NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
As mask mandates end, Oregon bucks trend with permanent rule
States around
the country are
lifting COVID-19
restrictions
By SARA CLINE
Asociated Press/
Report for America
PORTLA N D — As
states around the country
lift COVID-19 restrictions,
Oregon is poised to go the
opposite direction — and
many residents are fuming
about the possibility.
A top health official is
considering indefinitely
extending rules requiring
masks and social distancing
in all businesses in the state.
The proposal would keep
the rules in place until they
are “no longer necessary
to address the effects of the
pandemic in the workplace.”
Michael Wood, adminis-
trator of the state’s depart-
ment of Occupational Safety
and Health, said the move is
necessary to address a tech-
nicality in state law that
requires a “permanent” rule
to keep current restrictions
from expiring.
“We are not out of the
woods yet,” he said.
But the idea has prompted
a flood of angry responses,
with everyone from parents
to teachers to business
Gillian Flaccus/Associated Press, File
Residents wearing masks sit in downtown Lake Oswego on Sunday, April 11, 2021. Tens of
thousands of Oregon residents are angry about a proposal to make permanent an emergen-
cy rule that requires masks and social distancing in the state’s businesses and schools to pre-
vent the spread of COVID-19.
owners and employees
crying government over-
reach.
Wood’s agency received
a record number of public
comments, mostly critical,
and nearly 60,000 residents
signed a petition against the
proposal.
Opponents also are
upset government officials
won’t say how low Oregon’s
COVID-19 case numbers
must go, or how many people
would have to be vaccinated,
to get the requirements lifted
in a state that’s already had
some of the nation’s strictest
safety measures.
“When will masks be
unnecessary? What scientific
studies do these mandates
rely on, particularly now that
the vaccine is days away from
being available to everyone?”
said state Sen. Kim Thatcher,
a Republican from Keizer.
“Businesses have had to play
‘mask cop’ for the better part
of a year now. They deserve
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
Sunshine
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
67° 33°
71° 46°
| Go to AccuWeather.com
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Beautiful with
clouds and sun
SATURDAY
Partly sunny
Cooler with a
couple of showers
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
71° 44°
72° 47°
67° 41°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
75° 45°
71° 33°
76° 46°
73° 51°
OREGON FORECAST
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
Olympia
68/41
62/33
70/37
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
66/39
Lewiston
77/41
74/34
Astoria
63/43
Pullman
Yakima 71/32
74/40
68/38
Portland
Hermiston
75/47
The Dalles 71/33
Salem
Corvallis
73/44
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
63/30
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
73/42
62/31
63/30
Ontario
67/34
Caldwell
Burns
64°
45°
66°
40°
90° (1934) 24° (1982)
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
74/41
0.00"
Trace
0.50"
1.20"
0.48"
3.61"
WINDS (in mph)
64/34
63/27
0.00"
Trace
0.76"
3.34"
4.98"
4.72"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 59/27
74/43
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
67/33
74/39
59°
38°
63°
40°
88° (1934) 23° (1966)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
72/39
Aberdeen
62/36
68/43
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
72/48
Program allows
groups of students
to restore and
enhance sites in
Eastern Oregon
65° 44°
TEMP.
Today
Medford
75/43
Wed.
NE 6-12
N 6-12
Boardman
Pendleton
NE 4-8
NNW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
65/33
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:01 a.m.
7:48 p.m.
12:00 p.m.
3:07 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Apr 26
May 3
May 11
May 19
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 95° in Thermal, Calif. Low 1° in Climax, Colo.
numbers rise above certain
levels.
More than one-third
of Oregon’s counties are
currently limited to indoor
social gatherings of six
people, and the maximum
occupancy for indoor dining,
indoor entertainment and
gyms is 25% capacity or 50
people, whichever is less.
And many schools are just
now reopening after a year
of online learning.
The workplace rule is
“driven by the pandemic, and
it will be repealed,” Wood
said.
“But, it might not need to
go away at exactly the same
time the State of Emergency
is lifted,” he said, referring
to Brown’s executive orders.
Amid pandemic frus-
tration and deprivation, the
issue has gained a lot of atten-
tion. A petition on change.
org opposing the rule gained
nearly 60,000 signatures
and spread on social media,
drawing even more interest
to the proposal. More than
5,000 public comments were
sent to the agency, smashing
its previous record of 1,100.
“ T h e m a j o r i t y of
comments were simply
hostile to the entire notion
of COVID-19 restrictions,”
Wood said. “The vast major-
ity of comments were in the
context of, ‘You never needed
to do anything.’”
Eastern Oregon University students get
a first-hand look at restoration project
East Oregonian
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
some certainty on when they
will no longer be threatened
with fines.”
Wood said he is review-
ing all the feedback to see if
changes are needed before
he makes a final decision
by May 4, when the current
rules lapse.
