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SATURDAY-MONDAY • May 16, 2020
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Good day to our valued subscriber Mike Jordan of La Grande
LG School
Board OKs
furloughs
for staff ers
School district
looking at cut of
$2.55 million
By Dick Mason
The Observer
Photos by Observer staff
Clockwise from top left: Steve Thompson, a cook at the Longbranch Bar & Eats, La Grande, cleans Thursday. Elsie Andre dishes out clam chowder
Thursday in the kitchen of the Skippers restaurant at Short Stop Xtreme, La Grande. Grant Meyer, co-owner of Community Kindness of Eastern
Oregon, sets up a plastic barrier in preparation for the store’s May 28 reopening. Blue Mountain Barbers owner Kate Schaffner cuts Dalton Sheets’
hair Friday morning, the fi rst day many Union County businesses were able to be open in Phase 1 of the state’s reopening plan. These and many
other businesses in Union County and Oregon are reopening for business as the state eases COVID-19 restrictions.
Union County reopens for business
Partial reopening in effect for 21 days, county must
avoid certain thresholds in order to stay open
By Ronald Bond, Dick Mason
and Sabrina Thompson
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Kate Schaff-
ner’s excitement of being back in
business could probably speak for
all business owners in northeast
Oregon who are reopening their
doors.
The owner of Blue Mountain
Barbers, along with four additional
barbers who work as independent
contractors in her La Grande shop,
was able to resume seeing cus-
tomers Friday after nearly eight
weeks of not operating due to stay-
home orders and the closure of
businesses deemed nonessential in
the wake of the coronavirus.
“(It’s) a necessity,” she said of
going back to work, “and I think
by nature, people who work in the
business need people. We built
ongoing relationships, and we
worry about them a lot.”
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
announced Thursday morning that
most Oregon counties will be able
to enter into a phased approach
for reopening, leaving behind the
limits on activities she put in place
in March with an executive order
to fi ght the spread of COVID-19.
By the end of Thursday, 31
of 36 counties received approval
for partial reopening. All coun-
ties east of the Cascade Moun-
tains can enter Phase 1, as can
southern Oregon counties. In
the Willamette Valley, the popu-
lous counties of Lane, Linn and
Benton also received permission
to reopen. Businesses will have
to follow the reopening require-
ments the Oregon Health Authority
established.
Authority confi rmed a second case
in Wallowa County.
The Union County case was
a contact to a confi rmed case,
according to the center’s press
release, and the center is working
to fi nd out who else may have been
in close contact with the person
and isolate them. Close contact,
according to the center, is anyone
within 6 feet of an individual with
the virus for more than 15 minutes.
Elizabeth Sieders, communi-
cable disease nurse at the center,
said in the press release with
reopening comes the anticipation
of “a growing number of people
identifi ed as contacts to a con-
fi rmed case.”
STATE STORY INSIDE
To read more about
reopening plans in
Oregon, see the article
on Page 7A.
For Schaffner and Blue Moun-
tain Barbers, this means keeping
their work stations at least 6 feet
apart, using new capes for each
customer and cleaning the stations
in between clients, which she said
will take about 10 minutes each.
“We’re going to take turns
cleaning as we get through
people,” she said. “One person will
be assigned to do extra cleaning.
With all of us there, it’ll be more
effi cient.”
The reopening began the same
morning as the Center for Human
Development Inc., Union County’s
public health authority, announced
the county’s fi fth case of COVID-
19. Later Friday, Oregon Health
Shop owners, employees
endure tough times
Schaffner said it has been a
challenge since her shop closed in
late March.
See, Open/Page 5A
“It will be a very different
world going forward.
Anything in the direction of
normal is good.”
“It will likely be a different
experience because we are
asking businesses to put
mitigation in place.”
— Matt Scarfo, Union County commissioner
and pub owner
— Carrie Brogoitti, Union County public
health administrator
“One of our main
objectives is to keep
everyone safe.”
— Liz Meyer, co-owner,
Community Kindness of Eastern
Oregon
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande School Board
voted Wednesday to
approve a plan that will
furlough all teachers and
staff one day a week for
much of the remainder of
2019-20.
The purpose of the fur-
loughs is to save money
during the COVID-19 pan-
demic, money the dis-
trict will use to buffer the
impact of looming budget
cuts in 2020-21. The board
endorsed the furlough plan
after the La Grande School
District’s teacher and clas-
sifi ed staff unions voted
in support of the furlough
days. Each union over-
whelmingly supported
the furlough days, with
each voting at least 90%
in favor, said La Grande
School District Superin-
tendent George Mendoza.
Mendoza said the
school district has applied
to the Oregon Work Share
Program to compensate
employees for the pay
they will lose due to the
lost workdays. The state
already has agreed to pro-
vide Work Share Oregon
funding to help other
school districts where
employees are taking fur-
lough days, said La Grande
School Board Chair Merle
Comfort.
Administration, confi -
dential and teaching staff
will furlough four work-
days from May 11 to June
30, and classifi ed staff,
which includes cooks, sec-
retaries and physical plant
staff, will furlough four
workdays from May 14 to
June 5.
The furlough program
will allow the school dis-
trict to save $300,000
on employee pay for the
remainder of the school
year.
“We are looking at
many, many ways to
reduce costs in the dis-
trict. This is one way
right now we can save
money without dramati-
cally impacting employees
fi nancially,” Mendoza said
in a news release.
Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown’s shutdown order
to prevent the spread of
the virus has had a ter-
rible effect on the state’s
economy because it
See, Furloughs/Page 3A
INDEX
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Community . 3A
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State ............. 7A
Issue 59
2 sections, 14 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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