Pendleton council OKs electric scooters | REGION, A3
E O
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145th year, No. 65
REGONIAN
Thursday, March 18, 2021
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Oregon to nearly double vaccine eligibility
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
saLEM — Over 1 million
more people will be eligible for the
cOVId-19 vaccines in the next two
upcoming eligibility phases, state
officials said on Tuesday, March 16.
The groups to be added on
March 29 and May 1 will nearly
double the number of people eligi-
ble for vaccination. Like most
states, Oregon is already struggling
with the gap between vaccine eligi-
bility and availability.
To date, there has only been
enough vaccine available to inoc-
ulate less than half of the approx-
imately 1.36 million Oregonians
already eligible.
There are an estimated 2.8
million adults in Oregon out of a
population of just under 4.3 million.
The numbers for the next
eligibility groups have not been
announced, but were provided by
the Oregon health authority in
response to a query by EO Media
Group. Oha director Pat allen
was scheduled to testify on the
status of the state’s vaccination
program on Wednesday, March 18,
before the house subcommittee on
cOVId-19.
The last change to the eligibility
list was on March 1, when everyone
age 65 and older was approved to
get vaccinated.
On March 29, eligibility will be
extended to an estimated 530,000
more people, according to Oha.
The group includes those 45 and
older with medical conditions that
put them at higher risk of severe
illness or death, pregnant women
16 and older, and homeless people.
On May 1, an estimated 550,000
more people will be eligible. The
minimum age for those with medi-
cal conditions will be extended to
those 16 and older. It also includes
essential workers as defined by the
centers for disease control and
Prevention and members of multi-
generational households.
The final two groups are every-
one else 45 and older on June 1 and
everyone 16 and older on July 1.
See Vaccine, Page A7
UMATILLA COUNTY
courts to
provide text
message
service
New service aims to
reduce failing to
appear in court charges
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Emily Muller-Cary, an orchestra and high school choir teacher with the Pendleton School District, leads an online class from her office
at Pendleton High School on March 10, 2021.
Encore performances
Pandemic forces music classes to adapt to online learning
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
P
ENdLETON — One
year ago, Pendleton
school district band
teacher andy cary
was practicing with
his students for a concert that
would never take place.
“We had a rehearsal on stage
and I realized this may be the
concert we get, for whoever is
walking by in the hall,” he said.
he was right — school in
Oregon ended abruptly the
next day. about two-thirds of
students in the state have not set
foot in a classroom since.
as teachers have worked
to adapt to “comprehensive
distance learning” in the year
since, music classes have
presented unique difficulties as
teachers have had to move away
from classes centered around
rehearsing music together and
instead focus on students send-
ing in recordings or discussing
music theory.
“It’s definitely been a chal-
lenge,” cary said.
ingly called the resulting mess
of sounds “terrifying.”
The video chat technology
and simple chromebook micro-
phones are not capable of prop-
erly blending together so many
separate voices or instruments
“I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO
GETTING BACK TO A TIME WHEN I
CAN SIT DOWN AND MAKE MUSIC
WITH THE KIDS AGAIN.”
— Sean McClanahan, Hermiston High School band teacher
cary’s wife, Emily Muller-
cary, teaches orchestra and high
school choir for the district. she
said they did test out the idea of
students singing together over
Google classroom, but laugh-
from so many places, she said. It
can even be hard to get the tech-
nology to cooperate to listen to
a single student live.
“It’s a lot of ‘Back up three
steps. No, now I can’t hear you
well enough. Now I can only
hear three strings of your instru-
ment, so turn to your left more,’”
she said.
cary-Muller said while
students have missed perform-
ing and spending as much time
as they used to playing or sing-
ing music in class, some have
enjoyed the time they have
been able to spend this year on
music theory and discussing the
history and culture behind the
music they listen to or perform.
she said she will probably keep
some of those elements even
after school returns to “normal.”
she said she will likely
continue to offer the practice
software that includes fingering
charts and other help students
have said they like.
“having a platform for kids
PENdLETON — umatilla
county and Morrow county circuit
courts are launching a new service
providing individuals scheduled to
appear in court the
option of receiving
text-message noti-
fications, accord-
ing to a press
release from the
Oregon Judicial
department.
The new service
Blaine
will go live with all
eligible case categories on Monday,
March 22. The text service is
intended to improve communica-
tion with individuals involved in a
scheduled case, including defen-
dants, petitioners and respondents.
“Text messaging doesn’t replace
official court hearing notices,” said
roy Blaine, trial court admin-
istrator for Morrow county and
umatilla county circuit courts, “but
it does allow parties who opt in to
receive text message reminders and
hearing updates. It’s one more way
the courts are putting technology to
work to improve access to justice.”
The service is also an effort to
reduce the number of charges of
failing to appear in court, which
Blaine said has increased during
the pandemic.
“Lots of people, especially in
this time and environment, have
other things come up and forget that
they need to be in court,” he said.
“sometimes they’re sick and need
to call us to let us know that they
can’t come to court or whatever it is.
This is a reminder that the event is
coming up and you need to be ready
for it.”
Blaine said that he believes
fewer people are appearing for their
See Encore, Page A7
See Messaging, Page A7
Ready for takeoff
Nevada company
launches drone
school at uas range
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENdLETON — It’s not an easy
time to open a school of any sort right
now, but an unmanned aerial systems
company is making a go at it.
For the past few months, delMar
aerospace corp., a Nevada-based
uas company, has been running
two-week drone courses, training
small classes of people on the basics of
operating unmanned vehicles. among
their goals is to help locals gain the
requisite skills to start working in
Pendleton’s burgeoning uas industry.
stanley springer, delMar’s chief
operating officer, said his company
went from being acquainted with
Pendleton to running a school in it in
a very short period of time.
“I didn’t know Pendleton existed
until July of last year,” he said.
The idea for a drone school orig-
inated with the Volatus Group, a
startup founded by two industry veter-
ans who were looking to fill a niche.
springer said Volatus eventually drew
the attention of delMar, which felt
like uas training aligned with their
business model. In January, delMar
acquired Volatus.
although the Pendleton uas
range now supports dozens of jobs
among the drone companies that test
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
See Drones, Page A7
A Pendleton UAS Range logo adorns the door of the range’s Mission Control
and Innovation Center in Pendleton on Wednesday, March 17, 2021.