OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
School: All Pendleton seats contested
Continued from Page A1
for reelection.
McBee has held Position
7 since 2009, and two are
vying to replace her once her
term ends in June — attorney
Patrick Gregg and activist
Briana Spencer.
In the race to succeed
Umbarger on Position 1, Beth
Harrison, a homemaker and
part-time medical biller at
Harrison Family Medicine,
is running against Rodney
Thompson, a retired lieu-
tenant colonel in the U.S.
Army Reserve.
And the race for Position
4, the seat held by George,
is split three-ways between
Preston Eagleheart, the
managing director at Cayuse
Government Services, Chris
Garrigues, a Hermiston High
School teacher, and Joey
GrosJacques, a Blue Moun-
tain Community College
administrator and a former
Pilot Rock School Board
member.
Unlike many municipal
and county elections, school
board candidates don’t need
more than 50% of the vote to
win the election outright and
avoid a runoff. Candidates
only need a simple plurality
to win the seat.
Earlier during the filing
period, McBee thought the
school shutdowns during the
COVID-19 pandemic might
keep potential candidates
from jumping into a race. But
several late filings ensured
that wasn’t the case, and
although she doesn’t know all
of them personally, McBee
said some “excellent commu-
nity members” are running
for school board.
McBee remembers plenty
of years where most school
board races were uncompet-
itive and records from the
Umatilla County Elections
Division bear that out.
This is the first time this
century that every Pendle-
ton School Board seat has
been contested. From 2009-
15, there were no competitive
races for any of the school
board seats. While there was
one contested race in 2017,
the school board hit a nadir
in 2019 when no one filed for
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Pendleton High School student Kyndra Nelson looks away
as Renay Monohan administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioN-
Tech COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination event at Wild-
horse Resort & Casino on Wednesday, March 17, 2021.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Staff greet students as they get off the bus at Washington Elementary School in Pendleton on
the first day of in-person instruction on Feb. 22, 2021.
the open Position 6 seat. Julie
Muller would go on to win the
seat as a write-in candidate
after mounting a post-filing
deadline campaign.
Multiple challengers
file against Hermiston
incumbents
The Hermiston School
Board hit a low of its own in
2017, when no one filed for
an open Position 3 seat. In a
district that serves well over
5,000 students, Mark Gomol-
ski won the write-in election
with a total of 14 votes.
In 2021, only Position 2
incumbent Bryan Medelez
is getting a free pass to a new
term.
Gomolski didn’t file to run
for a second term, and Dain
Gardner, a senior trooper with
Oregon State Police, and Lili
Gomez, a records specialist
with the Hermiston Police
Department, are running to
take his place.
Karen Sherman, the Herm-
iston School Board vice-chair
and 20-year veteran of the
board, is facing a challenge
from Caitlin Melhorn, a coder
at Good Shepherd Medical
Center, for Position 6. Brent
Pitney, the incumbent repre-
senting Position 4, is facing
a challenge of his own from
attorney Sally Anderson
Hansell.
Jim Green, the executive
director of the Oregon School
Boards Association and a
self-professed “school board
elections nerd,” said he’s seen
the same spike in interest for
school board seats across the
state.
The association has
encouraged Oregon residents
to run for their local school
board for years, but he said
this cycle may have seen a
greater interest in educational
policy following the extended
school shutdowns during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
McBee, the Pendleton
School Board chair, said
candidates run for a variety of
reasons, but she felt the place
where school board members
make the most impact is in
shaping the school district’s
policies.
“It is highly rewarding,”
she said.
Other races
W hile some school
districts, like Helix and Athe-
na-Weston, also have multi-
ple contested races, most of
the county’s school boards
had the same noncompetitive
status quo.
Beyond public schools, the
races to govern the rest of the
county’s taxing districts are
also noncompetitive, with a
few notable exceptions.
With incumbent Heidi Van
Kirk retiring, two candidates
are vying for Zone 3, an area
that includes south Pendle-
ton and southern Umatilla
County. Echo farmer Kent
Madison will compete against
Carrie Sampson-Samuels, a
Continued from Page A1
project director for the North-
west Portland Area Indian
Health Board.
Zone 4, which is based
around west Hermiston, will
see a contest between incum-
bent Kim Puzey and Kipp
Barron, a “global security
officer” from Umatilla. Abe
Currin, a cider maker for
Blue Mountain Cider Co.,
is running unopposed to
succeed Tony Turner in Zone
6, which encompasses the
Milton-Freewater area.
The Umatilla County
Special Library District,
which provides funding to
about a dozen public librar-
ies across the county, also has
multiple elections. A board
member resigning mid-term
means the board will have two
at-large elections: one election
for one two-year term and
another for a four-year term.
For the four-year term,
county voters will select two
from a field that includes
incumbent John Thomas,
BMCC instructor Sharone
Pettus McCann and Caleb
Barron of Umatilla. For the
two-year term, voters will
only select one candidate
from a group that includes
Fatima Machado, an assistant
professor of library services
at Columbia Basin College,
Gaby Gonzalez, a Umatilla
property manager, and Jubi-
lee Barron of Umatilla.
