NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
A3
Eastern Oregon leaders react to plan to reopen Oregon
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
State Reps. Mark Owens,
R-Crane, and Daniel Bonham,
R-The Dalles, and state Sen.
Lynn Findley, R-Vale, talked
about the fallout from Gov.
Kate Brown’s three-phase
plan to open businesses
during a virtual town hall
hosted by Findley on May 7.
While Oregon may soon
begin to reopen, the legis-
lators agreed that this does
not mean things are going
back to normal. Findley said,
while counties have submit-
ted plans for
reopening to
the state for
approval,
Phase 1 still
won’t begin
until
May
Sen. Lynn 15 at the ear-
Findley, liest for some
R-Vale
counties.
Bonham
said hearing the governor’s
plan was difficult.
“We’ve been proceed-
ing down a path to try and
meet some Phase 1 guide-
lines and get people back to
work ... and a little bit of that
was modi-
fied today,”
Bonham
said. “Goal
posts were
changed, and
areas of the
Rep. Mark
state were
Owens,
not reflected
R-Crane
in the guide-
lines.
(I)
certainly did not anticipate
statements of large group
activities not happening prior
to the end of September.”
Brown announced on
May 7 that all large gather-
ings, such as sporting events
and fairs, will not be allowed
until the state has access to a
vaccine or reliable treatment
for COVID-19.
“The Oregon Health
Authority is advising that
any large gathering of these
through September should
either be canceled or signifi-
cantly modified,” Brown said.
Findley pointed out that
county fairs would not be
available until Phase 3, which
is cause for concern.
“Now the governor’s office
did say today that they would
like to give the ability for coun-
ties to figure out how to have
their livestock events so youth
can raise them and somehow
figure out how to show them
and sell because most of that
money goes to educational pur-
poses,” Findley said. “I asked
the governor about the Pendle-
ton Round-Up, and it does not
look favorable.”
Owens said all of the coun-
ties in House District 60 have
submitted their plans for
reopening.
Findley said cooperation
between state legislators, coun-
ties and cities has been one pos-
itive result from COVID-19.
“The three of us hold
bi-weekly phone calls with
all the county commissioners
in Senate District 30,” Find-
ley said. “We have lengthy
calls, and everyone speaks and
everyone talks. We plot, share
information and work on sce-
narios on how we can move
forward.”
Findley noted several times
that Phase 1 for reopening will
not begin until May 15, and
only then for counties whose
plans have been approved by
the state. Some of the busi-
nesses that may reopen are
restaurants, bars, select retail
stores and salons.
Restaurant adapts to survive amid coronavirus pandemic
Wholesale grocery
sales filling the dine-
in void
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
While the country finds
itself in an era where toilet
paper, hand sanitizer and disin-
fectant wipes are in short sup-
ply as COVID-19 continues to
ransack the U.S. economy, a
couple of local small business
have shown there is a surplus
of hope and business savvy,
especially when it comes to
accommodating the changes in
the way the community buys
food.
The outbreak has led local
restaurants to shutter their din-
ing rooms temporarily, with
some transitioning to takeout
or delivery. For Squeeze-In
Restaurant owner Shawn Dun-
can, neither would work for her
business and clientele.
Instead, on the advice of her
sales representative from her
restaurant supply company, she
has been selling hard-to-find
food service items wholesale
— from flour and yeast to toi-
let paper and paper towels —
to people in the community.
Duncan said, at first, she
was not sold on the idea of sell-
ing food and restaurant supply
items out of the Squeeze-In.
“At first, I said no, I’m a
restaurant, not a grocery store,
so then he said think about it
for a few days,” Duncan said.
“Then I thought about it, and
I said, what the heck, I’m not
doing anything anyway, and
then it just blew up.”
Duncan said the reve-
nue stream has allowed her
to keep up on operating costs
and essentials without deplet-
ing what she has in savings or
requiring her to take out addi-
tional loans. As it was, she said
she had applied for the Small
Business
Administration’s
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Shawn Duncan, the owner of the Squeeze-In Restaurant, chats
with a customer May 5. Duncan, who opted to close the Squeeze-
In temporarily when Gov. Kate Brown mandated restaurants
statewide to close or switch to takeout to prevent the spread of
the coronavirus, shifted to selling grocery items and food ser-
vice supplies.
Payroll Protection Program
loan, but never heard back.
Selling groceries is help-
ing Duncan’s restaurant sup-
plier, Sysco, the nation’s larg-
est food service distributor.
The company said it cut more
than a third of its employees
in response to the coronavirus
pandemic. The Houston-based
company, in addition to sup-
plying restaurants, took a huge
blow, losing revenue streams
as institutional cafeterias,
schools and large events shut-
tered in March.
Duncan
takes
orders
through Facebook, by phone
and text message and has an
order form on Google Docs.
She said orders need to be
placed by noon Sundays and
Wednesdays for Monday and
Thursday pickups from noon
to 5 p.m. at the restaurant.
