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center served 53 children
and had “maxed out” its
space at 255 Olson Road in
Boardman. It has four class-
rooms for students, who are
between six weeks old to 12
years old. The center filled
a need in its community to
care for children when their
parents are at work.
Review:
Continued from Page A1
the past week. Meanwhile,
Morrow County saw only
three new cases reported in
the past seven days, and no
new deaths of individuals
with COVID-19.
Schools progress toward
normalcy: On March 23,
the Hermiston School Dis-
trict announced that all grade
levels would be returning to
class full time, five days a
week. This would start April
13. Families that were con-
cerned about COVID-19
exposure in the classroom
would be able to partici-
pate in the virtual academy
Hermiston Online! instead.
September 2021
April 2021
Umatilla awards: On
April 2, the Umatilla Cham-
ber of Commerce handed
out its Distinguished Citizen
Awards for 2019 and 2020.
Janet Nagy Leitch was hon-
ored as Umatilla Citizen of
the Year for 2020. Acapulco
Mexican Food was named
Umatilla Business of the
Year for 2020. Marcelino
Cruz was named Umatilla
Citizen of the Year for 2019.
Banner Bank was recog-
nized as Umatilla Business
of the Year for 2019.
Vaccine rollout expands:
Oregonians over the age of
16, who were not qualified
for the COVID-19 vaccine
in any of the phases of the
vaccine rollout, became eli-
gible for a shot as of April
19. After moving through
all of the specialized groups
— most recently, essen-
tial workers and those with
underlying conditions —
the state had planned to
make the vaccine available
to everyone over the age of
16 on May 1. But on April 6,
Gov. Kate Brown announced
the new date will be April
19. Meanwhile, more conta-
gious variants become more
prevalent, and numbers indi-
cated the country was begin-
ning a “fourth wave” of the
pandemic.
Construction begins on
Hermiston schools: The
Hermiston School District
hosted a ceremony for a
new, larger Rocky Heights
that would be constructed
in the current athletic fields
next to the old school. It was
planned for students to con-
tinue attending the old build-
ing for the 2021-22 school
year while construction is
underway, before transfer-
ring to the new school in the
fall of 2022. After the Rocky
Heights
groundbreaking,
school board members and
other dignitaries traveled to
a lot at the corner of East
Theater Lane and Northeast
10th Street to break ground
on Loma Vista Elementary
School.
May 2021
Drought declared: The
Morrow County Board of
Commissioners
formally
declared a drought in the
county and asked Gov. Kate
Brown for state support.
A letter from commission-
ers to Brown, dated April
28, describes conditions this
year as “severe” and pro-
jected to continue. Despite
the momentary relief brought
by winter storms in February,
the month of March in Uma-
tilla County was the sixth
driest on record in Pendle-
ton and the second driest
in Hermiston, according to
Marilyn Lohman, a hydrolo-
gist for the National Weather
Service in Pendleton. Since
the first of October 2020,
precipitation in both Pendle-
ton and Hermiston had been
reported lower than normal.
When interviewed near the
end of April, Lohman said
the month of April was shap-
ing up to be one of the driest
on record.
COVID-19
numbers
announced: During the week
of May 16, health officials
reported three new deaths
of patients with COVID-
19 from Umatilla County.
According to Oregon Health
Authority, 34.1% of Uma-
tilla County residents over
the age of 16 had at least one
dose of the vaccine to that
point, compared to 64.3%
statewide. Morrow County
stood at 39.4%. The highest
vaccination rate in Oregon at
the time was Benton County,
where 68.7% of individu-
als over the age of 16 at least
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2021
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File
Children gather alongside Hermiston Mayor David Drotzmann for the ribbon cutting July 4,
2021, of the new Funland Playground.
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File
Tito Munoz, 3, collects a candy cane from Santa Claus during
a tree lighting ceremony Dec. 2, 2021, on Festival Street in
downtown Hermiston. John Perkins, who plays the role of
Santa Claus, has stage four pancreatic cancer.
partially vaccinated.
Honor walk: Hermiston
High School seniors lined
up on Thursday, May 27
for a class photo before the
Honor Walk. There, they
were invited to sign their
name to a set of posters sit-
ting on tables, with titles like
“trade school” or “military,”
to let people know what their
plans were. The Honor Walk
was a precursor to gradua-
tion, which will take place
on Thursday, June 3.
