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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2022)
OFF PAGE ONE Saturday, February 5, 2022 Blood: Continued from Page A1 For now, they will gain addi- tional practice in class and through internships at Inter- path Laboratory Inc. and other health care providers. Chase said she is excited about this work. An 18-year- old senior, Chase said she plans on getting into the medical field by first becom- ing a medical assistant. Then she will go to college and medical school, she said. Sivey was instrumental in making these plans, Chase said, as she learned about phlebotomy from the teacher. Sivey created the opportunity to take the phlebotomy exam, and it worked out for Chase. The 120-question exam has a two-hour time limit. She said she passed the exam in about 30 minutes. Adding to her excitement, she said, is that members of her family are avid blood donors. Her grandmother and father, in particular, donate blood. Also, they have long communicated to her the importance of donating blood, Chase said. By doing blood work, she Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian Hermiston High School seniors Karsen Graham, left, Marcos Preciado, Lilly Chase and Grace Vertrees (not pictured) on Jan. 21, 2022, took the national certification exam to practice phle- botomy as a portion of their in school curriculum at the high school. Each student passed. said she hopes to make up for not being able to donate blood, herself. She said she has a hemoglobin deficiency that keeps her from being a donor. Also, she has heard of a national blood shortage. Through phlebotomy work, Sunday: Continued from Page A1 friends against the advice of his father. He was the first to die that day. While reading about Duddy and the march, Brigit realized two of the victims bore the name of McKin- ney, the same as her grand- mother who had lived about 20 miles from Derry in Moville. Farley learned that the 10,000 demonstrators had marched in opposition to the British government’s practice of imprisoning suspected Irish Republican Army members without trial. All the victims were Roman Catholic. Though the army reported some of the demonstrators carried nail bombs, guns and other weapons, Duddy and the other casualties were unarmed. Brigit felt stunned as she read about the killing of peaceful protesters. Now 64, Brigit, who lives in Pendleton, has visited Derry several times to walk the streets of the Bogside where the violence Kathy Aney/East Oregonian A mural in Derry, Northern Ireland, depicts Father Edward Daly escorting a group of men car- rying the limp body of Jackie Duddy during what’s become known as Bloody Sunday in 1972. happened. She stood on the sidewalks of Rossville Street and gazed at a mural depicting Duddy being carried past a British soldier as Father Daly waved his white handkerchief. She cried as she stared at another painting of the faces of the 14 victims united in martyr- dom (a 14th man died four months later of his injuries). Now a history professor at Washington State Univer- sity, Brigit teaches about Bloody Sunday in two of her classes. This year, when the Bloody Sunday Trust put out a call for reflections from members of the public about the massacre, Farley felt compelled to respond. She penned “Bloody Sunday — a view from Oregon.” In the essay, she described similar- ities of Bloody Sunday with the struggles of African Americans for basic civil rights in the United States. East Oregonian A9 she hopes to help with that, something also commu- nicated by her classmate, Preciado. Preciado, a 17-year-old senior, said he was thrilled about having passed his test. “I crammed a lot. I’m not going to lie,” he said. “Two days before, I was going through flash cards all the time after school. It was hard, but worth it.” Passing this exam helps him with a career he thinks he will like, he said. A self-described “hands-on” person, Preciado said he enjoys medicine because it involves working with people and doing things that are right in front of him. Also, he has family with health problems. His father and grandmother are among loved ones who have received life-saving care. Preciado said he wants to give back to the health care field that has given his family so much. “I have a need to help people in this field,” he said, adding he will go to college after high school. Also excited about her own future in this field, Vertrees said she has been enjoying Sivey’s class. As part of her studies, she has done an internship at Inter- path. At this workplace, she said, she got to watch profes- sionals in the field. She said she also got to practice drawing blood, processing samples and more. An 18-year-old senior, Vertrees said this work has prepared her for anything she should want to do in medi- cine. “I thought that this would get my foot in the door,” she said. Following high school, she said she wants to go to Blue Mountain Community College, transfer to a univer- sity, earn a bachelor’s degree in biology and then go to medical school. She said she wants to become a doctor, which she said is attainable because of her “good study techniques” and time-management skills. According to Vertrees, she feels prepared for her future. In the meantime, however, she has more immediate plans for her phlebotomy certificate once she receives it in the mail. “I’m going to frame it,” she said. Her classmates said they would do likewise with their own certificates. “Both African-Amer- icans and Northern Irish Catholics were systemat- ically denied basic civil rights enjoyed by their fellow citizens,” she wrote. “The Bloody Sunday marchers, like Martin Luther King followers, chose non-violence as their means of protesting this injustice, despite bans on public demonstrations. The Bloody Sunday victims paid for this with their lives, as did many African-Amer- icans before, during and after America’s own Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.” The committee welcomed Brigit’s reflec- tion. The essay would hang with others penned by people from around the world on a fence near the epicenter of Bloody Sunday and eventually be archived in the Museum of Free Derry. Last week as I, Brigit and another friend, Michele Grable, walked our dogs on the hill above Pendleton’s Community Park, Brig- it’s cellphone chimed. She looked at the screen and grinned. In the email was a photo of her essay hang- ing on a fence at the site of Bloody