COVID-19 outbreak at Umatilla County Jail | REGION, A3
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145th year, No. 68
REGONIAN
Thursday, March 25, 2021
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Counties bring vaccines to agricultural workers
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
PENdLETON — Officials in
umatilla and Morrow counties are
ramping up vaccine efforts after
receiving approval from the state
on Monday, March 22, to broaden
eligibility to agricultural workers
immediately in an effort to help a
workforce hit disproportionately
hard by the pandemic.
In Morrow county, officials
from the Oregon health authority
are working with county officials at
a four-day mass vaccination clinic
COVID-19
risk levels
continue
to improve
for Oregon
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
saLEM — Oregon’s new
cOVId-19 risk levels show improv-
ing conditions around the state as
officials expect to pass the 1 million
shot mark on vaccinations.
“We are seeing the light at
the end of the tunnel get a little
brighter,” Gov. Kate Brown said
Tuesday, March 23, in a statement.
counties are assigned one of
four risk levels based on the spread
of cOVId-19 infections: extreme,
high, moderate and lower. The
higher the level, the more restric-
tions on activities, businesses and
gatherings.
The new risk levels will go into
effect Friday, March 26.
Overall, the news was good as
none of the state’s 10 most populous
counties is in the extreme risk cate-
gory and just three are high. The
rest are moderate or lower risk.
In January, 27 out of the state’s
36 counties were rated as extreme
risk, including most of the popula-
tion centers in Oregon.
all three Portland metro coun-
ties remained in the moderate risk
category.
The three-county central
Oregon area saw deschutes coun-
ty’s numbers of cases and infec-
tion rates continue to drop, just not
enough to move it into the the lower
risk category. Jefferson county,
which up to a month ago had some
of the worst infection numbers in
the state, improved enough to drop
two levels, from high to lower.
crook county saw a slight uptick
in numbers, but not enough to move
it out of its lower risk rating.
Northeast Oregon counties were
mostly stable. Baker county moved
from moderate to lower risk, join-
ing Morrow, Gilliam and Wallowa,
which were already in the least
restrictive category.
See Risk, Page A7
at the sage center in Boardman
through saturday, March 27.
The clinic, which is a “pilot proj-
ect” for similar statewide efforts, is
intended to offer 1,200 doses specif-
ically to farm and food process-
ing workers this week, according
to Morrow county commissioner
Melissa Lindsay.
In Umatilla County, health offi-
cials have started reaching out to
agricultural and food processing
facilities, hoping to bring vaccines to
people who are both hard to connect
with and often can’t take time off
work.
“We are trying to aggressively
get enough vaccines and set up
(opportunities) for the farmworkers
to get vaccinated,” Umatilla County
commissioner George Murdock
said.
The efforts come in response to
an announcement from Gov. Kate
Brown last week, saying the state
would speed up its vaccination time-
line to meet the Biden administra-
tion’s goal of having all americans
eligible for a vaccine by May 1.
However, counties that had suffi-
ciently vaccinated all other eligible
groups could apply to expand eligi-
bility to agricultural workers, along
with other populations at high-risk
of cOVId-19, ahead of the state’s
distribution timeline.
umatilla and Morrow counties
are among 20 counties statewide that
has received approval from the state
to vaccinate other groups. Most of
the counties that received approval
lie east of the cascade range. coun-
ties that have yet to apply will wait
until Monday, March 29, to offer
vaccines to people in Phase 1b,
Group 6.
The approval allows the coun-
ties to enter the vaccine priority
list Phase 1b, Group 6. Those eligi-
ble include adults with underly-
ing conditions between the ages of
45 to 64, seafood and agricultural
workers, unhoused people, people
displaced by wildfires, wildland fire-
fighters, women who are over the age
of 16 and pregnant, and people living
in low-income, senior congregate
and independent living facilities.
Vaccines for the vulnerable
The change in Morrow and
umatilla counties is especially
See Vaccine, Page A7
Housing projects
cTuIr plans new housing developments on the reservation
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
M
IssION —
Whether it’s
a city govern-
ment or sover-
eign nation,
every community in the 97801 ZIP
code is trying to figure out how to
address its housing shortage.
