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HEPPNER
G T
azette
imes
VOL. 139
NO. 28 6 Pages
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Lori Roach takes over as
chamber director
By Bobbi Gordon
Lori Roach began her
new job as executive direc-
tor of the Heppner Chamber
on July 1, taking the place
of Sheryll Bates who will
be retiring. Bates will con-
tinue part-time until the end
of the year to bring Roach
up to speed on the busi-
ness owners and citizens of
Heppner.
Lori’s main goal for the
chamber is to help the mem-
bers not only survive the
difficulties, but to thrive in
the midst of the turmoil fac-
ing the entire nation. Lori
told the Gazette, “From
the outside looking in, it
County wrestles with COVID19 problems
More contact tracers needed, enforcing mandatory masks
By David Sykes
Morrow County needs
more health department
workers to deal with the
coronavirus pandemic com-
missioners were told at their
meeting last Wednesday.
Contact tracers, who locate
and talk with patients, assist
in arranging for isolation
and work to identify people
who the patients have been
in close contact with are
especially needed. “Our
public health department is
looking at contact tracers,”
County Administrator Dar-
rell Green told the commis-
sioners. “Everyone is over-
whelmed. They have been
working consistently over
40 hours a week and week-
ends. They just cannot keep
up. We are going to have
to make a decision pretty
quick,” he emphasized.
Green says current
health department staff are
doing the contact tracing
but with the added new
cases they are becoming
overwhelmed. “Right now
we need at least one or
two more people. We have
schools opening and that is
going to tap our resourc-
es. We have to figure out
something now, not three
months from now. There
is no possible way to keep
doing what we are doing,”
he told the commissioners.
He said it takes time to do a
contact trace on one patient
which requires a trained
person but not an RN to
do the work. “It takes four
hours to do one case. We
have had around 40 cases
in the past two weeks. If we
averaged 20 per week that
Commissioners spent most of last Wednesday’s meeting discussing coronavirus issues.
would mean, we need two
tracers. If we had four, we
think we would be closer to
what we need,” Green told
the commissioners. How-
ever, according to a letter
sent July 6 to the governor’s
office, “Morrow County
currently has nine trained
contact tracers, including
three bilinguals, in excess
of the OHA recommenda-
tion based on the population
of Morrow County, and is
contracting and training for
an additional four for back-
up within the following
week.” The letter also said
that the county successfully
identified, contacted and
traced 96 percent of the new
COVID-19 positive cases
over the past seven- and
14-day periods.
Green explained that
additional tracers could be
available through tempo-
rary services, but he wants
the county, not knowing
how long the pandemic is
going to last, to find a more
permanent solution. “Right
now we need at least one
more person who is not
just temp. Nobody can tell
us how long this will last.
Is it going to be one to two
years? We can’t handle that
with just temp workers,” he
said. “Getting somebody
in place and trained takes
time. We have school start-
ing in six to eight weeks and
that brings in a whole other
dynamic,” he pointed out.
“Then you have regular flu
season,” he added.
The commission agreed
and voted to authorize the
county Coronavirus Emer-
gency Response Team to
hire additional staff to fill
the void. There is currently
a fulltime employee posi-
tion open and budgeted for
in the Health Department
that could be converted to
a tracer position.
Isolation of patients
In other COVID-19
business, the commission-
ers discussed what they
would do if a patient re-
quired isolation but does
not have a place to stay.
Some options were to rent
hotel rooms or recreational
vehicles to put the people
up while they quarantine.
Commission Chair Me-
lissa Lindsay said it is the
county’s responsibility to
contract for a place for
people to go if they can’t go
back home. She said some
counties are renting RVs
Lexington installs new
welcome signs
-See COUNTY COVID IS-
SUES/PAGE THREE
Scott Lamb (left) and Will Lemmon installed the first ‘Welcome to Lexington’ sign at the corner
of Highway 74 and A Street in Lexington. -Photo by Bobbi Gordon.
The Lexington Town
Council recently purchased
three signs to welcome
travelers to the town. Signs
will be placed at each end
of town on Highway 74
and near Airport Road on
Highway 207. Signs were
designed by Mayor Juli
to use and she suggested
maybe renting out a couple
and then let them sit until
they are needed. “Then we
have something available
and a place to go,” It was
pointed out that even if the
county had an RV for use
all the spots the county has
at the fairgrounds are full.
The commissioners
also discussed the recent
mask mandate from Gov-
ernor Kate Brown requiring
everyone to wear masks in
indoor public spaces. The
new mandate went into ef-
fect on July 1, the day of the
commissioner’s meeting.
