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SEPT. 2
2021
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149TH YEAR, NO. 28
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
$1.50
County
moves
closer to
vaccine
target
Doses reach 60% of population
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
Sixty percent of Clatsop County
residents are vaccinated against the
coronavirus .
The county views the mark as prog-
ress, but also a sign the outreach has a
ways to go.
The county has set a goal of having
70% of the population — 27,533 people
— vaccinated to try to reach herd immu-
nity against the virus. The county said
23,835 people — 60% — were vacci-
nated as of Wednesday.
With the highly transmissible delta
variant leading to a surge in illnesses
and hospitalizations, the county doesn’t
know if the original 70% target will be
as eff ective as intended .
“At this point, the more (people) that
are vaccinated the better,” Tom Bennett,
a county spokesman , said .
Vaccination rates in the county have
followed Oregon’s overall arc, the
county noted: high demand when vac-
cines fi rst became available in the win-
ter, followed by a plummet in spring and
summer once all of the people eager to
get a vaccine had already done so.
At peak, with the county’s weekly
mass-vaccination clinics, combined
with shots administered in hospitals
and pharmacies, doses were getting
into thousands of arms a week. Now
the number is consistently in the low
hundreds.
There are signs that this trend is turn-
ing around. In the week ending Friday,
the P ublic H ealth D epartment saw about
400 people get a vaccine, up from 200
per week in July, the county said, attrib-
uting the increase to an awareness of the
dangers posed by the delta variant.
Bennett said that perhaps seeing
friends and family contract COVID-19
has helped people realize the serious-
ness of the virus. “The evidence is pretty
clear that even if you contract the virus
and you’re vaccinated, you’re likely to
get far less sick,” he said.
Among Oregon’s 36 counties,
Clatsop ranked ninth in vaccination
rates, according to the Oregon H ealth
A uthority .
The health authority reported 24 new
virus cases for the county on Wednes-
day and eight new cases on Tuesday.
Since the pandemic began, the county
had recorded 1,880 virus cases and 13
deaths as of early Wednesday.
‘They’re public beaches,
but they’re not accessible’
Event at Fort Stevens showed the importance of improving access for people with disabilities
By GRIFFIN REILLY
The Astorian
ver the weekend, Inés García
Fullana got closer to the ocean
than she ever had before.
Born with spina bifi da, a congeni-
tal defect in the spinal column, García
Fullana has spent her life using a
wheelchair. Many beaches lack the
accessible infrastructure that would
allow wheelchair users to get close to
the water.
Fort Stevens State Park hosted
a camping and recreation event for
people with spinal cord injuries and
other disabilities.
The event, which provided acces-
sible yurts, equipment, meals and
activities, was a collaborative eff ort
between David’s Chair, Oregon Spi-
nal Cord Injury Connection, Adven-
tures Without Limits, REI and
the Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department.
All-terrain wheelchairs allowed
García Fullana and others to move
about the beach in a way that some
had never done before.
“You always see it in movies
when couples are walking around
the beach,” she said. “It made me
feel in awe. I realized I had actually
never done that before. I t was a great
experience.”
West Livaudais, the founder and
executive director of Oregon Spinal
Cord Injury Connection , wants to do
more than provide experiences to just
a handful of people. Implementing or
recognizing accessible infrastructure,
he said, should be a priority for parks
across Oregon.
“They’re public beaches, but
they’re not accessible, ” he said.
O
Photos by Gary Peterson Photography
TOP: David’s Chair, Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Connection, Adventures Without
Limits, REI and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department provided accessible
equipment for outdoor recreation, like kayaking. ABOVE: Brian Luttrell used an
all-terrain wheelchair at Fort Stevens State Park over the weekend.
The weekend event gave partic-
ipants opportunities in kayaking,
camping and hiking that are oth-
erwise diffi cult to access in many
places. Livaudais hopes introducing
accessible measures to recreation can
raise awareness of how many people
with spinal cord injuries and similar
disabilities have a vested interest in
active recreation.
