2021: YEAR in REVIEW
C2 — THE OBSERVER
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2021
COVID TOP STORIES
COVID continues to take a toll across Union County
gymnasiums as offi cials wrung their tied
hands over the state mandates.
The Observer
FEDERAL COVID-19 RELIEF PLAN
BENEFITS LOCAL COMMUNITIES
WASHINGTON — The federal
American Rescue Plan Act was a trickle-
down stimulus that sent millions of dol-
lars into local economies staggering
under the weight of the pandemic.
The $1.9 trillion aid plan included
$350 billion for state, local and tribal
governments. Union County received
$5.2 million, Wallowa County $1.4 mil-
lion and Baker County $3.13 million. La
Grande received $2.77 million, $410,000
in relief funds went to Enterprise and
Baker City got $2 million.
Populations dictated the amounts local
governments received.
School districts, too, were on the
receiving end of the stimulus.
The La Grande School District
received about $5 million in stimulus
funding, and the remaining smaller eight
school districts in Union and Wallowa
counties received smaller amounts, from
$720,000 going to Wallowa to $211,000
for Imbler.
Cove School Superintendent Earl
Pettit said his district would likely spend
its $389,000 in ARPA funding on remod-
eling work to create offi ce space for pro-
fessionals providing mental health, coun-
seling and nursing services to students.
The need for such services increased
because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plan also provided $118 million
to hospitals and health care providers
across Oregon serving rural populations.
The Center for Human Development,
La Grande, and Wallowa County Health
Care District, Enterprise, were among
the recipients.
Businesses struggling due to the pan-
demic received a fi nancial boost as well,
with $500,000 in ARP funds coming to
Union County, where the county board
of commissioners oversaw passing the
funds on to local businesses.
Union County Commissioner Donna
Beverage at the time said it was critical
to do everything possible to help local
businesses.
“The best way to help Union Coun-
ty’s economy is keep our businesses from
going out of business,” she said.
WHERE ARE THE WORKERS?
LA GRANDE — No industry was hit
harder by the continuing pandemic than
the restaurant industry. But even still,
other sectors of the economy bore the
struggles of the virus all the same, albeit
in diff erent ways. And as the pandemic
seemed to wane, with large sections of
the entertainment industry opening its
shuttered doors, a new problem arose.
There simply weren’t enough workers.
Employers who once had piles of
resumes now sifted through a handful of
CVs. No industry was spared: Positions
for police offi cers, lifeguards, servers and
countless others sat empty.
Myriads of reasons came forth why
hiring had slowed, or seemingly stopped
altogether. Economists posited that fears
of the virus itself, lack of child care and
inadequate pay were among the reasons
why jobs remained unfi lled as demand
for services skyrocketed. Others rea-
soned that the elephant in the room,
increased unemployment benefi ts, was
the sole cause of the labor shortage.
EO Media Group put out an ambitious
eff ort over the summer to fi nd the truth
behind the worker shortages.
Our fi ndings echoed sentiment from
both camps. Employers gave countless
testimony of how potential employees
would hand in resumes solely to fulfi ll a
requirement that allowed them to keep
SCHOOLS REOPEN, EOU REOPENS,
SPORTS RETURN, VISITATIONS
RESTART AT CARE FACILITIES
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Sean Altizer, a server at Nookie’s Restaurant & Brewery in Hermiston, looks through orders Saturday,
June 26, 2021, at the kitchen window. According to the managers, the restaurant has a full wait staff
but the kitchen remains sorely understaff ed, with nearly every cook working overtime.
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Concerned citizens fi ll the gymnasium at Central Elementary School during a school board meeting
on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. School board meetings became platforms for anti-mask protests across
the nation as schools reopened with state-required protocols amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
collecting unemployment benefi ts.
“We get a lot of random resumes
dropped off , which I guess is people
trying to satisfy job-search require-
ments,” said Jared Hillock, a manager
and co-owner of Hillock Electric in
Enterprise.
But further compounding the labor
shortage was a rapidly changing demo-
graphic — the boomers were retiring at a
faster pace than in previous years, due in
part to the continuing pandemic.
As employers continued to struggle to
fi nd workers, more problems arose from
the cracks in the logistical infrastructure.
Soon, labor shortages in key industries
mixed with higher gas prices led to yet
another shortage — supply chains were
in disarray as store shelves and consump-
tive goods arrived late, or not at all. It
was felt everywhere, from cafeterias and
construction to retail stores.
