PENDLETON — As the pandemic stretches into 2021, Pendleton’s elected leaders are considering more drastic measures to preserve the city’s restaurant industry.

At a Tuesday, Jan. 12, city council workshop, Economic Development Director Steve Chrisman and Pendleton Chamber of Commerce CEO Cheri Rosenberg explained why the city should help cover local restaurants’ expenses for the next six months.

The pair painted a dire picture of the industry, where owners fear permanent restaurant closures as Umatilla County yo-yos in and out of shutdowns.

Chrisman said businesses can’t continue to stay shut down while staying viable.

“It’s approaching cruel and unusual treatment of an entrepreneur who has put in his blood, sweat and tears,” he said.

The basic concept of the “Restaurant and Bar Pandemic Relief Program” would be to help cover restaurants’ monthly expenses for the next half year to keep restaurants afloat during the second year of the pandemic while acknowledging there were still important details, like cost and eligibility, that still needed to be worked out.

Early estimates at the total cost of the program ranged from $300,000 to $600,000, sums that would be significantly larger than the city’s previous rounds of COVID-19 relief efforts, which mostly consisted of one-off grants.

The proposal looked to source funding from the Pendleton Development Commission, but urban renewal money comes with geographical restrictions. Charles Denight, the commission’s associate director, said only about half of the city’s 40 restaurants are in the urban renewal district.

The city would also need to determine whether it should offer the grant to chain restaurants or Hamley’s, which is owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Councilor Dale Primmer said the grant concept could be less expensive than issuing grants to the restaurants that rise in place of the restaurants that couldn’t survive the pandemic.

The council didn’t make any commitments, but they did provide an accelerated timeline to develop the proposal further. Councilor Kevin Martin, the chair of the development commission, said he wanted it on the commission’s next agenda and Mayor John Turner said he would schedule another workshop for Jan. 26 to discuss it again.

McKennon McDonald requested that Chrisman and Rosenberg put together multiple proposals, one with urban renewal district restaurants only, and the other with restaurants beyond the boundaries included.

As Pendleton’s tourism industry sagged last year amid the pandemic, the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce took a hit as well.

Travel Pendleton, the chamber’s tourism promotion arm, relies on the Tourism Promotion Assessment Charge, a lodging room tax, for a significant portion of its funding. With overnight stays down, Travel Pendleton Director Kristen Dollarhide cut her budget by 28% by decreasing traveling and marketing expenditures, according to a chamber press release.

Despite the downturn, Rosenberg was able to find money in the budget to hire 3.5 new employees in 2020. As the new year begins, the chamber is in the process of sending out request for proposals to renovate the chamber’s office at 501 S. Main St. with the intent of starting construction in the spring.