FROM PAGE ONE
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021
Dog Park:
Continued from Page A1
originally hoped to hold a
ribbon cutting for the play-
ground on Memorial Day,
but but Fetter said construc-
tion delays now have the
playground slated for com-
pletion mid-June, with an
official opening celebration
held on July 4.
The new playground is
made of a compressed plas-
tic that will be less vulner-
able to fire than the previ-
ous, wooden playground
that burned down in 2019. It
will sit over a colorful rub-
ber-like surface instead of
wood chips, and features
will include everything from
a train to a pirate ship. The
project also adds a restroom
and concessions stand build-
ing, and an additional picnic
shelter.
After Funland is wrapped
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Malibu, a golden retriever, looks up from a dog bowl
while exploring the Hermiston Bark Park during its “grand
unleashing” on Friday, April 30, 2021.
up, Fetter told the city coun-
cil recently, the department
can focus on a renovation of
Riverfront Park that will add
a new, larger playground to
replace the former structure
damaged by floods in Feb-
ruary 2020. The new play-
ground and a new park-
ing lot will be moved to the
south side of the park, which
is mostly protected from
flooding, while sod will
be laid over the north side
where the currently parking
area stands.
Fetter said the city plans
to open the Hermiston Fam-
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Dogs, and their owners, arrive at the Hermiston Bark Park for its “grand unleashing” on Friday,
April 30, 2021.
ily Aquatic Center this sum-
mer, and the parks and recre-
ation department is focusing
more of its summer rec-
reation programs on out-
door activities, which have
been deemed by scientists to
lessen the risk of spreading
COVID-19.
BMCC board approves layoffs
By ANTONIO SIERRA
STAFF WRITER
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Lines sit empty at a Umatilla County Public Health mass
COVID-19 vaccination site in Pendleton on Friday, April 30,
2021.
Vaccines:
Continued from Page A1
would avoid getting the vac-
cine if possible. The findings
are similar to a separate sur-
vey from Quinnipiac Uni-
versity, which found 45% of
Republicans say they don’t
plan to get a vaccine.
According to a New
York Times survey of nearly
every U.S. county, vaccina-
tion rates and interest was
lower on average in counties
where the majority of resi-
dents voted to reelect former
President Donald J. Trump,
leaving some areas with
more vaccines than there is
demand.
That trend appears to be
present in Umatilla County,
where voters largely favored
Trump and where vac-
cine rates have long ranked
lowest in Oregon, despite
reporting some of the high-
est infection rates in the state
in recent months.
And this week, the county
health department asked the
state to briefly withhold vac-
cine shipments as demand is
rapidly declining.
With case counts rising
on average over the past
few weeks, the county was
moved from moderate risk
back to high risk this week,
bringing greater restrictions
on businesses and gather-
ings, and raising concerns
among officials who say
local businesses can’t with-
stand the constant shifts.
New cases tied to
unvaccinated residents
Officials say newly
reported cases are coming
almost entirely from resi-
dents who have yet to be
vaccinated.
“I think it’s frustrating to
me that I get calls over and
over and over again from
people who want us to open
up the county, open up large
events, and have us start
moving back to where we
were,” Murdock said. “But
we can’t order people to get
vaccinated. It’s such a con-
tradiction to hear all day,
every day, from people that
want us to go a certain direc-
tion, there’s a path to go
there, and they don’t want to
go down it.”
Joe Fiumara, the county’s
public health director, said
the county lacks concrete
data showing vaccine hesi-
tancy falls along party lines,
but added, anecdotally, that
appears to be the case.
“We hear nationally that
the Republican white man
is the least likely to be get-
ting the COVID vaccination
right now,” he said. “And we
know we have a decent sized
population of white Republi-
can men in this county. And
so the assumption I make is
there’s probably something
there.”
However, Fiumara noted
that some Hispanic and
Latino residents, as well as
people from some religious
groups, are also hesitant to
get vaccinated.
To combat this, Fiumara
said county health officials
are working to create new
ways to inform specific
groups about the impor-
tance, safety and efficacy of
vaccines, though he didn’t
provide specifics.
