Welcome to the first weekly regional edition of the East Oregonian.
This newspaper has been evolving since it began in 1875. My great-grandfather, E.B. Aldrich, came to Pendleton in the early 1900s and our family has owned and managed the EO for four generations since then, acquiring other newspapers in the region over time.
This latest evolution has been the most difficult. EO Media Group must adjust to challenging headwinds, and we recently made the heart-wrenching decision to suspend print publication of the EO’s sister papers: the Hermiston Herald, The (La Grande) Observer, Baker City Herald, Wallowa County Chieftain and Blue Mountain Eagle.
In all these Northeastern Oregon counties, we still employ journalists who will post their local news online on those individual websites. Some of their reporting will be printed in the weekly East Oregonian, which will be mailed to subscribers of all six newspapers.
We hope that you enjoy reading news from your community, and will appreciate reading news from neighboring communities as well. We are depending on the support of our subscribers and advertisers. Local journalism may be less robust than it once was, but cannot be allowed to vanish if we want to maintain a healthy democracy
Publishing weekly on Wednesdays, the regional edition will cover news, advertising and information important to Umatilla, Morrow, Grant, Wallowa, Union and Baker counties.
Your new, weekly regional East Oregonian will include:
• Local and regional news reports filed from reporters in all six counties
• Regional classifieds
• New York Times crossword
• Local news of record, obituaries, community briefs for each county in the region GO! Eastern Oregon magazine
• Advertising and inserts from the Northeastern Oregon business community
• Regional classified and public notice advertising
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• Regional special feature sections
Bonus sections
Six Northeastern Oregon regional news websites
they would close within 30 days, 38 families were thrown into uncertainty. There were no other available child care providers to accommodate them.
The recently formed nonprofit Pendleton Children’s Center board of directors consulted with their architect and McCormack Construction, and devised a plan that would increase their capacity by building three new classrooms within their large indoor play area.
To facilitate the unplanned construction, board members from Pendleton Children’s Center and parents who were losing their child care asked the Pendleton City Council for help at a meeting in May 2023.
The East Oregonian covered the closure, the potential solution and stories of affected parents. The Opinion page carried a strong recommendation to the city council to approve the request and invest in the expansion, and in Pendleton families.
The city council voted to approve a $25,000 grant to the center for the construction of new classrooms, which would eventually double Pendleton Children’s Center’s capacity from 36 to 72 children.
Reporters on the scene of a fire.
LA GRANDE — A measure in August 2023 that called for the Union Fire Department and the Union Rural Fire Department to merge was in danger of being defeated due to low turnout.
A story in The Observer reported that as of Thursday, Aug. 17, just 19.7% of the ballots, a total of 322, had been returned, well short of the minimum number needed for passage. The story explained that the low turnout threatened the double majority needed for the measure to pass – 50% plus 1 of registered voters would be required to vote in the election.
Union has 1624 registered voters. By election day just five days later, the total votes had nearly doubled to 33.3%--still not enough to pass the measure, but with a margin of 378 to 163, such an overwhelming majority of the votes cast approved of the merger of the Union Fire Department and the Union Rural Fire Department that supporters were encouraged to put the measure on the ballot again in an upcoming election.
BAKER CITY — Corporate hospital chain St. Alphonsus announced the first of August that it would close the birthing center at the Baker City location at the end of the month, leaving expectant mothers without a hospital within 50 miles where they could give birth.
The Baker City Herald reported the story of the closure, followed up with stories about the impact on frightened expectant parents and family practice doctors, and a town hall meeting in which residents,