A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2022
IN BRIEF
State reports new virus cases for county
LANDSCAPE
The sunset and stormy conditions color the
landscape orange on the Long Beach Peninsula.
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
The Oregon Health Authority reported eight new
coronavirus cases for Clatsop County over the week-
end and fi ve new cases on Friday.
Since the pandemic began, the county had recorded
4,515 virus cases as of Monday.
— The Astorian
Permits required to drive along
waterfall corridor of Columbia
River Highway this spring
Starting this spring, drivers on the Historic Colum-
bia River Highway will need to purchase a permit
to access the scenic route commonly known as the
“waterfall corridor.”
The road allows access to many popular tourist
spots, like Multnomah Falls, in the Columbia River
Gorge.
Oregon Department of Transportation offi cials say
the new permitting system is to address heavy traffi c.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATH
Feb. 26, 2022
In BALLA,
Brief:
March
R. Elaine
(Brownson) 1,
(Firebaugh)
(Doane), 92, of Astoria, died in Astoria. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary is in charge of the arrangements.
2022
MEMORIALS
Saturday, March 5
Memorials
HUNT, Bonnie Jean
Dotson — Funeral Mass
11 a.m. at St. Mary,
Death
Star of the Sea Catholic
Church, 1465 Grand Ave.
in Astoria. Inter ment will
follow at Ocean View
Cemetery, 575 S.W. 18th
St. in Warrenton.
WHITE,
Ronald
“Ron” Sr. — Viewing
starts at 10 a.m., funeral
Mass from 11 a.m. to
noon, Holy Trinity Cath-
olic Church, 13715
S.W. Walker Road in
Beaverton.
ON THE RECORD
Assault
for fi rst-degree crimi-
On
the Record
•
Melissa
Gayle nal mischief and reckless
Longo, 32, of Puyallup,
Washington, was indicted
on Friday for third-degree
assault, two counts of fail-
ing to perform the duties
of a driver to seriously
injured persons, reckless
driving and two counts
of recklessly endanger-
ing another person. The
crimes are alleged to have
occurred in December.
Failing to perform the
duties of a driver
• Adam David Ehrlich,
33, of Puyallup, Washing-
ton, was indicted on Fri-
day for two counts of fail-
ing to perform the duties
of a driver to seriously
injured persons and two
counts of hindering pros-
ecution. The crimes are
alleged to have occurred
in December.
Burglary
• Matthew Scot Mer-
ritt, 37, of Astoria, was
indicted on Friday for
fi rst-degree
burglary,
fi rst-degree theft and
contempt of court. The
crimes are alleged to have
occurred in December.
Criminal mischief
• Paul Lee Roe-
buck, 49, of Astoria,
was indicted on Friday
burning. The crimes are
alleged to have occurred
in November.
Theft
• Brett Win Framp-
ton, 29, of Seaside, was
arrested on Sunday at
Walmart in Warrenton for
fi rst-degree theft and on a
felony warrant.
Disorderly conduct
• Christopher Allen
Ritter, 43, of Astoria,
was arrested on Satur-
day on W. Marine Drive
in Astoria for second-de-
gree disorderly conduct
and harassment. Ritter
was allegedly involved in
a bar fi ght.
DUII
• Ronald Wayne
Cothren, 47, of Cath-
lamet, Washington, was
arrested on Sunday at W.
Marine Drive and Port-
way Street in Astoria for
driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants and
reckless driving.
• Trevor William
DeMander, 18, of Asto-
ria, was arrested on Sat-
urday at Astoria High
School for DUII. He was
allegedly involved in a
two-vehicle accident at
the high school.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A.
Clatsop County Fair Board, 5:30 p.m., 92937 Walluski
Loop.
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., (electronic meeting).
Jewell School District Board, 6 p.m., executive session,
Jewell School Library, 83874 Oregon Highway 103.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
WEDNESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 10 a.m., work
session, (electronic meeting).
Gearhart City Council, 6 p.m., special meeting, (electronic
meeting).
Cannon Beach City Council, Design Review Board and
Planning Commission, 6 p.m., joint work session, (elec-
tronic meeting).
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Oregon aims to lift indoor
mask mandate next week
Joint decision with
California and
Washington state
By GARY WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon will drop its
indoor mask mandate against
COVID-19 more than a
week earlier than planned .
Gov. Kate Brown said
Monday morning that Ore-
gon, California and Wash-
ington state would lift their
mandates simultaneously at
11:59 p.m. March 11. The
new date includes ending
mask mandates in schools.
The order will aff ect over
51.2 million people from the
Mexican border to the Cana-
dian border, about 15% of
the national population.
The move comes on the
two-year anniversary of
the fi rst case of COVID-19
reported in Oregon . Working
with California and Wash-
ington state was crucial to
having a unifi ed timeline for
the change in mask policy,
Brown said.
“As has been made clear
time and again over the last
two years, COVID-19 does
not stop at state borders or
county lines,” the gover-
nor said in a statement. “On
the West Coast, our com-
munities and economies are
linked. Together, as we con-
tinue to recover from the
omicron surge, we will build
resiliency and prepare for
the next variant and the next
pandemic.”
