BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
Some residents still await unemployment benefi ts
By NADA SEWIDAN
STAFF WRITER
Four months since thou-
sands of Umatilla County
residents fi led for unemploy-
ment benefi ts as a result of
COVID-19, some say they
still haven’t received any
money, while others just
received months of unpro-
cessed payments as of last
week.
Renee Bousquet of Herm-
iston said she racked up
14 weeks of unprocessed
unemployment
weekly
claims before she received
a response from the Oregon
Employment Department.
Bousquet said week after
week she fi lled out the paper-
work that was sent to her, and
week after week, they kept
sending the same paperwork
for her to mail back. She
said it wasn’t until she faxed
the paperwork with a cover
note attached to it explaining
how long it has been since
she’s heard back, that they
responded.
“It took 14 weeks of no
information, no one can tell
me anything,” she said.
Shortly after, the unem-
ployment offi ce got in con-
tact with her, and once they
received the missing infor-
mation of why she was let
go during the start of the
pandemic, they were able to
deposit unemployment com-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
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.
pensation for 11 out of the 14
unprocessed weeks.
“It took a long time for (the
unemployment department)
to get their stuff together, but
they are getting it together,”
she said. “At least, it worked
for me.”
According to data from
the unemployment offi ce, as
of July 21, a total of 513,300
claims received between
March 15 and July 11 were
processed in the state of Ore-
gon, and approximately 99%
of claims to date have been
processed. This is compared
to data from May 23, when
only 61,000 applications
were processed and out of
those submitted, about 43%
had been paid.
Bousquet
said
that
although she received her
unemployment benefi ts, she
knows multiple people who
are still waiting on theirs.
Travis Hamman of Pend-
leton is one of those people.
Hamman applied for
unemployment toward the
end of March and has still
not received his unemploy-
ment benefi ts, which is nine
weeks of benefi ts for a total
of $8,000.
He said as time goes
on, his need for that unem-
ployment
compensation
increases. Hamman said his
truck, which he needs to con-
duct his business, is at risk of
getting repossessed.
“I just received an email
from reliable credit who
fi nanced my truck stat-
ing if I didn’t pay them the
$1,700 owed to them within
7 days they will repossess my
truck,” he said.
Hamman said he stopped
applying for unemployment
in the middle of June once
he was able to start up work
again. However, he said peo-
ple are canceling on proj-
ects and work is currently
Change in county code could push
car dealership development
unreliable in terms of fre-
quency and pay. Hamman
said that this pays some of the
bills but still needs his past
unprocessed weekly claim
payments.
“I have told them I am try-
ing to get back on track from
not getting my unemploy-
ment that is owed to me. I
have been back to work for
almost two months however
it started out slow and I am
having to play catch up with
all of my bills.”
Hamman said he hopes he
gets his unemployment pro-
cessed as soon as possible so
he can get his payments back
on track.
Ariane Holm Le Cheval-
lier, communication advi-
sor and representative at the
employment
department,
stated in an email that due
to the high volume of appli-
cations they are still working
on processing applications
received prior to June 21.
“We are cautiously opti-
mistic that we will be able
to work through remain-
ing claims by August 8,” she
stated.
She also stated that for
those who need to still apply
for Pandemic Unemployment
Assistance, that they should
expect to wait for at least six
weeks from when their initial
claim is submitted.
Currently, the unemploy-
ment rate in Oregon has
fallen to 11.2% as of June
from 14.6% in March. In
Umatilla county, as of May,
a total of 2,362 residents
remain unemployed.
Bousquet said she is still
unemployed and will con-
tinue to claim weekly, but
that she couldn’t believe
when she got her unemploy-
ment compensation depos-
ited and is thankful it is now
processed.
The Federal Pandemic
Unemployment Compensa-
tion program, which provides
an additional $600 a week
in unemployment, expires
on Saturday, July 25. When
asked how it will affect her,
Bousquet said for her per-
sonally, her husband receives
supplementary income, so it
won’t affect her as much as
others who are sole providers,
but that she speculates it will
be a signifi cant cut for those
who are still unemployed.
