County offices are now open

By Terry Murry on Wednesday, July 7th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

PENDLETON – Umatilla County’s doors are open. Just walk right in.

“The courthouse is open now,” Commissioner John Shafer said. “The buildings are open to the public. You still have to go through security for the screening station, but other than that, we’re open for business.”

County offices had been closed with the exception of scheduled appointments for more than a year. Shafer said that the closure taught them something that could save the county’s citizens a lot of time. Things go faster for those who have scheduled appointments.

“There’s no wait time,” he said. “You’d even have a big bottleneck in the hallways. We are strongly encouraging people to still make those appointments.”