A6
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2021
Virus death: Most
new cases involve
the unvaccinated
Continued from Page A1
public health experts have
said the delta variant is
driving virus case counts.
In May, the county
stopped providing demo-
graphic data on individual
virus cases, such as sex,
age range and broad geo-
graphic location. Instead,
the county posts the virus
case counts from the Ore-
gon Health Authority on
the COVID-19 Public
Information Hub on the
county’s website.
Most new virus cases
in Oregon involve people
who are unvaccinated.
According to the Ore-
gon Health Authority’s
monthly report on break-
through cases, 81% of
the 12,514 reported virus
cases statewide in July
were among the unvac-
cinated. Ninety-one per-
cent of the 55 people
who died from the virus
last month were not fully
vaccinated.
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
A softball diamond at Broadway Field is in need of repairs.
Broadway Field: Has
already exceeded a life
expectancy of eight to 10 years
Continued from Page A1
“While the timing of
this has certainly taken lon-
ger than ideal, it will stay on
the forefront of our minds
as we work toward a solu-
tion,” said Skyler Archibald,
the park district’s executive
director. “The staff of the
district advise the board to
continue pursuing a more
balanced relationship with
the other parties in this
agreement while keeping
the fi eld open for commu-
nity use.”
With a Title IX settle-
ment from the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education in July ,
an additional element is
thrown into the mix. The
resolution between the Sea-
side School District and
the Offi ce for Civil Rights
requires improvements to
the softball fi eld, bringing
it to an equivalent level as
the baseball fi eld. School
Superintendent Susan Pen-
rod said the cost of the ren-
ovations will be paid by the
school district.
Any proposed change to
usage or policies governing
usage requires approval of
the three parties.
The park district, school
district and city typically
meet every other month and
talk about a wide array of
topics . “We’ve actually had
multiple conversations over
the past year or so about the
fi eld, ” Archibald said.
Celeste Bodner, a p ark
district board member, said
clarity is important.
“We need to be clear
who is responsible for what
so that we can inform the
public that uses the fi eld as
to who to go to when they
have something that needs
to be done,” she said.
According to the agree-
ment, the city owns the
land and is responsible for
litter control and custo-
dial services for permanent
restrooms.
As part of its role, the
park district contributed
$200,000 for fi eld costs
and provides ongoing fi eld
maintenance. This year,
the park district budgeted
$12,000 for maintenance
from the Broadway Field
Fund, about a third of the
fund’s balance.
The school district also
paid $200,000 for fi eld cost.
It is responsible for super-
vising time usage of the
fi eld.
According to a chart
from the park district, the
school district and their
sports teams are the primary
users of the fi elds, using the
fi eld almost two-thirds of
the time in 2020 and more
than 70% in 2019.
Seaside Kids, the park
district and other recre-
ation programs make up the
remaining portion of fi eld
usage. “Almost every year,
around 60% to 70% of the
available time on the fi eld
are used by the school dis-
trict,” Archibald said.
While the fi eld needs
repairs, he said, the park dis-
trict has delayed those fi xes
to ensure that an appropri-
ate timeline is followed. Out
of that fund, the park district
is to pay “all the expenses
for equipment repair and
maintenance.”
T he fi eld has already
exceeded a life expectancy
of eight to 10 years .
The agreement calls for
the park district to estab-
lish a fi eld replacement
fund to receive money from
user fees to help replace the
fi elds. While the park dis-
trict has a capital fund with
some funds that could be
allocated for replacement
costs, it does not have a sep-
arate fi eld replacement fund.
Revision of the agree-
ment arose more than a
year ago, when park dis-
trict board members sought
to limit what they saw
as disproportionate fi eld
expenditures.
“This has been an item
that has never left our mind
but has recently gained
some momentum as we
are working to return pro-
gramming and access to
our pre-pandemic levels,”
Archibald said.
The agreement runs until
2051. It calls for the city,
park district and school dis-
trict to jointly review the
agreement after three years
and at least once every fi ve
years after.
Needle exchange: 1.2M syringes
Continued from Page A1
The federal Centers for
Disease Control and Pre-
vention states: “Nearly 30
years of research has shown
that comprehensive ( needle
exchange programs) are safe,
eff ective and cost-saving, do
not increase illegal drug use
or crime, and play an import-
ant role in reducing the trans-
mission of viral hepatitis,
HIV and other infections.”
Last December , the Clat-
sop County program handed
out its one-millionth needle.
As of mid-July, the program
had given more than 1. 2 mil-
lion syringes in return for 1. 3
million, according to county
fi gures. Participants often
exchange multiple needles
for multiple people.
In addition, county staff
has distributed more than
4,000 doses of naloxone —
a nasal spray that counter-
acts opioid overdoses —
saving more than 300 lives.
This year alone has already
seen more than 120 of these
reversals. This represents “a
huge number for a county
of our size,” Melissa Brew-
ster, a senior pharmacist at
the Columbia Pacifi c Coordi-
nated Care Organization, said
in an email.
