A6
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021
Musicians: ‘It’s been a long time
since we relied on a regular paycheck’
County reports 21
new virus cases
The Astorian
Continued from Page A1
I just have felt pretty over-
whelmed with the world and
I didn’t feel like dwelling on
it through writing.”
“It would have been a
pretty despondent set of
songs if lyrics were in there,”
Ydstie added.
In the past year, the cou-
ple beefed up their home
recording system. They
played a few livestream
shows in 2020, plus a couple
of in-person outdoor shows
during the summer. They’re
in the process of creating
demos for their next album.
“We thought we might
be able to just make some-
thing completely from doing
home recordings that we
would be happy with and we
pretty quickly realized that
a lot of what’s great about
the process and the magic
for us, is being together with
other folks in the studio,”
Ydstie said. “It’s been a long
period of kind of sitting on
the songs and waiting to see
when it feels safe enough to
do that.”
Before the pandemic,
the couple typically played
one or two shows a week.
They have a couple of out-
door shows scheduled for
this summer. The duo has
avoided performing indoor
shows because they’re not
comfortable with large
indoor gatherings yet.
“It’ll be nice to get to
a place where the idea of
promoting a show doesn’t
feel socially irresponsi-
ble because ...” Ydstie said.
“There’s so much uncer-
tainty about what is really
safe and you certainly don’t
want to put people in unsafe
situations,” Claborn added.
The cancellation of the
tour and other planned
shows has had a big impact.
“(Playing music) is very
important for my mental
health. I realized, it was also
how I saw people, all this
stuff . I had all these boxes
that were ticked from play-
ing music, then to have that
pulled away is really hard.
Not to mention, that’s our job
and how we make money,”
Ydstie said. “I really put all
my eggs in one basket.”
Performing and
parenting
Much of the past year,
Claborn and Ydstie have
been focused on caring for
their 6-year-old daughter,
Hazel.
“I’ve defi nitely talked to
people like, ‘Oh man, this
must have been a really good
songwriting time for you,
just being home.’ A nd I’m
like, ‘No, quite the opposite.
It’s been a good Lego build-
ing time,’” Ydstie said.
“Right? My brain is fi lled
with Pokémon,” Claborn
added.
The couple has collab-
orated with a few of their
neighbors to provide a child-
care pod, where a group of
four kids stays at one house-
hold per day. The pod allows
the parents to take a break
from providing constant
child care, while the kids can
connect with friends.
“It can be hard to prac-
tice and just be doing music
at home all the time. I didn’t
realize before this how
much of our practice time
was also playing shows,”
Ydstie said. “And also, she
was in school. So the fact
that there’s no school made
it really challenging to put
that time into music.”
The experience of try-
ing to fi ll in for teach-
ers while schools weren’t
open increased Ydstie
and Claborn’s respect for
teachers .
“In the beginning, I
was like, ‘OK, I’m going
to inspire them and we’re
going to learn about cool
stuff .’ Really quickly, real-
ity came crashing down
hard: I’m not a good teacher.
Maybe they don’t really care
about the stuff I’m excited
about right now,” Ydstie
said. “But it was really fun
and enlightening.”
The couple received
some fi nancial relief through
unemployment . The pay-
ments “made it so we could
focus on other things,”
Claborn said .
“Part of this profession,
being a touring musician,
is you get used to the lean
times,” Ydstie said. “We’ve
built our life around fi nan-
cial instability.”
“It’s been a long time
since we relied on a regular
paycheck,” Claborn added.
Moving forward
Claborn and Ydstie are
excited to interact with
live audiences and collabo-
rate with other musicians in
person.
“It’s so easy to think of a
performance as just the sort
of one-sided thing where
you’re playing songs for
people that are sort of pas-
sively enjoying them,”
Ydstie said. “But it’s not like
that. Really, the amazing
part of it and all the shows
that are the best are situa-
tions where there’s a give
and take between the per-
former and the audience and
energy turns into ...”
“Something bigger than
what originated,” Claborn
said .
Local coronavirus case
numbers and restrictions
will infl uence when Claborn
and Ydstie return to per-
forming indoors. They look
forward to returning to ven-
ues like Fort George Brew-
ery and the Voodoo Room.
“It depends on the state of
the world,” Claborn said.
Clatsop County has reported 21 new coronavirus
cases over the past few days.
On Wednesday, the county reported 14 cases.
The cases include a female between 10 and 19,
a man in his 20s and a man in his 50s living in the
southern part of the county. The others live in the
northern part of the county and involve a male
under 9, a male between 10 and 19, three men and
three women in their 20s, a man and a woman in
their 50s and a woman in her 60s.
All 14 were recovering at home.
On Tuesday, the county reported seven cases.
The cases include a woman in her 30s and a man
in his 60s living in the southern part of the county.
The others live in the northern part of the county
and involve two men and a woman in their 20s, a
woman in her 30s and a woman in her 50s.
All seven were recovering at home.
A woman in her 40s from the southern part of
the county whose case was reported on Tuesday
was determined not to be a county case.
The county has recorded 939 cases since the
start of the pandemic. According to the county, 22
were hospitalized and eight have died.
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Restrictions: ‘Let us do our own thing now’
Continued from Page A1
shutdowns across the state
are imminent, and, at this
point in the pandemic, are
even more economically
detrimental.
The board’s letter to the
governor on Tuesday is part
of an organized eff ort with
the Association of Oregon
Counties to show solidar-
ity with the Oregon Restau-
rant and Lodging Associa-
tion, which called Brown’s
new restriction s arbitrary
and discriminatory.
“The time has come
to allow our communi-
ties to move forward while
embracing continued health
and safety precautions,” the
board’s letter said. “Our peo-
ple understand the risks asso-
ciated with COVID and our
businesses have proven their
ability to adhere to the high-
est expectations in safety,
sanitation and air quality. It
is no coincidence Oregon
has not seen one instance of
a superspreader event tied to
our hospitality industry.
“You must know restric-
tions on specifi c types of
businesses compared to oth-
ers within our local com-
munities is creating rifts
and dividing people rather
than bringing Oregonians
together. We can fl ip the
script by removing state
mandated business restric-
tions on our communi-
ties while empowering our
county health departments to
uphold high expectations for
ongoing health and safety
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
COVID-19 vaccines sit ready
to be administered at the
Clatsop County Fairgrounds.
measures as recommended
by the CDC (federal Cen-
ters for Disease Control and
Prevention).”
‘Today’s announcement
will save lives’
Brown has said she
expects this will be the last
time prohibitions will have
to be put in place.
Counties will move into
or remain in extreme risk
when they reach the virus
case rate threshold and per-
cent positivity. In addition,
Oregon would have to have
patients with the virus occu-
pying 300 hospital beds or
more and a 15% increase in
the seven-day hospitaliza-
tion average over the past
week.
Counties will stay in
extreme risk for a maximum
of three weeks.
In an eff ort to speed up
the return to normal business
operations, Brown said coun-
ties will be evaluated weekly
for at least the next three
weeks. Updates to county
risk levels will be announced
on Tuesdays . The governor
is also working with state
lawmakers to approve a $20
million small business emer-
gency relief package to sup-
port impacted businesses
in counties at extreme risk
through the commercial rent
relief program.
“If we don’t act now, doc-
tors, nurses, hospitals and
other health care providers
in Oregon will be stretched
to their limits treating severe
cases of COVID-19,” the
governor said in a state-
ment on Tuesday. “Today’s
announcement will save
lives and help stop COVID-
19 hospitalizations from
spiking even higher. With
new COVID-19 variants
widespread in so many of
our communities, it will take
all of us working together to
bring this back under control.
“The fastest way to lift
health and safety restrictions
is for Oregonians to get vac-
cinated as quickly as pos-
sible and follow the safety
measures we know stop this
virus from spreading. I rec-
ognize the burden these
restrictions place on Ore-
gon businesses and working
families. My goal is to lift
these restrictions as soon as
it is safely possible, and keep
Oregon on the path for lift-
ing most health and safety
requirements by the end of
June so we can fully reopen
our economy.
“But we will only get
there if enough Oregonians
get vaccinated. There are
appointments available right
now all across the state.”
‘Let us do our own
thing now’
In a Facebook post, Com-
missioner Courtney Bangs
said that although she wishes
the county’s letter was more
direct, she said the county is
asking the governor “to let us
do our own thing now.”
Warrenton Mayor Henry
Balensifer supported the
board’s letter . “I agree with
Chair Kujala that it’s time
to hand the reins to the local
health department where
local issues can be best man-
aged,” the mayor said in
a Facebook post. “We’ve
already seen how piti-
fully aloof (Oregon Health
Authority) can be in inves-
tigating our region’s largest
outbreaks, and I would have
greater confi dence in profes-
sionals better in tune with
the situation on the ground.
It was Clatsop County who
was poised to take action
when the state told them to
step aside during our biggest
outbreaks.
“Furthermore, the OSHA
(Oregon Occupational Safety
and Health Administration)
and OHA guidelines are now
out of step with CDC best
practices on sanitization, and
masks. It’s time to do what
other states are doing —
give the authority back to the
counties. Local authorities
have shown they are willing
to take drastic measures the
state wouldn’t dream of to
meet emergencies.”
Rentals: Housing prices have continued to climb
Continued from Page A1
The city said homestay
lodging will provide a small
increase in lodging tax for
the city, as well as provide
homeowners the ability to
generate revenue and off set
housing costs.
The goal is to pre-
vent vacation rentals from
eating up limited housing
stock.
A Clatsop County hous-
ing study in 2019 found that
vacation rentals and second
homes are taking up a sub-
stantial share of the housing
stock and driving up rental
and home prices. Nearly a
third of homes in the county
were vacant, according to
the study, and construction
of second homes is out-
pacing those for long-term
residents.
Housing prices have con-
tinued to climb, especially
during the coronavirus pan-
demic, with many people
living in metro areas and out
of out state looking to move
to the North C oast.
“Having been on the
county housing task force,
there’s a ton of housing that
has been gobbled up by peo-
ple getting second homes
and renting them out that
don’t live here,” Mayor
Henry Balensifer said during
a C ity C ommission meeting
in January. “And they rent
it out to pay the mortgage
on it. Unfortunately, that’s
driving up housing costs for
everybody — and substan-
tially — especially this last
year.”
The mayor said vaca-
tion rentals have not been
as big of a problem for War-
renton as surrounding cities,
but it is important for the
city to think ahead before it
becomes a concern .
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Column: People encouraged to come and enjoy the view
Continued from Page A1
indoor entertainment, with
25% capacity at the coun-
ty’s high risk level. Pynes
guessed that the Column is
crowded with 20 people at a
time when open.
“We don’t know what
the occupancy is, and we’d
have to have somebody man
the door to count four peo-
ple in and four people out,”
Pynes said.
The Column likely won’t
reopen until the county
reaches the lowest level of
risk from the coronavirus,
Pynes said. In the mean-
time, Van Dusen encour-
aged people to come enjoy
the view.
“A lot of my friends just
drive up to the Column and
buy their annual … pass for
$5, and they’ll sit up there in
their car and eat lunch,” he
said. “It’s a beautiful view,
and I’m hoping that this
slight controversy will get
more people to go up there
and take a look at the park.”
Dental sealants are a clear
coating placed in the deep
grooves of teeth, protecting them
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503-325-3211
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