COMMUNITY
A2 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
THREE MINUTES WITH …
WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021
HERMISTON HISTORY
Rumors cause suspicions water was poisoned
EMILY JAYNE SOREY
Third grade teacher at
Sunset Elementary School
When and why did you move to Hermiston?
August 2019 for my teaching job at Sunset.
Where is your favorite place to eat in
Hermiston?
Veg Out!
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Ride my horse and spend time with family and
friends.
What surprises you about Hermiston?
How much it has to off er.
What was the last book you read?
“A Snicker of Magic” with my third grade class.
What website or app do you use most other
than Facebook?
Pinterest!
If you could travel anywhere, where would you
go?
Chile
What is the funniest thing that’s ever hap-
pened to you?
I am a 3rd Grade teacher there are just too many to
list. .
What is one of your goals for the next 12
months?
Finish my masters in special education.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
Getting my dream job as a K-12 Special Education
teacher in Echo only two years into my career.
Aspen Springs reopens
as a secure residential
treatment facility
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
The
former
Aspen
Springs Psychiatric Hospital
in Hermiston has reopened
as a secure residential treat-
ment facility.
The
16-bed
hospi-
tal closed in early April,
about seven months after it
opened. The board of Life-
ways, the community men-
tal health provider that built
the facility, stated they could
not fi nd the psychiatrists and
nurses needed to staff the
building around the clock.
Lifeways
announced
Tuesday, May 4, that Aspen
Springs is accepting patients
as a Class II Secured Resi-
dential Treatment Facility.
A psychiatric hospital
provides the highest level of
psychiatric care in the state,
caring for individuals in
the midst of an acute men-
tal health crisis. A secure
residential treatment facil-
ity also treats patients on an
inpatient basis, but is a step
down on the level of sever-
ity. Lifeways describes it as
a place for community mem-
bers ages 18 and up “seek-
ing safe, supervised, short-
term psychiatric recovery
and stabilization.”
Services provided will
include medication manage-
ment, individual and group
therapy, skills training and
“wraparound” support for
patients reintegrating back
into the community. There
are 16 beds available.
Former Aspen Springs
Psychiatric Hospital patients
can get their patient records
by contacting Julie Hyslop
at jhyslop@lifeways.org.
Hermiston Herald, File
Hermiston Police Department Offi cer Jay Lunch visits Hermiston High School students during lunch in 1996.
25 YEARS AGO
May 14, 1996
A rash of daylight, residential bur-
glaries has left the Hermiston Police
Department looking to the public for
information.
In the past three weeks, the
Hermiston Police Department has
responded to at least 14 day-time
burglaries. As a result, they are ask-
ing neighbors to look out for each
other and pay attention to anything
out of the ordinary.
2) A request that the city annex
property along Northwest 11th Street
was withdrawn last week.
Joe Flink sold the property to the
Good Shepherd Community Hospi-
tal Thursday.
According to Dennis Burke, chief
executive offi cer for Good Shepherd,
the hospital will not pursue annex-
ation proceedings nor does it have
any plans for the land. Instead, he
said the property will be held either
for future use by the hospital or sold
to a health care related business.
The land was the subject of con-
troversy earlier this year when
annexation proceedings were halted
over objections from the hospital. At
a planning commission hearing on
the annexation, a representative of
the hospital complained that a pro-
posed 100-unit mobile home park
for the site would create water pres-
sure problems for the hospital.
Hermiston Herald, File
Staff at the Umatilla Army Chemical Depot run practice drills in 1996.
50 YEARS AGO
May 13, 1971
An end to the disputes between
grocery stores in Northeastern Ore-
gon is in sight, in the opinion of the
Pendleton representative of the Retail
Clerks International Association.
Bob Patterson, who announced
the acceptance Saturday of the con-
tract off er from Stewart’s Town N’
Country Stores, said, “We feel con-
fi dent that other companies involved
will come into line with Stewart’s
thinking.”
Patterson said the strike against
Mead’s Thriftway in Hermiston and
Umatilla, merely locked out until
8 a.m. Tuesday, did not change his
view that the dispute soon will be
settled.
