This Friday, some of the small businesses that bring personality, culture and soul to towns and cities across Oregon may get the chance to reopen. Stores including art galleries, jewelry shops and boutiques, along with local restaurants, barber shops, gyms and many “non-essential” businesses may be able to begin to welcome customers, after surviving nearly two months with little to no revenue.
Whether our region will enter Phase One depends on approval from Gov. Kate Brown’s office and the Oregon Health Authority. So will they give Deschutes County their stamp of approval?
We’ll find out Wednesday, said Annette Liebe, Central Oregon regional coordinator for the governor’s office during a presentation hosted by the Bend Chamber of Commerce Monday.
What that means: It’s likely that after Friday, Central Oregonians can get a hair-cut, sit inside their favorite restaurant or return to the gym or yoga studio. Businesses won’t open all at once, and some may require specific approval from city officials as they accommodate the governor’s new regulations.
Local business owners now have a mountain of information to sort through from the city, county and state. We’ve gathered most of what you need to know, and compiled a list of links and resources.
What will open and when?
As the community begins to reopen the economy, the success of this region relies on the delicate dance of both saving local businesses while containing the spread of COVID-19. Provided that the Governor’s office approves local counties’ plans to reopen, the “non-essential” businesses that have been closed during quarantine that may open Friday include:
- Bars and Restaurants – Sit-down service with 6 feet between parties. Sanitization, masks required for employees
- Salons and Barbers – Masks and PPE required for workers, distancing between customers
- Gyms and Fitness – Physical distancing, maximum capacity, sanitization
- Childcare facilities – Priority for the children of essential workers, smaller capacity
- Summer camps and youth programs – Physical distancing
- Outdoor recreation – State park day use areas, boat ramps and some camping
- Travel – No overnight trips, limited non-essential travel, groups of 25 or fewer may gather
Those who work in office environments and have been able to work from home, can remain at home for now. Even during Phase Two—likely weeks or even months ahead—work in offices will be optional.
What’s the plan?
Deschutes County commissioners and staff worked on the Deschutes County Reopening Plan that Commissioner Patti Adair hand delivered to the governor’s office on Thursday. The detailed proposal had to demonstrate that the region met a number of prerequisites, which included:
- statistics about the declining prevalence of COVID-19 in the area
- strong testing capacity
- a contact tracing system
- isolation facility preparation
- surge capacity at St. Charles Bend
- sufficient supply of personal protective equipment
While the county has shouldered much of the burden in terms of interaction with the governor’s office, local leaders in Bend and Redmond have been working collaboratively to establish support systems for local businesses.
Tourism vs. isolationism
One thing both cities are grappling with is how to acknowledge and support businesses in the tourism sector during the coming months, when non-essential travel will be low or non-existent.
Redmond City Manager Keith Witcosky talked to the Source May 6 as part of our weekly “Bend Don’t Break” podcast series to discuss leadership during a crisis. When asked about the tourism economy in Redmond, Witcosky said that during normal times, 1,500 people pass through Redmond Airport every day. Since the crisis hit, that number has shrunk to 100.
The airport, which is part of the City of Redmond’s budget, will receive $8.9 million in aid from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Airport Grant Program.
The airport is one of Redmond’s strongest economic drivers, Witcosky said. The anti-tourism sentiment hasn’t been particularly loud coming from the Redmond community, he said.
“If you look at the isolationism, and how it begins to play out… the last time I checked, most people move here at some point and time,” Witcosky said. “We’re all human beings whether we’re in this region, this state, this county, the world. Most people out there talk about how we can solve this together… But the question about ‘Will someone come in from the outside and infect us,” It’s one of those downward spirals you might see in a movie.”
The Deschutes County commissioners decided last week that they will let the county’s prohibition on short-term rental stays expire after May 15, so after Friday, anyone in the county can rent their property without fines. On May 6, the Bend City Council ratified the City’s administrative order strongly discouraging recreational travel to Bend through July. The state ban on non-essential travel is still in effect and it will not be lifted during Phase One.
Restaurants—which are a large piece of the tourism economy—will begin to reopen after Friday. Some restaurants will have to evaluate whether it’s worth it to open under the Phase One guidelines, which limit seating and may require additional safety training for employees.
Redmond Mayor George Endicott said he hoped the group of city leaders will develop a system of guidelines to help restaurants in the area and communicate these clearly to restaurant owners.