“For most people, the
payment from the pandemic
program is more than you’ll
receive from the unemploy-
ment check,” she said. “For
anybody who may be the sole
provided, it’s a dramatic cut.”
As for other unemploy-
ment programs, the Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance
program ends on December
26 and the Pandemic Emer-
gency Unemployment Com-
pensation program ends on
December 20.
Industrial development?
By ALEX CASTLE
STAFF WRITER
Umatilla
County
approved an amendment to
its development code along
the Highway 395 North cor-
ridor between Hermiston
and Umatilla last week to
allow for automobile dealer-
ships to be developed in the
area.
The code change was
recommended by Umatilla
County Planning Depart-
ment staff following a June
25 public hearing and loos-
ens the 30-foot maximum
setback requirement and
caps the irrigated landscap-
ing requirement at a half-
acre for select businesses.
“Buildings related to
automobile, truck or motor-
cycle sales lots are exempt
from the maximum setback
requirements when the front
of the lot is used for auto-
mobile, truck or motorcycle
merchandise display,” the
amended code states.
The amendment was
unanimously approved by
the Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners on July
15 following a public hear-
ing that featured no pub-
lic input in favor or in
opposition.
“Our hope is that these
changes will help encourage
more development and rede-
velopment along the corri-
dor for businesses like auto-
mobile dealerships that want
to locate out there,” Uma-
tilla County Planning Direc-
tor Bob Waldher said during
the staff report portion of the
hearing.
Waldher said these devel-
opers should now be able to
adequately display vehicles
for sale, while larger devel-
opments won’t be chal-
lenged by having to abide
by the original code of 15%
of irrigated landscaping per
parcel, which was exceed-
ing limitations set by the
Serving Families with
Care and
Compassion
for Over 70 Years.
BURNS
MORTUARY
of Hermiston
&
Hermiston
Crematory
685 W. Hermiston Ave.
Hermiston, Oregon
(541) 567-6474
www.burnsmortuaryhermiston.com
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Columbia Development Authority director Greg Smith leads
a tour of the former Umatilla Chemical Depot for offi cials
from Umatilla and Morrow Counties to discuss industrial
development on the site on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.
G OOD S HEPHERD C OMMUNITY H EALTH F OUNDATION
2020 FALL GRANTS
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A line of new cars sit in at a dealership along Highway 395 north of Hermiston as traffi c passes
by on Tuesday, July 21, 2020.
Oregon State Department of
Water Resources.
The economic devel-
opment project has been
geared toward improving
the aesthetics and economic
vitality along the corridor,
which includes commer-
cial- and industrial-zoned
properties between Herm-
iston and Umatilla’s urban
growth boundaries. Wald-
her said development codes
were amended in November
2019 that helped establish
these design standards.
“Since then we’ve actu-
ally been able to implement
some of those code changes,
and back in February we met
with a prospective developer
for an automobile dealership
who was having some trou-
ble meeting the design stan-
dards,” Waldher said July
15.
That developer was con-
cerned about being able to
display their vehicles and
the requirement to include
the 1.5 acres of irrigated
landscaping that would
have been required on their
10-acre parcel.
After hearing those con-
cerns, Walder and county
planning staff met with
Highway 395 North Tech-
nical Advisory Commit-
tee, which agreed the code
should be amended to allevi-
ate those challenges.
Waldher said that, at
the behest of the Umatilla
County Planning Commis-
sion, county planning staff
also determined the relaxed
standards will apply to agri-
cultural equipment dealer-
ships also.
But the exemptions will
only apply for those select
businesses, and Walder said
the amended development
requirements should still
achieve the project’s goals.
“We’re really trying to
limit huge parking lots out in
front of businesses if we can
sometimes locate them to
the side or rear of the busi-
ness,” Waldher said. “That
can have a better aesthetic
effect as well as improved
walkability and things like
that.”
PET OF THE
Good Shepherd Community Health Foundation
awards Fall Grants annually to qualified
organizations for the betterment of health needs
within our local service communities.
The deadline to submit a Fall Grant
application is July 31st, 2020.
Applications can be
made online at
gshealth.org/foundation/awards
or call the Foundation office at
541-667-3419
for further information.
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