BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2020
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
IN THE WORKS
Two Umatilla County worksites on
state’s coronavirus outbreak list
Port of Morrow
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
As the Oregon Health
Authority starts releas-
ing data on worksites with
outbreaks of COVID-19,
Medelez Trucking and
Good Shepherd Health
Care System both made the
list.
Medelez Trucking has
had 22 confi rmed cases
linked to it since April 29,
according to the report
released June 3, and Good
Shepherd Medical Center
has had fi ve cases linked
to its worksite since May
21. The two Hermiston
worksites were the only
Umatilla County employers
on the list of 19 worksites
statewide.
The
report
counts
employees who work in the
same location together and
started experiencing symp-
toms within 14 days of each
other, but it also includes
close contacts, such as fam-
ily members of the employ-
ees who tested positive
after they did.
“That makes it sound like
we had that many employ-
ees test positive, but we
didn’t,” said Joyce Hughes,
human resources man-
ager for Medelez Truck-
ing. “People can say, ‘I was
around an employee,’ and
then we get tagged with it.”
She also pointed out
that for the sake of pro-
tecting patients’ privacy,
OHA is only listing work-
places with more than 30
employees and more than
fi ve cases. That means a
business with all 25 out of
25 employees testing posi-
tive for COVID-19 would
not be named in a report of
worksite outbreaks, while
a business with fi ve out of
several hundred employees
would.
Hughes said Medelez
Trucking has 200 to 250
employees
year-round
but about 400 during har-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Hospital workers screen people arriving at Good Shepherd
Medical Center in Hermiston in late March.
vest season. Near the end
of April, she said, they
were notifi ed that someone
who was not an employee,
but had come into the
offi ce, had tested positive.
Employees who had been
there that day subsequently
tested positive.
“When we found out
two people had it we shut
down the offi ce com-
pletely,” Hughes said.
They sanitized the build-
ing “top to bottom” and
reopened for a day on a
limited basis before another
employee tested positive
and they shut down com-
pletely again. Hughes said
from the beginning, each
person who tested posi-
tive was not allowed back
to work until the county
health department consid-
ered them recovered.
Their most recent case,
according to the OHA
report, was on May 9.
Since OHA is consider-
ing worksite outbreaks
resolved if the site has gone
28 days without a new case,
if the state had waited a few
more days to start pub-
lishing worksite data, the
Hermiston trucking com-
pany would not have been
included.
Benny Medelez, one
of the owners of the com-
pany, said the company is
essential to area growers
who need to get their prod-
ucts to market, so they need
to “keep on trucking.” But
also said from the begin-
ning of the outbreak they
have followed all safety
measures recommended by
the state, including clos-
ing their offi ce to mem-
bers of the public who
don’t have essential busi-
ness with them, keeping
people spaced 6 feet apart
and putting in strict clean-
ing protocols.
“We do everything pos-
sible,” he said. “We’re
not opposed to anything
because we want to keep
everyone safe.”
Dennis Burke, CEO
of Good Shepherd Health
Care System, echoed some
of Hughes’s concerns about
the way the information
was being presented.
“The criteria for which
the Oregon Health Author-
ity (OHA) is reporting
COVID-19 case counts in
the workplace is very mis-
leading,” he said in an
email. “Reported num-
bers are based on contact
tracing, which includes all
household members and
other close contacts related
to that one case. Unfortu-
nately, the implications of
these reports indicate that
all the cases occur in the
workplace, which is not
representative or correctly
reported.”
He said in Good Shep-
herd’s case, the affected
employees were in one of
Good Shepherd’s outpa-
tient facilities. They sent
a list of patients who had
possibly had contact to
Umatilla County Public
Health for contact tracing,
and testing was “encour-
aged and paid for” for any
employee who may have
been exposed.
