KWSO News for Thu., Feb. 25, 2021

You may have noticed tree removal occurring along Highway 26 this week near the Museum at Warm Springs.  The The Oregon Department of Transportation in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has taken up the effort to construct a multi-use path between the Warm Springs campus area and the Museum at Warm Springs.  This project has included repaving to address roadway deterioration.  They will also improve safety elements for pedestrians and add traffic calming improvements.  Tree removal is the beginning of this work scheduled to continue for Spring.

The Jefferson County 509-J school district’s final interviews of candidates for the superintendent position will be held next week.  There will be an opportunity to meet with each candidate with limited capacity – but also on a YouTube Stream.  The candidates are:

Dr. Jay Mathisen who is currently the Director of Educational Leadership at George Fox University.  He has also served as Deputy Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of the Bend/LaPine School District and was principal of LaPine High School.

Dr. Dan Koopman is the current Instructional Dean of CTE, Career and Technical Education, at Southwestern Oregon Community College. He has also worked as Center Director and Associate Vice-President at Blue Mountain Community College, Baker County Campus and as the Director of Foundational Studies at Oglala Lakota College.

The third candidate is Jeffry Davis who is currently the superintendent of the Onalaska School District in  Washington state. He previously was superintendent of the Central Curry School District in Gold Beach, Oregon.  He has also worked in the Colton,Oregon City, North Clackamas, Hood River, Tigard and Bend/LaPine School Districts.

The public can submit questions to the candidates.  Click HERE for more details

The Oregon Health Authority, yesterday, reported that the addition of approximately 1,400 COVID-19 laboratory reports from Umatilla County on Saturday, Feb. 20 will not affect the county’s risk level status. The past cases covering a seven-month period had been investigated and had previously not been electronically recorded by the agency.  OHA has been receiving weekly data from Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center. In the fall of 2020, after the state agency moved away from manual data entry toward the electronic file submission an error occurred.  OHA says the error won’t happen again.  As an entity of a sovereign nation, the Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center is not required to report COVID-19 test results to OHA but chose to report their data weekly since the beginning of the pandemic.  “We decided to be transparent with our data because we realize this will be an important part to fighting the virus and protect not only residents of the Umatilla Indian Reservation but our community, county and state,” said Lisa Guzman, chief executive officer for the Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center.  Currently, Umatilla County is listed at an extreme risk level based on having 446 cases per 100,000 residents. The county will be in high risk level starting Feb. 26, as countywide case rates dropped to 191 cases per 100,000 from Feb. 7 to Feb. 20. Risk Levels take effect on Friday and remain in effect for the next two weeks while this process repeats  OHA acknowledges the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s ongoing efforts to boost community immunity among its members, employees, employee family members and non-Indian residents who live on the reservation. Yesterday was the second day of a mass vaccination event being held with the help of the Oregon National Guard. The tribe received 975 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from the Indian Health Service for the event.

In Warm Springs – the Health & Wellness Center has administered 1480 primary doses, of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, with an additional 100 doses scheduled to be given today and tomorrow.   697 2^nd (Booster) doses of the Moderna vaccine have been given.  There are currently 17 active cases of COVID-19 on the reservation with 47 close contacts receiving daily monitoring. 1480 primary doses, of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, have been administered with an additional 100 doses scheduled to be given today and tomorrow.   697 2^nd (Booster) doses of the Moderna vaccine have been given. Individuals can sign up for a COVID-19 Vaccine by calling 541-553-2610.  You must be 18 or older and live or work  in Warm Springs.

During day 2 of Deb Haaland’s confirmation hearing with the Senate Energy Committee as President Biden’s nominee as Secretary of the Interior.  chair Joe Manchin of West Virginia did announce that he will vote to confirm Haaland which indicates the voting in the full Senate might go along party lines – leaving Vice President Kalama Harris as the tie breaking vote.  Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden said he was “all in” on supporting Haaland.  Wyden also posed questions about both water resources and water infrastructure on reservations, specifically mentioning Warm Springs.  Here are Wyden’s comments: