A2 — BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2021
INN
lodging partner with Anthony
Lakes Mountain Resort and
Go Wild.
Continued from A1
For more information, visit
“Now things come to you,” the website bluedoorinnbak-
Adam said. “It’s not that
ercity.com. The Inn is also
traditional bed and breakfast, listed on Airbnb.
but it has that vibe.”
Mackenzie, who grew up
All three guest rooms are in Baker City and graduated
on the second fl oor, and each from Baker High School in
has a unique name: Grand
2010, sees the Blue Door Inn
Suite (the largest), Elkhorn
as a way to share her home-
Suite (with two beds — a
town with others.
king and a queen), and the
“We just want more people
Rose Suite.
to come to Baker and love it,”
The Blue Door Inn is a
she said.
BAKER COUNTY CALENDAR
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30
Baker County Board of Commissioners: 3 p.m. work
session at the Courthouse, 1995 Third St. Commissioners
will receive an update from Mark Browning, president
of Blue Mountain Community College. A Zoom link is
available at www.bakercounty.org/online/meetings.html.
TURNING BACK THE PAGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
November 29, 1971
The Huntington Locomotives captured their fourth
straight Class A title 42-32 over Detroit in a see-sawing
mud bath Saturday as the Locos moved into a second
place tie for the longest winning string in the history of
American prep football.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
November 29, 1996
Two groups from Baker County’s sister community, the
Zeya District in Southeastern Russia, will arrive in Baker
City in the next eight days.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
November 28, 2011
After a rare season-opener on Thanksgiving weekend,
Anthony Lakes Ski Area will be open Saturdays and Sun-
days only through Dec. 17.
Starting Dec. 17, the resort will be open daily (except
Christmas Day) through New Year’s Day. Then, beginning
Jan. 5, the ski area will begin its regular schedule, open
Thursday through Sunday.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
November 28, 2020
For Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash, this Thanksgiving
held a striking resemblance to another turkey day he and
his family experienced in the past.
On both of those days — 20 years apart — Ash re-
sponded to a call for help from stranded holiday travelers.
And in both cases, the stories had happy endings, despite
a later than planned Thanksgiving celebration.
Granted, many things have changed over the years.
Ash was elected in November to his second four-year
term as sheriff, with another 20 years of law enforcement
experience under his belt.
And his wife, Katie, and their young daughter, Josie,
who will graduate from college this year, were traveling
with him the fi rst time around.
Ash said Friday that he didn’t put the two incidents
together when he got the call about 3:30 a.m. this Thanks-
giving. But his wife shared the story with dispatchers and
the report of the fi rst rescue was posted on Facebook
along with a new one.
This year, Ash was roused to respond to the Hells Can-
yon area on a report that 18-year-old Carson Jurries might
have been stranded on the snow-covered Hells Canyon
Road while traveling from Boise to the Lewiston, Idaho,
area.
Ash said in an email to the Herald that Jurries’ fam-
ily believed that he might have been rerouted by his
cellphone or map to Forest Service Road 39, which travels
through the mountains between Halfway and Joseph.
OREGON LOTTERY
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Mega
2
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Next jackpot: $31,000
SENIOR MENUS
WEDNESDAY: Orange-glazed chicken, rice, Oriental
vegetables, rolls, pasta salad, cheesecake
THURSDAY: Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes with gravy,
rolls, mixed vegetables, carrot-raisin salad, cookies
FRIDAY: Chicken a la king, rice, rolls, broccoli, green salad,
brownies
MONDAY (Dec. 6): Chicken fried streak, mashed potatoes
with gravy, rolls, corn, green salad, pudding
TUESDAY (Dec. 7): Chicken and broccoli fettuccine,
zucchini and tomatoes, rolls, 3-bean salad, cookies
Public luncheon at the Senior Center, 2810 Cedar St., from
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; $5 donation (60 and older), $7.50
for those under 60.
CONTACT THE HERALD
2005 Washington Ave., Suite 101
Open Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Telephone: 541-523-3673
Fax: 541-833-6414
Publisher
Karrine Brogoitti
kbrogoitti@lagrandeobserver.
com
Jayson Jacoby, editor
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Advertising email
ads@bakercityherald.com
Classifi ed email
classified@bakercityherald.com
Circulation email
circ@bakercityherald.com
ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays except Christmas Day by the
Baker Publishing Co., a part of EO Media
Group, at 2005 Washington Ave., Suite
101 (P.O. Box 807), Baker City, OR 97814.
Subscription rates per month are
$10.75 for print only. Digital-only rates
are $8.25.
Postmaster: Send address changes to
the Baker City Herald, P.O. Box 807, Baker
City, OR 97814.
Periodicals Postage Paid
at Pendleton, Oregon 97801
Copyright © 2021
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Owner Mackenzie Warner, left, looks over original
house blueprints with her brother-in-law, Adam
Crowell, who manages the Blue Door Inn in Baker City.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
The Grand Suite is the largest of the three suites in the
Blue Door Inn in Baker City.
Vaccine mandate? Some employers granted
exemptions to every worker who asked
By AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian
Thousands of Oregon
health care employees, K-12
educators and state workers
who were told they must get
fully vaccinated against COV-
ID-19 by Oct. 18 or risk losing
their jobs found an easy way
out: They applied for religious
or medical exceptions.
While some employers
rigorously scrutinized these
requests and accepted only a
smaller number they deter-
mined to be sincere, many
other employers — especially
in rural, vaccine-reluctant
parts of the state — gave the
nod to every employee who
asked for one.
