NEWS
Wednesday, april 7, 2021
HerMisTOnHerald.COM • A3
All Oregonians eligible for COVID-19 vaccine as of April 19
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs ediTOr
Oregonians over the age
of 16, who have not quali-
fied for the COVID-19 vac-
cine in any of the phases
of the vaccine rollout, will
be eligible for a shot as of
Monday, April 19.
After moving through all
of the specialized groups
— most recently, essen-
tial workers and those with
underlying conditions —
the state had planned to
make the vaccine avail-
able to everyone over the
age of 16 on May 1. But on
Tuesday, April 6, Gov. Kate
Brown announced the new
date will be April 19.
“We are locked in a
race between vaccine dis-
tribution and the rapid
spread of COVID-19 vari-
ants,” Brown wrote in a
news release. “Today, Ore-
gon will pass the threshold
of 2 million vaccine doses
administered. And yet, in
communities across Ore-
gon, COVID-19 is spread-
ing at concerning rates. We
must move as quickly as
possible to get more shots
in arms.”
She said it is still critical
to focus on equity for com-
munities of color that have
been
disproportionately
hard-hit by the virus with
higher case counts, hospi-
talizations and deaths.
“We must reach Orego-
nians where they are, includ-
ing those who may not have
easy access to health care or
the ability to take time off
from work,” she said.
The
governor’s
announcement came as
President Joe Biden also
moved up his preferred
timeline for states. He had
previously urged them to
open up eligibility by May
1, but this week changed
that goal to April 19 as
states reopen, more con-
tagious variants become
more prevalent and num-
bers indicate the country is
beginning a “fourth wave”
of the pandemic.
In Umatilla and Mor-
row counties, health depart-
ments have been working to
vaccinate agricultural work-
ers quickly ahead of harvest,
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Staff at a COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic at the Sage Center in Boardman administer doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on
Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
7 p.m. and Saturday, April
10, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The third clinic will be
held at the Morrow County
Fairgrounds, 74473 High-
way 74, Heppner, on Mon-
day, April 12, from 1 p.m.
to 7 p.m. and Tuesday, April
13, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Umatilla County Pub-
lic Health Director Joe Fiu-
mara said his county is also
reaching out to jobsites to
offer to bring the vaccine
directly to workers, but so
far the department hasn’t
had as good of acceptance
for that as they had hoped.
He also said, however, that
sometimes that has been
because a large portion of
workers have already been
vaccinated elsewhere.
He said the county was
recently invited out by a
business that had far more
employees than he had real-
ized, and so encouraged
workplaces to reach out to
the county if they feel like
they would be a good can-
didate for bringing in a vac-
cine clinic, but haven’t been
contacted.
“By no means do we
“WE MUST REACH OREGO-
NIANS WHERE THEY ARE, IN-
CLUDING THOSE WHO MAY
NOT HAVE EASY ACCESS TO
HEALTH CARE OR THE
ABILITY TO TAKE TIME OFF
FROM WORK.”
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
Ryan Brennecke/Bend Bulletin
A syringe is filled with the Moderna vaccine during a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Bethlehem
Inn in Bend on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021.
as well as reaching other eli-
gible groups.
Morrow County Com-
missioner Melissa Lindsay
said the county is expecting
to receive more than 2,000
doses for upcoming clin-
ics, which have been sched-
uled to try to accommodate
as many work schedules
as possible. The county
has also been visiting area
farms, food processing
plants and other large job-
sites in an effort to reduce
the amount of time workers
would have to take time off
to get vaccinated.
Lindsay said the one-
dose Johnson & Johnson
vaccine has been popu-
lar among workers at those
sites, because workers know
they won’t have to take time
off to get a second dose
or possibly deal with side
effects a second time.
The county held clin-
ics on Monday, April 5,
and April 6 at the SAGE
Center and will be offering
free vaccines again at the
SAGE Center, 101 Olsen
Road N.E. in Boardman, on
Wednesday, April 7, from
6 a.m. to noon.
Another clinic will be
held at AC Houghton Ele-
mentary School, 1105 N.
Main Ave., Irrigon, on Fri-
day, April 9, from 1 p.m. to
have an exhaustive list,”
he said. “If there is a busi-
ness out there that feels
they have been overlooked,
please reach out to us.”
People who are eligible
for the vaccine can also go
to Good Shepherd Medical
Center on Thursday, April
8, from noon to 4:30 p.m.
for their first dose, or make
an appointment with Safe-
way, BiMart, Walmart,
Mirasol Family Health
Center or Family Health
Associates. A list of clin-
ics being held by Uma-
tilla County Public Health
can be found on the health
department’s website.
