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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 2020)
YOUR #1 LOCAL YARD, GARDEN, AND LANDSCAPE EXPERTS! WE’RE GLAD TO GET YOU GROWING! PR 31 st R G O RS EA PR I NSIDE — A7 Oregon plans Supporting to ‘safely take Recreational areas to parents, families steps forward’ reopen under phased under COVID-19 Local reproductive with reopening approach health resources state expand to video, Governor releases guidelines for tracking virus, eventual lifting of restrictions RESS 997-5973 OG 88493 Hwy. 101 Florence Open 7 days a week Senior Discount Every Tuesday PR AT I N G 1 30 Y ESS P R ESS Anniversary R OG RESS E BR 2020 WEDNESDAY EDITION | MAY 6, 2020 | $1.00 OG CEL SN S SIU THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM W 1890 AW NE L S phone calls Siuslaw News NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY VOL. 130, NO. 36 F LORENCE , O REGON WEATHER By Chantelle Meyer Siuslaw News By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News On May 1, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown held a press conference to update Oregonians on her plan to gather information she believes is needed to determine a timeline for lifting the current ban on business operations and social interactions. In her introductory remarks, Brown acknowledged the positive manner in which most Ore- gonians have responded to the state’s shutdown. She also pointed towards the path she feels must be taken to insure the health and wellbeing of the state’s residents. “As we look to reopen Ore- gon, it’s critical we use science and data to insure we can safely take steps forward. Public health experts agree that there are key steps to safely reopening. At the top of that list is a thorough strategy to test, trace and isolate the virus,” Brown said. “We must understand the prevalence of the disease in Oregon. Testing and tracing serve two purposes: first, to diagnose those who are sick. And second, to see where the virus may be hiding.” The strategy suggested by Brown includes a voluntary tracking component which utiliz- es data from volunteers who test positive in order to determine the spread of the virus. There will also be contact tracing follow-ups and interviews scheduled with any individuals who have come into contact with test volunteers. The main goal of the initial stage of the reopening plan is based on increasing both the number of tests given and See PLAN page 7A CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS Under the governor’s latest plan, people may soon be able to visit popu- lar recreation sites such as Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park and Cleawox Lake. The date for local parks’ reopening has not been announced. O regon Gov. Kate By Jared Anderson return to other state Brown an- Siuslaw News parks starting the week nounced on Monday of May 11 based on the the limited opening of readiness of the com- state recreational areas, though the munity around the park to welcome status of reopening parks such as visitors, and how prepared the park Jessie M. Honeyman and Carl G. is with staff, supplies and equip- Washburne is still unknown. ment,” the release continued. “State “Reopening outdoor recreation parks will open and close with little areas will be a phased approach as advance notice.” it becomes safe for some commu- As for the status of the Siuslaw nities and recreational providers region’s parks, the release stated to do so, and will change the way that, “coastal areas that are not yet that Oregonians visit some familiar ready to welcome visitors back will sites,” Brown’s office said in a press remain closed for now, while the release. Oregon Parks and Recreation De- A small number of inland parks partment coordinates with local will offer limited services start- jurisdictions and partners in Wash- ing Wednesday, including parks in ington to determine the appropri- Portland, Salem and Bend. ate timing for reopening.” “Limited day-use will slowly See A3 for the full press release In March, Jennifer Nelson spearheaded a comprehensive Reproductive Health Fair for the Siuslaw Region. It was planned to include Healthy Families Lane County, Parenting Now!, Peace- Health Peace Harbor, Pregnancy and Parenting Center in Florence, WellMama and five other health and parenting resources. When state and federal guidelines man- dated the closure of public events and spaces under the novel coro- navirus COVID-19, the health fair was postponed. “There are still families who need resources,” said Nelson, a birth doula, traditional health worker, advocate, volunteer and mother who is involved in sever- al groups who planned to at-tend the fair. Earlier in the lockdown, Nelson released