‘Mind-boggling’ resistance to
vaccine
For the commission-
ers and Fiumara, what is
“mind-boggling” is the vac-
cine is now seeing reluctance
from Republicans when it
was, in fact, designed under
a Republican administration.
With Operation Warp
Speed, an effort that saw
vaccines developed at an
unprecedented rate with bil-
lions of dollars from the
Trump administration, the
former president repeatedly
said vaccines would be the
solution to the pandemic and
took credit when they were
cleared for use in November
2020.
The Biden administra-
tion, however, promptly
took steps to hasten the roll-
out after the election and
drove the development of the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine,
which has reached nearly 7
million Americans despite
being paused briefly after
six women reported blood
clots. The vaccine has now
been cleared by the Food and
Drug Administration with
a warning label noting the
potential for rare blood clots.
“This really isn’t about
Republican or Democrat,
this is not a control move,
this is not many of these
conspiracy theory items
that are fun and off-the-wall
sometimes,” Fiumara said.
“It’s much more straight-
forward. It’s about protect-
ing yourself and protecting
those around you, because
they’re the ones who end up
suffering if something goes
wrong.”
By getting vaccinated
and speaking out about vac-
cinations, Shafer said he’s
looking to shift the stigma
with some hopes the county
can make progress toward
reopening in time for sum-
mer events.
“I want our county to be
open,” he said. “I don’t want
any restrictions in place
because of our numbers.
And the way to do that is the
vaccine.”
Fiumara said despite the
county’s low vaccination
rates, he’s optimistic that
more and more people will
get vaccinated as the rollout
continues. Even now, he said
health officials are seeing
people change their minds.
“I think people are rec-
ognizing that this is our path
out of here,” he said. “Peo-
ple who were more on the
fence aren’t so on the fence
now that millions and mil-
lions across the country are
receiving it with very low
side effects or down side.”
By a 5-2 vote, the Blue
Mountain Community Col-
lege Board of Education
approved reducing the col-
lege’s staff by 14 positions,
including seven layoffs, at
a special board meeting on
Friday, April 30.
The move represented
a slight improvement from
a previous projection that
anticipated 11 layoffs as a
part of 16 staff reductions,
but BMCC administrators
maintained the cuts needed
to happen so the college
could stabilize itself as it
attempts to recover from a
sustained period of declin-
ing enrollment exacer-
bated by the COVID-19
pandemic.
BMCC will lay off five
supervisory employees that
covered areas like grants,
student success, admissions
and marketing. The college
is also laying off a business
instructor and a web con-
tent specialist.
“This is a really hard
list,” interim President Con-
nie Green said. “These are
real people with real lives
that made an impact on
students.”
After the meeting, Green
said the college was able to
reduce layoffs and position
eliminations by negotiat-
ing with the union and also
permanently cutting some
unfilled positions from the
budget.
While only one fac-
ulty member is being laid
off, the college is cutting
six vacant teaching posi-
tions in subjects like math,
Spanish and biology in
addition to one administra-
tive position.
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File
The Blue Mountain Community College Board of Education voted 5-2 on Friday, April 30, to
approve the reduction of the college’s staff by 14 positions, a move that will include seven
layoffs.
Board Chair Jane Hill
gave the college’s two
union presidents time to
make brief remarks. Pete
Hernberg, the president of
the Blue Mountain Faculty
Association, used his time
to try to save the business
instructor’s job.
Hernberg argued that
eliminating the position
would actually lose the col-
lege $280,000 instead of
saving them money due to a
loss of enrollment resulting
from a decrease in business
offerings to students.
“This is extremely dam-
aging to our students,” he
said.
John Fields, the col-
lege’s vice president of
instruction, said there was
a “difference in interpreta-
tions” of what the college
would lose or gain from
laying off business fac-
ulty, while Hill defended
the
administration’s
recommendation.
“We have a job to pro-
vide stability,” she said.
Board member Kim
Puzey suggested the col-
lege solicit donations from
the college’s unions or start
GoFundMe pages to help
save the positions.
“I’m throwing any noo-
dle that’ll stick to avoid los-
ing this much talent,” he
said.
