WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2021
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Melon Fest
brings
downtown
to life
By BEN LONERGAN
STAFF WRITER
Downtown Hermiston
was buzzing with activ-
ity Saturday, Aug. 21, as
the city’s annual Melon
Fest brought seed spitters,
bathtub racers and people
dressed as watermelons to
the closed section of Main
Street.
Cheers and excitement
erupted as father-son duo
of Marvin Hamilton Jr.
and Marvin Hamilton Sr.
hurriedly pushed a bath-
tub carrying Tile Ham-
ilton through a slalom
course at one end of Main
Street. Tile used a plas-
tic cup to douse her oppo-
nents with water from her
tub as the family team
raced to victory.
“It feels great to win,”
Tile said as she and the
family walked to collect
their trophy.
The Hamilton Fam-
ily, representing the Fire-
starters Youth Group, said
they had no way of pre-
paring for the race, but
felt excellent communi-
cation propelled them to
victory.
While the family were
a fi rst-time bathtub rac-
ing team, Marvin Hamil-
ton Sr. said he and a group
of coworkers competed in
the event in 2018, though
they fi nished further back
in the lineup.
“To come back and win
it this time feels great,”
said Marvin Hamilton Sr.
“We’ll be back next year
to defend our title.”
The Hamilton family
said they were excited to
be able to compete this
year and enjoyed being
out at events again fol-
lowing the cancellation of
last year’s festival.
“It’s good to see every-
one outside,” said the
elder Hamilton. “I’m
happy the city had it.”
Melon Fest kicked
off Aug. 21 with a cos-
tume contest that saw
competitors dressed as
See Melon, Page A8
MIXED EMOTIONS
over mask and vaccine mandates for school year
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Umatilla County Public Health Offi cer Dr. Jon Hitzman answers questions during a public forum Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, at Armand Larive Middle School to
discuss COVID-19 and returning to school amid the pandemic.
Umatilla County’s
public health offi cer
delivers facts to counter
‘untrue information’
By NICK ROSENBERGER
STAFF WRITER
After Gov. Kate Brown’s
announcement that all school staff ,
educators and volunteers must be
vaccinated no later than Oct. 18,
emotions have been mixed through
the Umatilla County school sys-
tems — some have welcomed the
announcement while others have
pushed back.
At times calm and respect-
ful, at other times highly charged
and emotional, many of these con-
cerns and feelings were expressed
at a community forum Thursday,
Aug. 19, at Armand Larive Middle
School, Hermiston.
Superintendent Tricia Mooney,
along with Dr. Jon Hitzman, the
county’s public health offi cer, and
Alisha Lundgren, Umatilla Coun-
ty’s deputy health director, fi elded
questions from community mem-
bers, parents and district employ-
ees. For more than an hour, the
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Alisha Lundgren, assistant deputy director of the Umatilla County Health
Department, left, and Dr. Jon Hitzman, the county’s public health offi cer,
answer questions from community members Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021,
during a public forum with the Hermiston School District at Armand Larive
Middle School in Hermiston.
trio patiently answered questions
ranging from athletics to substi-
tute teachers to sick leave. The
vast majority of concerns, how-
ever, focused on misinforma-
tion surrounding vaccine effi cacy
and safety, rather than the outright
refusal of the recent mandates.
“My role here is mostly to pro-
vide you with scientifi c facts and
evidence that you may have ques-
tions about,” Dr. Hitzman said, “I
know that social media has done an
incredibly ‘good’ job of disseminat-
ing sometimes untrue information.”
Some such concerns include
whether it’s possible to get COVID-
19 from the vaccine itself or
whether there is any danger in get-
ting the vaccine. According to Hitz-
man, the CDC and an exceptional
body of research, this is not possi-
ble as there is no live virus within
the vaccine. Instead, the mRNA
vaccine is composed of basic lip-
ids, salts and sugars that “teach” the
body how to fi ght the virus.
“As a doctor and someone in the
scientifi c fi eld, it’s actually some of
the coolest technology we’ve ever
come up with,” he said.
As for the risks of getting the
vaccine, Hitzman emphasized that
there’s a greater chance of some-
one dying in a car accident or plane
crash than dying from the vac-
cine. In the roughly 360 million
doses of the vaccine administered
in the United States, Hitzman said
there have only been three docu-
mented and confi rmed deaths stem-
ming from blood clots after getting
the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
That is a percentage of 0.000001%
. According to one study from
Tulane University, there’s a greater
See Mandates, Page A8
Families, locals coverage at Morrow County Fair
By NICK ROSENBERGER
STAFF WRITER
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Spectators watch as goats are shown Friday, Aug. 20, 2021, at the Morrow County Fair in Heppner.
INSIDE
A2  Three minutes with the new
Hermiston Herald news leader
A3  Locals react to U.S.
withdrawal from Afghanistan
A deceptively
chill
breeze and cloud cover over
Heppner belied the chil-
dren laughing and scream-
ing below at the sixth day of
the Morrow County Fair on
Friday, Aug. 20, where peo-
ple gathered together from
all over the county for fun
and action.
The smell of hay and
livestock spilled out from
the open doors of the main
barn, where youths could be
found at the 4-H and FFA
Master Showmanship com-
petition, the steers, horses
and sheep sauntering slowly
along to the children’s and
teens’ prodding and com-
mands as they made loops of
the pen to soft claps.
Bart Lentz, a tall man
with a friendly smile from
Heppner, had brought his
daughter, Kodie, to the fair
A6  Foster kids dive into
summer fun
earlier to show her pig and
said they enjoyed having the
fair back after a year off .
“We enjoy getting to see
friends and having family
around,” Lentz said.
Erin Heideman, the Mor-
row County 4-H coordi-
nator and a part of Oregon
State University’s exten-
sion offi ce, agreed the com-
munity aspect was one of
the best parts of having the
fair back this year. Between
emceeing the youth live-
stock show and answering
questions, Heideman’s pas-
sion for the future of agri-
culture is obvious.
“At the end of the day, it’s
all about how do we support
our youth and how do we
promote agricultural educa-
tion. This is how we do it,”
she said. “Our hope is that
as these young people grow
and develop that they’ve
See Fair, Page A8
A9  Dogs get to have their day