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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, JANuARy 22, 2022
Outbreaks: Omicron wave will peak over the next two weeks
Continued from Page A1
Residents often have
age-related underlying health
conditions that render them
vulnerable to infection and
severe illness from the virus.
The communal nature of
long-term living facilities can
make social distancing dif-
ficult and allow the virus to
spread easily.
Last year, six virus-re-
lated deaths were tied to care
homes in Clatsop County.
Five were residents of Clat-
sop Care Memory Com-
munity in Warrenton, while
the other was a resident of
Neawanna By The Sea in
Seaside.
The
new
outbreaks
occurred as the omicron vari-
ant has caused a spike of
virus cases across Oregon.
The
health
author-
ity reported 79 new virus
cases for Clatsop County on
Thursday and 25 new cases
on Wednesday.
Since the pandemic began,
the county had recorded
3,617 virus cases and 37
deaths as of Thursday.
The omicron variant wave
will peak over the next two
weeks and begin a steep
decline, according to a new
state forecast.
Oregon Health & Science
University late Thursday pro-
jected hospitalizations will
likely peak on Feb. 1 at 1,553
COVID-19 patients.
“Oregon appears to be flat-
tening the curve of hospital-
ized patients,” the report said.
“Infections are likely to peak
in the next week and hospital-
izations the week after.”
The forecast came as the
state continues to see key
numbers climb. The number
of people in Oregon hospi-
tals with COVID-19 was 981
as of Thursday — 204 more
than the week before.
The leader of Oregon’s
hospital association warned
on Thursday that a steady
increase in COVID patients
needing hospital care is push-
ing the state’s hospitals to a
“breaking point.”
Becky Hultberg, the pres-
ident and CEO of the Oregon
Association of Hospitals and
Health Systems, said during
an online news conference
that hospitals are treating
dozens of new virus patients
a day.
“The next few weeks
will be really tough, and
it’s important for people to
understand that,” Hultberg
said.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
Lynne Terry, of the Oregon
Capital Chronicle, also con-
tributed to this report.
Student: ‘I feel like
policy can really create
lasting, meaningful
impacts for generations’
Continued from Page A1
The Liberty Theatre hosts a touring camp of the Missoula Children’s Theatre.
Liberty Theatre: Searching for a program director
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The Liberty will launch a
new after-school program in
September, offering a year-
round formal theater educa-
tion program. In addition to
acting classes for all ages,
the staff hopes to train locals
to run the show backstage.
The program, called The
Brosius Academy, was made
possible by a $100,000
donation from Mike and
Laura Brosius, who moved
to Astoria in November
from Seattle.
The couple has been ren-
ovating a Victorian-style
home in town for sev-
eral years. Fans of the arts,
they’ve long enjoyed visit-
ing the Liberty.
“It’s a great space,” Mike
Brosius said. “When you
think of the size of the com-
munity, and the space, just
how well it’s been done, it’s
obviously a centerpiece for
Astoria.”
The retired couple said
they are excited to be a part
of the community and hope
to become more involved.
Mike Brosius has joined
the theater’s board. Before
his first meeting, he asked
what the couple’s donation
could do. The staff returned
with a pitch for the educa-
tion program.
“This is what they came
up with, which really
matches up really well with
us because, to me, if we can
get just one potential student
to be interested in the arts
that might not have had the
opportunity, that’s a pretty
good use of the money in
our opinion,” he said.
The youth curriculum
will likely be modeled after
those at Northwest Chil-
dren’s Theater and School in
Portland, which has acting
lessons and drama exercises
for age groups between 4
and 14. The classes will lead
up to several student perfor-
mances a year.
The Liberty plans to
partner with local schools
and performing arts cen-
ters to build the program,
and potentially host lessons
in different locations. The
theater will still be host-
ing the Missoula Children’s
Theatre, a popular touring
camp, for at least another
two years.
The courses will have
tuition, but the Liberty
plans on having a scholar-
ship program to cover costs
for low-income and under-
represented youth. The the-
ater is also considering
after-school transportation
options.
Crockett envisions a
training program for techni-
cal skills preparing them for
backstage jobs, and hopes to
involve local talent in teach-
ing the classes.
“There are so many great
actors in this town, and
directors,” she said.
The Liberty has begun
searching for a program
director to craft the curric-
ulum and plans on making
a hiring decision by early
March.
Dispatch: Dispatchers live in different parts of the county
Continued from Page A1
To work around the
issue, Knappa Fire Chief
Kurt Donaldson said his
firefighters use radios —
and sometimes cellphones
— to communicate with
dispatchers.
He described the situa-
tion as a “wake-up call.”
“I feel terrible for the dis-
patchers,” Donaldson said.
“I mean, they’re doing great
work in a tough situation,
and the managers are doing
the best that they can do in a
tough situation.”
But he said the temporary
merger has demonstrated
why a single countywide
911 dispatch center is best
for the county.
While the talks about
consolidation
continue,
Donaldson said fire agencies
across the county have used
the situation as an opportu-
nity to meet and come up
with a standard operating
procedure to create more
consistency, which he thinks
will benefit fire agencies and
dispatchers.
At the other end of the
county, Cannon Beach Fire
Chief Marc Reckmann
recounted how a firefighter
was in the middle of a med-
ical call asking for more
resources when another call
interrupted the exchange.
Earlier this month, during
a wind storm, he said the
fire district lost the ability to
communicate with dispatch
over the main channel for a
few hours.
