umatilla city council approves purchase of golf course | REGION, A3
E O
AST
145th year, No. 21
REGONIAN
Thursday, december 3, 2020
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
$1.50
UMATILLA COUNTY
county
approves
cares
funds
commissioners
green light more
than $1 million
for grant program
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — The umatilla
county board of commissioners
unanimously approved the expen-
diture of up to $1.18 million from
the state-funded cares business
Grant Program to support busi-
nesses in the hospitality industry
affected by cOVId-19.
The move, made during the
commissioners’ Wednesday, dec.
2, meeting, comes as small busi-
nesses across Oregon face eco-
nomic hardship during the ongo-
See CARES, Page A7
county
trying new
strategy
umatilla county,
outreach groups
work to support
Latino community
during pandemic
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON
— The uma-
tilla county Pub-
lic health depart-
ment is partnering
with local his-
panic
outreach
Fiumara
groups to distrib-
ute cOVId-19 kits
to spanish-speak-
ing
farmwork-
ers throughout the
county.
The kits, which
include
cloth
masks, sanitizer
Walsborn
bottles and mes-
saging about things
like cOVId-19 symptoms, are an
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Ukiah High School students discuss a community engagement project during class on Sept. 3, 2020. The southern Umatilla County school was
among the first in the state to reopen for in-person education at all grade levels.
Staying the course
schools maintain operations through current outbreaks
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
P
eNdLeTON — despite a rash of
cOVId-19 outbreaks in schools
across eastern Oregon, local school
districts are pressing forward.
due to its small size and remote-
ness, the ukiah school district was among a
handful of districts that were allowed to reopen
in the fall. staff and students wore masks and
socially distanced with the idea that a signifi-
cant outbreak could lead to a return to distance
learning, a struggle for a community with poor
internet quality.
according to the Oregon health authori-
ty’s most recent weekly report as of press time,
Ukiah School reported its first case on Nov. 14,
a staff member who tested positive.
ukiah superintendent Jim reger said the
district and umatilla county Public health
determined that the staff member was last in
the building on Nov. 12, leading to a week-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
See Schools, Page A7
Ukiah School District secretary Linda Kerr, left, and Ukiah School Board chair Ted Orr talk during
the school day on Sept. 3, 2020.
Activists condemn Confederate stamps
Pendleton city council
to draft new policy to
prevent future sidewalk
stamp preservation
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
See Strategy, Page A7
PeNdLeTON — The Pendle-
ton city council was already in
the process of reversing the city’s
decision to preserve confeder-
ate names along southeast byers
avenue, but local activists were
not going to let the council off the
hook.
a small group of people gath-
ered in council chambers and the
meeting’s video chat feed on Tues-
day, dec. 1, to protest confeder-
ate sidewalk stamps, which were
set to be preserved before the city
reversed course and announced
that not only was it going to halt
the process of preserving the
confederate stamps, it was going
also going to draft a new policy
to prevent future sidewalk stamp
preservation.
among the speakers was bri-
ana spencer, an activist who had
organized previous black Lives
matter protests.
mayor John Turner assured
spencer that the city would not
reinstall or restamp the sidewalk
etchings before it considered its
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A protester holds a sign in opposition of the restamping of sidewalks with Confederate names along South-
east Byers Avenue during a city council meeting in Pendleton on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020.
new preservation policy. he reit-
erated that one of the driving fac-
tors behind the decision was the
realization that most of the his-
toric sidewalks stamps across
town hadn’t been preserved when
their sidewalks were repaired or
replaced, despite city laws direct-
ing staff to do so.
but Turner’s comments didn’t
prevent spencer from pressing
further. she inquired whether
anyone from the city consulted
with people of color or the
confederated Tribes of the uma-
tilla Indian reservation before
moving forward with the proj-
ect. she asked what the council
would do to avoid these kinds of
See Stamps, Page A7