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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2021)
A4 THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, JANuARy 30, 2021 OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher DERRICK DePLEDGE Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager BEHIND THE NEWS ‘It’s all hands on deck’ M ark Kujala knows there might be some skepticism when he grades Clatsop County’s response to the coronavirus pandemic so far as an A. The Astorian and others have pressed the county Public Health Department for more information about virus cases so people might have a better understand- ing of the prevalence and potential health risks. Nearly a year into the pandemic, though, the county has been fortunate not to have more hospitalizations and deaths from the disease. “When we went into this, there was no playbook for us to put into place about what we were going to do, what roles should be assigned to who, what to expect,” said Kujala, the new chairman of the county Board of Com- missioners. “So I think about it much differently in January 2021 as I did in March 2020.” Elected to the commis- sion in 2018, Kujala rep- resents District 1, which DERRICK covers Warrenton, Ham- DePLEDGE mond and the western portion of Astoria. A former Warrenton mayor, Kujala owned Skipanon Brand Seafoods and served as membership director of the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce before becoming direc- tor of the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation. In an interview, he explained his grade of the county’s pandemic response, the challenges of sharing more information about the virus, his thoughts on the coun- ty’s Resiliency Project and his view on the more conservative ideological makeup of the commission. Q: On a scale of A to F, how do you grade the county’s response so far to the coronavirus pandemic? A: I am grading it as an A. Q: Why? A: Back in March, the county stood up the incident management team, and that included our emergency manage- ment folks, but it was headed by Mike McNickle, who is our county health director. It also brought in (emergency man- ager) Tiffany Brown; we had the pub- lic information officer, Tom Bennett; Don Bohn, our manager; Monica Steele, to talk about finances and what financial relief was available throughout this; and we met every day — on weekends as well — in anticipation of getting that first case. I was just really impressed in the fact that in such a short period of time, with the information changing almost by the hour, that this group was able to kind of react, get some plans in place, knowing that we needed PPE (personal protective equip- ment), we needed to have a plan in place for when we got that first case. We had Dr. (Ellen) Heinitz as the dep- uty chief, who was giving us kind of that clinical perspective and, of course, had been leading the response when we had those first cases. As they kind of went out into doing their jobs when we had the quarantine take place — securing quarantine facilities, assuring wraparound services for folks that were in quarantine, making sure you brought in Consejo Hispano, to make sure Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian Mark Kujala is the new chairman of the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners. that they could come in and do interpre- Q: The Astorian and others have tation. Clatsop Community Action came pressed the county to provide more in and provided food when people didn’t details about coronavirus cases so peo- ple might get a better understanding of have that. the risk and spread of the virus locally. So there was a coordinated response We understand the county has to bal- from the county health department. And ance patient privacy and public trans- it just grew. Obviously, we didn’t know parency. What do you say to people what to expect. As it kind of grew, there who want more information? were gaps in what the county health A: It’s a big challenge. department could do. We don’t have the I think that when we have the health resources as other counties do. information privacy laws, we need to — But there were other groups that came we had that initial discussion in March, in and kind of filled those gaps. They and Dr. Heinitz was a part of that discus- stood up the community testing site — sion saying, ‘We can provide the very drive-thru testing out at the household basics about who these hazardous waste facil- ity. That couldn’t meet people are.’ Because ‘I’M ELECTEd TO we’re a kind of small the demand. We kind of learned that there were county, people can pin- A NONPARTISAN point who these peo- a lot more people that ple are. And just because wanted to get tested than POSITION. ANd you have COVID doesn’t they could do. SO My ROLE mean your right to pri- And so then Columbia vacy fades away. Memorial Hospital, Prov- IS REALLy TO idence Seaside Hospital, We have to respect WORK WITH ALL that. So it was decided they propped up testing programs ... early on — and there was IdEOLOGIES So the county response guidance from Oregon has really been a county- Health Authority on this THROuGHOuT wide response, a commu- — to provide the persons, OuR COuNTy. nity response. you know, male, female, I feel like when we’ve age range, whether they WE’RE GOING had issues with distribut- live in North County, ing PPP (Paycheck Pro- South County, or whether TO NEEd tection Program) funds, they have been hospital- TO WORK ized or are convalescing CEDR (Clatsop Eco- nomic Development at home. TOGETHER.’ Resources), Astoria-War- And that’s really it. renton Area Chamber And I know that there’s of Commerce, other chambers of com- been some pushback on that, like, ‘Listen, merce, have filled in the gaps there to help I want to know if this is in my community. local businesses, to help individuals in the I want to know some more information.’ county. But it was very clear from Dr. Heinitz So I’ve got to give it an A, because I from the beginning that we need to be think that there’s been a really cooperative very careful about this, because there are ... I was mentioning about the cities. The these protections in place — privacy pro- tections — for individuals that are sick in cities have been able to cooperate, when our community. And we need to respect it’s been closing the beaches. The sheriff’s that. office has been a part of these meetings. And so that’s been the case. It’s been something that has kind of Q: Residents in Lewis and Clark grown over those initial meetings of this have dug in against relocating the coun- incident management team. I can’t say ty’s public works facility out of the tsu- anything but an A because there are some nami inundation zone and into their really dedicated people in that county rural neighborhood as part of the Resil- health department and with the county iency Project. What do you see as the administration that have been working just next steps in that project? nonstop over these last 10 months. A: Kind of going back to how it all evolved. It goes back many years — the Resiliency Project and what came out of the 2007 storm was that we needed to really look at our public facilities. Do we need to locate them in areas that are more centrally located? Public works is one that’s in an inundation zone. Can we find a better location for it? As we looked at it, I think, two years ago, or close to two years ago — maybe a year-and-a-half ago — we looked at sites and locations. And then also the transpor- tation aspect kind of got combined with it. And I think that that was a mistake, ulti- mately, because really these are two differ- ent projects. One is the public works facility — and relocating the public works facil- ity to a better location. And then the other is emergency access, evacuation routes ... So we really now are just going to focus on the public works facility. We have a consultant — Mackenzie, that does land use, that does this type of work — looking and evaluating sites around the county. So not just the sort yard (at Loukas Lane and Fort Clatsop Road), but other sites in the county that might be a good location for the public works facility. They’re going to come back in the next few weeks. We’re going to have a work session, and they’re going to present their findings, and they’re not going to give a recommendation necessarily. They’re just going to present what they’ve been able to determine through their work. And then it will come to the commis- sion, and we’re going to have a discussion about where we go from there. But I understand that transportation became a big portion of this and people were concerned about having traffic and other things. These are both public safety and quality-of-life issues for people. And so I think it’s important to kind of divorce the two of them. We’ve got a lot going on, and so I think it’s important to kind of focus on the public works facility and the relocation of that right now. Q: We believe the county commis- sion and other local boards should remain nonpartisan and function more like a jury that represents a cross sec- tion of our community. But we know not everyone sees the county commis- sion that way. The commission now has a more conservative majority. What’s that going to look like in terms of pub- lic policy? A: I think what your first statement was — I completely agree with. I’m elected to a nonpartisan position. And so my role is really to work with all ideologies throughout our county. We’re going to need to work together. All of the county commissioners need to work together. We need to work with staff. We need the community organiza- tions, cities, in order to get a handle on the vaccine distribution and be able to pro- mote economic recovery beyond that. To me, the partisanship, or ideology, is not a part of this office. We need to all work together. Certainly, there will be dif- ferences of opinion. But characterizing what kind of ideology the commission is — I don’t feel comfortable doing that, I think we really need to be working as a group. It’s all hands on deck, really, this year. derrick dePledge is editor of The Astorian. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The golden rule A new year, new administration, new call to unity, healing and civility. Have not most of us wanted this through four grueling years of unrest? Where was this call when violence erupted the moment former President Don- ald Trump took office? Can we only have unity and heal if we think alike? Oh, that we could respectfully agree to disagree. It’s a bitter pill to swallow this “new call” coming from those who have demonized the former administration with any and all sup- porters for the past four years. Sadly, a local respected community leader, Lisa Lamping, recently had her home vandalized and hateful lies spewed over social media simply for peacefully exercis- ing her support of former President Trump. Countless intelligent, kind and good peo- ple of integrity are fearful of voicing their views because of the intolerance and vitriol so pervasive today. How can this be? We all owe it to our- selves, to each other, to the founding ide- als of this great nation to treat others with respect, honor and kindness; regardless of our differing views. We are a nation founded on freedoms that can only exist with responses birthed from “treating others as we would have them treat us.” We are called to pray for our leaders, and all those in authority, so we can lead peaceful lives. This call must cross any, and all, polit- ical, social and spiritual divides. Anything less breeds hate. Walk your talk, “be the change you want to see.” HARLEY and TONI MIETHE Svensen Angry I was so angry about Astoria Mayor Bruce Jones’ letter to Gov. Kate Brown, in which he asked her to allow quarter capac- ity in restaurants, that I compared it to the thinking of QAnon, on Facebook. Of course, the degree to which Bruce was letting his bias inform his opinion wasn’t anything near the run amok delusionality of QAnon, and the party it’s largely associated with, but it was wrong on many levels. At the time of his letter, over 100,000 Americans had lost their lives in the past five weeks, the nation was crossing the 400,000 lives lost and we were racing towards 500,000 … 600,000 … It’s no time for anyone to ask what fewer restrictions can be placed upon us. Claiming the science didn’t show that restaurants operating at quarter capacity were unsafe was what made me furious. So much harm is done in this world by people distorting science. It is certain that people being unmasked and spending prolonged time with each other allows the virus to spread among them, and those who interact with them, whether that is at full capacity or quarter capacity. I understand the severe economic stress restaurant owners are facing, and it is that stress that is interpreting the science, not the science itself. I would have understood an honest plea to the governor, one that acknowledged the trade-off between economic survival and putting more lives at risk — that, at least, I could have respected, even if I place a higher value on life. MICHAEL A. “SASHA” MILLER Salem
