8A — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2020
OREGON/NORTHWEST
Salem woman memorializes COVID-19 dead
By Rachel Alexander
Salem Reporter via AP StoryShare
SALEM — With Hal-
loween a week away, it’s
not hard to fi nd gravestones
adorning local lawns. But
Amy Vandegrift’s yard is
more memorial than festive
adornment.
The grass in front of her
Salem home is nearly cov-
ered with more than 200
small white fragments of
plastic signs, cut to look
like headstones: one for
every 1,000 people in the
U.S. who have died from
COVID-19 this year.
“I started because it’s
not a number — it’s people.
And it’s families,” she said.
At the current pace of
U.S. deaths, she’s adding
one marker per day to the
memorial. Oregon’s toll as
of Oct. 22 was 646 people
dead, among the lowest
death rates in the U.S. Offi -
cial estimates for the U.S.
count vary, with Johns Hop-
kins University recording
Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter via AP StoryShare
On the lawn of her Salem home, Amy Vandegrift has in-
stalled plastic headstones, one for every thousand Ameri-
can lives lost to COVID-19.
223,381 Americans dead to
date.
Vandegrift, who’s retired
from a career in museums,
said building the memorial
has helped her make sense
of the toll the pandemic
has taken on American
families.
Her home is tucked away
in a cul-de-sac in the Morn-
ingside neighborhood, a
block that gets little through
traffi c. Some neighbors
have asked about the instal-
lation, she said, but it’s
mostly a place for her to
refl ect.
She and her husband,
originally from Ohio, have
mostly lived in Salem since
the 1970s, with a brief stint
in Bloomington, Illinois in
the 1990s. There, the local
Scientists remove 98 ‘murder hornets’
Associated Press
The Oregonian/OregonLive via AP
StoryShare
OREGON CITY —
An independent investi-
gation into Oregon City
Mayor Dan Holladay, who
is facing a recall election,
found he likely encouraged
businesses to open in defi -
ance of Gov. Kate Brown’s
stay-home orders earlier
this year.
While Holladay did not
break any laws, the report
said, he did violate rules
of the city commission,
which could sanction his
behavior.
Holladay told The Ore-
gonian/OregonLive he saw
the report as vindication
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***NOTICE*** Island City Cemetery
The Island City Cemetery Board of Directors is providing the following notice.
Elaine Thompson/Associated Press
Sven Spichiger, Washington State Department of Agricul-
ture managing entomologist, displays a canister of Asian
giant hornets vacuumed from a nest in a tree behind him
Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Blaine, Washington.
the opening of the nest,
which was about 10 feet
high. The team stuffed
dense foam padding into
a crevice above and below
the nest entrance and
wrapped the tree with cello-
phane, leaving just a single
opening. This is where the
team inserted a vacuum
hose to remove the hornets
from the nest.
Team members used a
wooden board to whack
the tree to encourage hor-
nets to leave the nest, the
agency said. When the hor-
nets stopped coming out of
the nest, the team pumped
carbon dioxide into the tree
to kill or anesthetize any
remaining hornets. They
then sealed the tree with
spray foam, wrapped it
again with cellophane, and
fi nally placed traps nearby
to catch any survivors or
hornets who may have been
away during the operation
and returned to the tree.
Investigation shows Oregon City mayor
urged businesses to defy coronavirus order
By Kale Williams
ADD TO YOUR PACKAGE FOR ONLY
975-2000
By Nicholas K. Geranios
SPOKANE— Scien-
tists removed 98 so-called
murder hornets from a nest
near the Canadian border in
Washington state over the
weekend, including 13 cap-
tured live in a net, the state
Department of Agriculture
said Monday, Oct. 26.
The other 85 Asian giant
hornets were vacuumed into
a special container when the
fi rst nest discovered on U.S.
soil was eradicated Sat-
urday, the agency said.
“The eradication went
very smoothly,’’ man-
aging entomologist Sven
Spichiger said in a press
release. “This is only the
start of our work to hope-
fully prevent the Asian
giant hornet from gaining
a foothold in the Pacifi c
Northwest.
