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Physicians
urge
compliance
Seven local doctors join
nearly 800 more across
the state in signing letter
asking Oregonians to
abide by state public
health measures
By Kaleb Lay
The Observer
OREGON — Just before the
Thanksgiving holiday, nearly
800 Oregon physicians, including
seven practicing in La Grande,
signed onto a letter urging Orego-
nians to abide by the restrictions
on social activity aimed at stop-
ping the spread of COVID-19 and
prevent hospitals from becoming
overwhelmed.
“If the spread of COVID-19
does not slow and reverse, we will
not be able to provide the best care
for anyone whether they need a
ventilator for COVID-19, chemo-
therapy for cancer, or a safe place
to deliver a baby,” the letter states.
“Any promotion of in-person
social gatherings outside of our
households or ‘bubbles’ is dan-
gerous and irresponsible.… We
have countless examples of how
such gatherings endanger those
who attend and also everyone they
live with, work with, or who are
part of their broader community.
Oregon physicians urge small,
safe celebrations for one more hol-
iday season to prevent regret and
grieving as 2021 approaches.”
The chief architect of that letter,
OHSU pediatric physician and pro-
fessor of public health Paul Lewis,
said the message of the letter
remains vitally important.
“Our job is to take care of
people, and we want to be able to
do that,” Lewis said. “But if we
get squeezed and squeezed and
squeezed, it gets hard, and people
get tired.”
Lewis said he understands the
diffi culties of continuing to stay
isolated during the pandemic, from
increased stress at work to separa-
tion from loved ones.
“It’s a bad situation for every-
body,” he said. “That said, we want
people with other health problems
— stomachaches and babies being
delivered and everything else, car
crash victims — we want them
to be able to get the care that they
need.”
At least seven physicians in La
Grande agreed with Lewis. Doc-
tors Melindres Lim, Susan Rice,
Eve Koltuv, Kevin Grayson, Mary
Porter, Arie Trouw and Zachary
Spoehr-Labutta all signed their
names to the letter. None of the
doctors returned calls seeking
comment.
See, Letter/Page 5A
Kaleb Lay/The Observer
This shows the exterior of Cock & Bull Villa Roma in downtown La Grande on Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. The restaurant has been forced to
cut employee hours because public safety measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 prevents them from offering sit-down dining.
SKATING BY
Local restaurants grapple with latest changes to COVID-19 restrictions
By Kaleb Lay
The Observer
LA GRANDE — When Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown last week announced the
state’s new “data-driven framework”
for determining the extent to which
businesses would need to curtail their
activity, there was little doubt Union and
Baker counties would be in the “extreme
risk” category, bringing with it the most
severe restrictions.
With the two-week freeze over, the
new framework took hold Tuesday,
Dec. 1, and the two counties now bear
the extreme risk label, which prohibits
in-person dining. Some local restaurants
fi nd themselves struggling.
Cock & Bull Villa Roma in La Grande
is one such business. Manager Marcus
Arnson said before the pandemic, most of
their profi ts came from sit-down dining.
“We don’t have any outdoor dining or
any other options, but we’re in full swing
of to-go and delivery,” Arnson said.
“We’ve always done a lot of to-go and
delivery, but in-house sales were always
more than 50% of total, so we’re down a
lot.”
Arnson said the Cock & Bull has had
to send employees home early and might
have to cut hours in the near future. And
he voiced his displeasure with Brown’s
public health measures.
“It has negatively impacted us, sig-
nifi cantly. We strongly hope that the gov-
ernor will take back the order,” he said.
Other businesses have faired slightly
better. Just down Adams Avenue, Kody
Guentert at Brother Bear Cafe said he’s
trying to adapt and take the new mea-
sures in stride.
“Defi nitely seeing the impact of no
dine-in. It hurts. But, you know, doing
the best we can to keep people wanting
to come in or keep people wanting us to
deliver food to them,” he said.
Guentert said he expects his business
to just “skate by” until things return to
normal. He said he feels for other busi-
nesses in town, though.