Adventures Without Limits , a For-
est Grove-based organization that
emphasizes identifying barriers to
outdoor recreation for people with
disabilities, entered a partnership
with Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Con-
nection in 2018. Together, and along
with David’s Chair, another nonprofi t
dedicated to a similar goal, they’ve
hosted many events like the one at
Fort Stevens.
“Outdoor enthusiasm is alive
and well within the disability com-
munity,” Livaudais said. “The rea-
son you don’t see families with peo-
ple with disabilities or parents with
children with disabilities camping or
out on a trail or on the beach is not
because they don’t want to be, and it’s
not that they aren’t physically able.
“It’s that there are signifi cant
structural barriers.”
Since the onset of the coronavi-
rus pandemic, many Oregonians have
fl ocked to outdoor spaces like the
coast . Some places have accessible
See Accessibility, Page A6
After a virus death, a disappointment Residents challenge
Funeral home declined
Gearhart fi rehouse bond
to accept Dix
By GRIFFIN REILLY
The Astorian
Cheryl Hartmann had a plan in
place for the day when her elderly
mother died.
Knowing how diffi cult it would
be to make decisions in a state
of grief, she reached out to Cald-
well’s Luce-Layton Mortuary in
Astoria years ago to organize the
arrangements. Upon the death of
her mother, Edith Dix, Caldwell’s
would deal with cremation and
provide everything necessary for
the funeral.
When Dix, 95, died on Aug. 22
from complications of the corona-
virus, things didn’t go as planned.
Cheryl Hartmann with her mother,
Edith Dix.
A resident care coordinator at
the Seaside care home where Dix
was living called Caldwell’s to
let them know of Dix’s death and
was told the funeral home was not
accepting virus deaths.
Hartmann was in disbelief.
“This was extremely upset-
ting for me. I can’t tell you how
upsetting it was. I felt it was very
disrespectful,” she said. “People
don’t choose how they’re going to
pass.”
Reneé Caldwell, the owner
and funeral director at Caldwell’s,
told The Astorian that at the time
of Dix’s death, the funeral home
had run out of personal protective
equipment to safely handle virus
deaths.
“We were just unprepared. We
didn’t have all the gowns and
everything, the stuff we need to
respond,” she said. “That was just
a one-time thing.”
Caldwell acknowledged the
PPE shortage was not what they
initially told Hartmann. Caldwell
also said the funeral home had to
decline two other virus deaths.
In the days following Dix’s
death, Caldwell said the funeral
home has restocked PPE and is
able to accept people who have
died from the virus.
“We were really sorry about the
people that we couldn’t pick up
when we didn’t have the gowns
and everything,” Caldwell said.
See Dix, Page A6
Complaint fi led in
Circuit Court
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
GEARHART — Two residents
who oppose the city’s plans for a
new fi rehouse have fi led a com-
plaint in Clatsop County Circuit
Court asking that a bond measure
on the November ballot be sus-
pended or rewritten.
The bond measure would
deliver up to $13 million for a new
fi rehouse off Highlands Lane. The
project would replace the aging
facility on Pacifi c Way that is vul-
nerable to a tsunami.
Jack Zimmerman and Harold
Gable claim the ballot title and
text are insuffi cient and vague.
“To leave the proposed ballot as
(is) puts all Gearhart voters at a
profound disadvantage and ren-
ders (Gearhart) voters uninformed
to material facts that may shape
the votes and future of Gearhart,”
they wrote.
In the complaint fi led last week,
Zimmerman and Gable asked the
court to suspend the bond mea-
sure until the fi nal costs of the
project are determined or order
the measure be rewritten to refl ect
that the costs are preliminary.
A hearing is scheduled for
Sept. 9.
Zimmerman ran unsuccess-
fully for City Council in 2020 and
2018 and opposed the new fi re-
house as part of his campaigns.
“We prefer the ballot language
be precise as to the station location
and as to the need for extensive
further investigation with fi nal
costing demonstrated by signed
See Firehouse, Page A6