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
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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.