TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — 3A
COVID RATES
Continued from Page 1A
ARTISTIC
Continued from Page 1A
The robot is just one
example of a new use for
an old newspaper box — all
stemmed by local Mike
Meyer, who likes to recycle
and repurpose items into art.
Meyer gathered about a
dozen paper boxes from the
Baker City Herald, and he
wants to repurpose them —
most as little free libraries.
“They are perfect little
libraries,” Meyer said. “They
still have lots of use in them.”
He’s made one library, and
has design ideas for the other
boxes — maybe even one that
looks like a bug.
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) sets county risk
levels based on case counts and positivity rates over a
two-week period.
The next day risk levels can change is Friday, May 28.
Any changes will be based on counties’ statistics for the
period May 9-22.
Baker County reported 15 new cases during that
stretch, and a test positivity rate of 3.9%.
Both fi gures would qualify the county to drop to the
lowest risk level. The thresholds are fewer than 30 new
cases, and a positivity rate below 5%.
Baker County hasn’t been at the lowest risk level
since April 22.
The county moved to the high risk level on April 23,
then to extreme risk on April 30. The county returned to
high risk on May 7 and has been at that level since.
The county met one of the two thresholds to drop
from high risk to moderate risk starting May 21, but
the positivity rate was 8.9% — slightly above the 8.0%
threshold for moderate risk.
County Commissioner Mark Bennett, who has
served as the county’s incident commander throughout
the pandemic, said on Monday, May 24 that he believes
the county has qualifi ed to drop to the lowest risk level.
“We feel like we’ve been making progress,” Bennett
said.
He said the county’s goal is to remain at the lowest
risk level until Oregon Gov. Kate Brown cancels all
state-imposed restrictions.
The governor said earlier this month that she will
end the mandates, which would do away with the risk
level system that’s been in place since December 2020,
when at least 70% of Oregonians age 16 and older are
partially or fully vaccinated, a goal she hopes the state
will reach before the end of June. As of Monday, the
statewide vaccination rate, among people 16 and older,
was 60.7%, according to the OHA.
When Baker County’s risk level drops to the lowest
level, restaurants and bars can have 50% of capacity
with no limit on the total number of people. At high
risk, these businesses are limited for indoor dining
to 25% of capacity or 50 total people, including staff,
whichever is fewer.
Other differences between lowest risk and high risk:
• Outdoor recreation, including K-12 sports — capac-
ity rises from 75 people under high risk, to 300 people
under lowest risk.
• Indoor entertainment, including theaters and
museums, and indoor recreation and fi tness, including
gyms and K-12 sports — capacity rises from 25% of
occupancy or 50 total people under high risk, to 50%
capacity, with no limit on total people, under lowest risk.
“I have lots of plans,” he
said.
Animal sculptures at
Churchill
Robby the Robot is a fi xture
in the new sculpture garden
at Churchill, which is also
hosting metal animal sculp-
tures brought from Africa by
The Art Roamers.
At the corner of the prop-
erty, at Broadway and 16th
streets, Vegter has arranged
tall metal letters that spell
out ART. These are part of the
sign for the Maxi-Mart center
on Pocahontas Road (now
the location of D&B Supply,
Miller’s Lumber, and the
YMCA fi tness center).
Mike Meyer/Contributed Photo
A former Baker City Herald box now serves
as a free little library in Baker City.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Baker City’s fi rst little
free art gallery, also
known as Robby the
Robot, stands outside
Churchill School at
Broadway and 16th
streets in Baker City.
People can pick up,
and drop off, art piec-
es and art supplies in
the refurbished
Baker City Herald
newspaper box.
Oregon among states slow to lift COVID-19 restrictions
By Sara Cline
Associated Press/Report for America
CANNON BEACH — The
sand was packed on a recent
sunny day at this upscale
beach town on Oregon’s
coast, but signs of the state’s
cautious approach to the pan-
demic were still everywhere.
Almost all the beachgoers
wore masks — those that
didn’t got nasty looks — and
lines for a seat at the many
local cafes and restaurants
snaked down the sidewalk
because of rules limiting
capacity to 25%.
It was a sharp contrast
to places such as Florida or
Texas, where many CO-
VID-19 restrictions have been
lifted for weeks. But even
as the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion moved earlier this month
to ease indoor mask-wearing
guidance for fully vaccinated
people, some blue states like
Oregon and Washington are
still holding on to some long-
time coronavirus restrictions.
After public pressure, Gov.
Kate Brown, a Democrat, last
week lifted a requirement for
masks outdoors and put the
onus on businesses to decide
if fully vaccinated patrons
would be required to mask up
inside.
But enforcement of
business capacity limits,
publicized cases of student
athletes passing out while
competing or practicing in a
mask and a widespread shut-
down of indoor dining earlier
this month continue to stoke
resentment among those who
feel Brown’s rules go too far
as the rest of the U.S. returns
to normal.
In Oregon, pushback has
been particularly strong in
rural areas — which is much
of the state outside Portland
Judge rejects businesses’
challenge to Oregon restrictions
PORTLAND (AP) — A federal judge has determined that
a group of businesses and political action committees
that sought to block Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19
restrictions haven’t shown enough evidence to prompt
such a move.
The group — which includes the Gresham restaurant
Spud Monkey’s Bar and Grill, its owner Melissa Adams
and political action committees Oregon Moms Union
and Heart of Main Street — fi led a temporary restraining
order against Brown on May 5, The Oregonian/Oregon-
Live reported. The order protested the “unfair restrictions”
they said the governor had put on businesses and public
school children.
Such a fi ling indicates members of the group believe
they are at risk of facing immediate damage from the
restrictions.
Judge Karin Immergut declined to issue the restraining
order, saying this week the group “failed to show suffi -
cient facts and adequate legal support” to warrant a block
on Brown’s restrictions.
Brown’s lawyers argued none of the plaintiffs could
show they had suffered specifi c ramifi cations as a result
of the governor’s orders.
Spud Monkey’s was cited for violating Brown’s ban on
indoor dining.
Brown has continually evaluated the risks brought on
by gatherings and updating state rules based on those
factors, including how many people are vaccinated, ac-
cording to her lawyers.
— and has included an effort
by at least one county to
become a “vaccine sanctuary”
where people wouldn’t have
to mask up regardless of
their vaccine status.
“We are just so done
with this,” said Tootie
Smith, chairwoman of the
Clackamas County Board of
Supervisors and a former Re-
publican Oregon State House
Representative. “There’s a
huge amount of frustration
that people have.”
Smith made national news
when she said on Twitter
that she would host a large
Thanksgiving dinner despite
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— Tootie Smith, chair,
Clackamas County
Board of Supervisors
out to restaurants (without a
mask),” said Smith, who cited
Florida, South Dakota and
Idaho as examples. “Some of
the businesses wanted you
to wear a mask. And it might
have been mandated indoors
at certain points -- but the
attitude was different. You
weren’t shamed for not wear-
ing a mask.”
Those who support the
Northwest’s more cautious
approach, however, point
out the region has had lower
infection rates throughout the
pandemic — likely because of
the stricter rules over the past
14 months.
“The benefi t of 50 differ-
ent states is you sort of get a
natural experiment of what
happens when states take a
different approach,” said Dr.
Jennifer Vines, the health
offi cer for Multnomah County,
capacity rules on indoor
the state’s most populous
gatherings in place at the
county and home to Portland.
time — and now she says
“I’ve watched as some
she’s astonished when she
(states) have had various
travels outside Oregon and
surges or rejected certain
sees what it looks like to live restrictions. I think for the
with fewer public COVID-19 most part Oregon got it right,”
restrictions.
Vines said. “Even though it
Texas Rangers’ fans re-
may seem like there’s no prob-
cently returned to Globe Life lem, it’s those same restric-
Field that was open for 100% tions that are preventing the
capacity, droves of college
problem.”
students crowded Florida
In Oregon and Washington,
beaches for spring break
state health authorities have
and Walt Disney World has
recently rescinded require-
reopened its gates.
ments to wear masks outside
“Everything was open.
but are mostly maintaining
People were happy, because
indoor capacity restrictions,
they had the freedom to go
likely through the end of June.
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“We are just so done
with this. There’s a huge
amount of frustration
that people have.”
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Most of Oregon’s counties
still have limits on capacity for
businesses and as of this week,
businesses that want to let
customers enter their stores
without a mask must ask the
customer to prove they’ve
been fully vaccinated. State
health authorities this week
said young athletes no longer
have to wear masks while
competing in outdoor settings,
but students must still mask
up while playing close-contact
sports indoors, such as basket-
ball and wrestling.
And earlier this month, state
workforce safety regulators
extended indefinitely a rule
requiring employees to wear
masks at all times, regardless
of their inoculation status.
As the state crested its fourth
COVID-19 surge this month,
Brown announced a reopening
plan: Statewide restrictions
on capacity and masking will
be lifted when 70% of Oregon
residents 16 and older have at
least one dose of the COVID-19
vaccine.
Currently, more than half
of Oregon’s eligible population
has received a first vaccine and
health officials say they believe
the state will reach the gover-
nor’s vaccination goal by the
end of June — although many
individual counties are lagging
far behind.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
made a similar reopening an-
nouncement, saying his state is
on track to fully reopen by June
30, and a full reopening could
happen even sooner if 70% or
more of residents ages 16 and
older have gotten at least one
dose of vaccine by then.
It is time to begin “the next
chapter of post-pandemic life,”
Brown said — something
Republicans have been asking
for since last year, from reopen-
ing the economy and lifting
mask mandates completely to
students returning to in-person
learning full time.
“What happens if we get
another virus?” Smith said. “We
can’t keep shutting down our
society for months.”
But even once restric-
tions are lifted in Oregon, not
everyone may opt to return to a
pre-coronavirus life.
“We all have kind of different
levels of risk tolerance,” Vines
said. “I think for people who
are really intolerant of risk
they may choose to continue
to mask and I think that is
OK.”
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