REGION
Thursday, March 24, 2022
East Oregonian
A3
More than $1.5M in federal funds headed to Oregon
East Oregonian
WASHINGTON, D.C.
— Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff
Merkley and Ron Wyden
on Tuesday, March 22,
announced more than $1.5
million in Federal Emergency
Management Agency funds is
headed to Oregon to help fund
the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
acquisition of fi ve properties
in the fl oodplain.
“I saw fi rsthand how the
fl ood in February 2020 was
devastating to the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation and
other residents in Umatilla
County,” Merkley said in a
press release. “I am pleased
that CTUIR will now have
the funding needed to safely
remove structures that were
damaged beyond repair by
East Oregonian, File
A property along Cayuse Road in rural Umatilla County is inaccessible Feb. 9, 2020, as fl ood-
waters had yet to subside. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is re-
ceiving more than $1.5 million in federal funds to help with the acquisition of fi ve properties
in the fl oodplain.
Giving senior center new purpose
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — A demo-
lition team worked quickly
this week on the interior of
Pendleton’s former senior
center in preparation for its
metamorphosis into a chil-
dren’s center, as child care
director Brittney Jackson and
architect Mark Seder looked
on.
Down came the ceiling
tiles, the framework that held
them in place and the old
insulation. Gone was a wall
between two small rooms
to create a larger preschool
room.
If all goes to plan, the
Pendleton Children’s Center
at 510 S.W. 10th St. will open
in September for preschool-
age children. Fundrais-
ing will continue to pay for
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Nicolas Altamirano, of Pursuit Construction of Salem, re-
moves a framework that once held ceiling panels in place
on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, at the former Pendleton senior
center, 510 S.W. 10th St., site of the future Pendleton Chil-
dren’s Center.
further renovations, includ-
ing a new playground.
Kathryn Brown, secre-
tary-treasurer of the nonprof-
it’s board, said the group
received $98,000 in local
donations since the board
formed in 2019. In addi-
tion, grants from the Oregon
Community Foundation, the
Niemeyer Foundation and
the Walmart Foundation total
$260,785. The senior center
building, worth $300,000 also
came as a donation.
Biggest donors include
$20,000 from Hill Meat Co.,
$20,000 from Rodney Parker
of Pioneer Title, $10,000 from
an anonymous medical prac-
tice and $10,000 from CHI St.
Anthony Hospital.
“Our second phase will
be to acquire the adjacent
building and to renovate the
top fl oor,” Brown said, “so
that we can expand our child
care center to have capacity
for 150 infants, toddlers and
preschoolers.”
———
Editor’s Note: Kathryn
Brown is the vice president
of the EO Media Group,
the parent company of the
East Oregonian.
Burning weed pile ignites garage
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
the raging fl oodwaters. This
clean-up is an important
step in the tribe’s remarkable
eff orts to restore fl oodplains
and protect water quality. I
look forward to continuing
to work with Oregon’s sover-
eign tribal nations to ensure
they have the resources their
communities need to thrive.”
“The impact of the Febru-
ary 2020 floods in Eastern
Oregon was painfully clear in
the faces of the community I
met with at the Red Cross shel-
ter and the emergency oper-
ations center,” Wyden said
in the release. “The destruc-
tion landed especially hard
on the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation. And I’m glad to have
teamed up with tribal offi cials
to secure these federal emer-
gency funds for this cleanup
and property acquisitions that
are essential steps in the road
to economic recovery.”
The grant comes to a total
of $1,524,951.53 to help fund
the acquisition of every struc-
ture on five properties in
the fl oodplain as well as the
required assessments, studies
and environmental historic
preservation review necessary
to demolish and/or restore the
properties in the fl oodplain.
“This will help Umatilla
Indian Reservation residents
recover from the February
2020 flood of the Umatilla
River that was so devastat-
ing to so many homes and
so much property,” said Kat
Brigham, chair of the Board
of Trustees of the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. We are
extremely grateful to Senator
Merkley and Senator Wyden
for their support.”
Pendleton company
gets federal help with
power storage studies
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — A new
Pendleton-based energy
company is receiving federal
assistance on electrical
power storage.
