LOCAL
6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
RISK
Continued from Page 1A
To qualify for the lowest
level, the county needs to
have fewer than 30 cases
during the two weeks, and a
positive test rate below 5%.
Baker County’s numbers
for the most recent period
— Feb. 21 through March
6 — were 44 new cases and a
positivity rate of 6.3%.
The county actually report-
ed 45 new cases, but one of
those is an inmate at Powder
River Correctional Facility,
and state officials don’t count
such cases if doing so would
push a county into a higher
risk level.
That would have hap-
pened had the Powder River
case been included in the
county’s official total — the
threshold for the high-risk
category is 45 new cases.
County Commissioner
Mark Bennett said that
although it’s unfortunate the
county’s risk level is rising to
moderate, “we’re grateful the
moderate risk rating will not
affect our schools, restaurants
and bars, and gyms to a large
extent. It will impact our
businesses if our risk level
rises again in two weeks.”
“I ask everyone to take
notice of where we are,
and to keep doing the good
things you’re doing to limit
the spread,” Bennett said.
“Our Health Department is
steadily getting vaccines to
those who want one when we
receive them. Unfortunately,
in the last week we also had
three COVID-19-related
deaths of county residents.
We’re a ways off from being
out of the woods, and there is
a lot we can continue to do to
take care of each other.”
Although the county’s case
counts have risen the past
two weeks or so, they remain
well below the numbers from
November, December and the
first half of January.
The county had 141 cases
during November, 196 in
December — the highest
monthly total during the
pandemic — and 106 in
January. February’s total was
70 cases, and for the first nine
days of March there were 21
cases.
The difference in restric-
tions on businesses and
activities between the lowest
and moderate categories is
less severe than between
moderate and high risk.
For restaurants and bars,
the limit on indoor dining
in moderate-risk counties is
50% of capacity or 100 total
people, whichever is fewer. In
counties at the lowest risk,
the limit is 50% of capacity
only, with no restriction on
total people.
The situation starting
Friday is the same for gyms
and fitness centers, theaters
and museums — a limit of
50% of capacity or 100 people,
whichever is fewer.
The limits on outdoor
recreation events, including
sports, drops from 300 people
under the lowest risk to 150
under moderate risk.
Tyler Brown, who owns
Barley Brown’s Brew Pub
and Tap House in Baker City,
said the change in indoor
dining limits won’t affect his
businesses because at 50%
capacity there are fewer than
100 people.
Indoor tables are limited to
six diners for moderate risk,
compared with eight diners
for lowest risk, but Brown
said that also isn’t a big
problem because most of his
tables are set up for no more
than six customers.
Justin Long, who owns the
Sumpter Nugget restaurant,
said the new restrictions that
take effect Friday won’t affect
his business either.
Brown said he has been
tracking case counts and he
was concerned about the pos-
sibility that the county would
move into either the high or
extreme level.
For counties at high risk,
the limit on indoor dining is
25% of capacity or 50 total
people, and at the extreme
risk indoor dining is prohib-
ited.
THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021
Former city councilor asks current
councilors to be respectful to all
By Samantha O’Conner
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Former Baker City
councilor Beverly Calder at-
tended Tuesday’s City Council
meeting and criticized both
statements and social media
posts that some councilors
have made recently.
Calder, who described some
online statements as “repul-
sive,” pointed out that the
city charter requires that “all
elections for city offi ce must
be nonpartisan.”
“As council, you represent
the 10,000 plus citizens in
Baker City,” Calder said. “This
is important to remember and
respect in all of your actions
and all of your words as a
councilor.”
Calder noted that per the
charter, the mayor is tasked
with enforcing all council
rules, including one, revised
in April 2020, that states all
councilors “shall accord the ut-
most courtesy” to each other,
city employees, and the public.
She contends that hasn’t
been happening recently.
“In the past 30 days, we
have seen a lack of civil-
ity,” Calder said. “We have
witnessed violations of
these rules. We have heard
malicious statements made
against public servants,
volunteers, and leaders in our
community.