Ballots will start going out
April 28 for the May 18 elec-
tion.
Dogs: Working Dogs Oregon began in 2014
Continued from Page A1
perspective, the more weird
(expletive) you can do with
them, the better.”
Pendleton police officer
Cass Clark and K-9 Bali, as
well as Union County sher-
iff’s deputy Dane Jensen and
K-9 Molly were in atten-
dance. Other adjacent coun-
ties — Morrow and Baker
— usually make an appear-
ance if time permits.
The departments enlist
the aid of two nonprofit
organizations that specialize
in training working dogs —
Howling Creek and Working
Dogs Oregon.
As t he dogs were
unleashed from the patrol
vehicles — one at a time to
keep chaos to a minimum —
they made their way around
greeting handlers, train-
ers and volunteers that had
come in order to serve as bite
or tracking targets. Bali, the
K-9 with Pendleton police,
jumped up to greet his former
trainer Robbins just moments
after his release from officer
Clark’s police vehicle.
Robbins had set up a quick
Bond:
Continued from Page A1
for the district to continue to
meet the accompanying rise
in demand for services.
“At peak service times,
including summer f ire
season, outdated vehicles
and equipment become a real
concern,” he said. “We need
safe and healthy personnel
to make sure we can protect
the residents and property in
western Umatilla County.”
According to a news
release, a citizen oversight
committee would be formed
to oversee use of the funds.
Projects funded by the bond
would include:
interview station for the
handlers and the dogs inside
the warehouse — a way to
bolster social media presence
with quick one-on-one inter-
views that give insight to the
life of K-9 units. Afterward,
it was time to train.
Darin Campbell, owner of
Working Dogs Oregon, was
the first to don the bite suit
before heading out to hide
in the compound. The dense
padding made him waddle
like an 1980s arcade bad guy
through the gravel.
The comically large suits
serve to protect the volun-
teers and trainers from
serious injury. Other imple-
ments, such as fake limbs,
provide a more real-life expe-
rience for the dogs, but the
suit works well for quickly
rotating volunteers through
the training.
Molly was the first up,
taking direction from Jensen
before darting toward where
Campbell hid. The two
officers approached with
finger-guns drawn, and
there was a sense of theater
felt. Campbell’s acting was
convincing, playing a scared
fugitive while Molly barked
at the same man she warmly
greeted moments prior.
Working Dogs Oregon
was started in 2014 to train
service dogs for veterans and
psychiatric patients.
“Our original goal was to
educate businesses on what
they can and can’t do (regard-
ing service dogs),” Campbell
said. “And then K-9 Mick in
Portland was killed, and that
got us thinking about the law
enforcement side.”
Mick, a German-born
shepherd, was only a month
into his career before he was
shot and killed while attempt-
ing to apprehend a burglary
suspect on April 16, 2017.
His handler, officer Jeffrey
Dorn of Portland Police, also
was shot but suffered nonlife
threatening injuries.
After training, the officers
and trainers returned inside
the warehouse compound to
debrief on tactics and execu-
tion from the exercise.
• Safet y ap pa r at u s
for responders, such as
protective equipment and
portable radio systems
• Fire station renova-
tions that would create
separate quarters for male
and female personnel, new
roofing, alert systems and
expanded vehicle bays
• Upg r a ded eng i ne
exhaust systems to better
protect personnel health
• Upgraded fire and
ambulance vehicles
of Freewater.
The city of Milton-Free-
water feels like its police
department can no longer
be contained in the historic
building’s basement and is
asking the public to help fund
a new building for the city’s
public safety operations.
The city of Milton-Free-
water’s $7.7 million bond
proposal will ask the city’s
voters to approve a property
tax increase of 87 cents per
$1,000 in assessed value to
build a new 7,544-square-
foot police station across the
street from Milton-Freewater
City Hall.
Milton-Freewater City
Manager Linda Hall said
the basement is too small
for the police department
and dispatch operations. For
instance, residents who file
police reports often have to
speak with officers either in
the parking lot or in a small
alcove in the lobby because of
a lack of private spaces.
“You’re probably not
having your best day if you
have to file a police report,”
she said.
With the economic future
still uncertain during the
COVID-19 pandemic, some
local governments have
postponed campaigns for
new taxes. But Hall said the
city felt it was the right time,
citing low interest rates and
the development of several
subdivisions of new hous-
ing that will allow the city to
spread out the tax burden.
Alex Wittwer/La Grande Observer
Union County Sheriff’s Office deputy Dane Jensen watches as
K-9 unit Molly searches the area, as part of the joint training
at Pendleton on Saturday, March 20, 2021.
Milton-Freewater
seeks police bond
A lot has changed since
the city of Milton bought
its city hall in 1929, and
not just eventual merger
with the neighboring town
Vaccine:
exhaled relief.
