Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020
RCC ... Continued from A-1
MASK ...
Continued from A-1
The Kerby Belt Building was
donated to RCC by the Masonic
Lodge in 1990, which stipulated that
the building remain, in perpetuity,
both the home base for the lodge
and dedicated to educational
activities.
The Belt Building currently
houses the Illinois Valley Business
Entrepreneurial Center, the Masonic
Lodge, the Illinois Valley Learning
Center, and the Southern Oregon
Guild office and gallery.
Steve Lyons of the Masons
said of the impending sale, “If you
don’t have enough students to teach,
lay off teachers, don’t sell your
assets.” The college is hoping to sell
the buildings and then lease them
back, shifting the costs of ownership
to someone else while keeping
current RCC functions in place.
The Oregon Health
Authority is expanding the
requirement to now include all
private and public workplaces,
including classrooms, offices,
meeting rooms, work spaces,
outdoor markets, street fairs,
private career schools and
public and private colleges
and universities.
In addition, state health
officials also said they
recommend that people wear
masks rather than face shields.
The expansion of
mask requirements emerge
as the COVID-19 rate of
transmission in Oregon has
increased.
For six weeks, Oregon’s
COVID-19 cases were in a
downward trend. However,
since mid-September,
officials warned that numbers
were again increasing at an
alarming rate.
At the current rate of
transmission, Oregon Health
Authority officials project that
new infections will increase
substantially to 570 new
reported cases a day and 40
hospitalizations.
On Friday the health
authority also submitted
a draft plan to the federal
government for allocating
and distributing a COVID-
19 vaccine in Oregon, “once
a safe and effective vaccine
becomes available.”
The health authority’s
plan follows federal guidance
of a phased approach that
“assumes a COVID-19
vaccine will be, at the outset,
in limited supply and should
be focused on individuals
critical to the pandemic
response, provide direct
care and maintain societal
function, as well as those at
highest risk for developing
severe illness.”
The plan will allow for
broadening of the vaccine’s
distribution to other high-
risk groups and the general
population as more doses
become available.
RCC launched an Illinois
Valley Advisory Team to discuss the
future of RCC’s role in the Valley.
According to the RCC statement:
“The purpose of this group is
to help us understand the current
and future needs of Illinois Valley,
changes in need due to COVID-19,
and additional locations where we
can best serve the entire Illinois
Valley community. Membership of
the team includes people from RCC,
the RCC Board of Education and
from the Illinois Valley community
which includes: Cameron Camp,
Cheryl Johnson, Deelia Warner,
Kate Dwyer, Julie Rossi, Sean
Taggart, Tanner Smith, Kenny
Houck, Jean Ann Miles, Pat Fahey,
and Roberta Lee.
“RCC will continue to serve
the Illinois Valley. Our intention
Page A-9
is to identify ways to partner with
other organizations in the area to
bring our services closer to the
Illinois Valley population. That is
why we formed the Illinois Valley
Advisory Team. It will meet Oct.
22, 2020 to discuss additional ways
RCC can serve the Illinois Valley,
including more locations for our
services. We look forward to the
advisory team’s recommendations.”
Current tenants of the Belt
Building are less than enthusiastic
about RCC’s plans. Kenny
Houck, business development
coordinator of the Illinois Valley
Business Entrepreneurial Center
(IVBEC), who is on the advisory
team, said, “Given the lack of
communication and community
engagement at this point, it’s very
difficult to understand the college
administration’s thinking, especially
given the encumbrances in play
here. It seems to be very short-term
thinking on the part of the college
but I’m still hoping we can arrive at
a solution that benefits the Illinois
Valley.”
Additionally, Houck indicated
that the IVBEC receives constant
requests to access the commercial
kitchen in the Belt Building from as
far away as Medford.
That sentiment was echoed
by Joyce Abrams, president of the
Southern Oregon Guild. “The Guild
helped to secure the redirected
USDA rural development grant
that provided funds to remodel the
Belt Building. Right now there is
no other appropriate space for an
art gallery in the I.V. that includes
having a place for people to learn
about, create and display art.”
The proposed sale follows on
the heels of the loss of the I.V.’s
community center which was sold
into private use by the county in
2017.
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