TWO MEN CHARGED WITH MULTIPLE POACHING VIOLATIONS | PAGE A5
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
152nd Year • No. 20 • 14 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Grant County submits plan to reopen economy for approval
If approved, certain
businesses could
reopen May 15 with
some restrictions
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Emergency Operations
Center successfully submitted
Grant County’s reopening plan
Friday to the state for approval.
As of Sunday, according to
Gov. Kate Brown’s website,
Grant County’s plan is being
reviewed by the Oregon Health
Authority.
The process for evaluat-
ing reopening plans is on a
first-come, first-served basis,
according to the governor’s
website.
EOC Incident Commander
Dave Dobler said Brown’s
office released sector-specific
guidelines for restaurants, bars,
barbers and salons and updated
guidelines for retail, individu-
als and businesses.
As Friday marked the first
quate hospital surge
day counties in Ore-
gon could submit
capacity, quaran-
tine facilities and
plans to reopen grad-
ually in the aftermath
personal protec-
tive
equipment
of Brown’s stay-at-
and finalized sec-
home orders, counties
tor guidelines from
must demonstrate they
the state to commu-
can meet seven public
Interim Emergency nicate to individual
health criteria.
Management
businesses.
The benchmarks
Coordinator
Parts of those
counties must meet
Dave Dobler
criteria — PPE
include declining lev-
els of COVID-19 hos-
capacity, hospital
pital admissions, min-
and testing — must
imum levels of testing and be met within a health region,
contact tracing capacity, ade- groups of adjacent counties
established by the governor.
Grant County will be in
region seven, along with
Deschutes, Jefferson, Klam-
ath, Crook, Lake, Wheeler and
Harney counties.
Dobler said Thursday in
a teleconference meeting he
received confirmation that
region seven meets the criteria
to move forward.
Among the benchmarks
counties must hit in the gov-
ernor’s reopening plan is a
14-day decline in the number
of COVID-19 patients admit-
ted to hospitals — but this
does not apply to counties with
fewer than five positive cases
such as Grant County.
Grant County has had one
confirmed positive case in mid-
March, and the patient, who
was not identified, followed
all public health recommen-
dations, which included stay-
ing home and self-monitor-
ing for symptoms, according
to a health department press
release.
See Reopen, Page A14
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Judy Kerr, finance chief for the Emergency Operations Center,
presented a brief rundown of her job duties at the EOC. Kerr said
she tracks workers’ hours and costs for materials and supplies.
Contributed photo/Julie Watterson
Prairie City School special education assistants put packets together for students.
Special educators unified in
learning and helping families
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Teachers and administrators in
Grant County continue to teach stu-
dents and themselves as distance learn-
ing enters its fourth week of implemen-
tation amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Special education administrators in
Grant County shared their experience
on how distance learning has been a
learning experience for teachers, stu-
dents and parents.
“In our district, our case manag-
ers looked at each kid’s (Individual-
ized Educational Plan), and we talked
about what they were going to need,
their technology capability, and if their
parents are still working,” said Rhonda
McCumber, the director of special edu-
cation in the John Day District. “And
of course, lots of checking in and mak-
ing adjustments.”
Wendy Burrill, the Grant County
Education Service District Special
Ed Director/Specialist, said she can
say the same for other schools in the
county with how individualized dis-
tance learning has been for students.
Some kids adapted quickly when using
technology, but there were other kids
that struggled.
Each situation at home may be dif-
ferent, but individualized education
and helping parents is a priority for
administrators as distance learning is
Contributed photo
Marci Judd is a special education teach-
er at Humbolt Elementary.
applied in different ways.
At Prairie City School, Julie Wat-
terson, the special education director
there, said she sat and met with her
aids and decided from the beginning
that the best way for them to teach stu-
dents was to gather weekly packets and
hand them to students every Thursday
at 10 a.m.
Another priority for Watterson is to
schedule a time to reach out to parents
to see how they are doing and respond
to emails she receives.
Shelley Myers, the speech language
pathologist for Grant County schools,
said she called all the parents and set
up times for students to teach through
Google Meets. Many students are met
twice a week for their speech and lan-
guage therapy.
Technology provides the biggest
challenge in distance learning for the
county since it is a learning process for
students and teachers.
“Learning the technology was the
big one and getting everybody trained
on how to use Google classroom, and
by everybody I don’t just mean the stu-
dents, the teachers had to learn this stuff
too,” McCumber said. “Older kids can
understand the technology quickly, but
we start going into the primary grades,
and we have to rely on mom and dad
to help them, but sometimes they are
struggling with it as well.”
Myers added that technology has
been difficult at times due to the delay
in audio between the teacher and stu-
dent, which makes speech therapy diffi-
cult, but they continue to make it work.
