WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2022
HermistonHerald.com
EasternOregonMarketplace.com
‘A better world’
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Hermiston School District Superintendent Tricia Mooney, left,
and Jose Aparicio, a construction manager with the Wenaha
Group Inc., walk the site of the new Rocky Heights Elementary
School on Jan. 12, 2022, in Hermiston.
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Marchers carry signs Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, along East Main Street in downtown Hermiston during the annual Martin
Luther King Jr. Day Peace March.
Hermiston church hosts MLK Jr. Day Peace March
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
Jesus Rome has lived in Hermis-
ton for 30 years, and he said he has
been to every Martin Luther King Jr.
Day Peace March in the community
since it inception in 2000.
Monday, Jan. 17, was no excep-
tion. Rome is the treasurer for the
Hermiston Cultural Awareness Coa-
lition, which organizes the event
each year.
“When I think about MLK and
other civil rights leaders, I can’t help
but remember and appreciate all the
past pioneers that have gone before
me and paved the way so I can have
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
the rights and freedoms I have now
Signs sit on the ground Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, as marchers listen to speeches
in this country,” Rome said.
Rome pointed out injustice in at the First United Methodist Church in Hermiston following the annual Martin
Oregon’s past. In 1844, he said, Ore- Luther King Jr. Day Peace March.
gon voted into law the Black Exclu-
sion Act, which essentially made
it illegal for any Black families to
move into Oregon territory.
“I just can’t imagine being my
skin color and growing up in those
days and even during the days of the
civil rights movement era and expe-
riencing the constant racial trauma
and discrimination on daily basis,”
he said.
Around 80 people attended the
march, which began at 11 a.m. at
the Hermiston First United Method-
ist Church, 191 E. Gladys Ave., and
traveled down Main Street.
Police escorts and a United
States fl ag bearer led the proces-
sion. People of varied ages, elders
to children, took part. Some peo-
ple sang “We Shall Overcome,” and
others held homemade signs depict-
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
ing King.
Pastor Patty Nance, whose Pastor Marlando Jordan speaks Monday, Jan. 17, 2022, at the First United
church hosted the event, walked Methodist Church in Hermiston at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Peace
at the back of the march. She said March.
she was glad her church could play
a role in the celebration of King. In but he had refl ected on King and his sion in the week prior to the MLK
addition, Nance expressed hope that legacy.
march, he said he wishes many of
people would hear the speakers and
“I think he did a tremendous job our nation’s leaders could express
gain understanding of the state of in bringing things to our country that similar messages of togetherness.
the world and its need for change.
needed to be addressed,” he said.
Following Smith in his speech,
Kicking off speeches, Rev.
King’s message, especially as Carol Jeff eries, HCAC member,
Chuck Barnes, St. John’s Episcopal it relates to unity, is particularly spoke briefl y to encourage com-
Church priest, off ered a
munity. Also, she intro-
prayer.
duced Jessica Chavez,
Hermiston City Man-
high school scholarship
ager Byron Smith spoke
winner.
next, focusing on King’s
Chavez, who plans
optimism, his confi -
to become a high school
dence that people could
teacher, said King’s mes-
work together for a bet-
sage is “a guide” as she
— Jessica Chavez, Hermiston High School student and
ter world. Smith chal-
and others strive for a
HCAC scholarship winner
lenged listeners to be
better world. Peaceful
like King. He also said
protest, she said, is key,
we should take the
in eff orts toward racial
example of organizations such as important and relevant these days, equality.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- Smith added.
Pastor Marlando Jordan of Sozo
ter-day Saints and the National
“He was not trying to draw lines Church in Kennewick spoke at the
Association for the Advancement between diff erent races or diff erent event and said King was a man of
of Colored People, who united in a peoples,” Smith said of King. “He God, a man of vision, a man of cour-
partnership to further causes of jus- was trying to show that we need to age and a man of love.
tice and progress.
come together.”
