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East Oregonian
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Parade: ‘It’s just fun to watch the people’
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parade route. “The energy is
awesome.”
All along the route children
with plastic bags collected
candy thrown out by those
going past in a multitude of
colors, outfits and rides —
from horses and carriages to
classic cars and beefy trucks
burning rubber.
Sour Patch Kids and Toot-
sie Rolls dotted the clear blue
sky as the local youths hollered
and tried to snap up the best
sweets. Bouncy balls, beach
balls and even a water bottle
added to the mix of projectiles
chucked out windows.
For some, it was a contin-
uation of a family tradition
going back generations. For
others, such as Jayden Yeigh
and his friends Ryan, Abel and
Elvis, the parade was a way to
kill some time and enjoy the
last two weeks of summer
vacation before the school year
started.
While they were disap-
pointed the Optimus Prime
tractor-trailer didn’t show up
this year, they still managed to
grab some candy and thought
the watermelon they’d been
given was the best part.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Children scramble to pick up candy Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, at the Umatilla County Fair Kick-
Off Parade in Hermiston.
“It’s been great to get out
with people,” said Gary Hall, a
Navy veteran who said he and
his wife, Roma, have been
coming to the parade for about
30 years.
Roma mentioned they
had gone to larger parades in
Honolulu and San Francisco
while Gary had been stationed
there, but that she liked Herm-
iston’s better.
“I like to come and watch
the people,” Roma said. “You
see the funniest outfits and the
funniest hairstyles. It’s just
fun to watch the people.”
Fair offers COVID-19
vaccines
Ever since the pandemic
canceled last year’s fair,
locals have been eager for
the upcoming week’s events.
And the packed schedule
suggests another fun-filled
fair.
The fair’s main gates will
open to the public at 10 a.m.
Aug. 11. The Davis Shows
Northwest Carnival opens
each day at 2 p.m. and will
run until 11 p.m. All the
while, the 4-H/FFA compe-
tition will occur in differ-
ent areas of the fair, with
the grand champion market
animal selection announced
at the Burns Pavilion at 6 p.m.
The livestock exhibition also
will occur in the three barns
on the northeast end of the
fairgrounds. The Farm City
Pro Rodeo begins at 7:45 p.m.
at the FCPR Arena. And
Stone in Love, a Journey trib-
ute band, caps the night with
a performance on the Wild-
horse Main Stage at 9 p.m.
In addition, attendees
can receive free COVID-19
vaccines at two sites in the
event center throughout the
event. People who receive the
vaccine will have their choice
to either receive two $10 fair
food vouchers or a free carni-
val wristband. There will also
be a COVID-19 testing site at
the fairground.
On Aug. 12, the day will
begin with a series of swine,
cattle, sheep and small animal
showmanship competitions
in the barns and pavilions.
Attendees can see magi-
cians, jugglers and a circus
in various places throughout
the fair. That night, the rock
and roll band Everclear will
perform on the Wildhorse
Main Stage at 9:00 p.m.
The weeklong festivi-
ties will ramp up on Aug. 13
with more 4-H/FFA show-
ings in the Burns Pavilion
in the morning and master
showmanship competi-
tion announced at 6 p.m. A
group of Latino musicians
will take to Wildhorse Main
Stage from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
that night. Those performers
include Tierra Cali, Diana
Reyes, Alfa 7 and Fortaleza
De Tierra Caliente.
The final day of the fair
will begin with the youth
livestock auction at the Burns
Pavilion at 10 a.m., and a
cutest baby contest at the Les
Schwab stage at that same
time. The carnival opens
at noon instead of 2 p.m. A
Hermiston watermelon seed
spitting competition takes
place at the Les Schwab Stage
at 2 p.m., and at 4:10 p.m., the
Steppin’ Country Dance Club
from Walla Walla takes the
same stage. The Umatilla
County Fair concludes with
country, blues and rockstar
Frankie Ballard at the Wild-
horse Mainstage at 9 p.m.
For a more detailed fair
schedule, go to www.umatil-
lacountyfair.net/fair-schedule.
— East Oregonian
reporter Bryce Dole
contributed to this feature.
Bentz: ‘I don’t demand it. Don’t
Inmates: Important opportunity
mandate it, but I suggest you do it’ to ‘get beyond the razor wire’
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Continued from Page A1
Right off the bat, Bentz
was asked what he would
do to promote the vaccine
in Umatilla County. A
recent surge in COVID-19
cases has pushed Umatilla
County beyond 10,000 total
cases, and during the first
week of August, Umatilla
County had the highest test
positivity rate of any county
in the state. While the share
of county residents who
have received at least one
dose of the vaccination has
risen to about 45%, Umatilla
County remains one of the
least vaccinated counties in
the state.
