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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2020)
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 5, 2020 HermistonHerald.com EasternOregonMarketplace.com BACK TO SQUARE ONE Umatilla County gets put back to a baseline shutdown over COVID-19 By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR Staff photos by Kathy Aney Nelly’s Super Tacos in Hermiston, above, has been takeout-only for most of 2020. Below, both times Broken Barrel was forced to switch to takeout-only led to decreased sales and staff reductions for the Stanfi eld bar and grill. BACK TO BASELINE The following rules and guidelines are in place while Umatilla County is in baseline mode: • Stay home as much as possible and limit nonessential travel • Civic and faith-based gatherings, such as government meetings or church services, are capped at 25 people • Social gatherings are limited to 10 people • Restaurants and bars are limited to takeout and delivery • Facilities that must close include gyms, playgrounds, pools, entertainment facilities, youth sports, spas, sports courts and personal care services, such as hair salons. Umatilla County residents had been bracing for a possi- ble return to Phase 1 reopening restrictions after the county’s cases of COVID-19 per capita continued to outpace the rest of the state, but on Friday, July 31, the county got sent all the way back to the baseline “stay home” level fi rst implemented in March. The announcement from Gov. Kate Brown on the evening of Thursday, July 30, put Uma- tilla County back to baseline and Morrow County to Phase 1 as of noon the next day. Under base- line rules, eating establishments must return to takeout and deliv- ery only, and businesses, such as salons and movie theaters, must close. Martha McClusky, owner of Broken Barrel in Stanfi eld, said both times her bar and grill has had to switch to takeout only has meant a “dramatic decrease in sales,” forcing her to reduce staff. Like many restaurant own- ers, she said she would not have placed large orders for certain items if she had known the shut- down was coming. She said she is currently offering steep dis- counts on kegs so they don’t go bad now that she can’t serve the alcohol by the glass inside the bar. She said she felt grateful for the community support in the spring and now, however. “I wasn’t hit so bad I couldn’t stay afl oat,” she said. As a thank you to loyal cus- tomers in the spring, Broken Bar- rel offered a free lunch for take- out one week, which turned into a weekly tradition once community members started making dona- tions to fund the effort. McClusky said they plan to pick that back up again during the shutdown. Some restaurants never com- pletely reopened after they fi rst closed their doors to diners in March. Nelly’s Super Tacos in Herm- iston has been takeout-only for most of 2020. Owner Nelly Sanchez said she kept customers to the drive- thru window even after she was allowed to reopen the building because she would be “devas- tated” at the thought of a cus- tomer or employee getting sick at her restaurant. She said she also feared it would actually be worse for her business to go through the expense of reopen- ing under all of the restrictions, only to have an outbreak or exposure force a closure. “The reason I didn’t open my doors is because I knew it would get worse, like it has,” she said. “I saw other businesses open, and then people were getting sick and they had to close their doors for a week. If I get closed for a week that would kill me. I fi g- ure if I can do a little bit (of busi- ness) every day I will be OK.” She said having a drive-thru window does help some custom- ers feel more comfortable pick- ing up food, but they have also lost a lot of customers since the pandemic began. The action to take Umatilla County to baseline and Morrow County back to Phase 1 was the fi rst time Gov. Kate Brown has reversed a county’s reopening — something she told counties was a possibility if their COVID- 19 numbers indicated they had opened too fast. In an interview with the Ore- gon Capital Bureau, which pro- vides state-level coverage for the Hermiston Herald‘s parent com- pany, Brown said for the past few weeks she and health offi cials made attempts to get Umatilla County to take voluntary actions. Union and Lincoln counties had voluntarily rolled back from Phase 2 to Phase 1 when they faced rising infection rates. The two counties were removed July 30 from the state’s watchlist of counties where infections are ris- ing beyond acceptable limits. Brown had hoped to repli- cate the same pattern with Uma- tilla County, but said her over- tures were repeatedly rebuffed. She said county commission- ers would only follow statewide restrictions. See Shutdown, Page A7 Door-to-door testing shows widespread cases OSU study estimates 17% of Hermiston residents positive for COVID-19 on July 25-26 By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR Oregon State University researchers believe 17% of Herm- iston residents were positive for COVID-19 during the university’s door-to-door testing period on July 25-26. According to the announce- ment on the morning of Friday, July 31, fi eld workers from the TRACE COVID-19 study col- lected 471 samples from 249 ran- domly selected households across Hermiston on those dates. The news release noted that fi eld work- ers knocked on more than those 249 doors, but only 44% of homes contacted agreed to participate in the free, voluntary test. The study had previously announced it would take as many INSIDE Photo courtesy of Oregon State University Researchers with Oregon State University prepare for door-to-door COVID-19 testing in Hermiston on July 25-26. as 10 days for people to receive their results from the lab, but the tests were processed more quickly than expected. A3 Hermiston breaks ground on new Funland playground The results suggest that about 3,000 people in the city were car- rying the virus on July 25-26. Of those who tested positive, 80% A3 Small schools that planned to reopen in the fall are switching gears to online-only reported not having any symptoms. Umatilla County Public Health Director Joe Fiumara and Uma- tilla County Commissioner George A4 Hermiston Herald intern Nada Sewidan refl ects on her unique summer in Hermiston Murdock told the East Oregonian that the results showing wide com- munity spread in Hermiston were a factor in the state’s decision to bring the county back to “stay home” status on Friday — some- thing Gov. Kate Brown confi rmed. Mayor David Drotzmann said in a statement that the results con- stituted a “signifi cant warning” for Hermiston. “We now have a clearer pic- ture of how many people are car- rying this disease without knowing it, and how rapidly it is spread- ing family to family, household to household,” he said. The TRACE team also tested for COVID-19 in samples of wastewater taken from Hermiston and Boardman’s recycled water treatment plants, and reported that the levels of the virus in the sew- age were “signifi cantly higher” than anywhere else in the state that the team has tested. The results of the study were made public the morning after Gov. Kate Brown announced that See Testing, Page A7 A6 The Harkenrider Senior Activ- ity Center continues serving seniors during its building closure
