2A — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2020
LOCAL
DAILY Union County Jail reduces inmate population
PLANNER In response to
TODAY
Today is Saturday, April
25, the 116th day of 2020.
There are 250 days left in
the year.
COVID-19 pandemic,
jail releases inmates
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On April 25, 1945, during
World War II, U.S. and
Soviet forces linked up on
the Elbe River, a meeting
that dramatized the collapse
of Nazi Germany’s defenses.
Delegates from some 50
countries gathered in San
Francisco to organize the
United Nations.
ON THIS DATE
In 1507, a world map pro-
duced by German cartogra-
pher Martin Waldseemueller
contained the fi rst recorded
use of the term “America,”
in honor of Italian navigator
Amerigo Vespucci.
In 1859, ground was bro-
ken for the Suez Canal.
In 1874, radio pioneer
Guglielmo Marconi was
born in Bologna, Italy.
In 1898, the United States
Congress declared war on
Spain; the 10-week confl ict
resulted in an American
victory.
In 1915, during World War
I, Allied soldiers invaded
the Gallipoli Peninsula in an
unsuccessful attempt to take
the Ottoman Empire out of
the war.
In 1917, legendary jazz
singer Ella Fitzgerald was
born in Newport News,
Virginia.
In 1959, the St. Lawrence
Seaway opened to shipping.
In 1983, 10-year-old
Samantha Smith of Man-
chester, Maine, received
a reply from Soviet leader
Yuri V. Andropov to a letter
she’d written expressing her
concerns about nuclear war;
Andropov gave assurances
that the Soviet Union did not
want war, and invited Sa-
mantha to visit his country, a
trip she made in July.
In 1990, the Hubble Space
Telescope was deployed in
orbit from the space shuttle
Discovery. (It was later dis-
covered that the telescope’s
primary mirror was fl awed,
requiring the installation of
corrective components to
achieve optimal focus.)
In 1995, show business
legend Ginger Rogers died
in Rancho Mirage, California,
at age 83.
LOTTERY
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Win for Life: April 22
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• 10 p.m.: 7-5-1-0
Pick 4: April 22
• 1 p.m.: 5-2-1-8
• 4 p.m.: 1-4-8-6
• 7 p.m.: 4-8-2-5
• 10 p.m.: 7-8-6-4
DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer, call
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TODAY’S QUOTE
“I think it is all a matter
of love: the more you love a
memory, the stronger and
stranger it is.”
— Vladimir Nabokov,
Russian-born author (1899-
1977)
BUDGET
Continued from Page 1A
The budget committee
will fi rst meet on June 3,
at which time its members
will receive the school dis-
trict’s proposed 2020-21
budget.
The committee
will have the option of
approving the budget at
that meeting or meeting
again on June 10 and June
17 to look more closely
at the proposed spending
plan.
The budget com-
mittee is responsible for
approving a proposed
budget, which then will
be submitted to the school
board.
The school board will
vote on adoption of the
budget June 24.
In other matters, the
school board received a
presentation from Carol
Samuels, managing
director for Piper San-
dler Companies, a multi-
national independent bank
By Sabrina Thompson
The Observer
La GRANDE — The Union
County Jail is working to keep
the inmate population low as
a response to the coronavirus
pandemic.
The jail released two inmates
who were at or near completion of
their sentence and let another four
out who were low-level offenders in
pretrial status on March 19.
Concerns about overwhelming
the health care system if an out-
break were to occur and about
the cost of medical care for
inmates were the primary factors
in bringing the jail’s population
down to 16 inmates, Union County
Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen said.
The jail can hold up to 37
inmates overseen by the Union and
Wallowa County criminal justice
systems. Having reduced numbers
allows for more separation between
inmates.
Union County is in line with
other counties, according to Ras-
mussen, with the jail at 43% of
capacity. Baker (31%), Malheur
(32%), Grant (26%) and Curry
(31%) county jails are all below
50% usage of facilities. Umatilla
(68%) and Lincoln (52%) coun-
ties are at the highest usage. This is
according to a report provided by
jail manager Nick Hilter.
When inmates enter into cus-
tody, they are no longer covered
by Medicare or Medicaid or Vet-
erans Affairs benefi ts and the cost
falls onto the county. Rasmussen
said if an outbreak were to occur,
the jail would not be able to cover
the expenses, which would include
overtime and the medical costs of
treating inmates who had COVID-
19. He said another reason for the
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
The number of inmates at the Union
County Jail, shown above, has
been reduced to 16 in an attempt to
keep the jail population low during
the coronavirus pandemic.
Legislative Emergency Board tables rural hospital proposal
By Dick Hughes
For EO Media Group
SALEM — Oregon leg-
islators balked Thursday at
loaning $50 million in fed-
eral money to rural hospi-
tals reeling from the coro-
navirus pandemic.
Members of the Legis-
lative Emergency Board
tabled the proposal so
it could be reworked to
include forgivable loans or
straight-out grants. Several
legislators said hospitals
would be unable to take out
loans, even at zero percent
interest for the fi rst year as
Gov. Kate Brown has pro-
posed, and the allowable
uses were too restrictive.
“This was federal
money given to us to pass
on to our rural hospitals.
Why are we making it a
loan program as the state?”
asked Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Athena. “It’s wrong.
It’s morally incorrect in
my opinion. This money
should be grants from the
beginning. In that way,
we could actually help our
rural hospitals.”
Thirty-three rural hos-
pitals would be eligible.
But Sen. Betsy Johnson,
D-Scappoose, said the plan
envisioned by Brown’s
staff was the equivalent of
throwing only a 6-foot rope
to someone drowning 10
feet offshore.
