NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
A3
Blue Mountain Care Center increases safety protocols after outbreak
Facility encourages,
but does not
require, COVID-19
vaccination
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Blue Mountain Care Center
has increased COVID-19 pro-
tocols after a recent outbreak.
The care center announced
that six residents and seven
employees tested positive for
COVID-19 in March.
In a joint press release Blue
Mountain Hospital District’s
Rebekah Rand, director of
emergency services, and Lori
Lane, district health informa-
tion manager, said before the
outbreak BMCC was practic-
ing appropriate social distanc-
ing, hand hygiene and cough
etiquette with the education
provided on all three topics to
staff, residents and visitors.
The press release said that
residents, visitors, and staff
were all encouraged to wear
proper face masks and eye
protection while in the facility.
Rand and Lane said the
facility’s staff screened any-
one entering the building,
including temperature checks
and screening questions about
COVID-19 signs, symptoms,
exposure and travel.
They said all residents
were monitored for signs
and symptoms of COVID-19
twice per day. Additionally,
they told the Eagle, residents
with any sign or symptom of
COVID-19 were tested imme-
diately for the virus.
After the onset of positive
cases at the nursing home,
the facility’s precautions have
been “enhanced.” They sus-
pended all indoor visitation,
communal activities and com-
munal dining.
Contributed photo
Blue Mountain Care Center in Prairie City.
Lane and Rand said, before
the outbreak this month, the
care center had been “fortu-
nate” to avoid any positive
cases among the residents
since the beginning of the pan-
demic over a year ago.
They said there is no way
to determine the virus’s source
at the facility definitively.
It could be in-person visits,
they said, which the care cen-
ter had resumed as the num-
ber of cases in the county
declined. Or it may have been
the coming and going of res-
idents after restrictions were
lifted. Rand and Lane said
the community spread in the
county was another possible
source.
They said they could not
comment on the employee
vaccination rate at BMCC.
They said between 40-50
employees work at the care
center. This includes con-
tract, permanent and tempo-
rary staff.
“All employees were
offered the vaccine when it
first arrived in Grant County,”
they said.
Rand and Lane said all
were — and still are —
encouraged to get the vaccine.
The press release stated they
could not require employees
to get vaccinated “as a condi-
tion of employment.”
Nonetheless, they said,
both the hospital district and
the Grant County Health
Department have seen a
recent increase in interest in
receiving the vaccine from
employees and the county at
large, following the recent
increase in positive cases in
March.
They said the hospital dis-
trict respects their employees’
personal decision to receive
the COVID-19 vaccine. How-
ever, Rand and Lane said
they “highly encourage” all
employees and the community
to get the vaccine to reduce the
virus’s spread.
Longtime Grant County
residents Jim and Beth Spell,
who have a family member
at Blue Mountain Care Cen-
ter, said the administration
and staff have been “great” in
keeping in contact with them
about the outbreak. However,
Jim Spell noted the care center
does not require staff members
to get the vaccine as a condi-
tion of employment.
Beth Spell she is grate-
ful that her brother has been
vaccinated.
She said a common refrain
she hears after COVID-19
deaths is that they had pre-ex-
isting conditions and would
have died anyway.
“We want to keep our loved
ones around for as long as we
can,” she said.
County will not
purchase new laptops
for the airport
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Long Creek School District
to receive 37 internet hot spots
us a lot of options for stu-
dents and their different sit-
uations,” Garinger said.
“We’ve gotten really good
at using technology to sup-
ply content and interaction.
To me, I can see this allow-
ing little schools like Long
Creek to gain more access
to other teachers and classes
because we now know how to
do it online.”
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S235959-1
Thirty-seven
internet
hot spots from AT&T will
be coming to Long Creek
School District soon.
AT&T announced on
March 17 that, alongside
Connected Nation, they are
giving free internet subscrip-
tions and free wireless hot
spots to more than 450 vir-
tual learners in Oregon.
Long Creek Administra-
tive Assistant and Deputy
Clerk Jennie Freeman said
a general email was sent out
from AT&T regarding this
opportunity to apply for the
grant to get the hot spots.
“We applied a while back,
and I just heard recently that
AT&T decided to award
Long Creek with a grant,”
Freeman said.
Freeman said there are
no matching funds required,
and it was generous of them
to provide the 37 hot spots.
“It’s great because the
internet goes down here (in
Long Creek) all the time,
and so it’s nice to have some-
thing reliable to use and sup-
port the cell service we cur-
rently use for the iPads,”
Freeman said.
Earlier in the school year,
Long Creek School District
purchased iPads with cellu-
lar data plans for all of the
students, along with cell sig-
nal boosters, when they went
online for distance learning.
Freeman said the hot
spots will now provide stu-
dents and their families
another source they can use
for internet access. Freeman
said she thinks the hot spots
will be made available for
students next school year.
“Organizations like ...
Long Creek School District
are critical to serving and
supporting some of the most
at-risk students across Ore-
gon,” said George Granger,
President of AT&T Ore-
gon, in a press release from
March 17. “By helping to
expand connectivity for the
students they serve, we can
play a role in narrowing the
homework gap and helping
address inequities associated
with virtual learning.”
AT&T said in their release
on March 17 that Long Creek
School District is one of
more than 100 organizations
and school districts to bene-
fit from a $10 million com-
mitment announced last year.
While Gov. Kate Brown
ordered schools earlier this
month to open by April 19,
Long Creek office manager
Jennifer Garinger said the
improved access to internet
will still provide a great ben-
efit for Long Creek students
as they return to the school
building.
“The technology gives
S232610-1
139101
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
S235650-1
Contributed photo
Staff at Long Creek School receive instruction on how to carry out distance learning through iPads.
Grant County will not
be buying any more new
computers.
At the last Grant County
Court meeting, the commis-
sioners approved purchas-
ing two laptops for the air-
port if laptops purchased for
the COVID-19 Emergency
Operations Center were not
available.
Emergency Manager Paul
Gray said the laptop County
Commissioner Sam Palmer,
the EOC’s former public infor-
mation officer, had “sitting
at his house” would likely
go to Grant County Regional
Airport.
Gray said pilots would use
the laptop to check the weather
forecasts.
He said several older com-
puters at the emergency man-
agement office are also good
enough to go to the airport.
Treasurer Julie Ellison said
Gray gave her five EOC lap-
tops to check out to other tele-
commuting departments in
October or November.
She said the sheriff’s office
checked out two while the
corrections
office has
checked out
one.
Gray said
he held on
to four of
Paul Gray
the laptops at
his office in
case the emergency manage-
ment office needs them for the
EOC or another county-wide
emergency.
Ellison said she writes down
the department and the laptop
tag number when equipment is
checked out. Since COVID-19
is ongoing, she said there is no
date that the department needs
to return the laptop.
Gray said Robert Walten-
burg from the Education Ser-
vice District, who is also
essentially the county’s infor-
mation technology manager,
went through the comput-
ers to ensure there was noth-
ing on them before the county
made them available for other
departments to check out.
He said he gave them to
Ellison to check out because
she is the person within the
county offices who the depart-
ments reach out to for office
supplies.