INDEX Classifieds History MedicalDirectory Obituaries Opinion Police,SheriffLogs PublicNotices SeniorLiving Sports What'sHappening WorshipDirectory Time Change: On Saturday night set clocks back one hour! B8-9 B10 B12 A7 A4-5 B4 B6-7 B3 A14-16 B5 A10 Gorge friends remember 'car girl' Mariana Torres — A11 Sports — Gorge high school teams get back to competing — A13 Weather Mildtemperatures,50 percentchanceofrainat midweek,thensunny Gorge Local, In Business The Logs in BZ Corner lives on — B1 Columbia Gorge News HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON Wednesday,March10,2021 Volume1,Issue48 TD officer terminated after being disqualified as state witness STUDENTS COME BACK TO SCHOOL Jacob Bertram ■ By Columbia Gorge News Kindergarten teacher Sara Grace Durrance gives students a video tour of Parkdale School. The hall bulletin board reads, ‘How Excited We Are To See You Back!’/’Que emocionados estamos de verles de regreso!’ Kirby Neumann-Rea photo HR district welcomes K-1 this week At Parkdale, direction dots will help orient kids Kirby Neumann-Rea ■ By Columbia Gorge News Long-time secretary Heidi Huskey, right, talks with custodian Terry Draper as he shifts chairs at Parkdale. “The main task is to make sure the teachers all have enough desks and are separated,” Draper said. Kirby Neumann-Rea photo and going in the right directions during arrivals and departures, en- tries and exits, and hallway passage and recess times. The video interfaces that have become the necessary standard will be mostly phased out within weeks and distance learning is now being put back in the box to make way for face-to-face learning denied children since March 2020. Schools have been closed to students since then, except for last month’s return of a handful of students at each building under the district’s Limited In-Person Instruction mode. “It’s a logistical challenge,” Parkdale Principal Gus Hedberg said of the work of getting ready for SeeSCHOOL,page9 Transition to remote governance 'seamless' particularly downtown. “I thought downtown was HE DALLES MAYOR RICH picking up and Mays said the city made some of the things a “seamless transition” to we had envisioned governing remotely after starting for downtown and the pandemic with a few diffi- Mayor Rich for the rest of the cult months as it adapted to the Mays community were situation. coming to fruition, but the COVID “I think the key is that this was crisis — pretty much like it has the first time anybody had gone everywhere — stopped that dead through this,” Mays said. “This is in its tracks,” Mays said. brand new for everybody, but I “I think now with things loos- think — over a period of time — we’ve adapted quite well.” ening up, if they continue the way Mays said a sense of relief has they are with vaccines and with the been felt in the city as case and hos- lower numbers, I’m confident The pitalization numbers have dropped Dalles will get back to where we were a year ago,” he said. and restrictions have been eased. Mays said his personal style is He said people have been encour- aged by vaccine rollouts and he has “more face-to-face,” and he misses faith in local healthcare workers to the “coffees with the mayor” meet- vaccinate as many as possible in ings he used to host once or twice the coming months. a month. He said the pandemic put a He said meeting individuals for damper on momentum which coffee had been a good way to meet had been building in The Dalles, people since moving to The Dalles T SeeOFFICER,page8 Cause of COVID decline unclear She added that there is discus- sion regarding whether or not there may be a seasonality to the COVID virus as well, “but we don’t Recent dramatic decreases in know yet.” Another possible but COVID-19 cases statewide and important factor, she added, was in the Gorge has no single cause, said Mimi McDonell, health officer that more people may have already had the virus than was thought. “It with North Central Public Health (CNPH). “We don’t really know, it's may be that more people have had a lot of things,” she told the Wasco it than we knew, and are immune,” she said, noting that testing was County Board of Commissioners March 3. She said the current theo- seriously limited early in the ry is that the decline was the result pandemic. Testing now is readily available, of a combination of factors. “The but fewer people are being tested lack of holidays, after the surge in day to day. “We were testing close late fall, that was huge,” she said. And vaccine availability, especially contacts and those with symptoms, and with the drop in cases fewer for long term care facilities and tests are being done,” she said. health workers, was an important However, testing is still being done factor. “There were a lot of out- breaks there, and those are not SeeCOVID,page2 happening