SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL & STATE
North Powder is getting
a new playground
New At The Library
By ALEX WITTWER
The Observer
NORTH POWDER — Mike Morse, the in-
terim mayor of North Powder, looked out at the
nearly two dozen volunteers from across the
state congregated just behind the old firehouse
in North Powder. They were putting in the final
structures of what will be the new playground
in the small town on the edge of Union County.
“It’s about damn time,” he said.
The new playground replaces older di-
lapidated structures at the park, which sits at
Fourth and D streets in North Powder. Many
of those structures — a roundabout, swings,
teeter totters and a climbing structure for kids
— were worn down, with decaying wood and
deteriorating metal.
“It was falling apart,” Morse said.
Funding for the project came from a sizable
donation — $10,000 — from the Masonic
Lodge. The project broke ground on Aug. 25,
and officials expect it to be finished before the
end of October.
George Marston, the de facto project man-
ager for the new playground, said the donation
helped jumpstart the project but it wasn’t
nearly enough to cover all of the replacement
structures. The rest of the funds — totaling
nearly $57,000 — were gathered through
grants and donations.
“The Masons had donated $10,000 for a
POLIO
Continued from A1
“The last time I saw her,
she walked into a clinic with
crutches and braces up to her
hips,” Schott said.
She left the hospital on
her fourth birthday — Feb.
28, 1947.
“They saved my life,” she
said. “I wasn’t supposed to
live. They told my parents I
would die.”
But though polio spared
Schott’s life, the virus never
truly left her.
She used crutches until
she was 13, and wore a brace
on her right leg for many
years.
“They were terrible. Solid
metal,” she said.
The hospital stay was
followed by physical therapy
and hydrotherapy during the
week, as well as four surger-
ies — three on her right leg,
one on her left.
Schott became an ambas-
sador for the hospital, and
participated in fashion shows
COUNTY
Continued from A1
He described the federal
money as a “once in a lifetime
community improvement
opportunity,” and a chance to
maximize the county’s ability
to maintain and enhance the
livability of the county and its
cities, ensure that the county
remains and moves forward
in a stable financial posi-
tion and focus on long term
benefits to the county and its
residents.
Some of the areas commis-
sioners discussed Wednesday:
Infrastructure
Bennett discussed the pos-
sibility of expanding broad-
band internet and cellphone
coverage countywide.
“That’s probably our
number one project that we’re
looking at,” he said.
Bennett said county of-
ficials learned last year, when
students were taking virtual
classes from home due to the
pandemic, that there were
“large areas where kids just
absolutely had no access to
Alex Wittwer/The (La Grande) Observer
Jordan Stout, a volunteer from Elkhorn
Valley Wind Farm, assembles a teeter
totter at the North Powder playground
on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021.
piece of playground equipment in the park,”
Marston said. “The city really hadn’t done
much with the $10,000 for a year, and a deci-
sion was going to be made to do something
with it or return it. I was asked by one of the
Mason members here in town to help the city
come up with more funds.”
The bulk of the cost would come from labor
— from surveying to installation. Volunteers
from Elkhorn Valley Wind Farm, as well as
playground equipment installation profes-
sionals from the Oregon Recreation & Park
Association and workers with the La Grande
Parks & Recreation Department helped allevi-
ate that cost, leaving the funds for purchasing
expensive playground equipment.
“A lot of hands came together to help us
today,” Marston said.
to help raise money for a new
building.
She also became a poster
child for the March of Dimes.
Schott still has the posters
and flyers, as well as the blue
dress she wore.
The March of Dimes was
founded by President Frank-
lin D. Roosevelt in 1938 as a
nationwide effort to eradicate
polio. Much of the money
raised helped fund research to
develop a vaccine.
Some of that funding went
to Dr. Jonas Salk, who devel-
oped a vaccine made from
dead polio cells.
Schott received that vac-
cine. Although she’d already
contracted polio, doctors told
her parents that she could
still catch the other strains.
The vaccine would protect
against all three.
Growing up, the crutches
and braces limited her
physical activity, so jacks and
marbles helped pass the time.
And reading — a love
that she credits to her second
grade teacher, Ms. Holmes.
During that year, every day
the internet whatsoever.”
“It’s starting to be more
prevalent in other coun-
ties,” Martin said. “I know
that there’s been a lot of the
smaller counties that are also
working on this project and
there’s just a lot of funding
for these types of projects. It
seems to be more of a priority
not only at the federal level
but also at the state level for
these types of projects.”
Roadmaster Nolan Per-
kins discussed the possibility
of paving some gravel roads,
such as Brown Road and low-
er Hunt Mountain Road, both
in Baker Valley. The number
of homes along those roads
has doubled in that area over
the past several years.
County officials will also
look into possible bridge
construction, improvements
at county parks, the Mason
Dam hydroelectric project,
which dates back more than
a decade but has not been
constructed, and other clean
energy projects.
