On a limited basis and intended for Hood River County residents only, county trails reopened on Tuesday — up to a point.
The County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to approve an amended order, allowing vehicles to use gravel roads in county-owned lands, and reopening bicycle trails in the recreation network west of Hood River, effective April 28.
One factor to be resolved is that some trails in the popular Post Canyon complex cross into State of Oregon lands, which remain off-limits under Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 closure order. The County Public Works Department will work with user groups, primarily HRATS, to place signs and assist with trail monitoring.
Under the order, three essential conditions prevail:
1. If you can’t ride your bike to the trails, you are not allowed to use them.
2. Parking will be prohibited on roads and at staging areas, so no one will be allowed to drive to trailheads and unload bikes at the staging areas or roads nearby and use the trails.
3. Camping, use of campfires, or other gathering activities are prohibited.
As ways to communicate to the greater public that the order applies to in-county residents only, legal counsel Lisa Davies was instructed to revise the amended order both to state that the reopening of recreational areas is for county residents only, and to reiterate the governor’s order prohibiting non-essential travel.
Sheriff Matt English told the commission that with the reopening, to expect “lots of people from metro area, and it will be hard to say what the management will be like. Parking will be a concern, and the social distancing piece is hard to say. We haven’t witnessed a whole lot of issues but the more use we have it can potentially be an issue. But it’s not the local users, it’s the visitors. It’s one of the consequences, I guess.”
Commissioner Karen Joplin, who had pushed for consideration of the amended order, during the board’s April 20 meeting, said, “I look forward to getting this open, and I want to express that the community of users need to help us with this. It is everyone’s responsibility to do their part, and it will go a long ways to helping us with this reopening. This is step one. I call on community of users to be active participants in this process.”
Commissioners noted that other agencies are at the preliminary stage of considering reopening of green spaces, and creating signs with wording along the lines of “Crowded Parks Are Closed Parks” and “Failure to socially distance will result in closure.”
“That would be a clear and obvious statement to people about what we are trying to do,” Joplin said.
The board’s next meeting was Monday, April 27 at 3 p.m. See the county website co.hood-river.or.us for full details on phone number and access information to listen in, and make comment if you choose.
The county discussed two other topics in the meeting: How to respond to Gov. Kate Brown’s newly-announced framework for reopening parts of the Oregon economy, and ways to expand the county’s Facebook presence as a way to distribute information to the community. Regarding Facebook, the county will consult with Pageworks of Hood River about doing more online service under an existing contract.
County Administrator Jeff Hecksel will convene a task force made up of other county agencies, as well as officials from other community partners, to pull together available information to work toward documentation needed by the state for reopening, covering topics including downward COVID-19 positive data, virus testing capability, contact tracing plans, and sufficient supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
PPE are masks, face masks and gowns needed by health workers, first responders, law enforcement and others who have regular public interface.
“We are lacking details on how reopening occurs and a matrix for developing a plan (for reopening),” Hecksel said. “It’s hard to respond to something that’s not well defined,” he said of what has been received so far from the governor’s office.
“We are trying to mobilize, and be in position to when we know details to move as rapidly as possible to get a plan together.”
Hecksel said he already identified “some who absolutely have to be involved in this to comply with the plan,” including County Health and Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital.
“Based on my communication with those and others, the reality is there is a lot of information currently available to let us meet the requirements, we just need to pull it together,” Hecksel said.
“My hope is to bring you a plan that when you look at it as our local public health authority, you’ll look at it and say ‘This will work,’ and you’ll be able to feel comfortable approving it and certify it and send it to the state.”
Concerns about supplies of PPE were part of a briefing by Trish Elliot of the County Health Department on April 23.
“Today, the governor did announce that starting May 1, they are opening medical and dental officers for non-urgent procedures,” Elliott said.
“Interestingly enough, some of those providers are already asking for PPE, because one of the criteria for opening for non-emergency procedures is to have two weeks of PPE set aside and many don’t. I’m afraid this will have a draw on our PPE supply even though we have been getting pushed deliveries of bits and pieces of PPE.
“It looks like we have three or four weeks of PPE set aside for current levels of testing and care. If that increases, the supply shortens and so does our timeline. We haven’t had a really predictable supply change coming from PUSH, and that is of concern to me,” Elliott said.
Elliott also said that the county must plan for the increased PPE demand that comes with expanded testing and contact tracing required to meet the state’s reopening thresholds.
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