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THURSDAY
•
May 28, 2020
• $1.50
Good day to our valued subscriber Marie Moran of La Grande
Baker County judge declines to vacate injunction
Fight to reopen
churches goes back to
state Supreme Court
The Oregon Supreme Court
had given Shirtcliff a deadline of
5 p.m. Tuesday to respond to the
alternative writ of mandamus the
Court issued on Saturday.
That legal document asked
Shirtcliff to either vacate his
May 18 ruling, which tempo-
rarily prevented the state from
enforcing the governor’s execu-
tive orders, or to issue a written
opinion defending his decision.
The Supreme Court issued a stay
INSIDE
Two more churches fi le suit
seeking public worship
services, Page 2A
By Jayson Jacoby
EO Media Group
BAKER CITY — Baker
County Circuit Court Judge Matt
Shirtcliff is standing by his May
18 opinion that Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown exceeded her legal
authority in issuing executive
orders related to the coronavirus
pandemic.
In a letter dated Tuesday, Shirt-
cliff wrote that “I have elected to
stand by my original ruling.”
on May 18, which put a halt to
the preliminary injunction and
allowed the state to enforce the
governor’s executive orders.
The state continues to have that
authority.
Shirtcliff’s third option is the
one he chose — not to vacate his
decision but not issue a supple-
mental written opinion.
The issue now returns to the
Oregon Supreme Court.
Attorneys representing the
governor have until Thursday to
fi le briefs related to the prelim-
inary injunction. The plaintiffs’
attorneys have until June 2 to fi le
responding briefs.
The current legal issue is the
preliminary injunction, not the
lawsuit that led to Shirtcliff’s May
18 injunction.
Whether or not the Supreme
Court decides to reinstate the
See, Judge/Page 5A
Oregon preps
for worst-case
scenario as
fi re season
approaches
Summer requires
fighting virus and
wildfires amid steep
state budget cuts
By Gary A. Warner
For the Oregon Capital Bureau
below 50 on May 21. On May
23, the average broke below 40,
and after a brief jump back up to
43 on Sunday, it again dropped
below 40, reaching 37, and fell
even lower on Tuesday to 34.4,
when just 18 new cases were
added.
It’s the latest encouraging
number as the state looks to
make moves toward a sense of
normalcy after shutdown mea-
sures aimed at slowing the spread
of the coronavirus ravaged the
SALEM — Oregon has to pre-
pare for a possible second spike
of COVID-19 in the fall, fi ght
wildfi res while not spreading the
infection to crews, and do it with
budgets slashed by the state’s dire
fi nances, lawmakers were told
Wednesday.
The hearing by the House
Interim Committee on Veterans
and Emergency Preparedness
was cast as a timeout for state
agencies to tell legislators how
they have dealt with the corona-
virus pandemic and what they
plan to do going forward.
What specifi c equipment,
training and planning do state
agencies need as “we fi nd the
time to put Humpty Dumpty back
together again?” said Rep. Paul
Evans, D-Monmouth, chair of the
committee.
The committee cannot work
on bills during the interim
between sessions, but it can take
testimony to help shape future
legislation. Though the 2021 ses-
sion doesn’t start until January,
Gov. Kate Brown is expected to
call a special session within the
next few months to deal with a
projected shortfall of nearly $3
billion due to cratering state rev-
enues caused by thousands of
closed businesses and mass lay-
offs that resulted from shutting
the state down to try and sup-
press the spread of the deadly
virus that has killed more than
100,000 people in the United
States since February.
Brown has asked state agen-
cies to come up with a plan to
See, COVID/Page 5A
See, Fires/Page 5A
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Andrea Konopacky, a volunteer leader of Harvest Share examines produce Tuesday for food boxes she was preparing to give away at the
Union County Senior Center, La Grande.
Virus changes Harvest Share operations
More food is being
provided, but no public
access is allowed
By Dick Mason
The Observer
LA GRANDE — No writing
is displayed on these cardboard
boxes, but gratitude is written
all over the faces of those who
receive them.
The boxes are those Andrea
Konopacky, a volunteer leader of
the Harvest Share food distribu-
tion program, hands to more than
70 people each weekday at the
Union County Senior Center, La
Grande. Each is fi lled with 20 to
25 pounds of free donated food
Konopacky has packed.
