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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
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