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145th year, No. 31
REGONIAN
Tuesday, december 29, 2020
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Final
levee
repair
work
begins
Legislators
OREGON
reflect on
special
session
contractors removing
mill race from levee
near southeast Third
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — Ten months
after floods inundated Pendleton,
the city is patching over one of the
last areas where the umatilla river
unexpectedly penetrated the city’s
flood defense system.
contractors started repair work
on monday, dec. 28, on the Pend-
leton levee near southeast Third
street. Pendleton Public Works
director bob Patterson said crews
will extract an old arch contained
within the levee before installing
a new wall and applying grout to
completely seal off that area of
the levee from future high-water
tem at two different points. On
the west end of town, flood waters
breached a levee near some indus-
trial land, flooding Keystone RV
co. and cor-Tek, forcing the large-
scale employers to either curtail
or suspend operations while they
made repairs. The state eventually
granted Pendleton $1.8 million to
repair that section of the levee.
events. The contractor expects to
complete the project on Wednes-
day, dec. 30.
In Pendleton, the February
floods destroyed homes and dam-
aged businesses, battering a com-
munity that was trying to with-
stand its second major flood in as
many years.
The flood tested Pendleton’s
infrastructure, and water got
through Pendleton’s levee sys-
See Levee, Page A7
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
saLem — The Oregon
Legislature’s third and final
special
ses-
sion of the
year was “defi-
nitely memora-
ble,” said rep.
Greg
smith,
r-Heppner.
as the Leg-
islature
met
Barreto
inside the Ore-
gon
capi-
tol on mon-
day, dec. 21,
with masks and
social distanc-
ing, protesters
attempted to
Hansell
force their way
into the build-
ing after being
denied access
due to cOVId-
19 restrictions.
Oregon state
Police declared
the
protest,
Smith
organized by
the right-wing
group Patriot Prayer, an unlaw-
ful gathering and arrested four
protesters for trespassing and
disorderly conduct.
smith said there is “no
place” for violence or destruc-
tion of public property, and he
categorized the amount of tax-
payer dollars used in the police
response as “unfortunate.”
He also said, however, that
he felt with the technology
and infrastructure available to
the state there should be more
public access to the Legisla-
ture during sessions conducted
during the pandemic.
“I’m of the opinion this
whole process could have been
avoided,” he said.
The capitol building is not
the Legislature, smith said, and
the Legislature is not required
to meet there. He said he would
have liked to see the Legisla-
ture make use of the spacious
field houses of area colleges,
with each chamber meeting in a
separate athletic facility where
observers could be safely
accommodated with plenty of
social distancing and venti-
lation. at minimum, he said,
he would like to see people be
allowed to make an appoint-
ment via Zoom to testify before
committees.
See Legislators, Page A7
Health care workers at St. Anthony, Good Shepherd start vaccinating
By KATHY ANEY AND
JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
P
eNdLeTON — The atmo-
sphere in the st. anthony
Hospital conference room
on monday, dec. 28, was
upbeat. Ten health care workers
who waited there to receive the
hospital’s first coronavirus vac-
cinations could barely contain
their elation.
“This is huge,” said dr. John
mcbee. “This is the beginning
of the end of the pandemic.”
each person answered
screening questions and signed
a consent form.
McBee went forward first,
sat down in the hot seat and
rolled up his left sleeve. Tracy
Wart, infection prevention
nurse at st. anthony, cleaned
the surgeon’s arm with alcohol
and prepared the syringe.
“ready?” Wart asked.
mcbee nodded and the
nurse slowly injected the vac-
cine into the surgeon’s deltoid
muscle.
“The first step to normalcy,”
he said after Wart withdrew the
needle.
This initial session was a
test drive of sorts using the
contents of one 10-dose vial of
the moderna vaccine as a pre-
cursor to a full-scale vaccina-
tion of employees. st. anthony
President Harry Geller watched
happily as he leaned against a
wall.
“This is the light at the
end of the tunnel,” he said.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Dr. John McBee receives the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at St. Anthony Hospital in
Pendleton on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. The hospital began vaccinating staff on Monday morning and
plans to continue to do so throughout the week.
“It’s exciting.”
Hospital employees aren’t
required to get vaccinated, but
Geller hopes most will do so.
“It’s not mandatory,” he said.
“(However), the care commu-
nity, we’ve got to reach at least
two-thirds vaccinated to get
herd immunity. I think that’ll
happen over time as it rolls out.
more and more people are get-
ting comfortable with the idea
of taking it.”
The caveat, he said, is a new
coronavirus mutation sweep-
ing through england that is
more transmissible and harder
to control. The variant might
require an even higher percent-
age to reach herd immunity,
maybe up to 90%. That might
be a harder sell.
The health care workers
in the conference room, how-
ever, were all in. dr. bill Pow-
ell, medical director in the
hospital’s emergency depart-
ment, gave a hang loose sign
hand sign as he got his injec-
tion. Powell said the vacci-
nation means he won’t worry
quite as much about bringing
cOVId-19 home to his family.
“I have a son with down
syndrome and heart disease,”
he said. “I’ve been trying hard
not to expose him. Now there is
less risk of taking it home.”
afterward, vaccine recipi-
ents received stickers that read,
“I got my cOVId vaccine.”
each person was required to
remain in the room for 15 min-
See Sleeves, Page A7
‘The purple unicorns
of Pendleton’ adjust
to their new home
mindy and emily arnold relocated from
south carolina to umatilla county
Editor’s Note: This story is
part of an annual series by the
East Oregonian called “Our New
Neighbors,” which introduces the
community to people who have
moved here in the past year.
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — mindy
arnold keeps a running checklist
of things she wouldn’t like to do
again, and moving cross-country
during a pandemic is one of them.
Last summer, mindy and
emily arnold packed up their
three children, two cats, one dog
and two turtles into three cars to
make the more than 2,500-mile
journey from south carolina to
Pendleton.
On day 1 of their move, the
car driven by Tara, a family
See Unicorns, Page A7
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The Arnold Family, (from left) Sofia Guerrero, 18, Elyse Flores, 10, Bradle-
igh Arnold, 7, Emily Arnold and Mindy Arnold pose for a portrait with their
dog, Knuckles, in the living room home of their Pendleton home on Sat-
urday, Dec. 19, 2020.
COVID-19 NUMBERS
TOTALS FOR WEEK ENDING 12/27/20
IN UMATILLA COUNTY
RISK LEVEL
HIGH
NEW
WEEKLY
CASES
514
TOTAL
CASE GOAL
40
OR LESS
OVER 2
WEEKS
POSITIVE
TEST RATE
%
11.4
POSITIVE
0.4 TEST GOAL
%
%
5