REGION
Saturday, April 25, 2020
A week of ballet birthdays
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
dancers of the Pendleton Bal-
let Theatre are quarantining
at home these days. The iso-
lation is almost unbearable
for the close-knit troupe of
dancers and their instructor,
Julie Sneden-Carlson, who
normally spend numerous
hours together every month.
When two of the dancers
had landmark birthdays last
week, the troupe found a way
to celebrate.
Samantha Mahaffy hit 30
on April 14 and Austin Ford
turned 18 two days later.
Mahaffy, a yoga teacher and
a lead dancer at PBT, danced
the role of the Snow Queen
during the company’s win-
ter performance of “The
Nutcracker.” Ford, a senior
at Pendleton High School,
played the lead male role.
The dancers geared up to
surprise Mahaffy first.
“It was her 30th birth-
day,” Sneden-Carlson said.
“We couldn’t let that go by.”
Mahaffy’s phone dinged
at 9 that morning. She read
the text and smiled. The sel-
fie from former PBT dancer
Eliana Hansen, who now
lives in New Jersey, showed
Hansen with a sign saying,
“Happy 30th Birthday, Sam-
mie.” In place of the zero in
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Sydnee Enright writes “Happy Birthday” in chalk on the path
at Community Park on April 14, 2020, to honor fellow dancer
Sammie Mahaffy on her birthday.
30 was a toe shoe. Texts from
her fellow dancers and oth-
ers kept coming until about 8
that night.
That evening, after a birth-
day dinner of OMG! burgers
at her boyfriend Jeff Nirshl’s
house, Nirshl casually sug-
gested going for a walk to
nearby Community Park. As
they walked, they observed
more people at the park than
normal. Still closer, Mahaffy
noticed words in chalk on the
pathway.
Somebody had written
“Happy 30th birthday Sam-
mie.” She realized that fel-
low dancers, their family
members and former col-
leagues were stationed all
along the path, carefully dis-
tanced from one another.
Mahaffy teared up and
stayed that way. She received
gifts, birthday wishes and
air hugs. Her former boss at
the Speakeasy Salon, Katie
Jones, read her a poem. At
the end, they coaxed her to
the middle of the grass.
“We all made a great big
circle around her and sang
‘Happy Birthday,’” Sned-
en-Carlson said.
Next came Ford’s birth-
day. Ford had been missing
dancing. He mentioned to his
mom that all he wanted for
his birthday was to be back
with his dancing family.
He got his wish, or at least
as close as could get during
a pandemic. On the eve-
ning of April 16, they gath-
ered silently, parking their
15-or-so cars in a row by the
Ford house. On tap that night
would be a showing of PBT’s
performance of “Wizard of
Oz,” projected onto the side
of the home. They depos-
ited cards, gifts and Ford’s
favorite junk food on a table.
Some settled with blankets
into lawn chairs.
Ford, hearing suspicious
sounds in the side yard, came
out to check. He was greeted
with hooting and hollering.
“He was pretty shocked,”
Mahaffy said. “The look on
his face was priceless.”
The dance company also
figured out a way to honor
Sneden-Carlson the next day
on her birthday. They orga-
nized a drop-off schedule,
and all day long the PBT
director got knocks on her
door as people left cards, bal-
loons and chocolate on her
porch and delivered birthday
wishes from a safe distance.
Sneden-Carlson said she felt
touched.
“It was an amazing week
of togetherness,” she said.
“There’s so much love in this
group.”
Hermiston City Council to meet Monday
Grassroots
organization
will address
homelessness
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The
Hermiston City Council will
start their Monday meet-
ing off with a work ses-
sion at 6 p.m. to discuss
homelessness.
Residents
have
cre-
ated a grassroots organiza-
tion called Stepping Stones
to address homelessness in
Hermiston, and on Monday
they will present a plan to
the city council for providing
shelter for the area’s homeless
residents.
The meeting will be held at
the Eastern Oregon Trade and
Event Center, 1705 E. Airport
Road, but limited seats for the
public will be available due to
COVID-19 restrictions, and
people are encouraged to par-
ticipate online or by phone
instead. In-person meeting
attendees can carefully drive
around the “road closed” sign
on Airport Road in order to
access EOTEC.
For the 7 p.m meet-
MEETING AVAILABLE ONLINE
Both the work session and the 7 p.m. regular meeting of the
Hermiston City Council will be live streamed on YouTube at
https://bit.ly/HermistonYouTube, or people call call in to lis-
ten or make comments during the public comment period
at 206-462-5569, using the meeting ID 322-962-8667.
For the full agenda packet for Monday’s meeting, visit
hermiston.or.us/meetings.
ing, agenda items include a
request for the city to vacate
a roughly 500-foot portion of
East Ridgeway Avenue east
of Northeast Seventh Street
and west of Diagonal Boule-
vard. The section is undevel-
oped right of way that is not
currently used for traffic.
Santiago Communities,
Inc. plans to build a 199-space
manufactured home park in
the vacant property to the
north of the right-of-way, and
the developer hopes to use the
right-of-way as the required
setback for the homes on that
side of the development.
The council will also vote
on two updates to the city
code. The first makes changes
to the process for hearing
appeals to code enforcement
actions. The second creates
a section on administrative
warrants, which would allow
the code enforcement offi-
cer to get a warrant “autho-
rizing entry onto property
for purposes of conducting
an administrative search,
inspection or investigation, or
authorizing an administrative
seizure of property or abate-
ment of a nuisance as autho-
rized by the Code.”
