OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Spike:
Continued from Page A1
Last week, Oregon saw a
decline in COVID-19 cases
for the third straight week.
Umatilla County’s cases had
followed that trend, dropping
below 400 weekly cases for
the first time in more than
a month. But by the end of
last week, the county’s cases
began to tick upward, topping
out with the second-high-
est weekly total since the
pandemic began — 505.
‘Cases have spiked
quickly’
Yellowhawk Tribal Health
Center recorded 72 new cases
last week. In a statement,
interim Yellowhawk CEO
Aaron Hines mentioned
Round-Up when talking
about the surge in new cases.
“This emergency declara-
tion is needed to help protect
our community,” he said. “We
knew that a surge in positive
COVID-19 cases was possi-
ble following the Pendleton
Round-Up. What we’ve seen
from this past week is that the
cases have spiked quickly.”
While the tribes have
largely aligned their COVID-
19 rules with the state in
recent months, they’re hear-
kening to the early days of the
pandemic by going further
in their restrictions. On the
same day the tribal trustees
declared a public health emer-
gency, the incident command
team prohibited social gath-
erings of six people or more
from two different house-
holds and capped attendance
at Nixyaawii Community
School events at 75.
The CTUIR has orga-
nized several mass vaccina-
tion events and engaged with
tribal members directly about
getting the vaccine, but the
tribes’ 47% vaccination rate
remains below its 70% goal.
The board on Sept. 2
announced it was requir-
ing all COVID-19 screen-
ers and staff at Yellowhawk,
the Umatilla Tribal Fire
Department and the CTUIR
Education Department to
get vaccinated by Sept. 30.
But at the meeting Sept. 27,
the board of trustees unani-
mously voted to extend that
deadline to Oct. 31. Unvac-
cinated staff in those depart-
ments will be required to get
tested for COVID-19 on a
weekly basis and wear a face
mask during work hours until
then.
Yellowhawk has reported
a total of 569 cases and four
deaths over the course of
the pandemic. Although the
agency is seeing a significant
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A sign near the Nixyaawii Governance Center on the Umatilla
Indian Reservation warns drivers to wash their hands in an
attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020.
number of breakthrough
cases, 80% of cases are
attributed to non-vaccinated
patients.
Lack of cooperation
means inaccurate count
Joe Fiumara, the county’s
public health director, said the
county has traced 49 COVID-
19 cases back to Round-Up
events so far.
“What’s disheartening is
that people who had symp-
toms chose to partake,” he
said. “That’s something
people don’t seem to under-
stand — if you have symp-
toms, please stay home.”
The Pendleton Round-Up
and Happy Canyon took
several measures to heed
state and local health guide-
lines and mandates. Contrac-
tors and staff were “subject
to wear a mask when not
actively engaged in the
events,” and guests over the
Run:
Continued from Page A1
The winners of the 5k
and 10K received medals,
while second and third
place received certificates.
Everyone who participated
received a green T-shirt
emblazoned with the
Oregon Women for Agri-
culture slogan: “Almost
everything starts on a farm
or ranch.”
This was the second time
the Eastern Oregon Women
for Agriculture hosted the
race. Previously, the run was
organized by Greg Spike
and included a 5K, 10K,
25K and 50K for those brave
enough to venture into the
realm of ultra marathons.
When the race started to
fizzle out, Bethany Wood-
all, Gina Tyhuis and Gina
Gray asked to take over
to help support women in
agriculture. According to
Tyhuis, women own 39%
of all farms and ranches in
Oregon.
Nicola Feik, whose
family farm started in 1847
and whose grandmother was
a founding member of the
western chapter of Oregon
BMCC:
Continued from Page A1
“Growing up in the
Bitterroot Valley, we hiked,
camped, fished and ran
around on motorcycles,” he
said. “We didn’t know how
good we had it. We worked
hard and played hard.”
Browning’s family moved
to Idaho when he still was in
high school, the state where
he would complete his first
career track and get a start on
a second.
