KWSO News for Thu., Sep. 30, 2021

With the upswing in COVID-19 cases in Warm Springs – ALL Community Members are asked to please use all COVID-19 precautions: wearing a face mask and maintaining 6 feet distance from anyone you do not live with.    It is especially challenging to use those protocols when interacting with family and friends who you don’t live with and who you haven’t see in a while.  It may feel awkward – but please wear facemasks for those interactions and maintain social distance to help protect those you care about.

Warm Springs Sanitation reports that the trucks they use to empty the dumpsters located throughout the community are not currently in service.  This has led to full dumpsters at businesses along with those in Sidwalter, at Palmer Lane, the Kah-Nee-Ta Hamlets, at the Simnasho Longhouse & Simnasho Transfer station.  Sanitation realizes that the dumpsters are over capacity and ask the community to stop adding to them as the trucks are being repaired.  Please take trash directly to the landfill until the trucks are up and running.  Trash service to residential totes continues as usual.

Fire season restrictions for Warm Springs have changed this week.  Current fire danger and risk is reduced due to changes in ERC’s and Fuel Moistures.  Currently Warm Springs fire danger level is moderate and all Zones are at IFPL level 1  2021.IFPL decrease to Moderate.Warm Springs.092821 bgb

Today is Canada’s first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation that shines a light on the survivors and victims of Canada’s Indigenous Residential Schools.  There were 140 federally-run Indian Residential Schools in Canada between 1831 and 1998. The government separated some 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and forced them to attend the Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died of disease and natural causes, and the Canadian government has acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse was rampant at these schools.  Today is  Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots movement that asks Canadians to reflect on the treatment of First Nations people. It was founded by residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, whose favorite orange shirt was taken away on her first day of school.  You can read more HERE

Central Oregon Community College has special free events scheduled for Oct. 11^th which is being formally recognized as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.  The day will include a virtual land acknowledgement discussion; an in-person talk on Christopher Columbus from a Native perspective; an in- person educators’ workshop titled “Incorporating Indigenous Perspectives in the Classroom”; and an in- person video screening of “The Columbus Controversy”.  Learn more about COCC’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day at cocc.edu.

Residents of The Dalles are skeptical of tech giant Google’s plans to expand in the Columbia River Gorge — and the water it will need to do so.  Bradley Parks reports that Google wants to build a new data center in The Dalles, but the company has forbidden city officials from revealing how much water it plans to use.  That isn’t sitting well with many residents.  Data centers require a lot of water to cool equipment, and community members are concerned The Dalles may be stretching its limited groundwater supply too thin.  City officials say they’re confident The Dalles can deliver the water Google needs while keeping its aquifer healthy.

Here are notes from this morning’s announcements at Madras High School:9/30/21 MHS