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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2022)
WeeKeND eDITION BMCC BASEBALL LOOKS TO REBOUND SPORTS, B1 E O AST 146th year, No. 45 REGONIAN February 5 – 6, 2022 WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021 $1.50 City preps for $7M street construction season By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian PeNDLeTON — The city of Pendleton is preparing for a massive street construction season in 2022. at a Tuesday, Feb. 1 city coun- cil meeting, Public Works Director bob Patterson explained how the city was able to raise more than $7 million to maintain and repair roads in Pendleton this summer. It’s a far cry from what Pendle- ton used to spend on street preser- vation. according to Patterson, the city spent an average of $270,000 from 1994 to 2015. In the ensuing years, the city instituted and then raised the street utility fee, the state raised its gas tax, increasing the share it distributed to cities, and the city continually banked its alloca- tion from the federal gas tax. Perhaps the most significant development was the council, acting as the Pendleton Develop- ment Commission, committed $10 million from the urban renewal district for urban renewal projects over multiple years. all of this activity is culminat- ing in the 2022 street construc- tions season, which will see the city commit $3.2 million from street fund and another $4 million from the urban renewal district. Patter- son said staff still are working on cost estimates for the street repairs, but city officials already are looking at Northwest Despain avenue, the Main Street bridge and North Main Street for possible repairs. The latter has long been on the city’s radar, but the residential street’s abnormally wide lanes have made repairs cost prohibitive in the past. Whether 2022’s repair season and the city’s past work to increase its rate of road maintenance is paying off won’t be known until at least 2023. The city has tradition- ally analyzed the overall pavement condition of its street system on a See Streets, Page A9 KATHY ANEY THE REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK Looking back at bloody Sunday F ifty years ago, brigit Farley learned about the death of a teenager named John “Jackie” Duddy. Duddy, a 17-year-old boxer from Northern Ireland, died Jan. 30, 1972, on what’s become known as bloody Sunday. Geneva McJunkin, brigit’s ninth grade teacher at Helen McCune Jr. High in Pend- leton, aware of Farley brigit’s Irish heritage, gave her a magazine with a story about the civil rights march-turned-massacre in Derry, Northern Ireland. a grainy photo showed Catholic priest edward Daly waving a white handkerchief as he escorted several men carry- ing the limp body of the teenager away from the fray. McJunkin noted that Duddy was close to Farley’s age. “you should learn about this,” McJunkin told her. So brigit did. She pored over the news reports and learned the names of the 13 boys and men killed that day by british para- troopers who fired upon the crowd. She saw a photo of Jackie, holding up his boxing gloves with a roguish grin. One of 15 siblings, he had attended the march with See Sunday, Page A9 Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian Hermiston High School senior Marcos Preciado, left, age 17, practices drawing blood from instructor Janci Sivey during an internship class Jan. 28, 2022, at the high school. Preciado and three other members of the class recently passed the national phlebotomy certification exam. Young blood workers Hermiston High students pass phlebotomy exam By ERICK PETERSON East Oregonian H er M ISTON — Marcos Preciado said he was feeling a little nervous on Friday, Jan. 28, as he was draw- ing blood from one of his teach- ers, Janci Sivey. This was not the first time he had done this, though. He and other students are taking a class from Sivey, and they draw her blood at least once a week, Sivey said, for practice. Preciado, along with Grace Vertrees, Lilly Chase and Karsen Graham on Jan. 21 took the National Health Career association exam for accredi- tation as certified phlebotomy technicians. all four students in Sivey’s internship class passed the test. Graham, 18, is a senior who said she wants to work for either the american red Cross or a phlebotomy lab. She said she sees this as a career path because she likes to help people. She said she can be a helper by becoming a phlebotomist. In the internship class, she and her classmates visit work- places. They also perform classwork and prepare for phle- botomy and medical assistance exams. It was in this class, Graham said, that she discov- ered phlebotomy. On June 4, she will take a test to be a medical assistant. Though excited about the exam, she said she already is looking beyond it. Her plans include going into the medical field after graduation, she said. Sivey said she is proud of her students, despite the occasional bruises she gets from them and their needle practice. This group of four phlebotomists were the first students to take and pass the exam in her class. She has other students who are planning to take the phlebotomy test in the spring. Sivey said these students will be qualified to obtain phle- botomy jobs — but only after graduating from high school. See Blood, Page A9 Moving on out Hermiston apartment complex offers buyouts to tenants willing to vacate ERICK PETERSON East Oregonian HerMISTON — resi- dents of a 46-unit apartment complex in Hermiston have to find new places to live. When the residents of Highland Manor apartments got home on Wednesday, Feb. 2, they found a letter posted on their doors. The letter from the new apartment owner, Clover Housing Group LLC, complimented residents for the way they have taken good care of the apartments. but there was more to the letter. “We will be vacating the apartment complex for remodeling and updating as soon as possible,” the letter states. “We know moving is difficult and we do apologize for this inconvenience.” The letter offers $2,000 payments to help with moving and the expenses. If they could vacate by March 1, one month after the letter’s date, they would receive the payout, plus a full refund Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian of their security deposits, Vehicles sit in the parking lot of the 46-unit Highland Manor apartment complex Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Hermiston. Residents on Feb. 2 received notices to vacate by March 1 so See Moving, Page A9 the new owners can renovate the complex.