Milton-Freewater metalsmith hopes to carry on legacy | REGION, A3
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145th Year, No. 85
REGONIAN
TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
BMCC staff reduction approved by college board
Blue Mountain
Community College
to reduce staff by 14,
including seven layoff s
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — By a 5-2
vote, the Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College Board of Education
approved reducing the college’s
staff by 14 positions, including
seven layoff s, at a special board
meeting on Friday, April 30.
The move represented a slight
improvement from a previous
projection that
a nt icipat e d 11
layoff s as a part of
16 staff reductions,
but BMCC admin-
ist rators main-
tained the cuts
Green
needed to happen
so the college
could stabilize itself as it attempts
to recover from a sustained period
of declining enrollment exacerbated
by the COVID-19 pandemic.
BMCC will lay off fi ve supervi-
sory employees that covered areas
like grants, student success, admis-
sions and marketing. The college is
also laying off a business instructor
and a web content
specialist.
“This is a really
hard list,” interim
President Connie
Green said. “These
are real people
with real lives that
Hill
made an impact on
students.”
After the meeting, Green said
the college was able to reduce
layoff s and position eliminations by
negotiating with the union and also
permanently cutting some unfi lled
positions from the budget.
While only one faculty member
is being laid off, the college is
cutting six vacant
teaching positions
in subjects like
math, Spanish and
biology in addition
to one administra-
tive position.
Board Chai r
Puzey
Jane Hill gave the
college’s two union presidents
time to make brief remarks. Pete
Hernberg, the president of the Blue
Mountain Faculty Association, used
his time to try to save the business
instructor’s job.
Hernberg argued that elimi-
nating the position would actually
lose the college $280,000 instead
of saving them money due to a
loss of enrollment resulting from
a decrease in business off erings to
students.
“This is extremely damaging to
our students,” he said.
John Fields, the college’s vice
president of instruction, said there
was a “difference in interpreta-
tions” of what the college would
lose or gain from laying off busi-
ness faculty, while Hill defended the
administration’s recommendation.
“We have a job to provide stabil-
ity,” she said.
Board member Kim Puzey
See BMCC, Page A10
Water
control
district
sees infl ux
of interest
Six candidates running
for Birch Creek Water
Control District board
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
PILOT ROCK — Six candi-
dates are running for positions
on the board of the Birch Creek
Water Control District this year in
response to fl ooding around Pilot
Rock in recent years.
“This is the fi rst year that we’ve
actually had very much interest
because of the fl oods we’ve had just
recently,” said Charles Hemphill, a
longtime board member and resi-
dent.
The board utilizes a tax base to
help with residents’ requests for
repairing the waterways near Pilot
Rock that have been damaged by
fl ooding and prevent fl oodwaters
from causing further damage. Resi-
dents living along East and West
Birch Creek roads are eligible to
apply for funds from the district.
Water districts are also meant to
improve agriculture, public health,
welfare and safety of communities,
according to state law. The districts
also can acquire, construct and
operate facilities to improve the
use of local water resources for both
communities and local wildlife.
The board meets on an
See Water, Page A10
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Michael Willingham lifts the lid to examine his tri-tip during the Buckaroo BBQ Challenge at the Pendleton Convention Center on Satur-
day, May 1, 2021.
Back in the saddle
Hundreds gather for
annual Cattle Barons
event in Pendleton
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — The smell of
roasting tri-tip and baby back
ribs wafted from smokers across
the parking lot outside of the
Pendleton Convention Center,
where the Willingham family chatted and
laughed on an afternoon warm enough for
T-shirts.
The lot was fi lled Saturday, May 1, with
dozens of competitors, each looking to
dish up the most delicious barbecue of the
day, and the Willinghams had returned to
reclaim their title.
“I like the atmosphere down here,” said
Michael Willingham, a corrections offi cer
at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.
Until recently, Willingham said he would
have shrugged off the idea of competing at
the Buckaroo BBQ Challenge, which is
part of the annual Pendleton Cattle Barons
weekend event. With things changing every
few weeks due to the pandemic, he was
concerned that the event would be canceled
and that all his eff ort, and his money, would
go to waste. But standing beside his family
— some of whom he hadn’t seen since
before the pandemic began — he was glad
the event had worked out.
“It’s good to get out and do things with
your family again,” he said. “Just always
sitting at home. It’s driving me crazy.”
Hundreds of people gathered in and
around the convention center over the week-
end for the annual Cattle Barons, one of the
fi rst major events in the Pendleton area since
the pandemic began. The event raised schol-
arship funds for students looking to start
careers in agriculture.
“It’s nice to be outside doing something,
especially during COVID,” Natasha Will-
ingham, Michael’s daughter.
Cattle Barons during COVID-19
Andy VanderPlaat, the president of Cattle
Barons, said that until January, the board
was unsure if the event would happen due
See Cattle, Page A10
Telepharmacy options get boost from Senate bill
Sen. Bill Hansell
sponsors SB 629 to
allow pharmacists to
provide virtual services
in certain circumstances
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The pandemic
spurred on a surge of telemedicine
options, and some medical providers
are hoping that trend
continues after it is
over.
Cheryl Pearce,
director of physician
clinics for St. Anthony
Hospital in Pendle-
ton, said the hospital
Hansell
had used telehealth in
some cases in the past, including for
its stroke recovery program. But the
clinics were limited on what telehealth
they could provide.
Rural clinics were unable to be
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reimbursed for telehealth appoint-
ments for Medicare patients in their
home, for example.
Once the pandemic hit, the Trump
administration waived those rules,
allowing clinics to continue seeing
patients even when everything was
shut down.
“A lot of the time, we just had to
do it by telephone initially, because
we couldn’t get any webcams because
everyone in the country was trying to
do everything virtually,” Pearce said.
Since then, however, St. Anthony
has been able to expand and strengthen
its virtual telehealth off erings. Pearce
said the number of visits done virtu-
ally have “waxed and waned” over the
course of the pandemic, depending on
how quickly COVID-19 is spreading
in the community.
She said some providers like doing
video or phone visits, others don’t.
Similarly, some patients prefer to be
seen in person while others prefer a
video visit. She said telehealth can be
See Bill, Page A10
Contribute to the Beacon of the Sentinels, an
exciting new tribute to Pendleton’s military, past
and present, developed by the VFW Let’er Buck
Post and the Pendleton Arts Commission.
Get all the details. Visit the website:
www.pendletontribute.com