SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL & STATE
Brown mandates vaccine for school, health workers
of opposition.
But many of those deci-
sions were made in July, when
COVID-19 cases were about
12 times lower than today.
Without the mask and
vaccination mandates, Brown
said it would be diffi cult in
particular to keep students in
the classroom.
“That’s why I’m willing to
take the heat for this decision,”
Brown said.
The deadline for both the
health and education groups
to be vaccinated is Oct. 18, or
six weeks after full approval of
the Pfi zer, Moderna and John-
son & Johnson vaccines.
Brown is also requiring all
employees of the state’s execu-
tive branch under her control
to be vaccinated.
There are health and
religious exemptions the state
workers can apply for, but the
third option, Brown said, “is
termination.”
The mandates come as vol-
untary vaccination in Oregon
is “fl at” according to OHSU
and rising slightly according to
OHA. That mirrors a national
trend of slowing inoculation,
with the CDC reporting about
771,000 doses per day are
being used today, a more than
75% drop from the 3.38 million
on April 13.
OHA also reported:
• 12,741 new daily cases of
COVID-19 during the week of
Monday, Aug. 9, through Sun-
day, Aug. 15. That’s up 53%
over the previous week.
• 546 new COVID-19
hospitalizations, up from 224
the previous week. It marked
the fi fth consecutive week
of increases.
• 46 reported COVID-19
related deaths, up from 40
reported the previous week.
Though widespread vaccina-
tion of older residents and
others most susceptible to
severe illness has curbed the
percentage of those killed by
the virus, the current spike is
spreading so rapidly that all
indicators, including deaths,
are on the rise.
Brown’s orders bring
Oregon in line with California
and Washington policies. The
Portland Public Schools had
earlier mandated vaccinations
for teachers and staff.
Brown said the state is tak-
ing several steps to shore-up
the response to the medical
crisis. Actions include send-
ing National Guard troops
to 20 hospitals in the state to
support staff experiencing a
torrent of new cases.
Requests for help from other
states and federal agencies
have been made, including
asking the Federal Emergency
Management Agency for a
fully staffed fi eld hospital.
The state is also hiring nurs-
ing teams and private emer-
gency medical technicians to
supplement the exhausted
personnel in the state.
The National Guard units
will include nurses, staff for
temporary decompression
units to free up bed space,
and speeding the discharge of
patients who no longer require
hospital-level care so that new
patients can be assigned to
open beds.
COUNCIL OR
pleasure to be a part of the
governing process of the city.
I wish you well.”
Continued from Page A1
Mayor Kerry McQuisten
“Due to worsening health said she understands Perry’s
position.
issues I am no longer able
“I’m sorry to see her go,
to put in the time required
but after talking with her,
to serve to the degree the
City and the public deserve,” I understand her reason-
ing and wish her the best,”
Perry wrote. “It has been a
McQuisten said. “She has
put in a lot of work for the
community.”
Perry’s term continues
through the end of 2022.
Per the city charter, the
remaining councilors will
appoint Perry’s replacement,
who will serve the remainder
of her term.
VISITORS
trying to meet with the 2019
Request for Proposals.
Last winter an attorney
representing the county,
Andrew Martin, exchanged
letters with Rebecca Knapp,
an Enterprise attorney repre-
senting Anthony Lakes.
Martin wrote in a Feb. 16,
2021, letter to Knapp that
“This does not mean that the
current Visitors Center will
simply continue to oper-
ate indefi nitely. The lack of
direction and defi nition of
what is expected and needed
on Baker County is equally
problematic for the current
Visitors Center. Although I
do not believe that your client
has any actionable grounds
to pursue a lawsuit, your
points about the delay and
frustration for your client are
well taken and I have shared
them with the Commission-
ers.”
Both Cutler and Johnson
said their respective organi-
zations intend to submit a
proposal to the county prior
to the Sept. 17 deadline.
By GARY WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Facing a sharp surge in
COVID-19 infections that
threatens to swamp Oregon
hospitals, Gov. Kate Brown
ordered a double dose of man-
datory vaccination mandates
on Thursday, Aug. 19.
All K-12 educators, school
staff and volunteers must be
vaccinated no later than Oct.
18.
