A18
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Diplomas
Continued from Page A1
Contributed photo
Sandra Hehn, center, with her grandkids, from left to right, An-
drew Nordtvedt, Sarah Cole, Joe Cole and Maddie Nordtvedt.
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Distant
Senior pictures on display on the entrance fence to the Don L. Parker Memorial Field
in Prairie City.
Continued from Page A1
outlined by Oregon Department of Edu-
cation, Oregon Health Authority and
Gov. Kate Brown’s executive orders.
Monument School will also highlight
senior projects on social media closer
to the graduation date because seniors
didn’t get to finalize and present due to
the COVID-19 closures, Thomas said.
“We want the graduates and their par-
ents to know how proud we are of the
seniors,” Thomas said. “I have greatly
appreciated how, despite the situation,
we have all worked together to find the
best way possible to honor and celebrate
these five amazing young adults and
their accomplishments and transition to
their next chapter of life.”
The view Mulcahy has from
her room helps a lot as well.
“She has the best view of
the whole place,” Burns said.
Tara Cole, whose mother
Sandra Hehn is at Valley View,
said her experience overall has
been positive.
Cole said her mother lived
alone prior to living at Valley
View and that she would be
very worried right now if she
were still living by herself.
“We know it is for the best,
and she is getting great care
from the staff. It has been hard
emotionally for my mom as
Dayville School Superintendent
Kathryn Hedrick said the school’s two
graduates asked that the school postpone
and not cancel the graduation ceremony.
A date will be set when the state allows
gatherings. Their graduation date is still
officially May 30, but Hedrick added
that they anticipate an end-of-summer
celebration.
Margee Powell, from Long Creek
School, said one student is graduating
from Long Creek this year. The current
plan is to have a private ceremony for
James Kreamier Jr., who will receive his
diploma from his father, James Kream-
ier Sr., who is also on the Long Creek
School Board.
Economy
Continued from Page A1
ify for a Phase 1 opening that
would include recommended
limits of 50 miles for travel,
social distancing in retail
shops and restaurants and clo-
sure of restaurants and bars at
10 p.m. The final guidelines
will be published next week,
Brown said.
Gov. Brown, her staff and
OHA director Pat Allen held
an internet conference with
commissioners from rural
eastern Oregon Friday, includ-
ing Wallowa, Union, Wasco,
Morrow, Umatilla, Malheur
and Harney counties.
The meeting allowed com-
missioners to comment on
and ask questions about the
draft guidelines issued last
week. The take-away included
that it may be unlikely that
large gatherings of more than
250 people will be allowed
through the end of the sum-
mer, and that the governor’s
office is reluctant to include
opening of hair and beauty
salons in Phase 1.
Commissioners
also
EO Media Group/Ellen Morris Bishop
At a Friday emergency meeting hosted online, the three Wallowa County commissioners voted unanimously to apply to open under
Oregon’s Phase 1 guidelines as early as May 4. The guidelines provide rules for opening restaurants, bars, outdoor recreation busi-
nesses including outfitters and others. Commissioner Todd Nash participated via a phone link from important work with his cattle.
Administrative Assistant Stacey Fregulia, right, set up and ran the virtual meeting.
expressed concern over the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s allowance of
out-of state hunting and fishing
beginning May 5 and exactly
how they would be able to
show the required “downward
trend” since many of the par-
ticipating counties had few or
no COVID-19 cases.
Brown was unsure whether
personal services, such as hair
salons and manicures, which
allow fairly intimate contact,
would be included. The gover-
nor’s staff seemed acquainted
Grant
SWCD Weed
Weed Control
Control Dept.
Dept.
Grant SWCD
Working
for You
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2019
Working for
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Advisory Committee, Grant Weed Control is able to offer a 50% Cost
Share Program for Noxious Weed Control on Private Grazing Lands,
through a Title II funded Grant Project. This program will provide a
maximum $5,000 of noxious weed control services with a $2,500 maximum
landowner contribution to qualifying participants. To be eligible for
participation, the treatment property must not be actively irrigated and must
be primarily managed for livestock grazing, minimum of 20 acres in size,
located within Grant County, and must contain weed species listed on the
Grant County Noxious Weed List. Applications for this limited weed control
assistance opportunity will be funded on a first come first serve basis.
Applications due by June 5th.
Contact the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District Office at
(541) 575-1554 or visit 721 S. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 for
applications and additional information.
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only with large hair and nail
salons that seated a dozen or
more clients simultaneously,
but were unfamiliar with
smaller rural businesses. Wal-
lowa County Commissioner
Susan Roberts responded
that she had asked businesses
in Wallowa County to pro-
vide opening plans, and some
beauty parlors had provided
plans for opening.
“These shops out here are
one or two people shops,” she
said.
The same concern was
voiced by Morrow County
Commissioner Melissa Lind-
say, who told of a beautician
in Heppner who works with
one or two customers at a time
in their entire place.