A
management
spokesman
expressed the opposite view Wednes-
day morning, saying that Mead’s
strike probably will delay settlement
“just as escalation of the Indochina
War has delayed peace.”
75 YEARS AGO
May 16, 1946
Plans for a cooperative hospital in
Hermiston are proceeding at present
with a fact fi nding committee pro-
Hermiston Herald, File
State legislator Chuck Norris, left, and his wife Betty reminisce about their days
on the campaign trail after Norris announced he would not run again in 1996.
moting interest throughout the com-
munity. R.M. Mitchell, director of
education of the Pacifi c Supply Co.,
explained the details of the plan at
the Civic Recreation Center Tuesday
evening to a large group of citizens
interested in securing a hospital for
this section of the county.
Tentative plans are to secure
1,000 members for the plan at $100
per membership for the erection of
a 25-room hospital. In this building
15 rooms would accommodate two
beds and 10 would be private rooms,
for a 40-bed capacity plan.
2) Disposition of the Tertletown
housing project was the import-
ant order of business before the city
council in session Wednesday eve-
ning. Majors Smith and Jones of
Seattle, representing the Federal
Public Housing authority, were pres-
ent with about 15 residents of the
project with plans for continuation
of the 82-unit residential district on
a permanent basis.
Smith reported that the agency
he was representing was in a posi-
tion to sell the units to the occupants
and with veterans to be given fi rst
priority.
100 YEARS AGO
May 13, 1921
A report is going around that the
city water in the reservoir has been
“doped” with some kind of solution
to purify the water. Some say that
the stuff was put in to kill the snakes
and frogs that some imaginary minds
think abide in the big tank.
We wish to correct all such
thought and talk. There is nothing to
it. The sickness that has been going
around the city is just as bad in the
Yakima Valley as it is here, and the
same symptoms, and they are not
drinking the Hermiston water.
Our water is as good as any in the
state, and samples of it are sent three
or four times a year for analysis, and
up to the present time it has always
been given a “clean bill of health.”
BY THE WAY
Umatilla Language Dictionary now online
The Umatilla language is now accessible to anyone
in the world with an internet connection.
In a press release, the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation announced that the
Umatilla Language Dictionary is now online.
A collaboration between the CTUIR Language Pro-
gram and Amazon Web Services, the Tribes’ intent
was to educate tribal members on their language and
raise awareness about the tongue.
The prevalence of the Umatilla language has
diminished over the years as many of its fl uent speak-
ers have died. The CTUIR established a language pro-
gram in 1996 to preserve the language by recording
elders and teaching the language to tribal youths and
adults.
The dictionary can be accessed at https://dictio-
nary.ctuir.org.
• • •
The Internal Revenue Service is reminding tax
exempt organizations that Form 990 and other paper-
work they are required to fi le yearly are due on May
17.
The date is also the deadline for individuals and
businesses to fi le their federal taxes, and for people in
Oregon to fi le their state taxes.
Under IRS rules, nonprofi ts and other tax-exempt
organizations that fail to fi le a Form 990 for three
years in a row automatically lose their exempt status.
• • •
All Walmart pharmacies in Oregon are now taking
walk-ins for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Customers can still make appointments for a spe-
cifi c time online at www.walmart.com/COVIDvac-
cine, but they can also simply show up at a Walmart
pharmacy and request a vaccine. The pharmacies are
open seven days a week.
Shots are also available on a walk-in basis at sev-
eral other locations.
For a full list of vaccination sites in Umatilla
County, visit ucohealth.net/covid-events-new.
• • •
The Harkenrider Senior Activity Center menu
for Thursday, May 13, is meat loaf, mashed potatoes
and gravy, spinach and dessert.
The menu for Tuesday, May 18, is spaghetti, garlic
bread, salad and dessert.
For a Meals on Wheels delivery in Hermiston, call
541-567-3582 before 10 a.m. to place an order.
To pick up a meal from the center at 255 N.E. Sec-
ond St., call the same number before 11 a.m. Meals are
$4 and can be picked up between 11:30 a.m. and noon.
The Boardman Senior Center is now providing
meal delivery. Meals are $4 paid upon delivery. Call
541-481-3257 to order.