FROM PAGE ONE
Saturday, May 15, 2021
MASK
Continued from Page 1A
guidance, she said, rather
than worrying about veri-
fying vaccination status.
“Oregonians now have
a choice of how to protect
themselves and others from
COVID-19: either get vacci-
nated, or continue wearing
a mask and following phys-
ical distancing require-
ments,” Brown said.
Suzannah Moore-
Hemann, executive director
of the Union County
Chamber of Commerce,
said the new less strin-
gent regulations are an
indication that the nation
is moving in the right
direction in terms of the
pandemic.
“I think it definitely
shows there is progress
being made,’’ Moore-
Hemann said.
Moore-Hemann also
said the new guidance will
help the local economy by
making people feel more
comfortable about going
into stores and attending
events.
Union County Com-
missioner Donna Beverage
is also pleased with the
decision.
“I am happy about the
new guidance. It is a good
way to start the summer,’’
Beverage said.
John Howard, the owner
John J. Howard & Asso-
ciates, a La Grande busi-
ness, echoes Beverage’s
sentiment.
“It’s a new day and a
huge step toward getting
back to a normal way of
life,’’ Howard said.
“We have all longed for
this moment — when we
can get back to some sense
of normalcy,” Rochelle Wal-
ensky, director of the CDC,
said at an earlier White
House briefing.
The CDC and the Biden
administration have faced
pressure to ease restrictions
on fully vaccinated people
— those who are two weeks
past their last required
COVID-19 vaccine dose
— in part to highlight the
benefits of getting the shot.
The country’s aggressive
vaccination campaign has
paid off: U.S. virus cases
are at their lowest rate since
September, deaths are at
their lowest point since last
April, and the test positivity
rate is at the lowest point
since the pandemic began.
Walensky said the long-
awaited change is thanks to
the millions of people who
have gotten vaccinated and
is based on the latest sci-
ence about how well those
shots are working.
“Anyone who is fully
vaccinated can participate
in indoor and outdoor activ-
ities — large or small —
without wearing a mask or
physically distancing,” Wal-
ensky said. “If you are fully
vaccinated, you can start
doing the things that you
had stopped doing because
of the pandemic.”
The new guidance is
likely to open the door to
confusion, since there is no
surefire way for businesses
or others to distinguish
between those who are fully
vaccinated and those who
are not.
“Millions of Americans
are doing the right thing
and getting vaccinated,
but essential workers are
still forced to play mask
police for shoppers who are
unvaccinated and refuse
to follow local COVID
safety measures,” said Marc
Perrone, president of the
United Food and Commer-
cial Workers International
Union. “Are they now sup-
posed to become the vacci-
nation police?”
Walensky and Biden said
people who are not fully
vaccinated should continue
to wear masks indoors.
“We’ve gotten this far —
please protect yourself until
you get to the finish line,”
Biden said, noting that most
Americans younger than 65
are not yet fully vaccinated.
He said the government
was not going to enforce
the mask wearing guid-
ance on those not yet fully
vaccinated.
“We’re not going to
go out and arrest people,”
added Biden, who said he
thinks the American people
want to take care of their
neighbors. “If you haven’t
been vaccinated, wear your
mask for your own protec-
tion and the protection of
the people who also have
not been vaccinated yet.”
On Capitol Hill, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said
she is not changing the
rules requiring masks on
the House floor.
“No,” Pelosi told CNN.
“Are they all vaccinated?”
Recent estimates have
put the percentage of
unvaccinated lawmakers in
the House at 25%.
That ambiguity over
who is and isn’t vacci-
nated led Lawrence Gostin,
a public health law expert
at Georgetown Univer-
sity, to declare the CDC
guidance “confusing and
contradictory.”
“The public will not feel
comfortable in a crowded
indoor space if they are
unsure if the maskless
person standing next to
them is or is not vacci-
nated,” he said.
The announcement came
as many states and com-
munities have already been
lifting mask mandates
amid improving virus num-
bers and as more Ameri-
cans have been shedding
face coverings after getting
shots.