The spike in overdoses
indicates the local drug sup-
ply is “much higher risk than
( it) has been in the past cou-
ple of years,” Brewster said.
In spring 2020, fentanyl
— a potent synthetic opioid
— was noticed on the North
Coast. Overdose deaths in
Oregon during those months
increased by about 70%
over comparable 2019 statis-
tics, according to the Oregon
Health Authority. The drug
is now present in the major-
ity of illicit substances, both
methamphetamine and her-
oin, Brewster said.
The needle exchange crew
saw this peril looming and
began distributing strips that
test for the presence of fen-
tanyl, to “get people pre-
pared to start testing their
drugs more often and make it
kind of like a norm for them,”
King said.
During the Thursday
exchanges, program staff also
asks participants if they want
to connect with drug treat-
ment and recovery, hous-
ing and health care, food
and COVID-19 testing and
vaccination.
‘This stuff is
complicated’
Some of the original fears
about the needle exchange
were never realized — for
example, the worry that
public parks and other kid-
friendly spaces would see a
signifi cant rise in syringes left
behind by drug users.
Although the Astoria
Police Department still gets
calls about found needles,
the police were getting these
calls before the syringe swap,
according to Deputy Chief
Eric Halverson . Neither the
police nor the city’s Parks
and Recreation Department
staff say they have noticed a
diff erence in complaints.
The needle exchange
wasn’t universally supported
when the county rolled out
a six-month pilot program
almost four years ago. Lead-
ers in local law enforcement
expressed skepticism that
these type of programs are
the wisest way to confront
drug abuse .
Sheriff Matt Phillips said
in a recent interview that
communities need to bal-
ance compassion and out-
reach with not being “so per-
missive that we’re enabling a
behavior.”
“In some regards, it has
been eff ective as a harm
reduction tool, ” he said. The
sheriff pointed to fewer cases
of conditions like cellulitis —
a bacterial infection at injec-
tion points — showing up in
emergency departments.
Phillips emphasized he
does not oppose the program,
and views the sheriff ’s offi ce
and health department as part
of “Team Clatsop County.”
“If the program is making
a diff erence in lives, I support
it,” he wrote in an email. “If
that isn’t happening, or is cre-
ating additional problems …
then maybe we should re eval-
uate or modify the program.
“This stuff is compli-
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Harm reduction coordinator Jenna King holds a package of supplies for safe drug administration.
cated and we all have to work
together on it.”
Phillips said he is curious
how many people, as a result
of a referral from a needle
exchange, enter drug treat-
ment and recovery.
Brewster said that tying
people who use the program
to whether they seek treat-
ment would “( violate) some
privacy rules around protec-
tions for people with (sub-
stance use disorders).”
It would be diffi cult to
draw conclusions about the
program’s impact over the
last 18 months, Brewster
said, as the coronavirus pan-
demic led to “staggering”
levels of substance use.
The county also doesn’t
have a good way to measure
the prevalence of syringe-
borne diseases such as h ep-
atitis C and HIV in the area,
she said.
‘THIS STUFF IS
COMPLICATED
AND WE ALL
HAVE TO WORK
TOGETHER ON IT.’
Matt Phillips |
Clatsop County sheriff
heroin overdose. The non-
profi t dissolved in early 2020.
The needle exchange
would, ideally, help people
curb their drug habit, King
said.
But when she’s working
out of the van — serving a
population composed of both
the housed and the home-
less, people with families
and those who travel alone
— King has in mind a more
urgent short-term goal: giving
them what they need to stay
alive. And this includes using
that small window of time
provided by the exchange to
let them know what options
are available for them.
“The hope is just to plant
the seed so they’re able to
get to a point where they are
looking for something dif-
‘The hope is just
to plant the seed’
Before King became the
county’s h arm r eduction
coordinator, she worked for
Kerry Strickland’s nonprofi t
Jordan’s Hope for Recovery
— named after Strickland’s
son, who in 2015 died of a
ferent,” King said. “But they
have to keep coming to fi g-
ure that out, and navigate that
themselves.”
By establishing what she
calls a “stigma-free zone,”
King and her colleagues
hope that those who rely on
the exchange will be able to
fi nd their way sooner. “And,
unfortunately, many people
don’t. That’s the nature of
addiction,” she said.
On that record-breaking
Thursday, King and Camp-
bell had planned to show up
about 15 minutes earlier but
were slammed in Seaside and
then in Warrenton.
Before that fi rst visi-
tor left, she asked through a
mask if King and Campbell
know how much their work
is appreciated.
That the woman had
masked up wasn’t unusual.
I n general, King said, people
who use the needle exchange
have respected pandemic
rules — covering their face,
keeping their distance.
Neither was the woman’s
show of gratitude. Asked if
they hear such things often,
King replied, “Every single
time we’re out here. Every
single time.”
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