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STATE MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, April 1, 2020 A9 Self-service fueling allowed in Oregon through April 11 By Les Zaitz Oregon Capital Bureau As the new coronavirus took hold in Oregon, work- ers who perform one of life’s most routine jobs — pump- ing gas — started to panic. In Pacific City, visitors in town for the first weekend of spring break swarmed one service station, prompting employees to walk off the job and forcing the station to close. Across the state, ser- vice station owners started reporting growing fear and dwindling work forces. “We have employees that are sick, uncomfort- able about coming to work and staying home to take care of their kids,” one sta- tion owner wrote in an email shared by the Oregon Fuels Association. “This is creat- ing a manpower shortage.” Company after company in the early days of the pan- demic’s spread in Oregon reported challenges keeping stations open. On Saturday, Oregon State Fire Marshal Jim Walker suspended the state’s ban on self-service fueling, an order in place through at EO Media Group file photo Aaron Roark pumps gas at the Sinclair station in Pendleton. Self-service fueling is allowed throughout Oregon through April 11. least April 11. Rudy Owens, a public affairs specialist in Walk- er’s office, said a devel- oping “critical shortage of workers” led to the decision, made in collaboration with Gov. Kate Brown. He said there was growing worry that essential workers who need to drive to get to work, such as health care work- ers and police and medics, would run out of places to fuel up. “In certain parts of Ore- gon, if attendants are unavailable, there is no gas,” Owens said. “Our hope is this is going to be very short term and that there is no harm.” Owens said Oregonians who elect to pump their own gas have to take the same precaution they do with touching any other poten- tially contaminated ser- vice, whether it’s a grocery store cart or the door to a store. He said sanitizing and hand washing will be essen- tial because station workers won’t be able to clean pump nozzles after every custom- er’s use. Mike Freese, a lobbyist for the Oregon Fuels Associ- ation, said that station own- By Jake Thomas Oregon Capital Bureau By Dick Hughes For the Oregon Capital Bureau Gov. Kate Brown said the far-reaching executive order she issued this week should not stop immediate families from motoring for relaxation or driv- ing to a trailhead, as long as they maintain proper social dis- tancing while hiking. “The goal here is to limit your social circles. The goal is to stay away from crowds. The goal is to maintain social dis- tancing,” Brown said of Ore- gon’s efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19. Oregon State Police Super- intendent Travis Hampton noted that most campgrounds and boat ramps are closed, so Oregonians and visitors should research their plans before heading out. In a letter sent to all police agencies in Oregon, he emphasized that Brown’s order was not close to martial law. People don’t need documenta- tion showing they are traveling legally to or from work or other permitted activities. “There are no curfews and a person’s movements are not restricted under the Governor’s Executive Order,” Hampton wrote. “While details are offered in the order relating to social dis- tancing, specific business clo- sures and non-essential social gatherings, [Oregonians’] move- ments are generally unrestricted.” Motorists should not be pulled over under suspicion of violating the executive order. “If, however, you are commit- Capital Bureau file photo Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum ment, two were sent to 7-11 stores for charging excessive prices for sur- gical masks. One store is located at 4715 NE Columbia Blvd. in Portland. The other is located at 2002 Lancaster Drive NE in Salem. Phone numbers listed for each of the 7-11 stores were not functional. A message sent to an email address for media inquires on 7-11’s corporate website Thursday afternoon was not immediately answered. Another letter accused the AM-PM convenience store at 501 Lancaster Drive NE in Salem of selling exces- sively priced bottled water. No one answered the phone at a number for the store listed online, and the call did not go to voicemail. A fourth letter was sent to Keizer Food Market at 4495 River Road N., for excessively raising its price of toi- let paper. Luke Peca, store manager, denied the accusation. “We don’t even sell toilet paper,” another company with 21 stations reported, “My man- agers are extremely con- cerned about getting people who are willing and feel safe enough to come to work.” The executive said one- fourth of its work force was off sick. “We have one very busy station. We have only three employees. They are all sick,” another owner wrote. In another location, “We have five employees, four of them called sick and the fifth was not comfortable to work out of concern for him- self and his grandmother at home. We ended up closing the station.” Romain said Saturday that stations have already closed in several cities, including Lake Oswego, Eugene, Government Camp, Clatskanie and Hood River. Oregon and New Jersey are the only states to ban self-service gasoline. Ore- gon, however, allows excep- tions. In 2016, residents in rural counties with popula- tions under 40,000 gained the right to pump their own fuel at night. Last year, they were allowed to fuel anytime. Brown says goal of stay-home order is to maintain social distancing and avoid crowds Oregon attorney general targets four stores for excessive price hikes of essentials during outbreak The Oregon Department of Justice is accusing four convenience stores of price-gouging on sales of toilet paper, bottled water and surgical masks. The agency on Tuesday issued cease-and-desist letters to two stores in Salem and one each in Keizer and Portland that said they were charging an “unconscionably exces- sive price” for goods that have been in high demand during the coronavi- rus outbreak. Last week Gov. Kate Brown declared an “abnormal disruption to the Oregon marketplace” because of the coronavirus pandemic. The decla- ration followed reports of stores sell- ing out of toilet paper and hand sani- tizer or selling these and other items at exorbitant prices. