WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
SOME LOCAL BUSINESSES CAN SAY:
Service, hospitality industries
bounce back slightly under Phase 2
‘We’re Hiring’
By NADA SEWIDAN
STAFF WRITER
Hermiston and other Eastern Oregon
restaurants, bars and hotels said they are
happy to be back, with many reopening
their dining room fl oors, hiring additional
staff members and rehiring old ones too.
Service staff — cooks, dishwashers,
servers and bartenders — were among
the hardest-hit when the pandemic closed
down restaurants across the state, but now
“We’re Hiring” signs are popping up on
restaurant windows around Hermiston.
“We’re thrilled to have been able to
reopen our Bistro ... and our guests have
been excited about that, too,” Oxford
Hotel and Suites senior marketing man-
ager Lorealle Bishop said.
With counties moving into Phase 2
of reopening, the Oregon Employment
Department anticipates more jobs gained,
in both Oregon and Umatilla County,
after COVID-19 layoffs sent the econ-
omy reeling.
Projections Economist Felicia Bech-
toldt said the Oregon Employment
Department anticipates Umatilla County
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
will continue to gain jobs in industries
that were hardest hit, such as restaurants Growlers sit on the bar top at Nookie’s Restaurant and Brewery in Hermiston in May. The restaurant is one of several that has had to
and other businesses in the hospitality hire new staff after reopening.
industry.
“We anticipate the unemployment
“BUSINESS WISE,
to decline a bit and we anticipate some
WE ARE BUSY, BUSY,
jobs that were lost to be added back, in
particular leisure and hospitality,” Bech-
BUSY. WE’RE TRY-
toldt said. “That’s the quickest and largest
impact to gaining some of the jobs back.”
ING TO GET BACK
Currently, The Pheasant is looking to
TO AS NORMAL AS
hire a part-time bartender. General Man-
ager Deanne Jensen said their restaurant
WE CAN OR THE
has been busy since reopening, which
NEW NORM. WE
contributes to an increase in hiring to fi ll
the demand.
APPRECIATE
“Business wise, we are busy, busy,
busy,” Jensen said. “We’re trying to get
EVERYONE’S
back to as normal as we can or the new
BUSINESS AND
norm. We appreciate everyone’s business
and their support.”
THEIR SUPPORT.”
Jensen also added that she’s talked
Deanne Jensen, general manager of
to customers coming up from Tri Cit-
The Pheasant, is looking to hire a part
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
ies, which has helped contribute to busi-
time bartender
ness and the fl ow in the service industry A hiring sign taped to the front of Nookie’s restaurant in Hermiston in May is one of
many seen around town since restaurants reopened.
economy.
Although restaurants are reopen-
ing, not all of their pre-pandemic staff lenges, a few restaurants, including
Shari’s manager Becky Jones said the Hermiston location, the hotel is currently
are coming back. Some restaurant own- Shari’s in Hermiston and Prodigal Son newly reopened jobs are “defi nitely dif- hiring cooks, housekeepers, maintenance
ers said they could not rehire previ- Brewery & Pub in Pendleton, noted tran- ferent” than before the pandemic.
staff and front desk agents.
ous staff members for several reasons, sitions of employment and safety.
“The masks, we’re defi nitely not used
In May, Oregon was able to regain
mainly because some are either pursu-
Co-owner of Prodigal Son Brewery & to that,” she said. “The gloves, we’ve had 22,500 nonfarm payroll jobs, and one out
ing other avenues, or because the unem- Pub Tim Guenther said some are afraid of challenges, but we’re on board with it.”
of 10 jobs were recently added back that
ployment compensation seems more cer- serving the public and noted that service
Other hospitality businesses said they were cut in April, according to reporting
tain and safe than working in a restaurant staff are especially vulnerable because have not only rehired their old work- by the state. The unemployment rate state-
mid-pandemic.
they interact with a lot of customers force, but have added additional jobs on
See Hiring, Page A10
When it comes to employment chal- throughout their shift.
the payroll. In Oxford Hotel and Suites’
City council green-lights property purchase
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
The Hermiston City
Council unanimously voted
during their Monday, June
22 meeting to authorize
Hermiston City Manager
Byron Smith to fi nalize pur-
chase of two lots on the east
side of city hall.
The narrow lots contain
a strip of parking spaces
and the offi ces known
as the Lanham Building.
Smith told the council that
the negotiated price for the
property was $400,000, but
“if the appraisal comes in
differently we can renego-
tiate the price based on the
appraisal.”
If the purchase is com-
pleted, it would connect city
hall to a city-owned parking
lot further down the block,
creating a large block of
property stretching from the
INSIDE
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The Hermiston City Council voted unanimously to purchase two lots, one of which includes the Lanham Building, adjacent to
the city hall during their meeting on Monday, June 22, 2020.
festival street to Affordable
Family Eyewear. The city
is working on designs for a
new, larger city hall where
the current one stands, and
would use the Lanham prop-
erty to accommodate that
design and the necessary
parking.
“It really does help us,
even adjusting that exist-
ing lot, to add more space
to make it more effi cient,”
Smith said.
Monday’s council meet-
ing was at its fourth location
since the beginning of the
year, this time in the large
banquet hall at the Herm-
iston Community Center.
Pulse magazine illuminates eff orts
around the state to combat
COVID-19
Chairs were spread out six
feet apart, the microphone
was sanitized between users,
and three city councilors —
Roy Barron, Manuel Gutier-
rez and David McCarthy —
were wearing masks.
During the meeting, the
council made changes to the
city’s food truck ordinance
A3 COVID-19 spike in Umatilla
County tops 300 cases
and discussed the future of
its food truck pod.
Currently, mobile food
vendors in Hermiston city
limits can either join the pod
on the corner of Third Street
and Orchard Avenue, or can
apply for one of six mobile
food vendor licenses if any
of those six licenses is avail-
A6 Amazon Web Services do-
nates $520,000 to local food
pantries and other organizations
able for use. The council
added two new temporary
license options.
The fi rst is an event
license, that would allow
a food truck to set up for a
one-time event such as a
customer appreciation day
at a business. The other is
a “lunch truck” license that
would allow a food truck to
park at a construction site or
industrial work site between
the hours of 11 a.m. and
1 p.m.
In a work session prior
to the council’s regular
meeting, City Planner Clint
Spencer presented options
for continuation of the city’s
food truck pod, which is in
its second summer of oper-
ation. After its pilot pro-
gram in 2019, the council
had directed staff to come up
with recommendations for a
See Council, Page A10
A8 County commissioner race
saw east-west divide