OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, February 25, 2021
out of the classifi cation.
County officials were
fl ooded with calls on Feb. 20
from concerned residents after
the state reported the back-
logged tests, which showed
that the county had a spike of
72 new coronavirus cases.
Halley Maloy, the coun-
ty’s epidemiologist, sorted
through the tests over the
weekend with county health
offi cials to determine what
cases should be included and
what cases should be excluded
from the county’s reopening
metrics.
Their analysis showed that
1,145 of those tests, account-
ing for 74 recently reported
positive cases, were either
from before Feb. 1, when
the two-week time frame to
determine risk levels began,
or from inmates at local pris-
ons. At least one of those cases
was from as far back as June,
said Joe Fiumara, the county’s
public health director.
“The way it got reported
from the state, which I didn’t
like, very much made it seem
like we screwed something up
here locally,” Fiumara said.
“And that was not in fact what
happened.”
The approval from the
governor’s offi ce to discount
the cases drops reported cases
over the past two weeks from
231 to 156, according to the
health department, which
dropped county case rates to
191 cases per 100,000 from
Feb. 7 to Feb. 20 and made the
county eligible to be lowered
to high risk.
“The accurate collection
and accounting of all COVID-
19 case data informs OHA’s
ongoing response to COVID-
19, and we are committed to
informing the public when
we identify any oversight,”
said Dr. Dean Sidelinger,
state public health officer
and epidemiologist. “When
we identified the issue, we
worked to correct our meth-
ods of capturing case data,
and we want to thank the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
for the work they are doing to
provide their case and investi-
gation data to us.”
A total of 58 of the reported
cases were from Yellowhawk
Tribal Health Center, which
has been reporting cases to
the state since the pandemic
began despite being an entity
of a sovereign nation that is
not required to do so.
“We decided to be trans-
parent with our data because
we realize this will be an
important part to fi ghting the
virus and protect not only resi-
dents of the Umatilla Indian
President:
Continued from Page A1
LOWER RISK (10)
• Baker
• Clatsop (Moved from
High)
• Gilliam
• Grant
• Lincoln (Moved from High)
• Sherman
• Tillamook
• Wallowa
• Wasco (Moved from
Extreme)
• Wheeler
MODERATE RISK (10)
• Clackamas (Moved from
High)
• Curry (Moved from Lower)
• Harney (Moved from
Lower)
• Hood River (Moved from
High)
• Lake
• Linn (Moved from High)
• Malheur (Moved from
Extreme)
• Morrow
• Union (Moved from
Extreme)
• Washington (Moved from
High)
HIGH RISK (11)
• Columbia
• Crook (Moved from
Extreme)
• Deschutes
• Jackson (Moved from
Extreme)
• Klamath
• Lane (Moved from
Extreme)
• Marion (Moved from
Extreme)
• Multnomah
• Polk (Moved from Ex-
treme)
• Umatilla (Moved from
Extreme)
• Yamhill (Moved from
Extreme)
EXTREME RISK (5)
• Benton
• Coos
• Douglas (Moved from
High)
• Jeff erson
• Josephine
Reservation but our commu-
nity, county and state,” said
Lisa Guzman, chief executive
officer for the Yellowhawk
Tribal Health Center.
Four more cases were from
Aegis Sciences Corporation,
and nine were from inmates at
local prisons. All those cases
were excluded and do not
refl ect recent counts.
Eastern Oregon showed
improvement, with Umatilla
County’s move and Union and
Malheur counties making big
jumps, going from extreme
to moderate level. Morrow
County remains at moderate
risk.
toward foreseeable, inevitable
insolvency,” he said, emphasiz-
ing that it was only his personal
opinion rather than the views of
the board.
Even with his dire concerns,
Puzey echoed his fellow board
members in praising Green and
her ability.
“I believe she is a team
builder,” he said. “She’s certainly
an advocate for community
colleges. And she understands
the system and what we’re
trying to do at Blue Mountain
Community College as well as
anyone I’ve ever met.”
Interest in Green’s appoint-
ment among staff and students
was high. During the virtual
public meeting, Hill noted that
the total attendees swelled to 60
at its highest. Most of the staff
who weighed in on Green’s
hiring left supportive comments
in the chat.
Megan Van Pelt, the Associ-
ated Student Government pres-
ident, asked Green what she
would do to fulfi ll the college’s
“students fi rst” motto.
Green said addressing
student concerns and issues has
to be the “guiding principle” of
the school.
Overall, Green said she
prefers a collaborative approach
to solving the challenges the
college faces, but she won’t be
afraid to take decisive action if
the need arises.
“The goal is to get to the next
president,” she said. “But you
don’t want the president to learn
and lift at the same time.”
Green said her task will be to
help the college lift.
“We need action, we need
compassion, and we need hope,”
she said.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
People stand in line for a COVID-19 vaccination during a vaccination event at Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Mission on
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021.
CTUIR: 18 guardsmen called in to help
Continued from Page A1
and helping medics with
certain tasks, like retrieving
more vials of vaccine. But
its implications were greater.
He hopes that by offering the
vaccine to his community,
he’s helping bring his people
closer to normalcy.
