WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2021 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon gets infrastructure help
State could get
$5 billion in 5 years
Bill Poehler Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon is expected to receive at least
$5.3 billion in federal funding for roads
and other infrastructure now that Presi-
dent Joe Biden has signed the long-de-
bated $1.2 trillion bill into law, according
to estimates from the White House.
Most of that money, $3.4 billion, will
be earmarked for roads; Oregon also will
receive large amounts for bridges, pub-
lic transportation, electric vehicle char-
gers, internet, airports and drinking wa-
ter filtration and distribution systems
from the Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act.
“This is the biggest investment in our
highway and bridge system since
Dwight D. Eisenhower,” said Repre-
sentative Kurt Schrader, a Democrat
from Canby. “Come on man, that’s 60,
70 years ago. Biggest investment ever.
“Biggest investment ever in public
transit to really get the bus systems go-
ing the way we need them, to connect all
parts of Marion County and Polk County
and the rest of the state here.”
The Oregon Department of Trans-
portation is expecting to receive about
$1.2 billion of initial money.
The rest of the $3.4 billion for roads
will go to counties, cities and metropol-
itan planning organizations.
According to ODOT, Salem will re-
ceive a total of $34 million in funding for
roads in the next five years, an increase
of $8 million, and Eugene will receive
‘We wanted it to be a getaway’
Silverton bar owners determined to succeed despite the pandemic
$35 million, also an increase of $8 mil-
lion.
Public transportation in Salem also
will receive $33 million, an increase of
$8 million, and Eugene’s public transit
will receive $67 million, an increase of
$17 million.
The funding hasn’t been allocated to
specific projects, but Schrader said he’s
looking forward to playing “a little bit of
Santa Claus in a fiscally responsible way
to our communities.”
See INFRASTRUCTURE, Page 4A
What influences
COVID-19
transmission and
vaccination rates?
Megan Banta
Register-Guard
USA TODAY NETWORK
Paige and Josh Echo-Hawk opened Graystone Lounge tiki bar in downtown Silverton in 2020.
GEOFF PARKS/SPECIAL FOR THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Geoff Parks
Special to Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Josh Echo-Hawk’s life story reads like the history of
his young downtown Silverton restaurant, Graystone
Lounge: Full of quick-change decisions and direction,
but always with eyes fixed on creating success.
Echo-Hawk and his wife Paige still run a successful
video production business that has them flying
around the country. But during a financial downturn at
the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, they began
plans to diversify their lives.
In 2020, they set up a tiki bar/restaurant called
Graystone Lounge in the Main Street space that for
years held the Towne House. The original Tiki bar for-
mat envisioned by the couple has morphed into a se-
ries of restaurant additions in the block of buildings
north and east of the Main Street and Water Street
junction.
Hits to the restaurant/bar’s customer visits — pro-
voked by the two COVID-19 surges limiting or halting
indoor dining opportunities — inspired them to let
their own creative impulses take over.
In a nod to indoor dining restrictions, the couple
last winter set up a tent-covered outdoor restaurant
called The Lagoon in the back alley of the building as a
way to draw in diners. It featured a full-size mermaid
figure Paige created from a duct-tape mold of their
daughter suspended from the tent ceiling surrounded
by colored lights and a sea theme with Tiki underpin-
nings.
“We wanted it to be a getaway,” Echo-Hawk said.
“People were hunkering down inside.”
Unfortunately, a windstorm took full advantage of
See BAR OWNERS, Page 4A
Denser populations had higher vaccination
rates, lower case rates
Signs outside the Graystone Lounge's main
entrance on Main Street in Silverton announce
what the patron can expect inside.
Audit: Oregon can do more to
protect sensitive student info
Claire Withycombe
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The Oregon Department of Education could better
protect sensitive data about students by making its
web applications more secure, state auditors said in a
recent report.
The department has developed and maintains
more than 60 web applications that allow schools to
Across Oregon, communities with higher CO-
VID-19 vaccination rates tend to have lower case
rates, though the correlation varies based on factors
like access to health care, race and income level.
The Register-Guard examined thousands of data
points around Oregon’s vaccination rates and case
rates, looking at ZIP codes, groupings of ZIP codes
and demographics within those areas.
The analysis found a strong trend in the average
rates of Oregonians’ vaccinations compared to the
average COVID-19 case rates based on population
density, with less variance based on income and how
much of the population identifies as white.
Health experts said the data is helpful in targeting
messaging about testing and vaccination for differ-
ent populations across the state to combat the
spread of the pandemic.
It doesn’t tell the whole story, said Steve Adams,
who serves as Lane County’s incident commander
for COVID-19. Officials do look at ZIP code-level data,
he said, but also take deeper dives to look at spread in
neighborhoods and underlying socioeconomics as
well as transportation and access issues, especially
in urban areas.
It’s becoming clear over time that the consistent
answer to whittling down case rates is the vaccine,
said Dr. Ann Thomas, a public health physician with
the Oregon Health Authority.
As more data shows that already having had CO-
VID-19 isn’t enough protection, Thomas added, offi-
cials have increasingly focused on upping vaccina-
tion rates.
To continue to get more people vaccinated, it’s go-
ing to depend on a local response that listens to and
addresses people’s concerns while putting aside in-
dividual biases, she said.
“I think for each community or each vulnerable
population, we need to find the trusted messenger,”
Thomas said.
Oregon has more than 400 ZIP Code Tabulation
Areas, or ZCTAs, which are generalized representa-
tions of ZIP codes that have been assigned to Census
blocks. The U.S. Census Bureau uses ZCTAs to mea-
sure data. Multiple ZIP codes can be in a single ZCTA.
The Register-Guard analyzed vaccination rates
and case rates across 272 of those ZIP code areas.
While the state provides vaccination data for all
ZCTAs, it only provides case numbers for those with a
population of at least 1,000.
OHA and Census data were merged to create a
database. Vaccination rates and case rates, demo-
graphics and population density for each ZCTA, as of
the end of October, were analyzed.
That analysis showed rates for vaccinations and
cases of COVID-19 varied greatly based on whether a
ZIP code area is considered urban, rural or frontier.
Urban areas — those within 10 miles of the center
of a city with at least 40,000 people — had the high-
est vaccination rates and lowest case rates.
On average, around 698 people per 1,000 residents
of cities with at least 40,000 people were vaccinated
as of Oct. 26.
Some urban areas pull down that average, such as
one ZCTA in Benton County where the rate dipped to
265 per 1,000. Other areas, especially around Port-
land, pull the average up.
Urban case rates didn’t see as much variation, av-
submit information about students and workers to
the state. The information ranges from demographic
data to information about enrollment and discipline
in schools.
While the education department does have mea-
sures in place to protect the information, the agency
could improve its processes for keeping networks and
apps secure. For example, state auditors found two
See AUDIT, Page 3A
Vol. 140, No. 49
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Clarance Williams Jr. receives his COVID-19 booster
shot from Jesus Leon, a paramedic with Lane County
Public Health, during a vaccination clinic at St. Mark
CME Church in Eugene. CHRIS PIETSCH/THE REGISTER-GUARD