WEEKEND EDITION
DEC. 31, 2021- JAN. 1, 2022
146th Year, No. 30
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
$1.50
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Lightning cracks June 30, 2021, over the fi elds north of Pendleton as a summer storm rolls through the region on
the heels of a record-breaking heat wave.
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams addresses guests and par-
ticipants Dec. 24, 2021, at the Annual Christmas Celebration Pow Wow
at the longhouse in Mission. The tribes held a celebration to honor
Sams at the event.
2021 YEAR IN REVIEW
Bailey’s Bill and
Chuck Sams highlight
non-COVID-19 list
East Oregonian
Antonio Sierra/East Oregonian, File
Bob Beltran checks into the Promise Inn, Pendleton, on
its fi rst night of operation on April 1, 2021. A grant funds
the operations at the transitional housing facility, in-
cluding paying for staff . Local volunteer organizations
that provide warming stations are struggling this No-
vember to fi nd enough volunteers to open on time.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
An electronic display registers 116 degrees on June 29,
2021, at Armand Larive Middle School in Hermiston as a
record-breaking heat wave enveloped the region.
Pendleton— The creation of
our top 10 lists for 2021 was a bit
simpler than in past years.
When it came time for report-
ers to submit their suggestions
for top stories of the year, the
East Oregonian newsroom was
diff erent from when the year
began. Some staff had moved
on to other endeavors by then,
and new members of the team
were getting up to speed.
With fewer lists than usual,
we looked back at EO front
pages as well as what readers
looked at online. Then like last
year we hashed out top 10 news
stories in two categories —
COVID-19 and non-COVID-19.
Here, then, are the top 10
stories the East Oregonian
reported on in 2021.
10) Local eff orts take on
homelessness
occurred to improve the lives of
people without a home.
The Community Action
Program of East Central Oregon
received a $1.3 million grant
from the Oregon Community
Foundation to purchase the
former motel The Whiskey Inn.
But by the end of March, the
35-room hotel at 205 S.E. Dorion
Ave. was reborn as a facility to
serve the unhoused, a fi rst of its
kind in Eastern Oregon.
The organization intended
to continue to run the Prom-
ise Inn like a motel, just with a
shifting focus away from tour-
ists and travelers and toward
the unhoused. She called the
new facility a good “fi rst bite”
at tackling the region’s home-
lessness issue, but leaders in
the community will need to
continue to address one of the
issue’s main roots: a lack of
aff ordable housing.
UMATILLA COUNTY —
Two major local developments
See Top 10, Page A7
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Seventeen-year-old Weston-McEwen senior Bai-
ley Munck testifi es remotely for Senate Bill 649,
known as Bailey’s Bill, which increases penalties
for criminal sexual contact with an underage vic-
tim when the defendant is the victim’s teacher.
Munck testifed from Pendleton on March 25, 2021.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
The Hermiston Bi-Mart pharmacy closed Oct. 26,
2021, and began transferring files to the Hermis-
ton Safeway pharmacy Oct. 27, according to Don
Leber, Bi-Mart vice president of marketing and
advertising.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton on May 10, 2021. The college has selected Mark
Browning as its next president.
A group including local offi cials and stakeholders pose for a photo at a groundbreaking
celebration Oct. 26, 2021, for the new Family Dollar location in Pilot Rock.
2021 YEAR IN REVIEW
COVID-19 surges again, Round-Up spike
East Oregonian
10) Mandates and
protests
PEN DLETON — Gov.
Kate Brown on Aug. 19 issued
an executive order mandating
COVID-19 vaccinations for state
employees, health care workers
and school staff . Locals made
their ire and concerns about the
mandate public at protests and
walkouts.
More than 150 people
attended an anti-mandate rally
Aug. 26 at Pendleton’s Roy
Raley Park. The protest drew
a multitude of voices, ranging
from those completely reject-
ing vaccines and masks to those
who were supportive of vaccines
but felt the governor’s orders to
either get the vaccine or lose their
jobs violated their rights.
Jared Uselman, the president
of the Pendleton Professional
Firefi ghters IAAF Local 2296,
said he was working on negoti-
ations with the state over vacci-
nation requirements when he
was blindsided by the governor’s
order.
“I don’t think that vaccina-
tion is wrong, I don’t oppose it by
any means,” Uselman said. “But
I do oppose people not having a
choice.”
Workers had until Oct. 18 to
get the shots or undergo frequent
testing to keep their jobs.
The morning of Oct. 19, a
group of health care workers at
St. Anthony Hospital walked
away from their jobs in protest
of the testing requirement. St.
Anthony reported placing 15
employees — or 4% of its more
than 370 employees — on unpaid
leave.
9) Schools reopen
in the spring
UMATILLA COUNTY —
While the surge of COVID-19
cases rose and fell throughout
the pandemic, a major beam of
hope was the reopening of public
schools.
See Surge, Page A3
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Students settle into Michael Bittorf’s Advanced
Placement English class at Pendleton High School
on March 31, 2021. Oregon lawmakers on June 3
signed off on a $9.3 billion budget to fund K-12
schools for the next two years.