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NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Court
Continued from Page A1
three of us (court members)
who are sitting way too close
to each other.”
Myers pointed out that the
court members were not 6 feet
apart.
“This is not 6 feet. This is a
12-foot table. We’re at about 4
feet,” he said. “I’m just point-
ing that out. We’re not good
examples necessarily, but this
is a narrow room.”
Hailey Boethin, assistant
watermaster, asked the two
commissioners, who are lead-
ers at the county’s Emergency
Operations Center, why they
had not put tape on the floors
at the courthouse to indicate
social distancing guidelines
or put signage out during a
pandemic.
“I don’t understand why
those (directions) are not being
provided,” she said.
County
Commissioner
Sam Palmer, public informa-
tion officer at the EOC, told
Boethin that she was right, that
the county could have been
more responsive.
Boethin asked Hamsher
why, as a leader at the EOC,
he just visited the water depart-
ment two weeks ago. Hamsher
said because the courthouse
was closed until June 1 and that
he was waiting for direction
from both the county’s insur-
ance carrier and the state.
Planning Director Shan-
non Springer asked that uni-
form and consistent direction
be given to all departments.
“Every court member has
been to my office, and every
court member has given my
office direction, each one a lit-
tle bit different direction,” she
said. “A conversation between
you and me today and a conver-
sation between you and Kathy
tomorrow is inconsistent.”
Springer said it’s not just
about guidance but also about
communication. She said she
was in a meeting with Vicki
Bond, the county librarian, and
Bond did not know that Dave
Dobler was no longer the inci-
dent commander at the EOC.
Justice of the Peace Kathy
Stinnett said it appeared that
the court devoted a majority of
their time to the EOC.
“I think that’s a little bit of
the feeling we’re getting is that
everything was devoted to that
one emergency department,
and we’re left to figure out
what we’re supposed to do,”
she said.
Hamsher said their focus
was on reopening local
businesses.
“We had every business in
the county pretty much closed
down,” he said. “It was, I think,
our responsibility to get our
taxpayers back to work, get
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
their buildings and their busi-
nesses opened up in the fastest
manner possible.”
Stinnett said she understood
that those are his constituents.
“In addition to politics and
the constituents and, you know,
legislating, making rules, I just
think there’s room for some
administration,” she said.
Stinnett said she was mostly
addressing things after June 1.
Mindy Winegar, Grant
County Fairgrounds manager,
said the department heads just
want communication.
“I don’t think anybody is
saying nobody has done their
job or not,” she said. “We don’t
get communication.”
She said the department
heads do not know what hap-
pened to the EOC.
“It’s just like with the
EOC, we need the EOC, we
thought we needed the EOC
and then now department
heads don’t know what hap-
pened to it,” she said.
Winegar said she communi-
cates with Hamsher frequently,
but a group email “could be
really appreciated.”
Palmer said he would like
to move forward and look for
a resolution. He asked which
would be more reasonable,
working with county’s safety
committee or getting direction
straight from the court. The
court agreed to provide further
guidance through the safety
committee.
Hamsher said he had spo-
ken to all of the departments
where he is the designated liai-
son, sometimes multiple times
a week, and other departments
even where he is not the liaison.
Grant County District
Attorney Jim Carpenter told
the Eagle after the meeting that
he had not been contacted by
his designated court liaison,
Hamsher, “even once” during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Riding
Continued from Page A1
Grant County resident
and Vietnam veteran Bob
Van Voorhis said Highway
26 is the eighth highway in
Oregon dedicated to POWs/
MIAs.
Van Voorhis said events
like the highway dedication let
veterans know that the com-
munity is “all in” for them.
Larry Moyer, president of
the Central Oregon Chapter of
the VMA and a Persian Gulf
War veteran, said each rider
has a personal reason for par-
ticipating in the ride.
“For me it’s been really
important to be a part of some-
thing that takes care of veter-
ans that are in need,” he said.
Moyer said his uncle, a
World War II vet awarded the
silver star, the third-highest
military award for valor against
an enemy of the United States,
had post-traumatic stress disor-
der when he came back from
the war and ended up commit-
ting suicide.
“He ended up being one
of the 22 vets per day that
takes their life,” he said. “So
it touches me there, and when
you’re in the service, all this
stuff touches you all the time.”
Cliff Brumels, co-organizer
and Persian Gulf War veteran,
said many people do not think
about the “after effects” Vet-
Money
Continued from Page A1
Program and the Economic
Injury Disaster Loan.
LeQuieu said she is hope-
ful the county will receive
$160,000, but that number
could change.
She said the money
would be awarded through
a lottery system through a
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
A caravan of motorcycle riders with the Oregon Veterans Motorcycle Association ride through John Day on Sunday to dedicate High-
way 26 as a POW/MIA highway. A sign dedication ceremony and luncheon was held at the John Day Elk’s Lodge.
erans go through when they
leave the military.
