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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2021)
LOCAL Wallowa.com Wednesday, October 6, 2021 A3 Emergency roof work set at Enterprise school An early look at COVID-19 breakthrough case data Spray coating planned to tide school over until summer By BILL BRADSHAW Wallowa County Chieftain ENTERPRISE — Emer- gency roof repairs are planned for this month at the Enterprise School after a leak was discovered and the school district’s board of directors decided Sept. 22 to have the work done before winter, according to a press release. The board approved an emergency roof-repair con- tract with Eagle Cap Con- struction of La Grande during a special meeting. The work was deemed nec- essary since the planned roof replacement under a school bond had been delayed until next summer because of a nationwide shortage of roof- ing materials, the release stated. The leak in the high school roof was discovered Aug. 19. The district’s roof design consultant, Struc- tural Waterproofi ng Con- sultants of Wilsonville, then evaluated the roof and found that approximately 40% of the high school and cafete- ria roofs required immedi- ate repairs to be completed before winter. “This year has been dif- fi cult for contractors to get construction materials,” board Chairwoman Mandy Decker said in the release. “We needed to perform the emergency repair to ensure that our students could stay in classes in the buildings this winter. We look for- ward to replacing the entire roof next summer.” Under an emergency procurement declaration, the district solicited roof replacement and repair quotes and received propos- als from three contractors. The district selected Eagle Cap’s repair proposal as the most cost-eff ective option to protect the district’s build- ings until a full roof replace- ment can be performed next summer. Eagle Cap will per- form repairs on a time and materials basis, with costs By RONALD BOND Wallowa County Chieftain Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain Workers power clean the roof of the Enterprise High School on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, in preparation for an emergency repair job to be conducted the following week. The school board authorized the repair to be done before winter rather than waiting for the planned project scheduled for next summer. capped at $157,200. Cassie Hibbert, project manager for the Wenaha Group — the district’s bond project manager — said in an email Sept. 30 the emer- gency repair will be paid for out of the general obli- gation bond plus an Oregon School Capital Improve- ment Matching grant. The scope of the emer- gency roof repair includes spraying Expandothane pro- tective roof coating on top of the existing roof mem- brane on targeted areas on the high school, the cafeteria and other small areas of the junior high building. Eagle Cap has applied this prod- uct on several commercial buildings in the La Grande area to extend roof life. Three-day job Hibbert said the repair work won’t take long. The contractor pressure washed the roof Friday to clean it so the spray coating will adhere to the existing membrane. “We are watching the weather closely and are planning to have the con- tractor install the spray coat- ing next week, likely on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Hibbert said last week in an email. “It will take two days to install the spray coating. She said the current roof is structurally sound, even though it’s leaking. If a Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain, File Emergency repairs to the fl at-top membrane roof of Enterprise High School will be done this month after the Enterprise School Board approved an emergency roof-repair contract at a special meeting Sept. 22, 2021. It was determined the work needed to be done before winter. repair isn’t done, there is the potential for water to leak inside and damage fi nishes and be disruptive to school activities. She said students and staff are safe under the current roof. Hibbert said the contrac- tor will need to work during school hours to accom- plish this work before the weather turns. The district and the Wenaha Group will closely coordinate the con- tractor’s work to make sure that they are not disruptive of any school or extracur- ricular student activities and that all students and staff are safe during those three days the contractor is working. The Enterprise commu- nity approved a general obli- gation bond in November 2020 for capital improve- ment projects, including a roof replacement on the high school, junior high and pri- mary buildings. Following bond approval, the district fast-tracked the design and bidding of the roof replace- ment for construction during summer 2021. The district selected a roofi ng contractor in April, but due to national sup- ply-chain constraints and raw-material shortages associated in part with the COVID-19 pandemic and early 2021 storms in the Southeast U.S., the con- tractor could not acquire material in time for summer construction. The district canceled that roof contract and will rebid the full roof project for construction during summer 2022, along with other bond projects. SALEM — The Ore- gon Health Authority has now