“We suspect there may
be more nests in Whatcom
County,’’ Spichiger said.
Saturday’s operation
began at about 5:30 a.m.
with the team donning pro-
tective suits and setting
up scaffolding around the
tree so they could reach
history museum Vandegrift
worked for hosted guided
walks through a local cem-
etery, telling stories about
some of the dead.
Fall has several holidays
where families remember
and celebrate the lives
of loved ones, which
got her thinking about
a COVID-19 memorial.
Those include the Mexican
Day of the Dead, as well as
All Saints Day, which Van-
degrift usually celebrates
by making a small altar
with pictures of her rela-
tives who have died.
Her COVID-19 memo-
rial is simple — there is no
text on any of the markers,
no photos of some of those
who have died from the dis-
ease. But her hope is to cap-
ture the scale of the pan-
demic’s mark on the U.S.
by reminding people that
behind the growing counts
of cases, hospitalizations
and deaths, there are real
people.
Blazing Fast
Internet!
and that he only encour-
aged business owners to
open their doors during
a brief time — between
when a circuit judge in
eastern Oregon ruled the
governor’s orders unlawful
and when that judge’s
ruling was put on hold
by a higher court later
the same day, then later
overturned.
“I see it as vindication,”
Holladay said. “I’ve been
advocating for reasonable
ways to control the virus
without killing our small
businesses.”
The inquiry, conducted
by Lori Watson of Watson
Law Workplace Investiga-
tions, focused on two ques-
There are a number of Island City Cemetery plots designated reserved on the cemetery plat with no
record of payment. If you believe that you have a reserved plot for which payment has been made,
please provide the receipt of payment which you received at the time of payment or a canceled check
designating the plot number(s) paid for with the check to Island City Hall by December 15, 2020.
The documentation can be presented in person to Island City Hall, 10605 Island Ave, Island City, OR
97850, scanned and emailed to karen@islandcityhall.com or mailed to:
Island City Cemetery, PO Box 844, Island city, OR 97850
If documentation of payment or payment is not received by December 15, 2020, the plot’s reserved sta-
tus will change to available and be sold. You may call either Alan Keffer 541-910-4525 or Dave Johnson
541-910-1881 to verify the payment status of a plot that you believe to be reserved.
Sincerely, Island City Board of Directors.
Thank you Dr. Joe!
GRH wishes you all the best and
sincerely thanks you for caring
for our community for 46 years.
tions: whether the mayor
encouraged businesses to
defy the governor’s orders
and whether he solicited
funds for a Fourth of July
fi reworks show that also
would have violated the
orders.
Watson interviewed
Holladay, four city com-
missioners, fi ve city
employees and four other
individuals, including Liz
Hannum, director of the
Downtown Oregon City
Association.
Hannum told Watson
she had received commu-
nications from Holladay
instructing her to “tell
businesses to open” and to
“just have them open up.”
Assisted
Living-It-Up
Joseph L. Petrusek, MD, PC
Otorhinolaryngology — Maxillofacial Surgeon
Local physician Joseph Petrusek, MD, PC, retires November 12, 2020.
In August, he announced the news to his patients after 46 years of
providing care to the people of Union County and beyond. Think of
that – Forty-Six years of caring for the health and well-being of us all.
That is dedication. On behalf of Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics, we
wish Dr. Joe and Cathy Petrusek the best as they enjoy traveling
through retirement together. We also hope Dr. Joe gets to spend more
time hunting, fishing and enjoying this special place we all call home.
GRANDE
Ronde
Retirement & Assisted Living
PROTECTING our
Residents during this
Pandemic
1809 Gekeler Ln.
La Grande
541-963-4700
You’ve more than earned it!
Dr. Petrusek is as passionate as we are about providing care here at home.
So, we humbly thank him for graciously referring his patients to
Dr. Steven Pinther, who recently completed a fellowship in
allergy management and immunotherapy services. He joined
Dr. Gerry Funk (ENT) at the GRH Specialty Clinic in July.