NEWS
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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