A2
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 2021
IN BRIEF
County to begin vaccinating
front-line workers
Clatsop County will begin vaccinating front-line
workers against the coronavirus on Monday, along
with people living in multigenerational households and
people ages 16 to 44 with underlying health conditions.
People can fi ll out the vaccine survey on the coun-
ty’s website to enter the registry for a vaccine clinic
appointment.
People can also schedule an appointment to receive
a vaccine at Safeway pharmacies in Astoria and Sea-
side or Costco, Walmart or Fred Meyer in Warrenton.
As of Friday, 17,350 doses have been administered
in the county and 5,210 people are fully vaccinated.
The county’s goal to reach herd immunity against the
virus is vaccinating 27,533 people.
State reports two more
virus cases at Pacifi c Seafood
An outbreak at Pacifi c Seafood in Warrenton is tied
to 10 coronavirus cases.
Eight cases were disclosed by the Oregon Health
Authority on March 24 in a weekly report on work-
place outbreaks. Two more cases were disclosed on
Wednesday. The investigation began on March 9,
according to the health authority, and the most recent
onset was March 17.
A spokeswoman for the company said all 10
workers have completed their quarantine period and
returned to work. An onsite vaccination clinic is
planned for April 15.
Five test positive for virus
at Seaside High School
SEASIDE — Three students and two staff mem-
bers and volunteers have tested positive for the coro-
navirus at Seaside High School, the state disclosed.
The most recent onset of virus cases were on March
22, according to a weekly report of outbreaks released
by the Oregon Health Authority on Wednesday.
“We continue to diligently follow all the clean-
ing and safety requirements in the Ready Schools,
Safe Learners document, as well as the communica-
ble disease plan that is posted on our website,” Sea-
side Superintendent Susan Penrod said. “This plan is a
collaborative eff ort developed by all the school nurses
in our county.”
— The Astorian
Travel Oregon off ers grants
to spur tourism industry
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
Travel Oregon, the state’s
tourism offi ce, is provid-
ing $2.3 million in grants to
fund projects across the state
to help spur tourism as Ore-
gon tries to recover from the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Local governments, port
districts, federally recog-
nized tribes, nonprofi ts and
Oregon-based tour opera-
tors and guides can apply for
up to $100,000 in funding to
support projects focused on
improving infrastructure to
safely welcome back tourists
as the pandemic continues.
The agency will fund
projects that support out-
door recreation, help guides
and tour companies oper-
ate, enable paid events and
attractions to safely move
forward and improve busi-
ness districts, including
funding projects that cre-
ate new outdoor spaces for
visitors.
The application pro-
cess will remain open until
March 31. Projects must
be completed by the end of
November.
“The grants that we’re
‘WE ANTICIPATE THAT WE WILL
PROBABLY NOT SEE RECOVERY
BACK TO 2019 LEVELS UNTIL AT
LEAST 2024 AND IT COULD BE 2025.’
Travel Oregon CEO Todd Davidson
providing today are going
to aid communities and aid
businesses in being well-po-
sitioned to be able to off er
these great Oregon experi-
ences in a very safe way,”
Travel Oregon CEO Todd
Davidson said. “That’s what
we’re focused on, making
sure folks know they can
travel in Oregon safely.”
The new initiative comes
after Travel Oregon in Feb-
ruary awarded $913,000 to
fund 34 projects across the
state focused on improving
visitor experiences during
the pandemic. Among the
recipients of that grant
money was Portland’s eco-
nomic development agency,
which received $50,000 to
improve the city’s green
loop.
Approximately 87% of
American travelers have
plans to travel in the next
Construction worker tests positive
for virus at Astoria High School
DEATHS
The Astorian
April 1, 2021
In HEACOCK,
Brief
Con-
stance Joan “Connie,” 93,
of Seaside, died in Sea-
Deaths
side. Ocean View Funeral
& Cremation Service of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
March 29, 2021
CAVAYA, Merry Lou,
78, of Seaside, died in
Nehalem. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary is in charge
of the arrangements.