“I hope [the guidelines] don’t continue too much to be a moving target for these business…,” Endicott said during a press conference May 8. “There’s a lot that goes into trying to re-open, let’s not change the goal posts too much.”
Supporting business
“We know that childcare is really important for employees who want to get back to work, and childcare business are really struggling right now just to stay alive,” said Bend Mayor Sally Russell Friday.
The Bend City Council, along with the Deschutes County commissioners, voted last week to each support a $50,000 payment ($100,000 total) to NeighborImpact to provide emergency childcare centers in the area.
Bend City Manager Eric King said the City of Bend has established a new program to support area businesses as they begin Phase One or continue to try to survive while remaining closed. (See below for links and the support line.) According to Ben Hemson, the City of Bend business advocate, the group is made up of staff from the economic development department along with people from fire, permitting, streets, and accessibility.
“My message to business owners so far has been, ‘review the guidelines from the governor’s office [see links below] and then reach out to us to discuss what changes can be made to help you reopen,’” Hemson told the Source in an email. “I’m hoping we’ll find out what help a business needs to get open and will be able to sign off on any changes and get them up and running ASAP.”
Is there a chance businesses will close again?
Deschutes County Commissioner Tony DeBone explained that Gov. Brown has established metrics for re-imposing restrictions. These include a county’s inability to keep up with contact tracing, evidence of an increase of 5% in COVID-19 cases over a seven-day period and evidence of an increasing burden on the hospital over the course of a week.
DeBone is hopeful that the region won’t have to move backwards.
“We’re setting up the culture of living in this environment,” he said. “There’s a new virus out there without a vaccine or medication… we may be in this for the next year, year and a half… It is going to have to be the culture of everybody, every citizen is going to have to take some personal responsibility… This is an unknown generational health emergency that we’re living in at this time.”
Resources for Businesses and Sole Proprietors
City of Bend Coronavirus Business Resources
Help line: 541.323.7151
Staff from the City of Bend’s Economic Development department are standing by to take your questions about how to reopen your business safely
Deschutes County Guides for Local Small Businesses
Governor’s Guidelines for each type of business
Personal Service Providers
Includes barber shops, hair salons, esthetician practices, medical spas, facial spas and day spas, non-medical massage therapy services, nail salons, tanning salons, and tattoo/piercing parlors
Outdoor Recreation Tours & Guide Services
This article appears in Mar 25 – May 20, 2020.
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It’s about damn time things start to open! None of this should have happened in the first place, things should have stayed open all along. All of this shutting down because of 0.1 to 0.3 percent death rate of a virus that we have known about for over 50 years. I mean for Christ Sake, the annual flu is more deadly and close to 100,000 to 200,000 people die of that every year. Where is the shut down then?!? All this is such nonsense! And on top of that, let’s do the math. As the internet says, there are as of right now 130 coronavirus deaths in Oregon. The entire state of Oregon currently has a population of 4.19 million. If we divide 130 by 4.19 million we get 0.000031. That means in Oregon you have a 0.000031% chance of dying of the coronavirus. And all of this shut down and extending state of emergency for this!? Pathetic! Governor Brown has got to go. The women is a tyrant! I am not afraid to say that she is evil. And before anybody says, “well….well the reason why the coronavirus deaths are so low in Oregon is because we made our quarantine laws STRICT!!” Then please provide reason as to why when quarantine is lifted, the number of cases will go up. Is it because people didn’t lock up in their houses enough and didn’t ‘6 ft social distance enough?’ No it’s because locking everybody up doesn’t stop anything, matter of fact it just makes things worse. The reason why us as humans have been able to come such a long way in immunity is because of herd immunity and exposure to different earthly germs and particles. Without that exposure our immune systems become weaker and when we get sick next time around, the immune response will even be more intense because of the pressure that will be put on it. Sanitizing and sterilizing the shit out of your environment isn’t going to save a thing, it’s just going to slow things, but it won’t stop you from getting sick. I’m am not a doctor, but I have done some extensive research on these matters and have listened to the likes of people like Dr. Andy Kauffman and my own father who has spoke explicitly on this topic recently, and my own father who is a licensed doctor himself. All that we are experiencing is tyranny and a totalitarian government taking over with more control. If we don’t stand up and exercise our rights during this time, we will be in for troubling times ahead!
