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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 2021)
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2021 A7 Redmond Continued from A1 “We believe our schools are safe places,” he said. “But as the St. Charles in- cident has demonstrated, even people who are well- trained can make mistakes, and the virus can spread.” Furthermore, all Red- mond teachers who want to be vaccinated will have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by Feb. 22, Cline said. This means that when schools reopen by that time, staff shortages due to quarantine will be a much more minor issue, he said. “On the 22nd, when our staff have been vaccinated, we can call (students) back,” Cline said. “It would take a major natu- ral disaster to change that.” Teacher vaccinations began Thursday in De- schutes County. Dis- trict spokesperson Sheila Miller said Redmond of- ficials do not know how many of their teachers have been vaccinated so far. Cline said he sympa- thized with families who may be upset about the re- opening delay. “I want to get students back as much as anybody,” he said. “But by doing this, it creates a much more sta- ble (school).” Central Oregon’s other large school district, Bend-La Pine Schools, is sticking with its plan of a tiered reopening, begin- ning Monday with K-3 students, according to Su- perintendent Lora Nord- quist. “Our plans remain un- changed at this time,” Nordquist wrote in a text, via Bend-La Pine spokes- person Julianne Repman. “The district continues to monitor the data and will provide an update at Tuesday’s (school) board meeting.” Barry Branaugh, a so- cial studies teacher at Rid- geview High School and a board member of the Red- mond Education Associa- tion teachers’ union, said he’s heard both frustra- tion and relief from fellow teachers about the reopen- ing delay. Branaugh personally found the decision unfor- tunate but necessary, as too many staffers are quar- antining from COVID-19 at the moment, he told The Bulletin. “If we were to bring kids back, and we didn’t have enough staff, we’d have to go right back into distance learning,” he said. “That’s even more frustrating than the additional wait time.” Dan Grubb — a science teacher at Obsidian Mid- dle School and father of two daughters at Obsidian — said he appreciated the school district’s willing- ness to delay the reopen- ing for teacher safety. “For them to push back (reopening), I feel very re- spected,” he said. “This is going to give us more time to get our vaccines.” Local parents also had a mixed response to the delay. Sarah Miller, whose second grader attends Hugh Hartman Elemen- tary School, said she was relieved by the school dis- trict’s decision. “As much as I’m anx- ious to have my daughter back in school, I thought it was premature to do it be- fore the teachers had the opportunity to get vacci- nated,” she said. Stephanie Oster — a parent of a fourth grader at M.A. Lynch Elementary and a senior at Redmond High School — was angry at the reopening delay. She called it a political deci- sion, and disliked that the district gave families false hope of an earlier return to in-person learning. “I think it’s a crock,” Os- ter said. “All they do is gain a little ground with the par- ents, then lose it all by jerk- ing us around by pushing it back more.” e e Reporter: 541-617-7854, jhogan@bendbulletin.com Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photos A couple walks along a snow covered path in Drake Park on Friday during the first serious snowfall of the winter. Snow Continued from A1 Freezing fog was also ex- pected overnight Friday. No significant weather is pro- jected Saturday, with daytime temperatures expected to be in the upper 30s and early 40s. The next storm system is due in Central Oregon late Sun- day, Adams said. Anticipating Friday’s snow- fall, the city streets division applied magnesium chlo- ride to heavily traveled roads Thursday night. The chemical lowers the freezing point of water and helps prevent snow from sticking and ice from forming. Like many cities in the Western United States, Bend Vaccines Continued from A1 Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state’s top infectious disease ex- pert, said the Oregon Health Authority had not made esti- mates of the number of peo- ple who could die because the starting date for older Orego- nians’ eligibility was moved back two weeks. OHA reported Thursday that COVID-19 related deaths had “surged” to 195 the previ- ous week, the highest weekly toll to date. It broke the record set the prior week. According to OHA statistics, those aged 70 and over have accounted for 77% of the state’s COVID-19 deaths. Extrapolating those num- bers, 390 Oregonians would die over a two-week period based on current rates and 300 would be over 70. OHA has not responded to a request for does not salt its roads due to environmental impacts and salt’s corrosive effect on vehi- cles. The city does apply sand in winter storm events to give drivers added traction in the snow. Between 8 a.m. and 2:20 p.m., there were more than 100 calls for emergency service related to the snow, ac- cording to Deschutes County 911. “We had many crashes today that were caused by weather and road conditions combined with driver be- havior,” Bend Police Sgt. Tim Guest said Friday. “Mt. Wash- ington and Archie Briggs had a fair share of crashes, jack- knifed semis and other stuck vehicles. I am unaware of any resulting in injuries.”David Abbas, director of transporta- tion and mobility for the city of Bend, said the department had 13 pieces of heavy equip- ment on the ground Friday — 11 plows and two graders. “With the moisture in the snow and the temperature, it’s just real slick,” he said. Abbas said the city took lessons from recent “Snow- mageddons” in 2018-19 and 2016-17, which stretched resources thin and led to a greater reliance on contract plow operators. One lesson was to prioritize certain heavily traveled “snow zones” in town and work out- ward from there. e e Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com Several inches of fresh snow accumulated on a cluster of benches in Drake Park during the first heavy snow of the winter. OHA reported Thursday that COVID-19 related deaths had “surged” to 195 the previous week, the highest weekly toll to