Bentz said one of his
close, personal friends was
battling COVID-19 from the
hospital before mentioning
state Sen. Bill Hansell, who
was in the audience, adding
he recently recovered from
the virus despite getting
vaccinated.
“I will say it clearly: I
recommend you get vacci-
nated,” he said, crediting
former President Donald
Trump for Operation Warp
Speed, a White House effort
to accelerate the develop-
ment of the COVID-19
vaccine. “I’ve said it over
and over again. I recom-
mend it, I don’t demand
it. Don’t mandate it, but I
suggest you do it.”
Bentz took a more
guarded stance on infra-
structure, as the Senate is on
the verge of passing a bipar-
tisan $1.1 trillion infrastruc-
ture bill. The bill’s future
is complicated by Speaker
Nancy Pelosi insisting the
Senate also pass a compli-
mentary $3.5 trillion infra-
structure bill before the
House holds a vote. Bentz
said he would need to hold
more conversations with his
caucus before supporting the
bipartisan bill, but he would
not be able to support the
passage of both, adding the
increase in federal spend-
ing could result in inflation
that would hurt constituents’
pocketbooks.
“We do have offenders
that have engaged in crimes
and will not be released
from prison because they’re
not safe and the community
isn’t safe,” said Mandy Perry,
assistant superintendent at
the prison. “But we have to
understand that we have an
even larger population that
is going out into our commu-
nities. They’re becoming our
neighbors. They’re becom-
ing our baseball coaches.
They’re going to reintegrate
back into our society, and we
would be failing if we didn’t
provide opportunities to
rehabilitate them and get
them prepared for the
community.”
In an email, Hermiston
Police Chief Jason Edmiston
said, “I wouldn’t say we are
a partner in/with this event
TRCI is holding, but we are
going to participate.”
He said the prison did not
ask for his officers to provide
security but “wanted to know
if we could make an appear-
ance since many children of
inmates are hesitant to engage
with police officers proac-
tively and positively.”
“I am aware of the poli-
tics in play with this program
and my intent was solely
to engage the children in a
positive atmosphere because
law enforcement would love
nothing more than to see
crime cycles broken,” Edmis-
ton said, adding that his
department is lending a
hand despite being down six
officers. “For officers, there
is nothing more dishearten-
ing in this profession than
arresting the children of
people who we deal with all
the time.
The inmates who partic-
ipate are carefully screened
by officials to be those with
exceptional behavior, Perry
said. The prison also does
“pretty intense intel” by listen-
ing to phone calls and reading
letters between inmates and
their families to “make sure
they have established a posi-
tive and healthy relationship
Antonio Sierra/East Oregonian
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, speaks to a crowd of more
than 30 at a town hall meeting Monday, Aug. 9, 2021, at the
Pendleton Convention Center.
“No one’s going to count
that as the cost that each of
you are going to pay, which
you’re already paying 5% off
each one of your dollars in
savings,” he said.
Bentz said he shared
concern with one town hall
attendee about the national
debt and would try to elim-
inate pork barrel spending,
the practice of tying local
projects to federal legisla-
tion to get a bill passed, but
cutting bigger programs,
such as Medicare and Social
Security, were harder to do.
“You want to go to a
bunch of doctors and say
guess what, we’re going
to cut what you’re getting
paid for Medicare?” he said.
“Better be close to the door,
because they’re going to try
to hurt you.”
With the exception of
a stint as a member of the
Ontario School Board,
Bentz said he’s been in the
minority during his entire
political career, dating back
to his time in the Oregon
Legislature.
“I found it very easy to
throw rocks,” he said. “When
you’re in the minority, by the
way, that’s what you do most
of the time.”
But Bentz said he still
wanted to find solutions to
the country’s problems and
wanted to work on water
issues, should Republi-
cans retake the House in
2022. A water attorney by
trade, Bentz pointed to the
drought in the Klamath
Basin, which is heightening
tensions between irrigators,
the government and local
American Indian tribes. But
he also said other areas in
his district are facing dire
circumstances, including
the Deschutes Basin and the
Owyhee Basin, which he
said was going to dry out in
the imminent future.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Members of an inmate work crew from Two Rivers Correc-
tional Institution help clear flood-damaged material from
a home at the Riverview Mobile Home Estates in Pendleton
Feb, 12, 2020. Ten adults in custody at the state prison in
Umatilla get to participate in an outing the morning of Aug,
20, 2021, at the Hermiston Splash Pad. The events are part
of the Oregon Department of Corrections efforts to help in-
mates break cycles of criminal behavior.
with their families,” Perry
said.
