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Tuesday, November 16, 2021
146th year, No. 13
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Local governments cautiously optimistic on infrastructure bill
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PeNdLeToN — With Congress
passing a $1 trillion infrastructure
bill the first week of November, the
oregon department of Transpor-
tation already is projecting to take
home $1.2 billion for transporta-
tion projects across the state. but
local officials are taking a wait-and-
see approach to figure out how that
money may trickle down to cities in
eastern oregon.
“This is good news,” Pendleton
Public Works director bob Patter-
son said.
but questions remain over how
and when rural communities will
see money from the bill.
Patterson said the city hoped the
bill would include money for a new
road connecting Highway 11 and
Highway 30 on the south Hill to open
up new land for housing. The appro-
priation didn’t make the cut, but the
city still is exploring funding options
for the road.
Funding a realignment of the
Interstate 84 exit 209 interchange
has been something of a white whale
for Pendleton city officials. The city
has applied for a grant from the u.s.
department of Transportation three
times and come up short each time.
The city is making a fourth
attempt at securing $24.4 million
through the grant, which was known
as buILd under the Trump admin-
istration and is known as raIse
now. Patterson said the city plans to
stay the course in obtaining money
for exit 209 through the grant rather
than through the infrastructure bill.
Yellowhawk clinic brings first
COVID-19 vaccines to children
Health care workers
and families remark
on pandemic’s toll as
children get their shots
See Bill, Page A9
State to test
for toxic
‘forever
chemicals’
City of Pendleton
is 1 of 17 sites for
PFas testing in
eastern oregon
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
M
IssIoN — Luka Worden sat
between her parents in the
waiting area at yellowhawk
Tribal Health Center, eager
to become one of the first
children vaccinated against
CovId-19 on the Confederated Tribes of
the umatilla Indian reservation.
at least 50 children ages 5 to 11 were
scheduled for the shot at the mass vaccina-
tion clinic on Saturday, Nov. 13 — the first
day tribal health officials offered vaccines
for youths.
“I wanna be safe and I don’t want to get
CovId and I want a lot of people to get the
vaccine so this will go away,” said Luka, a
10-year-old enrolled member of the Coeur
d’alene Tribe in Idaho.
Health care workers and families said
they were thrilled to see children vacci-
nated at the clinic, noting the day as yet
another milestone in the fight against the
ongoing pandemic.
“We’ve seen the outbreaks that do occur
in schools or buses,” said yellowhawk
Interim Chief Executive Officer Aaron
Hines. “I think this affords a level of protec-
tion for another age group.”
For Luka’s family, the day brought relief
after a difficult few months.
Luka’s mother, dara Williams Worden,
was the first family member to contract the
virus in august as the delta variant spread
rapidly on the reservation, infecting more
tribal members than any previous surge.
Worden struggled in isolation for days,
suffering from body aches, muscle cramps
and stomach pains.
by the time Luka contracted CovId-
19, the whole family was ill. Luka had
been trying to distance herself from her
mom. on the day she tested positive, Luka
went into her mother’s room and hugged
her. There was no use isolating anymore,
Worden said.
“It was scary for her, seeing mom like
that,” said Worden, an enrolled CTuIr
member.
Patterson said the city should know
by Thanksgiving if it locked down
the award.
but like every other city and
county in oregon, there are plenty
of other projects Pendleton could
fund with extra money from the
federal government. Patterson said
the city is waiting for word from the
health nurse and enrolled CTuIr member
who organized the clinic, said “a couple”
of her family members died from CovId-
19. she, too, tested positive during the delta
crisis and fell seriously ill. she’s vaccinated
but immunocompromised. If she hadn’t
gotten the shot, she likely would have been
hospitalized, she said.
bryan said her experiences have
empowered her to inform family members
and her community about the benefits of
CovId-19 vaccines. as a nurse, she
said it’s important to her to help keep the
community safe and protect tribal elders.
she said organizing the clinic was one way
she could help bring life back to normal on
the reservation.
“It makes me feel I have a responsi-
bility,” she said, adding: “I try to be that
vessel, most definitely.”
