be tested. By declaring
an emergency, the county
brings in the state of Oregon
with resources to test these
wells.
Members of the public
viewed the meeting via
Zoom. Some posed ques-
tions and made statements
through chat. They largely
expressed concern over the
haste of this vote.
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Karisma Woodward makes the crowd laugh Friday, June 10, 2022, during the Let ‘Er Drag show at Electric Sundown, Pendleton.
Drag queens take to the stage
in a fi rst for Round-Up City
Nine drag queens take
stage in Pendleton
on June 10
By YASSER MARTE
East Oregonian
ENDLETON — She smeared
a dash of blue face paint on her
hand and with her brush she
dipped into the blue like a painter
with a palette.
Andrea Wabaunsee, stage name
Tatiana Rexia, leaned in front of the
mirror and applied the makeup on the
canvas of her cheeks, getting ready
for Let ‘Er Drag — a fi rst-of-its kind
drag show Friday, June 10, at Electric
Sundown in Pendleton. The place was
standing room only, with maybe 300
people in attendance.
“Mostly on stage I’m a female
demon or genderless demon just
because most of my drag is centered
from my dark mind, especially as a
child growing up being transgender and
not being able to say that,” Wabaunsee
said. “It’s kind of a lot so I keep it bot-
tled up and paint it on my body.”
Her drag family considers her
mother, a title and duty she takes with
serious and admirable care.
“It’s a lot of responsibility, especially
when someone is in a situation where
they don’t feel wanted publicly with the
person they care for,” Wabaunsee said.
“So I just need to be there like my drag
mother was there for me.”
Nine drag queens from Pasco,
which has had an active drag scenes for
many years, came to Pendleon to per-
form in the show, which also included
some locals. Among the group was
Brandon Granberry, Karisma and
Sugar Woodward and performers only
P
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Sugar Woodward prepares makeup Friday, June 10, 2022, right before the Let ‘Er Drag
show at Electric Sundown, Pendleton.
going by their stage names, including
Katana.
Granberry and Katana helped each
other dress for the show, listened to
music together and made fun of each
other.
“I’m from the backwoods of North
Carolina,” Granberry said. “Oh yeah,
where real KKK members lived, that
kind of backwoods. But I got out of
there.”
Katana refl ected on her upbringing,
moving from one place to another with
her mother, while she was in the fog of
an abusive relationship. But as Katana
glided onto the stage, her persona lit
up with vibrant colors. The audience
screamed with joy.
“It’s sort of like popping a balloon,”
Wabaunsee said of the exhilaration
and liberation of bursting through the
seams of their personal to their stage
identity. “It’s loud, crazy and a relief
after.”
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Drag queens Katana, below, and Brandon
Granberry prepare Friday, June 10, 2022,
for Let ‘Er Drag, a fi rst-ever drag queen
show in Pendleton.
Recount planned in razor close Baker County commission race
Christina Witham,
Kody Justus both
advance to runoff in
Nov. 8 general
election
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — The
race for a position on the
Baker County Board of
Commissioners remains so
close that County Clerk Ste-
fanie Kirby is preparing to
do a hand recount of more
than 5,000 ballots.
But regardless of the out-
come, the two candidates
— Christina Witham and
Kody Justus — will both
advance to a runoff in the
Nov. 8 general election.
They are vying for posi-
tion 2, one of two part-time
spots on the three-member
Board of Commissioners.
According to Oregon
election law, if
no candidate
in a contested
race gets more
than 50% of
the votes cast,
then the top
Justus
two advance
to the gen-
eral election.
That standard
also applies
in races, like
this one,
with just two
Witham
candidates.
In preliminary results
from the County Clerk’s
offi ce on May 17, the day of
the primary election, Justus
had a three-vote lead, 2,485
votes to Witham’s 2,482.
The reason Justus
doesn’t have at least 50%
of the votes, even with his
slim lead, is that there were
also about 50 write-in votes,
which constitutes about 1%
of the total votes cast. That
means Justus and Witham
are dividing 99% of the
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votes, and with such a
close race, neither has quite
reached that 50% plus one
threshold needed to avoid a
runoff in November.
The preliminary totals
in the commissioner race
didn’t include ballots that
were postmarked on May
17 but hadn’t arrived at the
Clerk’s offi ce that day.
Kirby said her offi ce
received 61 postmarked
votes within seven calendar
days after the election,
which made them eligible.
This was the fi rst Oregon
election in which those
postmarked ballots are
counted if they’re received
within seven days.
Kirby said there were
also 15 other ballots
counted. In some cases the
voter had left the ballot in
a drop box in a diff erent
county, which is allowed,
and others either lacked a
signature or the signature
didn’t match the one the
clerk’s offi ce had on record
for that voters.
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