OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, January 27, 2022
East Oregonian
Food:
Continued from Page A1
food trucks. Hunt, however,
said there will be more. In a
couple of weeks, food trucks
will be “trickling in,” he
said. In the coming months,
according to Hunt, the lot
will fill with eight trucks.
Vendors already are lining
up, he said. Mexican food,
Asian food, hamburgers and
more will all be available.
Clint Spencer, Herm-
iston planning director, is
among the city employees
who have been working on
this project. Spencer said the
city created eight individual
water, sewage and electrical
connections to handle trucks.
“It took longer to do the
work than we thought it
would, running through the
contractor,” Spencer said.
The contractor, accord-
ing to Spencer, did not have
time on his calendar to do
the work and have it ready
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Customers wait for their food Friday, Jan. 21, 2022, at the Hermiston Food Pod.
any earlier than its January
opening.
Hunt said a shortage of
food inspectors has delayed
the other vendors. Additional
food trucks would be oper-
ating now if they could have
received clearance, he said.
“The way this works is
that (vendors) turn in their
packet, they review it, it goes
to the fire department, every-
body reviews it to make sure
we’re safe,” Hunt said.
Hunt applauded his
neighboring food truck for
completing all the necessary
paperwork to open alongside
his. Dolores Amaya, owner
of El Salvadoreno No. 2, is
a veteran of the food truck
business. She said she started
her trucks in 2010. In addi-
tion to the truck she uses
in Hermiston, she operates
another in Boardman.
Amaya offers food from
her native El Salvador. Pupu-
sas, the national food of her
country, is a popular item at
her restaurant, she said. Also,
she sells tacos, tortas, burri-
tos and more. She said busi-
ness is good in Boardman
and she feels optimistic about
her location in Hermiston.
“I’m so happy to be here,”
she said.
By April, barring inclem-
ent weather, Hunt said he
expects to see the remain-
ing vendors pass require-
ments and move into spots
in the pod. Then, addi-
tional improvements will be
made, he said. Among those
improvements, according
to Hunt, will be a new 5- to
6-foot fence around the prop-
erty. He said he also wants to
bring in live music and have
local bands perform.
Hunt said he hopes to see
A7
a public restroom added to
the pod, though Spencer said
restrooms are not planned.
The portable toilet on the
property should suffice,
Spencer said, and there are
restrooms across the street in
the park.
Even without a regular
bathroom, Spencer said the
food pod is about serving the
residents of Hermiston.
“There’s so much inter-
est in food trucks in town,
and there aren’t a lot of good
places to put them,” he said.
“The city saw this as a way to
step up and help create, from
a survey standpoint, some-
thing that is really important
to citizens who have wanted
a permanent spot for food
trucks.”
Hunt said the food pod
will be a family location,
where a person can “bring
your kids and your grandpar-
ents, all at the same time.” He
expressed happiness about
the pod and its future.
Hunt said “I want this to
be Hermiston’s go-to spot.”
Statue:
Continued from Page A1
nearby that would honor the
legacy of the region’s tribes.
Schomburg also expressed
concern with what she saw
as flaws in the research done
by Miller and her students,
which Schomburg argued
helped to spur the debate
over the statue. Miller failed
to reach out to descendants
of Avard T. Fairbanks, who
originally sculpted the statue
of Marcus Whitman, Schom-
burg said.
“She would have had
primary resources on the
research that Fairbanks
referred to in creating the
statue of Marcus Whitman,”
Schomburg said.
In a brief interview, Miller
stated the public did not
have access to every piece
of research material her
students used in their project,
and also argued the research
project was not about the
artist, but the art.
Theresa Fairbanks-Har-
ris, descendant of the sculp-
tor who was an art history
lecturer and senior conser-
vator of paper for the Yale
Center for British Art, argued
against removing the statue.
Instead, she advocated for
including additional artwork
that could honor the legacy
of the region’s Indigenous
peoples.
“I’d prefer to see effort
being put into getting into
Indigenous peoples sculp-
ture opposed to tearing down
other sculpture. I mean, that’s
a much more joyful, inclusive
thing,” she said. “But this is
more like a crusade.”
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Velda Arnaud, center, president of the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce board of direc-
tors, sits at a table Jan. 18, 2022, during the chamber’s annual accountability forum. She
has apologized for her recent chamber newsletter column on the use of gender-neutral
pronouns.
Pronouns:
Continued from Page A1
pandemic. When she used
her column to talk about
pronouns, she said she was
critiquing from a different
perspective.
“This is going to sound
wrong, but I thought it was
just sort of the dumbing
down of things, like we don’t
have to have tests to graduate
from high school anymore,”
she said.
Arnaud said she didn’t
know why people used
gender-neutral pronouns
until after her column was
published and people she
knew began reaching out to
clarify what her position was.
When community members
started calling and email-
ing the Pendleton Chamber
of Commerce to criticize her
column, Arnaud said she
returned their emails and
calls to apologize.
A business instructor at
Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College in Pendleton,
Arnaud said she has spent
her career as an educator
teaching everyone regard-
less of whether they had a
“good past, horrible past (or
a) degrading past.”
BMCC President Mark
Browning weighed in on
Arnaud’s comments with a
post on the college’s Face-
book page.
“BMCC would like to
make it very clear that Dr.
Arnaud’s comments are hers
alone and are not represen-
tative of the college and its
values,” according to the
statement. “BMCC does
not condone Dr. Arnaud’s
comments, but instead strives
to provide a safe environment
for its students, employees
and community that is inclu-
sive of everyone.”
Arnaud said in hindsight,
her letter was a mistake.