“All these other businesses are trying
to survive too, these little retail busi-
nesses,” he said. “I look next door to
Bugs and Butterfl ies or down the street
to Tap That and Blue Mountain Outfi tters
and all those places, you know, and those
are places that you want to go in and look
around. When (customers are) not sup-
posed to be able to do that, that’s tough.”
Baker City businesses are in much the
same boat as those in La Grande. Pai-
zanos Pizza is feeling the effects of the
pandemic, according to manager Breydon
Colvin, and he said not much changed
for the eatery when the county moved
from the two-week freeze to the slightly
relaxed restrictions now in place.
“It seems not to be damaging our busi-
ness too much, we’re still doing all right,
but we’ve slowed down a whole bunch
since this whole thing started,” Colvin
said.
Paizanos had to cut hours for its
employees, leading Colvin to believe the
staff may be forced to turn to support
systems.
“I know a lot of people are going to
have to try to get unemployment because
they don’t really have any hours,” he said.
In downtown Baker City, however, at
least one business is faring better. Sweet
Wife Bakery’s relative success, according
to manager Kylie Severson, may be due
to its walk-in format.
“For the most part, it hasn’t affected us
too much because we’ve always been an
in-and-out kind of place anyway,” Sev-
erson said. “We did have a couple of seats
inside and a couple outside as well, but
for the most part we’ve had a pretty high
turnover rate compared to the restaurants
and sit-in places.”
Severson said she’s supportive of
Brown’s public health measures but
feels for businesses that rely on sit-down
dining.
“I personally think that it is helpful,”
she said. “I mean, I totally understand
where other businesses are coming
from who aren’t like us, who (get) the
See, Skating/Page 5A
Classes, cases and contact tracings
School superintendents
urge governor to allow
in-person education
By Kaleb Lay
The Observer
UNION COUNTY —
December began on a grim note
for Union County as the month
opened with the reported deaths
of two county residents due to
COVID-19.
Local restrictions are expected
to remain in place at least through
next week, as the virus continued
its community spread throughout
the county and regional intensive
care unit bed capacity once again
dropped into single digits.
INDEX
Classified ...... 2B
Comics .......... 5B
Crossword .... 2B
Dear Abby .... 6B
COVID-19 BY THE NUMBERS
Union County: 834 cases, 8 deaths
Wallowa County: 72 cases, 3 deaths
Baker County: 316c cases, 4 deaths
Oregon: 81,437 cases, 1003 deaths
U.S.: 14.04 million, 275,386 deaths
Sources: Center for Human Development Inc., Oregon Health Authority and
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
On Friday, Oregon smashed
its previous record for daily
reported cases with 2,176 and
saw a record-high death toll as
COVID-19 claimed 30 Oregonian
lives.
The Oregon Health Authority
warned in the announcement
of the totals that “current level
of transmission could generate
‘exponential’ growth, resulting in
approximately 2,000 new daily
WEATHER
Horoscope .... 3B
Letters ........... 4A
Lottery........... 2A
Obituaries ..... 3A
TUESDAY
Opinion ......... 4A
Outdoors ...... 1B
Sports ........... 6A
Sudoku ......... 5B
cases and 75 additional daily hos-
pitalizations by Dec. 24.”
The United States surpassed
a death toll of more than 275,000
American lives, and COVID-19
is on track to be the third leading
cause of death in the country for
2020, trailing only cancer and
heart disease.
Local spread
County this week surpassed 800.
As of Friday, Dec. 4, 834 people
in Union County have been
infected by the virus and eight
people have died.
According to Union Coun-
ty’s public health arm, the Center
for Human Development Inc., the
county recorded 55 positive cases
this week — 19 of which were
reported on Friday alone — and
saw two deaths.
With 93 cases the week before,
the county remains classifi ed as
“extreme risk,” meaning restric-
tions on social activity will be
unchanged.
The county must record fewer
than 60 cases in a two-week
COVID-19 infections in Union
Full forecast on the back of B section
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Sunday
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EOU STADIUM & TRACK UPGRADE
See, Cases/Page 5A
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Issue 145
2 sections, 12 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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