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LA GRANDE BOYS GOLF TEAM HEADED TO STATE MEET WITH HIGH HOPES |
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TUESDAY EDITION
May 17, 2022
SPORTS, A7
Masks
in school
again?
“It’s important to honor them and their families.”
— La Grande Police Chief Gary Bell
State health advisory
recommends mask mandates
return to schools where
COVID-19 rates are high
By DICK MASON
The Observer
Davis Carbaugh/The Observer
La Grande Police Lt. Jason Hays speaks during a Union County law enforcement memorial ceremony on Friday, May 13, 2022. The La Grande event
honored the lives of the county’s four fallen offi cers in conjunction with National Law Enforcement Week, May 15-21.
LASTING LEGACY
Ceremony honors fallen law enforcement officers in Union County
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
A GRANDE — Four past fallen
Union County law enforcement
offi cers were honored last week in
La Grande.
Law enforcement offi cers from the
La Grande Police Department, Union
County Sheriff’s Office and Oregon
State Police hosted a Union County
law enforcement memorial ceremony
on Friday, May 13, honoring four law
enforcement officers who lost their
lives in Union County. The event took
place in front of a crowd at the Union
County law enforcement building,
with officials from the city and county
in attendance.
“It’s important to honor them and
their families,” La Grande Police
Chief Gary Bell said. “Several of
those individuals still have family
members here locally.”
Speakers at the memorial service in
addition to Bell were pastor Franklin
Humber, La Grande Police Lt. Jason
Davis Carbaugh/The Observer
See, Legacy/Page A6
La Grande Police Offi cer Cody Kirby, right, lays a wreath over a memorial to Union County’s fallen
offi cers on Friday, May 13, 2022, outside the Union County law enforcement building, La Grande.
L
UNION COUNTY — Oregon’s
COVID-19 case rate is rising again and
this has state health and education offi -
cials worried.
The state issued a health advisory
Friday, May 13, eff ective through Aug.
31 recommending that schools require
face masks again in counties where the
federally defi ned risk level is high. No
Oregon counties have reached this level
yet but six are classifi ed as medium.
These six, according to Oregon Public
Broadcasting, are Multnomah, Wash-
ington, Clackamas, Columbia, Benton
and Deschutes counties.
The other 30 counties in the state,
including Union and Wallowa counties,
are listed as low, according to federal
ratings, which is based on hospitaliza-
tion data.
The state’s warning comes amid
rising coronavirus cases, a previously
predicted bump brought on by the highly
infectious omicron BA.2 subvariant and
the lifting of mask restrictions. Hospi-
talizations are rising, too, and are pre-
dicted to peak around 320 within about
a month.
According to OHA data, pediatric
COVID-19 cases have been increasing
since the middle of March, similar to
cases statewide. Hospitalizations remain
low but are on the rise. Health offi cials
have called it “a mild virus” in most
cases.
The advisory also recommends that
schools monitor for high absentee rates
and notify their local public health
authority if absences reach a certain
level, or if they see an ”unusual spread of
disease.”
ODE said schools leaders should tell
their county health offi cials if absences
exceed certain benchmarks, such as if
absences reach 30% or more, with at
least 10 students or staff absent at the
school level, and if classroom absences
reach 20% or more, with at least three
students or staff absent.
Should Union County reach the fed-
erally defi ned high level it appears that
school districts would fall back on the
protocols they had in place before March
12 when the state lifted the requirement
that students wear masks in schools.
La Grande School District Superin-
tendent George Mendoza said his dis-
trict would continue to make decisions
based upon its Communicable Disease
Plan. The plan calls for specifi c protocols
See, Schools/Page A6
Morgan recovering after ‘three consecutive miracles’
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — A string
of miracles is what Sam Morgan
of Enterprise believes has him
where he is today, less than
four months after a fall into
Trout Creek that resulted in sev-
eral broken vertebrae and ribs
and had him on the verge of
hypothermia.
Today, he can walk. While
he has rods in his back that help
support him and can be uncom-
fortable, he doesn’t say he is in
pain.
“In my mind, it’s a miracle
that I’m alive and not paralyzed.
I had, in essence, three consec-
utive miracles that day,” he said,
refl ecting back on Jan 12.
The fall happened just two
days after his 75th birthday. He
had a plan to call one of his sib-
lings who was celebrating a mile-
stone of his own.
“I was supposed to call my
brother and wish him happy
birthday the day I fell off the
bridge,” he said. “His birthday is
two days after mine.”
Morgan went out that
morning, he said, to pull a limb
that had fallen from a willow
tree into Trout Creek. He said the
See, Morgan/Page A6
INDEX
Classified ......B2
Comics ...........B5
Crossword ....B2
Dear Abby ....B6
WEATHER
Home .............B1
Horoscope ....B3
Local...............A2
Lottery ...........A2
Obituaries .....A5
Opinion .........A4
Sports ............A7
Sudoku ..........B5
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Wednesday
45 LOW
63/38
Becoming cloudy
Rain and drizzle
Sam Morgan poses
for a photo next to
Trout Creek behind
his Enterprise home
on Wednesday, May
4, 2022. Morgan fell
into the creek from
the footbridge in
the background
in January. He
recalled how he
felt someone
lift him up so he
could get out of
the creek. He said
that was the fi rst of
three miracles he
experienced
that day.
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Issue 59
2 sections, 14 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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