The Observer., January 21, 2021, Page 15, Image 15

STATE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021
THE OBSERVER — 7A
‘Car choir’ allows singers to practice safely in person
By RACHEL ALEXANDER
Salem Reporter via AP StoryShare
SALEM — Mackenzie
Rolf doesn’t usually bring
jumper cables to choir class.
But when you’ve been
holding choir practice from
cars parked in the Cheme-
keta Community College
parking lot, it comes in
handy, especially when a
member’s car died during a
recent rehearsal.
It’s an occupational
hazard of car choir, music
director Kerry Burtis’
answer to the challenge
of running a performance
music class during a
pandemic.
Rather than sing parts
individually over Zoom,
Chemeketa singers park in
the college parking lot for
their twice-weekly class.
Burtis issues each a micro-
phone that broadcasts wire-
lessly to a mixer, which
collects the voices together,
then broadcasts the song
back out on shortwave
radio.
Rolf, 19, sat in her car
with the windows rolled
up during her recent class,
singing the soprano line for
“Shul Aroon,” a traditional
Irish song. As she sang,
her car radio was tuned to
Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter
Christian Campbell, 19, sings during car choir at Chemeketa Community College, Salem,
on Jan. 14, 2020.
the class frequency, so she
could hear the half-dozen
other voices blending with
hers in real time.
“It’s different, but it’s
good to be able to sing with
people again,” Rolf said.
He said it was clear
last spring that in-person
choirs wouldn’t be safe for
some time after the Covid
pandemic began. A choir
rehearsal in Mount Vernon,
Washington, was an early
superspreader event in the
U.S., with 52 people sick-
ened following an early
March rehearsal. More
research has since con-
fi rmed that singing spreads
the virus particularly well.
Over the summer, Burtis
said he saw other choirs get
creative with in-car setups
and soundboards.
“I got excited and I did
Oregon updates guidance for
return to in-person learning
research and looked at
what we could afford,” he
said.
Online choir was a chal-
lenge for students, he said.
He had students record
individual parts and mixed
them together, but found
many students dropped out
because they didn’t like
the format. The roughly
30 singers the choir had
pre-pandemic was down
to fewer than 10 by fall, he
said.
“They were so self-crit-
ical and they just didn’t
want to look at themselves
on a screen,” Burtis said.
The college eventu-
ally approved his request
for about $2,500 worth of
sound equipment to make
car choir a reality for the
winter quarter, which
began Jan. 4.
Burtis directs from a
music stand in the parking
lot, standing in front of a
table holding the mixing
board and transmitters. His
wife, Gloria, accompanied
the group on an electric
piano while singing.
Some students have par-
ents drive them to class
and sing from the pas-
senger seat. Others come
with their own children.
Christian Campbell,
19, sung off printed sheet
music as his father sat in
the driver’s seat. It was
his fi rst quarter in the
Chemekta choir, and he
said he was pleasantly sur-
prised by how well the
setup worked.
“This is really well
done,” Campbell said.
Their corner of the
parking lot, near the
Molalla Fire Department makes
disinfectant to kill COVID-19
By KRISTEN WOHLERS
By SARA CLINE
Herald-Pioneer via AP StroyShare
Associated Press/Report for
America
MOLALLA — In the
spring, when COVID-19
began to spread in the
United States, fi rst
responders were charged
with ensuring safe trans-
port to hospitals. So,
Molalla Fire went looking
for a fast and effective
way to decontaminate
ambulances and facilities,
and they found it.
The answer: hypo-
chlorous acid.
Hypochlorous acid
is produced naturally in
human bodies, and in all
mammals, for healing and
protection. But, as Molalla
Fire discovered, it also
can be made using salt
and water through elec-
tro-chemical activation.
Hypochlorous acid is
approved by the Food and
Drug Administration, the
United States Department
of Agriculture Organic
and the World Health
Administration. It san-
itizes surfaces, killing
COVID-19 in 10-15 sec-
onds. Yet it is safe for the
skin and is even food-safe
at the right potency.
