REGION
Thursday, June 23, 2022
East Oregonian
A3
Gubernatorial candidate Johnson Dragon’s Gate
touts Eastern Oregon connections Brewery to host
after their talk, Drotzmann, an
optometrist, sent her frames
from some “secret stash some-
place,” she said.
“I now have extras made
up, and I have one of them
made into sunglasses,” she
said. “He couldn’t have given
me anything that I would have
welcomed more, because they
are impossible to fi nd.”
She said she was “over the
moon.”
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The
Eastern Oregon Economic
Summit brought some of
the state’s biggest political
fi gures to Hermiston, includ-
ing gubernatorial candidate
Betsy Johnson.
The unaffiliated candi-
date visited supporters Friday
morning, June 17, at The
Pheasant Blue Collar Bar &
Grill in Hermiston before
appearing at the summit.
“Eastern Oregon is not, for
me, just a stop on a political
campaign,” she said.
She was a member of the
Oregon House of Represen-
tatives from 2001 to 2005
and the Oregon Senate from
2005 to 2021. Johnson said she
comes to the region regularly
and has advocated for, and
produced for, the area a great
deal.
“Hill Meat (Co.) now has
bacon available in the Portland
metro market because I fl ew
the director of the Department
of Ag and the grocery industry
out and advocated for them to
have shelf space,” she said.
She added she has
promoted air service, includ-
ing drones, in Pendleton and
worked to support a partner-
ship between Blue Mountain
Community College and the
Pendleton Round-Up, which
trained veterinary assistants
and technicians. She said she
has brought other legislators
to the area to promote the
work of the Port of Morrow
and other activity in Eastern
Oregon.
She added she has stood
with Eastern Oregon legisla-
tors on their interests.
“I have had a real rela-
tionship with Easter n
Oregon,” she said.
Goals as governor and
getting on the ballot
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
Betsy Johnson, gubernatorial candidate, holds up frames Fri-
day, June 17, 2022, she said she has had for around 40 years.
She said David Drotzmann, Hermiston’s mayor and an optom-
etrist, gifted her with identical frames recently. Johnson was
at The Pheasant Blue Collar Bar & Grill to meet supporters.
Having flown into town,
she applauded recent improve-
ments to the Hermiston Munic-
ipal Airport, calling it “one of
the most beautiful” fi xed-base
operators.
“And It’s nice to come out
onto the ramp, and they know
Local connections
Johnson said she knows
Hermiston Mayor David Drot-
zmann, calling him “a great
American,” before sharing and
a “silly, little story.”
Johnson has made her large
“EASTERN OREGON IS NOT, FOR
ME, JUST A STOP ON A POLITICAL
CAMPAIGN.”
Betsy Johnson, Oregon gubernatorial candidate
who we are. We bought some
gas to help out the airport,”
she said.
She said she likes to
consider herself “a regular out
here.” Furthermore, she said,
“The town looks fabulous.”
She called it “clean,” “attrac-
tive” and “welcoming.”
“There seems to be a
sense of possibility here,”
Johnson said.
eyeglasses a symbol of her
gubernatorial campaign. The
frames, however, “are damned-
near impossible to fi nd.”
According to Johnson, she
spoke with the mayor, busi-
nesspeople, the school super-
intendent and other people a
month ago. During the conver-
sation, she said, she mentioned
her troubles fi nding eyeglass
frames to the mayor. Soon
Johnson he said she wants
to make more local contacts,
especially if elected governor,
so she could further help the
area and the entire state.
Oregon’s business inter-
ests, she said, need help.
She stated they need to be
protected from excessive
taxation and regulation.
“I’m talking to too many
Oregonians who are saying,
‘We can’t stay here. Permit-
ting is too diffi cult,’” she said.
Johnson added the state
needs to promote business,
keeping the momentum of
successes.
Johnson was at The Pheas-
ant in part to add signatures to
put her name on the Novem-
ber ballot.
She said she has until
mid-August to obtain roughly
25,000 signatures.
“We will get many more
than that,” she said.
A representative from
Johnson’s campaign stated
it collected more than 100
signatures in visits to Herm-
iston and Pendleton. Mean-
while, many more signatures
from other Oregonians were
inundating Johnson’s offi ce.
“We know we’re over
5,000. We’re not sure how
close we are to 10,000,” the
campaign representative said.
PENDLETON DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
Budget, street repair bids get the green light
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
Pendleton Development
Commission approved its
2022-23 budget at its meeting
Tuesday, June 21, as well as
bids for street reconstruction
projects. Then the Pendleton
City Council adopted changes
to the city’s street tree ordi-
nance.
Pendleton city councilors
also serve as the city’s devel-
opment commissioners.
The PDC adopted a budget
of almost $5.47 million,
including reserves, then
approved two bids for street
work.
One was for partial
widening and reconstruc-
tion of Southeast Byers
Avenue from Seventh Street
to Main Street. The other was
for work on Southeast Fourth
Street from Byers to Court
avenues. Humbert Asphalt
Inc. of Milton-Freewater, was
low bidder for both projects,
at just shy of $1.59 million.
Following the PDC meet-
ing, the city council held a
public hearing to consider
changes to Pendleton’s street
tree ordinance.
“The council approved
unanimously every item on
the agenda,” city manager
Robb Corbett reported.
The tree commission
recommended separating
the prohibited and discour-
aged tree list from the body of
the ordinance. The commis-
sion updated its list of trees
unsuitable for public rights
of way. It argued that updat-
ing the list of prohibited and
discouraged trees would be
easier if separate from the
ordinance.
Discussion of the city’s taxi
contract for transportation
services, plus its Dial-a-Ride
and Bus Route Contract, were
on the council agenda, too.
