Decision to cancel Lumberjack Days causes ‘brutal’ backlash

Organizers of Orofino Lumberjack Days say the backlash over this year’s cancellation has been “brutal.”

The 73rd annual festivities scheduled for Sept. 15-19 were canceled last week after stakeholders decided it wouldn’t be safe given a recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

“We know that our hospital is full,” said Tammy Gilmer, co-secretary manager of Orofino Celebrations Inc. “Our ventilators are maxed out, and school is starting. We just couldn’t do it.”

Resources are reportedly spread thin at Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino, a rural, critical-access, 23-bed hospital where patients needing higher levels of care are usually transported to bigger hospitals around the region.

But recently, when an Orofino patient needed a transfer, staff called more than a dozen hospitals in Idaho, Washington and Montana before finally locating one that could take the patient, according to Kelly McGrath, the chief medical officer for Clearwater Valley Health in Orofino and St. Mary’s Health in Cottonwood.

Orofino Lumberjack Days was canceled last year for the first time in its history because of the pandemic. Event organizers tried to push the decision off as long as they could before eventually deciding to postpone the carnival, parade, log show and more to fall 2021.

“It was heartbreaking last year and even more so this year,” Gilmer said. “This year we cautiously started planning, and I really thought we were going to make it.”

Commenters on the group’s Facebook page have been far less forgiving the second time around, accusing board members with Orofino Celebrations Inc. of “helping kill small business,” and urging them to reconsider the decision. Some even argued it shouldn’t be their choice to make.

The decision was borne out of a regular meeting Aug. 23, where everyone in attendance, including board members and others in the community, was invited to the discussion and vote. The vote to cancel the event went 8 to 5, and with 19 members in attendance. Some abstained from voting.

The auction had already been canceled in July because the personnel managing it were busy fighting wildfires.

Gilmer stands by her vote to cancel the festivities that typically welcome thousands into the small town. Born and raised in Orofino, she’s volunteered with Lumberjack Days for 39 years.

“We took our grief last year too, but I think everybody was a little more forgiving about it,” she said. “Not so much this year. It’s been very brutal.”

According to the other co-secretary manager of Orofino Celebrations Inc., Staci Lee, it wasn’t an easy decision. But she’s worried an outbreak in the community could send kids home for remote learning after the school year started Thursday.

Last year, Orofino Junior/Senior High School closed in-person classes when about 75 students tested positive for the virus or were quarantined for exposure. Activities were canceled and students continued learning online.

“If it saves one life, to me it’s worth it,” Lee said. “When our numbers are in the double digits for Clearwater County, hospitals are short staffed and you’ve got restaurants closed — we don’t want to contribute to that.”

Public Health – Idaho North Central District reported 27 new cases of COVID-19 in Clearwater County on Monday, the largest number of daily new cases reported in the county since Jan. 15.

In a newsletter from Kootenai Health, the parent organization for Clearwater Valley Health at Orofino and St. Mary’s Health in Cottonwood, the company announced last week it had transitioned to crisis standards of care when staff at its main campus in Coeur d’Alene converted a classroom into a care unit to accommodate additional COVID-19 patients. Crisis standards of care are guidelines for rationing scarce resources to save those with the best chances of survival.

Just a week prior, on Aug. 18, Kootenai Health had canceled elective surgeries and revealed it no longer had the capacity to receive patients transferred from other regional hospitals, including the one in Orofino.

Across the state, intensive care unit admissions for COVID-19 continue barreling upward, hitting an all-time high Thursday. Idaho Gov. Brad Little is expected to make an announcement at 11:30 a.m. PDT.

Still, the cancellation of Lumberjack Days is a controversial topic for many Orofino residents.

“We’re being scrutinized very heavily for not doing this,” Lee said. “I’ve had people chew me up one side and spit me out the other.”

Most of the revenue lost by canceling the event comes from advertising and merchandise costs. T-shirts and other items that had already been ordered will be on sale at Elite Repeats consignment shop in Orofino when they arrive.

Both organizers say they have every intention of carrying out the celebration in 2022, and anyone in the community is welcome to volunteer. In March, the group will begin planning again.

“If this was our new way of life, we’re going to learn how to figure it out because two years is plenty to put things on hold,” Lee said. “We’ve put it on for 72 years without canceling anything.”

The Clearwater County Fair is still planned for Sept. 16-18 at the Orofino City Park.

Palermo may be contacted at apalermo@lmtribune.com. Follow her on Twitter @apalermotweets.