Dustin Hamilton,
a Molalla fi refi ghter
and emergency med-
ical technician, in April
researched and found
the product for a decent
price. But because of
the demand, that price
skyrocketed.
So Hamilton contacted
Service Wing Organic
Solutions in Tulsa, Okla-
homa, about a gener-
ator they sell. Through a
grant from the CARES
Act, Molalla Fire was
able to purchase that gen-
erator for $46,500 and
three 330-gallon storage
PORTLAND — The
Oregon Department of Edu-
cation on Tuesday, Jan. 19,
issued updated guidance
for the return of in-person
learning, which includes a
requirement that schools
provide on-site COVID-19
testing.
The guidance is the most
recent push for students
to return to school. Ear-
lier this month, Gov. Kate
Brown set a Feb. 15 goal for
returning more students to
the classroom, with a focus
on elementary students.
“It’s absolutely critical
that we return Oregon stu-
dents to in-person instruc-
tion as quickly as possible,”
Brown tweeted. “The edu-
cational, social, emotional,
mental, and physical health
of so many students is tied
to their schools and to the
personalized support that
educators provide.”
Before winter break,
less than 10% of Oregon’s
estimated 580,000 stu-
dents were receiving some
form of in-person instruc-
tion, according to data from
the Oregon Department of
Education.
At the start of the year,
Brown gave local school
districts the power to decide
when to return students to
in-person learning.
“We are providing
school leaders with the
information they need
to make local deci-
sions about returning to
in-person instruction,”
Colt Gill, the director of
the state’s department
of education, said on
Tuesday. “We all know
that in-person instruction
provides our children and
families with access to an
equitable education.”
Ellen Morris Bishop/Wallowa County Chieftain, File
Joseph Charter School math teacher Jim Hite uses a smart
board in April 2020 for some one-on-one work with a stu-
dent. The Oregon Department of Education on Tuesday,
Jan. 19, issued updated guidance for the return of in-per-
son learning, which includes a requirement that schools
provide on-site COVID-19 testing.
Updated advisory met-
rics now allow for in-person
classes for elementary stu-
dents at higher levels of
community case rates than
previously recommended.
A new requirement is
that schools provide on-site
COVID-19 testing for
symptomatic students and
staff members and for those
who have had a known
exposure to a positive case.
The department of edu-
cation said that as school
offi cials make deci-
sions about returning to
in-person instruction, they
must also continue to focus
on county case counts and
following safety protocols
— wearing face coverings,
distancing and frequent
handwashing.
In addition, Brown said
that $500 million in fed-
eral relief will be used to
implement safety standards
and buy personal protec-
tive equipment for staff and
students.
Leaders of ED300, a
coalition of Oregon parents
and educators advocating
for reopening schools,
said that although they are
encouraged by the recent
revisions they remain con-
cerned about the “slow pace
of returning middle and
high school students” to
in-person learning.
“We continue to be very
concerned that the state of
Oregon is writing off a gen-
eration of middle schoolers
and high-schoolers,”
said Rene Gonzalez, the
co-founder of ED300.
“Hopefully the state and
districts will fi nd a way to
fully serve these children
who have been neglected
by the state for much of the
last year, in particular by
rigorously returning sports,
and co-curricular activities
as well as other safe social
activities and academic
counseling.”
As part of returning stu-
dents to school, Brown said
vaccinating educators and
staff is a top priority.
On Friday the Demo-
crat announced that educa-
tors will begin being vac-
cinated Jan. 25, two weeks
ahead of Oregonians who
are 80 or older.
Winema building, has an
awning the Burtises can
retreat under if it’s raining.
Between classes, they ster-
ilize microphones in a box
with ultraviolet light and
move the equipment inside,
leaving it plugged in to
minimize setup time before
class.
The spectacle is odd:
Burtis often appears to be
talking to himself as he
gives musical direction to a
semi-circle of cars quietly
idling around him. But the
music comes through over
the class speaker as Burtis
conducts. The music is dis-
embodied but powerful.
On Jan. 14, the singers
worked through “On the
Common Ground,” a new
composition by American
composer Alice Parker in
response to the deep divi-
sions 2020 has illuminated.
