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A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2020
Phase 2:
Continued from Page A1
counter, where a customer
must check out one at a time.
Balls and shoes are sanitized
inside and out after being
returned.
“I don’t know if it makes
people feel safer, but we
want to show that at least
we’re being proactive about
their safety,” Fields said of
the changes.
To accommodate those
changes, including time to
thoroughly clean each area
after a group leaves, the
bowling center has switched
from having customers walk
in and pay per game to requir-
ing people to reserve a lane
for an hourlong block. They
can play as many games in
that block as they would like,
and Fields said some people
are reserving lanes for three
or four hours at a time. He
recommended calling at least
24 hours in advance to make
sure there was a lane avail-
able at the desired time, par-
ticularly with only half the
lanes being used at once.
“We’re getting a lot of
calls from the Tri-Cities,”
he said. “I think we’re see-
ing some of what the golf
courses saw.”
Recreation centers aren’t
the only places opening back
up. On June 7, Hermiston
Church of the Nazarene had
in-person services for the
first time since the second
Sunday in March.
Pastor Eric Fritz said they
split the congregation into
two, asking people to regis-
ter on the church’s website
to attend the 8:30 a.m. and
10:30 a.m. time slots to help
keep people spread out in the
pews and give time for clean-
ing in between services.
Fritz said about 70% of
their usual attendees were
there in person, with oth-
ers watching the livestream
online.
“There was a feeling of
celebration, and they stayed
and talked forever outside
after we kicked them out,”
he said. “Everyone seemed
excited to be back together.”
He said the pandemic has
made his job the busiest it
has ever been the past few
months, as he has reached
out to each member of the
congregation individually
instead of being able to catch
up with people during Sun-
day services.
“It’s taken so much work
to make phone calls, to be on
social media, because every-
one does things differently,
so trying to get the word out
has been challenging,” he
said.
The church collected dia-
pers at its yearly “diaper
dash” earlier in the year for
parents who need them, but
since its office remains closed
for now, Fritz said people can
get them from TruCare Preg-
nancy Clinic, Made to Thrive
or Head Start.
Libraries are among insti-
tutions that faced closures
and layoffs as a result of
the pandemic, and as coun-
ties begin to enter Phase 2
of reopening plans, Hermis-
ton Public Library Director
Mark Rose said they don’t
have a reopening time sched-
uled for libraries at this point
in time.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
People bowl at Desert Lanes Family Fun Center in Hermiston
on Monday, June 8, 2020. The bowling alley is only using
alternate lanes and having customers make reservations
ahead of time.
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
John Carbage, president of the Hermiston Cultural Awareness Coalition, spoke to the crowd
gathered at Hermiston City Hall as part of the Black Lives Matter protest held Saturday,
June 6, 2020. Next to him is a shrine in remembrance of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd,
who were both killed by police in the United States in recent months.
BLM:
Continued from Page A1
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Rasna Som, 10, bowls a spare at Desert Lanes Family Fun
Center in Hermiston on Monday, June 8, 2020.
“We are going to continue
as a curbside pickup for now,
and I’m looking forward to
having people back in the
building, but I also want to
make sure we have all the
pieces in place,” Rose said.
The city’s parks and rec-
reation department, which
saw many of its facilities
closed this year, is allowed
to open some things back up
under Phase 2, including the
Hermiston Family Aquatic
Center.
Director Larry Fetter said
many of their lifeguards they
recruited in the spring have
since taken other jobs, so by
the time the recruit and train
sufficient staff, it will proba-
bly be about June 24 before
they open the aquatic center.
Like everything else, it
will look different this year.
Groups of up to 10 peo-
ple will be able to reserve
an hour and a half chunk of
time at the pool, with clean-
ings between sessions. In
the mornings each group
that arrives together will
be given a zone of the pool
that they must stay in, keep-
ing everyone far apart. In
the afternoons, groups will
be allowed to roam around
more, but must stay more
than 6 feet apart from any-
one not wearing a wristband
of the same color as the rest
of their party.