March 23, 2021
BIRD, Bernard, 94,
of Astoria, died in Asto-
ria. Hughes-Ransom Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
CAMPBELL, James
Jr., 60, of Astoria, died in
Portland. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
LARSON, John, 80, of
Naselle, Washington, died
in Naselle. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary is in charge
of the arrangements.
March 22, 2021
SAGESER,
Robert,
92, of Astoria, died in
Astoria. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
March, 20, 2021
McGRORTY, Steven
Sr., 82, of Astoria, died in
Astoria. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
March 18, 2021
REYNOLDS,
Mat-
thew, 14, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary is in charge
of the arrangements.
March 15, 2021
STUECKLE, Terry,
78, of Pasco, Wash-
ington, died in Astoria.
Hughes-Ransom
Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
March 13, 2021
KUHL, Gary, 78, of
Warrenton, died in War-
renton. Hughes-Ransom
Mortuary is in charge of
the arrangements.
March 11, 2021
WITT, Quade, 25,
of Blountville, Tennes-
see, died in Warrenton.
Hughes-Ransom
Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
DUII
On
the
• Jason
Peter Record
Velasquez, 41, of Portland, was
arrested Wednesday on N.W. Warrenton Drive in War-
PUBLIC
MEETINGS
renton
for driving
under the infl uence of intoxicants,
resisting arrest and reckless driving following a crash.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
MONDAY
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, noon, work
session, (electronic meeting).
Clatsop Care Health District Board, 5 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
Astoria Library Board, 5:30 p.m., Flag Room, 450 10th St.
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., (electronic meeting).
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six months, the highest per-
centage since the start of
the pandemic, according
to a recent study by market
research fi rm Longwoods
International.
However, Oregon’s tour-
ism industry has been deci-
mated during the pandemic
and it could take years for it
to fully recover.
More than 1 million peo-
ple visit Oregon in a typical
year, fueling a $12.8 billion
tourism industry, according
to Travel Oregon.
But visitor spending
throughout the state dropped
by nearly 60% last year as
tourism dried up amid the
pandemic, according to
the agency. Tourism could
be slow to rebound, espe-
cially if international travel
remains limited and large
events and conventions are
slow to return. Oregon’s lei-
sure and hospitality indus-
try has shed 37% of its
jobs during the pandemic,
according to the federal
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We anticipate that we
will probably not see recov-
ery back to 2019 levels until
at least 2024 and it could be
2025,” Davidson said.
While certain parts of the
state saw tourism rebound
last summer as leisure travel
picked up, hotel occupancy
in Portland plummeted from
nearly 75% in 2019 to 34%
in 2020, worse than any-
where else in the state.
The decline in tourism
across the state could have
severe fi nancial implications
for cities and counties.
In Portland, 5% of
the overall lodging taxes
assessed on hotel and vaca-
tion rentals goes to the
city’s general fund. The
city received $30.8 mil-
lion in general fund money
from hotel room taxes in
the 2019-20 fi scal year, but
expects those revenues to be
down 75% this fi scal year.
“The travel and tourism
industry is a primary driver
of Oregon’s economy,”
Davidson said.
A construction worker at Astoria
High School tested positive for the
coronavirus.
In an email to school district
staff and families sent Thursday,
Superintendent Craig Hoppes said
the district is working with general
contractor Skanska to investigate
the situation.
But, he wrote, “at this time we
do not believe this positive case
aff ects any Astoria School District
students or staff .”
The worker had not had any con-
tact with students or staff .
In December, two subcontrac-
tors for Skanska at the construc-
tion site also tested positive for the
virus . The company was tied to six
coronavirus cases at the Astoria
Middle School construction site in
September.
Social workers: ‘Always a lot of scrutiny’
Continued from Page A1
S ometimes, people in
crisis are ready to be con-
nected to treatment and
social services, Whisenhunt
said, and other times social
workers are trying to work
proactively to discourage
repeated visits to the emer-
gency room .
“I think that’s one of the
beauties of us having an
E D social worker program
is it really helped support
Clatsop Behavioral Health
staying outside the hospital
walls to help keep people
from ending up in the E D
unnecessarily,” she said.