June 2021
Graduation: Hermiston
High School students of the
Class of 2021 graduated at
a ceremony on June 3. Cris-
tina Cuevas, who served as
the high school counselor to
the Class of 2021, said there
were 369 students in the class
who walked at graduation. A
few more still were finishing
up, however, with another
seven who have since qual-
ified for their diploma or
will within days. Students
reflected on their school
careers to that point, which
were interrupted by the pan-
demic. Still, they reported
good memories of friends,
football games and more.
Troubles grow for Herm-
iston VFW: Oregon’s VFW
leadership revoked the
Hermiston post’s charter.
The decision meant mem-
bers of the post were then “at
large” members of the VFW
and had to have someone
sponsor them if they want to
join an adjacent post in Ione,
Kennewick or Pendleton.
Heat wave: Hermis-
ton had its hottest day ever
recorded Monday, June 28,
at 115 degrees, according to
the National Weather Ser-
vice, and immediately broke
that record on Tuesday,
June 19 with 118 degrees.
The city’s previous all-time
record was 113 degrees, set
in 1961. Its previous record
for June was 111 degrees.
Restrictions lifted: Ore-
gon’s statewide COVID-
19 restrictions were largely
lifted on Wednesday, June
30, Gov. Kate Brown said in
a press call Friday, June 25.
After the deadline passes,
statewide mandates on
masks, social distancing and
capacity limits of restau-
rants and venues were be
removed.
July 2021
Funland opens: Many
people gathered in Hermis-
ton’s Butte Park to celebrate
the opening of a new play-
ground, which was the third
iteration of Funland Play-
ground. It was originally
built in 1996 and burned
down in 2001. Its replace-
ment burned down in May
2019 in a suspected case of
arson.
On July 4, Hermiston
Mayor David Drotzmann,
alongside a large group of
children, cut the ribbon on
Funland Playground. A stilt
walker dressed like Uncle
Sam, a pair of pirates and
Santa Claus were part of
the festivities. Locals, who
turned out to see the new
playground, reported their
pleasure. Slides, they said,
were among their favor-
ite new play structures, as
was equipment shaped like
various fruits and vegeta-
bles. Larry Fetter, direc-
tor of Hermiston Parks and
Recreation, too, expressed
his approval of the play-
ground, which were unique
to Hermiston.
The Funland Playground
features a variety of play
structures, including three
main zones: the Wild West,
Adventure and Farmland.
In addition to original play-
ground structures, the play-
ground features a soft, rub-
bery play surface that has
been designed to comple-
ment the various areas of
play.
The playground came
with a $1.75 million price
tag. An insurance payout
of $752,000 from the pre-
vious playground paid for
part of this cost. The Fun-
land Fundraising Com-
mittee, in partnership with
Hermiston Parks and Rec-
reation, raised an additional
$810,000. Rotary, Kiwanis
and Lions clubs, as well as
others, helped fundraise for
the project.
Due to Funland’s history
with fires, the city of Herm-
iston has said the new struc-
ture was built with fire-resis-
tant materials and features
surveillance cameras to fur-
ther deter vandalism.
The delta variant arrives:
Fourteen delta cases were
announced in Oregon and
three cases were discov-
ered in Umatilla County by
mid-July. Experts added the
three cases were almost cer-
tainly an undercount. Early
research suggested the delta
variant was two to three
times as transmissible as the
original strain.
Back to masks: Less than
a month after Oregon lifted
nearly all pandemic man-
dates, Umatilla County resi-
dents once again were being
asked to mask up in pub-
lic indoor settings to curb
the spread of COVID-19.
In a statement the last week
of July, Umatilla County
Public Health aligned with
recent
recommendations
from the state and federal
government that everybody,
including fully vaccinated
people, should wear masks
indoors “due to a substantial
increase in Umatilla Coun-
ty’s COVID-19 case rate.”
On July 26, The Oregon
Health Authority issued a
report showing that, from
July 11-22, Umatilla County
saw a case rate of 504 new
cases per 100,000 peo-
ple — by far the highest in
the state. During that same
period, 17.6% of all tests
came back positive, the sec-
ond highest in Oregon, just
behind Morrow County’s
17.9%.
