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BUSINESS & AG LIFE, B1
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THURSDAY EDITION
September 16, 2021
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By DICK MASON
The Observer
Lane in Cove and fi nish at
the bottom of the hill just
before Jasper Street.
Reese Delaney, a
freshman at Cove High
School, will be com-
peting at the race coming
off a trip to Akron, Ohio,
for the All-American
Soap Box Derby World
Championships in July.
He took part in three dif-
ferent races against top
competition.
LA GRANDE — The
Union County Board of
Commissioners, in an eff ort
to better position itself
to deal with a looming
crisis, passed a resolution
declaring an emergency due
to the likelihood the county
will soon be suff ering a
staffi ng shortage of health
care and public safety
workers.
“This is a preemptive
action and a preventive
one,” Union County Com-
missioner Paul Anderes said
following the Wednesday,
Sept. 15, vote at the Joseph
Annex Building, La
Grande.
Nick Vora, Union Coun-
ty’s emergency manager,
said the declaration will get
the attention of the state
and put Union County in a
better position to apply for
assistance from the state if
a shortage occurs. Union
County is facing a possible
shortage because of the toll
the COVID-19 pandemic is
taking on health care and
emergency service workers,
some of whom may have
had to step down from their
jobs.
“The ongoing COVID-19
pandemic has exhausted
many providers of core
public services, including
fi rst responders, health
care providers, emergency
services, public health
and public safety among
others,” according to the
resolution.
The resolution goes on
to state that Union County
faces the possibility of
losing many more health
care and emergency ser-
vice workers because of the
state’s vaccination man-
date. The resolution con-
tends the mandates could
cause people to leave their
jobs. Vora said some rea-
sons are that some will
not be able to get vacci-
nated for reasons such as
health issues and religious
beliefs. In other cases even
those who are vaccinated
will not be able to continue
working because they don’t
want to share information
about their medical history
with others, Vora told the
the board of commissioners
before the vote.
Union County
See, Derby/Page A5
See, Emergency/Page A5
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Oregon National Guard Spc. Renay Monohan sanitizes and cleans a procedure room on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in the surgicenter at Grande Ronde Hospital, La
Grande. Monohan is a La Grande local and works as a health care medic as her regular job with the U.S. Forest Service. National Guard members have been activated
at a number of hospitals in Eastern Oregon following a surge of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
Small contingent of citizen-soldiers have been activated to support local hospitals
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
National Guard Spc. Jacob Jensen dices up tomatoes Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in the kitchen at
Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande. Jensen, a La Grande local who works as an electrical engineer,
is among National Guard members who have been activated to support hospitals during the recent
surge in COVID-19 cases.
LA GRANDE — National Guard members
have arrived at many Eastern Oregon hospitals as
the COVID-19 pandemic reaches its apex in recent
cases caused by the virulent delta variant.
Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, Baker City,
Wallowa Memorial Hospital, Enterprise, and
Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande, each have
citizen-soldiers on site to help, in addition to the
guard members already at Blue Mountain Hos-
pital, John Day.
At least 20 guard members were deployed to
assist in operations at hospitals in nonclinical
roles. The hospitals moved to fi ll in gaps with the
National Guard soldiers, placing them in positions
throughout the hospitals as ancillary support staff .
Staff at the overburdened health care centers more
than welcomed the added support for roles such as
front door screeners, which clinical staff often had
fi lled.
“That helps us be able to deploy our clin-
ical people back to clinical work,” said Priscilla
Lynn, president and chief nursing offi cer at Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center in Baker City.
Freeing up resources for the health care
staff improves effi ciency during a time when
worker shortages abound across nearly every
See, Guard/Page A5
Race day brings competitors from across region
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
COVE — The sound of
soap box cars fl ying down
the road will soon be
heard again in Cove.
Oregon Soap Box Der-
by’s Region 1 season starts
this month, with the fi rst
local race taking place in
Cove on Saturday, Sept.
18. The event includes
stock, super stock and
master’s divisions and
concludes on Sept. 19.
“We’ve already gotten
a number of kids from out
of the area and out of the
state that have preregis-
tered,” said Sam Delaney,
one of the event orga-
nizers with Oregon Soap
Box Derby. “I’m hoping to
get a number of those kids
that raced last May back.”
INDEX
Business .................B1
Classified ...............B2
Comics ....................B5
Crossword .............B3
Dear Abby .............B6
The organization
hosted a spring race near
the conclusion of last
season that drew roughly
20 contestants across a
wide age range. According
to Sam Delaney, he has 24
cars prepared for drivers
to use who do not own
their own soap box car.
The race fee is $35 and
each racer gets multiple
runs across several bracket
competitions. Compet-
itors will race from the
top of the hill on Haefer
WEATHER
Horoscope .............B3
Letters ....................A4
Lottery ....................A2
Obituaries ..............A3
Opinion ..................A4
SATURDAY
Record ....................A3
Spiritual Life..........A6
Sports .....................A7
Sudoku ...................B5
8
Union County
commissioners pass
resolution asking
vaccination
mandate be
withdrawn
Lending
a hand
Soap box derby
returns to Cove as
fall season kicks off
GE
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Friday
41 LOW
76/51
Clouds breaking
Mostly cloudy
SUCCESSFUL SEPTEMBER GROUSE HUNT
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Issue 109
3 sections, 34 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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