OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
East Oregonian
A7
Dining: Chamber of commerce lends outdoor heaters
Continued from Page A1
that they feel unfairly tar-
geted compared to other
businesses. In November,
the Oregon Restaurant &
Lodging Association and
the Restaurant Law Cen-
ter filed a joint complaint in
federal court for injunctive
relief from two-week freeze
that lasted from Nov. 18 to
Dec. 3.
Some local governments
have tried to help ease
the burden. In Hermiston,
the city is offering down-
town restaurants the use
of its parking lots for out-
door seating, and donated
$15,000 to the Hermiston
Downtown District to help
with seating and other items
needed. While most lots
remain empty, The Pheas-
ant Blue Collar Bar & Grill
has a large heated tent set up
in the lot on Gladys Avenue
behind its restaurant.
“We get to open tomor-
row,” the restaurant wrote
on its Facebook page on
Wednesday, Dec. 2. “Yes,
it will be outside, but you
should see the winter won-
derland we’ve put together
to make you comfy.”
Outside of the downtown
area, Midway Bar & Grill
offered dining inside a tent
forming a dining space next
to its building. The bar is
“highly encouraging” peo-
ple make reservations ahead
of time to make sure there
will be a table for them.
In Pendleton, the com-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A heated tent sits amid the fog outside The Pheasant Blue Collar Bar & Grill in Hermiston on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. This tent
and others in town are used for outdoor dining in compliance with the most recent round of COVID-19 dining restrictions.
munity took steps earlier in
the year to expand its out-
door dining options, but
trying to revive them on
the eve of winter won’t be
an easy task.
In September, the Pendle-
ton Chamber of Commerce
and the Pendleton Down-
town Association teamed up
to offer a 60-day expanded
outdoor dining program,
lending out seating, tables,
umbrellas and fencing to
South Main Street restau-
rants to use in their on-street
parking spots.
In the short term, the
organizations hoped restau-
rants could use the space as
an extra source of revenue
at a time when indoor din-
ing was restricted by pan-
demic regulations. In the
long term, the groups hoped
to use the program as a trial
run for more permanent out-
door dining infrastructure
on Main.
The program ended in
November, and bringing
back outdoor dining during
a time when most restau-
rants turn their attention
indoors won’t be as easy as
dusting off some furniture.
In a Dec. 7 email, Cheri
Rosenberg, the chamber’s
executive director, explained
what obstacles local restau-
rants were facing.
Rosenberg said the cham-
ber has lent outdoor heaters
to the businesses that have
requested them, but the
fencing used earlier in the
fall was leased and no lon-
ger available.
Additionally,
Rosen-
berg said restaurants are
contending with rules that
require outdoor venues to be
open on three sides and the
overhead costs of serving
customers willing to brave
the cold.
“The chamber and PDA
will continue to help in any
way we can across all demo-
graphics,” she wrote. “East-
ern Oregon has always
struggled to be heard at the
state level & I think we are
seeing that now more (than)
ever, but we will continue
to speak out & fight for our
local businesses.”
Toys: ‘We’ve all had our
stress and this is an excellent
release for everybody’
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Riverside’s Neftalí Pacheco (1) vaults over a Cascade Christian defender to regain control of
the ball during the first half against the Challengers. The Riverside Pirates defeated Cascade
Christian 2-1 in the first round of the OSAA state playoffs at Riverside High School in Board-
man on Nov. 5, 2019.
OSAA: Late start in hopes of
waiting out weather, COVID
Continued from Page A1
in Oregon that led to fur-
ther restrictions being put in
place by Gov. Kate Brown.
Under the current regula-
tions, 25 of Oregon’s 36
counties are classified as
‘extreme-risk’ and have the
highest level of restrictions.
Peter Weber, OSAA exec-
utive director, explained that
because of that, only about
42 of the entity’s member
schools are in a location
lower than extreme-risk.
“The OSAA and member
schools are bound to follow
the guidance for the state.
They are not suggestions.
they are requirements,”
Weber said.
He noted that full-con-
tact sports currently are
not allowed by the Oregon
Health Authority, and that
includes two of the sports in
the season that was to start
Dec. 28 — basketball and
wrestling.
“Basketball and wres-
tling currently are still pro-
hibited by the state,” he
said in opening the discus-
sion at the virtual meeting.
“We need to make some
changes.”
The board considered
two proposals — one for two
nine-week seasons that each
had a culminating week,
and the adopted proposal of
three six-week seasons.
Almost immediately, it
was clear during the meet-
ing that the three-sea-
son model was favored,
as several board members
expressed concern of the
sports being split in such
a way that athletes would
have to choose between two
events they would have oth-
erwise taken part in. Under
the two-season model, golf
and swimming would have
been included with the tra-
ditional fall sports, and bas-
ketball and wrestling would
have been lumped in with
the spring sports.
“I am concerned state-
wide with the overlapping
of sports,” said Curt Shel-
ley, board vice president
and superintendent at Tilla-
mook. “I like the three-sea-
son sports season for that. I
think it gets the prime time
of the seasons and the best
weather for that.”