“People have been saying,
you know, ‘Thank you for
doing this,’ and being here
right now makes me feel
pretty good,” he said.
Earlier this month, health
offi cials from Yellowhawk
received 975 doses of the
Pfizer vaccine from the
Indian Health Service to
begin inoculating people en
masse with fi rst doses. And
because of the sheer scale of
the effort, they called upon 18
local members of the Oregon
National Guard in an attempt
to vaccinate as many people
connected to the CTUIR as
possible, including both tribal
and non-tribal members.
“Speaking for Oregon
guardsmen who have taken
time away from their civil-
ian lives and family to travel,
they’re very enthusiastic to
be a part of this,” said Col.
Mark Maddox, the joint task
commander for the Oregon
Military Department. “The
work that’s in front of us to
get us to a different place is
probably some of the more
important work that we’ve
done in a public health space
in probably all of our life-
times.”
A push toward
immunity
By the morning of
Wednesday, Feb. 24, 464
vaccines had been adminis-
tered at the clinic, and more
than 900 appointments were
scheduled, with more walk-in
vaccinations expected. Prior
to the clinic, health offi-
cials had already vaccinated
more than 1,000 people since
efforts began in mid-Decem-
ber 2020. Yellowhawk offi -
cials expect that number to
double by mid-March.
“If anything, I think this
has pulled our team together
closer,” Lisa Guzman, the
chief executive officer of
Yellowhawk, said of the
effort, which involved long
B2H:
Continued from Page A1
hours and countless ongoing
operations from early morn-
ing into the evening.
Guzman said if all the
allocated doses are to be
administered this week, they
will have to ramp up their
efforts by reaching out to
community members and
moving people through the
clinic quicker, while ensur-
ing patients remain healthy
and safe.
“This was something we
took upon ourselves, real-
izing we needed to have
a balancing act between
providing health care services
in the clinic, providing vacci-
nations and helping Umatilla
County,” she said. “We recog-
nize Umatilla County has had
hiccups to its vaccinations
and we wanted to do as much
as we could. We wanted to
provide as much as was in our
capacity to provide.”
Those eligible for vacci-
to Chuck Sams, the interim
executive director at the
CTUIR. This means that
tribal enterprises and govern-
ment operations will reopen.
“By April 1, our hope
is that will go back to what
we consider a public health
emergency issue, not an inci-
dent command issue, and
that we’ll be able to allow
everybody to come back
into the workplace,” Sams
said, adding that many tribal
operations have been ongo-
ing but limited throughout
the pandemic because of the
Tribes’ proactive approach.
“Which is why we want to
ensure that we also vacci-
nated our contractors and
our vendors, those who
spend time in our buildings
and around our people so that
they will also feel safer.”
Sams noted that disease
has affected his community
throughout history. Between
“YOU’VE GOT TO TAKE CARE OF THE
ENTIRE GROUP IF YOU’RE GOING
TO TAKE CARE OF OUR COMMUNITY,
THE CTUIR COMMUNITY.”
— Mystie Hanie, Yellowhawk’s public health operation supervisor
nations have included all
tribal members over the age
of 16, employees from all
CTUIR entities, all residents
who live on the reservation,
family members of CTUIR
employees who live in the
same household, and vendors
and contractors who do work
for CTUIR entities. Many of
the vaccines administered at
the Feb. 23 clinic were given
to non-Indians, offi cials said.
The effort is a fi nal push
to quickly complete vacci-
nation efforts on the reserva-
tion. By mid-March — when
the health center will receive
another shipment of 975 doses
from IHS to fully immunize
the population vaccinated this
week — offi cials are expect-
ing to have offered a vaccine
to everybody so far declared
eligible by the Tribes.
Aside from maintaining
standard COVID-19 safety
precautions, the effort will
effectively allow tribal oper-
ations to return nearly to
normal by April, according
Yakima
82
97
Kennewick
A community effort
Dozens of people filed
through the hallways of Wild-
horse, between gaming areas
and gift shops, to receive their
vaccine on Feb. 23, after a
morning that was flooded
River
ake
Wash.
Area in detail
12
Walla Walla
WASH.
R.
Col u m bia
1780 to 1860, the Umatilla
Indians lost over 90% of
their population to a measles
pandemic.
However, compared
to other tribal communi-
ties nationwide, where the
pandemic has been especially
deadly, the CTUIR commu-
nity has been able to keep
case counts relatively low,
with 247 cases, 13 hospi-
talizations and one death
reported as of Feb. 18.
“We were not playing
around when this disease
showed up at our doorstep a
year ago,” Sams said. “We
wanted to be very proactive,
ensuring the safety of not just
ourselves, but everybody who
are touching our commu-
nity.”
Idaho
Ore.
Boardman
Hermiston
didn’t properly evaluate the
Umatilla Indian
84
Reservation
Pendleton
transmission line’s “syner-
ORE.
La Grande
gistic” effects with livestock
395
95
grazing, which the group
argues will have cumulative
Baker City
impacts on the sage grouse in
the region.
