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Rep. Walden gives farewell
address to House — page A8
B9-10
B5
B2
B11
A7
A4
B4
B7
B3
B6
PLUS
Sports goes virtual
— page B6
Weather
Chilly and rainy all week:
lows around 35, highs
around 50
At Glenwood School, community
nourishment
page B2
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON
Wednesday, December 16, 2020 Volume 1, Issue 36
$1.00
Thanksgiving sparks local COVID-19 spike
Wasco County traces infections to
holiday gatherings; outbreak reported
in Bingen; Hood River in Extreme Risk
North Central Public Health
District (NCPHD) has found a sig-
nificant amount of Wasco County’s
recent spike in COVID-19 cases is
due to Thanksgiving gatherings,
according to a Dec. 9 press release
from the district.
A steady single-digit amount of
cases were reported in the six days
after the holiday. Then a dou-
ble-digit increase began, reflective
of the typical roughly five-to-seven-
day timeframe from date of infec-
tion to onset of symptoms, NCPHD
reported.
That increase in cases included
48 cases reported in 48 hours, on
Dec. 4 and 5. From Dec. 3, through
Dec. 8, the county recorded 97
cases.
Enough time has passed since
Thanksgiving that NCPHD is now
seeing people who got infected
from someone who themselves
got infected at a Thanksgiving
gathering, said Tessa Yoo, a COVID
disease intervention specialist for
the health district.
A handful of people attended
Thanksgiving gatherings while they
were mildly symptomatic, said
Jeremy Hawkins, an epidemiologist
for NCPHD.
But others only developed symp-
toms or tested positive a day or two
after Thanksgiving.
“In general we think people are
capable of spreading the virus up to
48 hours prior to when their symp-
toms start,” Hawkins explained. He
Need sparks community response
Empty pantry filled
as Gorge responds
to growing demand
Mark Gibson
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
“Salvation Army Pantry is full.”
So read the subject line of an
email sent to supporters of the
Community Meal program in The
Dalles Dec. 7 by Chris Zukin, who
helps organize the volunteers who
work to provide a free hot meal
to those in need and is a member
of the Salvation Army The Dalles
Corps board.
The triumphant message was in
sharp contrast to another, sent only
a week prior on Dec. 2. That mes-
sage read, in part, “I just spoke to
Captain Ray at the Salvation Army.
They are out of food and in great
need of financial help ... Captain
Ray figures it will cost $10,000 to
fill the pantry.” Everybody Loves a
Fire Fighter (ELFF) donations were
down due to COVID-19 changes in
the annual Christmas food drive,
and the annual Thanksgiving com-
munity meal, which provided a hot
Thanksgiving meal to go, had cost
more than anticipated.
Zukin asked the community to
help refill the pantry — and they
did, twice over.
“Thank you for your amazing
support of the Salvation Army,”
Zukin wrote Dec. 7. “As of noon
today, $23,650 in donations have
been dropped off or picked up from
the mail.”
Volunteer Henry Warth, left, loads bags of food into a car as Salvation Army The Dalles Corp business manager Kris Harmon
talks with the driver at their food pantry downtown The Dalles. The number of people seeking food assistance has grown
significantly since the beginning of the pandemic in March, even as traditional forms of fundraising and food drives drop
off.
Mark B. Gibson photo
And that amount did not include
a $10,000 gift from Google donated
to the ELFF drive and an additional
$10,000 contribution from the City
of The Dalles.
“This is a beautiful, generous
loving community,” Zukin said.
ELFF Drive
Despite a slow beginning, the
34th annual Everybody Loves
A Firefighter (ELFF) Christmas
food drive was a remarkable
success, due in part to the $10,000
cash donation from the Google
Foundation, according to event
organizers. In addition the drive
netted 6,810 food items and an
additional $1,724 in donations.
Small businesses key
to community success
“That was unique,” Fire Chief
Bob Palmer said of the promised
Google donation. “We haven’t had
a donation like that before.”
This year’s drive was shorter, only
two days, and except in Dallesport,
donations were dropped off at
See FOOD, page 11
“These are your next-door
neighbors. They’re employing
your kids or the student that’s
across the street from you...
They’re supporting the vitality
and the vibrancy of our com-
munity and if you don’t know
what they have to offer, I’d like
to have a little chat with you.”
Walker Sacon
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
ISA FARQUHARSON HAS
been crying. “You don’t want
to know how many tears,” she
says.
This year, she says, some of the
local businesses she has shopped at
and worked with for years as pres-
ident of The Dalles Area Chamber
of Commerce might not make it
through the winter without the
community’s support.