Sunday, sent by a WSU colleague’s brother who lives in Derry. “Wow,” she said, staring for a long moment and then stowing the phone in her pocket. Farley, who writes a monthly history column for the East Oregonian, ducked her head modestly as we prodded her to tell us about it. Brigit, as we have come to know, doesn’t do anything for recognition, but simply because it is the right thing to do or to edify those who need edification. When that happens, her Irish eyes are smiling. On Jan. 30, 2022, during a 45-minute Bloody Sunday memorial service in Derry called “Beyond the Silence,” two readers quoted from a selection of the letters and poems received from around the world. The recitations included the last line of Brigit’s reflection — “All honor and respect to them always.” ——— Kathy Aney is a reporter/ photographer for the East Oregonian. Moving: Continued from Page A1 Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian Cracks line the asphalt Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, along Northwest Despain Avenue in Pendleton. The city is con- sidering where to spend more than $7 million this year on street maintenance. Streets: Continued from Page A1 five-year cycle, with the last assessment done in 2018. There is no guarantee the money the city is spend- ing will go as far as it used to: Patterson said street construction costs have been rising rapidly, mean- ing contractors for crack seals, slurry seals and over- lays are offering higher bids for their services. “It’s intuitive,” he said. “Costs go up. Most of that cost is tied to oil and asphalt.” Over the course of his presentation, Patterson showed the council a series of figures and maps to demonstrate what the city had done in the past and what it planned to do in the future. Councilor Sally Brandsen asked Patterson if he could share those maps and other information on current and upcoming street projects on the city’s website. Patterson said the city could, but it was one of many tasks his department was working on. “You’re asking us to do over 7 million (dollars) in streets this year,” he said. “We don’t have time. That’s one of my biggest issues in doing that communication. That’s it’s own effort.” While the city has been able to raise its street fund- ing level significantly in less than a decade, it hasn’t been a glide path to smoother streets since 2015. Pendleton voters have twice rejected a gas tax that would have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars more for street funding. And the 2021 street construction season saw several road repair projects bleed into the fall due to construction delays. City officials attributed the longer construction times to shallow gas lines that delayed the project, which was further elongated after contractors used the down- time to work on street proj- ects in other cities. “as long as the apartment is reasonably clean.” Highland Manor, at 1205 W. Highland Ave., has 40 two-bedroom apartments, five one-bedroom apartments and one three-bedroom apart- ment. “At some time in the near future, we will be canceling tenancy for everyone at High- land apartments,” the letter continues. “Currently we are offering this assistance to help anyone willing to move voluntarily.” Isaac Pulido received the letter. A Highland Manor tenant since December 2020, he lives in an apartment with two beds and one bath, and he pays $630 per month in rent, he said. Pulido reported feeling “stressed out” by his situa- tion, as there are not many available places to live in Hermiston. Hermiston is a good place to live, he said, because it is close to his work at Amazon Web Services. The prospect of moving out of the area, perhaps to the Tri-Cities, does not thrill him, he said. He added, if he cannot find a new apartment in the area, he might have to move in with his parents and find another job elsewhere. Looking at this situa- tion, he said he is not just concerned about himself; he is worried for other Highland Manor residents. “Two-thousand dollars will cover most security deposits in this area and moving costs, but it won’t help with those families who Erick Peterson/East Oregonian Vehicles fill parking spaces Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, at Highland Manor apartments, Hermiston. Residents on Feb. 2 received buyout offers to move by March 1 so the new owners can reno- vate the complex. are in need of affordable hous- ing but don’t quite make the margin for low-income hous- ing,” he said. Another tenant, who would not identity herself, said she lived there for three years and also expressed worry for others. She said she knows of tenants who have lived at the apartments for more than 30 years. “There is nothing to rent here (in Hermiston),” she said. “We are all wondering what to do. I am beside myself as I am retired on fixed income and work three days at a little store just to afford my meds.” Mike Atkinson, owner of Clover Housing, said he sympathizes with his tenants, but he has big plans for the apartments. “They’re old apar t- ments,” he said. “They need a facelift.” Renovations include upgrades to heating, venti- lation and air conditioning, he said, and new carpeting. Atkinson said the apart- ments are far from condem- nable, even without the renovations. Still, he said, he was only able to find one insurance company to insure the apartments as they are now. He said his plan is to give people opportunities to leave. In an ideal situation, he said, all or most tenants would leave and then reno- vations would begin. Reno- vating an empty complex, he said, would be smoother and more cost-effective. Atkinson added he had no timetable on reopening the apartments following their renovation. Once he did open them, though, he said he intends to charge rents that are a bit below market value. “I understand that this is difficult for tenants,” Atkin- son said. “All I’m doing right now is taking the tempera- ture.” He added he is waiting to see the response from his tenants. It is possible, he said, they would “regroup” if the tenants decided to not leave the apartments. “On March 1, I’m going to look back and see how that was received by the tenants and what happened, and develop a plan at that time,” he said. Atkinson said he has purchased other apartments in town and renovated them and has done charity work in the community concern- ing housing. Last month, he opened one of his buildings to use as a daytime warming shelter for homeless people.