Then, they moved to the
haunting melody of “Shul
Aroon.”
“That went really well!
I’m really pleased,” Burtis
told the class.
For now, there are no
plans for an ensemble per-
formance, though Burtis
remains hopeful that
could become possible
later this year.
tanks for $1,500, and
the department is now
making hypochlorous
acid for their own use.
“We understand it
seems like a lot of money
for the machine,” Ham-
ilton said, “but to keep
our station open, keep our
people healthy and able
to run emergency calls is
something you cannot put
a price on.”
And in the long-run,
the machine should prove
cost-saving. A gallon of
hypochlorous acid was
costing the department
$35 per gallon at the
lowest, bulk rate. Now,
the department can make
it for about 4 cents per
gallon.
And Hamilton calls it
“game-changing.”
“When [COVID-19]
fi rst came out, we’d go
on a COVID patient call,
and we’d transport in the
ambulance, right? And
we’d come back, and it
would take literally 45
minutes to an hour to
decontaminate the ambu-
lance,” Hamilton said.
“Well, that ambulance
needs to be available for
emergency calls, and if
it’s out of service because
of decontamination,
that’s a problem for our
community.”
The hypochlorous
acid, aerosolized through
an automotive paint
sprayer, has sped up the
process, reducing appa-
ratus cleaning time to less
than fi ve minutes.
“It literally breaks it
down to .8 microns and
sprays everything,” Ham-
ilton said. “Because it’s in
a fog, not even a mist, it’s
a fog, it gets into every
nook and cranny. It goes
into porous fabrics …
and decontaminates liter-
ally everything. You don’t
have to go down and wipe
every single nook and
cranny to decontaminate
the ambulance. We can
just spray it and fog it. So
that’s what’s sped up the
process.”
And Molalla Fire is
not keeping the wonder
product all to itself but is
sharing it with other fi re
departments including
Aurora, Canby, Wood-
burn, Colton and Sub-
limity as well as other
entities including Country
Christian School, Molalla
Police and the Oregon
Department of Forestry in
Molalla.
Once Molalla Fire
receives a new label from
the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency, poten-
tially in the next couple
weeks, the depart-
ment will even offer the
product to the public.
Instead of charging a set
price, they will simply
ask for donations.
“If you want to donate
$1 per gallon, that’s
great,” Hamilton said.
“If you want to donate
$50 a gallon, that’s great
too. If you can’t donate at
all, that’s fi ne too. It’s all
going to be a tax write-off
for that person who does
donate. That (money) just
goes into our district fund
to try and recover the cost
of the jugs and my time to
run the machine, the elec-
tricity, the water we have
to use, the salt.”
Hamilton, who also
teaches a fi re safety class
at the high school, hopes
to offer the product to the
school district to support
in-person learning.
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Oregon unemployment rate
increased to 6.4% in December
By KALEB LAY
The Observer
SALEM — The Oregon
Employment Department
reported unemployment
across the state rose to
6.4% in December from
6.0% the month before.
Oregon also lost a
total of 25,500 jobs in
December, according to
the employment depart-
ment’s press release on
Wednesday, Jan. 21, which
was a greater loss than the
national average. The U.S.
unemployment rate held
steady from November to
December at 6.7%.
Most of the state’s
job losses came in the
leisure and hospitality
sector, which dropped
28,600 jobs, 17,600 of
which were in full-ser-
vice restaurants, which
have been restricted to
take-out and delivery ser-
vices in much of the state
since mid-November.
Private education, con-
struction, manufacturing
and wholesale trade also
showed losses.
“December’s job losses
refl ect the devastation
COVID-19 continues to
infl ict on the lives and
livelihoods of Orego-
nians. Ten months into
the pandemic, Oregon has
regained just 37% of the
jobs lost in this recession,”
said Gail Krumenauer,
state employment econo-
mist with the OED, in the
release.
The transportation,
warehousing and utilities,
retail trade, healthcare
and social assistance and
professional and business
services industries each
reported gains of at least
2,000 jobs, and some
3,600 courier and mes-
senger jobs were added as
well, though those gains
were not enough to offset
losses in other industries.
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