Setting aside the advice
from the grocer, Browning
translated his early start in
radio into a career in televi-
sion, eventually becoming
an anchor and news director
for local Boise TV stations.
Once content to climb the TV
news ladder, Browning real-
ized if he wanted to advance
career outside the bounds
of broadcast journalism, he
would need a degree. So at
age 39, Browning enrolled
as a freshman at Idaho State
University.
After obtaining a bache-
lor’s degree in mass commu-
nications, Browning went
from covering Idaho govern-
ment to joining it as the chief
communications and legisla-
tive officer for the Idaho State
Board of Education. Brown-
ing entered the world of
community college adminis-
tration under the recommen-
dation of a board member he
worked with, who told him to
take a look at a vice president
of communications position
at North Idaho College.
A move to Coeur d’Alene
followed, and up until that
point, most of Browning’s
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Amanda Woodland runs along a ridge Saturday, Sept.
25, 2021, during the Echo Sage Trail Run at the Sno Road
Winery vineyard in Echo. The annual 5K and 10K trail run
serves as a fundraiser for Eastern Oregon Women for Ag-
riculture.
Women for Agriculture, has
been involved since she was
4 years old and said they
worked to acknowledge the
role women have played in
agriculture throughout the
state’s history.
“We’re carrying on their
legacies,” she said.
Additionally, she said the
organization works hard to
get people more familiar
with their food, where it
comes from and to make
sure agriculture is legisla-
tors recognize the impor-
tance of agriculture.
To do this, the orga-
nization partnered with
work had come in the special-
ized field of communications.
When the president of North
Idaho College suggested he
would make a good college
president, Browning initially
dismissed it.
“I just thought that was
the worst thing in the world,”
Browning said. “And then we
really started talking about
what the role of the presi-
dent is and what the presi-
dent does. I started to look at
it through a different lens of
the kind of work that I really
enjoyed doing, which is in the
community, and storytelling.
I started to think back on all
the roles I’ve had, from morn-
ing radio, to television anchor
and reporter to the state board
office. It really is about telling
or finding someone’s story,
and then telling it or telling
the story of the agency I was
with, the college I was with.
That really is the ultimate
extension of (the job) is to be
the lead storyteller for that
institution.
In 2016, Browning took
on a new role as an adminis-
trator at the College of West-
ern Idaho, a community
college established in 2009
in Nampa to serve Boise’s
rapidly growing suburbs. In
the meantime, he continued
to advance his education,
obtaining a master’s degree
from the University of Idaho
and enrolling in a doctorate
program at Idaho State.
Two hundred miles away
in Pendleton, the BMCC
president positions wasn’t
expected to open for some
time. In March 2019, Blue
Mountain hired veteran
college administrator Dennis
Bailey-Fougnier to lead the
college. But in February,
East Oregonian
Oregon Agriculture in the
Classroom to help bring
farming and ranching into
more clear focus. EOWA
also spreads “farm facts”
and are collaborating to
put up informational signs
along farms to explain
the crops local farms are
growing.
The money raised from
the run went straight into the
local organization’s annual
scholarship fund, which
will provide scholarships to
three women pursuing agri-
culture degrees in the Baker,
Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla,
Union or Wallowa counties.
age of 5 were “requested to
wear a mask” if they were
not having food or bever-
ages, the organizers said in a
Facebook post. The event had
hand sanitizer, hand washing
stations, medical personnel,
ambulance coverage and
“increased” medical room
size and coverage.
Signs recommending
masks were posted through-
out the event and reminded
attendees of the potential
risks of COVID-19: “By
your participation in the
event, you are accepting the
potential risk of COVID-19
exposure.”
But masks were few and
far between at the event. And
there was no proof of vacci-
nation or negative COVID-
19 tests required to enter the
Round-Up Grounds.
