State OKs killing wolves in Mount Emily area | REGION A3
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145th Year, No. 124
REGONIAN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2021
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
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Hospitalizations spiking in Pendleton
CHI St. Anthony
admits 22 patients
last 10 days of July
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The COVID-
19 surge sweeping Umatilla County
continues to drive up hospitalizations
at CHI St. Anthony in Pendleton.
Roughly two-thirds of the hospi-
tal’s inpatients over the past week
tested positive for COVID-19,
Geller said, and more than a quar-
ter of patients admitted to the emer-
gency department had the virus.
“We urge everyone to become
vaccinated,” said Harold Geller, the
president of CHI St. Anthony.
On Saturday, July 31, the hospi-
tal had 13 COVID-positive patients
in their care, the highest total since
the pandemic began, according
to Geller. If that total exceeded
18, Geller said the hospital “may
need to suspend elective surgeries,
but not emergency surgeries.” On
Aug. 2, the number of hospitalized
patients had dropped to 9.
As infection ramped up in the
county in July, the hospital admitted
24 patients with COVID-19, with 22
of those patients coming in the last
10 days of the month. Those patients
were spread across the hospital’s
critical care and medical units.
And as hospitals throughout
Oregon and Washington fi ll with
COVID-19 patients, transferring
patients to other hospitals for a
higher level of care continues to
be a challenge for St. Anthony,
according to Emily Smith, a hospi-
tal spokesperson.
Of the 25 staff ed intensive care
unit beds available in Eastern
Oregon, only fi ve were available as
of Aug. 3, according to the Oregon
Health Authority.
FARMER FIGHTS FIRE
Echo farmer Lloyd Piercy joins
fight at Elbow Creek blaze
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
E
CHO — Lloyd Piercy
was looking for a bit of
adventure.
Piercy, who turns
70 on Aug. 12, spent
the last few weeks
helping fi ght the Elbow Creek
Fire with a team of more
than 400 firefighters in the
Blue Mountains near Troy.
A self-described adrenaline
junky, he drove a bulldozer
and cleared roads and cut fi re
breaks for fi re crews.
But it had been more than
two decades since he worked
for a fire department near
Moses Lake, Washington.
“It was kind of fun,” said
Piercy, a longtime Echo resi-
dent and farmer who owns
wineries outside of the town.
The fi re has so far burned
through roughly 22,960 acres
in Oregon’s Grande Ronde
River Valley, according to
the Oregon Department of
Forestry, which on Aug. 2
reported was 95% contained,
up from 50% last week. The
forestry department also
reported it’s Type 1 Incident
Management Team 3 handed
management of the fi re to a
smaller Type 3 organization
on Aug. 3.
After heading up to the
town of Maxville, in Wallowa
County, to help a friend protect
his cows from the wildfi res that
had begun to sweep through
the nearby mountains weeks
ago, Piercy got a call from fi re-
ELBOW CREEK FIRE INFORMATION
The Oregon Department of Forestry reported the Elbow Creek
Fire is getting under control.
The department’s Type 1 Incident Management Team on the
morning of Tuesday, Aug. 3, handed over management of the
fi re in Wallowa County to a smaller Type 3 organization.
The Type 3 organization will be working for the Umatilla and
Wallowa-Whitman national forests, the Vale District of the Bu-
reau of Land Management and the Northeast Oregon District
of the Oregon Department of Forestry.
The main responsibility of the new team will be to complete
any remaining mop-up, patrol the perimeter, backhaul fi re
cache supply such as hose, pumps and portable water tanks,
and continue suppression repair work.
The fi re camp at the Stampede Grounds in Elgin will shut
down. All personnel working the south end of the fi re will
work out of the main fi re camp about 3 miles up Promise Road
from Highway 82. A spike camp for crews working on the
north end of the fi re will be on Forest Road 62 at Fry Meadow
Seed Orchard. Resources working under the team will include
eight 20-person crews, nine engines, four water tenders, four
dozers and two excavators.
Information sources will remain in place for the Elbow Creek
Fire, including Facebook and Inciweb. Fire authorities now will
provide updates on the Elbow Creek Fire as needed.
See Farmer, Page A9
Echo farmer Lloyd Piercy
poses for a portrait atop his
Caterpillar D6N bulldozer
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in
Stanfi eld. Piercy spent the
last several weeks working
on the Elbow Creek Fire in
Wallowa County using the
large piece of equipment to
cut fi re lines and roads.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
“The governor is incredibly
concerned about the increase in
COVID-19 hospitalizations we are
seeing due to the spread of the delta
variant in areas with low vaccina-
tion rates,” Charles Boyle, a spokes-
person for Gov. Kate Brown, told
the Oregon Capitol Bureau. “Severe
illness from COVID-19 is now
a preventable disease, thanks to
vaccines.”
See COVID-19, Page A9
PGG
sells its
former
HQ
La Grande
business pays
$1.8 million
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
former headquarters of Pendle-
ton Grain Growers is offi cially
off the market.
More than fi ve years after
members of the grain coopera-
tive voted to dissolve the orga-
nization, PGG agreed to sell
its 42,000-square-foot build-
ing to the La Grande-based
Braseth Properties for $1.8
million, according to Umatilla
County property records. The
new owners posted a sign at
the building advertising for
open commercial driver and
sales positions, but they did not
return a request for comment as
of press time.
Braseth Properties does
business as Eastern Oregon
Rentals & Storage, a personal
storage company with facilities
in La Grande and Island City.
But the Braseth family has its
fi ngers in several pots in the La
Grande area.
The Braseth family also
owns the similarly named
Eastern Oregon Rentals &
Sales, a heavy equipment rental
company with locations in La
Grande, Pendleton and Baker
City. The Braseths bought East-
ern Oregon Rentals & Sales
in 1989, four years after they
See PGG, Page A9
Into the sunset
Rolly and Carol Biegler sell Sun Ridge
Retirement Community to Colorado man
By NICK
ROSENBERGER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — As morn-
ing peeked its head through
the clouds Sunday, Aug. 1,
Rolly and Carol Biegler woke
up on their last day as owners
of the Sun Ridge Retirement
Community, after nearly 16
years serving Pendleton, to
follow their own dreams of
retirement and becoming full-
time grandparents.
The Bieglers bought the
retirement community at 3234
S.W. Nye Ave. on the steps of
the Umatilla County Court-
house in August 2005. They
had been looking at retiring
for a while but needed to fi nd
someone younger who would
follow their goals of keeping it
family-oriented. They needed
someone who would have the
energy to keep up with the
business, keep it as a retire-
ment community and take care
of the patrons.
This is when they found Bill
Bent, a senior housing investor
and life coach from Colorado
who had a near-death experi-
See Sunset, Page A9
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Sun Ridge Retirement Community was recently sold by Rolly and Carol Biegler, of
Pendleton, to Bill Bent, of Denver. Bent is a partner and chief operating offi cer of
Haven Senior Investments, which will manage the facility.