Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2020)
LOCAL HANDMADE SOAP COMPANY GAINS IN POPULARITY | PAGE B1 Mitchell /Steven d The Eagle an en, left, mily Od E r e n w y o Compan ay Soap W e h T Hank In kie Haff. rtner Jac silent pa MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, December 2, 2020 152nd Year • No. 49 • 18 Pages • $1.50 COVID -19 Positivity rate places Grant County in ‘Extreme Risk’ category Ten new cases reported since last Wednesday for a total of 137 Brown extends restrictions on 21 counties to fight rise in infections By Gary A. Warner Oregon Capital Bureau By Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle Grant County reported three more COVID- 19 cases Tuesday, bringing the county’s case count up to 137. As the county prepares to be in the “Extreme Risk” category of Gov. Kate Brown’s new metrics announced last week, Public Health Administrator Kimberly Lindsay said the met- ric that put Grant County on that COVID-19 list is its positivity TESTING rate from Nov. 15, 16.8%. The previ- The Grant County ous week, the rate Health Department was 1%, while it is open and offering was 6.2% and 7.5% testing Mondays going back to the through Thursdays. week of Oct. 25. Testing hours this Lindsay said the week are from state’s data does not 3-4 p.m. through match the health Thursday. department’s posi- Starting Dec. 17, the tivity rate, and the health department health department will test from 2-4 p.m. is looking into it. Mondays through Lindsay said Thursdays. another import- ant metric the pub- Testing is by appoint- lic should be con- ment only. cerned with is local When possible, the hospital capacity. health department As of Nov. 30, will bill insurance. in Grant County’s When someone does Region 7, shared not have insurance, with Deschutes, they will administer Harney, Klamath, the test at no charge. Jefferson, Lake and Wheeler coun- ties, Lindsay said 48 COVID-19 patients were being hospitalized — the highest single-day count since the start of the pandemic. Nine of the 48 people were in intensive care units, she said, and two were on ventilators. Lindsay said there were eight available ICU hospital beds in the region and 152 in the state. She told the Eagle hospital staffing remains a concern across the state. Blue Mountain Hospital, she said, struggled with staffing due to the outbreak of a few weeks ago. While there were no services the hospital could not offer, she said they would have been Eagle file photo Kimberly Lindsay, Grant County public health administrator, addresses a session of Grant County Court. With COVID-19 infection rates rising rap- idly in Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown said Nov. 25 that at least 21 counties will stay in a modi- fied version of the two-week “freeze” through most of December. The limits on gatherings, businesses and services put in place Nov. 18 by executive order were set to end on Dec. 3 in all but Multnomah County, including Portland. Instead, Brown announced a new four- level risk assessment plan will be put in place after the current freeze ends. Most of the most populous counties in the state will be in the “Extreme Risk” categories with the most stringent restrictions. Each county will be rated and told what is allowed File photo and what is barred for the next two Gov. Kate Brown im- weeks. The status posed new restrictions will be reviewed by to slow the spread of the Oregon Health COVID-19. Department and coun- ties can move on or off the list. Counties will move incremen- tally, which means a county on the “Extreme Risk” list would go through two-week periods at “High Risk,” “Moderate Risk” and “Low Risk.” “My goal here is to protect Oregonians across the state,” Brown said. “A one-size- fits-all approach does not make sense to me going forward.” The order came amid a spike in cases as more Oregonians planned travel during the Thanksgiving and upcoming Christmas holidays. Adding to concerns are the winter holi- days. The Transportation Security Admin- istration reported over three million people passing through airport security over the past weekend, the most since March. Canada cel- ebrates Thanksgiving in mid-October and, despite similar warnings about traveling, saw a doubling of daily cases by the first week of November. Contributed image See Roundup, Page A12 COVID-19 hospitalizations in Grant County’s region have reached record highs. See Restrictions, Page A12 COVID-19 allocations spent mostly on technology Cities have until the end of the year to make expenditures “WE DON’T KNOW HOW LONG THIS IS GOING TO GO. RIGHT NOW OUR TECHNOLOGY FOR VIDEO CONFERENCING IS OUTDATED.” —Dorothy Jordan, Monument city recorder By Rudy Diaz and Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle Grant County cities with a popula- tion of 750 or more received $50,000 in COVID-19 relief funds. Those with fewer than 750 people received $25,000. Here is a rundown of how those cities plan to spend the money. Roughly $200 million of the $1.64 billion Congress sent the state in March through the CARES Act to help pay for pandemic-related expenses requires the money to respond to the public health emergency, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Expenses have to be unexpected and not accounted for in a budget as of March 27, when the CARES Act became law. For a cost to be eligi- Don Porter Jim Hamsher ble, it must occur between March 1 and Dec. 30, 2020. Local govern- ments have until the end of the year to spend the money. John Day The state awarded John Day with up to $52,796 in COVID-19 relief funds. The city requested reimburse- ments for personal protective equip- ment and public safety measures to Kenny Delano Ruthie Moore implement at John Day’s city hall for just over $6,800, according to the city’s newsletter released in October. About $30,000 was delegated to improve broadband support at Hum- bolt Elementary School and for food security initiatives that included the Grant County Fairgrounds Livestock Auction, the John Day Farmers Mar- ket and COVID-19-related cost recov- ery at John Day’s greenhouse. By extending fiber optic line to Humbolt, which experiences prob- lems with connectivity, teachers can facilitate more lessons from the school. “We’re excited about moving forward with getting fiber into Hum- bolt,” Grant School District 3 super- intendent Bret Uptmor said during a school board meeting in August. “Last year we did Grant Union, and it did help with our distance learn- ing, where Humbolt, they would not be able to do any distance learning.” Another $15,500 was committed to Grant County Coworks, a facility dedicated to providing public broad- band access and a shared working space in John Day. Prairie City Jim Hamsher, Grant County Commissioner and Prairie City mayor, said the city received $50,000. Hamsher said the city put half of the money into a grant program for small businesses and sole proprietors impacted by the coronavirus. The program is available through Dec. 18 or until funds are fully deployed, whichever comes first. The applications can be filled out online at communitylendingworks. org/emergency-grants-grant-county. Hamsher said the other $25,000 would be set aside for a grant pro- gram for residents who cannot afford to pay their utility bill. Mt. Vernon Mt. Vernon Mayor Kenny Del- ano said the city purchased laptops See Allocations, Page A12