Hermiston herald., July 15, 2020, Image 1

WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
Watermelon season running late this year
Sales are just beginning, growers report, due to weather
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
The fi rst few Hermiston water-
melons are starting to hit the stands,
but watermelon season isn’t in full
swing yet.
“We’re starting very slowly,”
said Jack Bellinger of Bellinger
Farms.
Bellinger said on July 9 that they
had put a few watermelons out in
the Bellinger Farms store south of
Hermiston, but they weren’t ship-
ping them out quite yet. He said
that he had planted about a week
earlier than usual this year, but
some “questionable weather” had
slowed things down.
The wind storm that swept
through west Umatilla County and
north Morrow County on the last
day of May damaged watermelon
crops around Hermiston, including
some damage to Bellinger fi elds.
“I’ve never seen a wind storm
do that to a watermelon crop
before,” Bellinger said.
The weather wasn’t the only
interesting thing this spring —
farmers have also been having to
deal with the effects of COVID-19.
Bellinger said luckily between his
“core crew” of people who usually
“I THINK THE
CROP LOOKS
REALLY GOOD
SO FAR, IT’S JUST
BEEN SET BACK
A LITTLE BIT
FROM
NORMAL.”
Patrick Walchli, of
Walchli farms. Harvest is set to
start July 20, he said.
See Melons, Page A10
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Hermiston seedless watermelons sit in cartons outside of the Bellinger
Farms store on Highway 395 in Hermiston in 2019
UPDATES
Face
covering
rules
expanding
Face masks must be
worn outdoors when
social distancing is not
possible and private gath-
erings must be limited
to no more than 10 peo-
ple, Gov. Kate Brown
announced Monday, July
13.
The new rules to fi ght
the COVID-19 pandemic
go into effect Wednes-
day, July 15, expanding
the July 1 directive that
face masks be worn inside
public places.
In keeping with her
long-standing
policy,
Brown said that she was
relying on public coop-
eration rather than any
enforcement of the addi-
tional rules.
“I am not going to
set up the party police,”
Brown said.
State health offi cials
have said the growth of
virus cases in Oregon in
recent weeks has been
driven by clusters of
social gatherings, often
involving people who are
under 40 years of age.
Workplace outbreaks
are also a concern.
Brown
said
she
believed most Oregonians
were following the face
covering, social distanc-
ing and enhanced hygiene
efforts that health offi cials
advocate. She called those
who willingly ignore the
efforts “outliers.”
“We are at risk of
COVID-19 getting out
of control in Oregon,”
Brown said. “Each of us
needs to take immediate
action to slow the spread
of this disease.”
The Oregon Liquor
Control Commission will
continue to inspect busi-
nesses and can issue cita-
tions. Brown said she
did not know how many
citations resulted from
enforcement efforts over
the July 4 weekend, when
800 were inspected for
compliance.
The Oregon Occupa-
tional Safety and Health
Administration is investi-
gating nine bars that the
OLCC forwarded to the
agency over concerns of
noncompliance.
By Gary A. Warner, for
the Oregon Capital Bureau
INSIDE
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Felipe Olvera, left, bags orders as Emily Robles checks for the next order at C&D Drive-In in Boardman on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.
Saving local jobs
Paycheck Protection Program
helps businesses stay open
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Emily Robles fl ips an egg while preparing lunch orders at C&D Drive-In.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The C&D Drive-In in Boardman is one of several businesses in the region to
have received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
A3  City of Hermiston plans new
parks and trails in Hermiston
A7  Some restaurants volun-
tarily close or revert to take-out in
response to COVID-19 numbers
As the federal government
releases more information about
the Paycheck Protection Program,
the stimulus money for businesses
affected by COVID-19 is being
credited with helping save thou-
sands of jobs in Eastern Oregon.
Jennifer Leighton, owner of
C&D Drive-In in Boardman, said
the money the business got from
the PPP helped prevent her from
needing to lay off workers or cut
hours to make up for reduced rev-
enue when the diner had to go to
take-out only in the early days of
the pandemic.
“It helps us feel that we’re
going to be OK, that we’re going
to have that cushion to fall back
on,” she said.
On July 6, after several media
companies fi led lawsuits for infor-
mation on where the PPP money
was going, the Small Business
Administration released the names
of all businesses that had received
loans of more than $150,000. The
nonprofi t news organization Pro-
Publica organized the information
into a searchable database avail-
able to the public.
According to that database,
there were 65 companies with
A7  Good Shepherd Health Care
System experiments with
drive-thru COVID-19 testing
headquarters in the Hermiston
ZIP code that received at least
$150,000 from the Paycheck Pro-
tection Program. That list does
not include companies that have
sites in Hermiston but are head-
quartered somewhere else, such
as the Hermiston Herald’s parent
company EO Media Group, which
received a PPP loan to temporar-
ily reverse the 10% pay cut all
employees were given in March
due to lost advertising revenue
from COVID-19.
Some of the entries for the 65
companies in Hermiston’s ZIP
code did not list the numbers of
jobs preserved by the loan, but
those that did self-report a num-
ber added up to 1,574 jobs pro-
tected during the 60-day period of
the loan.
Four companies headquartered
in the Umatilla ZIP code received
loans of more than $150,000, add-
ing up to 102 jobs that those com-
panies reported they retained.
Boardman’s ZIP code turned up
nine results, adding up to 293 jobs
that the companies reported retain-
ing. Companies and nonprofi ts in
south Morrow County, including
Morrow County Grain Growers
in Lexington and Morrow County
See Jobs, Page A10
A9  Rep. Greg Smith discusses
special session in virtual town hall