WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2020
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
SUMMER HEAT
Forecast
provides
little relief
JEFF BUDLONG
STAFF WRITER
HERMISTON — The calendar has
long since fl ipped from February, but it
would be easy to forgive Hermiston and
surrounding communities for feeling like
they are trapped in a perpetual Ground-
hog Day.
Record heat has defi ned early sum-
mer and little precipitation has been the
theme of the year. Relief on either front
isn’t in the forecast over at least the next
week.
“We do expect temperatures to remain
above normal — not the excessive heat
we saw at the end of June — in the low
to mid-90s instead of readings around
100,” Pendleton National Weather Ser-
vice hydrologist Marilyn Lohmann said.
Hermiston’s normal highs are in
the upper 80s this time of year, but tri-
ple-digit temperatures usually reserved
for late July and August have already
become common.
The extreme heat in late June came
with a strong area of high pressure that
trapped the warm air, Lohmann said.
“Outside of the irrigated areas, the
grasses and soils are very dry, and with lit-
tle moisture there temperatures can heat
up even more,” she said. “That feedback
loop led to those extreme temperatures.”
Gov. Kate Brown declared Umatilla
County in a drought disaster in an execu-
tive order last month.
The county was one of four — along
with Grant, Union and Wasco counties
— that Brown announced was facing “a
severe, continuing drought emergency”
that is projected to continue as conditions
are unlikely to improve, the order said.
June saw just 0.23 tenths of an inch
of rain in Hermiston, well below the 0.64
tenths in a normal year. Normal rainfall
for much of the area in July is just a quar-
ter of an inch.
The picture doesn’t improve look-
ing at precipitation so far this year at
the Hermiston airport. Lohmann said
just 1.79 inches has been recorded since
January, 4.23 inches below normal.
The water year, which starts in Octo-
ber, is at 4.63 inches, 4.71 below normal.
Lohmann gives it less than a 50% chance
that the defi cit will be made up this year.
“The August, September and October
forecast still shows above normal tem-
peratures and below normal precipitation
for the area,” she said.
The drought has taken its toll on crops
with lower yield on wheat and barley.
Lohmann said municipal water systems
in the area have avoided issues so far, but
that is not the case across the state.
“In north central Oregon and into
south-central Washington they have had
some dry wells already and are having to
drill deeper,” she said.
The dry conditions also have led to
the early arrival, by more than a month,
of fi re season and the potential for
larger fi res.
Alex Wittwer/For the Hermiston Herald
Head chef Trevor Olson looks through the line of orders June 26, 2021, during his shift at Nookie’s Restaurant & Brewery in Hermiston. Nearly
every company in Eastern Oregon is looking for workers, but the restaurant industry is the most visible indication of the labor shortage, with
many kitchens having overworked staff pushed to their limits.
HELP WANTED
Eastern Oregon feels pinch of labor shortage
By ALEX WITTWER
EO MEDIA GROUP
he Oregon Employ-
ment Department
reported the num-
ber of residents in
Eastern
Oregon
receiving
unem-
ployment benefi ts is lower now
than it was before the pandemic
started.
That statistic makes no diff er-
ence to the lines of orders fi ling
through the printer at Nookie’s
Restaurant & Brewery in Herm-
iston, which has struggled to fi nd
workers as the nation faces a new
complication in the economic
recovery from the pandemic.
“I don’t have a single cook
that’s not in overtime right now,”
said Trevor Olson, the head chef
at the restaurant and brewery.
He’s been a cook for nearly
seven years, shifting around
other restaurants in Hermis-
ton and Tri-Cities before com-
ing back to Nookie’s last winter.
At 25, Olson is in charge of the
entire kitchen at Nookie’s.
“Halibut in 30 seconds,”
Olson said down the line.
The two prep cooks were
busy at the stove as fl ames
licked at the pans cooking sea-
food alfredo. Neither are over
T
Alex Wittwer/For the Hermiston Herald
Sean Altizer, a server at Nookie’s Restaurant & Brewery in Hermiston,
looks through orders Saturday, June 26, 2021, at the kitchen window.
