B3
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2021
Employees harassed for
enforcing mask rules
By LIZZY ACKER
The Oregonian
Like all restaurants, the
coronavirus pandemic has
meant constant fl ux for La
Rambla, a tapas restaurant in
Oregon’s wine country.
The McMinnville restau-
rant closed and then opened,
owner Kathy Stoler said, and
then closed again.
Since the offi cial reopen-
ing of restaurants in Ore-
gon, Stoler said, “I had to
close twice because of some-
one coming into contact with
someone with COVID.”
Every surprise closure
meant food wasted and
money lost, so Stoler imple-
mented new rules: Her staff
needed to be vaccinated and
anyone who wanted to eat
indoors had to be vaccinated,
too. Everyone who isn’t eat-
ing, inside and out, also must
wear masks.
Stoler said she lost some
employees over her vac-
cine requirements, but on the
whole the response has been
“very positive.”
Until Labor Day, when a
group of people dining out-
doors became aggressive
with staff members who
asked them to mask up when
going to the restroom inside.
The mask rule is not
unique to La Rambla. State
rules also require masks
indoors.
Rama Merrill-Troxell, the
restaurant’s manager, posted
about the incident on Face-
book, after one of the women
in the party posted a negative
review of the restaurant.
The review, which has
since been taken down, called
La Rambla “racist and closed
minded.”
In her post, which is also
no longer on Facebook, Mer-
rill-Troxell said the interac-
tion “truly hurts my heart.”
She detailed the exchange,
in which the party was seated
on the patio because they
didn’t all have proof of vacci-
nation. Other parties asked to
be moved away from them, as
they loudly and angrily talked
about the policy. Then a man
verbally attacked a 16-year-
old hostess who asked him to
put on a mask when he came
inside to use the restroom.
Merrill-Troxell
said
she approached the group
and asked them to be more
respectful. When the man
came out of the bathroom,
she was attempting to tell
him the same thing when he
lashed out at her and called
her off ensive names.
At that point, Mer-
rill-Troxell asked the group to
leave, which they were reluc-
tant to do.
During the incident, she
said, one of the women in
the party put her hands on
Merrill-Troxell.
“When she put her hands
on me,” Merrill-Troxell said,
“I felt this woman is losing
control.”
But when Merrill-Troxell
asked the woman to remove
her hands, she said she did.
“I didn’t feel like I was
assaulted,” Merrill-Troxell
said, noting that she worked
at a dive bar for 17 years, so
she is familiar with unruly
clientele.
Finally, she said, the
group left the property. The
area was full of people who
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were watching the whole
altercation.
Merrill-Troxell said she
thought the group fi nally left
because so many people were
fi lming them.
“Everybody on the street
is saying, ‘Get out of here!’”
she said, adding that there
was a big round of applause
when the group fi nally left.
According
to
Mer-
rill-Troxell and Stoler, the
police were called and the
party was nearby when they
arrived. But both women
said the police did little to
address the behavior that they
reported and that many peo-
ple had fi lmed.
“There were three cops
out on Third Street that were
talking to these people and
they never got any names or
anything,” Stoler said.
Merrill-Troxell said she
was talking to an offi cer
and wanted to press charges
“and then the offi cer said
that he was being overrid-
den, and that I wasn’t able
to press criminal trespassing
charges.”
McMinnville police did
not respond to multiple
requests for comment.
For her part, Merrill-Trox-
ell doesn’t want people to
retaliate against the woman
in the group who posted the
negative review, and she
declined to share video of the
incident.
“I am feeling like the
whole world has gone mad,”
she said.
“I really don’t want them
to be demonized,” Mer-
rill-Troxell said. “I really just
wanted to say, ‘Let’s treat
each other kindly.’”
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Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
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While in the forest she try is such a vital compo- with the help of the Ore-
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development.
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By 2018, the mother-son uct commercialization, said Kleve Kee, Oregon Man-
team was creating its own Christine Coffi n, a spokes- ufacturing Extension Pro-
dehydrated food in the woman for the univer- gram managing consultant.
Bend Prep Kitchen. Today sity. The interdisciplinary
All this occurred during
the pair has eight employ- program focuses on engi- the pandemic, Kee said.
ees and about 35 accounts neering, natural resources,
The savings were gleaned
that sell their products in 10 outdoor recreation, sustain- by using the Lean manufac-
states. They declined to dis- ability and business.
turing principles that elimi-
cuss specifi c sales data.
“The number of mergers nates waste in a production
“We focus on veggies,” and acquisitions in the past system. The principles were
said Julie Mosier. “When two years speaks to both made famous by Toyota in
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a small business, according pany, acquired Picky Bars, ple and improving the pro-
to the U.S. Small Business a Bend-based snack com- cesses without expanding
Administration. In 2019, pany founded by triathletes. the work force,” Kee said.
the year with the most cur- Other notable companies in “The solutions we worked
rent data, 377,860 small the region are cookie maker on with Food for the Sole
businesses in Oregon were Red Plate Foods and grano- included technology.”
registered and employed la-maker Bird Seed Food
The technology allowed
852,983 people, or more Co.
the company to not only
than half the employed
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