ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
SATURDAy, APRIL 3, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
A tip of
the hat,
a kick in
the pants
A
tip of the hat to Arbor Day
activities, including commu-
nities’ spring cleanup events
coming up soon and a giveaway of 1,500
trees in Hermiston sponsored by the city
and the Rotary Club on Saturday, April 3.
After a year of spending more time
in our homes than usual, this spring
seems like a particularly great time to
get outdoors and spend some time clean-
ing out old junk and planting new trees.
Spending more time outdoors this spring
and summer will be good for every-
one’s health in a multitude of ways,
from getting needed Vitamin D from
the sunshine to decreasing the risk of
COVID-19 transmission. So let’s make
our outdoor spaces the nicest they can be.
A kick in the pants to ongoing trou-
bles with Boardman’s Lost Valley Farms.
The mega-dairy’s last owner was given
the boot after erratic behavior and legal
trouble that included allegations related
to drugs, bribery and patronizing prosti-
tutes. The farm went through bankruptcy,
and racked up environmental viola-
tions that drew hundreds of thousands
of dollars in fines. Now the new owner,
Cody Easterday of Easterday Farms, has
pled guilty to defrauding Tyson Foods
and another company out of more than
$244 million by charging them for the
care and feeding of cattle that didn’t exist,
allegedly to cover more than $200 million
in commodity futures contracts trading
losses.
The dairy has potential, but it needs
competent, ethical leadership committed
to environmentally and financially sound
practices. We’re still waiting for that to
happen.
A kick in the pants to conditions that
seem to have started fire season early in
Oregon this year, with wildfires already
forcing evacuations in Central Oregon
this week before March was even over.
A fire sparked up along the Oxbow
Trail in Hermiston last week that was
almost certainly human-caused, and a
firefighter on scene said the department
had already seen some fires from burn
piles that got away from people.
Please, consider now the start of the
summer fire season by being extra care-
ful to follow all burn rules, never leave
fires unattended, clear flammable brush
away from buildings, use fireworks with
caution, keep branches trimmed away
from power lines and properly dispose of
cigarette butts.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily
that of the East Oregonian.
LETTERS
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of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and on
our website. The newspaper reserves the right
to withhold letters that address concerns about
individual services and products or letters that
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Unsigned letters will not be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
YOUR VIEWS
Vaccine success deserves
many thanks
Having just received my first dose of
the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, I am
relieved and very, very grateful.
Thanks go to Aristotle for his
insights regarding how to derive deduc-
tions and principles based on observa-
tion.
Thank you to Sir Francis Bacon for
inventing the scientific method.
Shout out to Robert Koch for his
postulates — the four criteria designed
to establish a causative relationship
between a microbe and a disease.
Great work Russian scientist Dmitry
Ivanovsky and Dutch scientist Martinus
W. Beijerinck for discovering viruses
and demonstrating that viruses can —
and do — cause disease.
Thank you Moderna and Hamilton
Bennett — Moderna’s senior director of
vaccine access and partnerships.
And definitely thank you to Anthony
Fauci. His perseverance and leader-
ship in the face of anti-intellectual,
know-nothing and dangerous leadership
continues to amaze.
I am also particularly grateful to the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation for their thoughtful
leadership, careful planning and deliv-
ery of vaccinations to tribal members,
as well as to others outside of their
immediate community. This has been
deeply inspiring. Thank you.
And of course, thank you BiMart
and their excellent pharmacist Itzel
who helped me get an appointment and
receive the vaccine.
Just as it takes a village to raise a
child, it takes the long arc of scien-
tific inquiry to vaccinate a population,
complimented by hard-working, dedi-
cated professionals who work every day
to make us all safer.
Thank you, all.
Andrew Picken
Pendleton
City Hall’s housing
investments fail to pay off
Over in Hermiston, privately
financed construction of single-family
houses is booming with 101 permits
issued in 2020. This was driven by
the strong growth in living-wage jobs,
made possible by a plentiful supply
of both water and power considered
essential for strong industrial devel-
opment, and the city’s emphasis on
providing the required infrastructure.
During the same period, Pendle-
ton issued 77 single-family building
permits, a 10-year record. A major
portion of our local economy revolves
around the hospitality sector, a sector
that provides notoriously low-paying
minimum wage jobs requiring more
low-income housing. Projects the city
has supported with financial back-
ing; Pendleton Heights, the Ivanhoff
Project on Westgate, conversion of the
old Forest Service building to apart-
ments, and the replacement of housing
destroyed in the recent flood have all
languished. Even the proposed 70-unit
Horizon project is just that, a proposal.
Low-income housing intended to
replace units in Riverside destroyed in
the flood are not due to be completed
for 2-3 years. That provides little
comfort for those who were displaced.
Accolades praising the selected
contractor were followed by timeta-
ble for construction. Weeks, followed
by months, and finally, in some cases,
years passed with broken prom-
ises and little progress. These delays
accompanied by rapidly escalating
material prices will ultimately add
thousands to the costs of the projects,
and adequate financing will continue
to be a major stumbling block despite
past claims from City Hall that all was
well.
Developers are in the business
to turn a profit. Low-income hous-
ing projects are not a priority simply
because, despite those generous
incentives, a substantial return on
their investment is just not there. The
approach our city management has
taken to spur housing development
has just not worked. It mirrors the fail-
ure of “the road to nowhere” when the
project began with no assurances from
local utility providers that adequate
service would even be available. It
goes to the question that developers
continue to ask, why make a major
investment in a piece of property
without the required infrastructure?
After two decades, city industrial
property along that road continues to
sit undeveloped, lacking basic utili-
ties.
City Hall has tied our future
economic prosperity to the develop-
ment of additional dog parks rather
than the infrastructure sought by
developers. Without a significant
change in thinking at City Hall, the
stagnation will continue.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
GOVERNOR
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
REPRESENTATIVES
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Cliff Bentz
2185 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford office: 541-776-4646
SENATOR
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-415
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us