Other possible uses for
federal money include a
veterans resource center,
remodeling at the Health De-
• 10 points, timeline for
delivery
• 10 points, budget
Continued from A1
• 10 points, performance
The Request for Proposals measures and reporting
requirements
that the county sent out in
• 5 points, references
early September included a
• 5 points, conclusion
scoring system for a variety of
Tyler Brown, chairman of
criteria:
the lodging tax committee,
• 5 points, cover letter
said the final tally, by consen-
• 25 points, introductory
statement and proposed plan sus of the committee, was 98
points for the proposal from
of execution
the Anthony Lakes Outdoor
• 15 points, staff
Recreation Association, and
• 15 points, location
PROPOSAL
Patrons can reserve
materials in advance
online or by calling 541-
523-6419. See every-
thing new this week to
Baker County Library
District at wowbrary.
org. Materials featured,
and in library collec-
tion, does not indicate
endorsement or ap-
proval of contents by the
library. Selections are
based on factors such as
demand, public interest,
diversity of viewpoint,
community relevance,
and others.
Laden: The Untold Story
of the 247-Day Hunt to
Bring the Mastermind
of 9/11 to Justice,” Chris
Wallace
• “Peril,” Bob Wood-
ward and Robert Costa
• “Poet Warrior: A
Memoir,” Joy Harjo
• “Preparing for the
Inevitable: How We Get
Back to Normal and How
We Survive the Next
Epidemic,” Scott Gottlieb
• “Vanderbilt: The Rise
and Fall of an American
Dynasty,” Anderson Coo-
per and Katherine Howe
FICTION
• “Apples Never Fall,”
Liane Moriarty
• “Enemy at the
Gates,” Vince Flynn and
Kyle Mills
• “Harlem Shuffle,”
Colson Whitehead
• “The Sweetness of
Wate,” Nathan Harris
• “The Wish,” Nicholas
Sparks
MOVIES
• “Dear Zindagi”
(Musical)
• “Garry Winogrand:
All Things are Photog-
raphable” (Documen-
tary)
• “Man With The
Screaming Brain” (Hor-
ror)
• “Mare of Easttown:
The Complete Limited
Series” (Drama)
• “You Might As Well
Live” (Comedy)
NONFICTION
• “Countdown bin
Schott could choose a friend to
eat lunch with in the class-
room. As they ate, Ms. Holmes
read “The Little House on the
Prairie” series of books.
“She instilled a love of
reading,” Schott said.
There were some times
when her special abilities
were sought for a playground
game.
“They’d get me sometimes
for kickball. If I had a cast, it
was solid,” she said, chuckling
at the memory. “I could kick it
out of the field, and someone
would run for me.”
An invisible virus changed
her life three quarters of a
century ago, but Schott said
it also created the person she
is today.
“I think who I am, my
passions, and my concerns for
those who are hurting, stem
from this,” she said.
But she’ll never forget that
virus.
“I’m never free of it,” she
said. “I thought with time I
would be, but polio still has a
hold of me. I have no memory
of not having polio.”
analysis that was completed
last year gave us really good
data on where our gaps are,
where specifically we are
missing housing types by
income as far as apartments,
single family, duplexes, that
type of thing,” Kerns said.
“We have really good data
on where the needs are and
where the demands are pro-
jected to be over the next ten
years. So the key is trying to
begin unlocking some of the
challenges that are creating
barriers to that housing need
development.”
96 points for the Chamber of
Commerce’s proposal.
Brown said both groups
“knocked the proposal out of
the park.”
Both were “incredibly well
done,” he said. “It was very
close.”
Brown said one of the
lengthier discussions among
committee members was
about the proposed location of
the visitor center.
The Chamber of Com-
merce proposes to continue
Continued from A1
Breakthrough cases
accounted for 10% of total
cases in Baker County during
August, compared with about
18.6% statewide.
That trend continued
through the first half of Sep-
tember.
For the week Sept. 12-18,
for instance, Baker County’s
breakthrough case percentage
was 10.8% — 15 of 139 cases
that week.
Statewide, breakthrough
cases accounted for 23.6% of
total cases that week — 2,821
of 11,968 cases.
But for the next week,
Sept. 19-25, Baker County’s
breakthrough cases were
20.9% of the total — 18 of 86.
That’s only slightly below the
statewide figure of 21.6% for
that week.
During the most recent
week for which statistics are
available, Sept. 26-Oct. 2,
Baker County had 16 break-
through cases out of a total of
69 cases — a rate of 23.2%, the
highest weekly rate the county
has recorded.
Oregon’s overall break-
through case percentage also
rose that week, to 24.4% —
2,542 of 10,411 cases.
Staten said Dr. Eric Lamb,
the county’s public health offi-
cer, said it’s to be expected that
the number of breakthrough
cases will rise as more county
residents are vaccinated
— breakthrough cases, by
definition, can only be in fully
vaccinated people.
