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VOL. 140
NO. 32
8 Pages
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Vaccination winners announced as county
inoculation rate hovers at 40 percent
Commission approves $20 Visa gift cards, and recommends county
residents ‘mask up’
By David Sykes
With COVID infection
rates on the rise and the
county vaccination rate
hovering around 40 percent,
county commissioners last
week recommended all
county employees wear
masks, and “encouraged”
all county residents, vacci-
nated or not, to wear masks
while indoors at public
gatherings. Commission-
ers also approved giving
out $20 VISA gift cards to
those getting vaccinated
at upcoming public inoc-
ulation events. They had
earlier authorized $70,000 Pat Sweeney, Heppner, wins
$20,000 vaccination prize
in county money to be spent
on a lottery open to coun-
ty residents receiving the
vaccination. Those winners
were recently announced,
and commissioners hope
all these efforts will bring
down COVID infection
rates in the county.
The 40 percent vacci-
nation rate puts Morrow
County at number 28 in the
state for percent of the pop-
ulation inoculated against
COVID-19. Lake County
is the lowest at 31.2 percent
and Hood River County is
number one with 68.3 fully
vaccinated. In total num-
bers Morrow County has Cecilia Coria, Boardman,
$10,000
4,578 people vaccinated,
including 68 percent of its es and hospitalizations,”
65 or over population.
Rivera later told the Ga-
At its August 4 meet- zette-Times. “In response,
ing, in addition to approv- new national guidance has
ing the $20 Visa gift cards, been released calling for
after hearing a report from masking measures to pre-
the public health director, vent the spread of the highly
commissioners voted two transmissible Delta variant.
to one on the masking rec- The Morrow County Health
ommendation. “We recom- Department is following
mend universal mask usage the Centers for Disease
in the county. Whether Control (CDC) and the
you are vaccinated or not Oregon Health Authority’s
we recommend you wear (OHA) guidance in recom-
a mask in public,” Mor- mending universal mask
row County Health
use in public indoor
Director Nazario
settings in an attempt
Rivera said. He said
to protect ourselves
that recommenda-
and the community
tion came down
from COVID-19,” he
from the national
added.
Center for Disease
At the August 4
Control and the
meeting commission-
state Health Depart-
er Melissa Lindsay,
ment, and although Morrow
who has been at the
it is not a mandate County
Health Direc- lead championing
the county is strong- tor Nazario vaccinations and oth-
ly urging people to Rivera
er COVID prevention
comply.
actions in the county,
Nazario said the county said Morrow County is
health department has been headed back to a high-risk
seeing an uptick in vaccina- category and she did not
tions among the population want to see the county re-
with his office averaging ceive lock downs or other
about 10 vaccines per day strict orders again from the
during their three clinic state level. “It is still there,”
days per week. “We have she said of the COVID vi-
seen a slight increase in rus. Lindsay said she was
people seeking the vaccine concerned the population
in the last couple of weeks,” has become lax. “I don’t
he said.
see people wearing masks,”
“There has been a sig- she said pointing out it
nificant jump in recent cas- appears a lot of the public
has stopped paying atten-
tion to new cases. “But the
state has not. How do we
make sure we don’t send
ourselves back into a shut
down? We are told it is with
vaccines and masks,” she
emphasized.
Prior to voting on a mo-
tion recommending masks
for county government em-
ployees and supporting the
health director in efforts to
get more vaccinations and
lic health director, Rivera
would recommend at this
time that the county fair and
rodeo not move forward. The 24-page Morrow County Fair and Rodeo special edition
Rivera said at this time he is included in the paper this week.
is not saying events should
be shut down, only that the
public mask up in public
indoor settings. A motion
to recommend the public
mask up passed two to one
with Doherty voting no.
In other COVID busi-
ness Lindsay said the
county would be setting up
booths at public events to
give vaccinations and asked
the county commissioners
to authorize giving $20 Visa
They’ve ‘goat’ a
‘dam’ job
Jose Montes, Irrigon, wins
$20,000
Merlin Pengelly, Irrigon,
$10,000
Luis Reyes, Boardman,
$10,000
masks, county commis-
sioner Jim Doherty said he
thinks the public already
knows and
understands
all of it. “I
think the
constituency
out there af-
ter a year and
a half fully
understand Morrow
this issue,” County Com-
D o h e r t y missioner Jim
s a i d . “ A Doherty
top-down
approach of us banding
them (the public) about is
not going to lead to more
vaccinations and not going
to lead to more masks.”
He said he understands
the position Rivera is in to
follow the CDC guidelines
and state recommendations
but as a commissioner, “I
am reluctant at this time to
go out and tell the constitu-
ency and the employees of
the county something they
are fully aware of at this
point,” he emphasized. “I
want to stress the fact even
if we are adding breaking
cases (of new COVID in-
fections) you are aware that
the vaccinations we have
available now are working
against hospitalizations and
deaths,” Rivera replied. “If
60 percent of our citizens
are not going to get vac-
cinated, and I have to get
a mask to keep those 60
percent from getting sick
or going to the hospital,
how does that work out for
the folks that have gone
and gotten vaccinated?”
Doherty asked.
Rivera reiterated he is
only following the recom-
mendations from the CDC
and state health officials.
However, Doherty wanted
to know if, as county pub-
each inoculation. “I think
people can make a choice,”
Doherty said before also
voting no on this motion.
“I don’t want to pay them.”
As an earlier incentive
by the county, commis-
sioners voted to put up
$70,000 in county money
toward a lottery for people
in Morrow County taking
the vaccine. Those winners
were recently announced.
Pat Sweeney of Heppner
and Jose Montes of Irrigon
won $20,000, Cecilia Coria
and Luis Reyes of Board-
man both won $10,000 as
well as Merlin Pengelly of
Irrigon.
Although the lottery
is over Rivera wanted to
remind county residents
that the vaccine is readily
available for all who want
it. “The Public Health De-
partment is continuing to
offer the Moderna, Pfizer,
and Johnson & Johnson
vaccine. This vaccine is
available at no cost. If you
have any questions about
the vaccine, please call:
541-676-5421,” Rivera told
the Gazette-Times.
See page 4 for vaccine
information.
Goats have arrived and are busy clearing the overgrown veg-
etation on the Willow Creek dam this week. -Photo by Giselle
encourage people to wear gift cards as incentive with Moses.
By Giselle Moses
Approximately 1000
goats arrived last Thursday
and Friday to clear the
overgrown vegetation on
and surrounding the Wil-
low Creek Dam. Sage and
Hayden Petty with Petty
Family Goats of Pomeroy,
WA, have once again been
tasked by the US Corps of
Engineers to have their herd
do what they love to do, eat.
The goats will spend
the next week clearing the
area on the town side of the
dam and will move to the
upper end of Willow Creek
Reservoir early next week.
The herd consists of both,
adults and kids of various
breeds of goats.
Farra celebrates
104th birthday
Above: Ida Farra (front row
center) celebrated her birth-
day with friends and family.
Pictured front (L-R): Cara
Osmin, Farra and Mary Ann
Elguezabal. Back row (L-R):
Frank Osmin, Bill Mahon,
Sonny Biddle, Peggy Fish-
burn, Earl Fishburn and Rick
Drake. Right: Ida Farra.