INSIDE: Smith takes over Umatilla football program | PAGE A8
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Cruise
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State to
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REGONIAN
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PAG E
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021

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“The
food
County commissioner
supports the move,
encourages masking in
indoor public spaces
By BRYCE DOLE AND GARY
WARNER
EO Media Group
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown
ordered face masks worn indoors in
public places by everyone age 5 and
over beginning Friday, Aug, 13.
At a morning press call Aug. 11,
Brown said the highly contagious
delta variant was pushing the virus
spread to the point that each infected
person was infecting eight others.
“Moving forward, for the imme-
diate future, masks will be required
for all indoor public settings,” Brown
said.
The mandate applies to adults and
children older than 5. On public tran-
sit, that also includes children older
than 2.
Brown also urged, but did not
mandate, wearing masks in crowded
outdoor situations. She also urged
private companies and other orga-
nizations to enact their own indoor
mask policies.
Brown’s order came the day after
the Oregon Health & Science Univer-
sity’s infectious disease experts fore-
cast the state could see more than
1,000 COVID-19 patients per day in
hospitals by early next month. Oregon
would be about 500 staff ed beds short
of needs for all patients if the rate hit
its projected peak of Sept. 7.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state
epidemiologist, said this “fi fth wave”
of COVID-19 to hit the state in the
past 18 months was diff erent than
earlier spikes.
More than half the population
is vaccinated, but the “relentless”
delta variant was spreading rapidly
through the estimated 1.2 million
Oregon residents who are not inoc-
ulated. That group includes children
under 12 for whom there is no feder-
ally approved vaccine as yet.
OHA has reported patients arriv-
ing at hospitals are younger, sicker,
require more care and stay longer.
“The COVID-19 situation is dire,”
Sidelinger said, with the delta variant
“far outpacing even the grim scenar-
ios in our latest reported projections.”
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Logan Smith, 11, of Echo, washes down his market lamb Woody, named after cartoon character Woody the Woodpecker, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021,
at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston.
Returning to the fair’s ways
Local 4-H, FFA youth
ready farm animals
for showing Saturday
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
Umatilla County Commissioner
John Shafer said he supports the new
mask requirements and encourages
people to wear masks in indoor public
spaces.
“If it’s going to allow Round-Up
to happen,” he said, “I can get behind
that.”
Shafer added it’s impor t-
ant for county businesses to “do
HERMISTON — Carolyn Follett cries every
year she sees her animal sold at the Umatilla
County Fair.
At 13, Carolyn is in her fourth year with 4-H
and will be showing off her pig, Peach, at the fair
this week. Peach is a 252-pound Yorkshire cross,
labeled as “Market Swine.”
“Every year, you think, ‘This pig is the kind-
est pig. This pig is the most funny pig,’” said
Carolyn, of Hermiston. “She’s defi nitely the
sweetest pig I’ve ever had. She lays down right
by my feet. She lets other pigs snuggle with her.
She lets us snuggle with her. And when I have a
sweet pig like this, the thought of not being with
her anymore makes me sad.”
Dozens of 4-H and FFA students will be
competing at animal showings this week,
culminating with the livestock auction at the
Burns Pavilion Saturday, Aug. 14. The youths
spend the days cooling their animals with hoses,
sweeping the barn, feeding their animals and
getting them ready for this week’s showings.
Each expressed a special bond they have with
their animal, despite knowing many of their
animals will fi nd their way to someone’s dinner
table.
“She’s really nice to me,” Cord Cooley, Caro-
lyn’s 13-year-old cousin, said while looking at
his pig, Wiggles. “Whenever I’m in there, she
gets right next to me and sometimes will bite at
my feet and look up at me as far as she can go
and push out her tongue. She’s a poser.”
See Masks, Page A6
See Fair, Page A6
Commissioner OK with
requiring masks
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Carolyn Follett, 13, of Hermiston, poses for a portrait with her market swine Peach on Tues-
day, Aug. 10, 2021, in the livestock barn at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Alexis Leathers, 18, fi lls out an FFA livestock card on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, for her brother
Wesley Leathers’ hog at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston. Her hog, Lady, and her broth-
er’s, Eeyore, both failed to make sale weight, meaning they only will show their animals this
week and wait for the Pendleton Junior Livestock Show later this year.
Pendleton Children’s Center switches focus to Stillman Park
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — As the Pendle-
ton School District closed the door,
the Pendleton Children’s Center
found a window.
The nonprofi t child care center
walked away from its proposal to
acquire a block of bare land east
of the Pendleton Early Learning
Center and refocused its eff orts on
constructing a building that would
provide care for infants, toddlers and
preschoolers.
The Pendleton Parks and Recre-
ation Commission at a meeting Tues-
day, Aug. 10, recommended the city
approve leasing a section of Still-
man Park, 413 S.E. Byers Ave., to the
children’s center. After the meeting,
Kathryn Brown, the center’s secre-
tary-treasurer, said the nonprofi t aims
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The Pendleton Parks and Recreation Commission, during a meeting Tuesday,
Aug. 10, 2021, recommended the city approve leasing a section of Stillman
Park to the Pendleton Children’s Center.
to open its new facility next summer
should the Pendleton City Council
greenlight the project. Brown also
is a member of the commission and
the vice president of the EO Media
Group, the parent company of the
East Oregonian.
Brown said the center was
attracted to the property because
of its playground and its proxim-
ity to the InterMountain Education
Service District’s Early Intervention/
Early Childhood Special Education
program. The center plans to place
a modular or prefabricated building
where the park’s tennis courts are
now. Parks and recreation director
Liam Hughes said the courts had
fallen on hard times.
“They’re in disrepair,” he said.
“They’re in need of maintenance.
Something needs to happen there.”
Hughes said he doesn’t usually
support parceling out parks proper-
ties, but the children’s center would
solve Stillman’s tennis court issue
and is in line with the department’s
services, which includes an after-
school program and a summer camp.
See Park, Page A6