“I was disappointed in
the lack of support from the
Round-Up staff, volunteers,
Each applicant has to fill
out an application and write
a 500- to 1,000-word essay
focused on the biggest prob-
lems facing agriculture and
how they plan to be a part
of the solution. Decided
by a scholarship commit-
tee that ranks the essays
on points, the top applicant
receives $1,000, second
place receives $750 while
third receives $500.
Woodall, Tyhuis and
Gray hope to continue
ex pa nd i ng t he r a ce
and would like to get
cross-country teams more
involved.
“It’s a challenging
course,” Tyhuis said, “they
would be huffing and puff-
ing.”
Plus, the more partici-
pants who run, the better
they can continue to fund
agriculture education and
spread the knowledge of
how food is made.
“There is a lot of people
that just don’t understand
what we do, and or how
or why we do it,” Woodall
said. “There are too many
people in this world that
don’t know where their food
comes from. We are trying
to help correct that.”
Bailey-Fougnier abruptly
resigned, citing ongoing
health issues. For the second
time in three years, BMCC
was in need of a president.
From his perch in Idaho,
Browning liked the idea of
moving back to small town
life in Pendleton. He applied,
and after learning he had
locked down an interview,
he was ecstatic. But BMCC’s
interest in Browning didn’t
end with an interview, with
the college’s board of educa-
tion announcing his hiring in
June. His first day on the job
was Tuesday, Sept. 7.
The future of BMCC
Browning emerged from
a field of finalists with more
traditional backgrounds. Two
finalists had been presidents
and some could pitch them-
selves as more reflective of
the college’s diversifying
student body.
But what stood out to Jane
Hill, the chair of the BMCC
board at the time of his hiring,
was his ability to score high
with all of the college’s vari-
ous constituencies.
“There’s no formula for
hiring the perfect candi-
date,” she said. “There’s so
many variables that matter.
He had that combination of
qualities that made employ-
ees feel confident and at ease.
And that made the board feel
like this guy has a sense of not
only the range of things that
need to be done, but what’s
important among them.”
Pete Hernberg, the presi-
dent of the faculty union, said
he was initially skeptical of
Browning’s candidacy after
looking over his resume and
seeing a lack of classroom
experience. But he was won
in showcasing the mask-
ing and encouraging the
mask-wearing,” Fiumara
added. “And I’m worried we
may be looking at the price
we’re going to pay for that.”
The 49 cases are surely an
undercount, Fiumara added.
Many attendees who have
fallen ill and know others
who have are not cooperat-
ing with health officials. That
means, for now, it is almost
impossible for the county
to determine how large the
outbreak is.
Hines and Fiumara said
they were expecting to see
a case spike following the
Round-Up. But the latest
spike is quicker and steeper
than they anticipated.
“My concern is that we
will end up with more deaths
out of this,” Fiumara said.
“And many of them likely
could have been avoided. We
don’t know how vaccinated
the crowd was.”
For months, Umatilla
County’s vaccination rate has
remained among the lowest
statewide. Because of that,
county officials have voiced
concerns about the Round-
Up’s potential as a super-
spreader event for months
— particularly after the the
Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
outbreak, which kicked off a
delta variant crisis that has
Navy:
Continued from Page A1
She continued climbing
the ranks, eventually joining
command teams on the USS
Jackson and the USS Omaha,
both Independence-class littoral
combat ships. She was promoted
to master chief in July, and once
she returns to duty, she will join
the command team for the USS
Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, her first
destroyer as a commander.
Named after a superinten-
dent of the Navy Nurse Corps
who served during World War I,
the Lenah Higbee is a new ship
that was christened in April
from its shipyard in Pasca-
goula, Mississippi. Pashkevich
said she’ll travel to see the ship.
From there, she and the rest of
the crew will take the ship down
through the Panama Canal and
onto San Diego. And from Cali-
fornia, it’s on to the next deploy-
ment in the South China Sea.