Oregon, a blue state, has
been among those with the
country’s most stringent
COVID-19 restrictions and
now stands in contrast with
much of the rest of the nation
as vaccines become more
widely available.
At least six states —
Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi,
Montana, North Dakota and
Texas — have lifted mask
mandates, and some never
implemented them. In Texas,
businesses reopened at 100%
capacity last month.
In January, Virginia
became the first in the nation
to enact permanent COVID-
19 workplace safety and
health rules.
“While the end of this
pandemic is finally in sight,
the virus is still spreading
— and now is not the time
to let up on preventative
measures,” Democratic Gov.
Ralph Northam said follow-
ing the announcement.
Besides mask and distanc-
ing requirements, Oregon’s
proposal includes more
arcane workplace rules
regarding air flow, ventila-
tion, employee notification
in case of an outbreak, and
sanitation protocols.
It dovetails with separate
actions issued by Demo-
cratic Gov. Kate Brown,
using a state of emergency
declaration, requiring masks
in public statewide — and
even outside when 6 feet of
distance can’t be maintained
— and providing strict, coun-
ty-by-county thresholds for
business closures or reduc-
tions in capacity when case
LA GRANDE — Thick
dust and a selection of bird
droppings cover what used
to be bustling high school
hallways. A small group
of students from Eastern
Oregon University are some
of the first to leave footprints
since the school was aban-
doned in 2009, but their visit
marks a turning point for the
historic building.
These students, all major-
ing in sustainable rural
systems at EOU, will play a
key role in transforming the
contaminated building into a
functional community asset,
according to a press release
from the university.
The sustainable rural
systems degree program
opened in fall 2020. After
two terms of virtual, and
then on-campus meetings,
students took their first field
trip on Wednesday, April 14.
Professor Shannon Dono-
van arranged for the small
class to visit the former
Baker Central High School
building, which was recently
designated as a brownfield.
An EPA assessment found
lead and asbestos contami-
nation in tiles and paint, but
students could safely walk
through the building so long
as they didn’t disturb the
collected dust particles.
“It’s a bigger building
than I expected, and I was
surprised how worn down
things are and how much
work it’ll take to clean it up,”
EOU junior Joanna Campbell
said. “It’s cool to think about
how it could be transformed,
and I’m excited to work
through the whole process.”
The program is designed
with a cohort model so
groups of students work on
real-world, multi-year proj-
ects to restore and enhance
sites in Eastern Oregon. The
one-of-a-kind curriculum
combines environmental
science, public administra-
tion, community organiz-
ing, project management
and leadership. EOU faculty
collaborated with Baker
Technical Institute’s exist-
ing brownfields program that
engages high school students
in similar work.
BTI instructor Robbie
Langrell led the building
tour, and has worked with a
group of local stakeholders
to earn an EPA grant that will
fund decontamination of the
site. Following their visit,
EOU students will draft a
request for proposal and
open the bidding process for
contractors who want to take
on the project.
Langrell will use the
students’ work to begin inter-
viewing contractors and ulti-
mately select a company that
will safely remove hazardous
materials from the building.
Once it’s cleaned up, she
expects to put it on the market
for sale or further develop-
ment.
This is the first of many
hands-on projects sustain-
able rural systems cohorts
will tackle. The same four
students who visited the
dark, messy building will
return regularly throughout
the restoration process and
have a role in its revitaliza-
tion.
“You get to see for your-
self and have the first-person
experience of being here,”
EOU junior Monte Zufelt
said of the visit. “I hope to
be able to see the progress as
we move forward with hiring
contractors.”
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Over 30,000 pounds of
dog food donated to Blue
Mountain Humane Society
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
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sands of pounds of dog food traveled via
semitruck from Tracy, California, to Walla
Walla, Washington, for families in need
of help taking care of their pets during the
pandemic.
The Blue Mountain Humane Society
received 30,800 pounds of dog food on April
6, from Greater Good Charities, a national
nonprofit dedicated to protecting people,
pets, and the planet, according to a release.
The J.M. Smucker Company donated
the dog food to Seattle nonprofit Greater
Good Charities, whose staff worked with
the humane society for six months to deter-
mine how and where to distribute the food.
The 39 pallets of pet food will be distrib-
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The effort is part of a distribution plan
that started in March 2020, in collaboration
with Blue Mountain Action Council, to help
low-income families take care of and keep
their pets during the financially straining
pandemic, the release stated.
“The two agencies are working together
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Communications Coordinator Meghan
Spracklen said.
The program has benefited 1,100-1,200
families weekly, she said. Each distribution
contains 4 pounds of either dog or cat food
or both, depending on the family.
The humane society is accepting dona-
tions of cat food or money to purchase cat
food, she said.
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