Good Shepherd Health
Care System has 745
employees, Burke said, and
the hospital has numerous
measures in place to pro-
tect them. Some of those
include limiting visitors,
implementing social dis-
tancing, doing tempera-
ture checks for everyone
entering a facility, requir-
ing masks for employees
and patients (with a few
health-related exceptions),
holding meetings virtually,
providing up-to-date infor-
mation to staff, providing
PPE and providing testing
to staff with symptoms.
If an employee is diag-
nosed with COVID-19,
GSHCS follows Oregon
Health Authority’s cur-
rent guidelines to not allow
them back at work until at
least 10 days after symptom
onset and 72 hours after
their fever is gone without
the use of any fever-reduc-
ing medications.
Morrow County did
not have any worksites
listed on the Oregon
Health Authority’s report,
which OHA stated “may
not refl ect all the work-
place outbreaks in Ore-
gon.” On May 12, The Ore-
gonian reported that Lamb
Weston had four confi rmed
cases of COVID-19 among
its Boardman employ-
ees, but Lamb Weston did
not respond to requests for
comment by the East Ore-
gonian at the time.
moves forward
on improvements
f you’re ever looking for
new growth and devel-
opment in Eastern Ore-
gon, the Port of Morrow in
Boardman is always a safe
bet.
Last week,
during a meet-
ing of the
Columbia
Development
Authority, port
director Ryan
Neal shared
Jade
that while
McDowell
NEWS EDITOR
COVID-19
has shut down
the SAGE Center and the
port’s offi ces, from a busi-
ness standpoint they have
been busy.
A project known as the
East Beach rail extension,
which will add 25,000 feet
of track for use by port busi-
nesses, will be fi nished later
this year.
The port is using state
and federal grant dollars it
received in late 2018 for the
Columbia River Barge Ter-
minal Rail Access Project,
which will allow the port to
offer rail-to-barge shipping
capabilities. The rail exten-
sion, along with develop-
ing Terminal 1 and Terminal
3 with rail access, is the fi rst
part of the project.
Neal reported that design
for the rail-to-barge-por-
tion should be done within
a month, with construction
beginning in early 2021.
The port is also work-
ing on expanding its water
and wastewater infrastruc-
ture. Neal said they are
working on a loop system
for their water system in the
East Beach Industrial Park,
which should be done within
the next 12 months. Port
employees are also work-
ing on their application for a
I
water reuse system that will
allow recycled water to be
reused on agricultural land.
The City of Boardman
passed a $20.3 million bond
last month to add it its own
water and wastewater infra-
structure nearby. The money
will pay for a water booster
pump station, an approx-
imately 1 million gallon
water reservoir, a new water
collector well, a 13-acre
lagoon, wastewater lift sta-
tions and acquiring land for
the projects.
Neal said the expansion
of the Neal Early Learn-
ing Center is currently under
construction, and while it has
been held up due to some
supply chain issues related
to COVID-19, it should be
complete in early October.
The center is a collabora-
tive effort between the Port
of Morrow, InterMountain
Education Service District,
the Morrow County School
District and Umatilla-Mor-
row Head Start and stands
adjacent to the Blue Moun-
tain Community College’s
Workforce Training Center.
“It will be a good facility
for the region,” Neal said.
Other parts of Mor-
row County are also seeing
growth.
The Wheatridge Renew-
able Energy Facility, located
just north of Lexington, is
currently under construction.
The project by Portland
General Electric combines
wind turbines, solar panels
and battery storage. Accord-
ing to the East Oregonian’s
reporting when the project
was fi rst announced in 2019,
it will be the largest facil-
ity of its kind in the United
States — enough to power
the equivalent of 340,000
homes.
WE ARE
HERE FOR YOU
Don’t delay your need
for medical care. Let’s
get your health care
back on track!
We are making sure our
hospital and clinics are as
safe as possible when you
you visit with safety
measures that include:
• Screenings at Entrances
• Limiting Visitors
Your Health &
Safety Are Our
Number One
Priority
• More Virtual Visits
• Social Distancing
in Waiting Areas
• Mask/Cloth Face
Covering Required
Call 541.667.3400 or
schedule an appointment
online at www.gshealth.org