Saturday, auguSt 21, 2021
FROM PAGE ONE
tHE OBSErVEr — A5
PONDOSA
Continued from Page A1
So the couple sold their
place and moved to Pon-
dosa in 1983.
“All this nice sunshine
and fresh air,” Bob said.
“It was a good idea. I keep
busy over here.”
Although the houses
had been sold and moved
to other towns nearby, Bob
discovered a huge pile of
sawdust left at the mill
site.
He can point it out, too,
on the aerial photo of Pon-
dosa that hangs on the
wall of the store. He set to
grinding up that sawdust
and started selling it as
garden mulch.
“I’d deliver it in 5-yard
loads all over,” he said.
That kept him busy
for a while, until the pile
finally disappeared.
“It took 20 years,” he
said with a smile.
While he worked at
that, Jean ran the store.
“People yet talk about
her. She’d visit with every-
body,” Bob said.
Jean passed away in
2015. During her ill-
ness, she and Bob lived in
Nampa, Idaho, with Lori
and her husband, Dennis.
After Jean died, Lori
thought her father might
stay in Idaho with her. But
he returned to Pondosa in
the winter of 2015.
The store is warmed by
three wood stoves, so Lori
and Dennis came as often
as they could to help haul
firewood and move the
snowdrifts.
That lasted only a
few months before they
decided, in February 2016,
to move to Pondosa.
Prior to her marriage,
Lori had lived in Pondosa
for a time, and she met her
husband in Baker City.
“Twenty-five years later,
we’re back,” she said.
The Pondosa store has
15 bedrooms. During the
days of the mill operation,
the 12 bedrooms upstairs
were rented to single men
— two to a room. They all
shared one bathroom.
In addition to the store,
the town boasted a gas sta-
tion, meat market and post
office.
“That old vault is where
they stored the payroll,”
Bob said, pointing to a
structure just across the
driveway from the store.
Although the store was
closed for a bit when Jean
was sick, and again in the
depths of the coronavirus
pandemic, it is again open
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
The Pondosa Store was built in 1926 to serve Pondosa, a mill town about 25 miles north of Baker City on state Highway 203, a couple miles from Medical Springs.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Pondosa proclaimed itself as the geographic center of the U.S. after
Hawaii and Alaska were added as states in 1959.
Bob Bennett, left, and his daughter, Lori Brock, on the front porch of the Pondosa Store on July 20, 2021.
seven days a week.
“Once we got Dad vac-
cinated, we opened back
up,” Lori said.
Lori, who is a registered
nurse, administered her
dad’s second dose, on Feb.
11, at the Baker County
Health Department in
Baker City.
milk and eggs.
They’ve also applied for
a liquor license.
The store is open daily
from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Offer-
ings have expanded outside
as well. This spring they
developed three campsites,
and Lori posted the avail-
ability on the website hip-
“We’re here and adding
to our business,” Bob
added.
Lori said the store stocks
“mostly refreshments and
snacks” — soda, ice cream,
candy and chips. But Bob
can serve up burritos, too,
and he offers some essen-
tials such as flour, sugar,
SURGE
Local authorities
VACCINE
Continued from Page A1
Scarfo added his
thoughts during the
meeting, suggesting that
the county is working
with the
Oregon
Health
Authority
to conduct
mass offsite
Scarfo
testing in
the coming
weeks in order to relieve
pressure on hospital staff.
Mendoza emphasized
the La Grande School
District’s risk mitigation
measures
heading into
the school
year.
Mendoza
added that a
Mendoza sharp rise in
COVID-19
cases in the district has
made operations difficult,
but he is hopeful that pro-
tocols will create a pro-
ductive in-person school
year.
Clements added his
recommen-
dation for
mask usage,
and cau-
tioned resi-
dents about
the reper-
Clements cussions that
can come
from large gatherings.
“We’re in this
together,” Clements said.
“If there was a forest fire
that was blowing in our
direction, this community
would pull together in a
heartbeat. I wish that was
the case now.”
Continued from Page A1
Eastern Oregon during
the recent COVID-19
surge. Others from the
hospital who spoke,
including Dr. Zach
Spoehr-Labutta, a pedi-
atric doctor, emphasized
the concern.
“This is the first point
in the pandemic that I am
legitimately
afraid for my
patients,” he
said.
In addition
to hospitals
exhausting
Spoehr-
resources,
Labutta
nursing
homes are feeling the
impacts of hospitals
reaching capacity.
According to a
spokesperson at the
Grande Ronde Retire-
ment Residence, in La
Grande, finding room for
patients has been more
difficult in the last two
months than it ever has
been.
Davis emphasized
the strain in staffing
is being felt across the
state, which has resulted
in the National Guard
assisting and providing
support functions at sev-
eral hospitals, including
St. Charles Bend. Grande
Ronde Hospital has 160
cots from the National
Guard that it can use
in the event of a mass
influx of patients, but the
National Guard itself is
not currently being used
in La Grande.
weeks, going from less
than 150 in early July
to a record 2,971 cases
reported on Aug. 19. The
state is now averaging
2,025 cases per day.
