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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Stores:
According to a 2019 CNN
Business article, Dollar
General and Family Dollar
usually target low-income
areas across the population
density spectrum. Dollar
General especially focuses
on rural America: about three
in four Dollar General stores
are in towns with 20,000
people or fewer.
Although dollar stores
can bring new jobs and more
shopping choices, critics told
CNN the chains unfairly
compete with locally owned
retailers and grocers while
failing to offer essential
products like fresh produce.
Some cities, including
Birmingham, Alabama, and
Tulsa, Oklahoma, passed
laws restricting dollar store
growth.
In a response to a request
for an interview, Dollar
General spokesperson Emma
Hall touted the chain’s char-
itable eff orts and its focus on
convenience and aff ordabil-
ity when choosing new loca-
tions.
“We also take demo-
graphic trends, competitive
factors and traffi c patterns
into consideration,” she
wrote in an email. “We
know convenience is a major
factor in our customers’
shopping decisions as we
generally serve customers
within a 3-5 mile radius, or
10 minute drive. We further
strive to provide convenience
for customers who may not
have aff ordable nearby retail
option.These locations were a
great fi t for Dollar General.”
Family Dollar is owned by
Dollar Tree, another chain of
dollar stores that has loca-
tions in Pendleton and Herm-
iston.
A statement from Family
Dollar and Dollar Tree also
highlighted the stores’ chari-
table eff orts while adding its
stores work in concert with
local grocers and vendors
to help cover “food deserts”
where fresh produce and
protein are scarce. In some
areas, Family Dollar is pilot-
ing frozen meat and produce
sections.
“We understand deeply
the concerns of many
local officials regarding
the changing nature of our
shared communities across
the country, and — as part
of those communities — we
are always looking for ways
to help our neighborhoods be
healthier, stronger, and safer,”
the store states.
For all the national conten-
tion, Local business and
government offi cials aren’t
sounding the alarm.
Dave Meade, the manager
at Columbia Harvest Foods
in Umatilla, said he thinks
his store can find a niche
and co-exist with Dollar
General. Walmart is only a
few minutes away by car in
Hermiston, and it remains
Columbia Harvest Foods’
main competitor, Meade said.
“Walmart is still the
800-pound gorilla,” he said.
Some Heppner residents
were concerned enough
about Dollar General to
began circulating a peti-
tion before the store bought
any property in town. But
Heppner City Manager Kraig
Cutsforth said protests died
down as the store came to
fruition. In his view, Dollar
General is easy to work with
while providing jobs and
replacing a recreational vehi-
cle park that drew commu-
nity complaints.
Back in Pilot Rock, city
recorder Teri Bacus said the
only local retailer the dollar
stores might affect is the
Pilot Rock Market, the local
grocery store. Bacus said she
thinks the market still can
thrive by focusing on what
the dollar stores don’t have:
liquor and fresh meat.
Meade, Cutsforth and
Bacus all said they hoped
the dollar stores would allow
residents to spend more
money in the community
and spend less time shopping
in Pendleton, Hermiston or
elsewhere.
While the dollar stores are
in development, local busi-
ness has picked up. A new bar
called The Vault Tavern has
opened up in the old Archie’s
Restaurant space and a new
hunting store has opened
right next door on Main
Street. Bacus said Pilot Rock
is working on an economic
development plan with East-
ern Oregon Business Source
and expects all of these busi-
nesses to be a part of the revi-
talization eff ort.
Janelle Hampton and her
family bought the old school-
house several years ago and
are in the process of turning
it into a venue and gathering
space. She was the one who
sold the neighboring space to
Eyes North to make way for
Family Dollar.
Much in the same way
pioneers on the Oregon
Trail used the Pilot Rock
geological formation as a
landmark on their journey,
Hampton said the city of
Pilot Rock could use the
schoolhouse, local attrac-
tions and a couple of dollar
stores to bring in visitors
on their way to the Blue
Mountains or California.
“You need to have privacy
to make folks feel like they
can trust you and talk to
you,” he said.
The new depar tment
also will have upgraded
t e ch nolog y, i nclud i ng
radios, video cameras
and an automated finger-
printing system. A recent
overview study by a Port-
land-based outf it found
the city had some areas
where the police depart-
ment needed to improve
its com mu nications,
Boedigheimer said.
“It doesn’t make sense to
take a whole bunch of old
stuff to a brand new build-
ing,” he said.
Hall said the city has
preliminary plans for what
it will do with the basement
after the police leave. They
might convert the space into
an area to store records, she
said. That could allow more
space for something such as
a judge’s chamber or spaces
where attorneys can meet
with clients, she added.
“Police are good at
coping with their condi-
tions,” Boedigheimer said.
“But I think this will make
them content.”
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Kindergarten students from Rocky Heights Elementary School in Hermiston clutch their pumpkins Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021,
during a class trip to the Bellinger Farms pumpkin patch, Hermiston.
Pumpkins:
Continued from Page A1
Their great-grandmother,
Sue White, joined the chil-
dren on their fi eld trip, as did
their mother, Karisa White.
“We’re pretty darned
excited,” Sue White said.
She recounted times
recently when she would take
family walks with the girls.
“They would take a walk
around the block and say
‘GG, this looks like a good
house to trick-or-treat at.’ So,
yes, they are happy,” she said.
