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NEWS A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2020 Plan to reopen Oregon due next month By DICK HUGHES FOR THE OREGON CAPITAL BUREAU By the week of May 4, Gov. Kate Brown could have a fi rm plan for reopening parts of Ore- gon’s economy, probably starting with rural counties. Brown held a conference call Monday afternoon with county commissioners throughout the state. “Commissioners are under tre- mendous pressure in their counties to reopen for business,” Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock said afterward. “I felt like it’s actually progress- ing. The conversation about open- ing up, with the notable exception of large groups, is almost pro- gressing more quickly than I had anticipated.” He added, “Now, by moving right along, we’re talking about mid-May or so.” Brown expects to release a more detailed draft plan next week. It will not contain dates for when businesses might reopen and social distancing restric- tions might be eased. Instead, it will require meeting criteria that Brown announced last week, combined with President Donald Trump’s recommendations. Each Oregon county also would have to certify that it had adequate hospital beds to handle a surge in COVID-19 cases and suf- fi cient personal protective equip- ment for medical personnel and fi rst responders. Unlike in some states, Brown is focusing on a regional approach. “The main thing the gover- nor told us is that there clearly are counties, particularly in East- ern Oregon and Southeastern Ore- gon, that have zero cases or maybe one case, and they should be prior- itized for reopening in a way that’s consistent with maintaining pub- lic health,” Nik Blosser, Brown’s chief of staff, said. “So, how quickly can we do that and what’s the framework we need for them?” Umatilla County is not one of the Oregon counties with only one case. The county was up to 27 con- fi rmed cases as of Monday, with more than half of those patients still sick. Blosser said the governor’s Medical Advisory Panel was working through plans this week on comprehensive testing, con- tact tracing and isolating people with coronavirus; allowing none- mergency medical and dental pro- cedures to resume; and the spe- cifi c metrics required statewide and regionally for that reopening to recur. Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, the Douglas County health offi cer, said he knew of no Oregon county that was yet meeting all crite- ria laid out last week by Trump for initial reopening. Dannenhof- fer is a member of Brown’s panel but emphasized his views were his own, not the panel’s. Late last week, county com- missioners of Baker, Deschutes, Grant, Malheur, Harney, Jefferson, Union, Lake, Wallowa, Wasco and Klamath counties asked Gov. Brown for “a conversation about partly opening up Eastern Ore- Ryan Brennecke/EO Media Group A closed sign is posted in the front window of L & K Barber Shop in downtown Bend. gon.” Not every commissioner signed on to the letter sent to the governor. All three Deschutes County commissioners signed it, along with two Jefferson County commissioners. Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, noted that new cases of COVID-19 are declining in Deschutes County but the coronavirus will not disappear for a long time. “We need to learn how to live with the virus and still continue on. The current shutdown and having 300,000 Oregonians essen- tially unemployed because of it is completely unsustainable and is going to cause serious prob- lems — catastrophic problems, I would say — with the state being able to fund important programs,” he said. “I think we really need to look at a county-by-county open- ing of the state.” Oregon Senate Minority Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr., R-Grants Pass, agreed that the state must learn to maintain both public health and a healthy economy. The place to start is with rural health care. “Our hospitals in rural Ore- gon are really hurting right now. They need to get back to work, both for their income but also for all those people who need their hip replaced, bypass surgery, all that stuff,” he said. Two Eastern Oregon lawmak- ers proposed using Harney County as a pilot project, citing its lack of confi rmed COVID-19 cases, its small population and its isolation from other communities. “This is not a proposal to open businesses. This is a proposal to recognize the health hazards and the health risks and work through those and mitigate restrictions and allow people to return to some of their prior freedoms,” said Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale. He and Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, put together a proposal that includes ideas for how the community could mitigate health risks and how specifi c types of businesses could enforce social distancing. “We’ve got a little more work to do it, but not a lot. And we hope we can get the governor to agree with running a pilot,” Find- ley said. “If we can’t make a pilot work there, we can’t make it work anywhere.” Dick Hughes is a freelance journalist who has covered Oregon politics since 1976. Contact him at thehughe- sisms@gmail.com. Umatilla’s downtown getting a needed makeover By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR After years of planning, Uma- tilla’s main thoroughfare is fi nally getting an upgrade. The Oregon Department of Transportation has started work on an overhaul of Sixth Street, from Yerxa Avenue next to Columbia Harvest Foods down to the bridge over the Umatilla River. The project will include recon- structing the road to better with- stand the heavy truck traffi c along Highway 730 that it sees each day. City Manager David Stockdale said the project will bring streets, sidewalks, curbs and crossings up to accessibility standards in the Americans with Disabilities Act. There will also be decorative touches, such as stamped con- crete that looks like red brick, new landscaping and new lampposts with arms that can hold banners or hanging fl ower baskets watered automatically with a built-in irriga- tion system. At intersections, sidewalks will “bulb out” to the point where park- ing spaces end and the lane of travel begins, creating a visual cue for drivers to remember they’re going through a town and to slow down. “As a driver, it makes it far eas- ier to see pedestrians,” Stockdale said. Sixth Street isn’t closed com- pletely during the project, Stock- dale said. Traffi c is just being rerouted to the center lanes. Businesses can stay open, and customers can still access their parking lots or park on side streets. The project is set to be com- pleted on Oct. 31. Stockdale said that timeline included an extra two weeks built in for contin- gency, but that two weeks has been “gobbled up” by some delays in the supply chain caused by COVID-19. Since Sixth Street is part of Highway 730, and therefore under the jurisdiction of ODOT, the state is paying for 88% of the $6 million project, Stockdale said. We’re here for you. We are grateful for those who have our back in this important time. 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