Blocked pipes clog sewers Construction blocks part
of Umatilla River Road
By JADE MCDOWELL
neWs ediTOr
A sewer line backed up
along West Hartley Avenue
in Hermiston on Wednesday,
March 31.
Assistant City Manager
Mark Morgan said waste-
water backed up into the
basement of two homes on
the 600 block of West Hart-
ley Avenue during the eve-
ning. The city paid for O So
Kleen to clean up the homes,
something Morgan said is
standard when a city line
was at fault. The cause of
the backup was roots from
trees in the vicinity of Third
Street and Hartley work-
ing their way into the city’s
sewer main and blocking it.
Morgan said root intru-
sions are common, and
city crews clean more than
10,000 feet of sewer main
each month to address the
problem. He said one of
the first sewer projects after
the city created its Capital
Improvement Plan two years
ago was to run a video cam-
era down a “large percent-
age” of the city’s sewer lines
to determine causes of clog-
ging and figure out how to
better fix and prevent them.
The city now has $1.9 mil-
lion in sewer main replace-
ments planned for the next
five years.
The city asks residents
to never dump grease down
their drain or flush “flush-
able” wipes or baby wipes
down the toilet.
Wipes get stuck on roots
and then fats, such as bacon
grease, congeal around the
wipes, creating what the
wastewater industry calls
“fatbergs” that clog sewer
mains.
I-84 construction project
near Meacham began April 5
HerMisTOn Herald
Construction will slow
traffic on Interstate 84
between Meacham and
Spring Creek for the next
two years.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation will
begin a new paving proj-
ect between milepost 238
and 248 starting on Monday,
April 5. During construction,
vehicles will be rerouted to
one side of the interstate at
a time, with a single lane in
each direction. The speed
limit will be reduced to 50
miles per hour, and Oregon
State Police will increase its
patrol presence.
According to an email
from ODOT, reconstruction
of milepost 238 to 241.5
will take place in 2021 and
the rest will be completed
in 2022. ODOT will begin
next week by closing the
left lanes in each direction in
order to construct the “cross-
overs” needed for traffic to
move onto the new travel
route.
The email states the proj-
ect will replace the asphalt
that has become rutted from
severe winter weather and
chain use, creating hazard-
ous conditions where ice col-
lects in the ruts and cracks
and cannot be removed by
snow plows. Crews will
also complete some other
upgrades to guard rails,
median barriers and bridges.
Cascade Natural Gas offers grants
for customers behind on bills
HerMisTOn Herald
Cascade Natural Gas is
offering a debt relief pro-
gram for residential cus-
tomers whose bills are past
due because of financial
hardship.
According to a news
release, the Oregon Pub-
lic Utilities Commission
approved the program,
known as the Big Heart
Grant, on March 25.
One option, the Auto-
matic Hardship Grant, is
designed for customers
with a history of receiving
low-income assistance on
their utility bills. They can
automatically receive a one-
time grant for the amount of
their total past due balance,
up to $1,500.
The Financial Hardship
Grant is for customers who
have not receive energy
assistance in the past two
years but are currently expe-
riencing financial hardship.
A grant of up to $1,500 will
be applied to the customer’s
past due balance, calculated
by household size, income
and account balance.
For information, or
to apply for a grant, call
Cascade Natural Gas at
1-888-522-1130.
Closure may last three to four weeks as road
realigned, hump removed, turn lane added
HerMisTOn Herald
Umatilla River Road
between
Northeast
11th Street and Cooney
Lane outside Hermis-
ton is closed for the next
three to four weeks for
construction.
Tom Fellows, public
works director for Uma-
tilla County, said the road
is going through a realign-
ment that will include gen-
eral improvements and
repaving,
underground
utility work, removing a
“hump” in the road, and
adding a center turn lane
for drivers entering the
city’s Recycled Water
Treatment Plant.
“We’ll add a turn
pocket so they can get
out of the traffic flow,” he
said.
Fellows said the proj-
ect is being paid for by
a federal grant adminis-
tered by the state known
as an All Roads Transpor-
tation Safety Grant, which
is triggered by the num-
ber of traffic crashes in an
area of road, including fatal
crashes.
During
construction,
drivers using Umatilla
River Road will need to
connect to the road farther
north or use an alternate
road between Hermiston
and Umatilla.
Beginning this week,
Umatilla
River
Road
between Northeast 11th
Street and Cooney Lane
will be closed for up to
four weeks as the Umatilla
County Road Department
undertakes a construction
project.
This will impact travel
in Northwest Hermiston
and to Umatilla. Detour
signs are in place and
motorists are advised to use
alternate routes, including
Highway 395 when travel-
ing between Hermiston and
Umatilla.