THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
TRAIL
Continued from Page 1A
visitors. They include a
portion of a wagon that
crossed the Oregon Trail in
the 1800s.
“It is a real emigrant
wagon wheel,” Allen said.
The wheel, which
Willie Myers of La Grande
donated, has a thin metal
rim and wooden spokes that
look too fragile to support a
small fl eet of Matchbox cars
much less the weight of a
wagon fi lled with a family’s
possessions.
“They are about ready to
turn to dust,” Allen said of
the wheel’s spokes.
Another new addition is
a wagon made from cen-
tury-old barn wood. It
was a farm wagon before
Dale Counsell, a rancher
who lives nearby on Pierce
Road, renovated it to look
identical to an Oregon Trail
wagon. The renovated wag-
on’s features include a front
seat like the ones used by
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Ronnie Allen of La Grande checks out a replica of the kind of wagon that came over the
Oregon Trail. It was a farm wagon before local rancher Dale Counsell renovated it.
Oregon Trail pioneers in the
1880s.
“Wagons (on the Oregon
Trail) did not have seats
CASES
HOSPITAL
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
districts can reopen
in-person education if their
home counties have 30 or
fewer COVID-19 cases
per 100,000 residents over
seven days, the mandate
states.
Not only are younger
children less likely to
catch, show symptoms
of or transmit COVID-19
to others, but in-person
learning is more crucial at
that age, said state health
offi cer Dean Sidelinger.
“These younger students
need access to in-person
education to develop lit-
eracy and numeracy skills
they need that are critical to
their continued learning,”
he said.
However, an area that
meets these standards at
fi rst but later has an uptick
in COVID-19 cases could be
forced to transition back to
at-home distance learning.
School districts must
make distance learning
plans if the local county
has 20 or more COVID-19
cases in a week and/or 7.5%
or more of COVID-19 tests
in the county are positive.
Districts will immediately
return to distance learning
if the local county has 30 or
more COVID-19 cases in a
week and 10% or more of
local COVID-19 tests are
positive.
“Let me be really clear:
I am absolutely unwilling
to lose an entire school year
for any of our kids,” Brown
said in a press conference
Tuesday afternoon. “But it
is also incumbent on all of
us … to take every measure
to slow the spread of this
disease so we can get our
kids into school as quickly
as possible.”
As of Wednesday,
Oregon has had 17,712
COVID-19 cases, according
to the Oregon Health
Authority.
From April through the
end of June, less than 5% of
COVID-19 tests in Oregon
returned positive, Sidelinger
said. In July, the percentage
of positive tests rose to close
to 6%, he said, but it has
been trending down again
recently, he added.
Only fi ve Oregon coun-
ties had fewer than 10
new COVID-19 cases per
100,000 residents in the
past week, according to
state data. All fi ve of these
counties — Sherman, Til-
lamook, Union, Wallowa
and Wheeler — are rural
and relatively small in
population.
When stretched out to
the three-week requirement
of fewer than 10 new cases
per week, only Wheeler
County qualifi es to re-open
classrooms for all students.
patients infected with the
coronavirus.
“We have been saying
for months that positive
COVID test numbers do
not equate to hospital-
ization rates. We hope
that message can now be
heard,” said Mardi Ford,
the hospital’s director of
communication. “Our
efforts as a community
to fl atten the curve, par-
ticularly after the large
outbreak in June, helped
mitigate a continued
rise in case numbers for
Union County. This has
translated into OHA indi-
cating Union County has
seen a lower hospital-
ization rate compared to
other areas throughout
the state.”
Each week since the
outbreak occurred, OHA
has shown in its weekly
reports the hospital has
had nine or fewer hospi-
talizations during that pre-
vious week. The report,
as it does with low counts
of COVID-19 cases in a
given ZIP code, lists “1-9”
when a hospital has fewer
than 10. It does list a spe-
cifi c number of cases when
a hospital has 10 or more in
a week.
During its fi rst press
conference on the June out-
break, OHA reported there
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UNION
Continued from Page 1A
Also on Monday the
council passed a resolu-
tion sending a revised city
charter to voters in the
Nov. 3 election. The city
began laying the ground-
work for the revised
charter three years ago.
The council has conducted
15 work sessions to dis-
cuss revisions since last
fall.
The council voted to
send the charter to voters
following a hearing. Dick
Middleton of Union was
the only person who
addressed the council at
the hearing. Middleton
spoke in opposition to the
revised charter. He said
most people do not grasp
the revisions.
“In my opinion, if they
do not understand it they
should not vote for it,”
Middleton said.
One portion of the pro-
posed revised charter
addresses counselor
attendance. It states if
until then,” Allen said.
The wagon also has a
wooden barrel like the ones
pioneers carried to save
water for their oxen.
“Oxen were critical for
pioneers,” Allen said. “If
they lost their oxen, they
could not continue.”
The shell of the wagon,
when it was new, probably
could fl oat a family. Allen
said many pioneers took
off the wheels then boarded
the wagons to fl oat down or
across rivers.
Another feature of the
wagon is a wooden toolbox
with a leather strap. The
toolbox is empty, but Allen
said Oregon Trail travelers
had theirs fi lled with axes
and knives.