“This year, more than ever, we
need to be supporting our busi-
nesses,” she said. “People don’t
look beyond their keyboard, and we
need to walk away from the com-
puter, walk away from your phone
and walk into a store.”
Farquharson said all retail busi-
nesses in The Dalles are complying
with guidelines and offering safe
shopping. “They’ve made great
strides to adapt to everything that’s
been thrown at them the last 10
months, what have we done?” she
said.
“These are your next-door
neighbors. They’re employing your
kids or the student that’s across the
street from you,” she said. “They’re
paying property taxes. They’re
paying employment taxes. They’re
supporting the vitality and the
vibrancy of our community and
if you don’t know what they have
to offer, I’d like to have a little chat
with you,” she said.
Farquharson said each purchase
See COVID-19, page 2
2021
budget
passed
Jacob Bertram
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
Chamber: ‘Shop Local’ more critical than ever
L
noted the incubation period is 14
days after exposure, so the fallout
from Thanksgiving itself could be
experienced through this Thursday,
Dec. 11.
The health district has received
a significant amount of calls from
people who said they were exposed
to someone on Thanksgiving and
are inquiring about testing.
Yoo said she has had a lot of
Lisa Farquharson
CEO and President,
The Dalles Chamber of Commerce
Yadirah Yañez, a bartender at Zim’s Brau Haus in The Dalles, holds a card they
use to thank take-out-only customers. Zim’s has laid off about half of their staff
during in-person dining closures.
Walker Sacon photo
makes a differ-
ence. She used a
restaurant open for
to-go orders as an
example.
“They’re open the
only way they can
be. If they close they
Lisa
still have rent, they
Farquharson
still have insur-
ance, they still have
utilities,” she said. Staying open in
any capacity means more overhead
expense to pay employees and buy
supplies.
“If you only get one or two orders
a night, you haven’t paid for just
the employees. You haven’t even
come close to covering the over-
head,” she said. “Every purchase
makes a difference, if you go from
one to 10 a night, you’re getting
closer to meeting those overhead
requirements.”
At Zim’s Brau Haus, owners
Connie and Bill Ford have had to
dip into their savings to make pay-
roll. The Fords said they have con-
tinued taking to-go orders—and
losing money monthly—to avoid
losing the quality staff they’ve put
together over years.
Connie said Zim’s can’t afford to
keep their entire staff working with
the loss of revenue from lottery
and drink sales. She does the book
keeping for the restaurant and said
their bottom line was in the nega-
tive by thousands despite a sizable
profit on food sales.
“Many of our employees have
been with us for a long time,
WHITE SALMON — The White
Salmon City Council approved the
2020-21 budget at the Dec. 2 meet-
ing, finalizing an agreement which
will see funds dedicated to hiring a
land use planner as well as a social
worker within the Bingen-White
Salmon Police Department.
Mayor Marla Keethler wrote
in the budget summary that the
hiring of a land use planner was
the most significant change.
“It is my fervent belief that in-
tentional planning is what will set
White Salmon on the right course
to achieve long-term resiliency as
a small-town that is affordable for
residents, appealing to tourists,
welcoming of entrepreneurs, and
supportive of right-sized economic
development,” Keethler wrote.
The budget also includes funds
that would be used to hire an
outreach coordinator to support
the city’s communication efforts.
Speaking on the proposal to in-
clude such funding, Keethler said
that since White Salmon does not
have its own community paper
anymore, communications efforts
from the city have mostly come
from Keethler herself.
“I work full time, I’ve got two
kids … and the extra hours that
this person could give would be
a huge benefit that I think would
be noticeable in the city,” said
Keethler.
All the positions that the city
added to the budget would be
hired on as contractors.
During council discussion,
Councilor Ashley Post raised
a question about the average
market rate for a social worker.
The proposed budget estimated
the city would be charged $100
per hour for services provided by
a social worker, to which Brending
responded that “that is probably
an appropriate dollar amount.
“We put that dollar amount;
there’s a lot of work that needs to
go into that at the beginning of the
year,” said Brending, noting the
position would be on a contract
basis. “Certainly if it looks like it’s
See BUDGET, page 12
some for more than a decade,” Bill
said.
Yadirah Yañez is a bartender
and server at Zim’s. These days she
helps handle to-go orders as one of
two front-of-house staff still work-
ing significant hours.
Yañez said work has sometimes
been lonely and she misses the ca-
maraderie she felt when Zim’s was
full. A newly implemented online
ordering process which bypasses
the phone hasn’t helped her loneli-
ness, but it has helped business.
Online orders and the offer of
free delivery within The Dalles has
tripled the to-go business, Connie
said. She said the increase helps,
but the Fords don’t know if they’ll
See CHAMBER, page 13
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