WEEKEND EDITION
DECEMBER 4-5, 2021
146th Year, No. 19
$1.50
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
INSIDE
PENDLETON STREET WORK AT MERCY OF ASPHALT PLANT PAGE A3
Pendleton
road deal
circles back
to county
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A special Santa
Santa Claus makes his way through the crowd Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, during the city of Hermiston’s Christmas tree lighting event on Festival
Street in downtown Hermiston.
Former local mayor
lights Hermiston
Christmas tree despite
stage four cancer
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Santa Claus
beamed as he made his way
through the crowd Thursday,
Dec. 2, for Hermiston’s annual
Christmas tree lighting cere-
mony.
John Perkins, sporting his
own white beard and wearing a
traditional red suit, looked the
very image of a jolly old elf. But
he struggled to be there.
With the aid of a red-and-
white-striped cane, he took
the event stage. Santa fl ipped a
switch, the lights on the large
tree in the center of town began
to glow, and the crowd cheered.
Perkins, 70, might not turn
those lights on next season. He
has stage four pancreatic cancer.
Fulfi lling Christmas
duties
A f t e r re ceiv i ng more
applause, Father Christmas made
his way to a sleigh near the tree,
where a line of families waited.
He welcomed child after child,
hearing their Christmas wishes
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Santa Claus, also known as John Perkins, fl ips the switch on the city
of Hermiston’s Christmas tree Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, during a tree
lighting ceremony on Festival Street in downtown Hermiston.
and off ering them candy canes
and kind words.
One Hermiston family gave
testament to the magnetism of
this Santa. Alberto Munoz and
Marina Longoria said this was
the fi rst time their son, Tito, 3,
saw Santa in person, and they
liked this one.
“It was great, especially after
COVID,” Munoz said.
Like many other people in the
crowd, they were enjoying the
normalcy of a regular event. Last
year, the annual tree lighting was
broadcast for viewers online, not
in person.
Tito, a fan of the cartoon
“The Loud House,” told Santa
he hoped to get presents related
to the show, his parents said.
After seeing Santa, Tito said
he liked Santa and his white
beard.
Many more children had
similar positive experiences
with Saint Nick as they, too, met
him and discussed their Christ-
mas wish list. Santa contin-
ued to smile, but he soon grew
tired. Helped to his feet, he was
led gingerly to a seat in a nearby
church to rest. At 6:40 p.m., he
started his break. By the time he
was able to return, however, the
few people who remained had
left. Santa was free to go.
On his way out, he spoke
about his enjoyment of this cele-
bration.
The children made him laugh,
he said, and they caused him to
remember his own childhood.
One boy, Perkins said, asked for
a train, and Santa was not sure if
the youngster wanted a toy train
or a life-sized one. Either way,
he said, it made him think of his
own boyhood and the train his
parents gave him.
Perkins, who had met several
dozen children up to the point of
his break that night, said getting
tired was not ordinary for him. In
years past, when he had played
Santa, he had more endurance,
he added.
“I could go hours,” he said.
Not this time. Assisted by
another person, he walked care-
fully to his wife, who was waiting
for him in their car. Still smil-
ing, he wished children “Merry
Christmas” as he walked away.
See Santa, Page A7
PENDLETON — For the second time
in two months, the Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners voted to provide the city
of Pendleton $2 million to help build a new
road, this time with a written agreement to
back it up.
At a meeting Tuesday, Dec. 1, the
commissioners unanimously voted to
provide the seed money for a revolving
fund that would build a new road connect-
ing Highway 11 and Highway 30 on Pend-
leton’s South Hill. Pendleton city offi cials
anticipate the proposed road will lead to new
single-family housing developments on bare
land in the area.
“The building of homes will not only
increase the economy, it’s also going to
provide places for people to put kids in our
schools (and) shop locally,” Pendleton Mayor
John Turner told the commissioners at the
meeting. “It’s going to be a huge economic
booster to our community.”
Commissioners previously voted to
approve the deal on Nov. 10, but without
making the accompanying document avail-
able at the meeting. At the time, George
Murdock, the board chair, explained the
written agreement wasn’t available because
county counsel Doug Olsen was out of the
offi ce. Commissioner Dan Dorran said he
supported the project but couldn’t vote for
it without seeing the document, but the vote
still passed 2-1.
Olsen’s absence, however, didn’t prevent
Murdock from providing information about
the agreement just one day before that meet-
ing in his “Weekly Public Offi cials Update,”
an email he sends to certain people. But none
of what Murdock explained in the email
about the deal was available to the public on
the county board’s online meeting agenda.
But with the contract publicly available at
the Dec. 1 meeting, Dorran joined Murdock
and Commissioner John Shafer in approv-
ing the deal. In an interview, Murdock said
the fi rst time they voted on it as a “concept”
and the second time they were approving
the actual deal.
Murdock during the Nov. 10 meeting,
however, did not describe the deal as a
“concept,” and neither Shafer nor Dorran
appeared to have details about the deal at
that time.
The $2 million sent to Pendleton is not a
straight-up grant, but instead structured as a
revolving fund, meaning the city is expected
to reinvest money back into the fund after
withdrawing from it. City offi cials expect to
replenish the fund by creating a reimburse-
ment district where developers pay for the
cost of the street as they start building houses.
The $2 million is coming out of the coun-
ty’s general fund, the fund the county uses to
pay for a signifi cant amount of the county’s
payroll and services. For the 2021-22 fi scal
year, the general fund budget was $36.5
million, with $3 million unappropriated.
See Road, Page A7
Marigold appeals to council to keep business license
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Pendleton
City Council will become a jury for
a day to decide the fate of The Mari-
gold Hotel.
Following a shooting at the 105
S.E. Court Ave. hotel, the city sent
Marigold owner Shivam Patel a letter
notifying him it would suspend and
then revoke his business license. In
accordance with city law, Patel is
appealing staff ’s decision to the city
council at its Tuesday, Dec. 7 meet-
ing.
In the Nov. 15 letter from the city
to Patel, Finance Director Linda
Carter wrote the city intended to
suspend and revoke his license after
the Nov. 9 shooting.
“Additionally, there is record of
considerable activity at your hotel
which violates law and you have
previously been notifi ed by the Pend-
leton Police Department of those
conditions at that property,” she
wrote. “In July of 2021, you entered
into an agreement with the Pendle-
ton police chief to operate this busi-
ness in compliance with the law and
with special conditions designed
to prevent criminal activity on the
premises. You have not complied
with the terms of that agreement.”
In an interview after the city
suspended Marigold’s license, Pend-
leton Police Chief Chuck Byram said
the hotel had established a pattern
of attracting criminal activity and
the business’ management was
“complicit in said criminal activity.”
See Marigold, Page A7
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A police car on Nov. 9, 2021, blocks access to Southeast First Street in front of The
Marigold Hotel in downtown Pendleton following a shooting at the hotel. After
the city suspended the hotel’s business license late last month, the hotel plans to
appeal the decision to city council at its Tuesday, Dec. 7, meeting.