NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
A3
Grant County calls on governor to return local control
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Decrying one-size-fi ts-all
mandates to mitigate COVID-
19’s spread, Grant County Court
members penned a letter to Gov.
Kate Brown urging local control
Aug. 23.
The county said the state
granted local control in late June
only to have it snatched back
a month later with Brown’s
announcement that face cover-
ings would be required in all kin-
dergarten through 12th-grade
schools in the fall.
The court members con-
tend that, during that month, the
county had only seven infec-
tions. Cases have increased since
then, however. According to the
Grant County Health Depart-
ment, the county has had 106
positive cases since Aug. 16.
The court members’ let-
ter states that Grant County is a
large, “frontier county” cover-
ing 4,500 miles, with wide geo-
graphical separation between
towns.
The letter states, since March
2020, each school district has
followed the recommendations
of local and state health author-
ities. The court points out that
when two districts had an out-
break in their respective com-
munities, they immediately
implemented distance learning,
contact tracing and followed the
recommendations of the Grant
County Health Department.
The court members tell the
governor the county stands to
lose “many” educators, sup-
port staff and volunteers should
the state continue with its vac-
cine mandate for educators and
health care workers.
The court states the districts
currently have “several” vacant
positions. Many of these posi-
tions, the court says, have been
challenging to fi ll long before the
governor’s vaccine mandate.
“Losing additional school
staff will make in-person educa-
tion next to impossible,” the let-
ter says.
The court points out too that
many parents have not enrolled
their children in in-person
classes due to the mask mandate.
The court members said that
state school funding — based on
the number of students enrolled
— will fall to levels that could
force the schools to close their
doors.
The commissioners urged
the governor to allow either a
Eagle fi le photo
From left, County Commissioner Sam Palmer, County Judge
Scott Myers and Commissioner Jim Hamsher during the Aug. 4
mandated meeting to discuss moving the Oregon-Idaho border.
vaccine or weekly testing for
educators.
The commissioners said
scores of teachers and parents
had expressed concern about
how the mask mandate aff ects
children mentally and emotion-
ally and how critical it is for a
child to learn by hearing sounds
correctly and seeing the move-
ment of the mouth and tongue
when making sounds.
“This is especially true for
children with special needs and
those with hearing loss,” they
said. “We understand the safety
of our children is paramount, but
so is their education and mental
health.”
The court members said,
if the vaccine mandate goes
through as presented concern-
ing health care workers, the
county stands to lose a signifi -
cant amount of health care work-
ers and support staff .
They said Blue Mountain
Hospital struggles to fi ll vacant
positions without the mandate.
The commissioners state the
safety of the county’s citizens is
in jeopardy and the county has
just one hospital. The other, they
said, is 70 miles away.
“It is unfair to create a health
care crisis in rural communities
by mandating a vaccine,” they
said.
For her part, Kimberly Lind-
say, Grant County’s public health
administrator, said that while she
had been meeting weekly with
Grant County’s state representatives urge
governor to reconsider vaccine mandates
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
State Sen. Lynn Findley,
R-Vale, and state Rep. Mark
Owens, R-Crane, implored
Gov. Kate Brown in a letter to
reverse a mandate that health
care and school workers get
the COVID-19 vaccine.
The state lawmakers repre-
senting Grant County argued
that the governor’s orders
would trigger a wave of res-
ignations that offi cials say
could shutter ambulance ser-
vice in the Vale area, close the
Jordan Valley school system
and leave the rural hospital in
Burns with a skeleton staff .
Findley said Thursday, in
Grant County, the Monument
School District reports three
of the six teachers are not vac-
cinated and have “very little
desire to do so.”
Findley said these scenar-
ios are playing out across rural
Oregon.
“When you take a school
with six people and if you lose
half of them you don’t have
enough to do it,” he said.
During this year’s gen-
eral session, Owens intro-
duced legislation that Find-
ley co-sponsored that would
have prevented any public
body — state, local or spe-
cial government — from issu-
ing a requirement for proof
of vaccination from COVID-
19. But, to the rural lawmak-
ers’ dismay, the bill never left
the committee or received a
hearing.
“The impacts these vacci-
nation mandates will have on
rural schools, health care pro-
viders and hospitals, prisons,
public safety, and social and
public services will be severe,”
Findley noted. “These man-
dates will result in more harm
than good and will have an
opposite eff ect than desired.”
Meanwhile, the Oregon
Health Authority reported 102
hospitalized COVID-19 pos-
itive patients as of Aug. 26 in
Grant County’s region seven,
which it shares with Deschutes,
Harney, Klamath, Jeff erson,
Klamath, Lake and Wheeler
counties.