The Oregon Health
Authority has reported
that hospitals are nearly
full, with 93% of staffed
adult hospital beds in
Oregon occupied and 94%
of staffed adult ICU beds
across the state in use.
The Oregon Health
and Science University
COVID-19 forecast for
Aug. 18 said the pace of
increases will continue
until Labor Day weekend
and is likely to leave the
state 500 hospital beds
short of demand.
“The fifth wave of
the pandemic in Oregon
remains much more severe
than previous surges,” said
Peter Graven, a top OHSU
data scientist.
On Aug. 18, the per-
centage of COVID-19 tests
that were positive was
13.8%, a rate that indi-
cates exponential growth
of infections. A rate of
5% is considered the top
end to manage impacts on
public health. The orig-
inal version of COVID-19
reached a maximum rate
last year of one person
infecting three others. The
delta variant is spreading
at a rate of one person
infecting eight others.
The OHSU forecast,
which is updated about
once a week, now projects
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
camp. com.
“We get campers off the
freeway,” Lori said. “North
Carolina is the farthest
away.”
Between the store and
campsites is a deck sur-
rounded by trees and
flowers in an area dedicated
to Jean’s memory.
MORE INFORMATION
Oregon Health Authority also reported:
• 12,741 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, Aug.
9, through Sunday, Aug. 15. That’s up 53% over the previous week.
• 546 new COVID-19 hospitalizations, up from 224 the previous week. It
marked the fifth consecutive week of increases.
• 46 reported COVID-19 related deaths, up from 40 reported the pre-
vious week. Though widespread vaccination of older residents and
others most susceptible to severe illness has curbed the percentage of
those killed by the virus, the current spike is spreading so rapidly that
all indicators, including deaths, are on the rise.
COVID-19 hospitaliza-
tions to rise from the cur-
rent 838 patients to about
1,075 by Sept. 3.
The spike won’t com-
pletely recede to levels
seen at the beginning of
August until late October
at the earliest, according to
the OHSU forecast.
‘On the verge of
collapse’
Oregon Health
Authority Director Pat
Allen painted a dire pic-
ture of the hospital system
straining under the flood
of unvaccinated people
who have become infected
with the delta variant.
“Our health care system
is on the verge of collapse
in parts of the state,” he
said.
The quarter of the
state’s population who
remain unvaccinated offer
themselves “as a target
to a virus that has killed
600,000 Americans,”
Allen said.
Brown said she knew
the vaccination require-
ments would generate
blowback from workers
who didn’t want to be vac-
cinated, just as her ear-
lier switch from volun-
tary to mandated mask
wearing by school children
had generated a wave of
opposition.
But many of those deci-
sions were made in July,
when COVID-19 cases
were about 12 times lower
than today.
Without the mask and
vaccination mandates,
Brown said it would be dif-
ficult in particular to keep
students in the classroom.
“That’s why I’m willing
to take the heat for this
decision,” she said.
The deadline for both
the health and education
groups to be vaccinated is
Oct. 18, or six weeks after
final approval of the Pfizer,
Moderna and Johnson &
Johnson vaccines.
Brown is also requiring
all employees of the state’s
executive branch under her
control to be vaccinated.
There are health and
religious exemptions
the state workers can
apply for, but the third
option, Brown said, “is
termination.”
Flat vaccination rates
The mandates come
“We fixed up Mom’s
little park,” Lori said.
She said it’s proven pop-
ular as a resting spot for
touring car clubs as well
as travelers on motorcycles
and bicycles.
“It’s like a little oasis in
the middle of the desert,”
Lori said.
as voluntary vaccina-
tion in Oregon is “flat”
according to OHSU and
rising slightly according
to OHA. That mirrors a
national trend of slowing
inoculation, with the
CDC reporting that about
771,000 doses per day
currently are being used,
a more than 75% drop
from the 3.38 million on
April 13.
Brown’s orders bring
Oregon in line with Cal-
ifornia and Washington
policies. The Portland
Public Schools had earlier
mandated vaccinations
for teachers and staff.
Brown said the state
is taking several steps
to shore up the response
to the medical crisis.
Actions include sending
National Guard troops to
20 hospitals in the state to
support staff experiencing
a torrent of new cases.
Requests for help from
other states and federal
agencies have been made,
including asking the Fed-
eral Emergency Manage-
ment Agency for a fully
staffed field hospital.
The state is also hiring
nursing teams and private
emergency medical tech-
nicians to supplement the
exhausted personnel in
the state.
The National Guard
units will include nurses,
staff for temporary
decompression units to
free up bed space, and
speeding the discharge
of patients who no longer
require hospital-level care
so that new patients can
be assigned to open beds.