To date more than 154
million Americans, nearly
47% of the population, have
received at least one dose
of COVID-19 vaccine, and
nearly 119 million are fully
vaccinated. The rate of new
vaccinations has slowed in
recent weeks, but with the
authorization Wednesday of
the Pfizer shot for children
ages 12 to 15, a new burst
of doses is expected in the
coming days.
“All of us, let’s be
patient, be patient with
one another,” Biden said,
acknowledging some
Americans might be hesi-
tant about removing their
masks after more than a
year of living in a pandemic
that has killed more than
584,000 people in the U.S.
and more than 3.3 million
people worldwide.
— The Observer con-
tributed to this report.
tHE OBSErVEr — 5A
ANIMALS
Continued from Page 1A
for domestic complaints
and serving court sum-
mons to residents of the
county, but like all small
community law enforce-
ment officers, she wears
multiple hats. She also is
one of three medical exam-
iners for the county.
Jones entered Union
to respond to a follow-up
regarding a loose dog the
city ordinance officer saw
wandering the night before
— a problem pit bull dog
that had killed seven cats
from three separate house-
holds the week before. A
woman with a child entered
their yard and spoke with
Jones about the dog.
Jones said her pri-
mary goal is to educate pet
owners, especially those
with unruly dogs, about
ways to minimize harm in
the community.
“When I go out, not only
do I warn them, I also edu-
cate them and say, ‘How
can I help you be a better
dog owner?’” Jones said.
She noted the pit bull,
which frequently gets
loose, should be tethered
and offered to acquire the
tethers and leashes if the
owners are unable to afford
one.
“We take it seriously
because these dogs have the
potential to bite a human,
and it’s our responsibility
to keep the citizens safe,”
Jones said.
The deputy said the
household had received a
citation for their dog only a
week prior.
“When a dog kills a
domestic animal, or bites a
person, we put them on —
I call it ‘doggy probation.’
In short, it’s an aggres-
sive level two probationary
period, so that if the dog
does anything else in one
year, we could take the
animal and possibly eutha-
nize it.”
It’s a last resort, cer-
tainly, but a necessary final
step when animals continue
to remain uncontrolled and
dangerous to the commu-
nity. Jones said she prefers
education and assistance
to hardline approaches that
would upset pet owners
and could lead to violent
confrontation.
Before leaving, Jones
gave the woman an extra
collar from the back of her
vehicle. The resident was
thankful, noting the pit bull
had a tendency to break
free from his collar.
Finding the right fit
Deputy Kelly sifted
through a stack of civil
PARK
Continued from Page 1A
insects to help spread the
pollen other plants need to
reproduce.
The volunteer said she
wants to continue having
native plants at the site
because many are excel-
lent pollinator plants and
she wants people to learn
about and appreciate them.
One of the advantages
of having a park filled
alex Wittwer/The Observer
union County sheriff’s deputy Patricia Kelly speaks to a La Grande resident Wednesday, May 12, 2021, while
two barking dogs that a neighbor had complained about race through the yard.
you want them to see that,”
Kelly said. “Not everybody
can handle this, not every-
body can do this job.”
Still, being one of the
few women at the sheriff’s
office has its advantages,
Kelly said, such as han-
dling situations involving
children.
“I’ve had so many good
interactions with children,”
Kelly said, “and being able
to do that kind of police
work is so much better.”
challenges, Jones said.
Winter brings increased
calls about animals left
outside in the cold or
neglected livestock, and
spring and summer come
with increased calls for
dog bites. She attributed
the pattern to increased
activity as more people are
out enjoying the weather
and walking their dogs.
She also said with
summer, there is an
increase in wolf attacks.
Seasonal problems
Here to help
service papers inside her
police vehicle while at a
mobile home park along
Riddle Road in La Grande
when a man walked up
to discuss his neighbor’s
barking dogs. She has been
on the sheriff’s payroll only
since August 2020, but the
community is starting to
recognize her as one of the
two animal enforcement
officers.
Kelly began her law
enforcement career
working as a correctional
officer and obtained the
rank of sergeant. She took
a pay cut to become an
animal enforcement officer.
