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PENDLETON — A pair of Pendleton city councilors Friday night, Jan. 28, took home the honors of Woman of the Year and the Man of the Year for 2021. ....
PENDLETON — A recent announcement from the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce reveals the top three finalists in several categories for the First Citizens Banquet & Business Excellence Awards. ....
PENDLETON â The smell of roasting tri-tip and baby back ribs wafted from smokers across the parking lot outside of the Pendleton Convention Center, where the Willingham family chatted and laughed on an afternoon warm enough for T-shirts. The lot was filled Saturday, May 1, with dozens of competitors, each looking to dish up the most delicious barbecue of the day, and the Willinghams had returned to reclaim their title. âI like the atmosphere down here,â said Michael Willingham, a corrections officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. Until recently, Willingham said he would have shrugged off the idea of competing at the Buckaroo BBQ Challenge, which is part of the annual Pendleton Cattle Barons weekend event. With things changing every few weeks due to the pandemic, he was concerned that the event would be canceled and that all his effort, and his money, would go to waste. But standing beside his family â some of whom he hadnât seen si ....
As summer plans hang on the race between COVID-19 vaccines and the spread of new, more contagious COVID-19 variants, some major Umatilla County events are trying to plan ahead the best they can. Farm-City Pro Rodeo board member Dennis Barnett said the rodeo will go on in Hermiston in August, after being canceled completely in 2020 while Umatilla County was under strict COVID-19 restrictions. âThere will be a rodeo, we just donât know if there will be no fans, or some fans or 100%,â he said. Barnett said there have already been other rodeo events held at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center without fans present since the pandemic began, establishing a precedent for using the arena. So the board is making three plans â one for an event with no live spectators, one in an arena at partial capacity, and one for an event that looks like years past. ....