FROM PAGE 0NE
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2021
Veterans:
Continued from Page A1
An honor guard member
for American Legion Post
37, Hermiston, Hill said he
is not accustomed to talking
about his Army days.
“It was a million-dollar
experience,” he said, “but
I’d hate to have to spend
a million dollars to do it
again.”
Artz said he hopes next
year’s event can include
more people. Pre-pandemic,
the Veterans Day Breakfast
did not try to limit the num-
ber of attendees, he said.
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald
Patriotism on parade
The Echo School Dis-
trict organized the Veterans
Day Parade & Assembly in
downtown Echo, beginning
with a parade in the morn-
ing and an afternoon assem-
bly honoring former service-
men and women.
While waiting for the
parade to pass, Melissa
Doherty spoke of the impor-
tance of the holiday and
reflected on her own mili-
tary service.
Doherty, the Hermis-
ton High School dean of
students, was in the U.S.
Army from 1997 to 2003,
she said. She was sched-
uled to be the keynote
speaker at the Echo school
assembly Thursday, Nov.
11. She said she planned
to speak to children about
the reasons for joining the
military, including her own
motivations. This happened
already, why is it written as
a future plan?
Doherty said she joined
the Army for the money
could earn for college. A
person could make $75,000
a year for college, she said,
which allowed her to obtain
a master’s degree. But mil-
itary service also comes
with less tangible benefits,
she said, such as learning
senses of duty and honor.
As she watched the
procession, other people
stood alongside the parade
route, many cheering the
participants.
Shannon Tacy, Echo
teacher and FFA advisor,
marched with her students,
whom she called an “excel-
lent group of patriots.” She
said she was not a veteran,
but she expressed she was
indebted to service people.
John Cox, of Echo, also
was in the parade. Cox,
who has family members
who served in the Vietnam
War and World War II, was
dressed as Santa Claus and
waved a United States flag.
“This is a nice way for
us to express our apprecia-
tion,” he said, as he walked
the parade route.
Raymon Smith, Echo
School District superinten-
dent, who has been with the
district for 11 years, said
approximately 300 stu-
dents, the entirety of the
district’s children, were
involved in the parade.
He said the day’s events
were intended to instruct
children.
In addition to the parade,
service members from each
branch of the military were
scheduled to appear at
schools to talk to children.
Students were encouraged
to welcome family mem-
Markets:
Continued from Page A1
residents in frontier towns,
including John Day or Prai-
rie City, might have to travel
further to fill their shopping
cart for the upcoming hol-
iday. Grocery stores report
that while ordering has been
a challenge, the staples for a
Thanksgiving feast have yet
to cause any concerns.
“Before, I was able to buy
pallets of certain things like
condensed milk — when it
comes to those really big
staples, a lot of it is on an
allocation that you can’t
buy big amounts like that
because they wouldn’t be
able to service everybody,”
said Mike Shaffer, opera-
tions manager for Chester’s
Market in John Day. “As far
as staples go, we’re sitting
pretty good.”
Shaffer said he has had
to order months in advance
for key items, especially
Brodie Messenger, volunteer, stands at the door of the Hermiston Warming Station on
Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021.
Warming:
CONTACT INFORMATION
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Melissa Doherty, a former captain in the U.S. Army Medical
Service Corps, speaks Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021, at the Echo
School’s Veterans Day assembly.
Kathy Aney/Hermiston Herald
Russell “Spike” Piersol, a member of the American Legion,
places a POW MIA flag at the start of a Veterans Day breakfast
on Thursday, Nov. 11, 2021, at the Hermiston Community
Center.
bers to the event.
Smith said he told stu-
dents of his father, who
served in the Vietnam War
and was disrespected upon
his return to America.
“It’s important for kids
to remember that,” he said.
“That’s why we have our
kids here today, not just use
it as a day off of school but
to use it as an opportunity
to educate kids about the
importance and history of
service in this country.”
Pendleton High School
students lined the fields out-
side their school with doz-
ens of United States flags
on Wednesday, Nov. 10, in
a gesture of appreciation and
support for local veterans.
Roughly a dozen leader-
ship students took part in the
activity celebrating Veterans
Day. They walked along the
roads, staking the small flags
into the ground while laugh-
ing and chatting on the clear,
sunny fall afternoon.
This was one of several
local Veterans Day events to
recognize those who served.
Students with family
members who served in the
armed forces shared what
the federal holiday means
to them. Sauren Garton, a
senior at the high school,
said she felt it was important
to recognize the people who
fought for the country.