date. It broke the record set the prior week. According to OHA statistics, those aged 70 and over have accounted for 77% of the state’s COVID-19 deaths. comment on the estimate. Brown and health officials were able to point to some good news during the press conference. OHA on Friday reported 877 new COVID-19 cases and 22 new fatalities. The report showed a contin- ued gradual decline in cases and hospitalizations at a time when the state had previously forecast both would rise this month. A feared “Christmas spike” in cases due to residents travel- ing and gathering for the hol- idays has been shallower than expected. Thursday marked the fifth day in a row with fewer than 850 cases. The current positive infec- tion rate is 5.9% of tests, still above the 5% target set by the OHA to indicate infection rates are not growing rapidly. The state also updated its vaccination numbers, saying 253,711 shots have been given since the vaccines began arriv- ing in Oregon late last year. With schools mostly closed since March, Brown has con- sistently said the long-term damage to students’ quality of education, mental health and emotional well-being had been damaged by distance learning. Marijuana Continued from A1 It said the county must ap- prove those applications that were denied for being within 1,000 feet of youth activity cen- ters. Adam Smith, an attorney for Deschutes County, wrote in an email he did not have a com- ment on the rulings for either application. He plans to sched- ule a conversation with the De- schutes County Commission about whether there is interest in appealing these rulings to the state Supreme Court. “If the County does not ap- peal, then the County will be compelled to approved both pending land use permits,” Smith wrote in an email. The ruling comes after the county voted to no longer al- low any new marijuana grow- ing and processing facilities in the rural part of the county. Waveseer of Oregon, a company that seeks to build a 36,000-square-foot facility east of Bend to grow and process marijuana, was one of those applications. David Rosen, 123RF The ruling comes after Deschutes County voted to no longer allow any new marijuana growing and processing facilities in the rural part of the county. the CEO of Waveseer, had his application rejected because it was near facilities that host “youth oriented equestrian ac- tivities” and “4-H agricultural activities,” according to court documents. Rosen said Friday he was “thrilled” by the Court of Ap- peals decision, and said he is confident that even if the county appeals to the state Su- preme Court the outcome will remain the same. “It seems we’ve reached an end, and we look forward to opening up in Deschutes County this year,” Rosen said. Tommy Nehmzow, who wants to build an 1,800-square- foot indoor marijuana facility, has the other application the court evaluated. County com- missioners denied his appli- cation because they believed it would be too close to Sun- She’s set Feb. 15 as a goal for most schools to reopen if they meet minimum COVID-19 health recommendations. While noting on Friday that school-age children are not in danger of widespread severe illness or death, Brown said the damage was deep enough that it warranted what she cast as a brief diversion of vaccine to jump-start education. “It’s really pretty simple,” Brown said of her priorities. “I am using every single tool I have to get kids back into the classroom this school year.” Several studies have shown that students are losing ground because of remote learning. Schools also ensure access to meals for some and safeguard against child abuse because someone is seeing the student regularly outside of their home. But Brown could not quan- tify the impact of reopening schools next month compared dance Meadows Ranch. The county deemed the ranch, which is a timeshare facility that includes a camp- ground, horse stable and other features, a youth activity center. Michael Hughes, the attor- ney representing Nehmzow, said he wasn’t surprised by the Court of Appeals ruling, and is now waiting for the county to ei- ther appeal to the state Supreme Court or put the issue to rest. “Whatever happens, hap- pens,” Hughes said. “I’m hop- ing Tommy can get to go on with his business.” At this point, it is unclear whether the commission will want to appeal the rulings to the state Supreme Court. Commissioner Patti Adair, who supported appealing the LUBA decision last year to the Court of Appeals and voted to deny both applications when they came to the commission, said she did not want to make a comment until she heard from the county’s legal department. Commissioner Phil Chang said the county has been told multiple times that these appli- cations were unfairly denied, to May or later. Courtney Campbell, a med- ical ethicist at Oregon State University, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that Brown de- serves credit for making sure that COVID-19 resources reach underserved communi- ties and those that have been disproportionately harmed by the pandemic. Black and His- panic residents have a higher risk of infection due to having less access to quality health care, being in crowded hous- ing conditions more frequently and a higher incidence of hav- ing jobs that cannot be done remotely. But Campbell said the de- cision to bump up school em- ployees on the list of those most in need of vaccination was questionable at best. “Health equity does not sup- port prioritizing teachers and K-12 staff,” she said. e e gwarner@eomediagroup.com “It seems we’ve reached an end, and we look forward to opening up in Deschutes County this year.” — David Rosen, the CEO of Waveseer, had his application rejected because it was near facilities that host “youth oriented equestrian activities” and “4-H agricultural activities,” according to court documents and that it was time for the county to “cut its losses.” He considers the ongo- ing court battle over the term “youth activity center” a waste of taxpayer dollars. “We have been making de- cisions based on the ideolog- ical and cultural preferences of certain people,” Chang said Friday. “It’s time to make deci- sions based on the law and the best financial interest of the county.” Commission Tony DeBone did not respond to a request for comment. e e Reporter: 541-633-2160, bvisser@bendbulletin.com