Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current, August 26, 2020, Image 12

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Hermiston herald., August 26, 2020, Page 12, Image 12

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Newspaper Page TextNEWS A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020 Protests: Continued from Page A1 “We are Americans, we are patriots, and we will defend our home,” he told the crowd before they spread out along the side- walk and the wall above it. Across the street, in front of Rite-Aid, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters formed, carry- ing signs with messages, such as “Reform the police, convict the guilty.” They started out with their usual group of roughly 10 protesters, but at its peak the protest drew about 40 people. Cassandra Frost, stand- ing on the BLM side, said she had shown up to pro- test systemic racism. As a person of color, she spoke of her worries about the safety of her children in America because of the color of their skin. She said she wished people could see the “bigger pic- ture” and work together to make their commu- nity better despite their disagreements. She also took issue with a pass- er-by who said she didn’t support America or the troops. “My brother and my whole family are in the military, and none of them fought for this,” she said, gesturing to the people yelling insults at each other across the busy road. Other protesters said they were there to be a voice for oppressed peo- ple, or to promote justice through needed policing reforms. On the counter-pro- tester side of the street, Brian Fisher said he was there because he wanted to show support for law enforcement and the mil- itary, where he served for seven years. “I believe everyone matters,” he said. “Espe- cially in the military, in a situation like that, you’re closer than brothers and sisters. It doesn’t matter what race, sex or creed you are.” Nearby, Terina Newton said she felt that putting a speciﬁ c race in front of the words “lives matter” was racist in itself, but College: Continued from Page A1 to leave home and be on campus. “I have been here for a week and a half,” she said. “The athletes get to move in early. It’s actually a great feeling to be here. We do have to wear a mask every- where we go except our room.” While Propheter is on campus, not all of her classes are in-person instruction. Her math class is online, while her sociology class is a hybrid of one day online, and one day in person. Her biology lecture is online, but the lab is in person. Her chemistry class and lab are both in the classroom. “They are limited to 45 students per class, and those ﬁ ll up pretty fast,” said Propheter, who is major- ing in biology. “The chem- istry department moved to a bigger building, so that is in person.” Propheter also has the option of eating in the din- ing hall, or picking up a box meal to go. With golf season in the Staﬀ photo by Ben Lonergan A group of Black Lives Matter protesters skirmish with counter-protesters as the sun begins to set. Both sides were quickly held back by their respective supporters as police arrived on scene. A crowd of roughly 40 Black Lives Matter protesters were met with about 100 counter-protesters at Highway 395 and East Highland Avenue in Hermiston on Friday, August 21, 2020. Staﬀ photo by Ben Lonergan Black Lives Matter protesters and counter-protesters continue to yell and chant as the sun begins to set. A crowd of roughly 40 Black Lives Matter protesters were met with about 100 counter-protesters at Highway 395 and East Highland Avenue in Hermiston on Friday, August 21, 2020. said she still supported people’s rights to a peace- ful protest. But she said many people were “heart- broken” about what they were seeing with protests in Portland and had shown up Aug. 21 to make sure there was no vandalism spring, Propheter won’t have to adjust her schedule, but the Warriors will miss out on several fall tournaments. “They have three really nice 18-hole courses here, which is a nice change,” said Propheter, who is used to Heppner’s 9-hole course at Willow Creek Country Club. While northwest Idaho is open, southwest Idaho is not. Pendleton’s Lane Maher, who is attending The Col- lege of Idaho in Caldwell, is starting his college life at home. “I could have gone on campus if I signed a spe- cial waiver,” said Maher, who began classes Aug. 19. “It hasn’t really hit me yet. I sit in my recliner and do the Zoom classes online. I don’t feel like a real college stu- dent yet. It’s not the same.” Maher, who is part of the Yotes track team, hopes to be on campus in January. Until then, he is working out on his own. “Hopefully things will open back up,” Maher said. “If not, my whole