Umatilla National Forest officials welcome fungi foragers | REGION, A3
E O
AST
145th year, No. 83
REGONIAN
Thursday, april 29, 2021
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
BMCC
Board candidates talk about enrollment, budget issues
UNION TO HOLD CANDIDATE FORUM
Blue Mountain Community College’s faculty union is hosting a candidate
forum for the BMCC Board of Education candidates over Zoom on Thurs-
day, April 29.
The virtual forum will start at 7 p.m. and include opening statements,
prepared questions from the union and audience Q & A.
The link to access the forum is us02web.zoom.us/j/83290551920.
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
uMaTilla COuNTy — Blue
Mountain Community College is at
an inflection point.
The college is preparing for
another round of staff reductions,
the third in the last 12 months.
Enrollment has fallen precipitously
in the past decade; BMCC’s student
body more than halved from 2012
to 2020. The president’s sudden
resignation in February means the
college is conducting its second
presidential search in three years.
In the midst of all this, the
BMCC Board of Education is hold-
ing elections for three seats, and
thanks to a pair of retirements, the
board will receive at least two new
faces when members are sworn in
over the summer.
The BMCC board is split into
zones and only residents of the three
zones that are up for election will
vote in the May 18 election.
Over a series of interviews, the
East Oregonian spoke with several
candidates for the BMCC board
about the college’s future consider-
ing its present circumstances.
Zone 3 (South Pendleton,
Pilot Rock, Echo, Ukiah
and Meacham)
Despite seeking public office for
the first time, Carrie Sampson-Sam-
uels has the support from a very
powerful ally — her opponent.
While nominally r unning
against her, Echo farmer Kent
Madison said he is no longer
campaigning to replace Heidi Van
Kirk on the board and is endorsing
Sampson-Samuels.
“What the board doesn’t need is
another 61-year-old white guy,” he
said.
Madison said he originally
entered the race under the impres-
sion that no one else was going to
run for the seat. But upon learning
that he was involved in a contested
race after the filing deadline, he met
with Sampson-Samuels and became
convinced that she would make a
better fit for the board.
Madison said he’s now leading
the “Don’t vote for Kent campaign”
and is supporting Sampson-Sam-
uels, an enrolled member of the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation and a project
director for the Northwest Portland
area indian health Board.
Sampson-Samuels is hoping
to turn her own experiences as a
student into a seat on the BMCC
board.
Her first experience with higher
education was at the University
of Missouri. Having grown up in
Belle, Missouri — population 1,500
— Sampson-Samuels had a hard
time adjusting to the university’s
large campus and soon left.
she resumed her studies at a
community college and had been
See BMCC, Page A7
PENDLETON
survey
results lead
to change
in goals
Nearly 500 residents
respond to city survey
Increased COVID-19 cases,
decrease in vaccinations
has Umatilla County
moving back to high risk
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
ENdlETON — umatilla County
was moved to the high risk category
for COVID-19 spread on Tuesday,
April 27, increasing restrictions on
businesses and gatherings as cases
are rising across Eastern Oregon.
at high risk, restaurants, religious
establishments and fitness facili-
ties can remain open at 25% indoor capacity.
Grocery stores and other retail establishments
can also remain open at 50%, according to the
state.
“it drives me nuts,” umatilla County
Commissioner George Murdock said. “Here
we are, and all of a sudden, poof, we’re back at
high” risk.
The county had recently been placed in a
“two-week caution period” after surpassing
the mark of 100 cases per 100,000 people over
a 14-day period, which would move it from
moderate to high risk.
Now, with 114 COVID-19 cases reported
over the past two weeks, Gov. Kate Brown
announced that the county would move back
to high risk.
The change comes as 15 Oregon counties
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Diners eat in at Haven Pho in Pendleton on March 4, 2021, shortly after the restaurant opened
earlier this year. A return to the high risk category for COVID-19 will limit restaurants to 25%
indoor dining capacity.
were put back under the extreme risk category
on April 27, as Brown seeks to stem the latest
spike in pandemic infections.
The extreme risk level shuts down indoor
dining, limits crowd sizes, caps entertainment
and exercise activities, and requires most busi-
nesses to close by 11 p.m.
The new limits will go into effect on Friday,
April 30, for at least two weeks.
Brown said health officials would review
infection statistics each week and that no county
would remain at extreme risk level for more than
three weeks.
“If we don’t act now, doctors, nurses, hospi-
tals, and other health care providers in Oregon
will be stretched to their limits treating severe
cases of COVID-19,” Brown said.
The state is now averaging approximately
840 newly reported COVID-19 cases each day,
a 57% increase over the past two weeks. The
number of Oregonians hospitalized with the
virus is also continuing to increase, with 328
reported on April 27, a 66% spike in the past
two weeks.
