A4 The BulleTin • SaTurday, May 22, 2021
Bulletin file
Sydney Murphy, a third grade teacher at Silver Rail Elementary in
Bend, receives her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination Jan. 23
from Val Leonardo, a registered nurse and nursing coordinator at
The Shepherd’s House in Bend, during a vaccination clinic at the
Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond.
Prize
Continued from A1
One lucky vaccinated Or-
egonian will receive a $1
million jackpot and 36 oth-
ers — one from each Oregon
county — will win $10,000
prizes. That means residents
in the least populated coun-
ties — tiny Wheeler County
has just 1,440 residents —
will have a far better chance
of winning a $10,000 prize
than residents in the most
populous counties. Mult-
nomah County is the largest
with about 830,000 residents.
Oregon Lottery rules don’t
allow anyone under 18 to
participate in the cash draw-
ings, but a special drawing
will be held for vaccinated
children ages 12 to 17. Five
winners will each receive
$100,000 contributions to
Oregon College Savings Plan
accounts in their names —
money that can be used for
college or trade schools.
Winners will be an-
nounced about a week later,
most likely by July 4.
As of Friday, 52% of Ore-
gonians have been partially
vaccinated and 40% have
been been fully. The average
daily number of shots ad-
ministered peaked at about
43,000 on April 11, but since
has plunged to below 30,000.
Nationwide, the rate of inoc-
ulations has fallen even faster.
Experts say herd immunity
— the point that the corona-
virus can no longer spread
because there are so few hosts
— is estimated at between
70% to 85% immune either
through vaccinations or nat-
ural immunity from past
bouts with the disease. Given
plummeting numbers, many
epidemiologists and others
are skeptical the United States
will ever reach herd immu-
nity.
“We will need to pull on
every lever we have,” Brown
said, during a live-streamed
news conference Friday. “So
if you’ve been waiting to get
a vaccine or you just haven’t
gotten around to it yet, we’re
going to give you an extra in-
centive. How about a chance
to win a million dollars?”
Brown added: “It can save
your life and just maybe
make you a millionaire.”
Although Brown said Or-
egon had been exploring the
idea days earlier, after Ohio
Gov. Mike DeWine was the
first in the nation to offer a
COVID-19 vaccination lot-
tery last week, Brown said
Oregon officials contacted
Ohio officials for details.
DeWine said the state will
hold a $1 million lottery
each week for five weeks —
randomly selecting names
from voter registration rolls
and giving away the cash
only to winners who are in-
oculated. A similar Ohio
drawing will offer four years
of free state tuition, room,
board and books to the col-
lege-bound.
Within a day of Ohio’s an-
nouncement, vaccinations
began to jump and have
kept on surging.
In Ohio, it’s possible that
some of the names drawn
will be of people who are
not vaccinated. If that’s the
case, Ohio will apparently
draw new names, until win-
ners who actually are vac-
cinated have been selected.
That — avoiding the disap-
pointment that would come
with even the very slim
chance of being selected and
declared ineligible — could
conceivably serve as extra
motivation to get vacci-
nated.
In Oregon, the process
will be different. Only vacci-
nated people will be entered
into the lottery, which will
use names from the Ore-
gon Health Authority’s da-
tabase of people inoculated
against COVID-19. But of-
ficials want to be very care-
ful about protecting privacy,
so the health authority will
only give lottery officials in-
dividual identification num-
bers assigned to each vacci-
nated resident. The lottery
will draw from those num-
bers, then notify the health
authority of the winners.
Oregon winners will have
the option of declining the
prize money. But the names
of those who accept the
money will be made public.
All Oregonians 12 and
older will automatically
be entered into the cash
or scholarship lotteries, as
long as they’ve been vacci-
nated with at least one dose
of COVID-19 vaccine. The
state will not allow those
stating that they can’t be
vaccinated for religious or
health reasons to take part
in the drawings.
Oregonians vaccinated in
other states will be entered
into the drawings because
they are registered in the
state’s database of vaccinated
residents, officials said. But
residents vaccinated at fed-
eral sites such as those run
by Veterans Affairs or tribes
aren’t currently slated to be
entered into the lotteries be-
cause of data transfer prob-
lems, but state officials said
they are hoping to change
that in the next week.
State figures show Oregon
has administered shots to
about 2.1 million people. Al-
though some of those peo-
ple aren’t Oregon residents,
by far most are and the
number gives a good idea of
the breadth of residents who
are eligible for the vaccina-
tion drawings so far.
To learn more about many
of the specifics of the vacci-
nation lottery, visit the FAQ
sheet created by the state at
www.tinyurl.com/nzkrpfy8.
T RINITY E PISCOPAL
C HURCH
Love God,
Love Your Neighbor,
Love Yourself
Worship online @ trinitybend.org
Meal schedule @ familykitchen.org
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
A section of the repaired track near the Prineville Campus is at N. Main Street and Peters Road.
Railway
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Prineville Campus is still
coordinating with tenants and
has not yet shared what busi-
nesses will use the space and
what products will be shipped
by train. Bauman said he antic-
ipates the campus will provide
several new jobs and be a boost
to the Prineville community.
“We want to thank the city
in being a partner in the eco-
nomic development of re-es-
tablishing heavy rail back to
this community asset and our
new industrial campus,” Bau-
man shared in a statement.
Part of the railway renova-
tion is reopening two crossings
that have been closed since
2006. Crews finished installing
signs and markers this week
for the crossing at Lamonta
Road near Carson Oil. The
other crossing at Main Street
just south of Peters Road is still
being upgraded.
The Lamonta Road cross-
ing has gates to block traffic,
but the Main Street crossing
will use electronic signs to
warn drivers of an approach-
ing train, said Scott Smith,
Prineville street supervisor.
School bus drivers and vehi-
cles hauling flammable materi-
als such as propane will be re-
quired to stop at the crossings,
even when there is no passing
train, Smith said.
The 3,800-foot section of
railway hasn’t been used since
the early 1980s, according to
the city. The entire 18.5-mile
railway was busy for several
decades until the mills started
to close. By the late 1990s and
early 2000s, the railway was
down to one customer, Wie-
derholt said.
Over the past two decades,
business bounced back. Today,
the city’s railway is used by 14
companies including the Face-
book and Apple data centers,
Les Schwab and Parr Lumber.
Another 50 customers use the
railway to store rail cars or as a
place to stop and load materi-
als from one rail car to another.
The railway, which has oper-
ated since 1918, connects with
Burlington Northern Santa Fe
and Union Pacific railroads at
the Prineville Junction, three
miles north of Redmond.
Wiederholt said the addi-
tion of the Prineville Campus
is the latest example of local
businesses finding value in the
railway.
“The last decade has been
great as far as finding new
business and putting new busi-
ness on our line,” Wiederholt
said.
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Reporter: 541-617-7820,
kspurr@bendbulletin.com