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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2021)
NEWS MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, October 13, 2021 A11 UC commissioners approve letter opposing River Democracy Act ging to reduce fire hazards, might be imposed. This would affect 86,000 acres of Union County land that would be in Paul the buffer zones Anderes along the 26 water- ways proposed for inclusion in the River Democracy Act. “I do not want to put 86,000 acres under federal jurisdiction,” Beverage said. The letter noted there are a number of projects now under- way where the buffer zones would be, ones designed to protect and restore the waterways and their banks, which could be derailed by the River Democracy Act. Beverage wants the process of selecting additional Oregon water- ways for inclusion in the Wild and Scenic Act to be started over in order to conduct it in a way that would include greater public input. She said that if this is not done, the next best option would be for officials to delete all of the 26 Union County waterways pro- posed for inclusion in the River Democracy Act. The commissioner noted that some Oregon counties have suc- ceeded in getting certain river and stream sections proposed for Wild and Scenic designation removed from the list following a negotiat- ing process. Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer primarily covering the communities of North Powder, Imbler, Island City and Union, education, Union County veterans programs and local history. Dick joined The Observer in 1983, first working as a sports and outdoors reporter. “I do think chaplains are some of the only people that nurses can talk to who do understand on at least a level what they’re dealing with and what they’re going through,” Hardin said. “Because we’re there, and we see it.” She listens in the hallways and at the nurses stations as the staff relate the stress of their job. She said health care work- ers can often be reluctant to seek help themselves, so she enjoys finding them and giving them an opportunity to talk, even if all they utter are sarcastic remarks: “I had one girl tell me, ‘It’s going to suck for a while, and then it’s going to get better,’” she said. “It’s an acknowledge- ment that we’re just working Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian through this and doing the best A list of precautions adorns the door of a COVID-19 patient Aug. 19 in the critical care unit at St. Anthony Hospital, we can do, one patient at a time, Pendleton. one day at a time.” “She had almost felt like She called her job a privi- Community College, she felt listened to health care work- lege, but one that comes with compelled to help health care ers whose patients improve and she had killed the patient,” she responsibility. workers through their day-to- decline over weeks of treatment, said. “So I suggested to her that, “The notion of saying some- day work while hearing stories and always in isolation, away rather than think of it that way, thing wrong and making some- from her husband, an emergency from their families. she should think of it as giving thing worse is terrifying,” she department nurse at St. Anthony. She told of a nurse whose the gift of a peaceful passing.” said. “But it is an incredible Now, she works evenings and patient had to go on comfort And over the past two months, privilege to help bring a bit of weekends. care, a stage where a nurse the staff have only grown more balance and healing into their “I’m not somebody who likes helps soothe a patient at the tired and anxious, she said. life.” end of their life. The nurse had “The energy level has to be bored,” she said. She joined the hospital as Throughout the pandemic, given the last dose of medica- dropped,” she said. “People are an on-call chaplain in 2019. A she has stood by as infection tion, and she came to Hardin tired. They’re feeling stressed math teacher at Blue Mountain has ebbed and flowed. She has struggling to cope. and there’s a lot of worry right now because of impending staff losses and no impending decrease in patients.” The hospital, already short staffed, could lose many of its workers in the coming weeks when the state’s vaccine mandate goes into effect, forcing health care workers to get the shot or lose their jobs. That impending reality has sown a new kind of division, Hardin said, between unvaccinated employees worried about finding new work and vac- cinated employees fearing what work will be like without them. The mandate comes as Uma- tilla County reported weekly case counts exceeding 350 for the 11th straight week, making the delta crisis the largest the county has faced by far. And a recent spike, driven partly by an outbreak linked to the Pendle- ton Round-Up, means the hospi- tal could see yet another surge in patients. “There’s some uncertainty, which leads to worry and con- cern,” Hardin said. But for Hardin, she knows there’s only one thing a chaplain can do. “We try to pass it on to God,” she said. “We’re chaplains. We try to pass those things on along to that higher power that can maybe do something, or at least take that burden so that we don’t have to carry it.” By DICK MASON The Observer LA GRANDE — The Union County Board of Commissioners wants no part of the River Democ- racy Act. The trio voted Wednesday, Oct. 6, to send a letter to Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden asking him to remove all of the waterways in Union County that are included in the proposed federal River Democ- racy Act legislation. The letter was signed by Union County Commis- sioners Paul Anderes, Donna Bev- erage and Matt Scarfo. The bill, co-sponsored by Wyden and fellow Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, would add 4,684 miles to the Wild and Scenic River system in Oregon, including 135 miles in Union County. The 135 miles would be on 26 waterways, the largest of which is an 11.6-mile stretch of Beaver Creek and a 10.8- mile stretch of Five Points Creek. In the letter to Wyden the com- Matt missioners wrote Scarfo they are making their request based on a number of criteria. One, the commissioners claim, is that the traditional process for consider- ing waterways for Wild and Scenic designation, one which includes extensive public input, has not been adhered to. “This failure to follow the guidelines that have been in place since 1968 as a well-vetted sys- tem for designation is resulting in waterways that do not meet the cri- teria, spirit, intent or letter of the Wild and Scenic Act,” states the letter, which Anderes read at the Oct. 6 meeting. The commis- sioners’ letter also stated their con- cern that the fed- eral government failed to hold Donna pubic meetings in Beverage communities that would be impacted by the addition of the waterways to the Wild and Scenic designation. In lieu of such meetings, at least one Statewide People’s Town Hall was conducted virtually, which was not not a good substitute for localized community meetings, according to the letter. Another concern expressed by the Union County commissioners is the half-mile buffer zone each proposed waterway would have on both sides of its banks. Restrictions on activities in the buffer zones, including log- Chaplain Continued from Page A1 MT. VERNON PRESBYTERIAN Community Church SUNDAY SERVICE..............9 am SUNDAY SERVICE ...........9 am 541-932-4800 EVERYONE WELCOME Assembly of God 896 E. Main 330 W. Front St. John Day Prairie City Sunday Services 9:30 am 11am Prairie Baptist Church 238 N. McHaley Prairie City Sunday Service 10:30am St. Thomas Episcopal Church Join us on Facebook live Sunday 10am Like us on Facebook! Redeemer Lutheran Church Come Worship with us at Grace Chapel (EMC ) 154 E. Williams St. Prairie City, Oregon 541 820-4437 2 Corinthians 5:17 Every Sunday in the L.C. 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