In the beginning, only
the competitive pool will
be open, and the multi-use
pool with water slides will
be off-limits. Fetter said as
they get a handle on things,
other areas of the pool, along
with swimming lessons, will
be added.
“This is how we will start
the season, but it’s not how
we will end it,” he said.
Concessions will be
closed, but staff are relaxing
rules on what food and drink
can be brought from home.
“We will not be opening
the locker rooms because of
the volume of cleaning that
would be required,” Fetter
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said, noting that two indi-
vidual changing rooms with
toilets will be available for
restroom use.
Fitness centers can reopen
under similar social distanc-
ing guidelines. In Hermiston,
Club 24 returned to 24-hour
gym access for its members
last week, according to font
desk employee Paige Ester-
bloom. Front desk hours are
also back to normal. Cur-
rently, the showers remain
closed.
Some businesses allowed
to reopen under Phase 1 are
still working on reopening
under their new rules. The
Union Club, a coffee by day,
bar by night establishment,
is set for a grand reopen-
ing on Friday, June 12, with
live music, a DJ, dinner and
dancing to celebrate their
relaunch.
———
Staff writer Nada Sewidan
contributed to this report.
sent to another state,” she
said.
Linton, who is black,
listed things that other
unarmed black Americans
have been doing while shot
and killed, including sleep-
ing, jogging and holding a
cellphone.
“We don’t want our
police
officers
being
trained to kill on sight,” she
said. “They should be able
to recognize a gun. Don’t
just pull up and start shoot-
ing and ask questions later
when I’m laying on the
ground dead.”
Patrick Temple read
a message on behalf of
Mitch Thompson, who
had wanted to speak at
the event but was unable
to attend. The message
explained Thompson’s rea-
sons why white Americans
should join the Black Lives
Matter movement as allies
and strive to listen to their
experiences.
He said the “black lives
matter” chant doesn’t mean
that all lives don’t mat-
ter, just as wearing pink
for breast cancer in Octo-
ber isn’t done to spite peo-
ple with other types of can-
cer. He said protests against
racism make some white
people uncomfortable, but
protest is how social prog-
ress, such as women getting
the right to vote, has always
been made in this country.
“It comes from a deep
place of privilege to think
that a crisis isn’t occurring
simply because it doesn’t
affect you,” he said.
Other speakers, such as
John Carbage, the presi-
dent of the Hermiston Cul-
tural Awareness Coali-
tion, encouraged people
to vote in every election
and to run for local office.
Vanessa Thomas, who
sang “Change is Going to
Come,” told listeners to
speak up and call people
out when they see racism in
their community.
While there wasn’t a vis-
ible police presence at Sat-
urday’s protest, Hermiston
Police Chief Jason Edmis-
ton posted a message to
Facebook on June 8 say-
ing he was glad that the
community’s protests over
the past week had stayed
peaceful.
He offered suggestions
of other ways they can
get involved with polic-
ing locally if they have
concerns.
He encouraged people to
attend meetings of the city
council, which approves
budgets and policy for the
police department, and
to attend the city’s quar-
terly public safety com-
mittee meetings for more
in-depth discussions about
the department. While ride-
alongs with officers have
temporarily halted due to
the pandemic, Edmiston
also encouraged people to
participate in those once
they start up again.
“At HPD, we believe in
transparency, accountabil-
ity and we actively seek out
employees who want to live
and raise families here,” he
said, noting the average
HPD officer has lived in the
region for 27 years.
According to Edmis-
ton, during the 2018-19 fis-
cal year they made 1,271
arrests and used force in
effecting those arrests 20
times, for a rate of 1.6%,
and engaged in eight
pursuits.
As she was leaving Sat-
urday’s event, Lucia Anto-
nio said she was glad she
had come out to support a
worthy cause. She said as
a little girl growing up in
West Richland, Washing-
ton, her family had been
the only people of color in
their neighborhood, and
she had been the only non-
white person in her kinder-
garten class.
“This is the beauty of
people coming together,”
she said of the protest.
“We’re leaving happy, with
full hearts.”