He fears calls will be
missed.
“Those are very critical
things that are going to get
‘THE CRITICALITy OF THIS
SySTEM IS NOT LOST ON uS By
ANy STRETCH. WE LOSE SLEEP
ON THIS AT NIGHT. THIS IS SuCH
AN IMPORTANT SySTEM — THAT
IT WORKS APPROPRIATELy
ANd ACCuRATELy.’
Geoff Spalding | Astoria Police chief
somebody killed,” Reck-
mann said.
‘We lose sleep on this at
night’
Discussions about con-
solidation have occurred
at various times over more
than 20 years, while Astoria
and Seaside have continued
to invest in separate equip-
ment and infrastructure.
Astoria dispatch made
major upgrades as part of
a response to a 2015 study
by the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security. The
study also recommended
consolidation.
Other studies over the
years that analyzed emer-
gency dispatch in the county
also encouraged consol-
idation. A single county-
wide 911 dispatch cen-
ter could maximize staffing
and resources, improve call
times and enhance coordina-
tion, the studies suggested.
One study in 2008 was
initiated after the mayors
of Astoria, Seaside, War-
renton, Gearhart and Can-
non Beach sent a letter to the
county Board of Commis-
sioners to investigate con-
solidation. The mayors said
the time had come to move
to a “single, more effective
and cost-efficient system.”
Leaders at the Astoria
Police Department say the
temporary merger over the
past few months has given
the county practical experi-
ence in what the move might
look like.
“The criticality of this
system is not lost on us
by any stretch,” Astoria
Police Chief Geoff Spald-
ing said. “We lose sleep on
this at night. This is such
an important system — that
it works appropriately and
accurately.”
Spalding said the cit-
ies were prepared for some
glitches at the start of the
temporary merger.
“This was never designed
to be a permanent solution,”
he said. “It doesn’t make
sense to have everybody
work out of Seaside. It’s just
not a big enough facility.
“We’re doing the best we
can with all the resources we
have,” Spalding added. “We
feel the frustration. We feel
the pain. We feel that also
because we’re also users of
the system. At the end of the
day, we want it to be better,
we want our subscribers to
be happy, but I think we’re
doing a pretty good job man-
aging a very, very complex
technological system.”
While Astoria is support-
ive of moving toward con-
solidation, Spalding said
dispatch staff are the most
significant consideration in
the process.
“It has to be a very
thoughtful process because
the main thing we want to
make sure of is that we take
care of our people both in
Seaside and in Astoria,” he
said.
Dispatchers live in differ-
ent parts of the county, Spal-
ding said. Where would a
single countywide 911 dis-
patch center be located?
Who will be in charge?
Those are questions dis-
patchers are rightfully con-
cerned about during the
talks, he said.
Seaside City Manager
Mark Winstanley thinks
another major question is
whether consolidation will
save taxpayer money.
While he said the dia-
logue between the cities and
county has been positive, he
is not sold on the idea.
“The question that’s
been posed, if nothing else,
is could we coordinate the
upgrades that will need to
be made to the two centers,
so that basically if you work
in one, you can work in the
other,” Winstanley said.
“These are things we’ve
had a lot of conversation
about. They also lend them-
selves to consolidating the
two dispatch centers,” he
said. “I think it’s good con-
versation to have.”
would travel to Washington,
D.C., but due to the coro-
navirus pandemic, the pro-
gram will be held virtually.
Each student delegate
also receives a $10,000 col-
lege scholarship for under-
graduate study. That schol-
arship, along with another
she recently received from
the Stand for Children orga-
nization, will be impactful
in helping Lopez Nestor,
who grew up in a low-in-
come household with immi-
grant parents from Guate-
mala and Mexico, to further
her education.
Lopez Nestor, a senior at
Warrenton High School, is
eager to expand her knowl-
edge of the political world
as she pursues a career in
public policy.
“From my previous
internship experiences …
I’ve gotten some hands-on
experience with how the
government works. But I
really hope to hear and learn
from people who directly
work with the U.S. federal
government and deepen
my understanding about the
political process,” she said.
Lopez
Nestor
has
interned with the Oregon
Legislature and for Deb-
bie Boothe-Schmidt in her
Democratic campaign for
House District 32 in 2020.
She recently completed a
position as a Clatsop County
Community Development
Department administrative
assistant. Along with being
involved in a number of
other programs and groups,
she is co-executive direc-
tor of State of the Students,
a student-led organization
that seeks to build collabo-
ration between students and
elected officials.
While Lopez Nestor
has made her voice heard
through activism, she hopes
to achieve similar goals
within policy or whichever
career path she chooses, such
as uplifting underrepresented
communities. She believes
an increase of young peo-
ple in political positions will
help that cause.
The thought of pursuing
a career in public policy did
not reach Lopez Nestor until
she experienced a powerful
and relatable moment while
interning in the Legislature.
She read testimony on
the Energy Affordability
Act from families that had
children who wore gloves
and extra layers during
online schooling due to the
cost of providing heat.
“That really resonated
with me because I also
come from a low-income
household and I have the
same exact struggles,” she
said. “That was the moment
that solidified why I wanted
to go into policy because it’s
not just for me, I am doing
this for my communities —
for the communities that I
represent as an individual.
“... I feel like policy can
really create lasting, mean-
ingful impacts for genera-
tions to come.”
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