The masking recom-
mendations also come as
COVID-19 hospitalizations
surge statewide and at some
regional hospitals.
August 2021
Umatilla County Fair
resumes: The Umatilla
County
Fair
Kick-Off
Parade returned for 2021.
Veterans led the procession,
which commenced rolling a
little after 6:30 p.m. Aug. 7,
along Seventh Street, turn-
ing onto Hermiston Ave-
nue, looping around city
hall and finishing on First
Street and Locust Ave-
nue. Thousands of attend-
ees from all over the county
lined the streets, clapping
and cheering as participants
passed. The fair schedule
was Aug. 11-14 and would
include attractions includ-
ing carnival rides and ani-
mal competitions.
Population growth con-
firmed: The U.S. Cen-
sus Bureau released city
and county population data
Thursday, Aug. 12, reveal-
ing Hermiston turned its
slight advantage into a solid
lead as the largest city in
the county, its 19,354 peo-
ple edging out Pendleton’s
17,107. While the city of
Umatilla’s growth slowed
from the previous decade,
it still grew at a 6.6% clip,
while Stanfield also posted
a growing population. Uma-
tilla County overall grew
by 5.5% between 2010 and
2020 and Morrow County
by 9.1%.
Greater
Hermiston
CityFest brings the faith-
ful: Thousands of peo-
ple crowded Hermiston’s
Butte Park on Aug. 27 and
28 for CityFest. It was an
event that featured speak-
ers, music, bicycle stunts
and more. CityFest had been
delayed before, but organiz-
ers thought it should not be
put off any longer. People
involved in the event said
they had seen depression
and difficulties in their own
church congregations. This
event, they said, should help
by creating some fun.
Oregon senator comes to
Boardman: U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden visited Families First
Childcare Center in Board-
man on Aug. 31 and said he
was impressed with it. The
SAGE Center expands:
The Port of Morrow
announced it was start-
ing development on the
12,500-square-foot Cultural
Alliance and Training Cen-
ter at SAGE as an expansion
to the existing museum. The
project was being funded
from a $4.3 million appro-
priation from the Oregon
Legislature passed during
the 2021 session. The SAGE
Center originally opened in
2013 and is an interactive
museum dedicated to the
local agriculture and energy
industries.
Sheriffs put their foot
down: Eastern Oregon sher-
iff’s offices reaffirmed they
would not enforce the mask
mandates Gov. Kate Brown
set in place. As well, a num-
ber of sheriffs across East-
ern Oregon, including in
Baker and Union counties,
have addressed the matter in
letters to the governor stat-
ing they will not be enforc-
ing any mask mandates,
though the governor never
asked them to do so.
There is one exception —
the sheriffs said they would
continue to handle issues of
trespassing wherein a patron
of a business refuses to wear
a mask after being asked to
by the business — but that is
the ultimate extent to which
the law enforcement agen-
cies have said they would
intervene.
“Business and property
owners have a right to set
ground rules for how people
behave in their businesses,”
Morrow County Sheriff
Ken Matlack said. “When
a person becomes disrup-
tive because of this issue, in
that situation, it’s not really
a mask mandate. It becomes
an issue of trespassing or
harassment, and we would
get involved in those situa-
tions as a matter of law.”
October 2021
Harvest Festival returns:
Over 1,000 people attended
the Morrow County Har-
vest Festival Oct. 2 at the
SAGE Center in Board-
man. The festival had been
on hiatus in 2020 due to
the pandemic. Live music,
mule-drawn wagon rides,
food and children’s activ-
ities were present. There
also was a pinewood derby
race, which was new to the
festival.
Peer centers opened: The
Oregon Washington Health
Network, on Oct. 6, opened
three drop-in peer centers in
Hermiston, Pendleton and
Milton-Freewater. The cen-
ters began offering low-bar-
rier access for individuals
and families that are strug-
gling with substance use.
The Hermiston Center is at
165 S.W. Third St.
Social media troubles:
Local students reported suf-
fering from social media.
