new year’s baby an early surprise for parents | REGION, A3
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145th year, no. 34
REGONIAN
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Bentz stance an about-face from Walden
Oregon republican
backs bid to upend
presidential vote count
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
saLeM — u.s. rep. Cliff
Bentz of Ontario has called for an
investigation of the 2020 presiden-
tial election, a move that would
delay and possibly derail the cer-
tification of Democrat Joe Biden’s
victory over President donald
County
approves
sale of
Cook
Building
sale aims to
facilitate building
of new city hall in
Hermiston
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HerMIsTOn — The umatilla
County Board of Commission-
ers has approved sale of its annex
in Hermiston known as the Cook
Building.
The sale is part of a three-way
deal with the county, the city of
Hermiston and landowners, doug-
las and Joyce Barak, to facilitate
the building of a new city hall in
Hermiston.
The Baraks own the Lanham
Building, a small suite of busi-
ness offices next to city hall. The
city needs the Lanham prop-
erty in order to make its planned
new, larger city hall fit on the cur-
rent city hall property at 180 n.e.
second st. In exchange for sell-
ing the Lanham Building to the
city for $400,000, the Baraks will
purchase the Cook Building for
$400,000 — essentially, a trade.
The Cook Building, located at
435 e. newport ave., currently
hosts offices for the county’s pub-
lic health, human services, veteran
services and the Cares program.
after the county sells the building
to the Baraks, umatilla County
Commissioner George Murdock
said the county plans to lease the
building from them until the new
city hall is complete. The terms of
the lease are still under negotia-
tion, Murdock said.
See Building, Page A7
Trump in novem-
ber’s election.
Bentz
has
declined repeated
requests
since
last week to say
whether he would
Bentz
join an effort by
more than 100
republican House members to
vote against accepting the elec-
toral College results when Con-
gress makes a usually perfunctory
review of the process on Wednes-
day, Jan. 6.
“I have joined many of my col-
leagues in asking for a congressio-
nal investigation and review into
what has happened in states where
election irregularities have been
observed,” Bentz said in a state-
ment dec. 15.
Bentz’s accusation of voting
irregularities worthy of a congres-
sional investigations is an about-
face from the stance of his pre-
decessor, rep. Greg. Walden,
r-Hood river. Walden, who repre-
sented the district covering eastern
and Central Oregon for 20 years,
stepped down on saturday, Jan.
2. Bentz was sworn in on sunday,
Jan. 3.
In a dec. 1 radio interview with
the national Journal, Walden said
the election had been fair and “the
die is cast” for Trump’s departure.
at the time he was one of only
27 republicans in the House and
senate who would say Biden had
defeated Trump.
Biden defeated Trump by more
than 7 million votes and the elec-
toral College confirmed his victory
on dec. 14 by a 306-232 margin.
Trump or his surrogates have
filed more than 50 lawsuits, with
only one procedural request win-
ning. The other cases on his alle-
gations and seeking to stop vote
counting or certification of votes
have been rejected. The u.s.
supreme Court declined without
comment to consider lawsuits by
Trump supporters.
Trump has kept up the pressure,
switching to a long-shot gamble to
get Congress to reject the electoral
See About-face, Page A7
BACK TO SCHOOL
Coming into focus
reopening
plans start to
take shape for
local districts
By ANTONIO SIERRA AND
JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
U
MaTILLa COunTy
— Gov. Kate Brown’s
decision to make the
school’s COVId-19
metrics advisory rather than
mandatory moved the reopen-
ing goalposts up again, but it’s
unlikely schools will execute a
full-scale reopening by the gov-
ernor’s Feb. 15 deadline.
In an upcoming column in
the Hermiston Herald, Hermis-
ton school district superinten-
dent Tricia Mooney wrote about
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
some of the barriers that remain A group of Hermiston High School students join fellow protesters advocating for the reopening of schools
outside of the Hermiston School District offices in Hermiston on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021.
to returning to school.
“However, creating a ‘new
normal’ isn’t as easy as flipping District offices on Monday, Jan. the group. “We miss seeing your lar activities, but they were also
concerned about what they felt
a switch. as a school district we 4, holding signs splotched with faces.”
district administrators were was a reduced quality to their
have been planning since March rainwater encouraging the dis-
how to safely return our 5,500 trict to return students to the working on a plan, she said, and education this year.
nick Purswell, a sophomore
students to the classroom while classroom as quickly as possi- encouraged them to be on the
continuing to protect against the ble. They were soon greeted by lookout for surveys regarding and three-sport athlete at Herm-
spread of COVId-19,” she wrote. superintendent Mooney, who reopening. she also encouraged iston High school, said not only
although Mooney’s editorial came outside to thank them for everyone to reach out to her by was it frustrating to miss out
was light on specifics, some stu- their support and let them know email with questions, and said on opportunities to play sports,
dents and parents are pushing for there was “no greater priority” she would provide answers as but he also worries about what
swift action.
the months of online learning
for the district than safely bring- soon as she had them.
about 20 students and par- ing them back.
students at the protest said will do to students’ grade point
ents stood on the street corner
“We miss you guys more than they missed seeing friends and
See Focus, Page A7
outside the Hermiston school ever,” she told the students in participating in extracurricu-
Brown’s goal causes debate
Governor wants
students back on
campus Feb. 15
By ROB MANNING
Oregon Public Broadcasting
S
aLeM — Two days
before Christmas, Gov.
Kate Brown pressed state
agencies and school lead-
ers to prioritize restoring in-per-
son learning for more school
children in the first several weeks
of 2021. she called reducing the
spread of COVId-19 and a safe
return to campuses “the greatest
gift we can give to Oregon’s chil-
dren this holiday season.”
as she spelled out several
new policies, including chang-
ing mandatory COVId-19 met-
rics into advice districts could
consider rather than adhere to,
Brown set a Feb. 15 goal for
schools “to return students to
in-person instruction, especially
elementary students.”
But schools that meet that tar-
get date will likely reopen before
teachers and other key cam-
pus staff have been vaccinated
against the virus.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Tracy Wart, an infection prevention nurse at St. Anthony Hospital in
Pendleton, draws up a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during
the hospital’s first round of staff vaccinations on Dec. 28, 2020.
That reality is causing debate
among educators and local lead-
ers and more uncertainty for par-
ents and students.
In the days leading up to
Brown’s announcement of loos-
ened regulations, the vast major-
ity of Oregon students were
attending class remotely. Just
before winter break, less than
10% of Oregon’s estimated
580,000 students were receiving
some form of in-person instruc-
tion, according to the Oregon
department of education data.
However, as Oregon leaders
like Brown press to bring more
students back to the classroom,
top officials are also acknowl-
edging the importance of getting
teachers and other school staff
vaccinated against COVId-19.
school employees are now con-
sidered part of “Phase 1b” — the
next round of people to receive
COVId-19 vaccines. That means
they’ll be in line for vaccines
after health care workers and
people at long-term care facili-
ties, ahead of the general public.
But vaccinations have been
going more slowly than planned.
according to data released by the
Oregon Health authority, 44,415
people had received initial doses
of the vaccine as of new year’s
day.
In response to an inquiry
from Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing, state health and education
officials acknowledged that vac-
cinations for school staff aren’t
even expected to begin until after
the Feb. 15 target for reopening
schools. essential workers in the
Phase 1b category should begin
being vaccinated in late Feb-
ruary, state officials said in an
email to OPB.
Different districts,
different decisions
some school districts are
moving ahead regardless of vac-
cines. Both school districts in
Klamath County have plans to
start providing in-person instruc-
See Brown, Page A7