EXPLORE GRANT COUNTY VISITOR GUIDE | INSIDE
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Wednesday, April 15, 2020
152nd Year • No. 16 • 18 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Maintaining mental
health amid a
public health crisis
Community Counseling Solutions
offers telehealth options and a free
peer-to-peer support line
urinalysis collection for
those in mandated drug and
alcohol rehabilitation.
As the new coronavirus
While Labhart said he
continues to wreak havoc on was not sure whether 12-step
the healthcare system and support groups were meeting
economy, half of all Ameri- via online platforms, he said
cans, according to an April 2 people can go to mystrength.
poll from the Kaiser
com for information
Family Foundation,
on drug and alcohol
reported that worry
support groups and
or stress related to
for additional infor-
mation about mental
the global pandemic
illness.
is having a negative
Labhart said the
impact on their men-
tal health.
effects of the virus
Traumatic events Thad Labhart and its implications
such as a serious ill-
on the collective
ness, a significant loss of mental health of the commu-
income or the death of a nity are “speculative.”
“We really don’t know
loved one rank high among
the most stressful experi- because it is all very new,”
ences that people endure, Labhart said.
according to a study from the
However, he said absent
National Institutes of Health. COVID-19, he wants people
Meanwhile, traditional to know that CCS can be a
face-to-face mental health local resource for them.
services rapidly shift to tele-
A barrier that Labhart
health. The state Department said he addresses any time
of Consumer and Business he talks to the media or part-
Affairs, which regulates the ners in the community is the
commercial insurance indus- stigma that surrounds mental
try, and the Oregon Health illness.
Authority, which oversees
“Stigma is a huge barrier,
Medicaid, loosened tele- particularly in a small town,
health regulations as the where we know our neigh-
COVID-19 outbreak rages bors and people have fears
about being judged for com-
across the state.
In Grant County, men- ing in,” Labhart said.
tal health services via phone
Before
COVID-19,
and internet have never been Labhart said that provid-
ers would meet some clients
more accessible.
“We were lucky enough away from the office, be it
to have a remote platform their home, a coffee shop or
in place before COVID- remotely.
19 popped up,” said Thad
“What better time to uti-
Labhart, clinical director lize our platforms where you
for Community Counseling can do it much more pri-
vately and on your own time
Solutions.
Labhart said the platform and dime,” Labhart said.
came to CCS through sec-
Labhart said he wants
ondary grant funding 16-18 people who are curious to
months ago and that 95% of know more about therapy
clients are being seen via the that there is no commitment
telehealth platform.
on their part to meet with
“We are trying to mitigate a provider over the phone,
folks coming in at all and online or in person.
trying to find alternatives to
“There is no commit-
have contact with them for ment; if you want to reach
their health and our staff’s out and talk to somebody and
kind of gauge what it might
health,” Labhart said.
Labhart said the drug be like and ask questions,
and alcohol rehabilitation we’ll gladly have a conversa-
groups have moved to indi- tion before we dive into a full
vidual, remote sessions. He assessment and a recommen-
said CCS is in the process of dation,” Labhart said. “We
bringing on a virtual group can make it what you want.”
meeting platform.
He said the state has
rolled back restrictions to
See Health, Page A18
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Chester’s Thriftway employee Tom Biggar stocks the dairy cooler Monday. Grocery stores across the country have struggled to keep
up with demand as consumers stockpile staple items to prepare for stay-at-home orders.
CHESTER’S THRIFTWAY
CLEARED OF PRICE GOUGING
Statewide, complaints persist of excessive price hikes
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
With the soaring costs of eggs tripling
in the month of March, Chester’s Thrift-
way in John Day fended off complaints of
price gouging and were officially cleared
by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice April 7.
“It is clear you have
not used the COVID
virus emergency as a
cause to price gouge on
the price of eggs,” said
Dale Geiger with Ore-
gon DOJ in an email Bill Wyllie
shared on the grocery
store’s Facebook page.
Longtime Operations Manager Bill
Wyllie, in the same post, said those with
further questions can make an appoint-
ment by calling 541-575-2141 to discuss
the pricing structure and details of the
cost of eggs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
said wholesale egg prices have tripled
since the beginning of March. According
to the same report from the USDA, many
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
When suppliers’ prices rise, grocers are faced with two options: pass along the cost to
consumers or take the hit to profit.
grocers are taking losses by not passing
along the increase to their customers.
Wyllie said Chester’s was among those
grocers last month, after their egg sup-
plier requested a retraction on an adver-
tisement because they could not honor the
published sale of two dozen eggs for $4.
Price gouging, according to the DOJ
website, is the sale of essential consumer
goods or services at an “unconsciona-
bly excessive price” after the governor
declares that an abnormal disruption of
the market exists. The law covers retail
outlets, merchants and wholesalers that
sell essential consumer goods, such as
food, water, fuel, medical supplies and
hotel rooms. Whether a product or ser-
vice is essential depends on the nature
See Prices, Page A18
‘IT IS CLEAR YOU HAVE NOT USED THE COVID VIRUS EMERGENCY
AS A CAUSE TO PRICE GOUGE ON THE PRICE OF EGGS.’
Dale Geiger with Oregon DOJ
State legislators discuss how to lift the Oregon economy
Findley, Owens, Bonham: ‘Flatten the curve, not the economy’
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Flatten the curve, not the econ-
omy: This was the message state
Reps. Mark Owens, R-Crane, and
Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, and
state Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale,
wanted to share as the predicted
number of COVID-19 cases go
down.
“The whole idea of social dis-
tancing and the restrictions that we
put in place was to flatten the curve,
and the data that we’re getting from
(the Oregon Health Authority) sug-
gest that we’ve done that,” Bon-
ham said. “Now the question is at
what point do you return to nor-
malcy? It’s the ques-
tion we’ve been ask-
ing the governor for
three weeks. ... Yes-
terday her answer
was 10-14 days of
no COVID-related
Rep. Mark
deaths.”
Owens
Bonham said he
appreciated the con-
cern for life but added that this mea-
surement would be tough to achieve.
On April 9, during a virtual town
hall meeting, the three state legis-
lators talked about the success that
Oregon has seen thanks to social
distancing and a focus on flattening
the curve with a report from state
health officials on April 2 showing a
decline of 50% to
70% of predicted
positive coronavirus
cases.
Findley said that
small businesses are
the backbone of the
Rep.
Lynn economy and that
Findley
these
restriction
have hurt them sig-
nificantly. He added that there are
now 80,000 unemployment insur-
ance applicants and that this pan-
demic could change how business is
done, even when it concludes.
Owens said, for businesses to
move forward, regulations put in
place because of the virus would
have to be toned down. Owens added
that an important part of address-
ing this problem is to not treat all of
Oregon the same.
One question came in talking
about restaurants hit by this crisis
and if there is a possibility to have
dine-in options with proper social
distancing measures.
“We hope, I think all three of
us, to get some rules from the gov-
ernor on social distancing so as
soon as we meet our goals we can
start phasing that in,” Owens said.
“I have a personal friend who is a
restaurant owner, and they are suf-
fering bad. We need to figure out
how we can maintain social distanc-
ing and allow people to come in and
start partaking, or we’ll lose them
(restaurants).”
See Economy, Page A18