SATURDAY • May 22, 2021 • Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50
COMING SUNDAY: THE BULLETIN’S GOLF GUIDE
Prineville Railway restores
track for new business
Virus
COVID-19
in Central Oregon
remains
a threat
At St. Charles, the number of
patients needing a ventilator
is about as high as during
a surge in December, January
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
Crews move rail cars Thursday onto a section of the
repaired track near Lamonta Road in Prineville.
Ryan Brennecke/ Bulletin photos
Crews finished restoration this week on $200,000 in repairs
BY KYLE SPURR • The Bulletin
to allow access for a new industrial business park that will need railcar deliveries. The railway is partnering with
Prineville Campus, a development company that is transforming the old Woodgrain Manufacturing site into a space
for industrial businesses.
The city and company invested about
$200,000 in repairs to the track from Lamonta
Road to the Prineville Campus on the corner of
N. Main Street and Peters Road.
City-hired crews finished the work this week
and the section is expected to open to train cars
by June 1. The crews replaced 1,200 rail ties, re-
surfaced the track with gravel and replaced the
gates and arms at one of the crossings.
Railway Manager Matt Wiederholt said the
upgrades will allow the track to accommodate a
variety of freight, such as lumber and ethanol.
“The track will be in a condition that we
won’t have any kind of weight restrictions or
commodity restrictions,” Wiederholt
said. “It’s going to be a great op-
portunity for Prineville Campus
because they won’t have any
restrictions on what goes in
there.”
Charles Bauman, the chief
operating officer for Prineville
Campus, said his partners Bill
Parris, Rutger Parris and Trygve
Duryea negotiated with the city
railroad over the past year to bring
rail traffic to the old mill site.
Railroad tracks
lead from
the former
Woodgrain
Manufacturing
site and cross
N. Main Street
in Prineville.
See Railway / A4
See COVID-19 / A7
COVID-19 | School relief
With a COVID-19 shot,
you also get a shot at $1M
Survey finds Oregonians are split
Participants divided
on how to spend
virus relief money
BY JACKSON HOGAN
The Bulletin
Politically, Oregon has a
clear divide between its ur-
ban and rural residents. This
is particularly true in Central
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Oregon, where Bend is a dark
blue splotch in a sea of red.
A statewide survey con-
ducted in early May shows
Oregonians have a similar ur-
ban/rural split on how school
districts should spend mil-
lions of COVID-19 relief dol-
lars from three aid packages
passed by U.S. Congress since
the spring of 2020.
There are also divides in
Sun and clouds
High 60, Low 40
Page A8
INDEX
what young and elderly Ore-
gonians prioritize for educa-
tion funding.
The survey was conducted
by the nonprofit, nonparti-
san polling organization Ore-
gon Values and Beliefs Center
from May 4-10, according to a
press release from the group.
When asked if state and lo-
cal school leaders should em-
phasize spending COVID-19
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A5-6
B7-8
B5-6
Dear Abby
Editorial
Horoscope
A7
B4
A7
COVID-19 — a strategy meant
to address the dramatically de-
creasing numbers of residents
inoculated each day.
All residents 18 and older
who’ve received at least one
shot of COVID-19 vaccine by
June 27 will be entered into
the “Take Your Shot Oregon”
lottery, which will be held on
June 28.
Lottery prizes are
intended to boost
state vaccination rate
relief dollars to help low-in-
come students and students
of color, 54% of all respon-
dents answered “yes,” com-
pared to 28% who said “no”
and 18% who were unde-
cided.
About 60% of urban and
suburban Oregonians each
answered “yes,” compared to
only 42% of rural residents.
BY AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian
Gov. Kate Brown announced
Friday lottery prizes ranging
from $10,000 to $1 million for
Oregonians vaccinated against
See Prize / A4
See Relief / A7
Local/State
Lottery
Obituaries
A2-3, 7
B2
A6
Puzzles
Sports
B6
B1-3
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 117, No. 329, 16 pages, 2 sections
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[
HOME & GARDEN SECTION
INSPIRING IDEAS FOR HOME IMPROVEMENT
Our biannual Home & Garden sections highlight ideas and suggestions from
experts on landscaping, gardening, home projects and decorating ideas.
In The Bulletin
Sunday, May 23.
DAILY
P
rineville Railway, the oldest city-owned rail line in the nation, is reopening a dormant 3,800-foot section of track
On the first day Deschutes County moved
into the lower risk category, opening up bars
and restaurants to more people, St. Charles
Bend reported a surge of younger patients
coming in sicker with COVID-19.
May is turning out to be the third most
deadliest month for COVID-19 since the
start of the pandemic, coming in behind
the winter surge that occurred in December
and January, said Mike Johnson, St. Charles
Health System senior data scientist.
“I don’t know one
“What we see
county official or one
worker who
here is different hospital
isn’t horrified by going
from what we’re down to low risk,” said
Dr. Cynthia Maree, St.
seeing in the rest Charles Health System
medical director of in-
of the nation.
fection prevention ser-
We’re not out of vices.
a real scary real-
the woods yet.’” ity “It’s
for us. We don’t feel
like we’re past this even
— Lisa Goodman,
though the rest of the
St. Charles
nation feels that way.
Health System
We’re in the middle of
spokeswoman
a surge, and we’re wor-
ried about more people
getting sick.”
The hospital reported it has 13.6% of the
state’s hospitalized patients for COVID-19,
yet Central Oregon only represents 5.9%
of the state’s overall population. On Friday,
there were 41 COVID-19 patients, of which
nine were in the intensive care unit with
eight people on a ventilator, according to the
St. Charles Bend website.
Statewide the Oregon Health Authority
reported 285 people were hospitalized for
COVID-19.