IDAHO
The BLM and Idaho
26
Power, the utility company
Ontario
that would construct the proj-
The Stop B2H Coalition is
84
20
ect, are defending an inade-
Boise
committed to preventing Idaho
Caldwell
quate NEPA analysis of the
Power from running a 300-mile
Nampa
high-voltage power line from
transmission line’s effects,
Boardman, Ore., to the Hemingway
ak
Becker said.
e
Riv
substation about 50 miles southwest
Project
“They really are trying to
er
of Boise. Coalition members contend
substation
piece together and point the
the line would disrupt elk habitat,
Selected
court in 25 different direc-
blight scenic views and threaten
transmission
tions and say, ‘We Klamath
deserve Falls sections of the Old Oregon Trail.
20 miles
line route
deference,’” Becker said.
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
The BLM countered Source: Bureau of Land Management
that its preferred route
was a permissible “logical required to study burying a the BLM.
“The EIS is not organized
outgrowth” of alternatives section of the power line and
examined in a draft environ- it suffi ciently evaluated the in the way plaintiffs want, but
mental impact statement, or implications of grazing while it’s up to BLM’s discretion
EIS, and doesn’t require a examining the route’s effects how to disclose that informa-
supplemental NEPA study.
on vegetation, said Krys- tion,” she said.
The agency wasn’t tal-Rose Perez, attorney for
Similarly, the agency
Area group
fights power
line project
Sn
Board member Chris Brown
said Green will need to take a
more active role than she did in
her last stint at the college, where
she was expected to take a more
“passive” role while the college
identifi ed a new president.
This time around, Brown
said Green would need to help
the board and staff address
important issues like the
college’s budget and strategic
plan.
Green is assuming lead-
ership over the college after
it survived a tough 2020. The
COVID-19 pandemic forced
the college to move most of
its classes online, which was
followed by declining enroll-
ment and staff layoffs. Simulta-
neously, BMCC was fi ghting to
keep its adult education program
going at three Eastern Oregon
state prisons. Although the
program was saved, the new
contract will likely lead to
further staff reductions.
Given the issues the college
is facing, Kim Puzey, the longest
tenured member of the BMCC
board, is concerned about the
existential future of the institu-
tion.
In an interview after the
meeting, Puzey pointed to a
yearslong trend of declining
enrollment and a state govern-
ment that may be more inter-
ested in responding to ongoing
crises like COVID-19 and the
wildfi re recovery rather than
adequate community college
funding.
“The college is moving
County risk levels that go
into eff ect Friday, Feb. 26:
S na
ke
Riv
er
Continued from Page A1
A7
COUNTY RISK
CATEGORIES
Sn
Risk:
East Oregonian
with eager patients. Guards-
men worked diligently in
seven dimly lit booths, bring-
ing a patient in and adminis-
tering a shot in less than a
minute.
Patients were then moved
to a nearby waiting area
that sat between two bowl-
ing alleys, where they were
encouraged to take from a
large table of bananas, trail
mix and potato chips while
health offi cials watched to
make sure nobody had an
adverse reaction.
“You’ve got to take care
of the entire group if you’re
going to take care of our
community, the CTUIR
community,” said Mystie
Hanie, Yellowhawk’s interim
public health operation super-
visor, whose son was work-
ing at the clinic as a member
of the National Guard. “This
whole thing is family. That’s
what makes it all the more
beautiful. These are all local
guardsmen. There are some
deep ties here.”
For weeks, tribal health
offi cials have been planning
the event and reaching out
through emails, phone and
social media to bring people
to the clinic en masse.
One of them was Natasha
Makin, an employee of Pend-
leton Bottling Co., a Pepsi
distributor, and lifelong resi-
dent. When she heard she was
eligible to be vaccinated, she
was anxious to get the shot.
She helps take care of her
77-year-old grandmother,
and getting vaccinated was
Makin’s way of ensuring she
is kept safe.
“I was anxious to get it
to help my community,” she
said. “It was peace of mind to
know you’re doing your part.”
Makin is a single mother
of three boys, aged 17, 13 and
9. Balancing work away from
home while keeping her three
boys interested in online
school has been a challenge,
but her boys have adapted.
She, too, said getting a shot
was her fi rst step toward help-
ing her community back to
normalcy.
“I feel like they’re more
resilient than I realized,” she
said. “It’s kind of nice that
this community is bouncing
back.”
doesn’t have to arrive at the
conclusions preferred by the
opponents, Perez said.
“I don’t think there’s any
question NEPA does not
mandate particular results,”
Perez said.
Beth Ginsberg, an attorney
for Idaho Power, said both the
Obama and Trump adminis-
trations have recognized the
transmission line as a critical
connection between the elec-
trical grids of the Pacifi c West
and Intermountain West.
“The importance of a proj-
ect like this cannot be under-
stated,” Ginsberg said. “No
shortcuts were taken. Every
I was dotted, every T was
crossed.”
The BLM conducted the
necessary analysis of the proj-
ect’s impacts on sage grouse
populations, but this infor-
mation doesn’t need to be
isolated in a special “cumu-
lative impacts” section, she
said.
“This is a ‘gotcha,’” Gins-
berg said. “This is another
example of trying to weapon-
ize NEPA.”