Enforcing mask rule
Commissioners dis-
cussed how the mandate
would be enforced. Lindsay
said enforcement is now
going to be done by state
agencies such as the Occu-
pational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA),
Oregon Liquor Control
Commission (OLCC) and
the Oregon Health Author-
ity (OHA). Green asked
the question “What if a
customer refuses to wear a
mask? How do we handle
that?” Commissioners did
not have a clear answer to
the enforcement question,
saying even on a recent
conference call between
county officials and the
Oregon Health Authority,
no clear guidance was giv-
en. “They didn’t answer
that,” Lindsay who was on
the call said. “At this point
they have not put it on the
business to kick you out if
a customer is not wearing
a mask,” she said. Lindsay
said someone could call
with a complaint to a state
agency, but, “At this point
they haven’t put it on the
business to say, ‘We are
going to kick you out’. That
Kennedy and printed by
High Performance Signs in
Hermiston.
The first sign has al-
ready been installed by
town maintenance man,
Scott Lamb, his wife Jo-
Anna and town councilor
Will Lemmon. Lamb plans
to install the other two signs
before July 15.
The purchase of the
signs was made possible by
a grant from Willow Creek
Valley Economic Develop-
ment Group (WCVEDG).
Lori Roach
seems like business owners
in Heppner have weathered
this storm fairly well, but
I am looking forward to
learning more about the
needs my members have
and figuring out what the
chamber can do to help
during this unique season.”
“I think every execu-
tive director that takes on
a chamber wants to see
the chamber grow. I know
the Heppner Chamber has
really healthy numbers al-
ready and there is a lot of
support from the commu-
nity, but I’m still hoping
to implement some special
programs over the next
several years that will make
our chamber that much
stronger,” she continued.
“I love entrepreneur-
ship and hope I can en-
courage people to take
the plunge into starting
their own brick and mortar
business or online busi-
ness. Times like this are
the perfect time to start
something new. The world
has absolutely changed
over the last few months;
change brings opportunity
for new ideas to take hold
and grow, so I would like
to encourage anyone that
is thinking about starting
a new business to stop in
and let me brainstorm with
them or help them figure out
the next step to take when
dealing with Oregon busi-
ness startup requirements.
If I don’t have an answer
to their questions, I’ll find
someone who does,” she
stated.
Lori attended school
in Elgin from first grade
through high school gradu-
ation. She attended Central
Oregon Community Col-
lege in Bend, then received
her Bachelor of Science
Business Administration
degree for marketing, tour-
ism, leadership and or-
ganization from Eastern
Oregon University in La
Grande. She was a mem-
ber of the Elgin Chamber
of Commerce, including
serving as president and
vice-president.
Lori’s husband is Rick
and their blended family
includes nine children and
18 grandchildren. She lived
throughout Oregon most
of her adult life but most
recently lived in North
Bonneville, WA, which is
just across the river from
the Bridge of the Gods. She
and Rick operated Studio 6
Designworks where they
published The Gorge Busi-
ness News newspaper that
is distributed from Lyle
to Camas in Washington
and from Troutdale to The
Dalles in Oregon.
“I started Studio 6
Designworks in 2016 to
encompass many of my
entrepreneurial passions.
It is a creative marketing,
publishing, photography
and consulting business,
none of which were in high
demand a few months ago
when Covid-19 arrived.
When the opportunity came
about for the executive
director position, I knew it
was just the right answer
to our prayers at just the
right time,” Lori reported.
Once the pandemic began,
she started an online store
with her artwork that can
be found at www.rambling-
wandererstore.com.
Roach said she is a
photographer as well and
will have a piece displayed
for the Wild Landscapes
exhibit at the Josephy Cen-
ter in Joseph, OR between
July 27 and Sept. 11. She
noted that she loves many
aspects of photography, but
architectural photography
is the bread and butter at
this time.
“Rick and I had de-
cided to also jump into
wedding photography with
both feet, well I guess that
would be all four feet, this
summer. We participated in
the Wedding Professional
Photography Association
Conference in Las Vegas
in February and acquired
some great equipment. We
were having a great time
thinking about the prospect
of having a busy summer
taking wedding photos,
when all of a sudden, our
country was in the middle
of a pandemic. Needless to
say we shifted our thoughts
and went in an entirely new
direction,” she said.
She continued, “We
have been in Heppner since
April and have really en-
joyed meeting new friends
and settling into the com-
munity and are more than
willing to offer our photog-
raphy services to anyone
who may need personal,
family, commercial or wed-
ding photos. I’m hoping
that some ranchers will let
me come and take photos
of their brandings next
spring.”
When asked about oth-
er jobs she has done she
reported she created the
newspaper Northeast Ore-
gon Business News, which
was in circulation from
2014 to 2017 and was dis-
tributed throughout Baker,
Morrow, Umatilla, Gil-
liam, Union and Wallowa
Counties. She was also the
executive director of the
Umatilla Chamber in 2017,
has owned a construction
cleaning company, was
a siding contractor and
owned a manufacturing
business in Elgin where
Kimbel Trailers were built.
She said she enjoys
writing, photography, hik-
ing and spending time with
her husband, children and
grandchildren in her spare
time and is looking forward
to her new duties at the
Heppner Chamber.
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839
CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT.
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