“Many of the statements
have been made without
‘naming names’ but in a
community as small as ours,
the objects are often obvi-
ous,” Calder said. “Each of the
people maligned have given
much to our community and
deserve, at a minimum, the
respect of the council and a
civil manner.”
Calder contends that Mayor
Kerry McQuisten “impugned”
the character of former city
manager Fred Warner Jr.,
who applied to serve on the
city’s golf board.
During the Council’s Feb.
9 meeting, when councilors
were discussing appointments
to various boards, McQuisten,
referring to Warner though
not by name, said she felt
Warner had “expressed dif-
fi culty with working with the
current mayor and current
council and I would prefer
not to have that kind of strife
brought back into the city.”
Calder also said a councilor
“posted an online statement
that maligned both the
elected members of the county
commission and appointed
committee volunteers that
serve the county.”
She cited another Face-
book post, which included
obscenities, that McQuisten
had “liked.”
“I ask that the council
recognize that the words of
one refl ect the word of the
council as a whole,” Calder
said. “The charter and rules
of procedure clearly state the
manner expected. It should
be the desire of the council as
a whole to lift our community
and to encourage participa-
tion by treating each other
and all other members of our
COVID
loss. This leaves a big impact on our small
community.”
Continued from Page 1A
The woman was the third Baker
In a press release Tuesday, Nancy
County resident to die after contracting
Staten, director of the Baker County
COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
Health Department, said, “The Health De-
Two county residents — an 87-year-old
partment offers our condolences for their woman and an 88-year-old man — died
family and friends, we are so sorry for your on Feb. 26, two days after testing positive.
DISEASE
Both had underlying conditions, according
to the OHA.
The county’s other deaths: a 59-year-old
man who died Feb. 2; an 86-year-old man
on Jan 30; an 85-year-old man on Dec. 21;
a 95-year-old man on Nov. 26; an 83-year-
old man on Oct. 19; a 90-year-old man on
Aug. 21; an 82-year-old woman on Aug. 16.
“How do you capture the
50% who don’t want to get it
Continued from Page 1A
done?” he said.
However, Liby said those
Scheduling a colonoscopy
who have a positive history of
depends on an individual’s in-
the cancer in his or her family
surance — some may require
— Dr. Christopher Liby
should consider a screening at a
a referral from a primary care
younger age.
physician.
“They are seeing colon cancer population avoiding this, and it’s
As for the procedure itself,
in younger people and we’re not a preventable cancer,” he said. it is outpatient and takes
really sure why,” he said.
It’s that other 50% that wor- about 40 minutes or less. The
He said that only about
ries him.
patient is sedated throughout
50% of the population gets a
colonoscopy.
“There’s a huge portion of the
e
c
a
e
P of Mind
community with civility.”
McQuisten wrote in a mes-
sage to the Herald that “Ms.
Calder seemed to be saying
that she’d been monitoring
multiple councilors’ past, pri-
vate social media posts some-
where. She was outraged
that she’d seen me ‘like’ a
post that she didn’t like, so
that was a head-scratcher.
She also indicated some
opinions she disagreed with
on Facebook, even though it
sounded, from what I could
decipher, as if they weren’t
mine or that of any coun-
cilor, somehow violated City
Charter. That’s ludicrous.
All I can say is thank God
for our First Amendment
rights.”
McQuisten said she has
started a public Facebook
page — “Mayor Kerry Mc-
Quisten” — and “that also
seems to have shaken up the
status quo. I have zero plans
to remove that page; the
feedback from it has been
overwhelmingly positive.”
“There’s a huge portion of
the population avoiding
this, and it’s a preventable
cancer.”
the colonoscopy.
Of all stages of colon cancer,
the ACS reports a 63% 5-year
survival rate. For a local-
ized stage (the cancer hasn’t
spread), the 5-year survival
rate is 91%.
The ACS reports that the in-
cidence of colorectal cancer has
dropped since the mid-1980s
due to more people getting
screened.
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