NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, February 13, 2021
2% of EOU students living on campus test positive for COVID-19
By PHIL WRIGHT
La Grande Observer
LA GRANDE — Eastern
Oregon University reported
COVID-19 testing of more
than 1,200 students resulted
in a positive rate of just 2%.
EOU in a press release
reported students’ compli-
ance with health and safety
protocols allowed the univer-
sity to keep case counts at a
minimum while continuing
operations, including provid-
ing a significant number
of in-person classes and
services during the COVID-
19 pandemic.
Prior to the start of winter
term, EOU tested all students
living in on-campus resi-
dence halls for COVID-
19 once during winter
break, then a second time
upon returning to campus.
Student-athletes complete
regular COVID-19 tests to
continue participation in
practices.
EOU conducted more
than 1,200 tests in Janu-
ary of students living on
campus, according to the
press release, which resulted
in that 2% positivity rate.
Dally Evans, of Lakev-
iew, is a freshman living
on campus at Eastern. The
elementary education major
credited the university for
steps to control the spread of
coronavirus.
“I think EOU is doing a
Alex Wittwer/La Grande Observer
Marcy Barlett cleans the common room at one of the residence halls on the Eastern Oregon
University campus in La Grande on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. EOU reported it continues to take
measures to control the spread of COVID-19, including implementing social distancing mea-
sures and the creation of a COVID-19 case management team.
great job with it,” Evans said.
When students started
the school year in the fall,
she said, they had to quar-
antine for three days, “then
we did a mass testing on the
football fi eld.” After that, she
said, came a few more days
of quarantining, and before
winter break the university
provided students with test-
ing kits to take home and
mail in.
Heather Wiggins, direc-
tor of EOU’s Student Health
Center, also is a family nurse
practitioner and a faculty
member at Oregon Health &
Science University in Port-
land. She said large-scale
testing provides important
information to reduce the
spread of COVID-19.
“At least 40% of the
spread of COVID is through
asymptomatic or presymp-
tomatic individuals, who
either are already ill and
do not have any symp-
toms or have not yet devel-
oped symptoms,” Wiggins
said in the press release.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Very cold with
snow at times
Cloudy and very
cold
Remaining cloudy
and cold
Strong winds
gradually subsiding
Partly sunny and
chilly
22° 14°
25° 20°
27° 15°
29° 22°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
33° 30°
39° 32°
39° 34°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
34° 29°
41° 32°
42° 35°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
37/31
20/10
26/16
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
22/14
Lewiston
36/32
28/15
Astoria
41/35
Pullman
Yakima 28/19
35/28
25/16
Portland
Hermiston
35/30
The Dalles 27/15
Salem
Corvallis
46/37
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
27/16
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
49/41
34/21
34/20
Ontario
38/20
Caldwell
Burns
21°
18°
47°
29°
68° (2011) -15° (1929)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
45/38
Trace
0.12"
0.42"
0.71"
0.31"
1.70"
WINDS (in mph)
38/17
38/23
0.46"
0.60"
0.52"
1.51"
3.45"
1.90"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 27/14
44/35
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
22/14
27/21
19°
13°
46°
29°
68° (1977) -10° (1929)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
35/29
Aberdeen
22/12
26/16
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
35/30
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
49/38
Sun.
N 6-12
WNW 6-12
NE 4-8
NE 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
40/27
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:00 a.m.
5:19 p.m.
8:22 a.m.
7:33 p.m.
First
Full
Last
New
Feb 19
Feb 27
Mar 5
Mar 13
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 88° in Immokalee, Fla. Low -41° in Moore, Mont.
“Frequent large-scale testing
is one measure that can help
reduce the risk of an outbreak
spreading quickly. … This
type of testing is especially
important when students are
returning to campus from
many different areas after
winter break, and may have
been unknowingly exposed,
or are already infectious but
are not showing any symp-
toms.”
Carrie Brogoitti, COVID-
19 incident commander at
Union County’s public health
authority, the Center for
Human Development Inc.,
said the organization has a
longstanding, positive rela-
tionship with EOU that has
helped mitigate the spread of
COVID-19 locally.
“Of all the places in our
community where there
could be risk of spread or
potential outbreaks, EOU
has done a tremendous
job of being proactive,”
Brogoitti said in the release.
“They have great plans in
place and have been swift
to act in isolating and quar-
antining COVID-19 cases
to limit or stop the spread in
our community. They have
really taken it seriously and
have worked really hard to
limit the risk to their students
and the community.”
She said EOU helped
inform and coordinate many
aspects of the pandemic
response, and the universi-
ty’s presence in La Grande
is not a primary reason for
the county’s “extreme risk”
status.
“Over the last year we
have seen COVID-19 activ-
ity and outbreaks touch
almost every area of our
community. In many of these
instances, to the best of our
knowledge, this activity has
been community spread,”
Brogoitti said. “EOU has
coordinated their testing
events with public health
and these testing events have
New police station will be on
the May ballot for M-F voters
By SHEILA HAGAR
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
MILTON-FREEWATER
— Voters in Milton-Freewater
will have the opportunity to
consider approving a new city
police station in May.