Karisa White agreed,
adding the girls were disap-
pointed last year. Two years
ago, they got to trick-or-treat
for the first time, walking
house to house. They loved
it, their mother said. Then,
when they could not repeat
this tradition the following
Roads:
Continued from Page A1
Simons said the city
provided the contractor
with an extension on 10th
Street, but the delays were
compounded when the
contractor decided to leave
town to work on projects in
other cities, leaving other
Pendleton street projects
without confl icts due to util-
ities unfi nished. The contrac-
tor eventually returned and
completed all the streets on
season due to the corona-
virus pandemic, they were
crestfallen.
As they love makeup
and costumes, Halloween is
suited to them, their mother
and great-grandmother said.
To finally be able to have
Halloween activities, such
as trick-or-treating, they
planned and the hayride
they did Oct. 28, they were
pleased.
This is the sort of expe-
rience Stephanie Wyant,
Rocky Heights Elementary
School principal, hoped the
young students could enjoy.
“We have worked very
hard to provide experiences
for our students in a year that
is not so typical with limita-
tions,” she said.
She expressed the impor-
tance of living with joy
and normalcy, despite the
pandemic. In sending her
students to fi eld trips, they
could live a more regular life.
In addition to having fun,
she said, students also could
incorporate the trip into
their academics. Older chil-
dren did science and math
on their trips, according to
the principal, learning about
agriculture by seeing grow-
ing things and practicing
measurements by measuring
pumpkins.
Wyant said other activi-
ties, such as costume parties
at the school, also add to the
children’s happiness.
“It’s something we’ve
done in the past and we are
glad to do it this year,” she
said.
Meanwhile, people at
Bellinger said they also are
pleased to help children get
some enjoyment out of the
season. Marleaux Scaggs,
the restaurant manager at
the Bellinger Farms Gour-
met Shoppe, was just one of
the happy people at the store.
Scaggs said she saw
around 60 or more school-
children each day visit the
shop for hayrides during
October. Some days, she
would see 90.
“Jack likes to give back
to the community, and that’s
how he does it,” she said,
referencing Jack Bellinger,
owner of the shop and farm.
The hayrides were free to
the children, Scaggs said.
She added the shop will
have more events. It will host
wine events the fi rst Thurs-
day of every month. It also
will have Christmas cookie
decorating activities and
photos with Santa photos as
it had in the past.
These activities are
important, and she is glad to
have them, Scaggs said.
its slate, Simons said, but its
workers didn’t fi nish until a
day or two after their targeted
September end date.
Downtown street recon-
struction projects were
covered financially by the
city’s urban renewal district,
and therefore used a diff erent
contractor for those projects.
But the downtown contrac-
tor ran into the same problem
as the contractor working
on Northwest 10th — shal-
low gas lines that required
action from Cascade. Again,
Simons said the downtown
contractor was provided
extensions but didn’t work
on other, confl ictless streets
during the works stoppage.
Streets that were supposed
to fi nish on Friday, Oct. 29,
are now scheduled to reopen
in mid-November. While
some cities will end their
construction season when
the weather gets cold, Simons
said the contractor will be
expected to work on every
day it’s dry enough to do
asphalt and concrete work.
Simons said the city is
considering assessing a
$500-per-day damages fee
on the contractors for not
finishing their work on
time without proper expla-
nation. In the long-term,
Simons said the city could
make its timeline language
in its street construction
contracts more stringent,
but it could also lead to
higher bids from contrac-
tors. The city also intends
to hold a follow-up conver-
sation with Cascade about
verifying gas line depths
before Pendleton starts
street construction projects.
Police:
Continued from Page A1
Two dispatchers work in
a small, dimly-lit room near
the entrance. They take 911,
business and utility calls,
which can be hectic when
the city experiences a power
outage like it did earlier this
month. Linda Hall, the city
manager, said it’s the oldest
dispatch center in Oregon.
“It kind of feels like
we’re dinosaurs,” Rebecca
Simmons, a dispatcher, said.
Boedigheimer and Hall
know these are not the opti-
mal conditions for public
safety work. But police offi -
cers, they said, are not ones to
complain — at least to them.
The new station, on a city-
owned lot across the street,
will be about 7,200 square
feet. It will have larger rooms
for conferences, report-tak-
ing, private interviews, train-
ing and evidence. It also will
have a public lobby, a larger
dispatch center for more
employees, and new offi ces
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Milton-Freewater Police Chief Doug Boedigheimer shows the cramped changing area his of-
fi cers have in the police station Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021, that operates in the basement of the
Milton-Freewater City Hall. The department is getting a new, larger building due to a $7.7
million bond voters passed in May.
and holding cells.
Hall said the plan also is to
have a “wellness room.” This
will allow police who worked
a night shift a place to rest
before they have to testify in
court, Hall said.
“They work long shifts,”
Hall said. “And they rotate
shifts. In very stressful
conditions, it will be so nice
for (police) to have a nice
break room space … Those
things that larger depart-
ments have taken for granted,
our men and women have not
had.”
Those facilities, they say,
ilders
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will provide a range of bene-
fi ts, the most valuable being
more space for offi cers to talk
comfortably with residents,
something Boedigheimer
noted is especially important
with growing distrust between
police and the public amid
national police scandals.
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or
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Baker City, Oregon
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