FROM PAGE ONE
SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 2021
THE OBSERVER — 5A
VACCINE
BUDGET: School Board to vote on June 21
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
To better gauge the
campus community’s
response toward vaccina-
tions, the university con-
ducted a COVID-19 vaccina-
tion survey in February that
produced mixed opinions.
Just fewer than 900 indi-
viduals participated in the
survey.
According to Oregon
Public Broadcasting, 65% of
students voted “no” and 30%
voted “yes” to requiring vac-
cinations in the fall. How-
ever, 75% of faculty were in
favor and 22% were against.
While faculty mostly
favored the requirement and
students generally opposed
it, that created diffi culty for
the school’s board of trustees
to balance the communi-
ty’s thoughts with statewide
trends.
“The science is very clear
that the vaccine is eff ective
and it’s safe,” said Board
Trustee Brad Stephens
during a board meeting last
month.
“I don’t know how I feel
about them mandating the
vaccine,” said EOU student
Tori Reynolds. “Why are
you basing someone’s ability
to get a higher education on
whether or not they want to
get a vaccine?”
The university will not
add the COVID-19 vacci-
nation to its list of required
vaccines, alongside the mea-
sles vaccine.
“Any information we
gather from students will be
confi dential,” Seydel said.
“That is not information that
is posted anywhere, just like
the current students’ immu-
in part because of the
COVID-19 relief money.
Panike said that if
about 80 of the 140 stu-
dents return next year,
the school district will be
able to operate about two
years before its reserves
are drawn to the point that
reductions in staff and pro-
grams would be needed.
A number of the stu-
dents who left the district
are being homeschooled or
are now attending online
learning academies. George
Mendoza, La Grande
School District superin-
tendent, said it will not be
known for some time how
many will return to the La
Grande School District.
“Time is needed to
determine what the long-
term impact on student
enrollment will be due to
the COVID-19 pandemic,”
he said in his budget
message.
Panike said on Friday
June 4, that if the $9.3 bil-
lion 2021-23 education
budget the state Legisla-
ture’s House passed June 3,
FIRE
Continued from Page 1A
blackening 12 acres. The
annual average is 105 light-
ning-sparked blazes. In 2019
the Wallowa-Whitman had
67 lightning fi res, which
burned 27 acres.
It was the second con-
secutive tranquil fi re season
on the Wallowa-Whitman,
even as major blazes were
spreading across hundreds of
thousands of acres elsewhere
in the West.
“In really dry years we
often don’t get as much light-
ning,” McCraw said.
The situation is similar
on other public land in the
state’s northeastern corner,
primarily sagebrush steppe
for which the Bureau of
Land Management is the
chief fi refi ghting agency.
On private and state land,
where the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry handles
much of the fi refi ghting,
lightning sparks 70% to 75%
of fi res on average in North-
eastern Oregon, said Steve
Meyer, wildland fi re super-
visor at the state agency’s
Baker City offi ce.
“We’ve had summers
when we’re setting records
for fi re danger but we don’t
have much of a fi re season
because we don’t get the
lightning,” Meyer said.
Although lightning is
famously fi ckle in where
Alex Wittwer/The Observer, File
Monty the Mountaineer, Eastern Oregon University’s mascot, wel-
comes students and faculty alike as they enter the gymnasium Tues-
day, May 4, 2021, to receive a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The school
announced Thursday, June 3, that students, faculty and staff will be
required to receive the COVID-19 vaccination to be on campus next
fall.
nizations records.”
Last month, Eastern
Oregon updated its face
covering requirements on
campus for the remainder
of the semester to allow stu-
dents and staff to gather out-
doors without masks, void of
any social distancing. How-
ever, the university said stu-
dents in small groups of
eight or fewer can gather
indoors without masks, so
long as they can show proof
of vaccination.
According to the Oregon
Health Authority, 34% of
Union County is vaccinated.