“And I know that there’s
been probably plenty of
people they have been able
to defl ect from coming to
the E R because the E R is
not a place you want to be.
It’s really one of the least
therapeutic places you can
be.”
S ocial workers try to fi nd
the least restrictive option
for patients. If they cannot
fi nd an outpatient program ,
they look toward inpatient
psychiatric hospitalization.
The bar for admission
to a psychiatric hospital is
lower than the legal thresh-
old for civil commitment.
To commit someone in Ore-
gon, a court must fi nd they
have a mental disorder that
poses a danger to them-
selves or others or they are
unable to provide for basic
personal needs like health
and safety.
Whisenhunt said many
people in crisis do not meet
the criteria for civil commit-
ment, so they have to vol-
untarily accept treatment.
“And I know there’s
always a lot of scrutiny,”
she said. “Why did they
release them? And why
aren’t they helping them?
And the truth of the matter
is that we do everything we
can to help folks. And there
are times where our hands
are just tied by the way
laws are written.”
Another barrier is the
lack of slots available for
psychiatric care across
Oregon .
“What we like to do is
try to get them to that higher
level of care as quickly as
we possibly can,” Whisen-
hunt said. “That has proven
increasingly diffi cult lately.
I am sure COVID has con-
tributed to that, but we’ve
always had a psychiatric
bed shortage in the state, as
we do in many states.
“But it has gotten to a
point where it feels like
really critical. So (we’re)
holding patients in the
emergency room for sev-
eral days sometimes, which
again, we really don’t want
to do.”
Columbia
Memorial
does not have a secure
room in the emergency
department, so they make
rooms as safe as possible
for people in crisis. Often-
times, a staff er watches a
patient around the clock
to help ensure they do not
harm themselves.
Judy Geiger, Columbia
Memorial’s vice president
of patient care services,
said the hospital does not
have any immediate plans
for a secure room, but it has
started discussing the idea.
“We’ll look at all our
options on that as the situ-
ation stays the same or gets
continually more challeng-
ing getting patients where
they need to go,” she said.
The crisis respite cen-
ter in Warrenton was ini-
tially supposed to have four
secure beds after it opened
in 2016, but Clatsop Behav-
ioral Healthcare, which
operates the respite center,
did not fulfi ll the promise.
For people in severe crisis,
that often means they are
held at hospital emergency
rooms or the county jail.
‘Nobody can do it all’
In addition to the emer-
gency department , Colum-
bia Memorial has inte-
grated social workers in
other clinics and depart-
ments throughout its sys-
tem, including pediatrics,
specialty clinics and mater-
nal and child health.
With the pandemic,
many adults and children
have needed more support .
“I’ve been in social work
16 years now, and I have
never seen people strug-
gle the way they are strug-
gling over this past year,”
Whisenhunt said. “People
who have developed sub-
stance use disorder that
didn’t have it. P eople who
have relapsed. P eople who
have had incredible exac-
erbations of depression
and anxiety. P eople who
said, ‘I’ve never felt this
way before and I just don’t
know what else to do.’
“So that’s largely, I think,
what the social workers in
the clinics are able to do to
really help support people
and fi nding new ways to try
to deal with what they’re
feeling and experiencing.
“I’m so proud of CMH
for doing this. I think that
for many years the com-
munity has relied on Clat-
sop Behavioral Health to do
it all, and nobody can do it
all. And they’ve got fund-
ing specifi c to certain pop-
ulations, and that’s really
where their focus needs to
be. And so for us to say,
‘OK, well, let us help with
these other folks that really
are struggling. And the
ones that are under your
charge, let us help coordi-
nate with you to help get
them the care,’ — it’s been
really huge.
“Because, otherwise, to
tell someone, ‘W ell, sorry,
they don’t take your insur-
ance. Y ou’ll have to go
to Portland or pay out of
pocket’ — for somebody
who is already really strug-
gling emotionally, that
sometimes tips them over
the edge. So we’re really
just trying to just be a
resource for the community
in this way, too.”
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