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A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
for and borrowing” materials
to host their events, he said.
Any funds left over will go
toward future dinners, he said,
while senior centers and other
groups in need get any leftover
food.
In a normal year, accord-
ing to Humphreys, around 150
volunteers are needed. This
year was different, as there was
no table service and cold meals
were handed to passersby, so
there was a need for only 50
volunteers.
Next year marks the 40th
Community Fellowship Din-
ner. Humphreys said he expects
2022 to revert to regular times
with the community meeting
as they did pre-pandemic.
“We’ll do whatever is nec-
essary to make that possible,”
he said.
Thanksgiving:
Continued from Page A1
He said this was a mam-
moth undertaking, which was
made possible by sponsors and
volunteers. Subaru Corpora-
tion was a particularly gener-
ous donor, according to Hum-
phreys, as it gave $9,000,
which alone was more than
the cost of the Thanksgiving
meals.
Humphreys
said
the
Thanksgiving dinner cost
$6,000. Donations from com-
panies and individuals made
it possible to buy new equip-
ment, including a trailer and
maybe an oven, which would
make the event more self-suf-
ficient. No longer will commu-
nity dinners need to “begging
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Volunteers organize to-go meals Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021, at
the Hermiston Community Fellowship Dinner at Hermiston
High School, Hermiston.
Police:
Continued from Page A1
recalls a time when posi-
tions brought in hundreds
of applications for a single
opening, giving law enforce-
ment agencies a wide vari-
ety of potential applicants to
choose from. Those numbers
have dwindled over the past
year — and Duby personally
has had to actively pursue an
applicant and ask the person
to apply for the job.
The Baker City Police
Department is not alone in
the struggle to find quali-
fied applicants.
“I’ve been with the city of
La Grande for 28 years, and
20 to 25 years ago we would
see 150 applications for one
opening for a police officer
position — and that has been
trending in what I feel is a
negative direction for a long
time,” said La Grande Police
Chief Gary Bell.
Bell’s department is hav-
ing only slightly better luck
hiring, with nearly 15 quali-
fied applicants vying for two
open positions, but those
application numbers still are
a far cry from their previ-
ous numbers, according to
Bell. To make matters more
difficult, the number of law
enforcement officers retiring
or resigning has increased,
Bell said.
“The last 18 to 24
months, we have seen a lot
of our long-time employ-
ees — police officers —
retire and so we have been
doing more hiring than what
maybe we would, or have
over the course of the last 15
to 20 years.”
To attract lateral trans-
fers — poaching police offi-
cers from other regions —
Bell created a $6,000 hiring
bonus for certified experi-
enced police officers, hop-
ing to draw in officers from
across the state. So far, that
effort “has not garnered any
certified officers,” Bell said.
Lateral transfers are valu-
able for police departments
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021
due to the amount of training
required for new officers. It
can take up to nine months to
transform a new recruit into
an independent and capable
police officer, Bell said.
“Five to eight years ago
we started retiring police offi-
cers — and you can’t quickly
replace the experience and
the wisdom that those career
police officers possess,” Bell
said. “You genuinely can’t
just replace a police officer,
it’s a lengthy road.”
Police Chief Charles Byram.
Byram, along with Bell
and Duby, noted the pub-
lic image of police deterio-
rated in the wake of massive
protests and riots across the
nation following the mur-
der of George Floyd in Min-
neapolis on May 25, 2020.
Images from major cities
showed police clad in riot
gear blanketing city blocks
in tear gas, as well as several
incidents of assault against
members of the media.
“What
we’re
see-
ing is — essentially since
George Floyd we have seen
a marked decrease in the
number of people interested
in applying to be police
officers,” Bell said. “Law
enforcement has really been
beat up in the course of the
last 18 to 24 months.”
That sentiment has been
muted in more rural areas,
where police enjoy a strong
support from local residents
who, by and large, have a
favorable outlook towards
police according to Bell.
Dealing with a public image
problem
While hiring woes are
not limited to one career,
police agencies are facing
yet another hurdle in their
attempts to hire new offi-
cers — a growing sentiment
that paints police officers in
bad light.
“Everybody is having a
hard time finding people who
want to work, and especially
this profession right now. It’s
probably not the most sexy
profession,” said Pendleton
Bazaar:
Continued from Page A1
“It has not stopped,”
she said as a half-dozen
customers approached.
Among the bazaar
shoppers was April Huck-
step, from the Tri-Cities.
A weekly bazaar shopper,
she had checked out food,
salsa, handcrafts and other
homemade gifts at the
event. To her, shopping
locally is a more person-
able experience. It makes
holiday gifts meaningful.
On Nov. 27, she purchased
for her daughter a wooden
Mickey Mouse ornament
to remind her of a recent
trip to Disneyland.
A few feet from Huck-
Much of that favorable
opinion may stem from the
active community involve-
ment from police officers in
rural communities.
“We have to become
embedded in our commu-
nity, I mean people know us;
we’re only 17,000,” Byram
said. “Somebody is going
to know you. You’re only
a few degrees of separation
away from someone you’re
arresting.”
Holding the line on values
The chiefs said they still
are accepting applications
for the open positions, but
not everybody can become
a police officer. They still
need to meet the basic phys-
ical and psychological stan-
dards set by the agencies and
the state, as well as back-
ground checks and medical
screenings.
“The one thing that I
won’t do is sacrifice our
standards just to make a
hiring decision, I won’t do
it,” Byram said. “Usually if
step stood dozens of stacks
of paintings. They were
Donna Anderson’s, who
was showing her work for
the first time at the bazaar.
After surgery last year left
Anderson immobilized,
painting became her “sav-
ing grace,” she said.
“It gives me peace,”
she said.
Now,
Anderson’s
house is filled with count-
less paintings, so her
family convinced her to
start selling. That’s why
she came to the bazaar,
where she said she sold
a few paintings. She said
she enjoyed the friendly
atmosphere, chatting with
locals about what they’re
buying and with vendors
about their passions.
you do that, then you’re set-
ting yourself up for disaster;
and right now, in this line of
work, I’ll protect the brand
all day. If we have to run
short for a little bit, that’s
fine. But our values, our
mission, our beliefs aren’t
going to be sacrificed just
because I need another body
on the road.”
Byram said anyone who
is interested should apply,
and if anyone would like to
see what the daily lives of
a police officer entails, they
would be more than wel-
come to join an officer for a
ride-along or come and chat
with the police chief about
the job.
“Quite honestly, you
know, I’m open for all com-
ers,” Byram said. “Whether
you have experience or
not, it’s one of those things
where we’re also good at
training cops.”
— Hermiston Herald
editor/senior reporter
Erick Peterson contributed
to this article.
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