WEEKEND EDITION
THE WEEK
IN PHOTOS
LOCAL TEAMS ARE HERMISTON CHAMBER
WELCOMING BACK FANS ANNOUNCES NEW CEO
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SPORTS, B1
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145th Year, No. 66
REGION, A3
REGONIAN
MARCH 20-21, 2021
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Vaccine eligibility moves up for many Oregonians
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — More than 1 million
new people will be added early to the
eligibility list for COVID-19 vaccina-
tions, Gov. Kate Brown announced
on Friday, March 19.
President Joe Biden announced on
March 11 that he was directing states
to lift all eligibility requirements for
those 16 and older by May 1. Oregon
did not plan on lifting all eligibility
restrictions until July 1.
Oregon offi cials last week said
they were sticking with their phased
rollout of eligibility until they
received assurances that additional
vaccine was coming to the state.
Many parts of the state have been
reporting shortages of vaccine and
appointment slots for the more than
1.3 million people already eligible.
On Wednesday, March 17, the
U.S. Department of Health & Human
Services sent a directive to all states
that the May 1 date for lifting restric-
tions was not optional. OHA Direc-
tor Pat Allen told state lawmakers the
directive was “binding” and “regula-
tory,” with noncompliance possibly
aff ecting the shipment of future doses
ELIGIBILITY TIMELINE
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has or-
dered many of the 530,000 people
covered in the next eligibility group
moved up from March 29 to March
22. Here is the eligibility timeline:
March 22
• Counties that attest to largely
completing the vaccination of resi-
dents 65 and older may begin vacci-
nating the next eligible groups.
• Vaccinations may also begin for
migrant and seasonal farmworkers
in counties where they are currently
already working.
March 29
• All adults 45-64 with underlying
health conditions,
• Migrant and seasonal farm work-
ers,
• Seafood and agricultural workers,
• Food processing workers,
• People living in low-income senior
housing, senior congregate and
independent living,
• Individuals experiencing home-
lessness,
• People currently displaced by
wildfi res,
• Wildland fi refi ghters, and
• Pregnant people 16 and older.
April 19
• Frontline workers as defi ned by
the CDC,
• Multigenerational household
members, and
• Adults 16-44 with underlying
health conditions.
May 1
• All Oregonians 16 and older
See Vaccine, Page A11
B2H
Utility
project
lands state
support
UEC gains certifi cate
for Boardman
transmission line
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
BOARDMAN — Umatilla Elec-
tric Cooperative has been granted a
key piece of support in its eff orts to
build a transmission line in Board-
man that has drawn opposition from
some property owners.
The Public Utility Commission
granted UEC a certifi cate of public
convenience and necessity on March
5. The certifi cate states that the 230
kilovolt overhead line, which would
stretch 4.3 miles from a planned
switchyard near Highway 730 to a
planned substation on Olson Road
near a future Amazon data center,
meets the legal criteria for a “neces-
sity for public convenience.”
If UEC isn’t able to convince all
property owners involved to volun-
tarily sign an agreement for an ease-
ment, it can use the certifi cate as
evidence in an eminent domain case
to compel the property owners to
cooperate.
In June 2020, the East Orego-
nian reported that four of the 11
landowners in question had yet to
sign agreements with UEC for an
easement across their property. On
Friday, March 12, Umatilla Electric
Cooperative CEO Robert Echenrode
See B2H, Page A11
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
The Pendleton Round-Up Arena sits empty on Friday, Sept. 18, 2020, on what would have been the third day of the Pendleton Round-Up.
Events around Umatilla County await word from state about regulations
By ANTONIO SIERRA
and JADE McDOWELL
East Oregonian
U
MATILLA COUNTY — For
some Umatilla County event
organizers, there’s a sense of
deja vu.
In 2020, organizers cycled from confi -
dence that their summer events would go
on as scheduled despite the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic to uncertainty as
the virus spread rapidly throughout the
county to resignation that they would have
to cancel their events once it became clear
the state wouldn’t lift its rules on mass
gatherings.
A year later, Umatilla County is experi-
encing declining coronavirus case numbers
and is continuing to distribute the vaccine.
But some organizers remain noncommit-
tal as they await word from the state about
what kind of rules they’ll have to contend
with this summer.
Pendleton Round-Up
studying safety plans
Umatilla County’s largest event has
been fairly quiet on its 2021 plans.
When the Round-Up canceled the rodeo
for the fi rst time since World War II, orga-
nizing quickly committed to a 2021 event.
The Round-Up website’s homepage
features a counter that measures the days
before Sept. 11, and a short message: “Plan-
ning is well underway for a safe and healthy
2021 Pendleton Round-Up.” Clicking on
the message links to a page that explains
why the Round-Up canceled the 2020 rodeo
and Let ‘Er Buck Cares, a charity fund set
up by the Round-Up to assist businesses
and organizations aff ected by the rodeo’s
cancelation.
See Summer, Page A11
Agape House lends a helping hand in Hermiston
Offi cials at the nonprofi t
estimate it has provided
supplies to 4,800 people
since the month of June
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Wences Domin-
guez makes a little more than $400
each week pruning grapes in the
sprawling fi elds around Hermiston —
$350 of which he gives to his family.
He sends about $300 to his mother,
wife and sons back home in Micho-
acán, Mexico, where he’s been
coming to and from for the past 23
years, while searching for a better
future. In his fi rst years working in
the United States, he used all the
money he made to build his family’s
home.
The remaining $50 he gives to his
daughter. Before he came to Hermis-
ton over two years ago, he hadn’t seen
her for seven years. He couldn’t get a
green card, he said.
“I felt very happy,” he said of the
fi rst time he saw her again.
She has two daughters, and
when the pandemic began to spread
through nearby agricultural areas in
the summer, they were the reason he
worked hard to protect himself from
COVID-19.
“Always I take care,” he said
through a translator. “Always I have
my mask. For my kids.”
Dominguez and more than two
dozen other migrant farmworkers
recently arrived at New Horizons,
a nonprofi t rehabilitation organiza-
tion in Hermiston. That day, however,
the facility grounds served a diff erent
purpose — to provide food, clothing
and personal protective equipment to
the workers.
“There’s no words to describe
See Agape House, Page A11
FREE Self-Administered COVID-19 testing.
No insurance or doctor’s order needed
Every Monday through March 29th
9am to Noon At the Pendleton Convention Center.
SAHPENDLETON.ORG