freshman year will be lost. This is no fun.” in Hermiston from any visiting Antifa or BLM supporters. “Peaceful protests are great. They’re awesome,” she said. “That’s what America is all about. But when it gets violent, that’s a problem.” Across the street, Andref Zavala stood with the BLM group after seeing the pro- test on the way to a friend’s birthday party and deciding to stop. He said he had the same message as others surround- ing him — that the only way all lives matter is if Black lives matter too. “I’m mostly proud of this town,” he said partway through the protest. “Even though there are more peo- ple on that side, the peo- ple on this side are stay- ing strong and holding their dignity.” The protest was often a cacophony of sounds that were hard to make out, as protesters on both sides of the street shouted conﬂ ict- ing chants, aided by mega- phones, while the four lanes of trafﬁ c in between them honked and yelled their sup- port for one side or the other. At times, individual protesters or small groups crossed the street to con- front the other side — most often counter-pro- testers visiting the BLM side — and those street crossings sometimes sparked close-up yelling matches that ended with both parties’ friends drag- ging them in opposite directions while telling them to keep things peace- ful. Those altercations — as well as the num- ber of insults and profani- ties being yelled across the street — increased after the sun went down. At one point a BLM protester threw a rock at a truck, at another point someone in a passing truck threw a glass bottle at the BLM protesters, which shattered on the road. Pickup trucks — often sporting Trump 2020 ﬂ ags — frequently doused BLM protesters in a cloud of black smoke as the other side of the street cheered. Police circled the block or parked across High- land Avenue near the 7-Eleven at times through- out the night, and stepped in a few times when pro- testers began to confront each other. The number of ofﬁ cers dwindled for a while, and Edmiston said that was because he had to send some ofﬁ cers home after their shift stretched into the 16-hour mark. “That’s a decision we had to make based on stafﬁ ng,” he said. “People working 16 hours or more starts to get dangerous.” He said police made 11 trafﬁ c stops on the evening of Aug. 21 and 13 on Aug. 22 relating to vehicles passing the protests, and arrested one 19-year-old male for reckless driving after he ﬂ ipped a U-turn in the middle of the high- way to confront the BLM protesters. While BLM protest- ers complained that police weren’t pulling over trucks that were “rolling coal” past them by pur- posely shooting clouds of black diesel smoke in their faces, Edmiston said on the evening of Aug. 22, with better staff- ing and more preparation, police were able to pull over vehicles that were rolling coal, revving their engines or creating other infractions. He characterized the Aug. 22 protest as a calmer affair, with fewer people and no megaphones. During the Hermiston City Council’s meeting on Monday, Aug. 24, coun- cilors thanked the police department for its work in helping keep the protests peaceful. Mayor David Drotzmann also thanked the leaders of both sides of the gatherings from working to keep things from going “sideways” as tensions ran high. “It takes leadership to make that happen,” he said. With more than EasternOregonMarketplace.com WEDNESDAY, AUG. 12, 2020 HermistonHerald.com UPDATES Umatilla County opens COVID-19 relief small business program 14,500 copies HERMISTON HERALD Small businesses in Umatilla County can get a $5,000 grant as money from the federal govern- ment’s COVID-19 relief package continues to trickle down to Umatilla County. Umatilla County Eco- Development nomic announced the start of a new small business relief program in a Aug. 6 press release, stating the county intends to distrib- ute $5,000 grants to qual- ifying businesses propor- tionately throughout the county. According to the city of Hermiston, the city is partnering with the county to provide extra funds for the program from the city’s portion of the fed- eral CARES Act, reserv- ing a total of $745,000 VSHFL¿FDOO\IRU+HUPLVWRQ businesses. The county states that eligible businesses, including sole propri- etors, must be directly affected by the state’s orders, COVID-19 through a closure or other mandated changes to the business. Business must d and headquartere also be operating in the county and employ 50 people or fewer. only can business A submit one application DQG QRQSUR¿WV DUH QRW eligible. The deadline to apply is Aug. 26 and business owners can apply for the grants at www.umatilla- county.net/grants. Paper applications are avail- able at local city halls, where they can also be submitted. Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Umatilla County taken on the fi rst day of the 2020 her lamb prior to having her picture Katelyn Griffi n takes a moment with Event Center in Hermiston. at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Show on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020 Fair Modifi ed Youth Livestock An early goodbye Youths drop off animals for a socially distanced county fair Online By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR Fair week for the Umatilla County Fair kicked off, like everything else in 2020, in an unprecedented way at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11. There were no corn dogs or rides, no concerts or jugglers. But there were still animals. Youths (or their parents) showed up early Tuesday morn- ing with their lambs, saying goodbye for the week before the animal they spent the sum- mer raising was weighed, photo- graphed and sent off to await the Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Youth Livestock Auction at the day of end of the week. Other animals the livestock check-in on the fi rst Juliann Bruce leads her lamb to will get their turn throughout the ed Youth Livestock Show on Tuesday, the 2020 Umatilla County Fair Modifi and Event Center in Hermiston. week. 11, 2020, at the Eastern Oregon Trade Blake Betz, an 18-year-old Aug. FFA student who has shown ani- mals at the fair every year since KH ZDV ¿UVW ROG HQRXJK VDLG KH would miss the usual experiences of fair week, even though he still got the experience of raising his steer, Lil’ Smoky. “In years previous I’ve looked forward to seeing friends from — Kendall Cooper6WDQG¿HOG other towns that I don’t usually get to see, and get a week off and “IT’S SUCH A VITAL THING THAT THE COMMUNITY IS NOT JUST GOING TO FORGET ABOUT IT.” For more photos from the fair, see this story at hermistonherald. com. have fun hanging out,” he said. Kendall Cooper, 17, an FFA VWXGHQW IURP 6WDQ¿HOG VDLG WKLV ZDV KHU ¿IWK \HDU UDLVLQJ D PDU ket hog for the fair. She said her hog, a Yorkshire-Hampshire cross named Belle, was looking good and should make weight. She said when the FFA stu- dents got their animals in March, school had just shut down and so they had an inkling that if they went through with raising an ani- mal to show, fair week probably wouldn’t look exactly the same as they were used to. Cooper said normally during the week, particularly during the Youth Livestock Auction, she is making connections with people See Fair, Page A12 Council OKs $9.6 million in bonds for new city hall By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR Staff photo by Ben Lonergan of land, near the city’s wastewater the possibility of off ering 8 acres The city of Hermiston is weighing for senior citizens. plant, for a potential housing development INSIDE A3 Hermiston Herald inserts masks into newspapers mailed to subscribers treatment A3 Four candidates so far for Hermiston City Council race The Hermiston City Council authorized the sale of up to $9.6 million in bonds to pay for a new city hall and renovation of the lower level of the Hermiston Pub- lic Library during their Monday, Aug. 10 meeting. The city plans to build a new, larger, three-story city hall on the site of the current city hall at 180 N.E. Second St. The interior of the previous city hall was dam- DJHG GXULQJ D ¿UH LQ WKH EXLOG ing’s HVAC system in December 2019, but the council had already set a goal to start working toward building a new city hall sometime A7 Chamber puts land up for sale of the Hermiston Herald now mailed directly to homes in west Umatilla County and north Morrow County, there has never been an easier way to get your message into thousands of local homes each week. Reach new customers in new ways with the help of advertising professionals at the Hermiston Herald. Jeanne Jewett Angela Treadwell 541-564-4531 541-966-0827 in the next few years. They cited overcrowding that had pushed staff into other buildings, and a lack of wheelchair accessibility. City Manager Byron Smith told the council that based on pre- liminary designs, ArchitectsWest had given a “high-level” estimate of $9 million for the project, but the $9.6 million approval would give some wiggle room if costs came in higher than expected. Smith said they expect to have a ¿UPGHWDLOHGFRVWHVWLPDWHRQFLW\ hall by mid-October. Paying off $9.6 million in bonds would require a $470,000 annual payment, Smith said, See Council, Page A12 A11 School district narrows new school names down to three MILITARY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE RUGGED, RELIABLE, RED... AND THAT’S NO BULL!!! FARM EQUIPMENT www.BonneysAg.com UP TO 4000 CASH REBATE $ $ AND 4.49% FOR UP TO 84 MOS.