A4 The BulleTin • Friday, July 23, 2021
Bend Fire
Continued from A1
All this activity lately has
led to a historic surge in
emergency calls at the city’s
116-year-old municipal fire de-
partment.
Last month was Bend Fire
& Rescue’s busiest on record in
terms of call volume.
In June, the fire department
responded to 1,118 calls, of
which 885 were medical in na-
ture, an increase of nearly 10%
over May.
It’s noteworthy because June
isn’t typically as busy as July
and August, said Bend Fire &
Rescue Chief Todd Riley.
“I hope June’s not foreshad-
owing what the rest of this
summer’s going to look like,”
Riley said. “We are doing as
much as we can with the peo-
ple we have.”
When the town shut down
due to the COVID-19 pan-
demic in the first quarter of
2020, the fire department saw
calls slow to a trickle, with less
fire activity and fewer people
needing to go, or wanting to
go, to the hospital.
But that lull lasted only a few
months before fire and medi-
cal calls sprung back to histor-
ical averages. And with recent
summertime activity, the de-
partment has been stretched,
Riley said.
“What’s responsible for the
increase in call volume?” Riley
asked. “I think people are ready
to get out after a year and a half
locked down. And don’t forget
that in that time that every-
body was locked down, Bend
still grew.”
With an annual budget of
$26 million, Bend Fire & Res-
Blankenship
Continued from A1
“I don’t know how that is go-
ing to work out in the future,
but that is my biggest concern.”
Blankenship announced her
retirement in June, and at the
end of the month will hand the
operation over to Steve Den-
nison, who is currently the
Deschutes County elections su-
pervisor.
The decision to leave was a
personal one, she said, since
her elected term technically
doesn’t end until 2023. It was
in part driven by the recent
passing of her husband and a
desire to spend more time with
family, she said.
“It changes your perspective
on things,” Blankenship said.
A lifelong Oregonian, Blan-
kenship was born in The
Dalles before eventually mov-
ing to Redmond and gradu-
ating from Redmond High
School. Before being elected
clerk in Deschutes County,
Blankenship began her career
in records keeping at the city
of Redmond in 1986. It wasn’t
a career she had anticipated —
before joining the city, she had
received her degree in business
and was working in retail, she
said.
But when the owners of the
shop where she worked an-
nounced they were going to
retire and close down, she de-
cided to apply to be the assis-
tant to the city recorder. Soon
after she became the city re-
corder for Redmond for the
next 15 years.
She called the position a
“natural fit.”
“I loved researching things
and giving people answers,”
Blankenship said.
Blankenship loved helping
people sift through records so
much that one year, instead of
taking her planned time off be-
fore Thanksgiving, she stayed
in the office to help someone
research a project for hours.
“It’s exciting when you can
123RF
In this stock photo, a bat flies out of a church attic.
Bat
Continued from A1
Dean Guernsey/Bulletin file
“I hope June’s not foreshadowing what the rest of this summer’s going to look like,” said Bend Fire & Rescue
Chief Todd Riley. “We are doing as much as we can with the people we have.”
cue employs 130 people, 91
of whom are firefighter-para-
medics, across seven stations.
Through a unique arrange-
ment, its firefighters serve
some residents outside the city
living in Deschutes County
Rural Fire Protection District
2.
Riley doesn’t see the trend
stopping after wildfire season
ends. Call volume in the past
12 months also rose by about
10% above the previous year.
The agency has put in for
a possible three-year grant to
fund its next big need: staffing
an engine based out of the Pilot
Butte substation, which would
require nine new firefight-
er-paramedic positions. Cur-
rently, the Pilot Butte station,
the agency’s newest, is staffed
with only an ambulance.
“Another resource would
help with the call volume we’re
experiencing now, but we can’t
just put an engine there be-
cause we don’t have funding in
place. Our funding is what it
is,” Riley said.
The agency’s current tax levy
is scheduled to run out in 2024.
Riley expects to start a public
campaign to reach voters in fall
2023.
Riley foresees further staff-
ing challenges associated with
this wildfire season, which
typically starts in late July but
“I loved researching things and giving
people answers. It’s exciting when you
can help someone find something.”
— Nancy Blankenship, Deschutes County clerk
help someone find something,”
she said.
She decided to run for
county clerk in 2003 as a way
to exercise her ability to leave
her comfort zone, Blankenship
said. Blankenship was quickly
thrown into the deep end, ad-
ministering 10 elections in two
years, including a contentious
presidential election.
Blankenship said her most
stressful moment as a clerk was
the 2004 election, when a drop
of graphite ink fell between the
Republican and Democratic
presidential candidates on a
handful of ballots.
But even in the most stress-
ful of times, Blankenship said
the key to getting through elec-
tions was to be consistent and
transparent.
“You do what’s right, no
matter how painful or how
stressful it is,” she said.
Whoever is elected after
Blankenship, however, will
have new challenges to face.
Some of those include navigat-
ing new technology and find-
ing new ways to verify ballots
that don’t require a signature,
Blankenship said.