Findley said people need
to be educated and have an
“informed discussion” on the
severity of the virus.
“Social media is not doing
anybody any favors, and people
need to get educated with the
facts and have a discussion,”
he said. “People don’t like top-
down, top-driven mandates.
They want to be understand-
ing, and I think we’re doing a
terrible job with education and
getting folks involved in mak-
ing an informed decision.”
“This is not a debate about
the reality and dangers of
COVID-19 or the Delta vari-
ant, or the effi cacy of the vac-
cine,” said Owens. “This is
about a gross overreach of
authority that is legally, ethi-
cally, and morally wrong. The
decision to get the COVID-19
vaccine is a personal and pri-
vate conversation and choice
between the individual and
their healthcare provider.”
Findley said the letter’s pur-
pose was to establish a dialogue
with the governor’s offi ce to
lessen the impact of the vac-
cine mandate in rural commu-
nities and look at meaningful
exemptions that are viable.
“I hope cooler heads can
prevail,” he said. “What we
have attempted to do in the let-
ter is build some off -ramps and
say let’s have some dialogue
and fi gure out how to lessen
the impacts.”
In a Monday email, Gov.
Kate Brown’s Deputy Com-
the county commissioners, she
did not know they had sent the
governor a letter to push for local
control.
In terms of vaccination
rates among healthcare work-
ers, Grant is tied with Har-
ney County for the lowest per-
centage of health care workers
vaccinated in the state at 46%,
according to Oregon Health
Authority. OHA notes that the
licensing boards reports the
vaccination information on the
county of employment for the
licensee. OHA said that some
licensees in border states could
have vaccinations in other states
that are not captured in its data.
Additionally, the report noted,
vaccination rates closely align
to the population’s overall vac-
cine rate.
Currently, Grant County’s
overall vaccination rate is at
45% as of Aug. 30.
In general, Lindsay said she
supports local control. However,
she hopes that if Brown were to
grant the county local control,
public health recommendations
from local leaders — which
would be the health department
— would be followed.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity reported 98 hospitalized
COVID-19 positive patients as
of Aug. 30 in Grant County’s
region seven, which it shares
with Deschutes, Harney, Klam-
ath, Jeff erson, Klamath, Lake
and Wheeler counties.
With the New York Times
COVID-19 Data Tracker report-
ing seven-day average case
count at eight per day, Grant
County Judge Scott Myers said
on Thursday that Brown makes
a good argument for social dis-
tancing and other safety mea-
sures, but he said, she does not
make a good argument for man-
datory vaccinations.
“Individuals should be able
to make their own medical
decisions, and parents should
be able to decide what is best
for their children,” the court
said. “It is not up to the gov-
ernment to decide what is
best for an individual or their
children regarding medical
matters.”
Myers said he would roll
up his sleeve for the booster
shot like he did for the vaccine
when health offi cials off er it to
his respective demographic.
“I’ll take it before they tell
me to take it like I did when
they off ered the fi rst two,” he
said.
Masks now required
at outdoor events
munications Director Charles
Boyle told the Eagle that
Brown’s goal is to keep
schools, businesses and com-
munities open:
“Our hospitals are full,
and our doctors, nurses, and
health care workers are being
stretched beyond their lim-
its. Hospitalizations have
increased nearly 1000% since
July 9. The vast majority of
Oregonians hospitalized for
COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
People are dying right now
when we have safe, eff ec-
tive, and free vaccines read-
ily available. The Governor is
responding to a public health
crisis. Elected offi cials should
be calling on their constitu-
ents to wear masks and get
vaccinated.”
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Gov. Kate Brown has
expanded a mandatory mask
order to include large out-
door gatherings as well well
as indoor gatherings.
The new rule went into
eff ect Friday and includes
everyone aged 5 and over
regardless of whether or not
they are vaccinated. Masks
will be required in outdoor
public situations. Brown
also is recommending out-
door masks for private gath-
erings, though they are not
mandatory.
“The delta variant is
spreading fast and wide,
throwing our state into a level
of crisis we have not yet seen
in the pandemic,” Brown
said in a Tuesday after-
noon announcement. “Cases
and hospitalizations are at a
record high.”
The immediate impact will
be on those going to outdoor
sports events, fairs and large
gatherings. The new rule will
be in eff ect for the Oregon
State Fair in Salem and for the
Pendleton Round-Up Sept. 11.
Masks will be required for any
college football game as well.
The Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University forecast last
week that the highly conta-
gious delta variant would lead
to skyrocketing case rates that
won’t peak until early next
month.
Epidemiologists around
the nation have noted an
increase in infections that can-
not be traced to indoor spread.
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