6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020
New gallery open Friday
White House Art & Design
Company will be open from
noon to 8 p.m. for the First
BHS ready to start
summer workouts
By Corey Kirk
ckirk@bakercityherald.com
Baker High School athletes missed the
spring season but they’ll soon be able to
start unoffi cial summer practices.
Students will be able to run across
fi elds, the clanking of barbells will come
from the weight room, and cross-country
runners can get in their miles.
Starting Friday, June 12, BHS will
reopen its facilities, with restrictions, for
athletes.
“You want to get kids out and healthy,”
Baker School District Athletic Director
Buell Gonzales Jr. said. “That ability to
share space with people and interact to
compete is very good for us.”
On May 20 the Oregon School Ac-
tivities Association, which oversees high
school athletics, announced a three-phase
plan for resuming prep sports.
Gonzales noted that the plan isn’t set
in stone, so school districts have to be
ready to change.
“There is just not a lot of solid data yet,
I just want to keep people safe, and there
are so many unknowns,” he said.
OSAA doesn’t allow coaches to orga-
nize or participate in summer workouts,
but they can communicate with students
and be present to ensure safety.
In addition to canceling spring sports,
the OSAA, in accordance with executive
orders from Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
and guidelines from the Oregon Health
Authority, has not allowed students to
practice this spring.
“The OSAA has been very accessible,
the information was out plenty of ad-
vance,” Gonzales said.“They were in the
same boat we were, waiting on the infor-
mation coming from the government.”
But starting June 12 limited practices
can resume.
“We have to make sure there are six
feet between each individual, keep our
pod sizes ten or fewer with the max of 25,
and outside will be way easier,” Gonzales
said.
“That ability to share space with
people and interact to compete is
very good for us.”
— Buell Gonzales Jr., Baker School
District athletic director
The OSAA restrictions include:
• All equipment in use by student-
athletes needs to be sanitized between
each use
• Physical contact is absolutely prohib-
ited among the student-athletes, and no
sharing of equipment (like footballs) will
be allowed.
The idea is to allow student-athletes
to take part in workouts that help them
stay in shape as they prepare for poten-
tial offi cial practices by late summer —
and, ideally, a fall sports season.
“So much of what we do right now will
dictate whether or not we have some
measure of success when it comes to the
fall,” Gonzales said. “If we could do this
right and we can maintain the integrity
of the circumstances then we’re going to
be in good shape.”
Though restrictions are in place, for
the fi rst time since early March, Baker
coaches will be able to monitor their ath-
letes and their progress while maintain-
ing social distancing.
Gonzales understands the increased
diffi culty that will occur for these coaches
as they lead these workouts.
“It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be
diffi cult and it’s going to be time-consum-
ing,” Gonzales said. “It’s going to have to
be something the coaches are going to
want to do, it’s not their full-time job.”
How the future may play out is
uncertain, but Gonzales hopes the June
12 reopening can be the fi rst step toward
sports returning.
To keep up to date on how high school
sports will continue to move forward
during the COVID-19 pandemic, go to the
OSAA’s website and click on the CO-
VID-19 tab on the main page.
PREPARE FOR
SUMMER TRAVEL
TIRES, BRAKES,
ALIGNMENT & BATTERIES
-FX#SPT5JSF4WD
#SJEHF4U
#BLFS$JUZ
Friday art walk on June 5.
The new shop, which fea-
tures a variety of artwork and
MISSING
Continued from Page 1A
Kitch said her mother’s move was diffi cult
for her siblings, who live in Boise, Seattle and
Denver.
“My brother still comes but not as frequently
because she can’t hold her attention very long any
more with the window thing,” Kitch said. “If we
could go in and sit with her it would be better.”
Kitch said her mother often motions for Kitch
to go inside, but Kitch tells her there is a sickness
and she can’t go in to see her.
“We’re all getting through it, we all have to do
what we can do,” Kitch said. “And so we just come
and talk through the window, sometimes I’ll have
a little sign, sometimes I don’t. We just do our
very best to communicate and they (staff) help a
lot. Everybody I think in the world is doing the
best they can. We’re just all trying to get through
it.”
Nursing homes continue to work to protect
their residents by following the state’s guidelines.
Staff wear masks and gloves and take residents’
temperatures daily.
“We have family that will stand outside the
windows and talk to some of the residents,” said
Robert Whitnah, owner of Memory Lane Homes.
“It has been diffi cult and challenging and my staff
has been phenomenal.”
Howerton said family members are able to
repurposed furniture, is at 1829
Main St. and is owned by Be
Tiedemann and Patti Burrows.
Facetime with their loved ones, send letters, and
some bring signs.
“I feel bad for my residents and my residents’
families not being able to see their loved ones,”
Howerton said.
The staff has added activities, such as making
cookies and having pizza days, to try and keep
residents’ spirits up.
Howerton said they will be having a party for
the residents and their families when they are
able to open up again to celebrate missed holidays
and birthdays during the pandemic.
“I don’t want my residents to think that their
families don’t care,” said Howerton.
Suzanne Miller, the administrator at Meadow-
brook Place assisted living community, said their
residents have been using Zoom to talk with their
families, in addition to phone calls.
Relatives have also greeted residents from
outside the building.
“We do have one area that we can have outdoor
seating as long as they’re masked and are social
distancing at six feet,” Miller said.
Meadowbrook staff encourages residents to go
outside on sunny days.
“It’s been a very diffi cult situation as we
continue to do the best we can to protect our com-
munity,” Miller said.
Settler’s Park in Baker City is following the
guidelines and restrictions set out by the state to
keep residents there safe.
TESTS
father lives in a Washington
County nursing home. She
Continued from Page 5A
shared it with The Oregonian/
Consenting residents and all OregonLive.
staff in assisted living facilities
Pakseresht said he hoped his
that have a dementia care unit department and the Oregon
must get tested by June 26,
Health Authority, the agency
according to the Washington
leading the state’s response to
Department of Health order.
the coronavirus, would have
Right now, Oregon’s testing
more information to release
guidelines prioritize a smaller
about the Oregon’s plan this
group of workers and residents week at the latest.
at long-term care homes— only
Neither agency would
those exhibiting symptoms
answer specifi c questions about
— despite federal standards
Pakseresht’s email.
recommending testing everyone
About half of the 157 Or-
regardless of symptoms.
egonians who have died of the
What’s known about the
coronavirus are connected to a
state’s possible change comes
senior care home.
from an email that Fariborz
According to new federal data
Pakseresht, director of Oregon’s based on reports from nursing
Department of Human Ser-
homes, 55 residents and eight
vices, sent to a woman whose
workers at Oregon nursing
homes have died of the corona-
virus. It’s the fi rst confi rmation
that a health care worker has
died in Oregon, though state of-
fi cials said they’re checking the
federal numbers and couldn’t
immediately explain them.
State statistics show fewer
deaths associated with nursing
homes — 55 deaths — along
with 23 deaths associated with
assisted living centers and
eight deaths associated with
retirement homes for 86 deaths
overall at senior care homes.
State offi cials do not distinguish
between resident deaths and
employee deaths.
The federal government has
made clear that nursing homes
should be treated with the
utmost caution as the country
reopens.
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