Thelma eagleheart, whose daughter
samarah got vaccinated at the clinic, said
she and her husband contracted CovId-19
in march 2020. For 17 days, she struggled
to breathe and eventually got pneumonia.
back then, the tribes didn’t have CovId-
19 tests. she was scared and didn’t know
what to think. she watched CNN in fear as
the world closed down.
more than a year-and-a-half later,
eagleheart said she still can’t sleep on her
back. she said feels a heaviness she didn’t
before, and when she falls ill, it’s grueling.
La GraNde — The state of
oregon plans to test 150 drinking
water systems across the state for
the presence of PFas, or per- and
poly-fluorinated substances.
PFas are a family of chemicals
that do not break down in the envi-
ronment or in human bodies. These
“forever chemicals” are linked to
cancer, reduced fertility in women
and delayed development in infants
and children, among other adverse
health effects. The chemicals have
been used since the 1940s and are
found in thousands of household and
commercial items, such as nonstick
pots and pans, waterproof clothing
and firefighting foam agents.
of those 150 sites to be tested, 17
are in eastern oregon, including 11
in umatilla County and two in union
County. baker, Grant, morrow and
Wallowa counties each have one test-
ing site.
“We took a look at all the small
public water systems, those that
serve fewer than 10,00 because the
big ones have already been sampled,
and we looked at places where there
might have been potential — and
I’m underlying potential — PFas
sources,” said Harry esteve, commu-
nication manager for the oregon
department of environmental Qual-
ity. “We overlaid those on the maps
of water systems and selected that
list of 150.”
The Northeastern oregon test-
ing sites include the cities of Irrigon,
Pendleton, milton-Freewater, elgin,
John day and Joseph. also among
the sites are the ash Grove cement
manufacturing site in baker City,
the amazon data center in Hermis-
ton and the sacajawea mobile Home
See Vaccines, Page A9
See PFAS, Page A9
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Luka Worden, 10, receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from regis-
tered nurse Adam White during a youth vaccine clinic Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021, at Yel-
lowhawk Tribal Health Center in Mission.
Worden was vaccinated, and although
she fell seriously ill, she said she believes it
would have been worse if she hadn’t gotten
the shot. In october, her father contracted
CovId-19. He was unvaccinated, Worden
said.
“I wish he had been,” Worden added.
He wanted to wait and see how well the
vaccines worked and what side effects there
might be, Worden said. He died at the age
of 67, she said.
Native Americans hit hardest by
pandemic
a robust and growing body of research
indicates the pandemic has disproportion-
ately affected Native Americans. Accord-
ing to the most recent data from the u.s.
Centers for disease Control and Preven-
tion, Native americans are more likely to
be hospitalized and die with CovId-19
than any other race or ethnicity in america.
The Confederated Tribes of the umatilla
Indian reservation largely has been
successful at curbing the spread of infec-
tion throughout the pandemic, which health
officials attribute to the tribes’ quick and
strict precautions. Yellowhawk health offi-
cials have reported 681 CovId-19 cases
and five deaths since the pandemic started,
according to data as of Nov. 8.
but that hasn’t stopped the pandemic
from touching the lives of tribal members
and health care workers alike.
summer bryan, a yellowhawk public
Warming stations face volunteer shortage
Hermiston station
delays opening,
Pendleton’s to offer
motel vouchers
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HermIsToN — a lack of volun-
teers may be a setback for a umatilla
County warming station, according
to one of the station’s volunteers and
board members.
brodie messenger of the Hermis-
ton Warming station, 1075 s. High-
way 395, Hermiston, said the facility
usually opens the monday before
Thanksgiving, which this year is Nov.
22, but only if the station can attract
CONTACT
INFORMATION
Anyone who would like to volun-
teer to the Hermiston Warming
Station can email hws1075@
gmail.com for more information.
enough volunteers. otherwise the
station’s opening will be postponed
until enough helpers sign on to serve.
messenger, one of eight board
members, said this year’s delay in
opening could be “a week or two,”
based on the current numbers. The
warming stations board plans to
determine the schedule at an upcom-
ing meeting.
See Warming, Page A9
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
Volunteer and board member Brodie Messenger stands at the door of the
Hermiston Warming Station on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021.