That number is well below
the state average, which
eclipsed 50% toward the end
of May.
“I think it depends on
where most of the students
come from,” said EOU
student Isabella Evans.
“Depending on their back-
grounds, a lot of people
tend to not want to get the
vaccine.”
Eastern has been
holding vaccination clinics
on campus periodically
throughout the month of
May and into June. More
than 100 individuals
attended the fi rst clinic at
Quinn Coliseum May 4,
where the Moderna vaccine
was administered.
When the FDA will
approve the numerous
COVID-19 vaccinations
remains to be seen. No vac-
cine is fully approved, but
Pfi zer, Moderna and Johnson
& Johnson were all granted
emergency use authorization.
All three have applied for
full approval, a process that
can take several months to
a year, according to the FDA.
Until full approval,
Eastern Oregon University
will be moving forward with
the mindset that one or more
of the vaccines will be fully
approved by the fall term,
as with many other schools
across the state.
“We remain committed
to providing all students
with the greatest educational
opportunities possible in
preparation for success after
graduation,” Insko said.
it strikes, Livingston said
advances in meteorology
have made it much more
feasible to forecast thunder-
storms, with a fair degree
of geographical accuracy, at
least a few days, and even up
to a week, in advance.
Livingston said light-
ning detectors can pinpoint
strikes, which at least gives
fi re crews — and the moun-
taintop fi re lookouts, of
which more than a dozen
still are staff ed each summer
in Northeastern Oregon — a
likely set of places, after the
storm passes, to search for
the telltale tendrils of smoke.
“It helps us get resources
out into an area ahead of
time, to focus on areas where
we’re most likely to have
lightning fi res,” Meyer said.
Human-caused fi res,
by contrast, are inherently
more frightening, offi cials
said, because people can
go almost anywhere. And
unlike with lightning, there
are no sensors to show where
a person carelessly tossed a
cigarette or left a smoldering
campfi re or drove through
a patch of desiccated grass,
where hot muffl ers and cat-
alytic converters can ignite
the tinder.
“With human-caused
fi res you never know,”
Meyer said. “It can be
anywhere.”
The inherent unpredict-
ability of human-caused fi res
— when they might happen,
as well as where — is one
reason the Forest Service
and Oregon Department of
Forestry institute restric-
tions on campfi res, the use of
chain saws and other activi-
ties when fi re danger is high
or extreme.
Livingston said despite
the many factors that deter-
mine the severity of a fi re
season on a specifi c national
forest, he’s fairly confi dent
that the 2021 season will be
another damaging one.
“It’s safe to say we’re
going to have a long, diffi cult
season — it’s just a matter of
where,” he said.
Wilderness fi res could
return after 2020
hiatus
Over the past two
decades, fi re managers have
allowed more than a dozen
lightning-sparked fi res to
burn naturally in the Eagle
Cap Wilderness, Oregon’s
largest wilderness at 365,000
acres.
The goal is to allow fi re
to perform its natural func-
tions, including reducing the
amount of fuel on the ground
and potentially reducing the
severity of future blazes.
The Wallowa-Whitman
suspended this program
in 2020 to allow crews,
who were trying to avoid
spreading COVID-19, to
focus on other blazes.
Livingston said lightning
fi res in the Eagle Cap this
summer could potentially
be monitored rather than
doused as soon as possible.
after being approved by the
Senate, is signed by Gov.
Kate Brown, the La Grande
School District will have to
draw signifi cantly from its
reserves. He explained the
proposed Oregon school
budget would leave the La
Grande School District
$1.35 million short of what
it expects it will need to
cover rising employee costs
and failing enrollment.
The school district is
fi nancially prepared for
this, Panike said, because
the district’s 2021-22
budget was built on the
assumption that the Legis-
lature would pass a $9.3 bil-
lion education budget for
the 2021-23 biennium.