Coyote Steals Fire Energy
Group of Pendleton fi led its
articles of incorporation with
the state in July 2021. The
U.S. Department of Energy
on March 15 announced
Coyote Steals Fire was one of
14 organizations nationwide
to successfully apply for such
aid under the Energy Storage
for Social Equity Initiative.
Patrick Mills, project
manager at CSF Energy
Group, said staff at U.S.
national laboratories will
provide the company with
technical assistance with the
storage portion of its work
with its partners, the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. He said
the company is in discus-
sions with the CTUIR Board
of Trustees “as how best to
generate, store and distrib-
ute energy to reservation
communities.”
Jiselle Halfmoon, interim
communications director for
the tribes, said CSF Energy
Group is a separate, indepen-
dent company that Donald
Williams, an enrolled tribal
member, founded.
The Department of
Energy launched the Energy
Storage for Social Equity
Initiative in September 2021
to support power storage in
underserved communities to
increase resilience and long-
term affordability of their
energy supply.
Pacif ic Nor t hwest
National Laboratory of
Richland, Washington, and
Sandia National Labora-
tory of Albuquerque, New
Mexico, will help the 14
groups assess their energy
challenges, evaluate solu-
tions and find partners to
meet their client communi-
ties’ goals.
Greg Koller, senior public
aff airs advisor at PNNL, said
the technical assistance team
will work closely alongside
Coyote Steals Fire to evalu-
ate needs, scope and feasibil-
ity of energy storage to meet
local energy goals.
“Pacif ic Nor thwest
National Laboratory will
conduct an equity and work-
force analysis for Coyote
Steals,” he said, and assis-
tance “may include system
and load analysis, energy
storage sizing and siting,
equity metrics, economic and
fi nancial analysis and util-
ity interconnection require-
ments.
“Our ES4SE Team is
scheduling meetings with the
selected participants over the
next few weeks to understand
their communities, energy
needs and project scopes,”
he added. “At this time it is
premature to specify what
PNNL will be providing for
CSF Energy and the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.”
Koller said Pacifi c North-
west National Laboratory is
working with the CTUIR
Board of Trustees’ process
in conjunction with Coyote
Steals Fire in developing the
project scope of work.
“The ES4SE techni-
cal phase ends at the end of
this calendar year,” he said,
“so we are anticipating the
technical assistance will be
provided by then.”
Mills previously procured
funding for and managed
two phases of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation geother-
mal resources assessment
and a 98 kilowatt grid-tied
solar array installation.
A Pendleton fi refi ghter sprays the remains of a garage off Southwest Tutuilla Creek Road, Pendleton, after a weed pile
fi re spread to the structure Tuesday, March 22, 2022. Property owner George Ogden said while the garage was a total
loss, no one was hurt and fi refi ghters kept the blaze from spreading to nearby structures, including his home. The heat
from the fi re, however, warped the paneling on the house.
3/25-3/31
Pendleton FNP fails probation, hands over license
East Oregonian
PEN DLETON — A
Pendleton resident surren-
dered her family nurse prac-
titioner license after failing
to follow requirements of
probation under the Oregon
Board of Nursing.
Shannon Blood gave
up her license voluntarily
earlier this year, according to
the nursing board’s Tuesday,
March 22, news release of
recent disciplinary actions.
According to the stip-
ulated order of voluntary
surrender, Blood received
her nurse practitioner license
on Oct. 1, 2013. On Sept. 24,
2020, the board received
information that Blood was
practicing outside the scope
as a family nurse practi-
tioner.
Blood wa s prov id-
ing mental health services
since September 2015 in her
private practice, according to
the order, including prescrib-
ing therapy and providing
continuing education cred-
its related to mental health.
The nursing board opened
an investigation and subse-
quently placed Blood on
two years of probation start-
ing May 19, 2021. Part of
that required her to check
in each month with her
“compliance monitor” and
complete five continuing
education courses within
the fi rst six months of proba-
tion. She failed to complete
the courses, according to
the order, and in October
stopped checking in.
The nursing board staff
sent Blood a letter and asked
her for an explanation of
her non-compliance. Blood
contacted the board staff
and explained she decided to
“take her career in a diff er-
ent direction and wished to
voluntarily surrender her
FNP license at that time.”
Blood signed the order to
give up her license on Jan. 31.
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