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.”
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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
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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
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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
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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