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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 2020)
OFF PAGE ONE Tuesday, December 29, 2020 East Oregonian A7 Legislators: $200 million in relief for tenants, landlords Continued from Page A1 “When you go down a path that shuts out the pub- lic, that creates anxiety,” he said. As for the work accom- plished by the Legislature during their one-day ses- sion, Smith said he was pleased to be able to vote to provide liability relief to schools as they navigate trying to open classrooms safely during the pandemic. However, he didn’t think the bill went far enough, and wished it had also extended protections to other cate- gories, such as the hospi- tality industry and medical clinics. He said said the $600 million the Legislature set aside for additional COVID relief efforts seemed “rea- sonable,” and said he was glad to see additional finan- cial relief for tenants and landlords pass, but he did question the constitutional- ity of the eviction morato- rium that has been in place since the spring. “The Legislature has broad abilities, but the abil- ity to break a contract is not one of them,” he said. Rep. Greg Barreto, Unicorns: Continued from Page A1 friend, was wrecked after a semitruck collided with it. Tara and their eldest daugh- ter were safe, but the car was totaled and they sud- denly found themselves stranded near Knoxville, Tennessee. They held a family discussion to con- sider their options, includ- ing turning around and heading back home. But ultimately, the Arnolds decided to press ahead with a rental car to complete their convoy across the United States, avoiding further trouble besides the occasional ploy to sneak their pets into a hotel. It’s taken time to get adjusted to Pendleton, but both Emily and Mindy have experience in small towns. Mindy grew up in Swan- sea, South Carolina, a two-stoplight town of 800 that turns into a one-stop- light town when school isn’t in session. Emi- ly’s formative years were more nomadic, but her life included a stint in Pend- leton, where her family stayed after she moved on. Mindy and Emily met in South Carolina in 2017, but started out as friends. They both worked in the health care field, Emily working as a clinical social worker, Mindy as a surgical techni- cian and a clinical manager. But their friendship started to accelerate into something more as Mindy battled a dangerous form of cancer. In 2019, Mindy needed surgery to remove a mass, an operation that didn’t come without risk. Before heading to the oper- ating room, Mindy made a quick confession to Emily. “I-love-you-I-mean-it- bye,” she said, making her declaration so quickly that it came out as one word. Mindy died for two min- utes on the operating table, but eventually made it out of surgery after she was revived. Her cancer is now in remission, but the opera- tion still took a toll. Postoperative, Mindy was using crutches to aid her walking when she slipped and fell. The minute she hit the ground she knew that she wouldn’t be able to walk regularly again. She now uses a wheelchair to get around. Before moving to Pend- leton, Emily, Mindy and their family made a home in Irmo, a small suburb of Columbia, the South Caro- lina state capital. But they soon found themselves looking out- side the bounds of South Carolina. As a same-sex couple, Emily and Mindy weren’t sure they would be fully Abigail Dollins/Salem Statesman-Journal A right-wing protester screams at Salem police as she attempts to get into the Oregon Capi- tol during a special session of the state Legislature in Salem on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. R-Cove, could not attend the special session because he is self-quarantining after pos- sible exposure to someone with COVID-19. As of Tues- day, Dec. 22, Barreto was in the 10th day of a 14-day quarantine and has had no accepted in the South, where Emily wouldn’t be able to to take custody of the girls should something happen to Mindy and their youngest daughter, Bradle- igh, was starting to face bullying at school because of her two moms. Additionally, when COVID-19 hit, the cou- ple saw their work hours reduced during a time when Mindy’s job was already complicated by her disability. When they began their move to Pendleton, they ran headfirst into the city’s tight housing market. They didn’t secure a house until midway through their trip, as they traveled through Indiana. They stayed with Emi- ly’s family until the sale on their house went through, and although they’re now settled into their North Hill home, integrating into a new town is difficult during a pandemic. The Arnold family includes three daughters — Sofia, 18, Elyse, 10, Bradleigh, 7 — and the two youngest haven’t been able to go to school in-person and make friends. Emily hasn’t been able to introduce Mindy to Pendleton mainstays like a full-fledged Farmers Mar- ket on Main Street or the Round-Up. Mindy said living in a more densely populated area allowed her to some- times blend in with the crowd, a prospect that isn’t usually possible in Pendle- ton, especially when you’re