anymore.” Google agreement decision delayed By Mark Gibson ■ Columbia Gorge News GORGE MAYORS Walker Sacon ■ By Columbia Gorge News THE DALLES — The City of The Dalles terminated Police Officer Jeffrey Kienlen in response to a decision, made by Wasco County District Attorney Matthew Ellis, to disqualify Kienlen as a witness in any county-led prosecution efforts. Police officials announced Kienlen’s departure late last week. City of The Dalles Police Chief Patrick Ashmore said in a press re- lease the department was notified of Ellis' decision March 2, and that as of March 5, Officer Kienlen is no longer employed by City of The Dalles Police Department, "given his inability to perform the essen- tial duties" of a police officer. “As public officials, the public’s trust is imperative and we under- stand the importance of transpar- ency and accountability. We look forward to continuing to provide excellent service to the public,” Ashmore stated. Kienlen had been placed on ad- ministrative leave back in January, following the initiation of a Wasco County District Attorney-led inves- tigation into the officer. Ellis had announced days prior to the officer’s firing that he made the decision, following a Feb. 26 due process hearing held with Kienlen and legal counsel, to place the officer on a Tier 1 Brady List — the most severe administrative penalty prosecutors can apply to law enforcement officials. It was the first time in recent history that a member from law enforcement in Wasco County has been prohibited from testi- fying as a state’s witness because of their conduct, Ellis said in an Mark Gibson ■ By Columbia Gorge News C OLORFUL ARROWS AND bright blue dots — hun- dreds of them — welcomed students back this week to Parkdale Elementary School, a place most students have not seen for a year. At all Hood River County School District buildings, staff have been making ready for the return to school March 8, either by getting materials and furniture in the right place or orienting kids via the on- line distance learning system that became the norm. Starting March 8, all K-3 students will be phased back on campus by March 19, with phased full return by April for older grades, after Spring Break. Parkdale’s main entrance now is the entry that had been the building’s front doors back in its Parkdale High School days. Custodian Terry Draper painted hundreds of blue dots, and dozens of colorful arrows, on the floors in- side and around the school perime- ter, to help keep students separated $1.00 in 2015 and becoming mayor in 2018. “I’ve probably done that almost 300 times,” he said. “I didn’t really know anybody when I was considering running for mayor, and my having coffee with people all over the city — and with different people — gave me a chance to not only meet new peo- ple but also to ask them what they thought was important for the city,” Mays said. “So it was very valuable to me before I ran for mayor and after I ran for mayor and after I got elected.” Mays said the Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) deal being negotiated now to allow Google to expand its facilities in The Dalles would be a “step in the right direc- tion” toward getting development of the city back on track. Mays credited local essential workers, who he called “true heroes,” for their work during the pandemic. SeeMAYOR,page2 decision until that is concluded.” A decision by the city, anticipat- ed March 8 (after deadline for the THE DALLES — Wasco County print edition), will also be delayed, according to Mayor Rich Mays. and the city of The Dalles have Both entities instead continued delayed a final decision on a tax abatement agreement with Google to gather public input and answer questions regarding the proposal for new server facilities in The Dalles as legal documents outlin- to enter into a Strategic Investment ing the agreement are completed. Program agreement with Google/ “These things are complicated, Design LLC. Stone said the county especially once we start to get the hoped to have the documents com- details of the agreement,” said pleted by March 17. “That will be County Manager Tyler Stone at the goal,” he said. “I don’t anticipate the March 3 board of commis- changes in the overall terms,” he sioners meeting. “That agreement added. “The challenge is you have to clarify, using legal language, what has to be translated into a legal document. That is the step we are things mean. There is a lot of work in the detail of that. . at right now, is working through the legal agreement, the legal SeeGOOGLE,page8 language. We’re pushing off the Contact Us at 541-386-1234 541-296-2141 delivery/Subscribe@gorgenews. com news tips/ORnews@gorgenews.com or WAnews@gorgenews.com place an ad/Sales@gorgenews.com Stay connected Facebook.com/columbiagorgenews Twitter.com/gorge_news