WEEKEND EDITION
Milton-Freewater decides on Parks & Recreation tax, A3
FeBRUARy 19 – 20, 2022
146th year, No. 51
$1.50
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
State could
be ‘masks
off’ by
March 20
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALeM — The first day of
spring could be a new beginning
in the COVID-19 pandemic, with
the likely lifting of indoor masking
mandates, a state report forecast on
Thursday, Feb. 17.
The drop in daily hospitaliza-
tions from the omicron wave of the
pandemic is accelerating and will
pass below 400 per day by March
20, according to the latest pandemic
forecast by the Oregon Health &
Science University.
Gov. Kate Brown on Feb. 7 said
she would lift the state’s indoor
masking mandate when hospitaliza-
tions fell below 400 or no later than
March 31. At the time, the OHSU
forecast put the hospitalization goal
at the far end of the timeline.
But the incredibly rapid rise of the
omicron variant to record numbers
of cases is now being matched by its
decline. Hospitalizations could go
below 100 per day by the first week
of May, the OHSU forecast showed.
The number of people with
COVID-19 in Oregon hospitals
dropped from the omicron wave
peak of 1,130 on Jan. 27 to 788 as
of Feb. 17.
“Oregonians are doing the right
thing, and it’s paying off,” said
Dr. Peter Graven, OHSU’s lead fore-
caster.
The OHSU report cautioned
Oregonians to not get ahead of
current public health recommenda-
tions. The new forecast date still is
more than a month away, not today.
“It will be important to keep it
up if we’re going to have a more
manageable impact on our health
system,” Graven said.
Dropping safeguards early could
slow the decline of omicron and
push the end of the mask mandate
closer to the March 31 date.
“This doesn’t mean that we’re out
of the woods,” Graven said. “The
number of cases are still signifi-
cantly higher than they have been
for most of the pandemic, but the
decline over the past week provides
relief for hospitals operating under
severe strain.”
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington
said on Feb. 17 he would order indoor
mask mandates dropped March 21,
a day after Oregon’s projected date.
Inslee said his order would include
schools.
New Mexico dropped indoor
mask mandates immediately on
Feb. 17. California announced plans
to move COVID-19 from pandemic
to endemic status, meaning it would
be handled as a major but manage-
able ongoing risk.
“We’re going to live with this,”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Mark Morgan, Hermiston assistant city manager, indicates infrastructure improvements on a map Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, at the
South Hermiston Industrial Park.
SHIP takes shape
Expansion adds
paved road, other
infrastructure to make
site shovel-ready
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
eRMISTON — Hermiston’s SHIP
is a lot like the Millennium Falcon
from Star Wars — it might not look
like much right now, but it’s got it
where it counts.
That was the gist Wednesday,
Feb. 16, from Hermiston Assis-
tant City Manager Mark Morgan, who
said the expansion of the South Hermiston
Industrial Park will mean a great deal to
Hermiston.
The $2 million expansion extended
paved road, water and sewer lines and
upgraded electrical power to the site west
of Highway 395 near the Walmart Distribu-
tion Center, making the park shovel-ready.
H
Parcels range from 1.5-20 acres, depending
on market demand.
Morgan said this is the kind of develop-
ment businesses are looking for when they
consider moving to Hermiston. They want
ground, lots of it, he said. Sometimes, they
even want land for their suppliers to locate
— and this land should include infrastruc-
ture.
“As a healthy economic region, we want
to make sure that we can accommodate
large-scale industrial development as well
as smaller stuff,” he said, and SHIP sets the
stage for such accommodation.
Early success
The city is holding a grand opening of
the expansion complete with ribbon cutting
March 4 at 12:15 p.m. at Cook Avenue off
Southeast 10th Street.
Though the SHIP expansion started with
a groundbreaking July 7, 2021, planning
for the project took place in 2017 and work
began in 2018.
Morgan pulled out a map of the area and
described the planning. He said the city had
taken notice of development in the area.
“Nothing gangbusters,” Morgan said of
the area, historically. “But it was starting
to fill up.”
The city, then, was looking for ways to
accommodate small light industrial-type
operations in the future, he said. Paving
Southeast 10th Street and bringing in utili-
ties creates access to the parcels within the
area.
SHIP already shows signs of success,
beginning with Meyer Distributing.
The distribution company purchased
40 acres on SHIP. Its warehouse, which
recently began operations with around 70
employees, takes up about a third of the total
Meyer property, Morgan said. Meyer plans
to expand in the future, eventually making
full use of the property.
Additionally, A-1 Industrial Hose and
Supply is building a 30,000-square foot
building at the park.
“They’re a good, local, small light indus-
trial business that has just been expanding
and expanding and expanding,” Morgan
said. “They don’t need 40 acres, but they
just need a couple of acres at a time. This
was kind of tailor made for an operation like
that.”
Creating employment diversity
Morgan said he envisions a future in
which several more businesses like A-1 set
up shop at the industrial park and help create
See SHIP, Page A9
‘Get out of your car’
Hermiston couple recounts their experience of
a hold up at gunpoint following bank robbery
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
See Masks, Page A9
HERMISTON — Amanda
West remembers Dec. 17, 2021, as
a day that started off well. She had
an office party, then closed shop
midday. The weather was nice, she
said, and she was feeling good.
After closing their business,
Columbia Orthodontics, she and
her husband, Jim West, went home
but returned to their office to toss
some cardboard in the trash. The
day would take a terrible turn for
them at that point.
They pulled up to the dumpster
at nearly 3 p.m. and were getting
out of their car when they saw a
man was parked nearby.
“He came out from the car,”
she said. “He came right up to the
hood of our car, and he pointed a
gun straight at us and said, ‘Get out
of your car.’”
Amanda West stated she and
her husband were taken aback,
confused by the situation. Herm-
iston, she said, is generally a safe
place, where things like this are
unexpected. The Wests have lived
in Hermiston for 10 years.
“It was surreal,” Jim West
added. “I couldn’t believe this was
happening.”
As the Wests attempted to make
sense of what was happening, the
man continued to demand they
leave their car.
Jim West, having never been in
this type of situation before, said
his instinct was to drive into the
man. Amanda West, too, said this
was something she wanted. What
kept them from running him over
was a safety mechanism in their
vehicle. Their 2019 Dodge Ram,
ironically, will stop automatically
when an object is in its way.
“Now, we know how to turn that
off, but we didn’t know at the time,”
Amanda West said.
As Jim West attempted to plow
forward, the suspect stepped
toward his side of the vehi-
cle. According to the Wests, the
gunman held his weapon to Jim
West’s head and said, “Don’t make
me shoot you.”
“I got out of my side of the car,
and I started screaming,” Amanda
West said.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Amanda and Jim West pose for a photo Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in front
of their business alongside the vehicle where they were held up at gun-
point exactly two months earlier in Hermiston.
She said there were people at
nearby businesses and school was
letting out.
As the man continued his
threats, the Wests heard the sirens
of emergency vehicles. Unknown
to them at the time, a nearby bank,
Umpqua Bank, 450 N. First St.,
Hermiston, had been robbed, and
police were on their way to the
bank.
The man kept shouting, “Why
don’t you get out of the car?”
Amanda West said.
That is when Jim West claimed
they had children in the backseat.
He also said he had tossed $15,000
in cash out of his vehicle in an
attempt to hide it.
People were starting to take
notice, the Wests said. The gunman
rushed to his own vehicle, Amanda
West said, and did something else
she did not expect.
“He put the gun up to his
head, like he was going to shoot
himself,” she said. “For some
reason, he didn’t.”
See Robbery, Page A9