A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
City slouches
toward a
dismal future
B
aker City’s Fire Department is slouching into
an unfortunate and dismal future, and the City
Council seems unwilling to prevent this igno-
minious fate.
Baker County, which, as City Manager Jonathan
Cannon has emphasized, is legally responsible for
ensuring there is ambulance service within the city, is
trying to fulfi ll that obligation.
Two private ambulance companies — Metro West
Ambulance of Hillsboro, and Victory EMS of Boise
— responded to the county’s request for proposals by
the June 3 deadline. On Wednesday morning, June 8,
commissioners approved the recommendation from an
advisory committee to accept Metro West’s proposal.
Th e sad reality, however, is that county commission-
ers didn’t of their own volition start courting private
fi rms interested in replacing the Baker City Fire De-
partment as ambulance provider within the city and
for about two-thirds of the rest of the county.
Th e City Council, prompted by Cannon, left commis-
sioners with no alternative but to solicit a successor. Th e
Council on March 22 notifi ed the county that the city
intended to curtail ambulance service Sept. 30, 2022.
Councilors have shown little interest in the ensuing
two and a half months in trying to preserve the du-
al-role fi re department that has served city residents,
and many who live outside the city limits, for the better
part of a century.
Th ere was a brief period of optimism when, on May
10, councilors voted 7-0 to direct Cannon to prepare a re-
sponse to the county’s solicitation. Th at vote came aft er 18
residents, among a capacity crowd at City Hall, implored
councilors to have the fi re department retain its ambu-
lance service and, in so doing, avoid cutting the depart-
ment from 16.25 full-time equivalent positions to 10.5.
But councilors wasted that opportunity two weeks later,
voting 4-2 to reverse the decision and not submit a propos-
al by June 3. Both Councilor Dean Guyer, who suggested
the city not submit a proposal, and Joanna Dixon, who vot-
ed for the motion, suggested the city could still potentially
negotiate a deal with the county aft er the June 3 deadline.
Th is made little sense then, and it’s even less plausi-
ble now that the county has two proposals from private
ambulance companies.
We don’t know the details of either proposal — Ore-
gon’s Public Records Law allows the county to withhold
those details until commissioners approve a notice of
intent to award a contract. And although Commission-
er Bruce Nichols said the county isn’t legally obligated
to contract with either fi rm, the city, and the future of
its fi re department, are in an extremely tenuous posi-
tion. Given Cannon’s and the City Council’s distinct
lack of enthusiasm for continuing a local ambulance
service, commissioners have little reason to be con-
fi dent that if they reject both private proposals they
could then rely on city offi cials to step in.
Sadly, city offi cials’ apathy is already accomplish-
ing through attrition the fi re department staffi ng cuts
that will be necessary unless the City Council changes
course and approves a revised budget, for the fi scal
year that starts July 1, before June 30.
Th ree fi refi ghter/paramedic positions are vacant.
Two of those people left their jobs this spring. One,
Brian Johnson, cited uncertainty about his future with
the department due to looming layoff s.
Casey Johnson, a fi refi ghter/paramedic and presi-
dent of the union chapter that represents fi refi ghters,
said two other of his co-workers had interviews with
other fi re departments on Tuesday, June 7.
Th e staffi ng situation — exacerbated by city offi cials’
decision in July 2021 to move two of the three fi re division
chiefs out of 24-hour shift s — prompted Fire Chief Sean
Lee to notify the county May 17 about the department’s
struggles to respond to simultaneous calls. Th at prompted
the county to temporarily hire American Medical Response
to staff an ambulance in Baker City at least through June 10.
When city residents exercised their collective voice
during the City Council’s May 10 meeting, their mes-
sage seemed to resonate, albeit only temporarily.
It looks as though only passionate pleas can save
the fi re department in the form that we have come to
expect, and to rely on.
And given the commissioners’ decision Wednesday,
even that looks unlikely.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
COLUMN
COVID-19: Hope, but not complacency
zero-COVID-19 measures of Com-
munist China and North Korea have
The famous Robert Frost poem
proved futile in the face of the current,
“The Road Not Taken” begins: “Two
extremely contagious variants.
roads diverged in a yellow wood, /
Alternately, as new variants become
And sorry I could not travel both.”
more communicable but less severe
The United States and the rest of the
(current COVID-19 mortality is 90%
world faced a fork in the road with
lower than it was in early 2020), we
two possible options at the outset of
can hope this unprecedented rapid
the COVID-19 pandemic: Attempt
viral evolution results in a version of
to control the spread of the virus
COVID-19 that resembles the com-
through social measures and lock-
mon cold. Adapting to it would mean
downs or let the virus run its course
living with an illness we can treat and
naturally (“let it rip,” as some have re- against which we can vaccinate and
ferred to it) in the hope of inducing
employ protective measures to help
herd immunity in the populace.
the immunocompromised, elderly and
Countries selected one path or the
very young.
other, and neither strategy was com-
But this approach, while more prac-
pletely successful. The “flatten the
tical, must not encourage individual
curve” approach in the U.S. failed
complacency. A majority of the popu-
to prevent virus spread and resulted
lation may contract some form of the
in large numbers of COVID-19 and
virus, but it is not a prospect to cheer-
non-COVID-19 deaths while simul-
fully anticipate. Besides the dimin-
taneously damaging the economy and ishing but still-present morbidity and
harming childhood education. The
mortality, the unresolved future reper-
“let it rip” approach, employed by Swe- cussions of even trivial infections —
den, produced marginally better results long COVID-19 — remain a concern
— roughly the same number of cases
for those who become infected. We
per capita as the U.S., less economic
should still be careful how we live.