“I’m about as Ameri-
can as they get,” Sauren
Garton, a senior at the high
school said. “I think it’s
really important that kids get
reminded that we didn’t get
all these things for free.”
Curt Thompson, assis-
tant principal at Pendleton
High School, said placing
the flags instills in students a
sense of pride in their coun-
try after years of political
division.
“Things like this are a
good reminder to all of us
that we’re all part of the
same country and we need
to be working together and
support each other,” Thomp-
son said.
Sam Jennings, a senior
leadership student and track
athlete, said serving in the
armed forces is an important
part of his family. He strug-
gles to count how many of
his family members have
served, but estimates there
are at least six.
“It’s nice to have a day
for them, to honor their will-
ingness to serve,” Jennings
said. “They deserve it.”
Jennings said the flags
this year are a step-up from
efforts the school has made
in the past to show support.
He said he gladly would
have dug trenches and
staked 10-foot flags, “but
this is just as good.”
Rylee Demianew said the
flags are a physical reminder
for students leaving school
that Veterans Day isn’t sim-
ply a day off. To her, it’s a
day to show veterans the stu-
dents are thinking of them.
during Thanksgiving and
similar holidays where sup-
plies go fast as the holiday
approaches and the deadline
for putting the turkey in the
oven looms.
For now, the store is well
stocked for the upcoming
feast, according to Shaffer.
“It was really easy to
get what you needed before
all this stuff happened and
before — I call it a logis-
tical nightmare, but you
know all the logistic issues
that everyone is experi-
encing — before that we’d
have pretty big item counts,
big ads so people could
come in and get a good deal
on whatever they need for
dinner and stuff like that,
so it has changed,” Shaf-
fer said. “If you commit to
something like we did this
year — if you have to reor-
der it, that’s where you may
run into an issue because
everybody else is reor-
dering, especially for the
season.”
Supply chain issues have
cropped up from a myriad of
pandemic-related minutiae,
such as labor and raw mate-
rial shortages — includ-
ing dock workers and truck
drivers — to low production
yields and increased costs of
goods as shipping costs sky-
rocket due to increases in
fuel and container prices.
That means when orders
finally arrive at grocery
stores, the contents might be
less than what was ordered,
or the order itself would be
delayed.
“It’s hard to plan around,
I’ll put it to you that way,”
Shaffer said.
Those issues exacerbated
an already vulnerable sys-
tem. Still, the grocery stores
remain optimistic about the
upcoming holiday.
“It’s not like it was last
year,” Huffman said. “I
think it will be good, I think
everything will be good.”
Erick Peterson contrib-
uted to this story.
Celebrating in
Pendleton
are usually people who are
older and more susceptible
to COVID-19. And there
goes your workforce.”
She said CAPECO
“could not build a year-
round shelter system on a
volunteer base.”
The Pendleton Warm-
ing Station faces the same
problem as its Hermiston
counterpart. Dwight John-
son, executive director of
Neighbor 2 Neighbor, the
nonprofit that operates
the station, said it will not
open this year. Instead, the
Pendleton Warming Sta-
tion will offer motel vouch-
ers to people in need as the
weather grows colder
Johnson cited COVID-
19 concerns and volunteer
shortage for not opening
the congregate shelter.
He said many of his
volunteers are older peo-
ple who are not volunteer-
ing now because of the
pandemic. Right now, he
has 100 volunteers, 20-25
active. Pre-pandemic, he
had 40-45 active volun-
teers, which still made
operation “challenging.”
A volunteer’s perspective
Messenger said, when
he started volunteering, he
was looking for a way to
help his community.
“I saw it on Facebook,
where they needed volun-
teers, and I had time, so
I tried it out and actually
really enjoyed it,” he said.
His favorite thing
about his work is listen-
ing to the stories of the
station’s guests. Through
their stories, the guests
have given him new per-
spective on life, he said.
Where some people may
see them as dangerous,
Messenger expressed he
has come to learn oth-
erwise. He said he has
gained empathy and
understanding, as he has
discovered that people
are more or less the same,
homeless or otherwise.
He said it is common
Roads:
Continued from Page A1
to Portland-area projects,
including the Interstate
5 widening in the Rose
Quarter and a new Colum-
bia River crossing shortly
after the infrastructure bill
passed through Congress.
Morgan said cities such
as Hermiston and Pendle-
ton are in a “federal grant
donut hole;” too big to qual-
ify for infrastructure loans
under the U.S. Department
of Agriculture but too small
to compete with large cit-
ies applying for high-dol-
lar grants.