a member of a same-sex couple, in a wheelchair and new in town. Mindy is still adjusting to life in her wheelchair, cycling through three dif- ferent ones as she looks for work. Mindy was physi- cally active before mov- ing to the chair, including a stint in a women’s football team called the South Car- olina Smash. Now, she is learning how to live life in a wheelchair on the fly. “There’s no YouTube for how to revamp your life for a wheelchair,” she said. But the challenges of the past couple of years haven’t overshadowed the Arnolds’ joys. Mindy and Emily were wedded in February, wait- ing to hold a larger cere- mony until the pandemic passes. And Emily officially completed the adoption process with Bradleigh recently, formalizing their familial bond. Their family and their journey to Eastern Oregon might be unconventional by Pendleton’s standards, but the Arnolds are taking it in stride. “We call ourselves the purple unicorns of Pendle- ton,” Emily said. symptoms of the virus. The state representative said he would have voted for three of the four bills the Legislature ultimately passed. The bill Barreto would have voted against is House Bill 4401, which extends a statewide moratorium on evictions until July 1, 2020. The eviction ban, which has been in place for at least several months, had been scheduled to lapse on Jan. 1, 2021. Barreto opposed HB 4401 because he said too many tenants are taking advantage of the statewide moratorium on evictions. Barreto said he would have supported House Bill 4402, which protects schools from COVID-19 lawsuits. HB 4402 would prevent a school from being liable if someone contracts COVID-19 through it. The state representative said HB 4402 is a good bill. However, he does have one reservation, explaining it is unfortunate that while the government is protecting schools, it is not protecting businesses in this way. Barreto also said he would have also supported the legislation passed that provides more state fund- ing for wildfire recovery, and Senate Bill 1801, which allows restaurants to sell to-go cocktails. Barreto said he supports the sale of take- out cocktails because it will help restaurants. Barreto said he was opposed to ear- lier to-go cocktail legisla- tion because it would have required restaurants to pay fees that would have made it cost prohibitive for restau- rants to offer this service. “The cost of making a cocktail would have been more than the sale,” Barreto said. Barreto said he doubts that the to-go cocktail leg- islation will provide a major financial boost to restaurants. Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath- ena, was also excused from the special session while on a family vacation. He said he followed the session and the bills involved, however. “The one that was partic- ularly important, I thought, was the school liability one,” he said. Hansell said the $200 million in relief for land- lords and tenants is better than doing nothing, but said he is hearing it would take $500 million to make land- lords “whole” for the rent they have not received this year due to the eviction mor- atorium. He said he would like to see additional relief for landlords, either through legislation the next session or as part of the overall $600 million COVID relief funds. “I’m hoping that discus- sion is not over yet,” he said. ——— La Grande Observer reporter Dick Mason con- tributed to this report. Sleeves: Hospital staff inoculations continue Continued from Page A1 utes after the injection. “We watch for shortness of breath, dizziness, any- thing out of the ordinary,” Wart said. “We make sure they’re not in anaphylactic shock.” While allergic reactions are rare, a Boston physician with a shellfish allergy used his own Epipen after expe- riencing an allergic reaction to the Moderna vaccine, but recovered quickly. Vaccine recipients will return for a second vaccina- tion in 28 days. That differs from the Pfizer vaccine, which requirers two doses three weeks apart. The need to monitor vac- cine recipients makes vac- cinating the community at large a bit more compli- cated, said Nicol Byram, a registered nurse who gave half the shots on Dec. 28. Byram, who works both for the hospital and the Uma- tilla County Health Depart- ment, said a mass drive- thru vaccination event for the community at large would require a large park- ing lot, such as the one at the Pendleton Convention Center. “We are working out the details,” she said. “We’ve been preparing for some time.” Unlike past drive-thru flu vaccine clinics, Geller said, “it’ll be a slower pro- cess to get everyone vac- cinated (for coronavirus). People would get jabbed and pull into a parking spot Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian Galen Thompson, left, a registered nurse at St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton, receives her initial dose of the Mod- erna COVID-19 vaccine from infection prevention nurse Tracy Wart at the hospital on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. and wait. It’s doable.” Still needed are spe- cific instructions from the Oregon Health Authority and