SATURDAY
OREGON PREPARES FOR POSSIBLE COVID-19 SPIKE THIS SUMMER: PAGE 5A
In OUTDOORS, 1B
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
May 30, 2020
IN THIS EDITION:
Local • Health & Fitness • Outdoors • TV
$1.50
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Diane
Wofford of Baker City.
Oregon, 3A
Oregon lawmakers will
get a new chance to ques-
tion offi cials about the
much-criticized perfor-
mance of the Employment
Department in handling a
record number of claims
during the shutdown of
business activity in the
coronavirus pandemic.
Saint Alphonsus Offers Drive-Up Tele-Health Visits
Safe Screen Time
BRIEFING
Mounted Posse’s
Youth Trail Ride
set June 27-28
The Baker County
Mounted Posse’s annual
Youth Trail Ride for ages 12
to 15 is scheduled for June
27 and 28.
Billed as a “true wilder-
ness adventure,” the event
includes horseback riding,
camping, good food, fun
learning projects, crafts,
games, singing and camp-
fi res.
The event is sponsored
by donations from local
businesses and the Mount-
ed Posse. Applications are
available at Step Forward
Activities, 3720 10th St. in
Baker City, or by calling
Jodie Radabaugh at 541-
524-9358 or Keith Rada-
baugh at 541-403-0757.
WEATHER
Today
90 / 51
Afternoon storms possible
Sunday
72 / 49
Partly sunny, cooler
Monday
70 / 45
Chance of storms
Full forecast on the
back of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Nature’s
resilience
on display
ARGUMENTS BEFORE
OREGON SUPREME
COURT IN LAWSUIT
CHALLENGING GOV.
KATE BROWN’S
RESTRICTIONS
Brief
says
judge
erred
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Photo from Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City
A nurse helps a patient access a tele-health visit with a health care provider at Saint Alphonsus.
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The era of doctors making house
calls is as outdated as black-and-
white TV, but these days you can
talk with a physician almost as
easily as you can grab a burger and
fries.
And you can do both things from
the driver’s seat.
Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-
Baker City has increased its use of
“tele-health” during the coronavirus
pandemic, said Claudia Weathermon
Tester, who works in marketing
and communications for the Saint
Alphonsus Health System.
That’s an internet-based system
that allows patients, without leaving
home, to meet with their providers
via a computer, tablet or smart-
phone.
But hospital offi cials understand
that not everyone has the technology
needed to use the tele-health option,
Weathermon Tester said.
So the Baker City hospital, which
several weeks ago started a drive-
“There are patients with pre-
existing conditions who due to
the pandemic don’t want to have
to come into a clinic.”
— Kelly Nork, practice manager
and head nurse, Saint Alphonsus
Medical Center-Baker City
thru system allowing people to be
checked for potential COVID-19
symptoms, has expanded the service
to include tele-health visits.
Residents can call Saint Alphon-
sus to schedule an appointment,
then drive to the hospital where
a nurse with an iPad will set up
a tele-health discussion with the
patient’s provider.
The service, which started about
3 weeks ago, has been well-received,
said Kelly Nork, practice manager
and head nurse at the hospital.
“It has worked really well,” Nork
said Thursday.
The drive-thru tele-health visits,
in addition to benefi ting patients
who lack an internet connection at
home, helps the hospital and medical
clinics limit the number of patients
in their buildings, making it easier
to comply with social distancing
guidelines, she said.
“There are patients with pre-
existing conditions who due to the
pandemic don’t want to have to come
into a clinic,” Nork said.
The curbside option has also at-
tracted some parents who don’t have
child care options, she said. They can
bring their kids in the vehicle for a
tele-health visit.
Patients can schedule wellness
checkups, hospital follow-ups and
other types of appointments, Nork
said.
And if the health care provider de-
cides it’s necessary to do something
not possible through the iPad —
checking a patient’s heart or lungs,
for instance — the provider can come
outside and do that while the patient
remains in the car.
Patients can call 541-524-8000 to
schedule a curbside tele-health visit.
Waging war on noxious weeds
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
The thick soles of
Jeffrey Pettingill’s leather
work boots slam down
simultaneously on the
shovel, driving its blade
several inches into the
dirt.
He kneels, yanks free
a clump of whitetop and
gives the blooming weed
a couple of brisk shakes to
dislodge the soil.
(And, perhaps, to
remind the weed who the
boss is.)
Pettingill, who started
work about a month ago
as Baker County’s weed
control supervisor, points
a fi nger at the tangle of
spaghetti-thin roots dan-
gling from the whitetop.
See Weeds/Page 2A
TODAY
Issue 9, 14 pages
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Jeffrey Pettingill sprays herbicide on a patch of whitetop, a noxious weed, at the
north end of the Baker County Fairgrounds in Baker City. Pettingill started work
as the county’s weed control supervisor about a month ago.
Calendar ....................2A
Classified ............. 3B-6B
Comics ....................... 7B
Community News ....3A
Crossword ........5B & 6B
Dear Abby ................. 8B
Horoscope ........4B & 5B
Jayson Jacoby ..........4A
News of Record ........2A
Obituaries ..................2A
Opinion ......................4A
Outdoors ................... 1B
Oregon’s solicitor general
argues in a brief to the
state Supreme Court that
the Legislature did not
intend to limit the duration
of an emergency declared
by the governor.
Solicitor General Benja-
min Gutman
asks the
state’s highest
court to order
Baker County
Circuit Court
Shirtcliff
Judge Matt
Shirtcliff to
vacate his May 18 decision
granting a preliminary
injunction to a group of
plaintiffs, led by Elkhorn
Baptist Church in Baker
City, who sued Gov. Kate
Brown on May 6, claiming
she exceeded her legal au-
thority in issuing executive
orders during the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
See Lawsuit/Page 6A
County
applies
for phase
2 opening
By Jayson Jacoby
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Baker County is propos-
ing that Gov. Kate Brown
authorize theaters, bowling
alleys and campgrounds
to reopen, and allow more
customers in restaurants
and bars, during the second
phase of the economic
reopening plan.
Baker County, and poten-
tially many other counties,
could start that phase as
soon as June 6.
In a proposal to the gov-
ernor’s offi ce, County Com-
missioner Mark Bennett,
the county’s incident com-
mander during the corona-
virus pandemic, suggests
that the governor, rather
than have specifi c limits
on the number of business
customers or people attend-
ing gatherings, instead use
the 6-foot social distancing
guideline.
The idea, Bennett said
Friday morning, is to give
counties more fl exibility.
See Phase 2/Page 6A
Senior Menus ...........2A
Turning Backs ...........2A
Weather .....................8A
TUESDAY — BAKER CITY STARTS REVIEWING PROPOSED BUDGET