“She has a plan already
written up on how she can
isolate and keep her custom-
ers safe,” she said. “The hard
thing is that, after I got off that
phone call, I drove past Wal-
Mart with a packed parking
lot, and I stepped into Safeway
— and walked right back out
the door because it was abso-
lutely packed. There was no
way customers were maintain-
ing the 6-foot distancing. If we
could phase it in for smaller
shops, I really think that these
parlors can do a good job of
distancing and protecting their
client’s health.”
Roberts pleaded for a
decision on Phase 1 opening
sooner than May 15.
“Lots of our restaurants
have submitted plans,” she
said. “But I just don’t know if
they can make it for two more
weeks. They are hanging on
by a very thin thread.”
Roberts also asked for
more specific information
about allowing larger gath-
erings later in the summer, a
concern shared by Umatilla
County Commissioner George
Murdock.
“When can we get some
specificity of gathering sizes?”
she prefers to leave the facil-
ity periodically and has not
not been able to have visitors,”
Cole said. “We remind her by
phone daily that it is for the
best, and she understands that.
Cole, who lives in Idaho,
said Memorial Day weekend is
when her family gets together
in Grant County to visit her
mother and celebrate Mother’s
Day, but she said she does not
see the restrictions being lifted
by then.
She said, however, that it did
give her peace of mind that the
restrictions were making her
mother safer.
“This is the population we
need to be protecting right
now,” she said.
Murdock asked. “We are
under some significant pres-
sure to make decisions on
upcoming events that require
a lot of preplanning. These are
multi-million dollar activities,
and we’re getting a little ner-
vous ...” referring specifically
to the Pendleton Round-Up.
Brown said they are work-
ing on it.
“September is a ways off,”
she said. “The challenge for
Oregon is to predict these
things. We don’t have a sense
of what will happen when we
start to open. So we need to
look at the science behind that.
It will be a few days, a couple
of weeks, before we make a
decision on that.”
Brown would not commit
to any date allowing larger
gatherings (presumably Phase
2).
“We aren’t controlling the
timeline,” she said. “The dis-
ease controls it. But you all are
doing a great job.”
Pat Allen, director of the
Oregon Health Authority, said
large gatherings were unlikely
to be allowed soon.
“Just to manage expec-
tations, I would tell you that
from our standpoint, we think
it’s extremely unlikely that we
would be providing advice
to the governor anytime this
summer that very large events
over 250 people are going to
be a good idea,” he said. “But
ultimately that decision has
not been made, and the gov-
ernor will have to give you
the timeline for that. But that’s
where I think we are from a
health advice standpoint.”
Wasco County Commis-
sioner Steve Kramer asked
whether there was a hard date
for approval of guidelines.
“It will be next week,”
Brown said Friday.
The Blue Mountain Eagle
contributed to this report.
Dear Community,
John Day Volunteer Firefighter Assocation would like to thank
the following community members and businesses. With great
regret, due to covid-19, we had to cancel this year’s event.
However, all the donations will be used towards next year’s
Easter Egg Hunt event.
Blue Mountain Lodge, Eastern Oregon Realty, Frontier
Equipment, John Day True Value, Stylish 10, Doug’s Motor
Repair, Mobile Glass, Bank Of Eastern Oregon, Rocky Mountain
Dispensary, Katrina’s Barber Shop, Dave’s RV, Squeeze Inn, Ed
Staub & Sons Petroleum, Les Schwab, Snaffle Bit, Leathers’ Gas,
Lens Drugs, RadioShack, Melanie Cochran, Old West FCU, John
Day Eye Care, Russell’s Custom Meats, Dark Horse, Mountain
View Mini-Mart, Farmers Insurance, OTC Connections,
Dreamers Lodge, A Cut Above, Hutch’s Printing, DG Driscoll’s
Books, Stephen Harwood, Etc. Gifts,
El Cocinero, Chuck’s Little Diner,
Prairie City Motor and Cycles,
Beverly Roe, A&Z Electronics,
Cloud 9 Hair Salon, John Day River Vet,
Norco Medical Supply, Triangle Oil, Bar WB
S186499-1
of their cars to take pictures.
The ceremony will also be lives-
treamed on the Grant Union Facebook
page. After graduates receive their diplo-
mas, there will be a parade at 11 a.m.,
which will be led by the John Day Police
Department, to Clyde Holliday State
Park.
“The police department will be lead-
ing them out for a ‘honk out’ parade
through town, kind of like what we do
for sport teams,” Gerry said.
Prairie City School plans to hold a
graduation ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday,
May 29, in their football field. The cer-
emony will also be a drive-in, with one
vehicle permitted for each graduate with
their immediate family.
Each graduate will have an opportu-
nity to walk across the stage to grab their
diploma. Their picture will also be taken
by a professional on the left part of the
stage in a designated area.
The ceremony will be followed by
a parade led by the Prairie City Fire
Department as parents and graduates
parade through downtown. Superinten-
dent Casey Hallgarth said Prairie City
School will be submitting the plan to the
EOC for approval.
Laura Thomas, the superintendent
for Monument School, said they will be
holding graduation as planned at 4 p.m.
Saturday, May 23. The school will be
altering the format to follow guidelines