FROM PAGE ONE
Saturday, September 25, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
Crisis:
Continued from Page A1
“It’s going to have a massive
impact on the system,” said Hitz-
man, a vocal vaccine proponent who
is opposed to the mandate. “We’re
already all stretched thin. If you
happen to get into an automobile
accident, you have to hope that they
have a bed for you in the hospital. If
I have a heart attack, are they going
to have a bed for me in the hospital?
Are they going to have a nursing staff
to care for me?”
Hospitals mum on
contingency plans
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Wes Brooks during a tour Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, of his Adair Homes built house indicates where he has
used tape to seal gaps in windows that will not properly close.
Home:
Continued from Page A1
In the original complaint, Adair
alleged that through social media
“Brooks has intentionally inter-
fered with Adair’s prospective
business relationship with new or
potential customers.” But, Brooks
is not alone in his complaints about
the company’s business practices.
While there are legitimate ques-
tions and several positive reviews
of Adair Homes on Brooks’ nearly
2,500 member Facebook group,
the majority of posts paint the
company in a negative light —
with users complaining of a long
list of issues by the company. Some
problems range from the company
being six months overdue on
construction to flooding.
Brooks also recently started
a TikTok account showing prob-
lems with his house. The account
has garnered more than 4 million
views.
Joshua Biggs, the senior vice
president of strategic growth for
Adair Homes, said the company
could not comment on an active
court case.
Regardless, the family contin-
ues to live in a home with flooring
ripped out, bending walls, exposed
outlets and improperly installed
windows that allows dust to spread
throughout the house when wind
blows.
“The electrical is really what
scares me the most,” Brooks said.
Close to bankruptcy and with-
out a lawyer due to legal costs over
the last two years, Brooks said he
reached out to every government
agency he could think of that could
help, including the Oregon Attor-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A large gap is visible in the trim work near a door Thursday, Sept. 23,
2021, in Wes Brooks’ home in Umatilla County. This and a multitude of
other defects has Brooks in a legal case over the home’s builder, Adair
Homes Inc.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Wes Brooks during tour of his Adair Homes built house on Thursday,
Sept. 23, 2021, indicates where an unplanned heat pump and air han-
dler unit were installed in his home in rural Umatilla County.
ney General’s Office and the FBI,
but so far nothing has been done.
“I feel like there’s no one doing
anything to protect the consum-
ers,” Brooks said. “I feel like the
government is failing us.”
CHI St. Anthony Hospital in
Pendleton reported 30% of its health-
care workers remain unvaccinated.
Harold Geller, the president of CHI
St. Anthony, said the hospital is
working on contingency plans for
the mid-October deadline.
“As is true for most hospitals, we
are concerned about the number of
staff electing not to become vacci-
nated,” Geller said. “Our entire staff
is committed to providing high qual-
ity care as safely as possible. They’ve
done a terrific job throughout the past
year and a half. Each staff member
is putting serious thought into this
matter and it is our hope that we
retain all staff.
Caitlin Cozad, a spokesper-
son for Good Shepherd Medical
Center in Hermiston, said the hospi-
tal has “contingency plans in place
to remain fully operational” and is
“ensuring we have adequate staffing
to meet the needs of our community.”
She added the hospital is “on track
to be fully compliant with the state
mandate.”
Neither Ford nor Cozad would
disclose how many of their health
care workers are vaccinated.
But state data show in Umatilla
County, 36% of health care work-
ers remain unvaccinated. In Union
County, that number is 26%. In
Morrow County, it’s 28%.
Kevin Mealy, a spokesperson for
the Oregon Nurses Association, said
in a written statement the union is
calling upon “all nurses and health
care workers to get vaccinated before
the Oct. 18 deadline or to fill out the
necessary paperwork for a medical
or deeply held religious belief excep-
tion.”
If they don’t, they could be fired.
“Losing even one nurse from a
patient’s bedside will deepen Oregon’s
nurse staffing crisis and endanger
community health,” Mealy said.
“ONA expects hospital and health
care system CEOs to follow federal
labor law and sit down with nurses to
bargain the impact of workplace vacci-
nation policies and find ways at-risk
health care workers can continue
contributing during the surge.”
Cases increase among
hospital staff
Good Shepherd from July 21 to
Workers:
Continued from Page A1
Boomers retiring
at a faster rate
Easter n Oregon saw
only negligible gains in
population over the the past
decade, according to U.S.
Census Bureau data. And
looming within the numbers
is a certainty that has taken
the back seat to pandemic
woes and commentary: The
boomers are retiring.
In Eastern Oregon, the
working population is aging
out much quicker than in
previous years. The Oregon
Employment Department
reported in May 2021 that
the working population in
Eastern Oregon had grown
significantly older from
2010 to 2020. That increased
share means the number of
workers age 55 and over
makes up 26% of the overall
workforce. That’s up nearly
4% from its 2010 numbers.
As well, the population
of older workers has started
declining since 2017, when it
reached its peak, according
to U.S. Census Bureau data.
The rate at which the
baby boomer generation has
been retiring is accelerating,
according to Pew Research
Center. From 2019 to 2020,
approximately 28.6 million
baby boomers — those born
between 1946 and 1964 —
retired; a 3.2 million uptick
from 2019. On average, that
number had previously been
increasing by around two
million retirees per year.
