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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2020)
PULSE: COVID-19 shows doctors they can ‘see’ patients by telemedicine— INSIDE Wednesday, June 24, 2020 152nd Year • No. 26 • 16 Pages • $1.50 MyEagleNews.com Residents demand more oversight at EOC By Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle Tempers flared during the June 17 Grant County Court Session as res- idents demanded accountability of how county com- missioners spent thousands of dollars at the Emergency Operations Center and flouted Oregon public meeting law Frances while overspend- Preston ing its budget by $75,000 in less than four months. Despite word the county will receive $335,000 in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act dol- lars to reimburse the county for 100% of the money spent at the EOC, Grant County citizen Frances Preston said the county lacks a “mechanism of The Eagle/Steven Mitchell From left, Grant County Commissioner Sam Palmer, the Emergency Operations Center Public Information Officer, Coun- ty Judge Scott Myers and Commissioner Jim Hamsher, the liaison to the EOC, answer questions about the appearance of a conflict of interest during a tense Grant County Court special meeting June 17. oversight.” “The group chose not to do, as requested by the judge, to come back to court in 45 days and ask for more money,” she said. “There was money spent that did not follow the process, and we appear to be holding no one accountable.” Documents presented to the court in May by former Incident Commander Dave Dobler show the EOC spent nearly $200,000, after being budgeted $125,000. County Commissioner and EOC liaison Jim Hamsher told Preston that she was not “even speaking the truth,” and the court did approve the purchases. Hamsher said the reason the EOC’s budget did not come back to the court for public deliberation was that Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 shut-down orders closed the courthouse and other county offices, making it impossible for the court to hold a public meeting. Furthermore, the commissioner said a year-old motion the court passed allows the county judge to approve purchases of budgeted items outside of county court. Brown’s executive orders, how- ever, allow for in-person meetings with appropriate social distancing guide- lines, “authorizing state and local gov- ernments to take necessary measures to ensure continued operations and pub- lic participation in decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Jack Orchard, a lawyer from Ball Janik LLP, said he does not believe the governor has the authority to issue orders on public meetings law. “The legislature has not delegated to the governor the right to disregard these basic public meetings standards,” he said. See EOC, Page A16 PREPARING FOR A SPIKE Grant County health officials say county is prepared in case of an uptick in cases By Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle s the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Union County soared to 240 last week, Grant County health officials said the county is better sit- uated than others to handle an uptick in positive cases. “We’re in a good position right now,” Grant County Health Department Administrator Kimberly Lindsay said. “We have the personal protective equipment, the testing and the contact tracing to handle a spike in cases.” Lindsay said, between the hospital and the Health Department, the Kimberly county has 500 test kits. Lindsay Blue Mountain Hos- pital Emergency Medical Services Director Rebekah Rand said the hospital has been watching the situation unfold in Union County, having discus- sions about what the implications could mean for Grant County. Rand said the hospital met Friday to “review and reaffirm” the hospital’s “surge plan.” The hospital, she said, has rapid test- ing capability, which can provide a result in roughly 15 minutes and ensures the hospital can quickly identify, isolate and treat positive cases. The Eagle/Steven Mitchell See Spike, Page A16 Grant County Health Department staff unload personal protective equipment May 7 during the department’s curbside COVID-19 testing. County health officials say the county can administer upwards of 500 tests to identify and isolate new cases of COVID-19. A Grant County set to receive $335,000 in COVID-19 reimbursement By Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle As the Emergency Operations Cen- ter faced scrutiny for its budget short- fall and lack of transparency during the June 17 Grant County Court ses- sion, the court received news that the county will receive $335,000 from the state’s local government reimburse- ment program from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. County Commissioner Sam Palmer, EOC public information officer, moved to appoint EOC liaison County Com- missioner Jim Hamsher as the grant administrator. Hamsher said people do not real- ize how much time it took for the EOC staff to stay on top of the ever-chang- ing guidelines and information com- ing out of Salem as they worked to put together the county’s phase one reopening plan. He said one of the biggest hurdles to overcome was how the governor’s office’s guidelines did not take into account how vastly different rural life is in comparison to urban life. “There’s a disconnect between urban Oregon and rural Oregon,” he said. For example, Hamsher said the state requires rural fire chiefs in the county to report burn rates on personal protec- tive equipment, but unlike many urban parts of the state, rural fire departments in Grant County do not provide emer- gency medical services. So the rural fire departments end up submitting, for the most part, the same report to Salem each week, he said. Hamsher said Gov. Kate Brown wants to have an aide talk to a repre- sentative from each county weekly now for 30 minutes a week. “I think that would be helpful,” he said. “There’s a disconnect when they don’t talk to county commissioners, and we have to watch a briefing on the news.” He said he is not sure who that county representative will be, but since he has stayed informed, he would like to represent the county. He said he has put in the time and effort, upwards of 1,000 hours through the pandemic, while he has got paid for just 13.3 hours per week. “It’s a lot of work trying to keep up with all of these recommendations and changes,” he said. “You do tend to learn some stuff when you devote over 1,000 hours.” Oregon Department of Administra- tive Services Communications Direc- tor Liz Merah said the top priority with the first round of reimbursements was to replenish the money local govern- ments put out for their direct public health coronavirus response efforts. “Under the first round of this pro- gram, the DAS will reimburse local governments for eligible costs incurred between March 1 and May 15,” she said. She said local governments are required to submit reimbursement requests based on a list of allowable expenses. Allowable expenses include medi- cal expenses for public hospitals, clin- ics, and similar facilities. Public health expenses include communication and enforcement, for which the county received roughly $15,000, protective equipment, the cost to disinfect pub- lic areas and facilities and public safety measures. The county received $17,000 for medical and protective supplies and roughly $55,0000 for technical assis- tance and threat mitigation of the virus. Payroll expenses for employees dedicated to the COVID-19 response efforts totaled $215,000.