At the end of 2021, supply chain
issues continue and a new variant of the
COVID-19 virus looms, and it’s unclear
what the future might hold.
MANDATE PROTESTS
LA GRANDE — As the pandemic
ebbed, waned and then returned with
a vengeance in the summer, protests in
rural America began to emerge against
vaccine and mask mandates issued by the
state.
La Grande was no diff erent. Only,
instead of the capitol in Salem serving
as a backdrop, there were the Blue
Mountains.
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And while a number of speakers were
mainstays at the protests and demonstra-
tions, none were as vocal as Blake Bars,
an organizer with the Union County
Freedom Alliance and one of the major
players in organizing the protests in
downtown La Grande.
“In order to be the best we can be
for other people, we have to take care
of ourself,” Bars said at a rally at La
Grande City Hall on Saturday, Aug. 28.
“We have to do what’s right for our own
bodies, our own minds and our own
souls.”
Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen
also took the forefront as a vocal critic
of the statewide mask and vaccine man-
dates, his notoriety stemming from a
viral letter he penned to Oregon’s Gov.
Kate Brown.
“We haven’t really had a voice in this.
It’s not really our fi ght, if you will. And
then when it became the homefront of
our children, and my own child in school
having to wear masks, it put that fi ght
right in my living room,” Bowen said.
“I wanted to stand up and be a voice
and let folks know that I supported the
majority of Union County residents —
the strong majority of Union County res-
idents — that it should be an individual’s
choice and we shouldn’t be masking our
children.”
In addition to the streets, protests took
up an altogether new battleground —
school board meetings. As mask man-
dates for students and vaccine mandates
for staff loomed, schools saw an eruption
of concerned citizens fl ooding school
LA GRANDE — While the surge
of COVID-19 cases has risen and fallen
throughout the pandemic, a major beam
of hope was the reopening of schools,
sporting events and care facilities.
La Grande School District Superinten-
dent George Mendoza on Thursday, Jan.
21, had good news to share at an evening
virtual town hall.
Mendoza announced that all students
in the La Grande School District will
return on Jan. 27, marking the fi rst time
they were in classrooms since March of
2020. By March, all public schools in
Union County were back to in-person
instruction, with the exception of Elgin
High School having a brief shutdown
after an outbreak.
Also in March, state mandates
allowed for a much-missed interaction —
visitations at elderly care facilities. Kirk
Shira of Baker City was just one example
of an individual who relished the oppor-
tunity to see loved ones at care facilities
again, regularly traveling to La Grande to
see his mother, June Shira.
After months of standing outside his
mother’s window, Kirk Shira was able to
be in the same room with her again.
“There were tears of joy. I could
not be any happier,” Shira said. “I was
overwhelmed.”
Eastern Oregon University announced
in June that students and employees
engaging on campus must be vaccinated
once the FDA approved one or more of
the COVID-19 vaccinations. By October,
75.7% of students on campus were vac-
cinated, while 24.2% had exemptions
approved.
Another element that was badly
missed in the early stages of the
COVID-19 pandemic was a beloved
outlet for students — sports.
The La Grande girls soccer team
marked the return of sports after a hiatus
off the fi eld, taking down Four Rivers 8-0
on March 2. The ensuing modifi ed spring
season presented new challenges, such
as limited capacity attendance, masks
during indoor games and winter sports
leaking into the summer.
DELTA VARIANT ARRIVES
AND SPARKS NEW CALLS
FOR VACCINATIONS
LA GRANDE — Oregon eased off
its pandemic restrictions in early July
regardless of infection and vaccina-
tion levels in individual counties. Some
independent epidemiologists were con-
cerned the move could lead to a spike in
new cases in areas where most residents
were not vaccinated — such as Eastern
Oregon, where the vaccination rate in
several counties was at no more than
40%.
Just as the state was reopening,
Oregon also found it, too, was home to
the most virulent form of the coronavirus
to that point: the delta variant.
The strain was two to three times as
transmissible as the original coronavirus
strain and wreaked more havoc on areas
where a higher percentage of the popula-
tion was unvaccinated. Oregon by mid-
July reported 14 delta cases with three
in Region 9, an area that encompasses
Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa,
Baker and Malheur counties.
The three cases of the delta variant
were in Umatilla County, but experts
reported that number was almost
See, COVID/Page C3
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
MAY YOU ENJOY PEACE AND PROSPERITY
IN THE NEW YEAR!
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