That includes school
districts in Prineville, Rose-
burg, Medford, Grants Pass,
Klamath County and Ontario,
where 21% to 26% of staff
applied for exceptions to the
vaccine mandate and 100% of
them were approved.
In the Baker School
District, 79% of employees are
vaccinated, and the district
granted exemptions to all 55
workers who applied for one.
Two weeks after Gov. Kate
Brown’s vaccination mandate
took hold, a crisper picture of
its successes and failures has
emerged. The governor’s offi ce
says her directive pushed
thousands more employees to
get vaccinated and heralded
the mandate announced in
August as a victory.
Gov. Kate Brown’s offi ce
says her directive pushed
thousands more employees to
get vaccinated and heralded
the mandate announced in
August as a victory.
Ways around a tough
mandate
At least 22 states have
enacted COVID-19 vaccination
requirements for workers, with
Brown’s mandate one of the
toughest because it encom-
passed a broader cross-section
of professions than most states.
But it also had a weak point,
carving out exceptions for
religious and medical reasons
while establishing only vague
criteria that unvaccinated
employees must meet.
Under state rules, employ-
ees seeking a religious excep-
tion have only to attest to “sin-
cerely held religious beliefs”
against vaccination or provide
a doctor’s note with a medical
reason for forgoing inoculation.
The overwhelming majority
of exception applicants have
cited religious reasons for their
objections to the vaccines, even
though no major religions have
taken a position against it.
Brown left it up to individ-
ual employers to decide which
applications to accept or reject.
Some health care providers
have been especially strict,
approving fewer than 10% of
requested exceptions. But the
system has opened a door for
employers in especially con-
servative parts of the state to
rubber stamp every request.
That has confounded some
of the mandate’s most avid
supporters, who ask what the
point of requiring vaccinations
is if exceptions are so easy to
come by.
“It really seems kind of like
a joke,” said Carolyn Moon,
a mother of two who lives in
Klamath Falls and believes
many employers skirted the
spirit of the law. “Exceptions
should be much harder to get.
It doesn’t seem like they really
looked if they were legit or not.
It’s like, ‘OK, we’re going to ex-
ploit this loophole and approve
everyone.’”
The largest district in her
county, the 6,800-student
Klamath County School
District, granted exceptions to
26% of its employees, the high-
est rate of more than a dozen
districts surveyed by The Or-
egonian. Her children’s district,
Klamath Falls City Schools,
was more selective, approv-
ing all 19% of employees who
asked for exceptions.
Moon is skeptical that all
employees with approved ex-
ceptions had authentic reasons
for avoiding vaccination.
“It seems really unbeliev-
able,” she said.
‘The only pathway out of
this pandemic’
The governor’s offi ce isn’t
focusing on the number of
workers who got vaccine
exceptions but instead is hail-
ing the mandate’s triumphs
— a wave of new inocula-
tions.
The day the mandate
went into effect, Brown post-
ed a video message thanking
workers who fell under the
requirements for getting vac-
cinated — and helping save
lives, keep schools and busi-
nesses open and hospitals
from being overwhelmed.
“Moving forward, vac-
cination is the only pathway
out of this pandemic,” Brown
said.
Statewide, about 85%
of 40,000 executive branch
employees who were subject
to the mandate are fully
vaccinated. That’s far more
than where the fi gure stood
— at about 68% — when the
governor announced the new
vaccination requirements
more than two months ago.
The 17-percentage-point
increase signifi cantly out-
paced the 6-percentage-point
gain among the general popu-
lation of adult Oregonians
during the same time period.
Today, about 72% of adults in
the state are fully vaccinated.
See Vaccine/Page A3
OBITUARY
Tammy Lansdell
Formerly of Baker City, 1971-2021
Tammy Marie Lansdell, 50, formerly
of Baker City, died peacefully in her
sleep on Nov. 23, 2021.
Funeral plans are being made.
Tammy was born on July 7, 1971,
in Vincenzo, Italy, and then moved to
Baker City.
She was a loving mother to her chil-
NEWS OF
RECORD
POLICE LOG
Baker City Police
Arrests, citations
STRANGULATION (domestic
violence): Nathaniel Leeland
Brown, 39, Baker City, 12:28 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 28 in the 3300
block of Campbell Street; cited
and released.
FIRST-DEGREE BURGLARY,
VIOLATION OF RESTRAINING
ORDER, SECOND-DEGREE
CRIMINAL MISCHIEF, FIRST-DE-
GREE CRIMINAL TRESPASSING:
Austin Lakota Reese, 26, Baker
City, 4:09 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 27
in the 2900 block of Elm Street;
jailed.
Baker County Sheriff’s
Offi ce
Arrests, citations
CONTEMPT OF COURT
(Baker County Justice Court
warrant): Frank Nathan McNair,
41, Baker City, 11:58 a.m. Friday,
Nov. 26 on Elk Creek Road; cited
and released.
THIRD-DEGREE THEFT: Ruth
Ann Sangston, 63, Richland,
9:31 a.m. Friday, Nov. 26 in Rich-
land; cited and released.
dren and was always out to have
a good time.
At her death, she lived in
Florence, Alabama, with her lov-
ing husband, Pelmer Lansdell.
She was an Alabama football
fan, a pool shark, and best friend
to many. She will be missed
dearly by those she has left
behind.
Tammy
Lansdell
She is survived by her hus-
band, Pelmer Lansdell, along
with her four children, Kayla
Kirby, Audrey Gutridge, Cody
Kirby and Jackie Kirby.
She was preceded in death
by her mother, Lana Kaye
Kirby; her biological father,
John Long; and her adoptive
father, Jack Garrett.
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