But her biggest concern is
the spread of election-related
misinformation. During last
year’s general election, Blan-
kenship’s office spent hours
answering questions about
the integrity of mail-in voting,
and responding to demands to
know when ballots were picked
up from ballot boxes, which is
a security concern.
These questions were largely
prompted by national rhetoric
from former President Donald
Trump, who falsely claimed
the election was being stolen
from him.
She is concerned about peo-
ple believing whatever they
read on social media, instead
of referencing trusted sources.
“It’s not like we can come to
your desk and say ‘that’s not
true,’” Blankenship said.
Blankenship said she is not
sure what it will take to combat
the distrust that was created
last year. But in her experience,
she has had positive experi-
ences after offering tours to
people with concerns so they
can see for themselves what
her staff does.
“I’ve never had someone
come in full of suspicion who
hasn’t felt better after coming
in,” Blankenship said.
As she heads into retire-
ment, Blankenship said she
is looking forward to having
more time to “smell the roses”
— which she often didn’t have
time to do as clerk — and to
knock some travel items off her
bucket list. Redmond residents
may see her riding around on
her newly-purchased e-bike.
But colleagues of Blanken-
ship hope the legacy she has
left with the county will con-
tinue.
Blankenship’s dedication
to the job is what defines her
most, according to some of her
colleagues.
Steve Druckenmiller, the
clerk for Linn County, has
worked with Blankenship the
whole time she has served as
clerk, he said. Clerks across the
state often work together to
figure out how to implement
new voting legislation, like au-
tomatic voter registration.
She had the ability to bring
people together and facilitate
productive conversations, even
when the issue was contentious
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this year is considered having
already begun. The agency has
agreements to share equipment
and personnel with others in
need.
Several Bend employees are
currently serving in command
roles at the Grandview Fire
northeast of Sisters.
Bend’s recent past features
two significant fires that wiped
out entire neighborhoods, the
Awbrey Hall Fire in August
1990 and the Skeleton Fire in
August 1996.
“I’m currently knocking on
wood,” Riley said. “History
does tend to repeat itself.”
e
Reporter: 541-383-0325,
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or people disagreed, he said.
She always approached situ-
ations with an open mind, and
created a space where people
could speak honestly without
consequence, Druckenmiller
said.
“She was just meant to be an
elections official,” he said.
Jeffrey Sageser, the county’s
recording supervisor, worked
with Blankenship for nearly
two decades. He recalled mul-
tiple times when she would
receive a call on election night
from a resident about not be-
ing able to get down to the
county building to receive a
ballot, and would personally
drive to the house to give it to
the person to make sure he or
she could vote.
“She never let anyone not
have an opportunity to voice
their opinion at the ballot box,”
Sageser said.
Blankenship led the depart-
ment with selfless kindness
and professionalism, Sageser
said — a combination of traits
that are hard to find these days.
“Nancy has left an impres-
sionable mark on Deschutes
County and the way elections
should be administered,” he
said. “She will leave a legacy
that will be enduring for many,
many years to come. For those
who follow her, they can look
to her as an example on how to
do it right.”
e
Reporter: 541-633-2160,
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Emilio Debess, public
health veterinarian for the
Oregon Health Authority,
said seven bats tested posi-
tive for rabies in Oregon this
year: four in Lane County,
one in Josephine County, one
in Grant County and one in
Deschutes County.
Debess declined to release
additional details about the
circumstances or location of
the rabid bat found in Bend.
“There’s always an uptick
of rabies activity in the sum-
mertime,” Debess said. “This
case is a great reminder not to
pick up dead or injured bats
due to possible exposure and
to keep pets vaccinated.”
According to Debess, po-
tentially rabid bats, dead or
alive, that come into contact
with people need to be sent
to Oregon State University’s
Veterinary Lab in Corvallis
for testing.
In order to test for rabies,
veterinarians need to look at
an animal’s brain. It’s a quick
procedure nonetheless, De-
bess said.
“We test over a hundred
bats every year, and usually
8-10% are positive,” Debess
said.
Rabies cases in animals
e
Reporter: 503-380-5285,
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other than bats are rare, but
they do occur. Two Oregon
cats tested positive for rabies
in recent years, one in 2015
and one in 2017, according to
an annual report put out by
the Oregon Health Authority.
Additionally, a couple of
Oregon goats and foxes tested
positive for rabies between
2010 and 2014, prompting
enhanced surveillance of
those populations by state
health officials.
Rabies cases in humans
are exceptionally rare due
to vaccinations, and the dis-
ease is 100% preventable with
prompt medical care, accord-
ing to the report.
But better safe than sorry,
Debess said. Once symptoms
begin, the disease is fatal.
“If you find a bat during
the daylight hours, it is most
likely not healthy and should
be avoided,” Debess said.
“Bats suffering from rabies
will normally bite in self-de-
fense and pose little threat to
people who do not handle
them.”
If a person or pet is bitten
by a bat, promptly report it
to Deschutes County Envi-
ronmental Health at 541-317-
3114 and report the bite to a
medical provider.