WEEKEND EDITION
DECEMBER 18-19, 2021
146th Year, No. 25
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PGG EYES THE END
Former ag cooperative aims to dissolve in mid-2022
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The end of an era is
coming to an end.
Pendleton Grain Growers announced
Thursday, Dec. 16, it had distributed more
than $12 million to its more than 1,000
members as it fully winds down operations.
PGG members who didn’t pick up a check in
person at the Dec. 15 meeting will get their
checks in the mail.
Members were paid in “patronage.”
PGG Board President Tim Hawkins
explained that before the grain cooperative
shut down most of its operations, a portion of
its proceeds were put into a patronage account
that was paid out to members on a revolv-
ing basis every 10-12 years. But instead of
members getting a cut of operational prof-
its, PGG was distributing money from the
co-op’s methodical sale of all its assets and
properties.
It’s been fi ve years since Pendleton Grain
Growers members voted to dissolve the
once-venerable co-op, but PGG remained in
operation as the organization looked to pay
back debts and fi nd buyers to fi ll in its vast
footprint.
According to “PGG — The Story of a
Cooperative,” a 1979 history by Virgil Rupp,
PGG was conceived on Dec. 21, 1929, by a
group of local farmers looking to address
cratering wheat prices brought about by the
Great Depression. PGG was offi cially incor-
porated the following year.
“The farmers had more faith and hope than
money, as they signed up 500,000 bushels of
production to take part in the new coopera-
tive,” Rupp wrote.
PGG turned a profi t in its fi rst year and
only grew from there.
At its height, the co-op had thousands
of members and not only offered services
in grain, seed, agronomy, energy and irri-
Sams
faces
‘huge
task’
List of challenges is
long for fi rst American
Indian director of
National Park Service
By CHRIS AADLAND
Underscore.news
and Indian Country Today
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The Pendleton Grain Growers logo sits illuminated Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, on the agricultural
cooperative’s former headquarters in Pendleton. PGG announced that morning it paid more
than $12 million to its more than 1,000 members as it heads to dissolution.
gation but also retail stores and vehicle
service centers. The PGG logo could be
found on buildings across Eastern Oregon
and was a sponsor and contributor to scores
of community organizations, businesses
and events.
But by 2016, the co-op found itself in a
much more precarious fi nancial situation.
PGG overstated its earnings in 2010 and
2011, and the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture temporarily suspended the co-op’s
warehouse license in 2012 because of
discrepancies in its audits. PGG ran in the
red in 2013 and 2014 and soon found itself
millions of dollars in debt.
By the time members voted to dissolve
the cooperative, Pendleton Grain Growers
already was in the process of selling off its
retail property and agronomy division. The
vote opened up the door for PGG to sell off
the rest of its divisions.
PGG sold its grain division to United
Grain Corp. and then swiftly sold many of
its non-Pendleton retail buildings to busi-
nesses and nonprofi ts. But some of PGG’s
most prominent Pendleton properties stayed
with PGG until the dominos began to fall in
2020 and 2021.
See PGG, Page A7
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The setting sun casts a warm glow across the former headquarters of Pendleton Grain Growers Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, in Pendleton. The
cooperative announced that day is has paid its debts, paid its members and is wrapping up operations.
WASHINGTON — Record
annual attendance numbers. Low
morale among employees. Billions
of dollars in maintenance needs.
Those are just some of the chal-
lenges Chuck Sams will have to
tackle as director of
the National Park
Service after offi-
cially taking leader-
ship in a swearing-in
ceremony Thursday,
Dec. 16.
Sams becomes the
Sams
fi rst Native American
to hold the position and the most recent
Indigenous person to hold a high-rank-
ing position in the federal government
since Joe Biden became president. His
boss will be Deb Haaland, Laguna
Pueblo, the Interior secretary and
fi rst Indigenous person to hold a cabi-
net-level position.
Sams’ background and citizen-
ship with the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reservation also
means some are optimistic he’ll work
to improve how the agency and its
hundreds of national parks, historic
sites, monuments and recreation
areas work with tribal nations and
incorporate their history and culture.
“Everyone should have access to
the outdoors no matter where they
live, how much money they have, or
what their background is,” Haaland
said in a press release announcing
the swearing in. “Chuck Sams under-
stands the importance of connecting
people to nature, and I am thrilled to
work with him as the Interior Depart-
ment works to make our national park
system accessible to all Americans.”
Kat Brigham, chair of the CTUIR
Board of Trustees, said Sams has a
big challenge tackling the needs of
the park service but she is hopeful
he also will prioritize improving the
agency’s work and coordination with
tribal nations and Indigenous people.
See Sams, Page A7
All aboard!
Christmas Express
unites locals to bring
food, toys to families
ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Volunteers
wrapped presents and packed
food boxes Wednesday, Dec.
15, at the Hermiston Commu-
nity Center, for the Christmas
Express.
Hermiston Police Chief Jason
Edmiston said the annual drive to
provide goods for needy families
gathered enough food, toys and
more to provide for 500 fami-
lies. Schools, social services and
churches were among the groups
that identifi ed the families. Each
food box weighed nearly 100
pounds and contained a turkey,
potatoes and onions.
The Hermiston Police Depart-
ment was the organizing group,
but the department’s chief was
not taking all the credit.
“Donations came from every-
where,” Edmiston said, and the
canned food donations from local
schools was “huge this year.”
Traditional donors included
the Walchli family (both sides
— John and Skip), the Troy Betz
family, the Alan Cleaver family,
Nickolas L. Oatley/Umatilla County Fire District No. 1
and several clubs — Rotary, Umatilla County Fire District No. 1 Chief Scott Stanton, center, volunteers Wednesday,
Kiwanis, Lions and Altrusa.
Dec. 15, 2021, with Richard Cearns, left, the division chief of emergency medical ser-
vices and training for the district, and his wife, Whitney Cearns, at the Christmas Ex-
See Express, Page A7 press in at the Hermiston Community Center.