But although the goal is to
reduce cases overall, both in
vaccinated and unvaccinated
people, Staten said statistics
showing that the vast majority
of people who have break-
through infections have minor
symptoms or none at all, is
encouraging.
According to the most re-
cent breakthrough report from
the OHA released Thursday,
Oct. 7, of the state’s break-
through cases, 4.5% have been
hospitalized — a total of 1,263
people — and 0.8%, a total of
237 people, have died.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Gloria Schott, after spending months in the hospital
with polio as a toddler, was later was a poster
child for a hospital fundraiser and the March of
Dimes, a nationwide effort to eradicate polio. She
still has the blue dress she wore for promotional
photographs.
These included:
• Administrative services:
$150,000. This could include
money for new accounting
software and training, and
computers.
• Fire department:
$325,000. Possible uses in-
clude new equipment, includ-
ing self-contained breathing
apparatus, and overtime.
Sheriff’s Office
• Police department:
Sheriff Travis Ash dis-
$200,000. This could include
cussed hiring a community
hiring a new officer and buy-
resource deputy to focus on
community livability issues,
ing a new patrol car.
homelessness, and at risk
• Water fund: $150,000
youth.
to continue the long-term
“We have a liaison person
project to replace the pipeline
that would be tied in to
that brings water to town
Baker City
folks that are experiencing
from the city’s watershed in
Cities will also receive a
houselessness, and we would share of American Rescue
the Elkhorn Mountains.
work with our community
In other business Wednes-
Plan Act money — $2 million
partners not just to identify
for Baker City in two install- day, county commissioners
the problems, see if we could ments, one this year and one adopted an updated mask
come up with some solu-
policy that follows state regu-
next.
City Councilors met for a lations. The county’s initial
tions,” Ash said.
work session on Sept. 23 to
mask policy was approved
discuss possible uses for the Sept. 2, 2020.
Housing
federal money. Like county
Commission Chairman
Holly Kerns, director of
Bill Harvey said he opposes
the Baker City/County Plan- commissioners, councilors
ning Department, discussed didn’t take any action on ap- the section in the policy that
the recently completed hous- proving dollar amounts, but requires county employees to
wear a face mask outdoors
ing needs analysis in partner- City Manager Jon Cannon
when six feet of social dis-
ship with cities in the county. presented a list of possible
expenditures.
“The housing needs
tancing can’t be maintained.
partment building on Fourth
Street, and staffing support
for the temporary Oregon
Trail experience at the Baker
Heritage Museum while the
Oregon Trail Interpretive
Center is closed for more
than two years for energy-
efficiency upgrades.
COVID
operating at its current loca-
tion.
Anthony Lakes, mean-
while, would have a visitor
center at 1828 Main St. in
downtown Baker City.
Other committee mem-
bers are Toni Thompson, Tori
Thatcher, Buell Gonzales Jr.,
Mandy Clark, Brian Vegter
and Shane Alderson. Alderson
was absent from the meeting.
Gonzales said he was im-
pressed with both proposals.
“Both of them were
well-done,” he said on Friday
afternoon, Oct. 8.
Gonzales said he also
believes that whichever
proposal the commissioners
choose, the county is in a good
position in the future now
that it has a specific list of
performance expectations for
the contractor.
“I was really happy
walking out of that meeting
yesterday,” he said.
Vegter had a similar as-
sessment.
Age breakdown
Residents younger than 50
continue to account for a ma-
jority of Baker County’s cases.
During September, 65.5%
of cases were in residents
younger than 50, compared
with 61.4% from Aug. 16-31.
The age groups with the
largest share of cases during
September were 10-19 years,
with 19.4%, and people in
their 30s, with 17.1%.
Those two age groups
have lower vaccination rates
than other groups of county
residents.
The vaccination rate
among residents ages 12-19
(those younger than 11 are not
yet eligible to be inoculated) is
28.4%. The statewide rate for
that age group is 61.5%.
The 30-39 age group has
the second-lowest vaccination
rate in the county, at 35.3%.
The statewide vaccination rate
for that age range is 73.6%.
Residents 70 and older,
who have much higher vac-
cination rates, accounted for
12.5% of the county’s cases
during September, and about
11.5% during August.
The vaccination rate for
Baker County residents ages
70 to 79 is 68.5%, compared to
a statewide average of 88.2%
for that age group.
For residents 80 and older,
the vaccination rate in Baker
County is 70.5%, compared
with a statewide rate of 80.7%.
“Both proposals were re-
ally good, both were extreme-
ly competitive and detailed,”
he said.
Vegter said he thinks it
was vital for the county to
compile a list of benchmarks
it expects the visitor center
operator to address, and the
RFP, with its list of criteria,
provides that.
“We’re telling them this is
what we expect, and now we
have a way to measure how
well they’re doing,” he said.