MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
GO! EASTERN OREGON MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
154th Year • No. 2 • 14 Pages • $1.50
A1
MyEagleNews.com
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant Union High School students cheer on the girls
basketball team Saturday, Jan. 8.
Local schools
double down
Grant County districts focus on
safety protocols rather than pausing
activities amid COVID-19 surge
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Grant County school districts say
they are redoubling their eff orts on safety protocols
such as indoor masking and testing to stem the spread
of COVID-19 at school events instead of hitting the
pause button on extracurricular activities.
The resolve to increase pandemic protocols comes
on the heels of a Jan. 3 advisory issued by state health
and education offi cials stating that schools must either
pause extracurricular activities or ensure they follow
specifi c COVID-19 safety protocols.
According to the advisory, schools that choose to
continue sports and other activities should communi-
cate to families the potential risks posed by the surging
omicron variant.
“If schools and other organizations proceed with
extracurricular activities, especially as these activi-
ties move indoors and individuals are unmasked, they
should expect rapid transmission of COVID-19 that will
prevent students from participating in in-person learn-
ing due to isolation for those that contract COVID-19
and lengthy quarantines for those that come into close
contact with infected individuals,” the advisory said.
The advisory recommends that schools that choose
to hold extracurricular activities enforce mitigation
strategies such as the use of face coverings indoors.
Grant School District Superintendent Bret Uptmor
said Friday that the district’s goal is to continue to carry
out its mitigation strategies in hopes of preventing an
outbreak.
According to a Jan. 5 post on the Grant Union High
School Facebook page, in addition to continuing to
require face coverings indoors at its events, the school
temporarily closed its concession stand and is now bar-
ring food in the gym.
Laura Thomas, Monument’s school superintendent,
said her district is continuing to use physical distanc-
ing, masking and thorough cleaning while encouraging
strong hygiene practices as a means to minimize, and
hopefully prevent, any spread of illness.
Prairie City Superintendent Casey Hallgarth said in
a Friday email that the district decided to hold extracur-
ricular activities after discussing the matter with staff
and the athletic director.
“We will work closely with our local health author-
ity as we have been doing to make sure that if a time
comes that we have to close our school or stop the
extracurricular activities, we will,” Hallgarth said.
Hallgarth said he wants people to know that the
school wants everyone to be and feel safe.
Masks and hand sanitizer are located at the front
door at the school’s sporting events, Hallgarth said, and
he said he asks that everyone mask up when attending
the school’s home games.
Hallgarth said while the school has local control over
this decision, the district needs to work hand in hand
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Kelly McNitt, Blue Mountain Hospital’s director of nursing services, talks about the omicron variant of the coronavirus in one of the
hospital’s negative pressure rooms on Monday, Jan. 10. Last week the hospital set a daily record with seven COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Surge, bad weather
strain health system
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
S
urging COVID-19 case counts
driven by the highly transmis-
sible omicron variant appear to
be impacting a number of Grant
County health care facilities oper-
ated by the Blue Mountain Hospital Dis-
trict, with severe winter weather playing a
role as well.
COVID-related hospitalizations set a
record last week at Blue Mountain Hos-
pital, which had seven patients diagnosed
with the disease at one point, but the num-
ber had dropped to just one as of Monday,
Jan. 11.
In a phone interview on Friday, Jan.
7, Blue Mountain Hospital District CEO
Derek Daley told the Eagle that emergency
transportation relief from the state helped
get patients to other hospitals as road con-
ditions improved. Additionally, he said, the
hospital discharged a couple of patients.
Daley said the hospital’s staffi ng short-
age reached a “critical point” on Tuesday
and Wednesday, but with employees return-
ing from quarantine they were “sitting
pretty well” by the end of the week. Alto-
gether, he said, the hospital had roughly
fi ve employees who became infected with
coronavirus.
Daley emphasized that number was an
estimate and added that the hospital did
Contributed Photo
Blue Mountain Hospital has been experiencing a record number of coronavirus hospital-
izations due to a combination of soaring infection rates and bad weather that restricted
patient transfers.
not have any emergency staff ers infected
with the virus. However, he said that the
state sent two EMS technicians to assist the
hospital with patient transportation due to
weather concerns.
Meanwhile, upwards of 10 staff mem-
bers at Blue Mountain Care Center, a senior
assisted living facility in Prairie City, tested
positive for the virus, Daley said. At the
same time, an unknown number of resi-
dents came down with the virus as well.
Daley said the state dispatched a regis-
tered nurse and six certifi ed nursing assis-
tants to shore up the staffi ng shortfall there.
He added it was unclear how long the staff -
ers will remain at the care center.
The immediate concern, according to
Daley, is to ensure staffi ng support for the
next few weeks. Beyond that, he would
like to solidify a contract with the state for
the next couple of months to get through
the winter.
See Hospital, Page A14
See Activities, Page A14
Dispatches from the Flying J
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Brenda
Holman belongs to a dying gen-
eration of truckers.
Her blazer is embroidered
with “Aunt B.” on the right
breast. She jokes that she is an
aunt to seven, mother to none.
A byproduct of the lifestyle, she
said. She noted it was diffi cult
to fi nd a partner. She’s been a
trucker for more than 32 years.
Inside her truck, a collec-
tion of books. A physical map of
interstates. A small bed, slightly
disheveled. A CB radio hangs
above the driver’s seat. A smat-
tering of notebooks and pens
placed neatly on the dashboard.
A small monitor attached to the
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Trucker Ken Spriggs makes his way toward the Flying J Travel
Center, La Grande, after winter weather Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022,
forced the shutdown of Interstate 84 and other roads. Now 78, he
said he is considering making this his last season of driving.
dash for checking the routes,
though she usually uses her
phone to fi nd information on
road closures.
Her CB radio has become
quieter over the years, with less
chatter coming over the air-
waves. She remembered when
truck stops were abuzz with
truckers swapping stories and
jokes over coff ee whenever the
roads were closed.
On Wednesday, Jan. 5, she
found herself stuck for more
than 24 hours at Flying J Travel
Center, La Grande, as repeated
accidents, heavy snow and
maintenance closed down Inter-
state 84. It had been closed off
and on several times during the
past week. Snowdrifts one day,
wrecks and traffi c blockages by
unchained semitrailers the next.
Dozens of other truck drivers
had been stranded there, as well.
“It’s been a long time since
I’ve been shut down with this
many trucks parked,” Holman
said.
Rows of trucks were parked,
placed and maneuvered into the
lot, blocking each other in and
forming a logistical slide puz-
zle, one made trickier when the
roads were clear.
She was anxious to leave
Flying J — the roads had just
opened eastbound, albeit briefl y
— and solicited other truck driv-
ers to move their rigs so she
could maneuver out of the lot.
As one driver left — a day-route
driver without a sleeping rig in
the cabin who wanted to fi nd a
hotel for the night — space was
cleared for her exit. But it was
just a hair too late, as I-84 was
closed yet again due to unchained
semis blocking the route.
A few dogs perked their
heads up over the dashboards
in the trucks at the parking lot.
Some drivers, Holman said, will
bring dogs or family along on
See Truckers, Page A14