Milton-Freewater City
Council members voted unan-
imously on Monday, Feb. 8, to
put a $7.7 million general obli-
gation bond on the upcoming
ballot.
If approved, the money
will come from property
taxes, about $7.25 a month per
$100,000 of assessed property
value, offi cials said.
T he stor y of why
Milton-Freewater could use a
new station goes back about
100 years.
That’s how long the city’s
police department has oper-
ated in the basement of
Milton-Freewater City Hall
on South Main Street, once
the town of Milton bought the
former Columbia College in
1929.
The basement has been
called a “rabbit warren” of
boxy, shotgun-style rooms
with little to no natural light in
much of the station. The addi-
tion of security measures and
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
technology has reduced usable
square footage even more.
The same could be said of
the station’s heating and cool-
ing, although that recently
failed, leaving the basement
without heat for the cold snap
predicted this week, City
Manager Linda Hall told
council members.
For more than 20 years,
officials have pondered
building a station on a
16,500-square-foot, city-
owned lot across Columbia
Street, which runs behind
Main Street facing city hall.
In October 2020, the city
hired Portland-based FFA
Architecture & Interiors to do
an early concept design.
FFA staff members
John Pete and Ian Gelbrich
presented working blueprints,
based on staff and space
needs, plus the surrounding
neighborhood and country-
side on Feb. 8.
The proposed station would
be about 7,200 square feet and
would house Milton-Freewa-
ter Police patrol offi cers and
911 dispatchers. The build-
ing would include conference
and report-taking rooms, two
holding cells, offi ces, evidence
rooms, a public lobby, a break
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
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PORTLAND — Cities and counties in
Oregon aiming to ban homeless people from
sitting, sleeping and camping on public prop-
erty may soon face a barrier under a proposed
bill introduced by state lawmakers earlier this
month.
House Bill 3115 would require local govern-
ments to be “objectively reasonable” when
regulating sitting, lying, sleeping or keeping
warm and dry on public property.
If passed, the measure would largely force
cities statewide to comply with the well known
“camping lawsuit” in Boise, Idaho, where a
federal judge ruled that prosecuting people for
sleeping on the streets, when there are no shel-
ter beds available, is unconstitutional and cruel
and unusual punishment.
“We have a lot of folks continuing to live in
public spaces, and that ruling in the court said
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room, interview spaces and
training areas.
It will also be seismically
sound, set up for modern tech-
nology, accessible to those
using mobility devices, and
provide privacy and safety for
residents to attend to police
business.
Although the COVID-19
pandemic has caused a jump
in building material prices,
it similarly caused a project
slowdown, meaning labor
costs are currently lower, Pete
said, noting the bond amount
is adjusted for a possible 4%
cost escalation.
Public safety buildings
cost more than equally sized
construction due to the need
for them to be seismically
sound, house back-up genera-
tors and create secure spaces,
he told council members.
The single-story station’s
roof is designed to blend with
nearby residences and echo
the foothills of the Blue Moun-
tains, the FFA architects said.
As well, the preliminary
design mimics the open front
of the public library, adjacent
to Milton-Freewater City Hall.
That station’s exterior brick
and metal cladding would pay
homage to its city hall sibling.
IN BRIEF
Proposed Oregon bill aims to
limit bans on homeless camping
-10s
led to identifi cation of cases,
quick treatment, and imme-
diate isolation to prevent
spread.”
EOU’s systems contained
a minor outbreak in mid-Jan-
uary after students who had
tested negative began expe-
riencing symptoms, EOU
reported. Contact trac-
ing found no employees or
shared spaces were exposed.
EOU assigned each affected
student a caseworker to
p r ov id e w r a p - a r o u n d
services. And a newly hired
COVID-19 response nurse
provided direct care and
consultation for the students.
Wiggins said Easter’s
COVID-19 case manage-
ment team is there to ensure
students have the support
they need.
“The response nurse is on
the team along with repre-
sentatives from student
affairs, residence life, the
student health center and
the athletic department.
This team meets routinely
to help provide support to all
students who are in isolation
or quarantine,” she said.
Faculty also provided
remote-access resources for
students since the pandemic
began in spring 2020. Adapt-
ing in-class curriculum
to suit remote and hybrid
courses also allows students
to self-isolate or quarantine
if they are ill or potentially
exposed to the virus.
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that you can’t penalize people for experienc-
ing homelessness if there isn’t enough shelter,”
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, who is the
sponsor of the bill, said.
Twelve years ago, a group of homeless
people sued the city of Boise for ticketing them
for sleeping outside, despite there being a short-
age of shelter beds in the area. In 2018, the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that cities
cannot prosecute people for sleeping on the
streets if there is nowhere else for them to go.
A $1.8 million settlement was reached on
Feb. 8 in the Robert Martin v. City of Boise
case; this includes $1.3 million to create over-
night shelters or rehabilitate existing shelter
spaces, $435,000 for the plaintiffs’ attorneys,
and $5,000 in damages to the plaintiffs.
The 9th Circuit is the largest court of
appeals, meaning the ruling affects Alaska,
Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
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