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SATURDAY-MONDAY • November 21, 2020
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Good day to our valued subscriber Robert Kuchler of La Grande
COVID-19
by the
numbers
Union County now
among most infected
Oregon counties per
capita
By Kaleb Lay
The Observer
UNION COUNTY — While
COVID-19 cases pummeled pop-
ulation centers and coastal areas
in Oregon and across the U.S. ear-
lier this year, Union County went
largely unaffected. Daily case
counts regularly reported one or
zero new coronavirus infections,
and double-digit days were almost
unheard of locally, with the excep-
tion of one outbreak related to a
religious gathering.
That is no longer the case.
COVID-19 infection rates con-
tinue to skyrocket around the
country. Oregon went from a pre-
vious record-high 571 daily cases
to now reporting more than 1,000
daily cases multiple times in the
past week. Friday the Oregon
Health Authority reported yet
another one-day record high
for new and presumptive cases
— 1,306.
And as went the state and the
nation, so went Union County.
The county had another 17 cases
Friday, bringing the county’s total
to 655. Union County now ranks
among the most-infected counties
in the state.
Phil Wright/The Observer
Gym users forgo masks while working out Thursday night, Nov. 19, 2020, at Anytime Fitness, La Grande. The gym’s owner is disregarding
Gov. Kate Brown’s orders to shut down for two weeks to help ebb the spike in the spread of COVID-19.
Flaunting the freeze
Anytime Fitness remains open, refuses to enforce mask mandate
By Kaleb Lay and Jade McDowell
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Anytime Fitness in
La Grande is refusing to abide by state
efforts to curtail the unprecedented spread
of COVID-19, which claimed the life of its
800th Oregonian on Thursday, Nov. 19.
The fi tness center has not closed its
doors to comply with the “two-week
freeze,” which began Wednesday.
“If you’re a member, you have access
to the gym,” Anytime Fitness manager
Lynette Williamson said. “We are taking
our chance. We’re gonna remain open
until something happens. We just decided
we can’t afford to do another shutdown
and, you know, we can’t have the mem-
bers be set back in their workouts. We
believe that we’re essential and we have
no contact tracing out of here, we have no
cases coming out of our facility, so we’re
just going to remain open.”
Williamson also said Anytime Fitness
is not enforcing the wearing of masks,
instead leaving the choice to its members.
“No, we’re not requiring that,” she said.
“We’ve got disinfectant, everybody’s kind
of distant. Everybody’s socially distanced,
yeah. But if you feel comfortable wearing
one, that’s cool too.”
At least six males were using the
gym for a span Thursday evening, none
were wearing masks. They also were not
staying at least 6 feet apart, the minimum
Local spread
In the eight months between
the beginning of March and the
end of October, Union Coun-
ty’s Center for Human Devel-
opment, which serves as the
public health department for the
county, reported 493 total cases of
COVID-19. Over the following 20
days, CHD reported an additional
162 cases.
Residents of Union County
have seen a dramatic change in the
month of November, during which
cases have jumped more than
29%. Union is now the fi fth-most-
infected county in the state per
capita. With a population of about
27,000, one out of about every 41
residents of the county has caught
COVID-19
Only Malheur, Umatilla,
Morrow and Jefferson counties
have higher rates of infection than
Union. While population-dense
counties such as Multnomah and
Washington report a great many
more total cases, coronavirus
infections now are relatively more
common within the rural popula-
tion of Union County.
Multnomah County, for
example, conducts an average of
26,630.3 tests per 100,000 res-
idents, which is comparable to
Union County’s average. But
Phil Wright/The Observer
Vehicles fi ll the parking spaces Thursday night, Nov. 19, 2020, in front of Anytime Fit-
ness, La Grande. The gym’s owner is disregarding Gov. Kate Brown’s orders to shut
down for two weeks to help ebb the spike in the spread of COVID-19.
social distance the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and other health
authorities recommend.
Cases continue to rise
Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday signed
Executive Order 20-65 to implement clo-
sures and restrictions on gatherings to
slow the spread of COVID-19 in light of
hospitals “sounding the alarm” they could
be overwhelmed if cases continue on their
upward trend.
“The cycle of this virus is such that
if we are seeing case rates topping 800-
1,000 per day now, that means our hospi-
tals are headed for very dark days ahead,”
the executive order states. “Actions taken
now will help prevent lives from being
lost — not just from COVID-19, but also
from other diseases or accidents that lead
people to need hospital-level care, which
they would not be able to get if hospital
beds and hospital staff are fully occupied
with COVID-19 patients.”
See, Freeze/Page 5A
Locals join in push for COVID-19 reform
See, Numbers/Page 5A
Eastern Oregon
officials seek to spur
change of state’s
handling of pandemic
EO Media Group
Elected leaders from Eastern
Oregon who signed a letter
asking Gov. Kate Brown for
changes to her approach to
COVID-19 shutdowns said this
was not in direct response to
the current two-week “freeze.”
Instead, the letter was crafted
over several weeks as an outline
of what they hope to see happen
as the state continues to address
INDEX
Classified ...... 2B
Comics .......... 5B
Crossword .... 2B
Dear Abby .... 6B
fl uctuations in COVID-19
numbers.
The letter, dated Wednesday,
Nov. 18, and signed by 51 county
commissioners and state leg-
islators, asks Brown to allow
restaurants and bars to stay open
throughout the pandemic, to
fully reopen schools, to reopen
state agencies to the public and
to allow religious leaders to use
their best judgment in oper-
ating places of worship. It also
urges her to allow local elected
offi cials to work with county
health departments to come up
with their own versions of Phase
1 and Phase 2 for COVID-19
regulations.
“A one-size-fi ts-all approach
WEATHER
Horoscope .... 3B
Letters ........... 4A
Lottery........... 2A
Obituaries ..... 3A
THURSDAY
Opinion ......... 4A
Outdoors ...... 1B
Sudoku ......... 5B
Weather ........ 6B
OPERATION SANTA
to shutting down the state was
logical and appropriate in March
when the onset of this pandemic
was new and was unknown,” the
letter states. “Over time, we have
learned, adapted, adjusted and
improved. Keeping counties and
regions in a Phase II for an indef-
inite period of time is a one-size-
fi ts-all approach that does not
work any longer.”
Counties seek autonomy
State Sen. Lynn Findley, a
Republican from Vale, said he
and other legislators had been
working on drafts of the letter
for about three weeks before
sending it to the governor’s
offi ce. The COVID-19 land-
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Sunday
27 LOW
41/29
Partly cloudy
High clouds
scape in Oregon looks different
now than when discussion of the
letter began. On Nov. 1, Oregon
Health Authority reported 524
new cases of COVID-19. Since
then the state has repeatedly
set new records for daily case
counts, and on Friday, Nov. 20,
reported 1,306 new cases.
Findley, whose district
includes portions of 11 coun-
ties, said his main goal is to pro-
mote a “dialogue” between the
governor, other state offi cials
and legislators and local offi -
cials in rural counties. He said
he wants the state to give more
autonomy to city and county
See, Change/Page 3A
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 139
3 sections, 32 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page 4A.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com