But Green said BMCC
needed to look for a way
to sustainably operate, and
while fundraising drives
could help in the short term,
it couldn’t offer a long-term
solution for the college’s
fiscal issues.
After about a 30-minute
discussion, the board voted
5-2 to approve the staff-
ing cuts. Puzey and board
member Heidi Van Kirk
voted against the motion.
The latest round of staff
reductions nearly completes
a rough 12-month period
for BMCC. The college cut
23 positions in May 2019,
five positions from its cor-
rections education program
earlier this spring, and now
another 14 reductions.
In an interview after the
meeting, Green said she
understood the impact the
cuts would have on the ser-
vices the college offers and
morale.
But she added that the
restructuring the college is
making at the supervisory
level and the new initiatives
BMCC is starting would
put the college on the path
to success.
“BMCC is choosing
opportunities over closing,”
she said.
House passes bill erasing requirement
for pseudoephedrine prescription
By PETER WONG
OREGON CAPITAL BUREAU
Oregon would no lon-
ger require a prescription
for medicines contain-
ing ephedrine or pseudo-
ephedrine under a bill that
has cleared the House.
House Bill 2648 went
to the Senate on a 54-4
vote on Wednesday, April
28.
The requirement for a
prescription was written
into law in 2005, when
people were buying med-
icines containing pseu-
doephedrine — a precur-
sor chemical — for use
in making methamphet-
amine, a powerful stimu-
lant that is illegal. Oregon
was the first state to do so.
“We had a meth-lab
problem and it was really
bad,” Rep. Bill Post, a
Republican from Keizer
and the bill’s floor man-
ager, said. “It worked.
Meth labs went way down
to almost nothing.”
The law made it harder
to obtain some medicines
commonly used for colds
and allergies.
But since then, meth-
amphetamine manufac-
turing has switched from
homegrown labs to Mex-
ico.
Methamphetamine
remains illegal, although
under a ballot measure
Oregon voters passed last
year, possession of small
amounts is no longer a
crime.
Ephedrine is banned as
a performance-enhancing
drug by college sports and
some professional sports
leagues.
House
Bill
2648
retains some restrictions
on access to such medi-
cines. People can obtain
them by showing a photo
identification to establish
age — the minimum is 18
— and receive them from
behind the store counter.
In addition, purchases
are tracked by a system
known as the National
Precursor Log Exchange
(NPLEx).
Mississippi, the only
other state that required
a prescription, recently
passed a similar bill.
The Oregon bill, if
passed by the Senate
and signed by Gov. Kate
Brown, would begin the
new requirements on Jan.
1, 2022.
Oregon bill speeds siting of emergency shelters
By PETER WONG
OREGON CAPITAL BUREAU
Cities and counties are
empowered to waive some
requirements to allow the
siting of emergency shel-
ters and temporary hous-
ing under a bill that is
headed to Gov. Kate
Brown.
The Senate passed
House Bill 2006 without
amendments on a 26-1
vote Monday.
The bill allows local
governments to waive
design, planning and zon-
ing requirements for shel-
ters or housing operated
directly by them, by orga-
nizations with at least two
years’ experience, or by
nonprofits that partner
with either one.
Shelters still have to
comply with some build-
ing codes and health
and safety requirements.
They must have access
to transportation and can-
not be placed in hazardous
zones, such as federally
designated floodplains.
This bill revives legisla-
tion that passed in the first
2020 special session (June
24-26) of the Oregon Leg-
islature. But its waivers
ended 90 days later on Sept.
28. This bill’s waivers end
on July 1, 2022.
Sen. Deb Patterson,
D-Salem, said the short-
age of housing has wors-
ened during the corona-
virus pandemic and the
2020 Labor Day wildfires.
She said cities often resist
state requirements.
“But this bill is differ-
ent,” Patterson, the bill’s
Senate sponsor and floor
manager, said.
“Multiple cities have
come out in support of the
bill because they recog-
nize the need in their com-
munities — in every com-
munity — for us to take
steps toward alleviating
the suffering of our neigh-
bors who have lost their
housing. It should not take
an emergency for us to
recognize this need. But
we are in an emergency
now. We must act.”