A large portion of the
COVID-19 relief funding
the school district will
receive comes from the fed-
eral government’s Elemen-
tary and Secondary School
School Emergency Relief
Fund. These ESSER funds
must be spent within three
years and some must be
used for specifi c purposes,
Mendoza said.
The La Grande School
District’s budget calls for
about six full-time posi-
tions to be added and
for 5.5 other nonclass-
room teaching positions
to be trimmed in part by
not hiring people to fi ll
some open positions. No
employees would be laid
off .
The positions to be
added would include that
of a student success coor-
dinator, a woods and con-
struction teacher, an
English language learner
position, an English lan-
guage learner paraed-
ucator, plus a behavior
teacher who assists students
with behavior issues and a
behavior paraeducator.
The La Grande School
Board will conduct a
hearing on the proposed
budget at the beginning of
its June 21 meeting. The
public will be able to com-
ment on the budget or ask
questions of the board and
school staff at the hearing,
which will start at 7 p.m. at
Central Elementary School.
The school board will
vote on adoption of the
budget following the
hearing.
Greed is getting in the way of
healing. While health insurance
executive salaries are going up,
our ability to afford healthcare
is going down.
Help conquer the
monstrous costs
in healthcare.
Get Involved with
Union County's chapter of
HealthCare for All Oregon.
Email unioncounty@hcao.org
Annual Union County Crops
& Conservation Tour
2021 Tour Cancelled
La Grande, OR (May 12, 2021) – The 44th Union Co. Crops
and Conservation Tour was cancelled in 2020 and again in 2021.
The Planning Committee decided to cancel the tour this year due
to continued uncertainty of Covid-19 and concern for public health
and safety. Alternative options were considered, but the committee
agreed that offering a modified version of the tour would not provide the
same experience as the traditional format. It was important to the
committee members and supporters of the tour to keep the traditional
aspect intact as it has been successful for 43 years straight. Although
Covid-19 disrupted the long-tradition, the committee will host the
44th annual tour next year.
The planning committee would like to thank the many dedicated tour sponsors
(see below for 2019 sponsors), volunteers, 4-H and FFA members, livestock and
crops producers, and community members for their continued support over the
last 40+ years. The committee fully expects to host a traditional tour in 2022
which will be held during the same traditional week (second week after the
Eastern Oregon Livestock Show). Mark your calendars for the “third”
44th annual Union Co. Crops and Conservation Tour!
2019 Sponsors
A & B ENTERPRISES
BARENBRUG USA
BETASEED, INC
CB’S PORTABLE RESTROOMS
COMMUNITY BANK
D & B SUPPLY CO INC
EAGLE CARRAGE & MACHINE INC
EASTERN OREGON RENTALS
GLASSMITH
JOHN HOWARD & ASSOCIATES
LABBEEMINT
NORTHWEST FARM CREDIT SERVICES
OLD WEST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
OREGON TRAIL SEEDS
OSU EXT AGRONOMIST
THE AMALGAMATED SUGAR COMPANY
TRI-COUNTY CWMA
UNION CO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
UNION CO SEED GROWERS
UNION SOIL & WATER CONS DIST
WALLOWA CO GRAIN GROWERS
BANK OF EASTERN OREGON
BARRETO MANUFACTURING INC
BLUE MT SEEDS
COMMERCIAL TIRE & AUTO CENTER
CONNECTED PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS LLC
DIS-DUNNING IRRIGATION SUPPLY
EASTERN OREGON NET INC
ED STAUB & SONS PROPANE
IP CALLISON
KUO TESTING LABS INC
M J GOSS MOTOR CO
NUTRIEN
OREGON TRAIL ELECTRIC CO-OP
OREGON WHEAT GROWERS LEAGUE
RUDD FARMS
THE STRATTON AGENCY
TRI-COUNTY EQUIPMENT
UNION CO FARM BUREAU
UNION CO WEED BOARD
US BANK – LA GRANDE BRANCH
WHEATLAND INSURANCE CENTER INC