“COVID-19 poses a threat to
our kids, and our kids need to
be protected and they need to
be in school,” Brown said.
A second mandate with the
same deadline would apply
to doctors, nurses, emergency
medical teams and other
health care workers.
The mandates have a dead-
line far beyond the projected
Sept. 3 peak of the current
spike in cases.
Brown said there were
no current plans for earlier
actions, such as restoring pan-
demic restrictions on business-
es and gatherings, or curbing
big events upcoming events
such as the Oregon State Fair,
the Pendleton Round-Up or
Oregon Ducks football games.
“Everything is on the table,”
Brown said, using a frequently
invoked phrase to leave open
options if the pandemic trends
shift again.
State health offi cials know
that they have an explosion
of COVID-19 cases with a
likelihood that the problem
will only grow over the next
two weeks.
Daily infections have
exploded in the past six weeks,
MENTOR
Cathy Cheney/Portland Business Journal pool, fi le/Tribune Content Agency, File
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.
going from under 150 in early
July to a record 2,971 cases
reported on Thursday. The
state is now averaging 2,025
cases per day.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity has reported that hospitals
are nearly full, with 93% of
staffed adult hospital beds in
Oregon occupied and 94% of
staffed adult ICU beds across
the state are full.
The Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University COVID-19
forecast for Aug. 18 said the
pace of increases will continue
until Labor Day weekend and
is likely to leave the state 500
hospital beds short of demand.
“The fi fth wave of the
pandemic in Oregon remains
much more severe than previ-
ous surges,” said Peter Graven,
a top OHSU data scientist.
teachers occasionally.
Rasmussen said How-
erton’s persistence was
Continued from Page A1
gratifying.
“He really helped us,”
Palmer, 17, concedes that he
too struggled with the transi- Rasmussen said. “He’s the
tion from elementary school to reason I passed science. He
was always there for us.
middle school.
He encouraged us to put
“I didn’t do very well with
in actual effort. He really
school,” Palmer said.
showed that he wanted us to
Myers Jensen, 18, admits,
succeed.”
too, that the foursome had a
Palmer agreed.
tendency to take hijinks more
“I don’t have a dad role
seriously than academics.
model, and it was really nice
“We were some trouble-
to have Jimmy always check
makers, especially back
up on me,” Palmer said.
then,” he said.
Myers Jensen said he
And so one day in May
didn’t appreciate the depth
2017, just before the four
of Howerton’s commitment
boys fi nished eighth grade
initially, but as the years
and prepared to move
passed he began to under-
on to Baker High School,
stand more clearly.
Howerton brought them all
During his junior year,
together.
He made a pledge to them, when he was working at
Behlen Mfg. Co.’s livestock
one that perhaps sounded a
equipment plant in Baker
trifl e silly but about which
City, Myers Jensen said he
Howerton was as serious as
had a conversation with
he could be.
The terms of the deal were Howerton.
Myers Jensen said that
simple.
as he looked at Howerton’s
If all four boys exerted
shoulder-length hair, he real-
themselves during high
school — if they stayed out of ized that his former coach
trouble and kept their grades had not taken his pledge
up and graduated on time — lightly.
“That’s a pretty big com-
then Howerton wouldn’t cut
mitment,” Myers Jensen
his hair for the whole four
said.
years.
This spring, as all four
He wouldn’t get so much
as a trim until each boy had boys prepared to graduate
from BHS, Howerton got in
his diploma.
touch with them. He wanted
They lined up for a pho-
to replicate that photograph
tograph that day, all fi ve of
from 2017. He fi gured that
them, in front of the middle
was a fi tting fi nale to their
school gym.
deal, and a tribute to the
They wanted something
boys’ triumphs.
tangible that would help
Howerton said that
them to remember.
although he has strived to be
To remember the pact.
a mentor for every child he
To remember Howerton’s
coaches or teaches — he’s a
close-cropped hair.
teacher’s aid — his relation-
It would, perhaps, have
been an easy thing to forget. ship with Myers Jensen,
Delarosa, Rasmussen and
Four years is a long time.
And few four-year periods Palmer will always be a
special one.
bring such monumental
“This group — I really
changes as the four years of
wanted to help them,” he
high school.
But Howerton didn’t offer said. “They were all close
friends. They liked to hunt
the deal on a whim.
and fi sh, the things I enjoy
And whether or not the
as well.”
boys might have forgotten
Howerton also hoped to
that day, and that photo-
have each boy clip a lock
graph, Howerton was com-
mitted to following through. of his hair, but their hectic
schedules made that impos-
“When they got to high
sible.
school I would check in on
Howerton was busy him-
them,” he said. “I saw them
self — his granddaughter
at football games. I’d make
was born on May 2, and his
sure they were holding up
grandson on July 14.
their end of the bargain.”
He actually waited until
Howerton said he spoke
after his grandson was born
with the boys’ parents and
On Wednesday, the percent-
age of COVID-19 tests that
were positive was 13.8%, a
rate that indicates exponential
growth of infections. A rate of
5% is considered the top end
to manage impacts on public
health. The original version
of COVID-19 reached a
maximum rate last year of one
person infecting three others.
The delta variant is spreading
at a rate of one person infect-
ing eight others.
The OHSU forecast, which
is updated about once a week,
now projects COVID-19 hos-
pitalizations to rise from the
current 838 patients to about
1,075 by Sept. 3.
The spike won’t completely
recede to levels seen at the
beginning of August until late
October at the earliest, accord-
ing to the OHSU forecast.
OHA Director Pat Allen
painted a dire picture of the
hospital system straining
under the fl ood of unvacci-
nated people who have become
infected with the delta variant.
“Our health care system
is on the verge of collapse in
parts of the state,” Allen said.
The quarter of the state’s
population who remain unvac-
cinated offer themselves “as a
target to a virus that has killed
600,000 Americans,” Allen
said.
Brown said she knew the
vaccination requirements
would generate blowback from
workers who didn’t want to be
vaccinated, just as her earlier
switch from voluntary to man-
dated mask wearing by school
children had generated a wave
to fi nally have his hair shorn.
That was on July 16.
The group was, however,
able to gather just before
the four friends graduated
from BHS, for another photo
in front of the middle school
gym, this one showing how
the boys — and their men-
tor’s hair — had grown in the
preceding four years.
Palmer said he has
remained close friends with
the three others throughout
high school, and he’s confi -
dent they will always share a
unique bond due to their pact
with a coach who thought
it vastly more important to
help them succeed in life
than to learn how to play
football.
“We were like a little fam-
ily,” Palmer said. “I think I’ll
remember it for the rest of
my life.”
Myers Jensen feels fortu-
nate that Howerton focused
on this particular foursome,
boys who perhaps more than
most needed the very sort of
mentoring that Howerton
offered.
“For him to have seen
something in this group
of kids, and then to follow
through, it says a lot about
Jim,” Myers Jensen said.
“He brought us even
closer together.”
Editor’s note: Carlos Delar-
osa couldn’t be reached for an
interview prior to this story.
money comes from the local
tax that guests pay at motels,
bed and breakfasts, vacation
Continued from Page A1
rental homes and other types
contract on Sept. 30, and for of lodging.
Both the county Economic
commissioners to potentially
Development Committee and
sign the contract on Oct. 6.
the committee that over-
Bennett said the county’s
initial goal was to sign a new sees the lodging tax, which
advise county commission-
contract by Aug. 31.
ers, endorsed the Anthony
He said the county’s at-
Lakes proposal.
torney, Kim Mosier, recom-
But in February 2020
mended commissioners not
extend the contract with the commissioners postponed
Chamber. Commissioners did awarding the contract,
so in 2020 and twice in early instead extending the current
contract with the Chamber.
2021.
In November 2020 commis-
The concern, Bennett
said, was that by repeatedly sioners decided to restart the
process, after the county’s at-
extending the contract, the
torney determined there were
county could “be faced with
potential confl icts of interest.
some litigation.”
Peter Johnson, general
When the county released
manager for Anthony Lakes,
a Request for Proposals for
has in multiple emails
visitor services in the fall of
2019, it received two propos- to county commissioners
als — one from the Chamber, urged them to award a new
contract. The county’s bylaws
and one from the nonprofi t
corporation that owns Antho- state that the visitor services
contract should be awarded
ny Lakes Mountain Resort.
The current contract is for every six years, which is the
timeframe the county was
about $77,000 per year. The
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