downturn and fewer excess deaths —
Right now, this makes decisions as
but was hardly an unqualified success. routine as attending the theater or eat-
(Deaths per capita are higher in Swe-
ing in crowded restaurants fraught
den than in the other Scandinavian
with uncertainty. The government,
countries.)
which once advised the public on what
So, facing our next crossroad, as the to do and how to live, appears to have
sixth wave in the U.S. may be starting
washed its hands of most responsibility
to wind down, how best to return to a and now seems to be leaving decisions
“normal life”?
largely to the public. But expert input
The COVID-19 virus has shown it
would still be of immeasurable benefit
is nimble in mutating, spreading and
in helping us live our lives.
circumventing vaccine and acquired
In what venues should we mask?
immunity. This makes the cost of at-
When should we test at home? What
tempting to suppress infections by
is the risk of attending a concert at Sol-
once again closing schools and insti-
dier Field? Granted, there is no con-
tuting lockdowns unacceptably high.
sensus, and the recommendations will
Children have already suffered immea- change over time, but we could still use
surably, and lockdowns would further some advice from the medical commu-
cripple the business sector. Nor would nity about the COVID-19 risks of ev-
this likely work; even the draconian
eryday life.
BY DR. CORY FRANKLIN AND
DR. ROBERT A. WEINSTEIN
Meanwhile, there is certainly rea-
son for optimism. Antiviral drugs will
get only better, and new vaccines are
being developed. A “universal” coro-
navirus vaccine could provide protec-
tion against the constantly changing
COVID-19 variants. A nasal spray
vaccine that induces high levels of
antibodies at the nose, the main por-
tal of viral entry into the body, might
theoretically be safer and more effec-
tive than the current vaccine booster
regimen.
While we await those advances,
there is no role for complacency by
the public. Those officials charged
with COVID-19 management must
improve case tracking to include the
results of home testing, coordinate
national and global surveillance of
COVID-19 variants, and facilitate
wastewater surveillance of the virus,
which can be an early indicator of a
COVID-19 variant or a generalized
outbreak.
At the same time, the government
should encourage home testing, opti-
mize the path from testing to delivery
of oral COVID-19 medications, fund
the development of more comfort-
able and durable protective masks, and
push for better ventilation in residen-
tial buildings, businesses and schools.
As we continue the battle against
COVID-19 into the third year, recall
the eloquence of Winston Churchill as
the tide was turning in World War II:
“This is no time for boasts or glowing
prophecies, but there is this — a year
ago our position looked forlorn, and
well-nigh desperate, to all eyes but our
own. Today we may say aloud before
an awe-struck world, ‘We are still mas-
ters of our fate. We still are captain of
our souls.’”
█
Dr. Cory Franklin is a retired intensive
care physician. Dr. Robert A. Weinstein
is an infectious disease specialist at Rush
University Medical Center.
OTHER VIEWS
Uvalde police let down parents, community
Editorial from the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch:
A CNN reporter correctly con-
fronted the Uvalde, Texas, school dis-
trict chief of police on June 1, refusing
to take no for an answer when Chief
Pedro Arredondo repeatedly tried to
sidestep the reporter and avoid an-
swering crucial questions about last
month’s school massacre. Arredondo
escaped through a door, after which
the school district announced that it
would arrest any reporter found on
school district property.
These aren’t the actions of admin-
istrators and officers interested in an
honest assessment of what went wrong
in a school shooting that left 19 chil-
dren and two educators dead. These
are the actions of officials doing their
best to evade accountability for the ap-
parent hand-wringing cowardice of a
commander who restrained law en-
forcers from taking action to save pre-
cious lives.
The threat to arrest reporters applies
not just to Robb Elementary, the scene
of the massacre, but any school district
property where reporters wait to speak
with officials. A video posted on Twit-
ter June 1 showed four school district
officers informing reporters that they
were regarded as trespassers and sub-
ject to arrest.
The pathetic story of Arredondo’s
inaction, which may have cost the
lives of wounded children, seems to
get more pathetic by the day. At first,
Uvalde law enforcers looked like he-
roes when stories circulated of al-
leged heroism in the first minutes of
the school attack. But on closer in-
spection, it became clear that Arre-
dondo behaved like a bumbling, in-
decisive coward.
U.S. Border Patrol officers, a po-
lice SWAT team and others waited
anxiously for the order to go in as
the shooter continued his rampage.
Parents pleaded with officers to stop
standing around and take action. One
mother broke through a cordon to res-
cue her child. They handcuffed her. In
the shooter’s presence, children were
texting their parents, pleading for help.
But for 80 minutes, Arredondo —
the incident commander in charge —
held back. Some parents have good
reason to believe that their wounded
children might have bled out during
that waiting period. It’s unclear
whether additional victims were shot
while Arredondo was holding back.
Uvalde’s mayor, expressing outrage,
asked the Justice Department to in-
vestigate.
CNN reporter Shimon Prokupecz
confronted Arredondo directly at his
office — not on school grounds — to
ask why Texas Department of Public
Safety officials are saying Arredondo
wasn’t cooperating with their investiga-
tion. Arredondo claimed his office was
in contact with them, then fell back on
the excuse that families are burying
their loved ones and, “out of respect,”
he would wait for them to finish griev-
ing before answering questions.
Those families will never stop griev-
ing. They deserve answers. It’s too
bad that they, like the families whose
children were slaughtered in the 2019
Parkland, Florida, school massacre,
had to put their trust in a law enforcer
who seemed to have lost his nerve
when the ability to summon courage
might have saved lives.
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