WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
UPDATES
ELECTION DAY
IS TUESDAY
Oregon’s primary elec-
tion is next week on Tues-
day, May 19. If you are
a registered voter, you
should have received a bal-
lot by now.
Ballots can be mailed
without a stamp, but must
be received, not just post-
marked, by 8 p.m. on May
19 to be counted. You can
also drop off ballots until
that deadline at secure
drop boxes at:
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Dave Meade, the owner of Columbia Harvest Foods in Umatilla, updates a sign limiting shoppers to two packages of each variety of
meat available at the store. Shoppers are limited to no more than two packages per family of beef, pork, and chicken.
WHERE’S THE BEEF?
COVID-19 outbreaks
at meat packing
plants disrupt supply
By ANNIE FOWLER
FOR THE HERMISTON HERALD
hat’s for dinner? “It depends
on what’s available at the
local market” is going to be
the answer for a while.
Consumers of beef, chicken and pork
are being are being limited to how much
they can buy during their trip to the gro-
cery store, as processing plants have
been shut down or have limited staff
because of COVID-19 safety measures.
“This time of year, the 14 major
(beef) processing plants would do about
640,000 animals a week,” said Pat Mal-
lon, owner of Pat-N-Tam’s Beef in
Stanfi eld. “Last week, it was 420,000.
There’s a lot of cattle, but beef process-
ing is down a third.”
That has people reaching out to
privately owned businesses, such at
Mallon’s.
Mallon, who sells to local establish-
ments like the Broken Barrel in Stan-
fi eld, and Prodigal Son Brewery and
Pub in Pendleton, also does a brisk
W
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A sign limiting shoppers to two packages per family on freshly packaged pork, beef
and chicken hangs in the deli aisle at Columbia Harvest Foods in Umatilla on Monday
afternoon.
business selling to individuals. And,
they will deliver your order.
Mallon raises his own beef, and has it
processed through smaller U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture-inspected plants.
With the COVID-19 issues, plants are
running at less than 100%, and it’s tak-
ing longer than normal to fi ll orders.
“They are totally booked,” Mallon
said. “Right now, we are out of specifi c
cuts. We are selling more sides of beef,
and we have a burger and roast program,
which has 60 to 80 pounds of meat. We
are fi guring out ways to address our
See Beef, Page A10
• Hermiston City Hall, 180
NE Second St. in Hermiston
• Umatilla City Hall, 700
Sixth St. in Umatilla
• Stanfi eld City Hall, 160 S
Main St. in Stanfi eld
• Echo City Hall, 20
Bonanza St. in Echo
• Morrow Count Board-
man annex, 101 NW
Boardman Ave. in
Boardman
• Morrow County Irrigon
annex, 205 NE 3rd St. in
Irrigon
If you believe you should
have received a ballot but
did not, you can check on
your voter registration sta-
tus and the status of your
ballot by visiting www.ore-
gonvotes.gov and click-
ing on “My Vote,” or calling
1-866-673-8683. It is not
too late to request a new
ballot if yours was lost.
It is too late to regis-
ter to vote in this election,
but if you register now
through the website above
you can be eligible to vote
in the general election in
November. You can also
use the “My Vote” feature to
change your party affi lia-
tion or update your address
or other information at any
time.
Election results will be
posted online Tuesday eve-
ning on the Hermiston Her-
ald’s website at www.herm-
istonherald.com.
Business owners call
for lifting all COVID-19
restrictions in Hermiston
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
As the fi rst phase of
reopening businesses in
Oregon approaches on May
15, some Hermiston busi-
ness owners want to see
the government go much
farther.
They have coalesced
around a Facebook page
called “Reopen Hermis-
ton & Eastern Oregon.”
There, Hermiston-area res-
idents share YouTube vid-
eos that support putting an
end to social distancing —
some of which have since
been removed from social
media platforms that say
they spread false informa-
tion — and news stories
INSIDE
about business owners in
other parts of the country
that have defi ed shutdown
orders.
The group had more than
900 members as of Monday.
Members have been talking
about holding an in-per-
son rally in Hermiston in
defi ance of restrictions on
large gatherings, and Colin
Hodges, who runs the page,
said the date they are cur-
rently looking at is May 30.
“Where our heads are
really at with this thing, is
we’d like to see congrega-
tions come back, gatherings
come back,” Hodges said.
“Things like charity din-
ners, lifestyle events, the
fair and rodeo.”
Umatilla County has
submitted a reopening
plan to Gov. Kate Brown,
which county commission-
ers have agreed won’t hap-
pen without state approval.
That plan calls for allow-
ing businesses, such as
hair salons, to reopen with
social distancing require-
ments in place on May 15.
A second phase would open
up schools and allow gath-
erings of up to 50 people,
while the third phase would
allow gatherings of up to
250 people.
Brown has stated that
counties will only be able to
move on to the next phase
once they have shown a
steady decrease in COVID-
19 hospitalizations and
emergency room visits for
A3 Housing projects are moving
forward despite pandemic
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The Pheasant Bar and Grill is among a group of Hermiston businesses and residents pushing
to reopen the town.
respiratory illnesses over
14 days. She said the ban
on mass gatherings, such
as fairs and sporting events,
will stay in place until at
least September.
The idea behind a slow
A4 Senior citizens miss socializ-
ing after senior center closes
rollback of restrictions is
to keep cases from rising
to the point that hospital
resources are overwhelmed
and there are not enough
ventilators or ICU beds to
treat everyone who needs
A6 First phase of reopening
excludes aquatic centers
them, as has happened in
some parts of the country.
Fatality rates of the virus
have been higher in those
circumstances.
See Restrictions, Page A10
A7 The Riverside in Umatilla
removes adult entertainment