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum can use the state’s consumer pro- tection laws against companies that increase the price of essential prod- ucts by 15% or more. Essential prod- ucts include food, fuel, water, clean- ing products and medical supplies and services. Since setting up a price-goug- ing hotline on March 16, the Justice Department received over 100 phone calls and complaints, according to spokeswoman Kristina Edmunson. The letters don’t specify how much stores were charging for essential goods. They notify each store that the department has received one or more complaint about them charging exces- sive prices and orders them to stop. The letters also warn that the attorney general may seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation and require businesses to pay restitution to injured consumers. Of the letters issued by the depart- ers would use attendants to clean equipment as possible “but there is no assurance the equipment will get san- itized after every use.” The association approached Brown’s office on Thursday, March 19, ask- ing that the state’s ban be lifted. “Many gas attendants are unable to come to work due to sickness, access to chil- dren issues (with children at home) as well as the plethora of issues people are facing right now,” Freese and his lobbying partner, Danelle Romain, wrote in an email to two of Brown’s staffers. “This is an emergency.” The following day, the association shared reports it was getting from station owners across the state. The reports came before state authorities started listing a rapidly increasing number of Oregonians testing posi- tive for COVID-19. One company with 24 stations said one-third of its workers were off duty and that “employees are unwill- ing to continue face-to-face, hand-to-hand contact with customers.” An executive with he said. Edmunson said in an email that the department has followed up on many complaints by contacting the busi- ness or sending out an investigator. She said that businesses often don’t understand the state’s price-gouging laws and will lower prices after being contacted. “If we are not satisfied, we will fol- low-up with a cease-and-desist letter,” she said. “We have been monitoring the complaints closely and will proba- bly be sending more out.” The declaration also applies to online retailers. Rosenblum was one of 33 state attorneys general who signed a letter sent on Wednesday to Amazon, Craigslist, eBay, Facebook and Walmart warning them that they aren’t exempt from state price-goug- ing laws. The letter cited one inci- dent where a two-liter bottle of hand sanitizer was sold online for $250 on Craigslist. ting a traffic violation or crime that would be enforced inde- pendent of the order, you may be stopped, like any other day,” he wrote. In her executive order, Brown said the need for a strong “Stay Home, Save Lives” direc- tive was reinforced by seeing that crowds had gathered last weekend at the Oregon Coast, Smith Rock State Park, Colum- bia River Gorge and other places in defiance of social dis- tancing guidelines. State parks, public and pri- vate campgrounds, and many other recreation sites now are closed, either under the gover- nor’s order or voluntarily. Ore- gonians are allowed to go out- side for recreation so long as they maintain appropriate social distancing — at least six feet, except for family members liv- ing in the same residence. Oregon’s beloved ocean beaches are not closed, but get- ting there – legally – could be problematic. “The state parks clo- sure doesn’t impact the ocean shore, but it does close all state park-managed parking lots and beach accesses,” said Liz Merah of the Governor’s Office. “The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has the authority to close the beach temporarily for health reasons.” And that department said in the FAQs posted online, “If peo- ple don’t get the message that clumping up and overwhelming local areas is a bad idea, we’ll have to revisit the decision to leave all beaches open.” State will release more COVID-19 data making Oregon’s response more transparent legislators and the public with “a clear data-based stan- dard” for making changes to the executive order and “additional information on health care system capac- ity, with regular updates on COVID-19 hospitaliza- tions including patient acu- ity data and recovery rates to ensure executive and legis- lative actions are responsive to maintaining systemwide resilience and readiness.” “With this, we urge an approach that continues to protect public health while Monday - Thursday 7am- 6pm Monday - Thursday 7am- 6pm Friday 8am - 5pm Friday Sharpe 8am - 5pm Mendy FNP Mendy Sharpe FNP Apppointments available limiting harm to the econ- omy, by communicating with the public that these are tem- porary measures that will be re-evaluated within a clear framework as circumstances change,” the letter said. On Wednesday, Brown announced that Oregon hos- pitals had 2,028 available non-ICU beds, 394 available ICU beds and 608 available ventilators. “And there will be more information coming soon,” she said. State officials report that COVID-like symp- toms make up a small pro- portion of visits to hospi- tal emergency rooms, but the percentage has been increasing. A MAN WAKES UP in the morning after sleeping on... an advertised bed, in advertised pajamas. He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR, have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE. Then it’s too late. AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK? DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it! Blue Mountain Eagle S181017-1 wide executive order issued Monday that closes more businesses and imposes greater social distancing restrictions. “While we broadly sup- port this action, we also believe it comes with an obligation on behalf of the Governor’s office to ensure this order is bolstered with additional access to infor- mation in order to be carried out in a clear and transparent manner,” the letter said. The state representatives asked that Brown provide S181015-1 Oregon officials will begin releasing more data about the march of the coro- navirus pandemic. Gov. Kate Brown told reporters during a confer- ence call on Wednesday that she has ordered the Oregon Health Authority to share “all COVID-19 information with the public that does not compromise patient pri- vacy.” That includes more exact age ranges of patients, hospitalization status and the number of available hos- pital beds and ventilators for COVID-19 patients. Legislators, journal- ists and others have asked repeatedly for data that track the current situation. The OHA only had been releas- ing cumulative data from Jan. 24, plus daily updates on confirmed cases, testing and deaths. Oregon House Repub- licans sent Brown a let- ter responding to her state- S181013-1 139101 By Dick Hughes For the Oregon Capital Bureau MyEagleNews.com 541-523-6377 541-963-6577 541-573-6377 541-576-2160 Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
