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The Peaceful Protests of Central Oregon
Organizers of the weekend’s local demonstrations look to what’s next
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By Nicole Vulcan
Nicole Vulcan
Nicole Vulcan
Hundreds showed up for Saturday's protest in downtown Bend.
Saturday’s Black Lives Matter peaceful protest in downtown Bend was organized in less than 24 hours. On Sunday, two more followed in Redmond and Prineville. On Tuesday, another protest started near Bend City Hall before moving from the Deschutes County Courthouse to Bond Street and back to City Hall.
The death of George Floyd—who died after a now-former Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes—has been a tipping point in the U.S., causing many to rally, and some to lash out violently across the U.S. over the past week.
In Portland, people broke into the Portland Justice Center and lit fires Friday night, among other damage. In Minneapolis, people lit the police station where the four officers involved in detaining Floyd worked.
In Central Oregon, the response was significant—but not as violent. Hundreds of people gathered near Greenwood Ave. and Wall Street Saturday morning, eventually doing an impromptu march from Wall to Bend’s busy 3rd Street. Aquarius, age 21, said her desire to stage a peaceful protest went from idea to fruition in just one day, with the help of many others. She was thrilled with the turnout, but when people began to get rowdy and move from the sidewalk to the street, she said she was happy to see that request heeded.
“I blown away that I could get such big of a crowd to listen to me. I never thought that my voice could bleed over hundreds of people,” Aquarius, a former Bend Senior High School student and a graduate of the local Job Corps program, told the Source. “We’re not going to make any headway with these riots. I
Andrea Maria Vazquez Fernandez
A demonstrator poses for a photo at Saturday's peaceful protest in downtown Bend.
understand that we’re angry. I’m angry. I feel it. But I’m infusing my anger with love—the only way to counter hate is with love.”
While the Bend protest was mostly peaceful, a few counter-protesters circled downtown in large trucks, blowing exhaust fumes on the crowd.
In Prineville, police say about 150 people gathered Sunday. There, counter-protesters were even bolder— blowing exhaust and also accosting organizers Amber VanDenack and Josie (who declined to provide her last name for fear of retaliation). Counter-protesters can be heard on a video, provided to the Source by VanDenack, saying “go back to Portland,” and “this is our town” as the protest wrapped up. (See the video in the online version of this story.) Both VanDenack and Josie, who is a person of color, live in Prineville.
“We just wanted to say that we stand with Black Lives Matter, and that this can’t keep going on—especially in Prineville,” VanDenack said.
Both Aquarius, who launched the first Bend protest, and VanDenack in Prineville say they hope to hold a monthly protest in their respective cities. They both also hope to develop relationships with local police departments to keep conversations going around police brutality, training of officers and other areas of concern. As for other ideas, they both said they’re working within their circles—now widened significantly—to come up with other ideas.
“We are begging people to understand that things are wrong,” Aquarius said. “And my generation… we are the change. So many youth are behind me and I need them to understand how powerful our voice is.”
Andrea Maria Vazquez Fernandez
St. Charles Financially Devastated
Hospital may lose $50 million in 2020; announces plans to cut employee hours and executive pay
By Laurel Brauns
Well before coronavirus officially hit Central Oregon, St. Charles Health System took steps to plan for a COVID-19 surge and double capacity. Before Gov. Kate Brown banned “non-essential” surgeries, hospital executives stopped them to preserve personal protective equipment. Elective surgeries are a major source of revenue and help to make up for the lower reimbursement rates of Medicare and Medicaid. The hospital is considered a nonprofit, as are about 60% of U.S. hospitals.
SCHS’ Chief Financial Officer, Jenn Welander, said in the past that it has enough liquidity to float for the next seven months without revenue. But on May 28, the hospital announced a plan to cut back.
SCHS has paid 52,000 hours in missed shifts, at a cost of more than $2.1 million, since the COVID-19 crisis began. Now, it’s asking caregivers to volunteer to take unpaid time off, while requiring others to use earned time off or take unpaid time off during holidays for the duration of 2020. On-call employees who are called
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St. Charles Health System has a goal to break even for two months during 2020. Even then, it will likely lose $50 million this year.
off due to low patient volumes will not be paid for missed shifts anymore.
Further, the hospital’s “Executive Care Team,” which includes President and CEO Joe Sluka and 11 vice presidents—is taking a 10% pay cut through 2020.
In 2017, Sluka took home $1.12 million in compensation, according to the hospital’s 990 IRS form. Total executive pay for that period totals more than $6 million.
“We simply are not generating enough money we need to care for patients, invest in our caregivers and support our community,” said Welander. “Instead, we are spending down our reserves and that isn’t sustainable.”
Tourists Won’t Stay Home
Bend’s occupancy rate surges to 64% over Memorial Day Weekend; some local trails packed By Laurel Brauns
Three weekends ago, Deschutes County entered Phase One of reopening: restaurants, shops and boutiques welcomed customers inside for the first time in months. On Monday, the Deschutes County Commissioners voted to send its Phase Two reopening application to the State which would allow gatherings of up to 100 people outside. If approved, local theaters, pools, churches and camps could reopen as soon as Friday.
Meanwhile, anti-tourism sentiment exploded on social media. People who live here feared outsiders coming to visit and bringing coronavirus with them. Strong non-essential travel advisories are flaccid without enforcement mechanisms.