Officials decry restaurant
restrictions
In response to the heightened restrictions
statewide, the Association of Oregon Coun-
ties and the Oregon restaurant & lodging
A s s o ciat ion
sent a letter
on April 27 to
Brown’s office
decrying the
state’s move
a nd u rg i ng
Murdock
Russell
the removal
of state-man-
dated business restrictions.
The letter, signed by nearly 80 commis-
sioners, judges and lobbyists from 26 counties,
including all commissioners from Umatilla
and Morrow counties, requests the state turn
pandemic guidance over to county authorities.
According to the letter, it’s the first time that
county governments have formally aligned
with the association.
“It’s just unconscionable to do this, particu-
larly to our restaurants, over and over and over
again,” Murdock said of the new restrictions.
Murdock said restaurants “have never been
identified as the problem,” noting “they take
incredible precautions.” He added that main-
taining inventory and staffing restaurants is
made especially difficult by the shifting restric-
tions.
“How can they keep their valued staff when
See Risk, Page A7
PGG headquarters on the auction block
Facility on the market
for nearly $2 million
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — One of Pendle-
ton’s most prominent buildings is on
the market, and all anyone needs to
buy is as little as $2 million.
On behalf of Pendleton Grain
Growers, Realty Marketing/North-
west is auctioning off PGG’s mostly
vacant Pendleton facility for the
reserve price of $1.995 million, a
slight reduction from the company’s
$2.1 million asking price.
The 3-acre, 1000 S.W. Dorion Ave.
property includes a 42,000-square-
foot building that once housed the
grain co-op’s headquarters, retail
showroom, automotive service center
and warehouse. Once a thriving orga-
nization with agricultural and retail
operations across Eastern Oregon,
the Pendleton facility has sat mostly
vacant for about a half-decade after it
decided to shutter retail operations in
2014 and voted to completely dissolve
the co-op in 2016.
Many of PGG’s other properties
have been sold to various businesses
and organizations, and the former
PGG Energy building near the main
Pendleton facility was recently sold to
Hines Meat Co., which turned it into
a butchery and restaurant. But PGG
hasn’t yet sold its flagship property.
That’s what Realty Marketing/
Northwest and president John rosen-
thal are trying to change.
Rosenthal said he’s already heard
interest from several prospective
bidders both locally and from the
portland area. With bids due on June
9, Rosenthal said none of the people
who have inquired about the building
have complained about the price.
Having already sold some of
PGG’s other properties, Rosenthal
said steps were taken to creatively
market the building.
In 2019, PGG commissioned a
Portland architect to create renderings
of what the 1951 building could look
like if it was renovated and put back
into use. Marketing material also now
include a couple of suggested uses
for a repurposed building, includ-
ing a van or RV conversion business
to take advantage of the building’s
repair bays and showroom or a Good-
will-like operation that includes both
retail and work training components.
Once the building is sold, PGG
has promised to move its remaining
offices out of the building and leave
the Washington Federal ATM, which
brings in a small amount of revenue
each year.
PGG did not return a request for
comment as of press time.
pENdlETON — The pendle-
ton City Council is making some
changes to its goals for the first time
in four years, but tackling homeless-
ness in the city won’t be one of them.
The council met for a workshop
on Tuesday, April 27, to discuss the
results of a community survey that
gauged what issues residents wanted
the city to prioritize.
In an interview after the meet-
ing, Mayor John Turner said he
was happy to see that 480 residents
responded to the survey, a clear jump
from the last time they solicited
input on council goals in 2016 and
only received about 250 responses.
Respondents were shown a list
of goals and asked to rate them on a
scale from “extremely valuable” to
“not at all valuable.”
The results were mixed, but a
few trends rose to the forefront.
The goals that received the highest
ratings were housing, public safety,
infrastructure, economic develop-
ment and communication between
the city and the community. At the
opposite end of the scale were build-
ing a sports complex, historical pres-
ervation and tourism.
Turner said the council filtered
out public safety because, like public
works, the city would always priori-
tize it regardless of what the council
goals were.
The council decided to retain
infrastructure, economic develop-
ment and housing from their previ-
ous set of goals while dropping land
development. Turner said there’s
been enough progress at the Pendle-
ton airport and the unmanned aerial
systems range that he’s comfortable
with it falling off the list. It will be
replaced by the city-community
communications goal.
Although it wasn’t listed as a goal
that could be voted on, plenty of
respondents in the comment section
used their space to talk about Pend-
leton’s unhoused population.
While some encouraged the city
to invest in homeless services, many
just used the opportunity to dispar-
age the unhoused, while suggesting
the city either relocate the homeless
or take some sort of law enforcement
action against them.
“Our quaint little community is
being overrun with the homeless and
the drug addicts that are unwilling
to provide anything positive to the
community,” one commenter wrote.
Turner said homelessness is
an issue that no community in
See Survey, Page A7