WEDNESDAY • March 31, 2021 • Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
Vaccine rollout in Central Oregon
State fines
Participation not 100% at health centers coffee shop
for skirting
COVID-19
safety rules
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
Neither of Central Oregon’s larg-
est health care centers has a fully
COVID-19 vaccinated workforce.
St. Charles Health System, which
has four hospitals and employs
4,500 people, reports that 72% of its
staff has been vaccinated. Mosaic
Medical, with 15 clinics in Central
Oregon and 369 employees, has 90%
of its 31 primary care providers vac-
cinated for COVID-19. No data was
available for the other Mosiac em-
ployees.
There are a number of reasons
why someone who is eligible to re-
ceive the COVID-19 vaccine has
chosen not to,” said Richard Ben-
nett, Mosaic Medical chief clinical
integration officer. “For some people
it isn’t a hard no to the vaccine, but
they just need more time to observe
and learn before saying yes.”
Although state law does not re-
quire employees to be vaccinated for
COVID-19, not having 100% partic-
ipation sends a negative message to
the community, said Chunhuei Chi,
Oregon State University professor
in the Global Health Program and
director of the Center for Global
Health in Corvallis.
Health officials have maintained
that the best way to tamp down the
spread of the virus is by creating
so-called herd immunity, which is
when 70% to 85% of the community
is vaccinated against the virus.
See Vaccine / A13
Kevista Coffee’s violations
total $27,470, says OSHA
BEND RESTAURANTS
STARVE FOR WORKERS
BY MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
A Bend coffee shop that willfully
disregarded COVID-19 regulations
on mask-wearing, social distancing
and closure orders has been slapped
with a $27,470 fine by state regulators.
Kevista Coffee on Bend’s west side
was hit with the fine Tuesday for vi-
olating three standards designed to
protect employees from coronavirus,
according to a release from Oregon
Occupational Safety and Health.
Owners of the coffee shop, Kevin
and Krista Lauinger, spent the past
year ignoring COVID-19 rules, cre-
ating an uproar on social media in
Bend. Anti-mask supporters packed
into the coffee shop while detractors
blasted the couple on platforms such
as Yelp and Reddit.
See Fine / A4
JOHN COSTA
1944-2021
Former editor,
publisher of
The Bulletin,
dies at 76
BY BRENNA VISSER
The Bulletin
John Costa, the former longtime
editor of The Bulletin and well-known
voice in Central Or-
egon media, died
Tuesday at age 76.
Costa, who was
living in Richmond,
Virginia, at the time
of his death, died of a
heart attack, accord-
ing to his family.
Costa
Costa first came to
The Bulletin in 1997 as editor-in-chief.
He is remembered by friends and for-
mer colleagues as a smart, honest and
principled man, who was dedicated to
the job and had a good sense of humor.
“You could trust him,” said Bill
Smith, owner of William Smith Prop-
erties in Bend and an investor in The
Bulletin under its current ownership.
“You could trust what was in The
Bulletin was accurate, that he wasn’t
trying to politic or mislead.”
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Ted Swigert sits Tuesday in his restaurant, Drake, in downtown Bend. The restaurant has been closed for four months.
BY MICHAEL KOHN • The Bulletin
30% in the first three months of 2021 compared to the
same period last year. The outdoor patio is regularly
packed, and his take out business, started in April, is
going gangbusters.
“Our weekdays are like weekends now, that is how
busy it is, and our weekends are setting new records,”
said Swigert. “I think a lot of restaurants are experienc-
ing growth in spite of everything.”
While business is booming in the northwest Bend
neighborhood, things are quiet for Swigert down-
town. His iconic Drake restaurant on the corner of
Wall Street and Franklin Avenue is closed because he
can’t hire enough workers to get the doors open. Swi-
gert plans to get the store open in the coming weeks in
anticipation of a busy summer, but due to staff limita-
tions, he will have to limit the hours.
T
ed Swigert was eager to hire workers to fill
spots at his restaurant in NorthWest Crossing.
So much so that he was offering a $1,200 bo-
nus to work. Even that wasn’t enough to attract appli-
cants.
“No one answered the ad,” said Swigert, owner of
the Washington restaurant in NorthWest Crossing
and Drake restaurant in downtown Bend. “After that, I
thought, we are going to have to start poaching people.”
Swigert’s problem in hiring workers is becoming
endemic in Bend. As businesses start to reopen again
after a winter of pandemic closures, some find they are
unable to operate due to a lack of staff.
Swigert wants to hire workers because his North-
West Crossing location is booming, with revenue up
See Restaurants / A13
See Costa / A4
Oregon House Republicans say they won’t delay budget bills
Oregon House Republicans said
Tuesday that they will not use delay-
ing tactics on budget bills when they
come up for a vote.
House Minority Leader Christine
Drazan, R-Canby, issued a statement
that the Republicans would drop their
delaying strategy of requiring bills to
TODAY’S
WEATHER
be read in full when it came time to
consider the budget legislation.
“Part of this commitment is to en-
sure we have a balanced budget prior
to our constitutional deadline before
adjourning this session,” Drazan said.
Under the Oregon Constitution,
the Legislature must adjourn no later
than June 28. Budget bills are often
among the last items to come before
Sunny
High 74, Low 41
Page A12
INDEX
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A11-12
A14
A9-10
the Legislature as lawmakers wait
until after a state revenue forecast in
May.
The requirement to read bills in
full is in the Oregon Constitution, but
traditionally it is waived and only the
two-to-three sentence title of legisla-
tion is read out loud.
It takes two-thirds of the House —
40 votes — to override an objection to
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the waiver. Democrats have 37 seats.
While the tactic has been employed
in prior sessions on specific pieces of
controversial legislation, Drazan has
used it on all bills. The pace of legisla-
tion in the House has become glacial.
The refusal to allow just the title
to be announced leads to marathon
readings of bills that take hours.
On Tuesday, the House used a
A4
A10
A5-7
computer program to read the bills in
place of the clerks. First up was a 170-
page bill that changed the name of the
Oregon Liquor Control Commission
to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis
Commission.
Drazan’s statement on the budget
bills is the first crack in Republicans’
strategy.
See House / A13
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
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Vol. 119, No. 77, 14 pages, 1 section
DAILY
BY GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
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