EDSC meeting focuses on school, public health, and health system

DAYTON—The Economic Development Steering Committee held a regular monthly remote meeting on October 5, 2021.

Martha Lanman, Columbia County Public Health Administrator, announced that there were 21 active cases, with more than 20 tests performed that morning. She commended the Columbia County Health System for their ongoing hard work as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

She clarified that the COVID-19 case count is still a roller coaster in the county. She observed that cases seem to taper slightly towards the end of the week, but requests ramp up as the work week starts back up on Monday. She explained that many of the drastic drops in cases are from families who test positive simultaneously, so once recovered, their active status drops off the count together.

She said that she does not think that the fair or school had significantly impacted the case counts.

“It’s just all over,” she said. “It’s all about where we go, what we do. We need to take care of ourselves, and we need to pay attention if we are sick.”

When asked why the number of deaths seems unchanged over the last few weeks, Lanman said that the state’s investigation is taking longer than before to record. The state assesses each death to determine if COVID-19 was the cause before the county can add the case to their reports.

Lanman also announced that November 4 would be her last day as the Public Health Administrator. She accepted a position with the Southeast Washington Alliance for Health, a health-related nonprofit working in Columbia, Garfield, and Asotin counties. Lanman shared that the alliance has COVID-19 related funding, emergency grants, and other funds.

“I’m excited to work in the nonprofit world and excited to still do good things in health-related fields and do good things in the communities,” Lanman said.

Shane McGuire, Columbia County Health System CEO, spoke about the COVID-19 situation at the hospital, saying that the hospitalization has declined slightly and some staffed beds have been freed up, but capacity is still very tight.

He said that the health system is anticipating losing roughly 5% (12-14 people) of its workforce as the October 18 vaccine deadline approaches.

“We are sad to see any of our high-performing people go, but we ultimately understand and respect that this is a choice- a tough choice,” McGuire said. “I have seen people in tears. I’ve seen people who have worked here for 27 years making the decision to leave this job because of the vaccine mandate.”

McGuire explained that the health system has no leeway regarding enforcement. The authorities that have been selected to enforce the vaccination requirements are licensing entities, including the Department of Health.

“If we don’t comply with this. They will make sure that we are no longer a hospital,” McGuire said. “Saying that ‘we will not participate’ is the same as saying ‘we are no longer a health system’ because they will de-license us.”

He said that this is one of the toughest things that the health system has had to deal with, and he expressed gratitude towards everyone who has opted to get their COVID-19 vaccination, followed the processes, and made the decision to continue on elsewhere.

McGuire said that he felt that he needed to clarify that the healthcare providers who were hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine were not anti-vaccination but wanted more time to observe the effects of the vaccine.

Those who decided to get vaccinated early on, he said, did so because they wished to keep themselves safe, their patients safe, and their communities safe.

McGuire and Lanman both estimated that the state’s reporting system is missing the vaccination for roughly 600 people in Columbia County, confirmed through a phone call with the state. They said that they believe that approximately 55-60% of Columbia County has been vaccinated, but they are waiting on updated data to confirm that.

Dayton School District Superintendent said 67 of the 70 employees in the district have been vaccinated or have filed an acceptable exemption. Of the remaining three staff, one is filing an exemption, and the other two are undecided.

He said that school board meetings are switching to Zoom as the safest option after a few community members made it clear that they would not mask up for in-person meetings.

Strot said that six staff were out of the building as of Tuesday. Three had tested positive, while the remaining three were sick and planning on being tested for the virus. He said that up to 25 kids out of school are sick, but only a couple of active cases. He said several of the students and staff displayed obvious flu or cold symptoms.

Strot addressed concerns that the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to calls during the September board meeting, when meeting attendees disrupted the meeting, refusing to wear a mask. The situation escalated to a trespassing issue, but the on-call deputy was unavailable to respond. The CCSO has not responded to requests from The Times for comments on the situation.

“I think that the sheriff has made it pretty clear that if I call, because someone is trespassing over a mask, I don’t know if they would respond,” he said. “It was easier to go back to the Zoom option and eliminate that situation.”

Port of Columbia Director Jennie Dickinson added to the conversation, saying that she does not feel safe when protesters are outside her office during Port business.

“Picking and choosing which things to enforce does not make me, as a citizen, confident,” she added.

“If someone isn’t’ smashing out windows and shooting people, chances are, you are not going to be very high on the priority list for police response,” said Brian St. Clair, adding that the article was run in the UB roughly one month ago.

The EDSC heard from other speakers, including the Friends of the Dayton City Pool organization. The chairman of the organization, Vicki Zoller, said that they are looking to collaborate with Waitsburg to build community events so that everyone can enjoy activities.