The council will vote on
authorizing the city manager
to accept up to $250,000 in
Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration grant funds to com-
plete design work on a rebuild
of the apron at the Hermis-
ton Municipal Airport, and
$69,000 in stimulus money
from the CARES Act for air-
port operations in light of
reduced air travel during the
pandemic.
They will also vote on
authorizing the city manager
to apply for matching grant
funds to build a “teen adven-
ture park” on North First
A3
BRIEFLY
Body found after
motorhome fire in
Milton-Freewater
MILTON-FREEWATER
— A body was found Thurs-
day morning after authori-
ties responded to and extin-
guished a motorhome that
was engulfed in flames on
Southeast 12th Street in Mil-
ton-Freewater, according to
a press release from Mil-
ton-Freewater Police Chief
Doug Boedigheimer.
The Milton-Freewater
Police Department, Mil-
ton-Freewater City Fire
Department and the Mil-
ton-Freewater Rural Fire
Department were called
around 6:45 a.m. Thursday
and arrived to a motorhome
“fully engulfed” in flames
in the backyard of the resi-
dence, the release stated.
The identity of the
deceased has “not been pos-
itively determined,” and no
other details are available as
the fire is investigated.
Merkley, Wyden
announce $430K
in grants for tribes
WASHINGTON — Ore-
gon’s U.S. Senators Jeff
Merkley and Ron Wyden
announced Thursday that
tribal communities in Ore-
gon will receive more than
$430,000 to support the
needs of elders and in an
effort to curtail the spread of
the coronavirus.
The Yellowhawk Tribal
Health Center on the Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation was
a recipient, receiving more
than $76,000.
“The coronavirus poses
unique risks and challenges
to elders in communities
across Oregon — and some
of these challenges are felt
the hardest among tribal
communities,” Merkley said.
“The federal government is
not doing enough overall to
help tribes through this crisis,
but I’m glad that these grants
will help keep food on the
table for these communities.”
The funding is being allo-
cated by the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act, which Con-
gress approved last month.
“Tribal elders throughout
Oregon facing both COVID-
19’s health dangers and eco-
nomic uncertainties urgently
need support to get through
this historic crisis,” Wyden
said.
The awards, which will
fund meal delivery and sup-
portive services for Native
American elders, are being
distributed by the U.S.
Department of Health and
Human Services.
County reports three
more COVID cases
UMATILLA COUNTY
— The number of confirmed
cases of COVID-19 contin-
ued to rise Friday as Uma-
tilla County Public Health
reported three new people
have been infected with the
virus.
The county identified one
of the patients as being in
close contact with the previ-
ous case, as all three recover
from home in self-isolation.
The new cases bring
the total number of people
actively infected with the
coronavirus to 16, while the
rest are considered recov-
ered. One patient remains in
the hospital.
Most of Umatilla County
cases are concentrated in
the Hermiston and Umatilla
areas, although the county
isn’t attributing COVID-19
cases to a specific area if it
hasn’t reported more than
four cases.
The county hasn’t shared
individual demographic data
either, but it has begun releas-
ing countywide data.
As of Thursday, more than
half of COVID-19 patients
were women and more than
a quarter were between the
ages of 50-59, although the
public health department
cautioned that the sample
size was too small for statis-
tical analysis.
The three cases reported
Friday matches three other
days for the most reported
in a single day since the
beginning of the outbreak.
As of Friday, 582 tests have
been conducted in Umatilla
County.
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Brookshier, Ed and Bert
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Burns, Kevin and Darla
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Colvin, Mitch and Kendra
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In addition, the council
will vote on a proposed sup-
plemental budget, which cit-
ies use at the end of their fis-
cal year to resolve differences
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the year. The supplemen-
tal budget before the council
Monday includes such items
as adding $53,000 in Fed-
eral Emergency Management
Agency funds for the flood-
ing of Riverfront Park, and
authorizing the expenditure
of $568,000 to rebuild Fun-
land Playground.
East Oregonian
Fife, Terry
Frink, Mike and Carol
Garrard, Gary and Deanna
Graybeal, Heather
Hamm, Phil
Hansell, Sally Anderson
Hansell, TJ
Hardin, Rod and Sheila
Hawkins, Tim and Jennifer
Holthus, Jay and Ginny
Jewett, Rick
Keeley, Mel and Jerrie
Kik, Bill and Bonnie
Mabry, Tim and Nancy
Mallory, Mike and Jeanna
Meunier, Al and Tara
Middleton, Jason and Cindy
Middleton, Rian
Miller, Chuck and Bonnie
Miller, Don and Linda
Minton, Doug and Ann
Mullay, Bob and Lois
Myers, Jackie
Narain, Jesse
Narain, Vijay
Newman, Gay and Alice
Obrist, Don and Sandra
Otis, John and Connie
Piercy, Lloyd
Puzey, Kim
Rivera, Nate
Saylor, Lowell
Schroth, Bob and Jan
Sherrell, Rich and Donna
Smith, Greg and Sherri
Sobotta, Kay and Jerry
Spoo, Tom and Julie
Taylor, Mike and Patsy
Turner, John and Gail
Volmer, Chris
Voss, James
Wagner, Lucas and Tammy
Wilcox, Chuck and Pam
Wolfe, Bryan and Lou Ann
Wood, Janet
Wood, Matt and Cindy
Ziari, Fred
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