LOCAL & STATE
TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2020
MARKET
Continued from Page 3A
If possible, customers are
asked to come alone (no chil-
dren or dogs).
Although these restrictions
do bring changes to the mar-
ket, Wijayratne encourages
the community to support the
businesses that depend on
the market.
“These local vendors are
small businesses,” Wijayratne
said. “With COVID, everyone
has taken a fi nancial hit. It’s
great we can provide a place
for them to operate. The only
way we can get through this
is to come together.”
New this year is the Double
Up Food Bucks program,
which matches EBT pur-
chases. Shoppers using an
EBT need to fi rst stop at the
market booth to get tokens
for the amount they want to
spend. The Double Up pro-
SCHOOLS
Continued from Page 3A
Witty credited Gill for the
work he has done to try to
prepare for the reopening,
but questioned whether those
in the governor’s offi ce are
willing to listen to the points
of view coming from the
school administrators and
staff represented by Findley
and Owens.
“Colt Gill has been working
at least 18 hours a day,” he
said. “He’s been working re-
ally hard to get structure and
strategy in place for some-
thing that hasn’t happened
in our lifetime.”
Nevertheless, Witty said
the districts banded together
with their legislative leaders
to emphasize to the Salem
bureaucrats the importance
of working within communi-
ties to fi nd solutions that are
best suited for their needs.
“Our sense is we need
to remind them that local
control is important and that
Eastern Oregon has a dif-
ferent situation than the I-5
corridor between Eugene and
gram doubles that amount.
Confi rmed vendors for this
season include:
• Jen’s Garden (fresh
greens and produce)
• My Roots Farm (straw-
berries, tomatoes, fresh
greens, squash)
• Aichele’s Berries (straw-
berries, raspberries, blackber-
ries, and blueberries)
• Hedge Farm (all fruits,
vegetables, jams, and sauces)
• Rockin 2 Ranch LLC
(USDA Beef, burgers, and
jerky, birdhouses, quilted
items, and handmade masks)
• Rising Phoenix Metal-
works/Celtic Cauldron (Kettle
Korn, jewelry, metal sculp-
ture, scarves, photography)
• Clear Creek Beef (USDA
Beef)
• Baker City Farmers Mar-
ket starts table (locals have
donated extra plant starts
to be sold by donation as a
market fundraiser)
Portland,” Witty said.
As of Sunday, just 37
people had tested positive
for coronavirus in the fi ve
counties Owens represents
in Oregon House District 60.
Malheur County accounted
for 32 of those. There had
been no deaths attributed to
the coronavirus in any of the
fi ve counties as of Sunday.
“Moving forward, we have
to have a more fi ne-tuned
tool toward local statistics,”
Witty said.
“We’re hopeful the gover-
nor will recognize that it’s
not advantageous to shut
everything down school-wise
and economically across the
state if the numbers don’t
support it.”
Witty said that as of late
he has seen a change in the
attitude of the high-level
school policy group regard-
ing recognizing the voices
of rural schools of Eastern
Oregon.
“We want a two-way con-
versation and to make sure
we’re looking at it with more
specifi city and not one size
fi ts all,” Witty said.
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
‘Freedom Rally’ brings
crowd to Hermiston
■ Event in defiance of COVID-19 guidelines prompts opposing protest
By Alex Castle
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — More than 100
people came out to the festival street
in downtown Hermiston on Saturday
in defi ance of COVID-19 guidelines
against large gatherings for a “free-
dom rally,” subsequently sparking a
protest in opposition elsewhere in the
city.
The rally was billed by organizers
as a peaceful and apolitical “infor-
mation sharing event” that would
feature about a dozen speakers from
across the state. Though organizers
said they felt the event could have
provided more detailed information
for its audience, the rally remained
peaceful despite concerns over poten-
tial confl ict.
“It could have been better. I didn’t
know exactly what every person
was going to talk about,” said Colin
Hodges, the event’s primary orga-
nizer. “I just thought, let’s bring in
as many different people as possible
from different positions in different
communities and let them speak and
see what happens.”
Community members and law en-
forcement expressed specifi c concerns
about the appearance of Joey Gibson,
who spoke fi rst Saturday and is the
founder of the far-right Vancouver,
Washington-based group Patriot
Prayer, but Hodges said he felt the
event ultimately wasn’t defi ned by
Gibson’s presence.
“As you can see it wasn’t all about
Joey Gibson, and Joey’s a great guy,”
Hodges said. “He’s a great, peace-
ful guy. He has a bad rap for some
things, but that’s because the media
spins things and portrays people
certain ways.”
Reports have detailed Gibson and
Patriot Prayer’s history of violent
clashes with leftist protestors, par-
ticularly in Portland, and previously
associated themselves with groups
like the Proud Boys, an extremist
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Ben Lonergan / East Oregonian
Rallygoers on Festival Street in downtown Hermiston during the
“Hermiston Freedom Rally” on Saturday.
After standing and watching a few
speakers from the back, Linn said he
found most of them interesting and
didn’t see any associations with white
supremacy.
“It doesn’t seem like a white su-
premacist rally to me,” he said.
Gibson was joined by local speak-
— Colin Hodges, primary organizer of
Saturday’s rally in Hermiston
ers like HollyJo Beers, the local lead
for the Three Percenters who is also
group that has been labeled a hate
running for Umatilla County com-
group by the Southern Poverty Law missioner. Beers didn’t use the rally
Center and whose members describe as an explicit campaigning event
themselves as “Western chauvinists.” but focused her time on the stage to
Gibson currently faces felony
discuss the Constitution and how
charges for inciting a riot for his role she believes current restrictions are
in a Portland street fi ght last May
threatening the freedoms secured
between Patriot Prayer members and within it.
members of the anti-fascist commu-
“We were pleased with the turnout
nity that resulted in a woman being and the people were dynamic speak-
knocked unconscious and sent to the ers,” Beers said after the rally. “None
hospital with an alleged vertebrae
of it was racist, none of it was non-
fracture.
inclusive.”
Joshua Linn is a teacher at Rocky
About three blocks away from the
Heights Elementary School in Herm- “Hermiston Freedom Rally,” a protest
iston and attended the beginning
labeled “Essential not Sacrifi cial”
of Saturday’s rally after he said a
started at the same time.
coworker texted him about its con-
See Rally/Page 6A
nections to white supremacist groups.
“I just thought, let’s bring in as
many different people as possible
from different positions in different
communities and let them speak
and see what happens.”
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