“Everything in your life
changes because you’re in a
structured environment,” he
said. “And then when we come
out into the public, we have
to change, but we have things
we carry with us that we didn’t
notice when we were in, like
our PTSD. “
The outside world for vet-
erans, said Brumels, is kind of
“strange.”
“When you come out into
the world, the only comrades
we have our brothers and sis-
ters you see here,” he said.
Brumels said his uncle, a
pilot in the Vietnam War, was
shot down and held as a POW.
He said he passed away in
Prineville about four years ago.
“I stay connected with my
cousins because that was their
father,” he said.
Dennis Guthrie, a for-
mer Army medic during the
Vietnam War, said about
80,000 soldiers have not been
accounted for since World War
II and 60,000 of them never
will be because they were lost
at sea during the war.
He said there are another
20,000 soldiers that could be
accounted for so the families
can get closure.
“We ride for those who
can’t ride,” he said.
yet-to-be-identified impar-
tial, third-party agency to
ensure fairness.
According to Business
Oregon’s application, eli-
gible small businesses
must meet the following
conditions:
• A business must
have been economically
impacted in one of the fol-
lowing two categories: a
for-profit or non-profit
corporation that could not
operate due to the COVID-
19 shutdown orders, or a
business can demonstrate a
one-month decline in rev-
enue more significant than
50% in March 2020 or April
2020 compared to sales in
January or February of the
same year.
• The business has 25 or
fewer employees.
LeQuieu said the prelim-
inary application window
will be July 6-12.
Additional application
windows may be added, she
said, but due to the deadline
requirements from the state
may limit that.
Documents that may be
needed include a 2018 tax
return, year-over-year profit
and loss documents and
an employee identification
number.
LeQuieu said the money
needs to be disbursed in 45
days.
She said the states’ rigid
requirements may leave
a lot of other businesses
out, especially sole propri-
etorships and independent
contractors.
She said there will be a
separate grant businesses
can apply for through the
county, but she did not
release the details.
“We decided to put a sep-
arate pot of that same money
that has fewer restrictions,”
she said. “This makes it a lot
easier for these especially
sole props, independent con-
tractors to really be able to
access very needed funds.”
LeQuieu said anyone who
wants more information can
reach out to her personally
at stephanie@oregonrain.
org or 541-965-1598.
Masks
Continued from Page A1
Fauci stopped short of
directly criticizing Presi-
dent Donald Trump, who
has refused to wear a mask
in public despite pleas from
public health agencies that he
model the behavior they say
is needed to defeat the virus.
The Oregon Health
Authority has used fore-
casts provided by the Insti-
tute of Disease Modeling
to create a trio of scenarios
of the growth of infections:
optimistic, moderate and
pessimistic.
In recent days, state epi-
demiologists have said they
were aiming to stay within
the moderate scenario in
which COVID-19 cases
would rise to about 900 a
day. Daily hospitalizations
would go to 27 per day.
The worry has been that
the state would trend toward
the worst case scenario —
“pessimistic” — in which
new cases could spike to
more than 4,800 per day and
82 new patients would need
hospitalization each day.
The optimistic scenario
saw cases remain at about
180 new daily cases. But Ore-
gon has already passed 200
cases in a day, with all but one
of the highest number of daily
cases occurring in the past
two weeks.
Oregon joins a grow-
ing number of states that are
backtracking on “reopening”
amid a surge of new COVID-
19 cases. Only two states —
Rhode Island and Connecti-
cut — have not shown a rise
in coronavirus infections in
the past week, according to
the Centers for Disease Con-
trol. Florida, Texas and Ari-
zona — three states that
quickly reopened businesses
in recent weeks — are show-
ing the sharpest increases.
Oregon health officials
have also been concerned
about the rise in cases that
cannot be traced to a known
source. This is an indicator
of “community spread,” in
which the virus is spreading
from casual contacts among
numerous people.
As of Saturday, Oregon’s
overall positive testing rate
was 4.3% of tests performed.
That’s much lower than the
national average of 9%. But
with the rate rising, state offi-
cials decided Monday it was
time to act.
Oregon has reported
8,485 positive cases, though
officials believe the real
number is much higher
because many people who
are infected do not show
symptoms or have delayed
symptoms. The virus has
killed 204 people in Oregon.
Less than 1% of those
under 50 who are infected
have died from the virus.
Fatalities increase rapidly
with age, with 20% who are
75 and older dying.
A New York Times sta-
tistical analysis reported
this week that 54,000 of the
deaths in the United States
— 43% — are tied to nurs-
ing homes and long-term
care facilities.
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