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Changes to
COVID-19
metrics bring
no relief
Umatilla County
case counts still too
high for in-person
schooling despite
recent changes
By ALEX CASTLE
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Taillights streak past Great Pacifi c on Main Street in Pendleton on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020.
Dining on Main
Downtown Pendleton businesses explore new ways
to dine using expanded outdoor seating areas
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — They’re not
quite parklets, but the Pendle-
ton business community has
taken its fi rst steps toward
expanding their seating
spaces on South Main Street.
A joint effort between the Pendleton
Chamber of Commerce and the Pendleton
Downtown Association, the two nonprofi ts
secured a 60-day permit from the city to set
up expanded outdoor seating areas in the
on-street parking spaces in front of seven
downtown businesses. The two organiza-
tions pooled grant funds to cover the costs
of the new downtown infrastructure.
Angela Thompson, the president of the
downtown association, said work crews
began installing equipment on Tuesday,
Sept. 22, to give drivers a chance to get
used to the new contours of Main Street.
After a walk-through with public safety
staff to ensure they were safe to use, the
new seating areas, which included fencing,
tables, seating and umbrellas, welcomed in
guests on Friday, Sept. 25.
“The chamber of commerce staff,
along with help from the city public works
department, worked last week not only
setting up what the community can see,
but worked tirelessly behind the scenes to
ensure businesses had the correct licensing
and insurance,” Cheri Rosenberg, the pres-
ident of the chamber, said. “We were very
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Brian Mandella performs for diners in front of Great Pacifi c in downtown Pendleton on Sat-
urday, Sept. 26, 2020.
“PARKLETS ARE LIKE A JIGSAW PUZZLE,
A 5,000 PIECE JIGSAW PUZZLE.”
See Dining, Page A8
— Angela Thompson, president of the Pendleton Downtown Association
UMATILLA COUNTY — In a
move that loosened barriers for some
schools in the state to begin in-person
education, the Oregon Department of
Education suspended use of the state’s
COVID-19 test positivity rate metric
for the month of September on Thurs-
day, Sept. 24.
The decision, fi rst reported by Ore-
gon Public Broadcasting, has no impact
on schools in Umatilla County, which
reported 61 new COVID-19 cases the
week of Sept. 20-26, according to the
Oregon Health Authority. That’s still
well above the requirement of report-
ing less than 10 cases per 100,000 res-
idents (fewer than eight new cases per
week for Umatilla County) for three
straight weeks before returning all
students to classrooms.
However, a longer suspension of
the metric, if not complete removal of
it, could signifi cantly impact the coun-
ty’s longer-term prospects of return-
ing to in-person education.
“I don’t really know where they’re
going with this, or if this is just the
start of this metric just not being used
anymore,” said Umatilla County Pub-
lic Health Director Joe Fiumara.
Test positivity rate refers to the
percentage of COVID-19 tests con-
ducted that yield a positive result, and
is determined by dividing the number
of positive tests confi rmed in a single
week by the number of total tests con-
ducted for the virus that same week.
A majority of Umatilla County
schools won’t be permitted to reopen
for in-person instruction until the
county records a test positivity rate
of less than 5% for three consecutive
weeks.
According to the Oregon Health
Authority, Umatilla County recorded
a test positivity rate of 12.4% the week
of Sept. 13-19, its lowest recorded
rate since the state started publish-
ing weekly reports for the week of
July 5. However, Umatilla County is
one of two counties in the state — the
other being Morrow County — to not
record a test positivity rate below 10%
since the metric was introduced.
Fiumara has consistently ques-
tioned the adequacy of test positivity
rate for determining whether certain
activities can take place, particularly
due to the limited testing resources
available in rural Eastern Oregon.
See COVID-19, Page A8
Band teacher turns ‘crazy idea’ into reality
Weston-McEwen High School band director Rob
McIntyre built 80 unique percussion instruments
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
ATHENA — Band instructor Rob
McIntyre had a problem.
Even if the pandemic waned
enough so that students could return
to Athena schools in the fall, social
distancing wouldn’t allow his musi-
cians to sit in the band room together.
“The thing that’s different about
music is that if you’re blowing into an
instrument, distancing is not 6 feet,
it’s more like 12 feet,” McIntyre said.
“It might as well be 50 feet — you’re
not going to have a room big enough
to put the kids in.”
So last spring, McIntyre’s notori-
ously inventive brain went into prob-
lem-solving mode. He created his
own instrument — one that doesn’t
require breath — and temporarily
renamed his high school and middle
school bands the “Pandemic Players.”
Over the summer, he and others built
80 of the unique tuned percussion
instruments and distributed them to
students willing to play them.
The instrument consists mainly of
PVC pipes, particleboard and glue.
McIntyre, known as “Mr. Mac,”
took inspiration from a performance
company known as the Blue Man
Group. The Blue Man performers, a
See Band, Page A8
Weston-McEwen High
School band director
Rob McIntyre poses
with an instrument
he created and mass
produced for his high
school and middle
school bands. McIn-
tyre refers to both
instruments and mu-
sicians as Pandemic
Players.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney