A6 — BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
LOCAL
EOU fi eldhouse coming together
 $9 million
structure being
built on south
side of campus
Health and Human Perfor-
mance program that will
double as a lab. In addition,
the facility will be the new
home of EOU’s Outdoor Ad-
venture Program, now in the
Hoke Union Building. The
space for the Outdoor Adven-
ture Program will feature a
40-by-47-foot indoor climbing
center.
Upper-level features will
include a mezzanine above
the classroom space.
Once completed, the
fi eldhouse will be the largest
building of its kind at any col-
lege or university in Oregon,
Washington and Idaho that is
not a NCAA Division I school,
said Ben Welch, EOU’s head
men’s and women’s track and
fi eld coach.
“It will be a difference
maker for us,” he said.
Welch believes that some
student athletes may not
fully appreciate what is being
built because many universi-
ties do not have such facili-
ties.
needed for crews to do exten-
sive interior work this winter.
“Seeing the fi eldhouse
come to life is a welcome
addition to our campus,”
said Tim Seydel, Eastern’s
vice president for university
advancement. “The improved
capacity and opportunities
By DICK MASON
this new building brings to
The (La Grande) Observer
EOU will be felt for many
LA GRANDE — The
years to come. It’s great to
athletic skyline at Eastern
hear students talking about
Oregon University is rising.
The $9 million fi eldhouse, the new building and saying,
‘I can’t wait to get in there.’
which is currently under
construction on the south side It’s going to be awesome.”
The facility will provide
of campus, will be at least
60,000 square feet and have space for the Mountaineers’
a top height of about 33 feet. athletic teams to work out in
The facility is expected to be the winter and other times
completed by April 2022 and of the year when there is in-
be ready for use by students clement weather. Some EOU
track athletes may view it as
and student athletes by
a second home since it will
fall 2022, according to John
have a small track to work
Garlitz, EOU’s director of
out on, a runway and sandpit
planning and facilities.
for long jumpers and triple
The steel frame for the
fi eldhouse is nearly complete jumpers and pole vaulting
and soon exterior panels will facilities.
The structure will also
be installed, providing the
protection from the weather house a classroom for EOU’s
“I don’t know if they
totally understand the sig-
nifi cance of this because they
have nothing to compare it
to,” he said.
Original designs for the
building called for it to have
88,300 gross square feet,
which would have allowed for
a 200-meter track, making
indoor track meets a possibil-
ity. However, budget con-
straints led to reducing the
space by about 25%.
Welch said the smaller
building and track still will
be a big plus for his team in
the winter. He said the track
team conducts its winter
practices in Quinn Coliseum’s
small gym, which has 4,545
square feet. But in the fi eld-
house, he said, his team will
have access to about 48,000
square feet for practices.
The track coach said the
south side of the fi eldhouse
will be designed so that an
additional 80 feet could be
added later when funding
becomes available, providing
Alex Wittwer/The (La Grande) Observer
The steel frame of Eastern Oregon University’s new
fi eldhouse gives a sense of the facility’s size against a
blue sky on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021.
the space needed to house a
200-meter track and making
indoor track meets a pos-
sibility.
Garlitz said the biggest
obstacle to getting the build-
ing constructed on schedule
is receiving construction ma-
terials on time. He said there
continues to be shipping
delays because of COVID-19.
Fieldhouses are more
common in the Midwest than
in the Northwest, accord-
ing to Welch, a University
of Kansas alum. Welch had
been working to help East-
ern get a fi eldhouse since
coming to the university in
the 1990s.
“It has been a long-term
goal and dream,” he said.
“It is nice to see it coming
to fruition.”
Union County commissioners oppose vaccine mandates
By DICK MASON and
DAVIS CARBAUGH
The (La Grande) Observer
LA GRANDE — The
Union County Board of
Commissioners passed a
resolution on Wednesday,
Sept. 1, protesting the state-
wide mandate requiring all
teachers, school staff, school
volunteers, health care work-
ers and state employees to be
vaccinated for COVID-19.
The resolution, passed on
a 3-0 vote, contended that
the decision to get vaccinated
for COVID-19 is an indi-
vidual one.
“It should be a personal
choice between each person
and their physician,” said
Union County Commissioner
Donna Beverage.
The resolution stated that
denying personal choice on
the matter shows a lack of
trust: “Be it further resolved
that the Union County
Board of Commissioners
considers it an invasion of
privacy, places undue bur-
den, and shows an inherent
distrust in the ability of indi-
viduals to make decisions for
themselves regarding bodily
autonomy.”
Beverage said she strong-
ly endorses the resolution.
“I believe it is a good reso-
lution. We need to protect our
freedom. I am all for it,” she
said.
According to Commis-
sioner Matt Scarfo, the
public outcry over the past
month had a major impact
on the board’s decision.
Scarfo said he has received
a high volume of objections
from state employees, health
care workers and education
workers.
“It’s about the impact it
will have on our staffi ng,” he
said of the board’s opposition
to the mandate.
Scarfo noted that staffi ng
across these sectors is al-
ready tight due to COVID-19
and that the vaccine require-
ment could have far-reaching
consequences. He mentioned
that the staff at Grande
Ronde Hospital and other
health care employees are
worn out and already dealing
with short staffi ng.
“Our health care workers
should be getting raises after
all they’ve been through, not
being fi red or forced to quit,”
Scarfo said.
The mandate the resolu-
tion opposes requires all edu-
cators, staff and volunteers
in schools for students in
kindergarten through 12th
grade, health care workers
and state employees be fully
vaccinated for COVID-19 by
Oct. 18.
In the resolution, the
Union County commission-
ers stated that this mandate
will do more harm than good.
“A mandate will not result
in signifi cantly more vac-
cinated health care workers,
public employees and educa-
tors,” the resolutions reads,
but will possibly cause local
workers to move to other
states or leave their profes-
sions. “The decision to man-
date vaccines will put our
rural health, public service
and education systems at
risk by a loss of experienced
employees, while potentially
being counterproductive to
increasing vaccination rates.”
One of the resolution’s
concluding paragraphs stat-
ed that the Union County
Board of Commissioners
has been and will continue
to be supportive of taking a
variety of steps to slow the
spread of COVID-19 to keep
everyone safe and healthy
and “to thoughtfully keep
Union County open for busi-
ness and our schools open for
our students.”
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