No actual wagons in
which pioneers used to
travel across the Oregon
Trail still exist, Allen said.
He explained by the time
pioneers made it to Oregon,
most wagons were in ter-
rible condition and virtually
useless. Those that were
functional were used for
farm work until they were
worn out.
“After 10 years (of farm
work) they were totally
destroyed,” Allen said.
The Lower Ladd Canyon
Oregon Trail site is 2 miles
west of Hot Lake.
Allen has determined the
site is exactly where revered
Oregon Trail pioneer and
devotee Ezra Meeker ded-
icated his Lower Ladd
Canyon marker on April 11,
1906. The marker replica is
5 feet west of where Meeker
dedicated the original
marker, said Allen, who has
analyzed photographs of the
1906 dedication.
Today this site is part
of the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife’s
Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area.
ODFW granted Allen per-
mission to set up the Lower
Ladd Canyon Oregon Trail
interpretive site.
The work Allen has done
to create the site has not
gone unrecognized. The
northwest chapter of the
Oregon-California Trails
Association has given Allen
its Distinguished Service
Award for his work to build
the interpretive site. The
OCTA plaque salutes Allen
for “exceptional efforts to
preserve and promote the
Oregon Trail.”
Grande Ronde Hospital to open visitation Monday
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Grande Ronde Hospital
in La Grande announced
Wednesday, July 29, that
it is updating its visitor
policy, effective Monday,
to allow people to visit
patients at GRH.
The move, which it
said in a press release is in
compliance with Oregon
Health Authority stan-
dards, now allows patients
to have one visitor or sup-
port person when they are
admitted to the hospital,
visit a clinic or undergo an
outpatient procedure, such
as an ultrasound.
Visitors are required to
wear a mask and undergo
a screening process before
entering.
Visitation is limited to
patients who do not have
COVID-19 or are under
investigation for the virus.
Visitation hours each
day will be from 11 a.m. to
8:30 p.m., and patients are
limited to one adult visitor
a day. Exceptions include:
• Inpatients, who can
have two visitors in a day,
one at a time
• Patients in end of life
situations, who can see
two visitors at a time as
medical staff deems appro-
priate and can have one
visitor stay after hours
• Maternity patients,
who can have a support
person stay overnight
• Patients under 18,
who can have two per day,
including a parent, and one
after hours
Exceptions outside of
these parameters to allow
a child to visit or visitation
after hours in rare circum-
stances must be agreed
upon by an attending pro-
vider and a manager.
were fi ve hospitalizations.
The county saw a drop
in the number of hospital-
izations in early July. OHA
weekly on its websites
updates the status of hos-
pitals that have had more
than fi ve patients with
COVID-19 in the prior 28
days and shows whether
they have met a criteria
of having that number
decrease over a 14-day
period.
Early in the month,
Union County was marked
as having met that desig-
nation, but a week later
apparently saw an increase
as it was marked as not
meeting the criteria.
On the July 16 update,
Union County was again
marked as having met the
criteria, and on July 23
was no longer listed among
the higher-burdened hos-
pitals. That data was cur-
rent through July 22, which
would mean that all told
from June 24-July 22,
GRH had fi ve or fewer
patients.
“The outbreak was
caught quickly and dealt
with by public health part-
ners,” Ford said. “That
response, along with those
of our local offi cials, busi-
nesses and community
members doing their part
to stop the spread locally,
has helped keep hospital-
ization rates down.”
The data doesn’t indi-
cate how many new hos-
pitalizations there were
weekly or how many were
accounted for in original
information provided by
OHA, which has reported
that the average length of
a hospitalization due to
COVID-19 in Oregon has
been six days.
Statewide, about 9% of
COVID-19 patients have
been hospitalized, but the
known data shows GRH
has been nowhere near
that mark, which would be
about 35 patients. Even if
the county had the max-
imum total it could report
(nine) in each of the fi rst
two weeks following the
outbreak and fi ve total
between June 24 and July
22, that would be a total of
only 23 patients.
“A resident deputy for $50,000
a year would be a good deal
for the city.”
Doug Wiggins, Union city administrator
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someone misses 25% of
council meetings over a
rolling 12-month period,
the councilor’s status
could be reviewed. The
council would have the
option to take a number
of steps including
removing the councilor
from offi ce.
Another revision would
make it much easier for
the city to borrow money.
Now if the city wants to
borrow a sum of $35,000
or more, it fi rst must get
approval from voters. The
revised charter would
allow the city to borrow
a sum of up to 2.5% of its
assessed value.
“This would make it
much easier for the city
to do business,” Wiggins
said.
He said, for example,
it would allow the city to
purchase fi re department
vehicles on a payment
plan without fi rst getting
approval from voters.
The revised charter
also would implement
gender neutral language.
For example, “coun-
cilor” replaces the the
word “councilman” in
every instance and “they”
replaces “he.”
Flint said he believes
the revisions in the charter
would be a plus for Union.
He also praised the council
for its hard work and noted
Councilor Sue Hawkins
and former Councilor Mat
Later in particular for their
efforts.
The city last revised its
charter in the 1980s.
Copies of the revised
charter will be avail-
able via a number of sites
including Union’s city hall
and its website, www.city-
ofunion.com.
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