Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
TUESDAY • February 16, 2021
WINDING UP TO PLAY
BEND ELKS 2021 SEASON • SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
Summit High
School outbreak
Seeking warmth
More
cases
tied to
student
party
Bend’s shelter sees increase in guests amid storms
BY JACKSON HOGAN
The Bulletin
An outbreak of COVID-19
— traced to a party last week
mostly attended by Summit
High School students — grew
to 43 student cases as of Mon-
day. And most of those stu-
dents are showing varying
degrees of symptoms, accord-
ing to a letter to families from
Michael McDonald, Summit
principal.
As a result, the closure of
in-person classes at the west
Bend high school have been
extended through Friday,
meaning Summit students will
spend at least a week and a half
learning from home.
Bend-La Pine Schools lead-
ers have asked Deschutes
County Health Services staff
to investigate whether these
40-plus cases have spread to lo-
cal businesses or families, said
Julianne Repman, director of
safety and communications for
the school district.
But for now, school dis-
trict and health department
contact tracers haven’t found
any evidence that the Summit
High outbreak was spread in-
side the school last week, Rep-
man said.
“So far, there’s no connec-
tion to the classroom,” she
told The Bulletin on Monday.
“The links so far are primary
and secondary cases tied to
the party — people who were
at the party, or students who
were with students from the
party.”
No teachers or school staff
at Summit High School have
tested positive yet, Repman
said. Health privacy laws pre-
vent the district from know-
ing of specific cases involving
nonstudents or nonstaff, even
if connected to the party, she
said.
Contact tracers have iden-
tified one positive case each at
Bend and Skyline high schools,
from students who attended
the party, Repman said. But
neither of those schools have
multiple-case outbreaks, she
noted.
Kathy Ross, an employee with Shepherd’s House Ministries, cleans the Bend warming shelter Saturday in preparation to open its doors for guests. The yellow crates are being used
as barriers between the beds to help with social distancing.
BY KYLE SPURR • The Bulletin
T
the warming shelter’s impor-
tance to Bend’s homeless.
“If they don’t have a
warm place to go they could
die from exposure,” Notari
said. “We take that very se-
riously. That’s why we won’t
turn anyone away.”
Since temperatures
started to drop to sin-
gle digits last month, the
warming shelter has made
more room to accommo-
date an increase in guests.
The shelter is seeing up to
70 people a night compared
to about 50 that came when
the shelter opened Nov. 23.
Shelter staff have used
crates as barriers between
the beds, which are spread
out in the otherwise empty
10,000-square-foot building
at 275 NE Second St. that
used to house the Possibili-
ties Thrift Store.
he temperature was
already below freezing
as a line of 30 home-
less people started to
gather outside Bend’s
emergency warming shelter.
For some of the guests, it was
their first time inside all day.
One man knocked on the door
before the shelter opened Sat-
urday afternoon to tell the staff
his feet were freezing and he
needed new socks.
The late winter storms that
dumped snow in Bend and
dropped temperatures into the
single digits last week put added
stress on the shelter, which is be-
ing run this year by Shepherd’s
House Ministries. There were
more guests each night; the shel-
ter opened earlier in the day, and
supplies were nearly depleted.
Dave Notari, director of de-
velopment with Shepherd’s
House Ministries, said the recent
weather was a stark reminder of
See Shelter / A14
Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photos
Guests wait in line to enter the Bend warming shelter.
See Outbreak / A14
Irrigators fear legislation would erode due process
Irrigators would no longer
be able to automatically block
certain water shut-offs under
a bill that Oregon farm groups
claim would endanger due
process rights.
Under the “automatic stay”
provision of Oregon water law,
an irrigator can file a lawsuit
to immediately stop the en-
TODAY’S
WEATHER
forcement of a government
order against pumping or di-
verting water.
The mechanism — called
a harmful loophole by de-
tractors and a necessary pro-
tection by defenders — has
repeatedly come under fire in
the Legislature in recent years.
House Bill 2244 would pre-
vent irrigators from invoking
the automatic stay against
Rain or snow
High 41, Low 24
Page A13
INDEX
shut-offs specifically intended
to preserve in-stream water
rights owned by tribal govern-
ments and state agencies.
Proponents argue that HB
2244 makes a nuanced change
to the automatic stay provi-
sion rather than eliminating it
altogether, but opponents say
it simply creates unfair prefer-
ences for specific types of wa-
ter rights holders.
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A11
A14
A9-10
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A7
A8
A7
Revising the automatic stay
process is necessary to correct
the injustice suffered by the
Klamath Tribes, who’ve been
prevented from enforcing
their water rights by the pro-
vision, according to the bill’s
supporters.
“This is contrary to almost
every proceeding in court,
where the preliminary injunc-
tion must be supported by
Kid Scoop
Local/State
Lottery
A12
A2- 4
A6
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
A4
A10
A5-7
In an article headlined “St.
Charles sued for $15M for
wrongful death,” which ap-
peared Saturday, Feb. 13 on
Page A1, the relationship be-
tween St. Charles Health Sys-
tem and two physicians was
misstated. Dr. Blake Van Me-
ter and Dr. Jeffrey Mathisen
practice at St. Charles, but are
not employees of the hospital
system.
The Bulletin regrets the
error.
a showing of a likelihood of
prevailing,” said Rep. Marty
Wilde, D-Eugene, the bill’s
chief sponsor.
Irrigators who believe that
water regulators aren’t justi-
fied in seeking a water shut-
off can still file a motion for
a preliminary injunction, she
said during a recent legislative
hearing.
See Irrigators / A14
The Bulletin
ù
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 119, No. 40, 14 pages, 1 section
DAILY
BY MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Correction
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[