Elite Taxi Inc. and city fi nance
director Linda Carter have
negotiated a dial-a-ride rate
increase. The city planned to
cover the rate increase instead
of passing it on to riders.
renaissance faire
By EMRY DINMAN
Walla Walla Union-
Bulletin
MILTON-FREEWA-
TER — It might be a little
surprising that an estab-
lishment with a name like
Dragon’s Gate Brewery, the
Milton-Freewater business
specializing in Belgian-
style ales that has been open
for 10 years, hasn’t hosted a
renaissance faire.
Sat urday, June 25,
owners Jennifer and Adam
Gregory are going to
change that, with the fi rst of
what they hope will become
an annual aff air. Starting at
1 p.m. and running until
7:45 p.m., the free event at
the Gregorys’ farmhouse
brewery will play host to
knaves and nobles, with live
music, vendors, costumes
and demonstrations.
And, of course, there
will be a knight on horse-
back — Sir Nathan of the
Umapine Realm, to be
exact, Jennifer said in an
interview.
Entertainers include
members from Shakespeare
Walla Walla, who will be
reciting the bard’s works
throughout the day, belly-
dancers and people active
in the local Athena Cale-
donian Games. In addi-
tion, members of the local
chapter of the Society of
Creative Anachronism, an
international organization
devoted to researching and
recreating pre-17th century
skills, arts and culture, will
also be on site to put on
demonstrations and to raise
a large tent for the event.
There will also be a
number of vendors on
location with goods and
services including jewelry,
face painting and leather-
work. While Dragon’s Gate
will be supplying the beer,
wine and cider — as well as
their Harry Potter-inspired,
non-alcoholic “butterbeer”
— area food trucks will sell
smoked turkey legs, burgers
and lemonade, among other
options, Jennifer said.
While it is not necessary
in order to attend, guests
are encouraged to dress in
any fl avor of medieval or
fantasy costume they wish.
Costume weapons, includ-
ing swords, are allowed,
and a handful of people will
be monitoring the event to
ensure that guests are safe.
Firearms are not permitted.
No outside food or drink
will be permitted except
for water. Attendees are
welcome to bring their own
lawn chairs, although seat-
ing will be available for up
to 100 guests.
About Dragon’s Gate
Jennifer, who grew up in
the area, and her husband
Adam realized in the early
2000s that they wanted to
open a brewery back in the
Milton-Freewater-area.
Not wanting to go the
obvious route of naming the
business “the Milton-Free-
water Brewery,” and always
big admirers of medieval
and renaissance styles, the
word “Dragon” started to be
fl oated as a possible name
befi tting their future busi-
ness. Over beers one after-
noon, it came together:
Dragon’s Gate, symbolizing
both their love of the genre
and the gates holding back
all their themed beers and
characters of lore.
Many of those beers
are brewed with estate
grown hops and local
spring water, such as the
Arthurian Morgan Le Fey
wheat beer and Pendragon
Belgian Quad, or the Blood
of the Dragon blood orange
saison, Pixie Slayer Belgian
pale and The Green Man
IPA. The Dragon’s Gate
Brewery specializes in
Belgian-style ales, but also
off ers some more typical
American fare such as IPAs
and a porter.
The owners had long
wanted to host their own
renaissance faire on the
10-acre farm, which is also
home to a number of Frie-
sian horses, Jennifer said,
which they raise as hobby-
ists. They have previously
hosted a number of other
magical events, such as
Witches Tea and Harry
Potter-themed parties, the
latter of which they hope to
relaunch this fall.
But Saturday’s faire will
be the fi rst such event to
take place since the begin-
ning of the pandemic.
“We just want to
welcome everyone to dress
up and have a really good
time, or even if they just
want to people watch,”
Jennifer said. “I think with
the fi rst year it’s going to be
interesting, as far as seeing
what we can grow on.”
Former USFS offi ces under conversion to apartments
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
former U.S. Forest Service
building, 2601 S.W. Hailey
Ave., Pendleton, is under
conversion to a 33-unit apart-
ment complex.
The Pendleton Planning
Commission approved the
project in December 2019 for
Justin and Megan Pratt of the
Tri-Cities, doing business as
Hailey FSB. Justin Pratt told
the commission then why he
was pursuing the project at a
building that hadn’t been in
use since 2012.
“T here’s a pent-up
demand for apartments
here,” he said at the time.
“That’s one of the things we
saw when we were consid-
ering doing this. You go to a
website like apartments.com
and there’s 10 diff erent apart-
ment complexes and they all
say, ‘No vacancy.’”
Site foreman Leon Sauers
on Tuesday, June 21, was
unsure when the project will
be completed.
“I’ve worked for the Pratts
for six years,” Sauers said.
“Usually it’s fl ipping houses.
This is the biggest project
yet.”
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
From left, construction workers Leon Sauers, Terry Johnsen
and Joe Tenbusch work Tuesday, June 21, 2022, to convert
the former U.S. Forest Service building at 2601 S.W. Hailey
Ave., Pendleton, into an apartment complex.
LOCAL BRIEFING
Irrigon motorcyclist
injured in crash
near Pasco
PASCO — An Irrigon
motorcyclist was injured Tues-
day morning, June 21, in a
crash near Pasco that involved
a truck driver from Weston.
Washington State Patrol
reported Rodney Sackett, 64,
of Irrigon, was driving a 2008
Honda motorcycle east on
Highway 730 when he turned
onto westbound Highway 12
about 13 miles east of Pasco
and struck a Kenworth semi-
trailer.
Sackett was wearing a
helmet, according to WSP,
and an ambulance took him
to Kadlec Regional Medical
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Center, Richland.
The driver of the semi,
John Mattila, 55, of Weston,
was not injured.
Washington State Patrol
also reported charges are
pending against Sackett.
— EO Media Group
June 24 - 30
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