Quoting King, the Kennewick
Prior to the MLK march, Smith
Smith in his speech expressed preacher said, “Hate is too great a
expressed modesty at his inclusion. confi dence that we, as a nation, can burden to bear.”
“I don’t know if I bring anything unify, even during a time in which
See March, Page A9
extra special” to the event, he said, many of us are divided. In a discus-
DR. KING’S MESSAGE IS
A GUIDE AS WE STRIVE
FOR A BETTER WORLD
INSIDE
A2 Hermiston History off ers a
look into the past
A3 Police make arrest in 2015
murder case
Hermiston
schools set to
open in fall
‘They’re going to be
beautiful,’ construction
manager says of new
schools
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
Starting this autumn,
Hermiston will have two
new elementary schools.
Trudging around in the
muck Jan. 12, at the con-
struction site of the new
Rocky Heights Elementary
School, Hermiston School
District Superintendent Tri-
cia Mooney said she was
pleased with its progress.
“I am impressed,” she
said.
This is the fi rst school
construction she has over-
seen, she said, and she is
enjoying it.
“It’s going up fast, and
it’s really looking like a
school.”
She added she also was
happy about the advance-
ment on the Loma Vista Ele-
mentary project.
She was on the site with
Jose Aparicio, Wenaha
Group Inc., construction
manager, and Jon Fowler,
project superintendent with
Kirby Nagelhout Construc-
tion Co.
Voters in November 2019
approved an $82.7 mil-
lion bond measure to pay
for projects to address stu-
dent capacity. The new
Rocky Heights and Loma
Vista schools are part of the
district’s plans to address
capacity.
Anticipating a grand opening
Mooney, along with the
Wenaha and Kirby Nagel-
hout bosses, said the schools
were on schedule to open for
classes in the fall.
Aparicio
said
the
schools will have the same
“feel and layout” as Herm-
iston’s West Park Elemen-
tary School. The two new
schools will resemble each
other, too, he said. The big-
gest diff erence between
them will be the direction
they are facing.
The buildings will have
four classrooms per grade
level
—
kindergarten
through fi fth grade — and
four classrooms for addi-
tional programs. This gives
the building a total of 28
classrooms. The maximum
occupancy will be 600.
This is needed, Mooney
said, because the area is
See Schools, Page A9
DEQ fi nes Port
of Morrow $1.3M
Port violated its permit
more than 1,000 times
in the last few years,
according to regulators
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
Oregon
environmen-
tal regulators have fi ned the
Port of Morrow $1.3 mil-
lion for repeatedly over-ap-
plying agricultural waste-
water on nearby farms in
an area that already has ele-
vated levels of nitrates in the
groundwater.
The state Department
of Environmental Quality
announced the fi ne on Jan.
11.
Under a DEQ water qual-
ity permit, the port collects
nitrogen-rich
wastewater
from food processors, stor-
age facilities and data cen-
ters at its Boardman indus-
trial park, which it then
reuses to irrigate neigh-
boring farm fi elds growing
potatoes, onions and other
high-value crops.
A6 Comedy show coming to
Hermiston on Jan. 28
But according to the
agency, the port violated
its permit more than 1,000
times from 2018 to 2021,
exceeding the limit on
how much nitrogen can be
safely applied to farmland
and resulting in 165 tons of
excess nitrogen in the fi elds.
Leah Feldon, DEQ dep-
uty director, said these are
“serious violations of water
quality regulations that are in
place to protect public health
and the environment.”
The Port of Morrow
is Oregon’s second-larg-
est port, behind only the
Port of Portland. It is in the
Umatilla Basin of northeast
Oregon, where in 1990 the
state declared a Groundwa-
ter Management Area due
to high levels of groundwa-
ter nitrates exceeding 7 mil-
ligrams per liter.
In a statement, Ryan Neal,
the port’s general manager,
said it takes the violations
seriously and will work in
collaboration with DEQ
toward fi nding a long-term
See Port, Page A9
A7 National Guard returns to
help in Eastern Oregon hospitals