“I didn’t know if I’d
like it,” Kelly said. “I had
trained dogs and worked
with horses, so I figured
I’d probably be good at it.
As Lani was training me,
I ended up loving it. I’m
much happier.”
A stuffed dog doll hung
in the windshield of Kel-
ly’s patrol vehicle — a gift
from Jones after Kelly fin-
ished her probation period
and was able to work solo
as a deputy with Union
County.
“The things I love in
life, and my background,”
she said, “it kind of brings
it all together.”
Kelly recently moved
to the area and is learning
the local streets. But other
parts of the job are harder.
She recalled a resi-
dent who suffered through
severe drug addiction.
The deputy hoped even-
tually, with treatment and
time, the person would
recover. It has not hap-
pened. She also remem-
bered assisting Jones with
a blood extraction from a
dead resident for evidence
and autopsy purposes.
“It was hard in the
beginning, because I felt,
‘Why are you all so happy,
don’t you see this stuff hap-
pening around here?’ And
Jones noted many of
the calls she and Kelly
respond to involve dogs,
from barking pups that irri-
tate neighbors to pets left
in cars while the owners go
shopping or run errands.
Education, she said, is
paramount.
“It seems simple to me,”
Jones said. “If it’s hot out-
side, don’t take your dog
with you.”
But many do, she said.
As she explained
summer months create
potentially fatal haz-
ards for pets in vehi-
cles, a call came across
the radio about two small
dogs inside a pickup in
the Walmart parking lot in
Island City.
“A dog can’t sweat, so
they have the potential
to overheat quickly,” she
said. “We get a lot of these
calls.”
She arrived to see the
two small dogs in a vehicle
with all four windows
cracked open. The day
was not too warm, but she
verified the internal tem-
perature of the vehicle as a
precaution, using a hand-
held laser. It registered just
under 90 degrees. While
not entirely dangerous to
the dogs inside, she left her
card on the driver’s door
with her number and the
request for a phone call.
Each season has its own
“Animal-related stuff
— people are really emo-
tional about their animals
— are truly one of the most
volatile calls that you will
ever go on,” Jones said.
“If you say you’re going to
take their animal away, it
is almost as bad as telling
them you’re going to take
their children.”
Jones underscored that
even simple noise com-
plaints about barking dogs
can quickly escalate into
fiascos. She recalled a
shooting on Tuesday, May
11, that left two deputies
dead in Eden, Texas. They
had responded to a call
about a dog complaint that
ended with gunfire, the
deaths of the deputies and
a critical injury to a city
employee.
But most situations
involving animals result
in level-headed discus-
sions and an opportunity
to educate the public about
animal control and the role
the deputies play in keeping
the community safe.
“One time I went to
a call and there was a
5-year-old little girl that
was inside the gate, and
she put her little hands on
her hips and she said, ‘My
mom says that you go to
people’s houses and steal
their dogs!’” Jones said.
“And I said, ‘Oh no, honey,
we help animals.’”
with plants native to the
region is they are easier
to care for because they
are used to the soils in the
region and its relatively
dry conditions. Having
native plants present,
Boula sad, will help the
pollinator garden become
self-sustaining.
Boula said the work that
has been done to trans-
form Reynolds Park is a
credit to the many who
have helped her, including
La Grande’s parks depart-
ment, La Grande Main
Street, the Blue Mountains
Conservancy and the local
chapter of the Native Plant
Society of Oregon.
Spence said his depart-
ment assisted with steps
that included removing
weeds and debris and
adding new benches, but
he emphasized Boula has
been the driving force
throughout the revival of
the park.
“She did most of the
work,” Spence said.
Today, Boula is scaling
back her work at Reyn-
olds Park because she is
moving from La Grande
to Cove, which will make
it harder for her to care for
the pocket park. Boula is
preparing a volunteer to
assist her with caring for
the native plant site.
Anyone interested in
volunteering with the pol-
linator garden project
should contact Lorrie
McKee at l.mckee@city
oflagrande.org.