Another struggle has been trying
to accommodate the supports students
had at school with distance learning,
according to Burrill. She said speech-
to-text or audio books were used with
the help of staff at school, but with
distance learning, the staff is learning
how to continue to provide these sup-
ports from a distance.
See Educators, Page A14
Emergency Operations
Center planning to request
additional $25K for more
protective equipment
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Grant County Emer-
gency Operations Center is
planning to ask for an addi-
tional $25,000 in funding for
personal protective equip-
ment at the next county court
session as the county looks
to ease into the first phase of
its reopening plan, according
to the county’s interim Emer-
gency Management Coordina-
tor Dave Dobler in the loca-
tion’s first onsite media tour
Friday at the Grant County
Regional Airport terminal.
County Judge Scott Myers
said Tuesday this week’s regu-
lar county court meeting was
canceled, but a special session
may be held later in the week.
He said the county recently
received a shipment of per-
sonal protective equipment.
Dobler could not be reached
Tuesday by press time to con-
firm whether he still intended
to request additional funding
for PPE.
As the county prepares to
ease back into a recognizable
version of normalcy with its
plan to reopen under review
with the Oregon Health
Authority, Dobler said Friday
the county needs to stay vigi-
lant as the community moves
forward to prevent a surge in
positive cases and address the
economic and mental health
costs related to COVID-19.
“This was a warmup and a
shot across the bow,” Dobler
said.
The EOC was activated
in early March in response
to the new coronavirus and
has been at the Grant County
Regional Airport terminal
since mid-April.
Dobler, a sheriff’s office
deputy, stepped into the lead
role in early March after an
emergency county court ses-
sion saw the departure of his
predecessor Ted Williams,
who cited a long-standing
feud with Grant County Sher-
iff Glenn Palmer.
Dobler said the EOC oper-
ates as a hub of information,
coordination and planning for
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dobler said he is requesting
approval to hire a grant writer
to apply for Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency’s
Public Assistance Grant made
available under the Coronavi-
rus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security Act. The FEMA Pub-
lic Assistance Grant, available
to state and local agencies,
offers up to 75% in reimburse-
ment for costs associated with
responding to the COVID-19
pandemic including overtime
labor expenses, EOC operat-
ing costs, PPE and search and
rescue.
See EOC, Page A14
Outlying communities share thoughts on pool
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
The final report has been com-
pleted for an aquatic center in Grant
County as city leaders outside of John
Day continue their discussions on the
proposal.
With Gleason Pool in John Day
scheduled to close for good after this
season, the proposal calls for a new tax-
ing district encompassing Prairie City,
Mt. Vernon, Canyon City and Seneca
and their rural fire districts with a per-
manent tax rate of 20 cents per $1,000
of a property’s assessed value for oper-
ations costs, as well as a 20-year bond
with a rate of 71 cents per $1,000 of
assessed value.
When Mt. Vernon and Canyon City
leaders received details on how the
aquatic taxing district would work,
they both sent out sur-
veys to measure the
response from the
public on the aquatic
taxing district.
Canyon
City’s
survey is currently
Kenny Delano being conducted with
results planned to
be revealed at their next city council
meeting on May 19. Meanwhile, Mt.
Vernon sent out 200 surveys with 30%
sending a response back to the city.
In Mt. Vernon, 81% of respondents
said they would not want to participate
in the pool venture, according to City
Recorder Tami Kowing.
Mayor Kenny Delano said, while
people in Mt. Vernon support the idea
of a pool in Grant County, the plan
to pay for the pool troubles many
residents.
“Our thought was
that we have quite a
bit of fixed income
residents that really
need any kind of
small reduction that
they can get (in taxes),
Jim Hamsher and one thing they
were looking forward
to was the hospital bond to drop off
(the tax rolls this year),” Delano said.
“Although it looks like a small amount,
it’s quite a bit for these folks.”
Delano said some residents said
they would prefer any taxes collected
to go toward projects in Mt. Vernon.
Delano said he wishes there were
a way to provide a pool that wouldn’t
be a long-term burden on taxpayers
because he believes the project to be
important for kids in Mt. Vernon, espe-
cially those who participate on the
swim team. However,
he said that’s a limited
number of kids, com-
pared to the impact
the new taxing district
would have.
Delano said the
Steve Fischer survey was a factor
when the city council
voted not to support the resolution for
Mt. Vernon to be included in the tax-
ing district during a city council meet-
ing on April 14.
Prairie City Mayor Jim Hamsher
said he hopes the pool steering com-
mittee will present the final report
to the aquatic district communities,
detailing the plans for the pool and tak-
ing questions from the public so citi-
zens can make an informed decision.
See Pool, Page A14