$1.50
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2022
146th Year, No. 85
JUL Y 6–13
, 202
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
INSIDE HERMISTON CAR CLUB HEATS UP WITH COOL RIDES
MORROW COUNTY WATER EMERGENCY
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WALLOW
A FIDDLE
PA GE 3
EOU gets
grant to
prepare
students
for college
PA GE 4
PA G E 8
PA GE 22
$1.2M will go
to funding rural
focused program
By ANDREW CUTLER
The Observer
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
Community organizer Ana Maria Rodriguez adjusts water fl ow June 24, 2022, at Sam Boardman Elementary in Boardman. Clean water was
made available at the school during Morrow County’s water emergency.
Boardman: Our water is safe
Local offi cials,
workers explain
the facts of
Morrow County’s
drinking water
FOR MORROW
COUNTY RESIDENTS
Anyone in Morrow County
who discovers high nitrate
levels should contact Morrow
County Public Health at 541-
481-4200 or email Ana Piney-
ro, Morrow County communi-
cable disease and emergency
preparedness coordinator, at
apineyro@co.morrow.or.us.
BY ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
B
believe mistruths that have been
popularized on social media.
OARDMAN — Board-
man is working to
ensure its residents
know they can drink
the city’s water as the
Port of Morrow deals with a $2.1
million state fi ne for excessively
spreading nitrogen-rich waste-
water as fertilizer on area farm-
land for years.
The city even posted this
message on a sign near city
hall: “The city’s water is safe to
drink.”
City Manager Karen Pettigrew
explained city of Boardman resi-
dents receive safe and dependable
water supplied from local aquifers
diff erent from their rural neighbors.
Facts from the source
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
A city sign on June 24, 2022, tells the public that Boardman’s water is
safe to drink.
“This isn’t a new issue for us,”
she said.
Pettigrew said she drink’s city
water and has done so for years
and does not fi lter the water she
receives from the tap.
Things were different, she
said, when she was living “in the
county.” Back then, she bought
and consumed bottled water.
Pettigrew said city water is on
a quarterly testing schedule. The
most recent test results are from
Jan. 20, she said, which show
nitrates at 4.77 parts per million.
According to the Oregon Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality,
nitrate levels above 10 ppm “may
present a serious health concern
for infants and pregnant or nurs-
ing women.”
Pettigrew said many people
do not know the facts about their
drinking water and some people
Over at Sam Boardman
Elementary, workers have been
fi lling up water containers from a
fi re hydrant. This water, sourced
from the city of Boardman, is safe
to drink, they said.
Zaira Sanchez, director of
community organizing for
Oregon Rural Action, was among
the helpers at the school.
“We’re here, ready to distrib-
ute water to the community for
people who have private wells,
who might have water contami-
nated by nitrates,” she said.
See Water, Page A7
Local students earn history honors
By ANTONIO ARREDONDO
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY — Two
local students earned top honors at
the National History Day virtual
conference, presenting projects
regarding the nation’s history.
The National Museum of Amer-
ican History honored McKenzie
Rose of Echo for her project, while
Helix’s MayaBella Texidor earned
the Outstanding Affi liate Award for
her documentary.
Rose and Texidor were part of the
half a million students who prepped
for the National History Day contest,
a program where students conduct
original research on a historical
topic and present it to judges.
See History, Page A7
MayaBella Texidor/Contributed Photo
MayaBella Texidor sits at Griswold High School, Helix, with her project
of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council meetings.
Texidor’s project earned the Outstanding Affi liate Award at the National
History Day competitions on June 18, 2022.
LA GRANDE — A program
to help recruit and retain rural
students at Eastern Oregon
University is getting a boost.
Oregon U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley announced
recently that roughly $1.2 million
in grant money will go to East-
ern to power a new program
called Achieving Careers for
Rural Oregon Student Success,
or ACROSS. The program’s goal
is to increase
out r e a ch t o
schools in the
region and
provide courses
that allow
st udents to
earn credits for
Brown
high school and
college at the
same time.
“Part of our
case is, we’re
‘Oregon’s Rural
University,’ this
is what we do,”
Ti m Seydel,
Seydel
Eastern’s vice
president for
university advancement, said.
“We’re primed to do this.”
Seydel said the ACROSS
program ideally could save
students up to a full year of
tuition and get students into the
workforce sooner.
“It’ll expedite their college
completion because they would
be able to come in as, essen-
tially, a sophomore if they do it
all,” he said. “And that can fast
track them into career pathways
within the workforce.”
Kathleen Brown, East-
ern’s associate director of early
college initiatives, told Oregon
Public Broadcasting the funding
will help the university hire two
college engagement specialists to
support the ACROSS program as
it gets off the ground. Brown said
she and the new hires will be able
to travel to schools throughout the
region to meet students in person
and talk to them about EOU.
“We have some obvious places
where we get students. We get
people from Pendleton. We get
people from La Grande High. We
get people from Baker,” Brown
said. “But there are some small
schools where they’ve reached
out to us, so, let’s go out there.”
EOU will begin implement-
ing the program in October, when
it can offi cially access the grant
money. But Brown told OPB that
the university is starting to do
some work in the meantime.
Par t of preparing the
ACROSS program will be
beefi ng up what Brown called
“pre-college success courses.”
She said that means increasing
both online and in-person dual-
credit off erings for rural high
school students.
Brown said the idea is to
provide off erings to help students
“not just take random dual cred-
its but be able to really focus and
see what they can do so they can
be successful here.” But Brown
said EOU is still in the process of
mapping out what exactly those
off erings will be.
See EOU, Page A7