KWSO News for Thurs., Aug, 19, 2021

The infrastructure package approved by the US Senate this month includes aid for the water system on the Warm Springs reservation. this week [WEDNESDAY] Oregon Senator Ron Wyden was in Bend to rally support for the legislation. At a press conference Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Tribal Councilor Wilson Wewa said it will take 50 million dollars to repair the reservation’s water system. The senate infrastructure plan includes some $250 million for tribal water projects nationwide. Wyden said he’s confident this funding will make it over the finish line. The House of Representatives is expected to take up the legislation this fall.

The Jefferson County School District has created a website with information on the $24 million bond measure that the district has placed on the November ballot. The Bond Development Committee collaborated with leadership and architectural experts to form a $24 million bond package to improve health, safety and security; repair and update aging school buildings; and expand vocational opportunities and early learning. Should the bond pass the Warm Springs K-8 Academy would get six new early learning classrooms, key and access control updates.

The Warm Springs Health and Wellness center announced they will be offering COVID-19 boosters shots starting in mid-September. Those who are immunocompromised as well as other in the high to moderate risk are priority for the 3^rd shot.  Medical experts in the press release acknowledged that vaccines are associated with reduction in protection over time according to available COVID-19 data. The Health and human services and CDC medical experts in the joint statement expressed that the 3^rd shot is needed to continue to protect individuals from the highly contagious delta variant.

Just 41 intensive care unit beds were available in Oregon as COVID-19 cases continue to climb and hospitals near capacity in a state that was once viewed as a pandemic success story. Oregon earlier had among the lowest cases per capita. Now, it’s shattering its COVID-19 hospitalization records day after day. As of Wednesday, 850 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Oregon — surpassing the state’s record, which was set the previous day. Before this month, the hospitalization record was 622 in November, during a winter surge and when vaccines were not available.

President Biden plans to nominate Charles (Chuck) F. Sams III as Director of the National Parks Service, the White House announced Wednesday. Sams has worked in nonprofit natural resource and conservation management for more than 25 years, and currently serves as a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. He is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, which would make him the first enrolled tribal member to lead the National Parks Service.

One Northwest company thinks it may have a better way to help adult salmon make it up and over the Snake River dams. Yes, over the tops of the dams. Whoosh Innovations designs fish passage systems. The first version of its technology grabbed headlines during early days of testing with an explosive nickname: the salmon cannon. The flexible plastic tube is more like a slip and slide than its moniker suggests. Company C-E-O Vince Bryan says fish don’t even know they’ve left the river. Bryan says the next generation of this technology could replace fish ladders on the Snake River dams, starting in 20-23. Bryan says the new passage technology could buy salmon time, while discussions continue about whether to remove or alter the four dams. The transportation system floats in the river so that it can move to the fish, using cooler water to draw salmon to the entry point. The system automatically scans fish and sorts out non-native species.