149TH YEAR, NO. 23
WEEKEND EDITION // SATuRdAY, AuguST 21, 2021
$1.50
Vaccine
mandate
issued at
schools
AT ISSUE/CHILD CARE
Brown requires teachers
and staff to get vaccinated
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Photos by Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Children eat their snacks at the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District summer camp program in Seaside on Wednesday.
Child care remains a barrier for
many families on North Coast
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
D
espite a national conversation
about the importance of child
care, an infusion of federal dol-
lars, checks to families and a resur-
gence of local discussions about how
to better support and enhance care
options, Clatsop County’s child care
desert is as desolate as ever.
Eva Manderson, the director of
Northwest Regional Child Care
Resource and Referral, can point to a
few positives that emerged from the
chaos of the coronavirus pandemic:
Some facilities that closed last sum-
mer or operated at limited capac-
ity have reopened or expanded. New
providers have entered the market,
with many beginning operations with
key foundational business practices
already in place. The number of child
care slots is near pre-pandemic levels.
But the county still has more chil-
dren in need of care than there are
slots available. Child care providers
struggle to keep prices affordable for
families, attract quality staff and turn
a profit.
There are still few choices for low-
er-income families. There are few
places that offer evening or weekend
care for parents who work nontradi-
tional hours — for example, people in
tourism-related jobs that increasingly
power the region’s economy.
Most facilities have a waitlist —
very long waitlists in some cases.
“The problem hasn’t gone away
and child care hasn’t become sustain-
able all of a sudden,” Manderson said.
In 2020, the county had more than
5,000 children under 13 but only 780
slots in child care centers and home
care situations, an imbalance that has
varied little in recent years, according
to data gathered by Oregon State Uni-
All teachers, support staff and vol-
unteers in Oregon’s K-12 schools will
be required to get vaccinated against
the coronavirus under a new mandate
announced by Gov. Kate Brown.
School workers will have until Oct.
18 to get vaccinated, or six weeks after
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approves the vaccines, whichever is later.
The FDA has authorized the vaccines for
emergency use to combat the virus.
Health care workers will also be
required to get a vaccine. Previously,
Brown said health care workers could
forgo vaccination by submitting to
weekly testing for the virus.
Brown acknowledged that the vaccine
mandate for educators and school staff
will be controversial, but she said she is
willing to take the heat for the decision.
Her announcement comes as virus
cases and hospitalizations surge across
Oregon because of the more contagious
delta variant.
Most new cases and hospitalizations
have occurred in unvaccinated people,
but vaccinated people and children are
also getting sick.
See Mandate, Page A2
A child puts his mask on at summer camp through the Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District.
AT ISSUE/CHILD CARE
Two years after Clatsop County was
declared a child care desert, there
is little urgency at the local govern-
ment level to solve the problem.
The Astorian asked policymakers,
providers and parents about the
challenge.
Let us know what you think in a
letter to the editor: bit.ly/2kuT0PZ
versity researchers.
The researchers also found that the
median annual price of child care was
around $9,840 — slightly higher than
the price of tuition at Oregon public
universities.
Lil’ Sprouts
On Monday, Astoria leaders started
to discuss what to do about the city-
run day care program at Lil’ Sprouts
Academy. The center, opened nearly
a decade ago because of the need for
child care in the community, serves
around 30 children. It is one of the few
centers of its size on the North Coast
to also provide care for infants.
On Tuesday, the city announced
Lil’ Sprouts would close until Sept. 1
after an employee tested positive for
the coronavirus.
The center relies heavily on low-
er-paid, part-time labor and operates
at an unsustainable loss — to the tune
of around $25,000 a month.
Lil’ Sprouts maintains a waitlist of
around 150 children. City staff field
new inquiries about child care — and
the waitlist — every week. The center
could accommodate up to 70 children,
possibly more if the city were to build
out more classrooms.
Jonah Dart-McLean, the city’s
parks director, would need to hire 10
State discloses
outbreaks at
memory care,
hospital
By GRIFFIN REILLY
The Astorian
The Oregon Health Authority has dis-
closed coronavirus outbreaks at Clatsop
Care Memory Community and Columbia
Memorial Hospital.
The memory com-
munity in Warren-
MORE
ton had 20 virus cases
INSIDE
with the first reported
on Aug. 8, according
Biden
to the health authori-
orders
ty’s weekly outbreak
nursing
report, which covers
home staff
virus cases through
to get
Sunday night.
vaccinated
An administrator at
• A3
the memory commu-
nity put the number
of virus cases signifi-
cantly higher than the state’s report.
Channon Larson, the director of oper-
ations at Aidan Health Services, which
oversees the facility for the Clatsop Care
See Child care, Page A8
See Outbreaks, Page A8
Shipwrecked canceled over virus concerns
Event was set for Saturday at county fairgrounds
By NIKKI DAVIDSON
The Astorian
Days before the launch of
their new summer fundraiser,
the Shipwrecked Music Festi-
val, the United Way of Clatsop
County’s board was called to an
emergency meeting.
A health care administrator
was pleading with organizers
to cancel the event. The admin-
istrator shared concerns that
large-scale outdoor gatherings
like the Clatsop County Fair
had contributed to the surge of
new coronavirus cases.
“They shared insights with
what’s happening at the hospi-
tal, patients overflowing into the
hallway and ER patients need-
ing to be screened outdoors,”
said Kassia Nye, the United
Way’s executive director.
“When this information came
to light, the United Way board
started discussing what it would
feel like if we contributed to that
issue.”
Katrina Morrell Gasser,
the board president, said the
uncertainly left the board con-
flicted. The fundraising organi-
zation wanted to prioritize the
health and safety of the commu-
nity, but had also already paid
$15,000 out of pocket to host
the event.
The Clatsop County Pub-
lic Health Department reported
more than a dozen local out-
breaks last week, but had not
released details tracing infec-
tions back to specific places or
events.
The Astorian first
asked the county
about
potential
virus cases at the
county fair in the
days after the
fair wrapped up
on July 31. The
newspaper did
not get a response
until Thursday
afternoon.
“Public Health
has linked some
local
COVID-19
cases to the 2021 county
See Shipwrecked, Page A2