released just over two months’ worth of COVID- 19 breakthrough case data. A breakthrough case is where an individual had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, yet still come down with the virus. How eff ective, then, is the vaccine at preventing COVID-19? In Oregon, the latest breakthrough report, pub- lished Thursday, Sept. 30, showed there were a known total of 25,347 breakthrough cases in the state as of Sept. 25. More than 89% of those cases (22,636) have been reported since the OHA started tracking weekly breakthrough data during the week ending July 24. During that time, there were a total of 110,054 COVID-19 cases, meaning 20.6% of cases during that nine-week stretch were people who were vacci- nated and 79.4% were unvaccinated. At that time of the report, there were approxi- mately 2.49 million Orego- nians who had been fully vaccinated, which means to this point, of close to 2.5 million vaccinated Oregonians, only about 1.01% have reported get- ting COVID-19. For com- parison’s sake, the percent- age of reported COVID-19 cases in Oregon during the pandemic, as of Sept. 25, was about 7.53% of the total population. In Wallowa County, there have been 61 break- through cases reported as of Sept. 25, meaning they made up around 11% of all known cases through that date. Through Sept. 25, there were 3,602 Wal- lowa County residents who had been fully vaccinated, meaning the rate of a breakthrough case locally is higher than the state rate at 1.7%. The county, on that date, had an over- all infection rate of about 7.5%. Hospitalization and death rates among break- through cases are run- ning lower than the overall rate. Of the 25,347 known breakthroughs, there were 1,168 hospitalizations and 218 deaths — rates of 4.6% and 0.86%, respec- tively. Overall hospitaliza- tion and deaths rates have come down since the vac- cine’s implementation, and currently are at 5.39% and 1.15%. Perhaps the starkest dif- ference is change in sur- vival rate among the most susceptible to COVID-19, those 80 and older. Mortal- ity rates for that age group prevaccine varied between about 22-23%. Currently, in a breakthrough-case scenario, the mortality rate is about three times lower at 6.36%. Of roughly 135,200 individuals 80 and older to get fully vaccinated, just 1,825 are known to have still contracted the virus, with 393 being hospital- ized and 116 dying. Overall, the sur- vival rate of an individ- ual contracting COVID-19 despite getting the vac- cine, when looking at how many breakthrough cases and deaths there have been among the vaccinated, is 99.992%. $ 5 frozen pizzas 11 AM TO 7 PM WED, THUR, SUN Joseph City Council to meet virtually Thursday Meeting packet available online Chieftain staff JOSEPH — Filling some vacant seats on the Joseph City Council will be on the agenda when it meets Thurs- day, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m., accord- ing to a press release. The formal agenda and packet supplied to city councilors is now available online at https://towncloud. io/go/joseph-or. The meeting will be held virtually given coronavi- rus pandemic restrictions. To join the Zoom meet- ing, visit https://us02web. zoom.us/j/88138754137?p- wd=Z3c4WEFxUzdWL- 3RqdzhSbkFPSFRodz09. The meeting ID is 881 3875 4137 and the passcode is 269827. To attend by tele- phone, call 1-253-215-8782. The vacant seats that need fi lling include appoint- ing a new mayor pro-tem to replace Lisa Collier, who was voted to become mayor in September after the res- ignation of former Mayor Belinda Buswell. The for- mer mayor moved out of Joseph, disqualifying her from holding the post. The council also needs to fi ll Collier’s now-vacant council seat and one left vacant July 1 when former Mayor Pro-Tem and City Councilor Kathy Bingham resigned after being cen- sured by the full council. She also was removed from committee assignments, which will have to be fi lled. As of Monday, Oct. 4, according to the release, the council had received three applications for the vacant council seats. The appli- cations came from Ryan Swindlehurst, Nancy Par- menter and Brinda Dag- gett Stanley. The council has the option of making an appointment or defer- ring such action to a later meeting. Also on the agenda for Thursday, the council will: • Consider a condi- tional use application from Scott Clark of Prairie City for a shop or residence in a now-vacant lot that is in an R-1 (residential) zone. In his application, Clark stated he would like to construct a small single-story shop with living space, toilet and sink on the property between 5th and 6th streets, but has no egress at present. • Hear a presentation by Brad Baird of Anderson Perry on the city’s ongoing public works projects. The next council meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 4. while supplies last 11 AM TO 8 PM: FRI & SAT 541 569 2285 This week’s featured book Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr 107 E. Main St. Enterprise OR 541-426-3351 bookloftoregon.com • manager@bookloft.org We're moving! wallowa valley center for wellness is moving to the hearts for health integrated care center at 606 medical parkway in enterprise. services begin at this location on october 4, 2021. wvcenterforwellness.org 541-426-4524