But at a March 17 joint meeting
between the confederated Tribes
of the umatilla Indian reservation
Board of Trustees and the Pendle-
ton city council, the tribes shared
news that it had three projects in
the works that could make a serious
dent in its housing backlog.
In an interview after the meet-
ing, cTuIr Planning director Jd
Tovey said a recent housing analy-
sis showed the reservation needed
350 units of housing over the next
20 years.
Tovey said the umatilla Indian
reservation has plenty of land for
high-income residents to build
homes, as well as low-income
housing options. What the reser-
vation is lacking is middle income
housing.
One of the cTuIr’s solutions
is a new housing development
called Nixyaawii, a umatilla word
for home that is also used for the
Tribes’ governance center and
charter school.
Nixyaawii is a first-of-its-kind
project for the cTuIr, which is
using the project to develop for-sale
homes. home buying can be tricky
on the reservation since the Tribes’
land can’t be bought, but Tovey said
the cTuIr is able to work around
that by issuing 99-year leases on the
land, a setup that mortgage lenders
would recognize as the equivalent
of buying the property outright.
“It will be just like owning a
house,” he said.
Nixyaawii, which will only
be open to tribal members, will
encompass about 50 housing
plots located south of the school.
Tovey said the Tribes may build
some spec homes, but the Tribes
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Rafael Miguel Gonzalez, of DSC Manufactured Homes, works on a manufactured home on Mission Road
just east of the Mission Market.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
These three new manufactured homes are among those being built
in Mission just east of the Mission Market on Mission Road.
are looking to lease the plots to
members, who will then build their
own houses on the land.
after receiving coverage in the
Confederated Umatilla Journal,
Tovey said about 25 people have
contacted the cTuIr to sign up
for a mailing list to get updates on
Nixyaawii. The cTuIr hopes to
open the development in 2022.
North of the charter school, the
Tribes are planning Timine Way
North, a market-rate rental project
meant to serve the cTuIr’s grow-
ing workforce.
a planned mixture of apart-
ments and townhomes that could
range from 30 to 40 units, Tovey
said tribal members will be
preferred tenants at the complex,
but the development could also
serve as temporary housing for
professionals who have just moved
to the area or intend to work on the
reservation for a few months before
moving on.
rounding out the Tribes’ hous-
ing projects is the Lucky 7 Trailer
Park renovation effort. After the
umatilla river flood heavily
damaged Lucky 7 last year, the
Oregon Legislature granted the
cTuIr about $1 million to help
replace the affordable housing that
was lost to the river.
The Tribes are now in the midst
of replacing the park’s trailers, a
See Housing, Page A7
a green thumb in helping others
‘Kale master’ finds
joy in helping
fledgling gardeners
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
hErMIsTON — Joe hodge
is an apartment dweller with a
green thumb.
The hermiston man went
from neophyte gardener to
award-winning master gardener
in a span of 10 years. In 2012,
though he lacked a backyard,
hodge decided to try gardening
so he secured a plot at the herm-
iston community Garden at
Good shepherd Medical center.
since his gardening expe-
rience consisted of weeding
his parents’ flowerbed during
boyhood and tending a tomato
plant or two as an adult, hodge
peppered veteran gardeners
with questions, read up on plant
cultivation and jumped in with
both feet. he winces at some of
his rookie mistakes.
“I had to learn about plant
spacing that very first spring,”
hodge recalled. “I planted too
close and suddenly all these
plants were almost on top of
each other.”
Tomatoes, for example, bush
out quickly and need about 3
feet of clearance. hodge kept
learning and eventually earn-
ing his master gardener certi-
fication. He started sharing his
knowledge with beginners. In
July, Oregon state university
Master Gardeners honored
hodge with a statewide award.
Hodge shakes off the adula-
tion like confetti stuck in his
hair. his gardening prowess, he
says, is merely the lucky result
of discovering a passion. he
helps others realize they can do
it too.
Taking a unique path
hodge’s path to this pres-
ent moment includes attending
West Point and serving 10 years
in the Army as an officer in the
Tank corps. he started as the
human resources manager for
the transportation office at the
Walmart distribution center
in hermiston when it opened
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
See Gardener, Page A7
Master gardener Joe Hodge harvests kale on March
15, 2021, at the Hermiston Community Garden.