CHAMBER PENDLETON VELDA
ARNAUD’S COLUMN IN THE
RECENT CHAMBER NEWSLETTER
Ostrich-like Behavior
A while back I was talking with someone on the phone,
and I stated that I was going to start “ostrich-like” behav-
ior. The other person thought that I said ostracizing-like
behaviors, and he said that surprised him.
Ostracism is a social behavior meant to exclude, reject,
or belittle someone else. It might include verbal assaults
or threats, and it is very harmful to the person at the
receiving end. The fairly new term micro-aggression is
one form of ostracism. Hopefully as you are reading this
you are also saying that doesn’t sound much like me.
No, I’m going to behave more like an ostrich: I will
be sticking my head in the sand until some sense of
sanity returns to the world. For example, I cannot use
“they” to refer to a singular person. While I completely
understand that some people are against he and she
pronouns, I worked too hard to learn English grammar
to just willy-nilly make changes. In junior high and
high school, I was put into every overflow course that
was taught by someone who did not know the subject
matter; hence, I graduated high school with honors
having never parsed a sentence, and I did not know a
noun from a verb. In community college, I was repeat-
edly told that I could not write. It took learning a foreign
language for me to figure out grammar.
Also, using “it” as a pronoun for a person is not some-
thing that I’m going to do. (Yes, I know all about Cousin
Itt,, and he was a womanizer.) It simply feels wrong to
call someone an “it” as though that person is some type
of thing. All of these crazy pronouns are stressing me
out, so I’ll just not use pronouns.
Ostriches do not actually bury their heads in the sand,
and when threatened they will fall down flat. I seem to
be getting really good at falling, even when not threat-
ened. Ostriches are skilled at using their strong legs to
defend themselves by kicking their opponents. While I
am not much of a runner, I do share another quality of
ostriches—They are very vocal. Yes, ostrich-like behavior
works for me.
There is much more chaos going on in the world, and
I’m not going to address it here. As for me, I am going to
keep my head down and hope for brighter days ahead.
As I was talking with a colleague a few days ago, she
said that I was out of touch with today’s jargon because
I referred to something as a sh## show. She said the
correct phrase was dumpster fire!
So, amid whatever dumpster fires you are extinguish-
ing (or fanning), I wish you a wonderful 2022. Please
continue to take some time for yourself and enjoy your
family and friends! Restoring sanity cannot come soon
enough!!
Happy New Year!
— Velda Arnaud, Chamber President
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COVID-19:
Continued from Page A1
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“If these events expect
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The 191st victim of the
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69-year-old woman who
tested positive on Dec. 6
and died Dec. 13 at Oregon
Health & Science University,
Portland. The 192nd victim is
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Greg Lehman, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, File
Emily Tillotson, left, Hannah Bartman, Marc Adams, Cia Cor-
tinas, Briana Spencer and Victoria Lidzbarski stand Aug. 19,
2021, near the statue of Christopher Columbus on the Walla
Walla County Courthouse lawn.
University professor Eric
Johnson called into ques-
tion the propriety of the arts
commission meeting, saying
a number of members had a
conflict of interest and should
be recused from any final
recommendation.
He argued that Hannah
Bartman, a member of the
arts commission, should
recuse herself due to her
membership in the advo-
cacy group We Belong Walla
Walla, which has previously
called for removal of the
statue of Christopher Colum-
bus at the county courthouse.
He also questioned
whet he r a not he r t wo
members of the commis-
sion who work at Whitman
College could be expected to
deliver an unbiased recom-
mendation due to the political
climate at the school.
The school has made
several steps over the years
to remove iconography and
names that some may find
offensive, he said, such as
changing the name of the
college newspaper from
The Pioneer to the Whitman
Wire, or changing the name
of the school’s mascot from
the Missionaries to the Blues.
“To oppose the removal
of the statue would risk
academic promotions and
scorn from fellow faculty
and students,” Johnson said.
“It is impossible for Whitman
College-employed members
of the arts commission to
be impartial, regarding the
Marcus Whitman statue,
as their livelihood may be
dependent upon the outcome
of that recommendation.”
However, none of those
factors legally constitute
conflict of interest or violate
state and city laws regarding
the appearance of fairness,
Chamberlain told the Walla
Walla Union-Bulletin.
She reiterated the arts
commission does not make
a final decision on the fate of
the statue, a power that rests
solely with the Walla Walla
City Council.
The arts commission
will meet again in March to
consider its recommendation
to the city council, though the
exact time and date will likely
not be set until the commis-
sion meets again Feb. 2.
Medical Center, Hermiston.
If asked for his thoughts,
Fiumara said he would advise
event planners to hold off on
their events for a month until
new cases slow. Fiumara said
he has seen modeling from
the Oregon Health Authority
that suggests the state may be
hitting its peak and could see
new cases start to drop in the
coming weeks.
Studies have shown
omicron to be a less deadly
variant than previous types
of COVID-19, and so far,
the county has yet to report
a cor responding spike
in deaths. And the East-
ern Oregon region also has
managed to keep a healthy
supply of hospital beds open.
But Fiuamra said he also
understands many people in
the county aren’t interested
in any more postponements.
There are no longer any state
prohibitions on large events
aside from the mask mandate,
and in some people’s view,
residents already had the
chance to get vaccinated and
now people should be free to
make their own decisions.
“People are kind of over
it,” he said.
For anyone who does
attend the First Citizens
Banquet, or any other large
indoor event, Fiumara
recommended wearing a
mask as much as possible. If
a potential attendee is feeling
any type of symptoms, even
if they’re mild, Fiumara said
they should stay home.
T he Fi r st Cit i ze n s
Banquet will mark the 65th
anniversary for the event.
Past banquets have been
held at the Wildhorse Resort
& Casino.
Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce CEO Cheri
Rosenberg did not return a
request for comment.
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