yellowhawk begins vaccinating teens | COMMUNITY, A6
E O
AST
145th year, No. 91
REGONIAN
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
$1.50
Hotelier plans new Pendleton Holiday Inn in 2022
Three sites under
consideration in
Pendleton
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — a Tri-Cities
hotelier is readying development
on a new Holiday Inn in Pend-
leton, with an exact location to
be determined.
In an interview, Parn Singh said
he and his family’s company, the
Richland, Washington-based Eter-
nal Hotels, first bought into Pendle-
ton’s hotel market in 2015 and now
own both the current Holiday Inn
Express, 600 S.E. Nye Ave., and the
Best Western Inn next door.
Singh said the Pendleton market
has been good enough to his
company that it’s now looking to
construct a new building to house
its Holiday Inn property. Construc-
tion is set to start later this year with
a grand opening in 2022.
“It will be a lot more modern
and stick out more in Pendleton,”
he said.
Like all other Pendleton hotels,
Singh said his properties took a hit
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2020 cancelation of events,
such as Round-Up and the Pend-
leton Whisky Music Fest, meant
Singh’s hotels lost out on the kind of
weeklong revenue that could equal
their whole month of december.
But he added that local event
organizers did a good job of hold-
ing small events when they could.
Combined with the guests drawn
in from the steady traffic traveling
through Pendleton on Interstate 84,
Eternal is ready to build a new hotel
as the country begins to emerge
from the pandemic.
Featuring several hotel chains,
including Motel 6, Super 8, the Red
Lion Hotel and the Hampton Inn,
Nye’s close proximity to I-84 has
made it a hub for overnight stays.
Singh said Eternal has already
purchased two pieces of land where
the hotel could be located.
One of the locations is some bare
land at the corner of Nye and South-
east Third Drive, where the city’s
Bi-Mart used to be. Singh said an
electrical company is currently
See Hotel, Page A9
Company
in SD offers
grain bins
on wheels
Mother bins help
local farmers
streamline operations
By BEN LONERGAN
East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — Towering
over a field at Jones & Jones Ranch
outside of Pendleton, the 58-foot-
long and nearly 13-foot-tall mother
bin dwarfed its attached tractor
during a recent field day demon-
stration hosted by Walkabout
Mother Bins and FEI, Inc.
“The idea of the mother bin is
to constantly keep your combines
and your grain carts running and
your trucks running,” said Crystal
Kopecky, director of sales at Walk-
about Mother Bins.
Based in Faulkton, South
dakota, Walkabout Mother Bins
has been pioneering the concept of
the mother bin in the United States
since its start several years ago.
While new to the u.s., the concept
of the mother bin has been around
in australia since at least the early
1980s, said Kopecky. Born out of
labor shortages, the colossal piece
of farm equipment helped cut
down on harvest times and save
money by creating a site for tempo-
rary storage of grain prior to trans-
port away from the field.
“This allows you to keep up if
you’re not keeping up,” Kopecky
said. “But if your operation is keep-
ing up it will allow you to reduce
your trucks and labor needs.”
With a capacity of more than
4,000 bushels, the mother bin sits
on the edge of the field and acts as
a temporary storage facility for
grain to pick up slack between
combines and semitrucks haul-
ing grain to storage. Combines fill
bankout wagons, which in turn fill
the mother bin for holding until it
can be transported. From there a
22-inch auger can load a semitruck
in mere minutes.
“Equipment nowadays, espe-
cially your combines, they’re built
See Grain, Page A9
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
School bus driver Bill Settle surveys the interior of his bus in a mirror while working through a pre-trip inspection of his bus at the Mid
Columbia Bus Co. bus barn on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.
Driver shortage
Mid Columbia Bus Co.
considers higher wages
for Pendleton drivers
to help fill shortfall
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
P
eNdLeTON — struggling
to keep itself fully staffed, the
Pendleton School District’s
school bus contractor is pitching
the district on a new recruiting
strategy — pay its school bus drivers more.
Representatives from Mid Columbia Bus
Co., which provides school bus services to
school districts across Umatilla and Morrow
counties, have spoken at the Pendleton
School Board’s April and May meetings
to share the details behind its latest driver
shortage and what the Pendleton company
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
See Shortage, Page A9
A school bus is bathed in the early morning sunlight at the Mid Columbia Bus Co. bus barn
outside of Pendleton on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.
‘We’re at a severe shortage’
Hermiston Family
aquatic Center following
nationwide trend with
lifeguard shortage
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HeRMIsTON — Parents are
anxiously awaiting news on summer
swim lesson signups at the Hermis-
ton Family aquatic Center, but center
officials need to convince some more
people to become lifeguards first.
Brandon Artz, recreation supervi-
sor for Hermiston Parks and Recre-
ation, said the aquatic center usually
hires about 100 staff for the season,
but is still in need of 50 more life-
guards.
“We’re at a severe shortage,” he
said. “We’ve done some recruitment
at the high schools, but like everyone
else in town, we’re hiring.”
The shortage seems to be nation-
wide, he said.
Artz said usually the department
puts out swim lesson signups in
mid-May, and he has already had a
steady stream of parents calling to ask
about lessons. But they can’t draw up
a schedule yet until they know how
many lifeguards they will end up
having, and if there aren’t as many as
usual, that will translate into fewer
offerings at the pool. He said that
includes hopes the department had
to offer free swim lessons to students
participating in summer camps with
school districts this year.
The aquatic center’s 50-meter
See Lifeguard, Page A9
East Oregonian, File
Hayley Mele-Seibel watches the pool during swim lessons at the Hermis-
ton Family Aquatic Center in 2018. The aquatic center is facing a shortage
of lifeguards so far this season.