Obtaining the rank of master
chief puts Pashkevich in rarefied
air as it means she’s now among
the top 1% of enlisted maritime
forces. It’s also relatively rare
for a woman to achieve that
rank in a military that’s diver-
sifying but still dominated by
men. According to the U.S.
over after Browning spoke
with instructors and offered
specific solutions to the
college’s challenges.
Browning takes over a
very different college than
the institution managed by
his predecessors. From 2012
to 2020, BMCC enrollment
fell from 4,142 to 1,561. The
downward trend was super-
charged by the pandemic,
but the college already had
been struggling with the
effects of a strong economy
and increasing competition
from Walla Walla Commu-
nity College, Columbia Basin
College in Pasco and Baker
Technical Institute.
The resulting loss in reve-
nue led to the college elimi-
nating 23 positions in 2020
under Bailey-Fougnier and
another 16 in 2021, some of
those cuts coming under the
protests of staff. All of these
developments are happen-
ing as the demographics of
Blue Mountain are shifting.
As Latinos make up a larger
share of the student body,
the college is beginning to
discuss if its staff and services
are reflective of that.
Browning said BMCC
is not only competing with
other colleges for students but
an economy where people can
get a well-paid job without the
benefit of a college education.
One of his first priorities will
be to stanch the enrollment
bleed. He said his hope is to
have fall enrollment not drop
any more than 1 or 2%.
Browning just closed on
a house in Pendleton as he
and his wife Kym get settled
in Eastern Oregon while his
three adult sons are scattered
across Utah and Washing-
A9
seen more residents hospi-
talized and die with COVID-
19 than any other pandemic
surge.
August became Umatilla
County’s deadliest month
since the pandemic began,
with 22 residents dying with
COVID-19.
But no officials took any
action to stop the Round-Up.
Instead, county officials noted
the economic benefits of the
event, which brings millions
of dollars to the local business
economy that has struggled
without large events over the
past year.
The latest surge has
prompted the county health
department to retool staff
from other roles to track the
rapid spread of infection.
Aside from that, Fiumara said
he is not planning to propose
any public health recom-
mendation to the board of
commissioners. Still, he said
this situation was avoidable.
“It’s hard to want to put
economic restrictions in place
when part of what’s driving
it is people who knowingly
had symptoms and attended
a social event like this,”
Fiumara said. “I don’t know
how you stop that, short of
putting a guard at the door.
It’s just not who we are.”
Department of Defense, only
14% of senior enlisted person-
nel are women.
Pashkevich understands the
significance of her achievement,
and she not only wants to be a
role model to future women
who might aspire to command,
but also to show them that it’s
possible.
“It’s not that it’s hard,” she
said. “It’s just at some point in
time, you know, not everybody
wants to continue to deal with
it”
Rising up the ranks through
the Navy has come with sacri-
fices, Pashkevich said, and
she’s thankful for her family
for supporting her through it
all. When she’s not deployed,
Pashkevich resides in San
Diego with her partner, Thomas
Martin. She also has two daugh-
ters, one of whom followed her
footsteps into the Navy.
While she may not have
anticipated such a long career
in military service, what’s kept
her going after all these years is
the sense that she gets to help
people for a living.
“That’s basically what my
job is now,” she said. “Making
sure that the command is
moving forward, and that we’re
completing the mission and that
I’m taking care of everybody
along the way.”
ton. He still loves to hike, fish
and camp, and he and Kym
already are making a mental
list of all the outdoor oppor-
tunities in the region they’d
like to take advantage of in
the coming years.
Browning said his job as
president will be to acknowl-
edge the challenges that lie
ahead while projecting opti-
mism in Blue Mountain
Community College’s future.
“Everybody says, ‘What’s
your biggest challenge right
now,’ and I think it is to help
people understand that you’ve
been through hell, and we’re
not at the end yet,” he said.
“But I believe we’ve got a
structure and the sizing in
place that makes us sustain-
able for the amount of enroll-
ment that we’ve got. And that
we’re gonna get through it
together.”
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