WEEKEND EDITION
THE WEEK IN PHOTOS
PENDLETON’S JORDYN
MURPHY SIGNS WITH
MOUNTAINEERS FOR
CROSS-COUNTRY, TRACK
THE BACK PAGE, A10
SPORTS, B1
E O
AST
145th Year, No. 39
TRCI COVID
OUTBREAK
CONTINUES; TWO
INMATES DIE
REGION, A3
REGONIAN
JANUARY 16-17, 2021
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Brown: Feds conduct ‘mass deception’
Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown said increased
vaccine shipments will
not arrive next week
By COURTNEY SHERWOOD
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — Oregon is taking a
step back in its effort to vaccinate
older residents of the state, after
learning that its push to rapidly
accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations
has been derailed by what Gov. Kate
Brown called “mass deception” on
the part of the Trump administration.
Instead of allowing teachers and
all Oregonians older than 65 to start
receiving vaccinations later this
month as previously announced, the
state on Friday, Jan. 15, adjusted its
plans for the next phase of vaccine
doses to prioritize teachers and other
education workers starting on the
week of Jan. 25, and people 80 and
older starting on Feb. 8.
The effort that has already been
underway with health care, long-
term care and vulnerable populations
will not change, Brown said.
“Across the state, we continue
to vaccinate Oregon’s front-line
health-care workers, individuals
with intellectual and developmen-
tal disabilities and their caregivers,
long-term care residents and staff and
more,” she said in a press conference
Jan. 15.
She used the event to empha-
size the state’s effort to pivot after
learning it will receive fewer doses
VETERANS
than expected.
The governor had announced that
news earlier Jan. 15: “States will not
be receiving increased shipments of
vaccines from the national stock-
pile next week, because there is no
federal reserve of doses,” Brown said
on Twitter.
“I am demanding answers from
the Trump Administration. I am
shocked and appalled that they have
set an expectation on which they
could not deliver, with such grave
consequences,” she continued. “This
is a deception on a national scale.
Oregon’s seniors, teachers, all of us,
were depending on the promise of
Oregon’s share of the federal reserve
of vaccines being released to us.”
The governor’s early morning
tweets were among the fi rst news of a
major setback for vaccination efforts
across the country, and came less
than a day after the Oregon Health
Authority said it had achieved its goal
of administering 12,000 COVID-19
See Deception, Page A8
EO SPOTLIGHT
Hermiston
organization’s
future cloudy
VFW Post 4750
offi cials say
post needs new
members to survive
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The new post
commander for Veterans of Foreign
Wars Post 4750 is concerned about
the post’s future if it doesn’t get more
members.
In a recent email to community
members, Harold Roberts warned
that the Hermiston post has “barely
enough members to hold all the posi-
tions of the post” and is in need of
increased participation.
“VFW members serve and
support the community it would be
a great loss to the community if this
post were to fold its fl ag for the last
time and close its doors for good,”
the email stated.
Roberts told the East Oregonian
that VFW Post 4750 lost partici-
pation in recent years as it faced
difficulties that includes clashes
between some “strong personali-
ties” and the post’s former quarter-
master being charged in February
2020 for embezzlement of thou-
sands of dollars. The issues caused
the state chapter to step in and put
them on probation, but Roberts said
the state’s assistance, including reor-
ganization of the post, has put those
problems behind them.
On Feb. 4, they will have their
fi rst meeting run by local leadership
See VFW, Page A8
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Blue Mountain Community College Nursing Program Director Laurie Post, second from right, leads a class of students at the
college’s Pendleton campus on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. The schools nursing program is one of the few programs allowed to utilize
in-person education for lab activities.
A rough stretch
BMCC looking ahead after rough 2020
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — Going into
2020, Cesar Ruiz thought
Blue Mountain Community
College was the right fi t for
him.
A basketball standout at Hermiston
High School, Ruiz, 19, had spent a year
across the river at Columbia Basin College
in Pasco, Washington, before deciding
that going to school closer to home was
the best step for him and his family.
And then everything shut down.
The Northwest Athletic Conference
canceled the basketball season, depriv-
ing Ruiz of the chance to display his skills
in front of coaches for four-year schools.
When Ruiz would log into class in Zoom,
some classes would only feature a handful
of students.
2020 proved to be a challenging year for
all local governments, but BMCC seemed
to run into an especially bad spate of bad
news.
“We shut down right at spring break
last year,” BMCC President Dennis Bailey-
Fougnier said in an interview. “It hasn’t
been the same since.”
Enrollment fell as most classes trans-
ferred to an online format. The college
was forced to make budget cuts that led
to signifi cant layoffs. The threat of more
layoffs became real when the Oregon
Department of Corrections announced
it was ending its contract with BMCC
See BMCC, Page A8
City considering grant program for eateries
Proposal would help
cover local restaurants’
expenses for six months
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — As the pandemic
stretches into 2021, Pendleton’s elected
leaders are considering more drastic
measures to preserve the city’s restau-
rant industry.
At a Tuesday, Jan. 12, city council
workshop, Economic Development
Director Steve Chrisman and Pend-
leton Chamber of Commerce CEO
Cheri Rosenberg explained why the
city should help cover local restau-
rants’ expenses for the next six months.
The pair painted a dire picture of the
industry, where owners fear permanent
restaurant closures as Umatilla County
yo-yos in and out of shutdowns.
Chrisman said businesses can’t
continue to stay shut down while
staying viable.
“It’s approaching cruel and unusual
treatment of an entrepreneur who has
put in his blood, sweat and tears,” he
said.
The basic concept of the “Restau-
rant and Bar Pandemic Relief
Program” would be to help cover
restaurants’ monthly expenses for the
next half year to keep restaurants afl oat
during the second year of the pandemic
while acknowledging there were still
important details, like cost and eligibil-
COVID-19 NUMBERS
ity, that still needed to be worked out.
Early estimates at the total cost of
the program ranged from $300,000 to
$600,000, sums that would be signifi -
cantly larger than the city’s previous
rounds of COVID-19 relief efforts,
which mostly consisted of one-off
grants.
The proposal looked to source
funding from the Pendleton Develop-
ment Commission, but urban renewal
See Eateries, Page A8
TOTALS FOR WEEK ENDING 1/16/2021
IN UMATILLA COUNTY
RISK LEVEL
HIGH
NEW
WEEKLY
CASES
890
TOTAL
CASE GOAL
80
OR LESS
OVER 2
WEEKS
POSITIVE
TEST RATE
%
19.1
POSITIVE
0.3 TEST GOAL
%
%
5