They also are inmates
who regularly go out into the
community as work crews,
pulling weeds, mowing lawns
and helping set up for local
rodeos.
“We, the city, we utilize
TRCI for work crews fairly
regularly,” said Mark Morgan,
Hermiston’s assistant city
manager. “We feel pretty
confident and comfortable
having used them in those
capacities in the past, knowing
the level of security detail that
comes along with that, and
with the professionalism that
they run those things, that’s
why we felt comfortable with”
the splash park event.
For those work crews, one
officer tags along, TRCI offi-
cials say. But for the upcom-
ing programs, groups will be
joined by a bigger group of
counselors and law enforce-
ment officers.
“This event is so everyone
feels comfortable,” Perry said.
“But what they don’t realize is
that this event is also therapeu-
tic and rehabilitative.”
Last month, inmates went
fishing with their families at
ponds near McNary Wild-
life Nature Area. A group
of local dentists donated the
fishing poles, which children
got to bring home with them.
The Oregon State Police also
attended the event and handed
out free bracelets to kids.
“The positive interaction
with police at that fishing
event, the children, the care
providers and the AICs, was
phenomenal,” said Kaycie
Thompson, a spokesperson
for TRCI. “And if we keep
doing that kind of thing, we’re
going to help break the cycle of
incarceration for these fami-
lies.”
The event at the Hermiston
Splash Park takes place 8:30-
10:30 a.m., when the facility
is not open to the public. The
Hermiston Police Department
is attending to handing out gift
certificates for free Slurpees
at 7-11.
Perry said it’s meant to be a
therapeutic event for inmates
and their families.
Thompson said this is an
important opportunity to “get
beyond the razor wire.”
“We’ve had AICs come up
to us while we’re watching our
grandchildren in our commu-
nity and say, ‘Hey, I’m out and
I’m staying out and I’m down
here with my child,’” said
Kaycie Thompson, a spokes-
person for TRCI. “This is a
transition.”
Perry said the prison has
yet to plan any more events
in the future because of the
status of COVID-19 cases in
the county, but said she hopes
more will come.
Judge: ‘There can be no construction without a detailed plan’
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The complaint filed by
Stop B2H and other plain-
tiffs argued that BLM should
have updated its environ-
mental analysis of the project
— known as a final environ-
mental impact statement or
FEIS — with new information
about sage grouse populations,
which have plummeted from
historic levels.
While studies completed
after the project’s approval
provided new information
about population counts and
the effects of transmission
lines, the judge said they’re
“not significant or seriously
different” enough to warrant
a supplementary analysis.
“The new information
about the declining popula-
tion of greater sage grouse is
not significantly new or differ-
ent circumstances from what
is discussed in the FEIS,”
Simon said.
Likewise, news articles
about the financial feasibility
of burying transmission lines
do not trigger the need for a
supplementary environmen-
tal analysis because they don’t
“rise to the level of significant
information,” as would scien-
tific studies, he said.
The judge dismissed claims
that BLM relied on improper
data about sage grouse
numbers and that it was imper-
missibly vague and confusing
in examining the risk of “extir-
pation” to a local population of
the species.
“Although not a model of
clarity, the discussion is not
indecipherable,” he said.
The agency wasn’t “arbi-
trary and capricious” in
analyzing the indirect effects
on “leks,” where sage grouse
congregate during mating
season, within 3 miles of the
transmission line, rather than
using a longer distance, Simon
said.
The judge found that
BLM’s steps for mitigating the
adverse impacts to the species
were sufficient because “there
can be no construction without
a detailed plan.”
“This is not a case in which
the action will commence
before it can be determined
whether mitigation will be
effective,” he said.
The judge said BLM
“worked closely” with the
Idaho Power utility company
on the project and relied on
“sufficient evidence” to decide
against burying the line near
an interpretive center for the
Oregon Trail.
The agency wasn’t required
to update the FEIS regarding
the environmental effects of
alternative routes for the trans-
mission line that it ultimately
didn’t choose, he said.
While the BLM wrongly
failed to “consider grazing in
the cumulative effects analy-
sis” of the project, that “error
was harmless” because it
wouldn’t have altered the
agency’s conclusions, the
judge said.
“Plaintiffs do not show how
adding grazing to the cumu-
lative effects analysis would
have materially affected the
substance of BLM’s sage
grouse mitigation decision or
other decisions relating to sage
grouse,” Simon said.
— The Observer reporter
Dick Mason contributed to
this report.