Sites like TikTok, YouTube
and Facebook proved addic-
tive for people. Some young
people even report being
“hooked” and that social
media use has caused them
harm. These claims come
as a national conversation
has been occurring regard-
ing social media. Recent
revelations from Facebook
whistleblower Frances Hau-
gen and a Wall Street Jour-
nal investigation sparked
national outrage has reinvig-
orated discussions over how
the platforms influence teen-
age mental health.
Vaccine mandate: More
than 2 out of every 5 work-
ers in Umatilla and Mor-
row counties were subject to
the state’s vaccine mandate
that started Oct. 18. Large
regional employers such
as CHI St. Anthony Hos-
pital, the Pendleton School
District and the Hermis-
ton School District reported
high vaccination rates
among their staff, with most
unvaccinated staff granted a
medical or religious exemp-
tion to stay on or with their
employer.
Halloween celebrated:
Crowds of people turned
out for local Halloween
events. It was a big year
for many people, who were
enjoying experiences that
had been canceled the year
prior because of the coro-
navirus pandemic. Hermis-
ton hosted events, including
Treats on Main & Beyond.
Local businesses handed out
candy to costumed trick-or-
treaters. Also on Oct. 30,
Stanfield’s Fall Festival &
Haunted Library activities
including games and “trunk-
or-treat” provided much fun.
Chief on leave: The Uma-
tilla Rural Fire Protection
District placed its fire chief,
Steve Potts, on paid leave on
Oct. 19 amid an investiga-
tion into an “internal matter.
Scott Stanton, chief of Uma-
tilla Fire District No. 1, took
charge of the department
after Potts was put on leave.
November 2021
Church serves as a role
model: On Nov. 7, Pas-
tor Patty Nance conducted
a service that was like the
other ones had at Hermis-
ton First United Method-
ist Church in the preceding
months. On that day, as with
every service during the
pandemic, every congrega-
tion member was wearing a
mask. During the entire ser-
vice, the only time anyone
removed a mask was when
speaking at the front of the
church, behind a lectern or
at the altar. This came at
a time mask-wearing had
become politicized, and
some television evangelists
had decried both masks and
vaccinations. Nance said,
“Jesus would have masked.”
Veterans Day: Special
events in Umatilla County
were held Thursday, Nov.
11 to honor local veterans
for Veterans Day. In Herm-
iston, around 140 veter-
ans shared food and cama-
raderie during an annual
breakfast at the Hermis-
ton Community Center.
Also, the Echo School Dis-
trict organized the Veterans
Day Parade & Assembly in
downtown Echo, beginning
with a parade in the morning
and an afternoon assembly
honoring former servicemen
and women.
Hermiston VFW goods
sold: After years of troubles
with the Hermiston branch
of the Veterans of Foreign
Wars, the post became his-
tory. Oregon VFW officials
on Nov. 20-21 held a final
sale of whatever was left
in the old VFW Hall, 45 W.
Cherry Ave.
Thanksgiving
meal
served as drive-thru: Con-
tainers of roast turkey din-
ners with all the trimmings
were distributed on Nov. 25.
The Community Fellowship
Dinner provided more than
a thousand meals, given to
people in their cars.
December 2021
A special Santa: John
Perkins bravely continued
his work as Santa Claus
with an appearance Dec.
2 at Hermiston’s annual
Christmas tree lighting cer-
emony. Perkins, 70, has
stage four pancreatic cancer.
The Umatilla resident drew
high praise from children at
the event, as well as event
organizers.
Funland
Playground
defended: By early Decem-
ber, Hermiston’s Funland
Playground had already
been subject to minor van-
dalism and wear. Brandon
Artz, the new parks and
recreation director, wanted
the public to feel safe that
it would be protected. The
playground is protected
with cameras and alarms, he
said. Also, it will soon get a
new fence.
Bank robbery: Clifford
Uptegrove, 58, of Yakima,
was arrested on charges
of first-degree robbery,
first-degree theft and felony
fleeing and unlawful use
of a weapon. The robbery
for which he was arrested
occurred Dec. 17 just before
3 p.m. at Umpqua Bank,
450 N. First St., Hermiston.
Hermiston police took
the lead in the chase, Edmis-
ton said, and police video
shows the suspect pulled
over, and to prevent him
from fleeing again, a Herm-
iston officer in a pickup
parked against the driver’s
door and pinned him in.
“They they took him out
at gunpoint,” Edmiston said.