Historically, Memorial Day weekend is one of the busiest of the season, and this year it fell on the second weekend of the county’s official reopening. Despite the ongoing recreational travel ban, visitors from the Willamette Valley flooded into Bend. Visit Bend—along with city and state officials—have been broadcasting the message to “stay home, stay safe,” even after Deschutes County entered Phase One. It doesn’t look like it’s working.
Visit Bend reported the city’s hotel and rental occupancy rate at 64% on Saturday May 23, compared to 23% at the beginning of this May. Last year, on the same weekend, lodging was 94% full. The report showed that many local lodging properties substantially lowered their rates compared to last year, which will drive down the city’s transient room tax collections. Occupancy for all of Central Oregon was 62% on May 23, quadrupling from the weekend before.
“It’s concerning how many people disregarded state and local restrictions on non-essential travel over Memorial Day weekend, and we’re hopeful the uptick in visitors won’t lead to further spread of COVID-19,” said Kevney Dugan, Visit Bend’s CEO. “Visit Bend will continue to urge potential visitors to stay safe and stay home until the Governor deems it appropriate to resume leisure travel. While we’re not yet ready to welcome guests to Bend, the enthusiasm for Bend travel does bode well for the city’s economic recovery once the pandemic is behind us.”
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Reopening the Forest
Toilet cleaning and other services in the Deschutes National Forest have been closed—but recreationalists have still been “going.” You can imagine the results.
By Isaac Biehl
The outside appeared closed up for a few months, but was it really? With trailheads and camping “closed” in the Deschutes National Forest during the COVID-19 outbreak and only partially being re-opened as of late, it would seem things out on the trails are even busier than normal.
At Phil’s Trail trailhead this past weekend, it became clear that the fallout of having few to no services available was beginning to add up. Toilets at the popular trailhead were overflowing; garbage was strewn about.
Currently there are no restroom or garbage services in the Deschutes garbage left outside dumpsters or human waste scattered around trailhead areas.
National Forest, but that still isn’t stopping people from recreating, which is creating another problem. Jean Nelson-Dean, the public affairs officer of the Deschutes National Forest, tells the Source that the Forest Service is having to sift through all of the madness—whether that be
Isaac Biehl
“We’re not keeping those places closed because we don’t want people in them, we’re keeping them closed because if there are hazard trees it could fall on people, or a car. There’s no way to escape a large falling tree. You might think you can, but you can’t.” —Jean Nelson-Dean, the Public Affairs Officer of the Deschutes National Forest
“It’s kind of a mixed bag. We’ve certainly seen people who have left their trash at closed dumpsters and we’ll obviously be dealing with that. I wouldn’t say that we’re seeing more people doing it,” Nelson-Dean said. “We’re actively looking to restore services. We’re really trying to get people to understand that their behavior can either help us or really hinder us.”
The reason these damages have become issues is that DNF and other national forests haven’t been offer
ing full services; agencies haven’t been fully staffed due to the stay-at-home order. Now, with things opening back up, the agency is having to play catchup with the messes left behind. Based on what’s out there right now, it seems that leaving behind waste might be normal practice for some recreators. Isaac Biehl
Views from Paulina Peak at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
Nelson-Dean says one reason why it’s so hard to police this is that for one, the DNF is huge. Trailheads may have been closed, but that doesn’t mean people weren’t using the trails. The limited staffing makes covering this ground even harder, she said.
“We have had actually more people than normal this time of year out recreating despite our closure. There is no way we could enforce our closures at every single location in any form. Going out and telling people to stop doing what they’re doing wasn’t a priority,” said Nelson-Dean.
Another way Forest Service workers find themselves behind: Not all trails are ready for opening, due to the delays in getting staff back to action. Some trails in the area have been opened with limited services, but others still need work regarding hazard trees and other trail maintenance to make them safe for recreational use. Right now, making sure hikers and campers are safe is a big focus.
Inside the DNF, the Forest Service plans to open a few fully-serviced campgrounds in the near future; some as soon as June 5. Nelson-Dean also mentions that the agency is aiming to fully open most campsites in the Newberry-Caldera area, except for the group campground, on June 15.
The campgrounds opening on June 5 include Crane Prairie, Cultus Lake, Gull Point, Lava Lake, North Twin Lake, South Twin Lake, Contorta Flat, Crescent Creek, Crescent Lake, East Davis Lake, Princess Creek, Spring Campground, Sunset Cove, Trapper Creek and Whitefish Horse Camp.
Other campgrounds opening in the area on June 15 include McKay Crossing campground and the Prairie campground. Most of the other campgrounds in the DNF are tentatively slated for a late June open.
“We know many summer memories are made while camping outdoors. We are excited to start opening some campgrounds on the Deschutes National Forest to enjoy,” stated Forest Supervisor Holly Jewkes in a press release.
If you do plan to use trails or campsites in the Deschutes National Forest, especially spots that aren’t offering full services, officials remind visitors that it’s important to practice proper leave-no-trace methods to the best of their ability. Among them: Don’t leave trash behind, and if you need to “go,” dig a hole and bury your waste 6 to 8 inches deep, and at least 200 feet from any water sources.