an ample supply of the vaccine. Geller said additional hospital employees will ident of nursing for Good Shepherd, told the East Oregonian a few hours later that the morning’s roll- out had gone well. He said staff were excited to receive the vaccine and begin to administer it to others. “THIS IS THE PART OF THE DISASTER RESPONSE WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR.” — Brian Patrick, vice president of nursing for Good Shepherd receive the vaccine this week and beyond, starting with those working in such departments as the emer- gency room and the cardiac care unit. Across Umatilla County, at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston, the Moderna vaccine was also administered to health care workers starting at 7 a.m. on Dec. 28. Brian Patrick, vice pres- “This is the part of the disaster response we’ve been waiting for,” he said. Patrick said in Good Shepherd’s initial polling of staff, before the vaccine had become available to them, some had expressed some hesitancy about whether they wanted to be part of the first phase of the rollout, but now he is see- ing many of those hesitant people ask to be added to the list as their confidence in it grows. He person- ally expressed confidence in the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness. “There is really good science behind it,” he said. Enough vaccines are coming in for Good Shep- herd to begin expanding the vaccine beyond staff, and Patrick said the hospital is following Oregon Health Authority guidelines as it works to move down the list of vaccine eligibility to first responders, nursing homes, health clinics out- side Good Shepherd Health Care System and others. He said they will be work- ing together with Umatilla County Public Health and other community partners to make sure the vaccine is distributed as efficiently and quickly as possible. “We want to make sure we use our resources the best we can,” he said. Right now, those noti- fied it is their turn to receive a vaccine will visit the hos- pital to get immunized, but Patrick said as the vaccine’s availability becomes more widespread people will also be able to receive it at local pharmacies. The first doses Good Shepherd received are from Moderna, and he said it is their understand- ing that Good Shepherd will continue to receive the Moderna version, which is easier for rural hospi- tals to store and transport than Pfizer’s version, which needs to be kept in ultra- cold storage. Levee: Existence of mill race previously unknown Continued from Page A1 But water bypassed the levee section near Southeast Third Street for a much dif- ferent reason. Instead of breaching the levee section, the water seeped through it, the result of an artifact from Pend- leton’s early days. Flood waters threatened the East Oregonian offices and some nearby homes and businesses, but city staff were able to drain the water before it did significant damage. Before the city built the levee, a resident had built a mill race, a channel that carries water to a mill wheel. Instead of demolish- ing it, the city built the levee over the mill race and listed it in internal documents as “abandoned.” Patterson said modern-day city staff interpreted abandoned to mean in-filled, only to learn they were mistaken during the flood. “We didn’t know it was there,” he said. Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File Pendleton Public Works crews use an excavator to pack gravel and rock into a hole in the levee behind the East Or- egonian office in Pendleton on Feb. 7, 2020. The levee was eligible for repairs through a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program. The corps hired Vancouver, Washington, contractor KEU to conduct the repairs and is covering the costs. The February flood shat- tered expectations for how high the Umatilla River could rise, flooding areas thought to be beyond the floodplain and causing com- munities around the North- west to fortify their flood protection infrastructure. In an email, Patterson explained how the flood surpassed authorities’ pre- vious estimates. “We were also just pro- vided the flow estimate this week for the February event — 28,900 cubic feet per second (CFS) at the Pendle- ton gaging station location,” he wrote. “The 100-year, or base flood event, was cal- culated in the late 1990s to be about 22,500 CFS for this location, with the prior highest measured flow of record at about 15,500 CFS in 1965.” Patterson said the city’s bridges and levees held strong during the flood for the most part, but city staff will still look at the Uma- tilla River and McKay Creek with concern during the late winter and early spring now that they know what they’re capable of. “It doesn’t mean we’ll sleep any easier,” he said. “Probably not.” Patterson said Pendle- ton’s flooding events were caused by a combination of melting snow runoff and heavy rain in the Blue Mountains. In upcoming years, Patterson said he’s worried about the possibil- ity of snowmelt combined with heavy rain directly over Pendleton, which would put more pressure on the city’s flood protection system.