Nelson was one of
more than 1,100 people
who received a COVID-
19 vaccine at a two-day
clinic at Wildhorse Resort
& Casino at the Confed-
erated Tr ibes of the
Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion last week, as Yellow-
hawk Tribal Health Center,
assisted by the Oregon
National Guard, makes its
final push to effectively
immunize as many people
connected to the reserva-
tion as possible.
Like the first clinic in
February, the Tribes were
assisted by local members
of the National Guard to
efficiently move hundreds
of people through the vacci-
nation process. It’s the only
time the National Guard
have assisted a tribal entity
with a mass vaccination
effort in Oregon, guards-
men said.
“It still amazes me, the
fact that it’s gone as well
as it has,” said Lt. Matthew
Booher, a seven-year
guardsman from Herm-
iston, who was serving
in his first operation in
Umatilla County. “It took
seven years, and I’m always
concerned with my state,
but now I’m actually serv-
ing my county.”
This time, however,
tribal health off icials
extended vaccine eligibil-
ity to school children in an
attempt to bring area high
school students back to
in-person classes safely on
Monday, March 29. In all,
80 students and 25 school
teachers received a vaccine
at Wildhorse, according to
Yellowhawk officials.
“This pandemic has
shut down everything, and
I’m very tired of it,” said
Nelson, a senior at Pend-
leton High School. “I’m
excited that progress is
being made with treating it
and taking care of it.”
When Nelson heard
that she was eligible for
a vaccine, she knew she
wanted to get the shot. She’s
headed to Eastern Oregon
University in the fall, where
she’ll study to be a teacher,
like her mom. Getting
the shot was her way to
help bring things back to
normal, with hopes that by
next fall, she’ll be meeting
other students in the dorms.
“I want to have a normal
college experience, and I’m
hoping this will get us at
least part of the way there,”
she said.
‘I don’t want to
give (COVID-19) to
someone else’
Between the clinics at
Wildhorse in February
and March, Yellowhawk
officials fully immunized
more than 1,000 people
against COVID-19, Indians
and non-Indians, bringing
the total number of people
vaccinated on the reser-
vation to more than 2,600
since December 2020,
according to Yellowhawk
officials. At the first clinic,
85% of those who received
a shot were non-Indians.
“We want to make sure
as many people in Umatilla
County get vaccinated so
we can start moving toward
some normalcy,” Yellow-
hawk Chief Executive
Officer Lisa Guzman said.
“So by us reaching out to
Umatilla County, Pendleton
and local areas, we would
be making that contribution
to the public’s safety and
get rid of this pandemic.”
In response to a rise in
COVID-19 cases reported
among local teens, tribal
health officials extended
vaccine eligibility to area
students over the age of 16
and educators. Guzman
said the health center is
already looking at how they
can make plans to encour-
age more students to come
out and get the shot.
“We had 80 youth, but
it would have been nice if
we saw higher numbers,”
she said, adding that the
communication depart-
ment is looking to reach
out and educate more teens
about why it’s important to
get the vaccine. “I think by
developing (this) event so
quickly, we didn’t have the
time to get out that educa-
tional awareness.”
Among the students
vaccinated were twin broth-
ers Scott and Ron Train,
sophomores at Pendleton
High School. The broth-
ers are goalies on the high
school soccer team. Earlier
this month, the team, along
with the dance team, had
a spike in cases and were
quarantined. The soccer
team missed four matches.
“It was frustrating,” Ron
Train said.
On March 29, however,
the Trains will be back at
school with their friends,
as Pendleton High School
reopens w it h hybr id
classes. They said they’re
excited to see friends and
chat with teachers in-per-
son, and they hope by
getting the vaccine, they’re
helping keep others safe.
“I don’t want to give
(COVID-19) to someone
else,” Scott Train said. “I
don’t want to get it, hope-
fully, or when I do get it, it’s
not as severe. It’s more safe
for people.”
Moving back to
normal
The clinic was a last
effort to return tribal oper-
ations nearly to normal
in the coming months, as
officials have said tribal
government and business
operations are to reopen
in April, aside from main-
taining standard health and
safety guidelines like mask
wearing.
Guzman said the Tribe’s
Incident Command Team
is monitoring the state of
the pandemic to determine
how the reopening process
will go, since there have
been several positive cases
recently reported on the
reservation.
Unlike Native Amer-
ican communities else-
where, which have borne
the brunt of the pandemic
with disproportionately
high rates of COVID-19
infection, hospitalization
and death, the CTUIR
has managed to keep case
counts relatively low.
Since the pandemic
began, 254 COVID-19
cases, 13 hospitalizations
and one death have been
reported on the reserva-
tion, according to data from
Yellowhawk.
And aside from chang-
ing certain operations,
some tribal enterprises
have even managed to turn
a profit in 2020, which offi-
cials have credited to the
proactive approach of the
Tribes.
“We’re slowly moving
toward the reopening,”
Guzman said.
Meanwhile, Yellow-
hawk officials are looking
at reintroducing things like
in-person visitation at the
clinic, increasing transpor-
tation services, and poten-
tially opening the senior
center by May 1.