Anyone who comes to the
senior center can receive a Har-
vest Share food box. Smiles
and expressions of thanks are
not required, but Konopacky
fi nds herself awash in ges-
tures of goodwill each day. This
despite the fact Harvest Share, a
decade-old program, has tighter
rules than it did three months
ago because of the COVID-19
pandemic.
Previously anyone could walk
inside the Harvest Share sta-
tion at the Union County Senior
Center on weekdays and choose
from a wide assortment of food,
including baked goods and fresh
fruit and vegetables. All one
had to do was sign in and follow
rules limiting how many items
could be picked up each day.
That version of Harvest Share,
like much of life as we once
knew it, has disappeared, at least
temporarily.
Today the Harvest Share sta-
tion inside the Union County
Senior Center is closed to the
public because of the state’s
COVID-19 social distancing
rules. Instead the Harvest Share
station in the east corner of the
senior center serves as a site
where Konopacky packs boxes
of food early each weekday
See, Food/Page 5A
COVID-19 daily averages decline in Oregon
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Statewide
data indicates Oregon may be
past the worst of the coronavirus
pandemic.
The number of overall
COVID-19 cases in Oregon did
pass 4,000 Wednesday, but the
number of new daily cases is at
its lowest rate since late March,
when the virus took off in
Oregon.
The rolling seven- and 14-day
averages for new COVID-19
cases are at or near their lowest
in two months, according to data
The Observer compiled from
OregonLive and the Oregon
Health Authority.
The seven-day average of new
cases in the state was at 33.9 as
of Wednesday — even with the
addition of 71 cases Wednesday,
the highest total in more than a
week. It was the fourth time in
fi ve days the average number of
new cases was less than 40, and
the lowest since March 26, when
the average was 32 cases per day.
That was right at the precipice
of when Oregon saw its spike in
cases.
The average count of new
daily cases was in the 60s and
70s for the majority of April, but
May 10 was the peak. That day,
the state had 68 new cases but
moved the weeklong average to
78, according to OregonLive, as
it was on the heels of a six-day
stretch with at least 73 cases
— the worst period during the
pandemic.
The average has been on a
steady decline since then, dip-
ping back below 70 on May 15,
below 60 just two days later and
What you need to know about returning to the workplace
By Aimee Green
The Oregonian/OregonLive via AP
StoryShare
PORTLAND — The
Oregonian/Oregon-
Live asked experts about
the safety of going out
in Oregon as all but one
county — Multnomah —
have applied to reopen or
are reopening. Here’s what
they — and the latest body
of scientifi c studies —
report about returning to
the workplace:
Many Oregonians have
Online
For a longer version
of this story, go to
lagrandeobserver.com.
been working from home
since late March if their
jobs have allowed it. The
governor has urged res-
idents to continue to do
so, until at least Phase 2,
which counties could enter
in June if public health offi -
cials don’t detect a resur-
gence in infections.
Workplaces have,
however, proven to be a
problem because of open
offi ce plans where many
employees share one space,
as well as break rooms,
kitchens and bathrooms.
In March, more than 80
employees on the 11th fl oor
of a call center in Seoul,
South Korea, fell ill with
the disease. A CDC study
concluded that because few
people on other fl oors got
sick despite interactions on
INDEX
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elevators and in the lobby,
the 11th-fl oor employees
probably became infected
because of extended time
spent in the shared space
with sick co-workers. But
employers can reduce the
risks their workers face.
In a paper published in
March by the American
Society for Microbiology,
researchers from the Uni-
versity of Oregon recom-
mended employers fi ght
the spread of COVID-19
by decreasing the number
of employees in a space,
adjusting ventilation sys-
tems to allow more out-
side air fl ow and increasing
humidity to 40% to 60% in
dry environments. That’s
a level believed to better
inhibit the spread of the
virus but not encourage
mold growth.
The direction of the air
fl ow can be determined by
holding up a thin sheet of
tissue and watching if it
blows into the building or
out.
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COVID AND PUBLIC HEALTH
541-963-3161
Issue 64
3 sections, 20 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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