WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
UPDATES
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
Protests spark confl ict
City offers
live updates
of Funland
progress
Protests, shooting ratchet up
police overtime costs
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
BY JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR
The city of Hermis-
ton is offering an up-to-
date look at progress on
building the new Funland
Playground at Butte Park
through a live video feed
at hermistonprojects.com/
funland.
Work crews have been
leveling and preparing
the site to begin installa-
tion of playground pieces
that have already arrived.
In addition to a new play-
ground, they will also be
installing a new picnic
shelter, restrooms and a
concession stand nearby.
In addition to the video
feed, the website also
offers an interactive map
of what the playground
will look like, illustra-
tions of the different sec-
tions planned for the play-
ground, a breakdown of
the project’s budget and
a frequently asked ques-
tions section.
According to the site,
the city has $1,662,000 of
its goal of $1,750,000 for
the project. Individuals
and businesses can still
buy an engraved fence
picket to help support the
project.
The city hopes to have
a grand opening celebra-
tion of the playground by
late October of 2020. The
playground burned down
in a suspected arson in
May of 2019.
The city started the
hermistonprojects.com
website in 2019 as a way
for city residents to check
on the progress of capital
improvement projects in
the city or fi nd out infor-
mation about the project’s
budget and purpose.
The site has tabs for
planned projects, projects
in progress and completed
projects.
People can also sort
projects by type, includ-
ing wastewater, water and
street projects.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A Black Lives Matter protester calls out through a megaphone early in the evening. A crowd of roughly 40 Black
Lives Matter protesters were met with about 100 counter-protesters at the intersection of Highway 395 and East
Highland Avenue in Hermiston on Friday, Aug. 21, 2020.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A counter-protest organizer walks the line of counter-protesters chanting through a megaphone. A crowd of
roughly 40 Black Lives Matter protesters were met with about 100 counter-protesters at the intersection of
Highway 395 and East Highland Avenue in Hermiston on Friday, Aug. 21, 2020.
Rising tensions pushed a Black
Lives Matter protest and count-
er-protest in Hermiston late into
the night twice over the weekend,
causing high overtime costs for
the Hermiston Police Department.
A shooting unrelated to the
protests took place in Hermiston
on the afternoon of Friday, Aug.
21, and Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston said between the
shooting and the protests that took
place Aug. 21-22, the department
used up the equivalent of a month
and a half of overtime pay in two
days.
That doesn’t count the extra
hours put in by the department’s
leadership paid on a salaried
basis, he said.
A group of Hermiston resi-
dents have been holding a Black
Lives Matter protest on Friday
evenings, which organizers say
usually draw 10 or fewer peo-
ple. But a Facebook event created
for the Aug. 21 protest sparked a
rumor online that, in the words of
one post shared 85 times, “BLM
& ANTIFA Members from the
Portland area will be coming to
Hermiston,” possibly in the range
of 150 people.
By 6 p.m. — the scheduled
start to the Black Lives Matter
protest — about 100 counter-pro-
testers had gathered in the strip
mall parking lot on the west side
of the Highway 395 and High-
land Avenue intersection. Many
were openly carrying handguns
or rifl es, and most were carry-
ing fl ags (America, Confederate,
Trump, Thin Blue Line and Don’t
Tread on Me) instead of signs.
The group’s apparent orga-
nizer, who declined to give his
name to the Hermiston Her-
ald, asked those gathered to not
engage with the other group of
protesters unless their life was
threatened, and to avoid racial
slurs and name-calling. He said
their goal was to prevent any
vandalism.
See Protests, Page A12
“PEACEFUL PROTESTS ARE GREAT. THEY’RE AWESOME. THAT’S WHAT AMERICA IS
ALL ABOUT. BUT WHEN IT GETS VIOLENT, THAT’S A PROBLEM.”
Terina Newton, Hermiston
Pandemic shifts college plans for area grads
By ANNIE FOWLER
FOR THE HERMISTON HERALD
It’s that time of year of
where college campuses nation-
wide would be welcoming back
students.
The coronavirus pandemic,
which has shuttered campuses and
altered sports schedules from Ore-
gon to Florida, has caused colleges
to change their method of offering
classes to students.
Recent Hermiston graduate
Josie Goodrich, who is attend-
ing Washington State University
in Pullman, will begin her college
experience at her family’s dining
room table.
“Honestly, it’s upsetting,” said
Goodrich, who is studying crimi-
nal justice law enforcement admin-
istration. “I was excited to start a
new chapter in my life. I would
like to be there. Now, not much is
changing, except for the teachers.”
Goodrich is just one of thou-
sands of area students who have
had to change their post-high
school plans with COVID-19 and
local governments keeping cam-
puses closed.
INSIDE
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Josie Goodrich is attending her Washington State University classes
online from home in Hermiston after the COVID-19 pandemic caused the
university to decide on a virtual start to the school year.
According to Eastern Oregon
University’s website, classes will
be held in-person, remotely and
in hybrid formats this fall. Some
class locations may change to con-
trol classroom density.
Blue Mountain Community
College in Pendleton will pro-
vide classes and student support
A3 Shooting puts Hermiston
man in critical condition
from a distance during fall semes-
ter, while Walla Walla Community
College will offer online classes,
and select in-person classes where
hands-on learning is needed.
Goodrich, who started classes
Monday, Aug. 24, said she bought
some books for her classes, and
also bought online access material
A6 Hermiston residents march
to raise awareness of human
traffi cking
for one of her classes. She also had
to buy several online programs that
are needed to submit class work
because each professor uses a dif-
ferent program.
The hardest part of the fall dis-
tance learning for Goodrich was
doing the sorority rush online.
She spent the better part of a week
doing Zoom interviews and taking
virtual tours of the different soror-
ities at WSU.
“There are 14 sororities at
WSU,” Goodrich said. “You pick
your top 10, go through inter-
views, and cut the list down again.
It would have been nice to do that
in person.”
Goodrich now is a member of
Kappa Delta, and said she’s already
made friends with her sorority sis-
ters on social media.
While Goodrich is learning
from home, her 2020 Hermiston
classmate Garrett Walchli is at
Utah State University in Logan.
He has a mix of online classes
and hybrid classes, which include
some in-person instruction.
“I moved down here a week
and a half ago,” said Walchli, who
is a member of the Aggies foot-
A7 Maxwell Market to reopen
Thursday after Umatilla County
returns to Phase 1
ball team. “Our campus is open,
but depending on the professor,
there are online classes, in-person
classes, and some that are a mix.”
Classes at Utah State begin
Aug. 31, but because of COVID-
19, the football season has been
put on hold until the spring. The
Mountain West Conference, as
well as every other major confer-
ence throughout the nation, opted
to move their seasons.
“We can’t be with the coaches
or in the (athletic) facilities,” said
Walchli, who is majoring in inter-
national agribusiness management.
“I live in the dorms, and there is no
mixing of students. You cannot go
visit someone in another dorm. We
are trying to be college students the
best we can.”
The two facets of Idaho
Heppner
co-valedictorian
Nicole Propheter is attending
school at Lewis-Clark State Col-
lege in Lewiston, Idaho, where she
also is a member of the women’s
golf team. Classes started Aug. 24.
She appreciates being able
See College, Page A12
A8 Hermiston School District
sees lower enrollment heading into
2020-21