And while ODOT’s
work with surface roads
makes it a natural fit to
distribute federal funds
for road work, Morgan
said he didn’t know how
funds would be distributed
for other key infrastruc-
ture pieces, such as under-
Anyone who would like to volunteer to the Hermiston
Warming Station can email hws1075@gmail.com for
more information.
The Hermiston Warm-
ing Station is experiencing
not only a shortage of vol-
unteers but of funds. Grants
and donations cover the
station’s expenses. Dona-
tions, though, are low, he
said, but he said he was not
sure the reason.
He does have reasons
for the drop in the number
of volunteers, he said. He
said he thinks COVID-19
is one cause.
Not that it has ever been
easy to attract volunteers,
he said. He admitted it is
not very glamorous work,
and it might seem danger-
ous to outsiders.
“People have false per-
ceptions of it,” he said.
Policies, such as hav-
ing multiple volunteers
present during open hours,
help keep volunteers safe,
according to Messenger.
Also, there are cameras set
up throughout the house.
“No harm has ever come
to anyone who has volun-
teered here,” Messenger
said. The worst thing he
said he could recall were
arguments, he added.
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason
Edmiston
said
“there have been no sig-
nificant issues” at the sta-
tion, though his depart-
ment does receive calls
and responds “from time
to time.” In 2020, police
were called 10 times to the
warming station, according
to a report from Edmiston,
which cited reasons such as
vandalism, trespassing and
welfare checks.
Messenger also said
people might also be wor-
ried about COVID-19
infection, but he added he
was not aware of any out-
breaks at the station. He
said there was one “scare,”
a recent guest who said he
was COVID-19 positive
but was not.
He said the station is
strict about masks. Volun-
teers and guests must use
masks when not sleeping
or eating, he said. Also,
the station makes frequent
use of sanitizer and clean-
ing products, he said, and
an outside cleaning ser-
vice has been brought in to
sanitize.
ground utilities.
“There’s no ODOT
equivalent for drinking
water,” he said.
Morgan said Hermis-
ton has a number of infra-
structure projects it could
fund with additional fed-
eral money, including the
Gettman
Road/Railway
Alternative Transportation
Enhancement, or GRATE
project, which aims to con-
nect Highway 395 and
Highway 207 by replacing
a bridge, building a new
road, widening existing
road and enhancing a rail-
road crossing. The total cost
of the project is roughly
$8.6 million, but it’s broken
out into four phases so the
city doesn’t need to work
on it all at once.
In a newsletter to public
officials, Umatilla County
Commissioner
George
Murdock also sounded a
note of caution. While men-
tioning Umatilla County’s
public works director was
optimistic the infrastruc-
ture bill could help locally
with bridges and surface
transportation,
Murdock
was concerned some of the
bill’s allocations were too
large for a county the size of
Umatilla and smaller com-
munities might have trou-
ble matching grant program
created through the bill.
And with the bill cov-
ering other types of infra-
structure, including public
transportation, broadband
internet and wildfire man-
agement, Murdock said the
county would need to wait
to see how the bill would
apply locally.
“In short, we have
learned it will be good for
Umatilla County, but com-
paring over half a billion
dollars in new investments
with what we are likely to
see in Oregon and Uma-
tilla County is very likely
an illusion,” he wrote.
for volunteers to visit with
guests, as also they dis-
tribute toiletries, food and
other resources. Volunteers
may also launder clothes.
A guest’s experience
Messenger said the
Hermiston Warming Sta-
tion opens at 7:30 p.m.
Guests have to ring the
doorbell, and a volunteer
lets them in. From there,
guests fill out paperwork,
if it is their first visit, and
they listen to a reading of
the house rules, he said.
They pick their bed-
ding, set up their bed and
store their possessions in
a tote, he said. Guests then
may use the bathroom and
laundry machines to clean,
and they can get something
to eat from the kitchen, he
said.
There is room in the sta-
tion for sleeping — one
men’s room, one women’s
room and a third room for
a family or overflow. The
men’s room can fit eight
men and the women’s
room can fit four, Messen-
ger said and the intake area
has space for further over-
flow, if needed. The maxi-
mum occupancy is 24, but
it would be uncomfortable
for more than 18 guests to
spend the night, Messen-
ger said.
Messenger said the sta-
tion on a typical night
serves 11 guests. He said
he remembers one time in
which the station was too
crowded for a guest. Two
years ago, he said, one per-
son had to be turned away.
False perceptions play a role
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