THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021
146th Year, No. 6
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OCT. 27–NOV. 3, 2021
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KEEP FIGHTING, COWBOY
Saddlemaker
Randy Severe
makes slow
recovery from
COVID-19
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
East Oregonian, File
PENDLETON — Pendleton is
boasting about an improving econ-
omy, and the city has the data to back
that up.
In his October newsletter, Mayor
John Turner touted several statis-
tics showing 2021 has been a year of
economic progress for Pendleton.
• Home values rose by 17% last
year compared to 4.5% in 2018-19.
The city expects values to rise 25%
in 2021-22.
• The city has recorded $9.9
million in commercial-industrial
permit values, already surpassing the
$8.9 million it garnered in 2020 and
the $5.7 million it calculated in 2019.
• The $164,601 the city collected
in business license revenue through
Sept. 1, 2021, already is more than it
collected in 2020 and approximately
equal to what it got in 2019.
• A survey of the 12 largest
employers in Pendleton showed there
were 500 vacant jobs among them.
• The Pendleton Unmanned Aerial
Systems Range is expected to bring
in $1.1 million in revenue by the end
of the fi scal year and has grown its
revenue year-over-year since gener-
ating $372,000 in 2016.
“Why did we choose these fi ve
things to measure?” he wrote.
“Mainly because we can get accurate
numbers for them without tasking the
city staff to spend hundreds of hours
searching for information. We think
we can get a decent snapshot of our
local economy if we measure these
fi ve areas and combine them with the
number of new housing units.”
In an interview, Turner provided
context for the signifi cant jump in
commercial industrial permit values,
attributing the rise to the Radisson
Hotel project at the Pendleton airport.
And while the newsletter didn’t list
housing permit numbers, he projected
optimism on the future of new hous-
ing in the city. The city has a goal of
issuing 50 new housing permits per
year, but Turner said between the
South Hill Commons and the West-
gate Apartments projects, he could
see the city issuing more than 200
permits in a year.
South Hill Commons is a 70-unit
affordable housing project on the
east side of South Hill backed by the
nonprofi t Horizon Project and funded
by the state. Publicly announced in
2018, Westgate Apartments is a
200-unit apartment complex proj-
ect from the Wilsonville-based I&E
Construction on Westgate, near Blue
Mountain Community College.
Business license growth was among
the statistics the city listed, but what
it will mean for the city’s economic
development fund is unknown.
Randy Severe, center, of Pendleton, discusses repairs to a saddle owned by Heith DeMoss of Hefl in, Louisi-
ana, on Sept. 9, 2014, at his saddle shop in Pendleton.
See Economy, Page A7
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Mr.
Round-Up is fi ghting for his
life.
Normally Randy Severe
spends his days at his saddle
shop on Airport Hill crafting
fi ne saddles for clients around
the world. Occasionally, he
relaxes by strumming an old
guitar he keeps in the rustic,
rawhide-scented workroom
or kibitzing with people who
drop by the shop, greeting each
newcomer with easy banter and
his trademark smile.
Severe Bros. Saddlery is
unnaturally quiet these days.
The saddlemaker is 200
miles away in a Portland hospi-
tal. According to family, Severe
started feeling ill just after the
Pendleton Round-Up which
ended on Sept. 18. One day,
he came home with a bottle of
cough syrup and said he was
tired. He seemed to have a hard
time catching his breath and he
went outside every so often for
fresh air.
“I think I caught some-
thing,” daughter Jodi Thac-
keray remembered him saying.
Seven days after symptoms
began, Rosemary noticed
her 69-year-old husband’s
breathing seemed rough and
ragged. Daughter Darla Phil-
lips whisked him to the hospi-
tal where a doctor determined
that Severe’s oxygen levels had
plummeted to 44% and that
he defi nitely had COVID-19.
That was the last time his wife
Rosemary and other family
members saw him for a while
because of hospital isolation
protocols.
After two weeks at St.
Anthony Hospital, it was time
for a ventilator. Severe was
loaded onto a helicopter for
a trip to Providence Medi-
cal Center in Portland. On the
way, high winds buff eted the
aircraft and forced the pilot to
land in The Dalles. The expe-
rience might be an apt meta-
phor for Severe’s life in the past
month. By mid-afternoon, he
lay sedated and intubated in
the Providence Intensive Care
Unit.
See Severe, Page A7
Pendleton
mayor touts
improving
economy
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Randy Severe poses alongside a 2019 Pendleton Round-Up trophy saddle, Aug. 2, 2019, at Severe Bros. Sad-
dlery in Pendleton. Severe, 69, a former Round-Up President, has COVID-19 and remains at a Portland hospital.
Prison workers sue Brown
over state vaccine mandate
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Five
state employees, four of
whom work at the Powder
River Correctional Facil-
ity in Baker City, have fi led
a lawsuit challenging Gov.
Kate Brown’s COVID-19
vaccination mandate.
Attorney Jon Jacob Conde
with the fi rm Stunz, Fonda,
Kiyuna, & Horton, LLP, in
Nyssa, fi led the lawsuit Oct.
20 in Baker County Circuit
Court on behalf of the correc-
tions workers.
In an Oct. 22 fi ling, Ellen
Rosenblum, Oregon attor-
ney general, said the case
is being transferred to U.S.
District Court in Pendleton.
The plaintiffs are Yeni
Arteaga, Shawn D. Delve,
James A. Klusmier and
Justin A. Phlaum, all of
whom work at Powder
River, and Kelcie Cathleen
Wiley, who works at the
Snake River Correctional
Institution in Ontario.
The plaintiff s contend the
governor’s mandate, which
she announced in August
and which took effect for
some public employees on
Oct. 18, violates both the
Everyone enter-
ing the Powder
River Correc-
tional Facility,
Baker City, in
2020 had to
have a tempera-
ture check and
answer question
about recent
contacts due to
the coronavirus
pandemic. Five
employees at
Oregon prisons,
including four
at Powder River,
fi led a lawsuit
Oct. 20, 2021,
seeking an in-
junction against
Gov. Kate
Brown’s vaccina-
tion mandate.
Oregon and U.S. constitu-
tions.
The plaintiff s are asking
a judge to issue an injunc-
tion barring the state from
enforcing the governor’s
mandate while the lawsuit
is pending.
Three of the plaintiffs
say they have previously
been infected with COVID-
19, and thus they have natu-
ral immunity even though
they’re not vaccinated.
The lawsuit is the latest
of several legal challenges to
Brown’s vaccine mandate.
See Lawsuit, Page A7
Debi Geddes/Powder River Correctional Facility, File