INDEX
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History
KidScoop
MedicalDirectory
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Opinion
Police,SheriffLogs
PublicNotices
SeniorLiving
What’sHappening
B8-9
B5
B1
B10
A8
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B6-7
B3
B3
INSIDE:
Mugen Noodle Bar
opens — A9
The search for a home for
homeless shelters in The
Dalles, Hood River — B5
WEATHER
CLOUDY IN THE GORGE:
60S IN HOOD RIVER,
WARMER IN THE DALLES
Zim’s adult softball team wins
regional championship.
Page B1
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON
Wednesday,October14,2020 Volume1,Issue28
$1.00
Flagstone residents removed from facility
■ By Emily Fitzgerald
Columbia Gorge News
All residents of Flagstone Senior
Living’s Memory Care Unit have
been transferred to COVID-19 units
at outside facilities so the residents
can receive 24/7 care and Flagstone
can professionally clean and dis-
infect the Memory Care Unit, also
known as The Atrium.
“Through this time, through the
whole outbreak, we were working
alongside the health department,
who was giving us advice from
the State of Oregon, and we were
working on placement, getting
people, our residents, to the appro-
priate COVID units, so they could
have some extra care during this
time,” said Tammy Doss, regional
director of operations for Milestone
Retirement Communities, which
operates Flagstone Senior Living.
Doss has been on-site at the
Flagstone facility in The Dalles since
the first week of the outbreak.
“The state helped assist with the
outbreak at the Flagstone facilities
by working with residents, fam-
ilies and the facilities to relocate
COVID-19 positive residents to the
state’s contracted surge capac-
ity facilities. By doing this, the
individuals who decided to move
could recover from COVID-19
elsewhere and, in turn, help reduce
workload for staff at the facilities as
they are managing the outbreak,”
said Elisa Williams, communi-
cations officer with the Oregon
Department of Human Services
(ODHS)’s office of Aging and People
with Disabilities.
Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5, sev-
en residents had been sent to one of
ODHS’s COVID-19 surge facilities,
Pacific Health and Rehabilitation in
Tigard, in order to comply with that
state recommendation and ease the
load at Flagstone.
By that Friday, Oct. 9, all remain-
ing 10 residents from the Memory
Care Unit had been transferred to
the Emerson House in Portland,
another ODHS surge facility.
“Pacific Rehab did not have the
capacity to transfer all of our resi-
dents into their unit, and through
our collaboration with the State
and County Health Department,
Emerson House became available,
and we were able to use them,”
said Rosalyn Watson, executive
vice president of clinical and com-
pliance for Milestone.
SeeCRISIS,page2
INSIDE
LOCAL & STATE
ELECTIONS
OregonHouse,District59— A10
OregonHouse,District52—A11
WashingtonHouse,District14,
Position1— A13
HRCityCouncil—A14-15
Reminder:BallotsmailedOct.14for
theNov.3GeneralElection.
Contactcountyelectionsofficeif
youdonotreceiveitbyOct.20.
The Peace Pole above now stands
at Waterfront Park in Hood River.
Kitscht language of the Columbia
basin, and Braille, are among the fea-
tured languages.
Kirby Neumann-Rea photo
Wall Dog Artist Rick Scott of Portland adds details to the new mural facing city hall in The Dalles, above; photo courtesy Flora Gibson. Below, a well-worn wooden
box holds a collection of paintbrushes.
Mark B. Gibson photo
Wall Dogs color the Gorge
year to paint up to 15 murals in
the community. This weekend, the
group visited The Dalles to paint
a “teaser mural,” one that simply
previews the best yet to come for
the upcoming “Northwest Mural
■ By Jacob Bertram
Fest,” scheduled to occur Sept. 16-
Columbia Gorge News
18, 2021, in The Dalles.
You may have noticed some
The Dalles Main Street Program
extra activity going on downtown
is working with Wall Dogs to put
The Dalles last weekend. If so,
together the murals as well as next
you probably caught a group of
year’s festival. The work is funded
volunteers painting along the side
through The Dalles Main Street
of the Bohn-Wood building on the Program as well as donations, ac-
100 block of E. Third Street, next to cording to Terry Chance, executive
City Hall.
director of The Dalles Main Street
The volunteers were not painting Program. Chance said eight walls
just anything, though. This group
are currently under contract, and
of highly skilled sign painters and
the program is seeking an addition-
muralists belong to a group called
al seven walls to host additional
the “Wall Dogs,” a consortium of
murals.
mural artists from around the world
The teaser mural depicts Wasco
who take time off from their sched- County’s famous cherry industry,
ules and descend upon a city each past and present, with an antique
Painting teases
next year’s Mural
Fest in The Dalles
mural and farm scenics. By creating Boise-based artist Noel Webber
took on the work of creating the
the mural early, the group intends
to build excitement for the 15 other design, which was fine-tuned and
murals they plan to paint around
the city for next year’s event.
SeeMURAL ,page13
confirmed by a unanimous vote of
the city council on Sept. 16
“This is the clean slate where you
The City of White Salmon ap-
proved their policy priorities for the guys (the city council) are giving
us the direction of what’s import-
year 2021 at the latest city council
meeting following the city’s annual ant and where you want to see
your money and the community’s
retreat.
money spent,” said Mayor Marla
The retreat takes place on a
Keethler at the retreat, opening the
yearly basis, only this time it was
two hour-long discussion.
hosted virtually through online
The discussion makes sort of a
conferencing platform Zoom
pathway for city staff to follow when
because in-person meetings are
drafting a budget for next year,
not yet allowed under current
reopening conditions with respect which will come across the desks
of city councilors within the next
to the coronavirus. The meeting
month or so. Councilors debated
took place on Sept. 9 and the 2021
policy area priorities resolution was during the two-hour discussion
Columbia Gorge News
dedicates newest
Peace Pole in HR
■ By Kirby Neumann-Rea
Columbia Gorge News
M
AY PEACE PREVAIL
on earth.
From four sides, in
nine languages, the message
stands at the center of Hood River
Waterfront Park.
“At this time, this is exactly
what we need. Exactly what we
need,” said Hood River Mayor Kate
McBride in dedicating the pole
during a short ceremony Sept. 21.
The seven-foot white pole,
with black lettering, joins four
others sponsored over the past
three years by Hood River Rotary
International club, and the Peace
Committee chaired by Rotarian
Steve Schmidt.
The pole contains several
languages new to any Hood River
SeePEACE,page3
White Salmon sets 2021 city priorities
■ By Jacob Bertram
‘Exactly
what we
need’
Rotary International
different policy goals and their pri-
ority levels in terms of funding.
According to the priorities
memo approved by city council,
items added to the list of priori-
ties include adding a position to
the Bingen-White Salmon Police
Department to “focus on social
service issues,” adding more city
personnel for further code enforce-
ment, researching funding options
to develop street infrastructure, as
well as reducing food waste at the
landfill site and improving collec-
tion of recyclables. Other items
have been budget priorities pointed
out by councilors for over a year
since the last retreat. According to
City Clerk/Treasurer Jan Brending,
“A lot of that is stuff that is ongoing,
has been ongoing from those 2019
priorities going forward.” For exam-
ple, the city is undergoing a lengthy
update to the Comprehensive
Plan as well as a review of the city’s
critical area ordinance and water
system plan.
Aside from that, councilors made
clear that new projects should be
limited in resources required. As
the city undergoes economic un-
certainty stemming from the coro-
navirus shutdown, city councilors
SeePRIORITIES,page3
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