a list of resources import- ant for women and parents under COVID-19. “I know these must be chal- lenging times for pregnant and new parents,” she wrote. “I wanted to share some changes that some programs have made so that they See HEALTH page 6A Doyle Canning to face incumbent in May primary Since that time, he has become a fixture in the House of Represen- tatives, where he was elected by his peers to chairmanship of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in 2018. Over the years, DeFazio has faced few serious challenges to his re-elec- tion from within his own party. This By Mark Brennan election cycle is markedly different, Siuslaw News with DeFazio facing a challenge in U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio was first the May 19 primary from Doyle elected to represent Oregon’s 4th Canning, a graduate of the Univer- Congressional District in 1986. sity of Oregon School of Law, com- U.S. House of Repre- sentatives 4th District Candidate Doyle Canning munity organizer and social activist. Canning openly accuses DeFazio of having become involved in the bureaucracy and beholden to special interest groups. Further, Doyle said she feels there are unexplored opportunities to bet- ter support all Oregon families. “Our Congressman has been tak- ing money from the health insur- ance lobbyists, Amazon, weapons makers, big Pharma and fossil fuels for years,” Canning stated. “I have See CANDIDATE page 8A State, Peace Harbor look at the future of COVID-19 City, chamber invite community to virtual Rhody Days parade INSIDE — A3 LIFESTYLE poor health outcomes while trying to prevent the spread of a virus. A delicate balance needs to be taken into account during this discussion.” The commissioner argued for re- opening businesses after weeks of a statewide lockdown which, in addi- tion to resulting in untold economic damage to the state, has also slowed the spread of the virus to a currently manageable level. While Bozievich asks for a bal- anced view that includes the health dangers of poverty, the data sup- porting that position suffers from the same issues that confound an- swers to the COVID-19 problem: A lack of information. The commissioner quoted a 2011 study that found, “Overall, 4.5 per- cent of U.S. deaths were found to be attributable to poverty — midway between previous estimates of 6 and 2.3 percent.” With 4.5 percent on the high end of some COVID-death statistics, the numbers presented by the study are comparable to COVID, but they are also more complicated than simple statistics illustrate. Poverty is not a singular event, such as a stock mar- ket crash or sudden quarantine. The underlying issues that caused the deaths related to those poverty sta- tistics are the result of issues span- ning generations, not months. “The investigators found that approximately 245,000 deaths in the U.S. in the year 2000 were at- tributable to low levels of educa- tion, 176,000 to racial segregation, 162,000 to low social support, 133,000 to individual-level poverty, 119,000 to income inequality, and 39,000 to area-level poverty,” the re- port said. It is unknown what effects long- term social distancing will have on “low levels of education,” while it’s equally unknown how an unchecked outbreak could affect “racial segre- gation,” especially when minority communities are facing more severe See EFFECTS page 5A Teachers thank “Home Teachers” INSIDE — B RECORDS Obituaries & response logs Inside — A2 NEW: TV GUIDE Inside — B3-4 KIDS CORNER Activities for kids Inside — B5 CLASSIFIEDS Listings and notices Inside — B6 FOLLOW US FOR THE LATEST NEWS : /S IUSLAW N EWS @S IUSLAW N EWS T HE S IUSLAW N EWS . COM S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS | 16 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2020 Editor’s Note: This story follows “The Coast Has Been Relatively Unscathed…” (Siuslaw News, May 2, 2020), which was a look at the state of COVID-19 and the Siuslaw Region. “Poverty is a greater factor in poor health outcomes than even tobac- co use and obesity, according to a study done by the Mailman School for Public Health of Columbia Uni- versity,” wrote Western Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich in an April 28 Facebook post. “So, we are getting to a tipping point of causing COMMUNITY DeFazio faces same-party challenger for Congressional seat “... But we also have thousands, tens of thousands of deaths” By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News Partly sunny with a high of 58 and a low tonight of 44. Full forecast on A3 WE CHALLENGE YOU TO JOIN US! By getting out your wallet to invest in our local news! Donate Now at: THEY NEED US! GiveButter.com/SupportSiuslawNews Thank - Jack & Bettina You! Hannigan