The move by the three
states comes after the federal
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Oregon will lift an indoor mask mandate next week.
Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention late last
week called for new guide-
lines to determine risk that
would allow for the loosen-
ing of restrictions for 70%
of the country’s population
where coronavirus is posing
a low or medium threat to
hospitals. However, the map
released by the CDC showed
much of eastern, central
and southwestern Oregon
remained in the 30% of pop-
ulation areas that remain at
high risk.
California Gov. Gavin
Newsom and Washington
Gov. Jay Inslee issued sim-
ilar statements Monday
morning with the same date
and time for dropping indoor
mask mandates.
The new date is the sec-
ond time in two weeks that
health offi cials have moved
up the date for lifting mask
mandates.
Brown had originally said
that the mask mandate would
end by March 31, about
when Oregon Health & Sci-
Major renovation starts
soon at Oregon Trail
Interpretive Center
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — The
biggest project at the Ore-
gon Trail Interpretive Cen-
ter near Baker City since it
opened almost 30 years ago
will begin Wednesday .
The $6.5 million make-
over is designed to turn the
center, which has attracted
almost 2.4 million visitors,
from an energy hog to a
building with a more modest
appetite for electricity.
Achieving that will entail
much more than cosmetic
work.
The Bureau of Land Man-
agement, the federal agency
that operates the c enter on
Flagstaff Hill about 5 miles
east of Baker City, has hired
Hess Contracting of Preston,
Idaho, to replace most items
attached to its frame.
That includes installing
new cement board siding,
insulation, roofi ng, windows
and doors.
The contractor will also
replace the heating and cool-
ing system for the all-electric
building.
The i nterpretive c enter has
been closed since November
2020 due to the coronavirus
pandemic. W ork started in
October to remove exhibits
and other items in prepara-
tion for the project. The cen-
ter will remain closed during
the remodeling.
The work is slated to
be fi nished in the spring of
2023, but the c enter will
stay closed for several more
months while exhibits and
fi xtures are reinstalled.
That’s a shorter dura-
tion than the Bureau of Land
Subscription rates
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ence University projected
the state would drop below
400 daily patients hospital-
ized with COVID-19.
The decline in omi-
cron-related severe cases
accelerated and the date was
moved last week to March
19. But on Thursday, OHSU
issued a forecast showing
Oregon would dip below the
400-mark by March 12.
The Oregon Health
Authority said the lifting of
the mask mandate did not
include changes to federal
and state rules on masks in
health care settings, airline
fl ights, public transit and
other specialized places .
Brown’s statement on
Monday did not change her
plan to lift the state of emer-
gency on C OVID-19 ear-
lier than April 1, the date
she announced last week.
The emergency rules gave
Brown wide powers to set
public policy during the cri-
sis, including the closing and
reopening of in-person class-
room instruction, business
hours, mask usage and limits
on event sizes.
The three West Coast
states have sought to coordi-
nate on COVID-19 response
throughout the pandemic,
though they have gone their
own way at times, such as the
vaccine priority list in early
2021. Brown said the gover-
nors believed the mask man-
date change was best done at
the same time for the stretch
from the Mexican border to
the Canadian border.
“Our communities and
economies are linked,”
Brown said.
Brown underlined that
the move did not mean the
pandemic was burning out
or nearly over.
“As we learn to live with
this virus, we must remain
vigilant to protect each other
and prevent disruption to
our schools, businesses and
communities – with a focus
on protecting our most vul-
nerable and the people and
communities that have been
disproportionately impacted
by COVID-19, ” she said.
Oregon offi cials say they
are confi dent that the move
will not replicate the prema-
ture lifting of safeguards last
summer that came almost
simultaneously with the
arrival of the virulent delta
variant . Critics said at that
time that lifting restrictions
statewide did not take into
eff ect the wide diff erences in
vaccination rates and prior
COVID-19 exposure.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
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The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center has had more than 2
million visitors since it opened in 1992.
Management
originally
expected, said Larisa Bogar-
dus, the public aff airs offi cer
for the bureau’s Vale District.
Initially, the bureau
expected the remodeling
would take more than two
years.
The impetus for the proj-
ect was a nationwide survey
comparing the energy effi -
ciency of Bureau of Land
Management buildings .
That
survey,
which
included an inspection of
the i nterpretive c enter in
May 2018, earned the c en-
ter the “dubious distinction”
of being the bureau’s least
effi cient building, Bogardus
said.
The c enter had a monthly
power bill averaging about
$10,000.
The remodel is estimated
to reduce the c enter’s energy
use by 73%, according to the
bureau .
“We want to be good
stewards of our natural
resources,” said Wayne Mon-
ger, the bureau’s Vale Dis-
trict manager . “This design
utilizes high thermal insula-
tion value materials and high
effi ciency heating and cool-
ing technology to counter
summer and winter energy
demands of the site.”
Approximately 16% of
the project is funded through
the Great American Out-
doors Act, which allocates up
to $1.9 billion annually for
maintenance and improve-
ments to critical facilities
and infrastructure in national
parks, forests, wildlife ref-
uges, recreation areas and
Tribal schools.