She said roughly 50 people
from around the county have
been ordering from her each
week.
Duncan said people have
been most grateful for items
like flour and yeast.
“They have more time to
prepare their own food with the
stay-at-home and social dis-
tancing orders,” Duncan said.
Having the option to get the
products locally not only keeps
revenue in the county, but also
lessens the amount of trips out-
side of the area.
Longtime Squeeze-In cus-
tomer Howard Geiger, who
traveled from the end of Pine
Creek Road to pick up his gro-
ceries, said the transformation
to a store has allowed him to
avoid trips to big box retailers
in Bend or Ontario, thus elim-
inating the risk of contracting
the virus.
The unlikely win-win part-
nership between a small busi-
ness like the Squeeze-In and
a multinational corporation
like Sysco is part of a grow-
ing trend of restaurants, both
big and small across the coun-
try, that are not going down
without a fight as the hospital-
ity industry struggles to survive
the worst of the economic fall-
out of the pandemic.
Grocery sales are part of a
fast-growing offensive to save
the industry as analysts and
operators have been quoting an
estimate that 75% of the inde-
pendent restaurants that have
been closed to protect Amer-
icans from the coronavirus
won’t make it.
Sheriff, district attorney won’t enforce business closures, but OSHA still issuing fines
OSHA: ‘It is our expectation that employers
comply with the governor’s executive order’
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Although the district attor-
ney and sheriff said last week
they will not enforce require-
ments or prosecute busi-
ness owners for defying state
orders to remain closed, busi-
nesses still run the risk of fines
from the Oregon Occupational
Safety and Health Adminis-
tration and other governing
agencies.
“It is our expectation that
employers comply with the
governor’s executive order,”
said Aaron Corvin, OSHA’s
Public Information Officer.
“Those businesses that are able
to operate need to take appro-
priate steps to protect their
employees from a recognized
hazard.”
A willful violation of OSHA
rules carries a minimum fine of
$8,900, according to the agen-
cy’s guidance.
Grant County District
Attorney Jim Carpenter said
that some businesses, such
as hair salons, are licensed
through the state and need to
be mindful of the risks should
they plan to reopen.
“I only have the authority to
deal with crimes in the state,”
not regulatory agencies, Car-
penter said.
Grant County Sheriff Glenn
Palmer said businesses regu-
lated by state licensure agen-
cies are not his jurisdiction.
“Those typically are health
or other regulatory agencies
that I am not getting involved
in,” Palmer said. “Those agen-
cies typically have administra-
tive processes that deal with
violations and are typically
horribly severe.”
Carpenter said, despite his
decision to not prosecute busi-
ness owners who decide not to
follow the governor’s direc-
tives, he does not want to triv-
ialize the seriousness of the
coronavirus pandemic.
“I believe that prevention
is worth something in every-
thing we do,” Palmer said.
“From personal hygiene to per-
sonal choices, there are conse-
quences for not taking preven-
Contributed photo
Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer at County Court April 22.
Palmer issued a statement May 5 that his office will ease social
distancing restrictions and not enforce the governor’s stay-
home orders.
District Attorney Jim Carpen-
ter said his office will not pros-
ecute business owners who
defy the governor’s stay-home
orders.
tative measures in everything
we do.”
Carpenter said he is not tell-
ing business owners to open
if they are concerned about
the virus. He said he real-
izes how politically polariz-
ing the COVID-19 pandemic
has become in the last couple
of months.
“A certain type of political
animal always finds something
mate across out state and nation
right now, there is a lot of dis-
trust in government from a lot
of people.”
Politics aside, Carpenter
said the closures to businesses
and the stay-home orders have
become more damaging to the
community.
“The cure is more damaging
at this point,” Carpenter said.
Palmer said requiring those
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
to boost its platform,” Carpen-
ter said. “I’m not picking any
specific group.” He said that
“political animal” exists on
both sides of the political aisle.
“Was it over blown or polit-
ically polarized? I am not sure,
but I think that the response
and mandates we see in areas
of little to no cases are unjusti-
fied and unwarranted,” Palmer
said. “With the political cli-
who are not sick, or known to
be exposed, to close their busi-
nesses or to maintain social dis-
tance is not justifiable in Grant
County.
“We are mandating locals
to close their businesses but yet
we see people here from out of
the area in Washington, Idaho
and California plated vehicles
that apparently have the free-
dom to travel as they will,”
he said. “If we are requiring
locals and taking them to task
on opening a business, how
can we justify those that are
coming here or merely passing
through?”
Palmer said his office would
resume full service functions,
including fingerprinting and
concealed handgun licenses,
but jail visits will not resume
yet.
“The sheriff’s office is an
essential service, and we didn’t
have to take the precautions we
did, but being a public safety
agency, we believed it would
be prudent to take safety mea-
sures because of the amount of
people come into contact with
and some of the people we
contact are what we consider
high risk for exposure to a lot
of illnesses,” Palmer said.
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