“We would look so
incredibly foolish if we
allowed hospitals to go
broke on our watch during
a global pandemic,”
Johnson said. “But there
is all kind of stuff wrong
with what the governor’s
folks have written.”
House Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland, noted
that some hospitals are get-
ting federal assistance,
and fi nancial services com-
pany. Samuels spoke to the
board about the potential
refi nancing of payments
the school district must
make for general obliga-
tion bonds. Money from
the bonds funded about
$30 million in capital con-
struction and building
maintenance in the school
district between 2015 and
2018.
Refi nancing the debt
payments could reduce
the property tax payments
property owners in the
school district must pay for
the bond. Merle Comfort,
chair of the La Grande
School Board, said the
the school district will be
monitoring market condi-
tions to see if a refi nancing
package will be feasible to
pursue in the future. Com-
fort said the the school
district will be ready to
respond quickly if the eco-
nomic conditions improve
to the point that the school
district will be in a posi-
tion to potentially save tax-
payers money.
“This was federal money given to
us to pass on to our rural hospitals.
Why are we making it a loan
program as the state?”
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena
with Congress approving
additional funding this
week. “I think we want to
be cautious about how we
don’t just unilaterally say
everybody needs, frankly
free money,” she said,
“because there are a lot
of businesses and a lot of
places around the state that
need that money, too.”
After a recess, Senate
President Peter Courtney,
D-Salem, called for tabling
the proposal, saying
Brown’s staff agreed with
that move. No date was set
for when the Emergency
Board would take up the
issue again.
The board did approve
coronavirus-related
funding for rent assistance,
small businesses, domestic
violence resources,
COVID-19 testing for
workers in long-term care
facilities, and aid to jobless
workers, such as undocu-
mented immigrants, who
are ineligible for unem-
ployment insurance.
Many of the details
have yet to be worked out.
Legislative Fiscal Offi cer
Ken Rocco told the Emer-
gency Board, which for
the fi rst time was meeting
by video conference, that
it remained unclear how
much federal aid Oregon
was getting and what
restrictions accompanied
the money.
Hospital offi cials from
across the state had told
legislators earlier in the
week that hospitals cumu-
latively were losing $13
million a day due to the
costs of COVID-19 equip-
ment, a state ban on
non-urgent surgeries, fewer
people receiving care in
emergency rooms and
other factors.
More than 30,000
Oregon workers in the
health care and social
assistance fi elds have
applied for unemployment
since March 15.
Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University announced
Thursday that it was sub-
stantially reducing salaries
and making other cutbacks
to deal with a projected
revenue loss during the
next 28 months of $1 bil-
lion to $1.4 billion.
“It is not just the rural
hospitals that are strug-
gling,” Sen. Elizabeth
Steiner Hayward, D-Bea-
verton, who is a physician
at OHSU, told her Emer-
gency Board colleagues.
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T E L E H E A L T H
“Every single health
system in the state is strug-
gling as a result of this.”
Brown announced
Thursday that as of May 1,
she was lifting the ban on
elective medical and dental
procedures. Steiner Hay-
ward said that would help,
but hospitals would take
time to ramp up and have
lost signifi cant income in
the meantime.
The board approved
the 11 items on its agenda,
all on a bipartisan basis
and most of them unani-
mously. Much of the dis-
cussion centered on fi scal
accountability for how
relief money is spent and
ensuring that rural areas
benefi t.
Legislators approved a
new program under which
businesses employing 25
or fewer workers could
be eligible for state grants
or loans if they have not
received federal aid.
Rep. David Gomberg,
D-Otis, said he had been
concerned that coronavirus
assistance had not been
going to the smallest of
small businesses, which are
the economic backbone of
his district.
“People are hurting
everywhere,” he said.
“According to the state
economist, they’re hurting
particularly hard in my
part of Oregon.”
The state will contract
with community develop-
ment fi nancial institutions
to run the program, but
Gomberg noted those insti-
tutions primarily are along
the Interstate 5 corridor.
“I worry that it’s not
going to support everyone
equally,” he said, “that
perhaps we’re focused on
helping the most people
rather than people who are
hurt the most.”
VOTE
LAURIE
DRAPER
OTEC
Board of Directors
Position 3
Harney County
Raised in Grant County and a Harney County
Resident for 37+ years, my entire working career has
been in customer service (US Bank, small business
owner, and ODFW). I hope to continue that service
for the member-owners of Oregon Trail Electric. Now
retired, I have the time and energy to work with the
OTEC Board and offer a fresh perspective to continue
to provide reasonable, reliable power for you.
ACDelcoTSS
I ask for your vote.
S E R V I C E S
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and convenience, and decrease potential
exposure to germs, we have now expanded
our award-winning telehealth services to
include Virtual Visits at many of our clinics!
If a GRH Virtual Visit makes sense for
your next appointment, either call your
GRH clinic today to find out more, or
message your care team via MyChart!
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Some health concerns are best evaluated face-to-face, so if your provider decides a
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including screening patients and employees, enforcing strict cleaning routines, and using medical masks
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Nicole Cathey
change is to avoid overwhelming
the hospital with inmate patients.
The jail is following recom-
mendations from the Oregon State
Sheriff’s Association and is in
cooperation and agreement with the
Union County District Attorney’s
Offi ce and state courts as to which
inmates go free.
District Attorney Kelsie
McDaniel said the jail has main-
tained excellent communication
with her offi ce regarding the reduc-
tion. She cited several reasons
efforts have been made to keep
down the jail population, including
restrictions on police patrols, cut-
ting back on court proceedings
and statewide changes to inmate
transports.
“While the jail population fl uc-
tuates regularly, this is the lowest it
has been in years,” McDaniel said.
Rasmussen said the most
important factor is the jail con-
tinues to house high-risk inmates to
keep residents safe.
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