As a side note, people should be getting out as much as they can, they should be taking all the opportunities they have to hug others and shake hands with others, they should be throwing the masks away along with the gloves, and they should be getting in large gatherings to show those who ‘control’ us whose boss. As with businesses, every last one should get together and make a concerted effort to open all at once and disobey Kate Browns “executive orders.” Because if the people in this city, in this state and in this country did just that, the “authorities” would not have an ounce of control. Remember, the power and government lyes within we the people!
Cheers, Godbless✌️
Go to NYC
Garrett, .000031 is not .000031%. You need to multiply by 100 to convert the decimal fraction to a percentage. The actual percentage is .0031. Yes, this is still a very small number.
Going to poke some holes in the above argument, just because readers need to understand the truth.
So far in the US, there have been approx. 1.38 million confirmed cases. This is the number you must divide by, since you can only use the number of people who have definitely been exposed to the virus for death rate. (Someone who hasn’t been exposed to the virus, can’t die from it). Approximately 81,500 people have died so far in the US. 81,500 divided by 1.38 million is, in fact, .059. HOWEVER, this is not a percentage. You must carry the decimal point two places to get percentage. This means the death rate is 5.9% in the US currently. There are likely many cases where people have survived going undocumented. So even if we DOUBLED the number of infected people without changing deaths, the death rate is 3%. Flu death rate is typically around .1%, according to some articles I have read. This is partially because we have a vaccine and know how to fight and treat flu. Looking at these numbers, covid 19 is approximately 30 times deadlier. I’m no scientist or mathematician, but even if I’m sort of close to right, those are big numbers. I am all for people having opinions and I agree the economy needs help. It’s just important for everyone to look up the math for themselves.
Your math is incorrect… You have to divide it by the total number of people who had covid to get the death percentage… not our whole population…. So 131/3050 is around 4%
Garrett as you get… out as much as [you] can, take all the opportunities [you] have to hug others and shake hands, throw [your] masks away along with the gloves, and get in large gathering… those are choices for your life. I choose my fellow humans and will respect these guidelines for others safety: and my own. Please, stay the hell away from me, since your choices don’t align with my choice to live, love and respect life.
Garret Woeller:
Kate Brown’s closure has prevented travel to our eastern side of Oregon and that has reduced the number of cases.
Put yourself in her shoes. It is her job to understand the the data and make a decision for everyone not just for you.
My daughter-in-law is a ER nurse and she is quite pleased Kate Brown was definitive in her response to close down. Try to imagine working 12 hour shifts with little to no Personal Protective Equipment. Try to imagine that. Until her hospital team was able to acquire more equipment (that should have been stockpiled by Federal emergency preparedness) the anxiety of working in those conditions was beyond extreme. She worried about her patients, her own safety, her children, her husband.
So you have anger toward Kate Brown. Try directing your anger where it should be toward inept President Trump and his inept administration.
Did Trump and Co. heed the advice of Obama’s
Pandemic Team to update the Pandemic playbook? No, they did not. In fact, Trump shelved that Pandemic guidebook. Then Trump fired the Pandemic Response Team in 2018. Medical experts warned and pleaded with Trump & Co to begin preparing for such a disaster. Trump continued to mock the scientists and fiddled away.
Trump did nothing but shine-it-on in December of ‘19 when he was notified of C-19. Some think he was told earlier. Trump did nothing in January but mock this virus calling it a “hoax”, then he went golfing and to chest-pumping rallies insidiously mocking this virus. He did nothing in February but continue to lie to the American people. (His partial travel closure from China still allowed 400,000 travelers in).
All the while, with this POTUS’ ignorant and dangerous blind-eye-denial, Americans were being infected and dying. February 6th may not be the earliest American death. The unknowns of this disease (NOT the seasonal flu) need yet to be unraveled.
If you still don’t comprehend why Kate Brown took action as she did (She could not trust Trump to be a strong, cohesive leader. He was/is chaotically all over-the-place) ask yourself why the nations around the world were also taking this C-19 so seriously. Those nations who listened to the scientists, who took C-19 seriously, who were prepared and acted early with shut-downs, were more successful in keeping the number of cases and deaths down. Strong leadership here is noted with those nations.
Note how Trump is on the ‘Blaming Game’ never assuming responsibility for his own doing. Let’s see, spin the dial and find out who can be blamed today, Mr. President.