The impact
“One of the other factors
is that boomers are retiring
at an enormous rate, which
is, in a way, sucking every-
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
A customer enjoys the outside seating Sept. 15, 2021, at La Laguna Family Mexican Restau-
rant in Enterprise. The restaurant, along with a similar one in Joseph and the Rusty Spur Sa-
loon in Joseph, got by through the summer largely with college students as employees.
body up the the corporate
ladder or corporate world,”
said Matt Scarfo, a Union
County commissioner and
owner of Long Branch and
Benchwarmer’s Pub & Grill
in La Grande. “Everyone’s
getting the bump up to those
higher positions, if they did
have them, and so it’s caus-
ing a vacuum down to the X,
Y, Z generation.”
On the ground, restau-
rants and service industries
reported having to hire
much younger staff than
in normal years, though
the restaurant industry has
historically been staffed by
younger workers and those
looking for part-time work,
and the data from the U.S.
Census Bureau and Oregon
Employment Department
indicate there hasn’t been
any significant changes in
the employment level for
those under the age of 18.
Angelica Zurita, who
with her husband, Jose
Lopez, owns the La Laguna
Family Mexican Restau-
rants in Enterprise and
Joseph and the Rusty Spur
Saloon in Joseph, said they
employ about 15 people at
the three establishments.
During the summer tour-
ist season, they were fortu-
nate to find college students
who were eager to work. But
now, as the students return
to campus, finding reliable
help is a problem.
“They really don’t want a
job,” Zurita said of some of
the locals who have applied.
“They show up drunk, call
in sick, don’t show up at all
or they show up late.”
Still, as the tourist season
ends, she’s optimistic the
restaurants and saloon will
manage.
“It’s slowing down to
where I think we’ve got it
covered,” she said.
The trades, too, are
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Tracy Wart, an infection prevention
nurse at St. Anthony Hospital in
Pendleton, draws up a dose of the
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during
the hospital’s first round of staff vac-
cinations on Dec. 28, 2020.
Sept. 15 reported 54 COVID-19
cases among staff, according to state
data. Grande Ronde’s staff from July
15 to Sept. 1 had 35 cases. And staff
at CHI St. Anthony from Aug. 19 and
Sept. 3 had 10 cases.
Several hospitals say they have
seen an increase in vaccinations
among health care workers since the
mandate was announced.
The vaccine mandate came in
response to the rapidly rising number
of COVID-19 cases statewide as the
delta variant surge filled Oregon’s
hospitals almost entirely with unvac-
cinated people. To curb the spread,
Brown announced the mandate for
health care workers and teachers in
August, when infection was at its
peak.
But Hitzman said he believes the
state is pushing the region’s health
care system into a lose-lose situa-
tion. He said health care workers
should get vaccinated because they
work around sick patients, but added
those who have built their careers in
the field may have little to fall back
on.
“What are they going to do, just
change professions?” he said, adding,
“For most of us, we’ve been deeply
ingrained in our professions. It’s not
like we can just go do something else
… It’s going to create financial hard-
ship for those individuals.”
In addition, he said the deadline
falls at an especially critical time for
Umatilla County. Last week, tens of
thousands of people flooded into the
county for the Pendleton Round-Up,
an event where most people were
maskless and there was no proof of
vaccination or negative COVID-19
test required.
Health care workers for months
have voiced concerns about the
potential for infection to increase
after this event. Hitzman noted if
a surge were to occur, it would be
within two to three weeks of the event
— right around when the mid-Octo-
ber vaccine deadline occurs.
“We’ll see what the numbers are
over the next two to three weeks,”
Hitzman said. “But if we see a major
spike, I’m not going to be surprised.
I’m going to breathe a sigh of relief
if we don’t.”
having a tough time find-
ing workers. Jared Hillock,
manager and co-owner of
Hillock Electric, said the
biggest problem is a lack
of qualified electricians
around.
“There are just not
enough people in the trades
right now,” he said. “I think
it’s important we get kids
in trades and not preach so
much college.”
He said a starting electri-
cian right out of high school
— after a four-year appren-
ticeship — can make $32 an
hour, with benefits.
“We’re trying to push
more kids think about
trades,” he said. “You can
make a good family wage
right out of high school.”
He does have an open-
ing for a counter person,
which he’s not gotten many
adequate applications for.
“We get a lot of random
resumes dropped off, which
guess is people tr ying
satisfy job-search require-
ments,” Hillock said.
Renaissance Design,
Fabr ication & Powder
Coating opened in May in
Joseph, has had numerous
well-paying positions avail-
able but that still are not
filled, owner Rick LaFave
said.
“I’m still trying to hire
three or four more welders,”
LaFave said. “People don’t
want to work, I guess. …
I’ve talked to several people
who’ve put feelers out, but
I’m not getting people who
want to go to work.”
Though he doesn’t have
concrete evidence, he has
his opinion on the cause.
“My opinion is because
the (unemployment) money
hasn’t run out,” he said.
“Hopefully, we’ll get people
wanting to go back to work
once that runs out.”
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