According to the managers, the restaurant had just fi nished staffi ng
their wait staff , though the kitchen remains sorely understaff ed, with
nearly every cook working overtime.
the age of 20.
Olson fl ipped two burgers,
fl ames reached toward the ceil-
ing. The previous head cook
quit some time after the county
relaxed its restrictions due to
dropping COVID-19 cases in
May 2021, leaving Olson and
sous chef Lupe Delgado to run
the restaurant.
Before his shift started that
day, Olson clocked 60 hours
for the week.
Some workers left the market
Most restaurant owners point
to supplemental unemployment
benefi ts as not only a principal
cause of the labor shortage but
also a cause of lowered morale
among employees. However,
record-low unemployment rates
in states such as Nebraska, Idaho
and Utah — which are at or
below their pre-pandemic levels
— has done little to stave off their
own labor shortage problems.
The continued benefi ts,
which are set to last until Sept. 6,
prompted Eastern Oregon lead-
ers and offi cials to send a letter
to Gov. Kate Brown on June 7
demanding the end of the federal
supplement to the 1,468 unem-
ployed workers collecting bene-
fi ts in Eastern Oregon.
But ending those benefi ts,
according to economists, would
not fi x the economy’s woes.
Scott McConnell is an eco-
nomics professor at Eastern Ore-
gon University, and also runs
Side A Brewing in La Grande,
which has given him close-up
experience with the labor
shortage.
“The research says no,” said
McConnell regarding whether or
not ending expanded unemploy-
ment benefi ts would resolve the
labor shortage. “I think it’s easy
to point at that as being the sole
reason.”
A large portion of the work-
force returned to the labor mar-
ket, McConnell said. A few have
not. It’s that last portion of the
workforce that confounds econo-
mists and state leaders alike.
See Shortage, Page A8
Delta variant now in Eastern Oregon
By BRYCE DOLE AND CARLOS FUENTES
EO MEDIA GROUP
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File
Cars pass through a drive-thru COVID-19 testing event at the Pendleton
Convention Center Feb. 1, 2021.
INSIDE
A3 City council continues
discussion on digital infrastructure
plan
UMATILLA COUNTY — The
delta variant has arrived in Eastern
Oregon.
And with vaccination rates
across the region lagging behind
the state, the question for health
experts is not if the latest and most
contagious strain of COVID-19
will spread through communities,
but how large the outbreak will be.
“It’s not a question for unvacci-
nated people if they’re going to get
the virus,” said Dr. Jon Hitzman,
Umatilla County’s public health
offi cer. “It’s when they’re going to
get it and how sick they’re going to
get.”
The state has reported 14 delta
cases so far and three in the Ore-
gon Health Authority’s Region 9,
A4 Putting in more safeguards to
protect workers who must be out in
the oppressive heat is the right move
an area that encompasses Mor-
row, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa,
Baker and Malheur counties. Each
of those cases were reported in
Umatilla County, according to Dr.
Bill Messer, an associate profes-
sor in the department of microbi-
ology and immunology and the
division of infectious diseases at
Oregon Health & Science Univer-
sity, Portland.
But experts say that almost cer-
tainly is an undercount, as only
a small percentage of cases are
sequenced to confi rm if they are
delta. In Umatilla County, only 16
of 116 positive cases over a two-
week period in early June were
sequenced to confi rm if they were
delta.
“The short answer is that we,
collectively the state, we want to
sequence absolutely every spec-
A7 Businesses getting back to
normal as restrictions ease
imen we can get our hands on,”
Messer said. “But there are logis-
tical problems for that, particularly
for the Eastern Oregon counties
and rural hospitals.”
According to Messer, the state
is two weeks behind in its sequenc-
ing. That means cases reported
since June 15 have not been con-
fi rmed as delta or not.
“There is a lag there, and a lot
of cases in those lags,” Messer said.
Cases have declined across Ore-
gon in recent weeks as the state
reached its goal of 70% of res-
idents vaccinated. Meanwhile,
some less-vaccinated Eastern Ore-
gon counties, including Baker and
Umatilla counties, have reported
sharp case spikes.
Umatilla County — where
See Delta, Page A8
A9 New BMCC president has
start date