Dufur athletic director
and football coach and 1A
representative Jack Hender-
son offered his support for
the three-season model.
“I, too, support the
three-season model as well,”
he said. “The stacking is
really, really difficult.”
Jeff Clark, 2A represen-
tative and principal at Oak-
land High School, said the
two-season model was not
an option.
“A three-season model
is our best option because it
allows us to offer everything
at this point,” he said. “If we
adopt the two-season model,
we are already cancelling
sports in some fashion.”
Representatives for the
Oregon Athletic Directors
Association and the Oregon
Athletic Officials Associa-
tion also expressed concern
with the overlap.
Jack Folliard, the OAOA
rep on the executive board,
said, for example, there
are 1,000 basketball refer-
ees in the state, and 250 of
them also ump baseball or
softball. Overlapping those
two sports would leave an
already shorthanded offi-
ciating group statewide
hamstrung.
“I cannot in good con-
science guarantee we could
cover sports in a two-season
(model),” Folliard said.
Weber explained OSAA
staff’s reasoning for late
February, saying that date
allows for time for new
COVID-19 cases to hope-
fully decrease and works
around winter weather.
“By pushing that date
further, we believe that sets
us up for success,” he said.
on their 2006 Honda VTX
1800, Phil dressed as Santa
Claus with Beth riding in a
sidecar beside him. The pair
said they have been taking
part in the ride for seven or
eight years and enjoy the
opportunity to give back to
the community.
“It’s a real honor to
be part of this — with
Al Sells’ memory — and
everything,” Phil Spencer
said. “It’s an honor.”
For the Spencers, this
year’s toy run served as
more than an opportunity
to bring joy to children and
celebrate Sells’ memory,
it served as a release from
the stresses of a global pan-
demic and an opportunity
to bring joy to an entire
community.
“We’ve all had our stress
and this is an excellent
release for everybody,” Phil
Spencer said.
Kandie Jensen, Sells’
ex-wife, said Sells would
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Riders depart Echo for the 17th annual Echo Toy Run on
Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020.
have found a way to make
the toy run happen no mat-
ter the circumstances, and
she commended the com-
munity for continuing
through in his spirit.
“They weren’t going
to let it die,” she said. “He
wouldn’t have. He would
have done it if he’d been the
only one riding.”
Although Jensen has
long had a part in collect-
ing toys for the Echo Toy
Run, she said the event was
one of Sells’ greatest enjoy-
ments and something that
he took great pride in each
year.
“He was always one of
those people that he liked
to help the kids — no mat-
ter what. He would do any-
thing for children,” she
said. “This was his pride
and joy.”
Plaza: Mayor suggests postponement
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gathering place for public
events, a magnet to attract
customers to the north end
of Main Street and as a
spur to encourage further
downtown development
and revitalization by pri-
vate building and business
owners.”
Charles Denight, the
associate director of the
development commission,
said the city hired Port-
land landscape design firm
Greenworks to create con-
cept art of the plaza, with
ideas ranging from a plaza
that would take pedes-
trians all the way to the
water’s edge to an over-
look of the river. Denight
said the city would need to
do more work beyond con-
cept art if it was going to
create more feasible plans.
But few on the council
seemed enthusiastic about
tackling the Byers project
right away.
Councilor McKennon
McDonald said she’s seen
nothing but negative com-
ments on social media
about the proposal, with
some commenters won-
dering why they would pri-
oritize it over street repair
and other pressing issues.
“This project is com-
ing on the heels of the big
flood,” she said. “It’s com-
ing on the heels of the
pandemic.”
A contingent of coun-
cilors seemed like they
were more interested in
the city acquiring the
nearby Christian Science
building at the corner of
Main Street and Byers.
Denight said the owners of
the vacant building have
offered to sell it to the city,
but the commission would
need to consider the condi-
tion of the building and the
cost to maintain it.
Mayor John Turner said
the commission should
return to the Byers proj-
ect in two to three years
after the city has engaged
in more street repair.
Public Works Direc-
tor Bob Patterson reported
to the commission on the
city’s latest efforts to do
just that.
As a way to further
boost street repair fund-
ing, the commission allo-
cated $10.9 million in
urban renewal funds to
reconstruct streets across
downtown Pendleton and
some of the surrounding
area.
Patterson reported that
the commission could
spend $6.4 million to redo
10 streets in poor condi-
tion, but for a total of a
total of $10.3 million they
could do much more.
In the more expansive
version of the plan, the
city could not only redo
Southeast First and South-
west First streets, but also
add landscaping, replace
lighting and make other
improvements.
The council decided
it needed more time
to decide the level of
improvements it wanted to
make to each First Street,
but gave the green light to
the other eight streets.
In an interview after
the meeting, Patterson
said city staff have since
identified six other streets
that would be eligible for
the funding. He’s going to
present on all the streets,
save First and First, at the
council’s next meeting on
Dec. 15.