This failed leadership is so obvious and extremely deadly to our once powerful and respected America. The greatest nation in the world should never have had 800,000+ American deaths on its hands. We kill our own.
Correction: 80,000 + ☝🏽
(How does one edit on this cite?)
I’m on your team Garret Woeller. 100% fed up with this garbage situation and refuse to waste any more time even considering garbage data or pointless arguments from those who want to stay home. Handshake and a hug anytime and those that have an issue just don’t do it. Done with em
Re-open… This shutdown has done more damage than its saved in Central Oregon. Amazing how many brainwashed sheep out there running around scared trying to push this one size fits all approach. I’m guessing no one will report how many business’s this has closed, how many suicidies happen, how many sick non COVID patients didnt get treatment and their conditions worsen, how many cancer patients forwent chemo. I like how all these previous comments are trying to calculate a mortality rate. The denominator of known cases is so inaccurate to the reality. There’s 10-50x the amount of asymptomatic cases not included in your calculations. The actual mortality rate is much lower than the flu. The most prudent thing to do is educating the actual risk group, 60+ with comorbidities, everyone else needs to get back to normal life. Now that the truth has been spoken, watch all the liberal source readers smash that dislike button! Lol
If Garrett would research better, maybe he could desiminate the truth.
The flue has killed in the U.S. a maximum of 61,000 people in any one year in over the past 10 year period. And we have annual vaccines for the flu. We’ve now surpassed 80,000+ deaths in the U.S. for the Coronavirus.
The 10th Amendment gives governor’s the authority to enact all these actions after declaring an emergency. The right’s have been successfully litigated by the state’s through local, state and the Supreme Court.
Someone mentioned the flu not being a very likely killer. But the N1H1 flu back in the 1918 period, killed off 1/3 of the world.
Let me say it in a different way: in 1918-1919 the planet lost 1/3 of its human population.
It’s not almost 6% when you factor in the fact that way more people have had coronavirus then we have actually accounted for and the fact that many deaths due to unrelated factors have been documented as covid related. Why wait for Commie Kate? She definitely knows best, huh? Sheep
Garrett/ jj904
Your ignorance is bliss. Education is beneficial in order for one to make a valid point or argument. Educate yourself!!
Before this virus st Charles couldn’t handle just our normal community. I took my mom to the hospital and waited an entire 24 hours before they had a bed available then she ended up in ICU FOR A WEEK. Not Covid Related at all. This has been an issue for a long time they were understaffed and over crowded. How does it make sense that they won’t be again next week when people are out, have accidents, and just what happens in normal life. I wonder.
I remember my mom making sure I had chicken pox but this is different
XTRACTPROOF, oh sir I have done my research and have though very carefully about my arguments. Perhaps I would encourage you to do some alternative research and listen to those who refute this current narrative. Perhaps you and all those in this comment section who seem disagree should listen to the likes of people such as Dr. Andy Kauffman and Dr. Rashid Buttar.
Voting American – if this is such a deadly “pandemic” then please tell me why there are so many hospitals that are empty, so many nurses getting laid off, and why so many of the numbers that we have seen in the media are of patients who have had several underlying health issues for a long time, or people who died of something totally unrelated to COVID? There have been several cases around the country where health officials have been told to mark any death as COVID, sound fishy enough? Also, you can think whatever you want about President Trump, but is it a good thing that Kate Brown keeps our economy shut down and prevents a bunch of people from earning an income. Try being in her shoes? Maybe try having having a bigger outlook instead of getting so mad so quickly. While millions of people are out of work, which in turn has destroyed millions of livelihoods, and people don’t have the ability to make an income, Kate Brown is completely unaffected and still has her job. So, do you think that this whole economic shutdown which can and will lead to economic catastrophe is what we should continue doing?
This is just to clear something up about the 1918 pandemic. The H1N1 flu of 1918 did NOT kill off 1/3 of the world population. The population of the world in 1918 was about 1.8 billion. If 1/3 of the population had died that would have been about 585 million deaths. Most estimates suggest somewhere between 18 million and 50 million deaths. Just wanted to set that straight.
I am not going to debate opening up the state here. Nor do I wish to delve into the mortality rate of COVID 19. I will say that we do not fully understand this illness as the data is still being compiled. It may be months or even years before we have a full measure of what the true data of this pandemic means.
Poor Garrett, The school system failed him too. RIP Boomer:(