(Shared by Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock.)
To: Public Officials
From: George Murdock
Subject: Weekly Public Officials Update – Providing Information, Advocacy and Commentary
Date: June 2, 2021 – Volume 58
Total Cases – 8,389
Deaths – 86
Recent Counts:
Week 1 – 333
Week 2 – 237
Week 3 – 155
Week 4 – 96
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Week 23 – 435 – (including 170 at EOCI & TRCI)
Week 24 – 466 (including 198 at EOCI & TRCI
Week 25 – 456 (including 154 at EOCI & TRCI)
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Week 40 – 52 (including one from DOC)
Week 41 – 98 (including one at DOC)
Week 42 – 92
Week 43 – 73 (including 1 from DOC)
Vaccinations Last Week – 1.223
Medical Report
Our numbers again dropped slightly this week from 92 to 73 but there will have to be a great deal more movement before we can move to a lower risk category.
Meanwhile we continue to carefully watch what might happen in terms of regulations for the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated. This is a sticky wicket because while we continue to promote vaccinations, and other safety protocols, we don’t want to do it at the expense of our local businesses. Our restaurants, bars, and others have suffered enough in the last fifteen months without having the state turn our employees into an enforcement unit with their customers.
Vaccination News
We are still plugging along with vaccinations which are available at a wide variety of sites. We’re finding that a number of young people are getting the shots. While some are getting the shots to protect their families, many of them want to return to the days when they could have regular events and play sports without masks or just have a greater level of freedom.
We’ve been hearing radio spots with kids talking about wanting fairs, open sports, concerts, and a host of other activities and they’ve figured out that getting vaccinated is a good way to be in position to have access to virtually anything they want to do. They have also figured out that it generally takes six weeks to get through the vaccination process so they don’t want to get caught flat-footed.
In addition to the many regular outlets for vaccinations, this week we will have target sites at Community Corrections for those under supervision and staff, at the Pendleton Farmer’s Market, and at the Ukiah Senior Citizens Center.
ARA Funding Decisions
At their meeting this morning, Board members will be asked to authorize some of the spending from the first half of the ARA stimulus funding.
Their focus will be on the fact this is one-time funding. In that regard, no provisions are being made for expenditures that will require on-going funding to maintain them. Two of the largest proposed expenditures are $2 million for the pipeline project in the West County that will bring significant new water from the Columbia River and preserve critical groundwater. It will also provide water for recharging the aquifer and contribute to enhancing agricultural production and as a result, the creation of many new jobs.
The second major allocation will be $2 million for Public Works which experienced a dramatic loss of revenue during the pandemic due to reduced travel. Much of the funding for Public Works comes from gasoline tax revenues. They also took a major hit as the result of two major floods within the last year. While a fraction of the work might someday be reimbursed by FEMA that is a long process and an unknown.
In the meantime, the department did not have the luxury of ignoring flood damage until such time as federal assistance might become available. It was necessary for them to begin work immediately in order to restore travel and access as well as to provide for public safety. While their response was amazing including seven-day work weeks, it seriously depleted department reserves.
The commissioners are planning $650,000 in funding for joint investments with local communities. These are either on-going partnerships with local communities, assistance in restoring the economy or assistance for very small communities with limited resources. Umatilla County has several unincorporated communities such as Meacham and Umapine as well as some very small communities such as Helix, Adams, and Echo and Weston isn’t far behind.
Additional consideration will be given at some point to funding for long-term maintenance projects within the county that qualify under ARA guidelines and which are part of the county’s long-term maintenance plan. The long-term maintenance plan was developed to assist the county in avoiding deferred maintenance obligations.
As we have noted before, many of these expenses are sometimes kicked down the road in times of budget crunches. But they are things like HVAC, roofs, boilers, floors, windows, and systems such as security for our public safety operations that become obsolete.
Whiskyfest
It was refreshing to see the revised announcement from Whiskyfest officials Doug Corey and Andy McAnally announcing a revised program.
The pair have met repeatedly with local officials trying to come up with a program that could fit under Oregon guidelines. The prospects for the original concert plan which packs the venue have been tenuous. As a result, the discussion turned to an option that will put the original program into 2022 and a replacement program that is more realistic budget-wise.
While we won’t have the original artists, Corey and McAnally have outdone themselves in lining up two very popular performers – Toby Keith and Clay Walker.
Legislative News
Last week we reported on local efforts to get legislation enacted. Pendleton won a victory last week with the passage of SB 315 which was headed to the Governor’s desk for a signature which we are confident will happen.
The text summary read “Exempts from required disclosure, business, commercial, financial, operational and research data and information that is furnished, developed or generated in connection with ownership or operation of unmanned aerial system test range, if disclosure of information would cause competitive disadvantage to test range or users.”
It was carried by Senator Hansell and Rep. Levy with help from colleagues. This was an important piece of legislation regarding propriety of technical information at the UAV test range. This is yet another example of the political efforts we reported on last week from both the West End and East Ends of the County.
In other legislative news: Last week we talked about Oregon’s popular voting system. We also noted that although it has worked for over two decades and although we weren’t part of the validity conversation, changes could even be made here. And they probably are.
Here’s a report from our friend Dick Hughes in Salem: “Oregon, the first state to conduct all elections House Bill 3291 was approved on a 39-21 vote Monday, May 24, and goes to the Senate.
The bill would align Oregon with 17 states — including Washington, California and Nevada — that allow ballots to count if they are postmarked by Election Day. Four other states count ballots if they are postmarked the day before the election. Oregon is among the states that have required ballots to be in the hands of county elections offices by the close of Election Day.
Under the bill, ballots would have to arrive in county elections offices no later than seven days after the election if they are to count. States that allow election-day postmarks range widely from three to 20 days.
Rep. Dan Rayfield, a Democrat from Corvallis and the bill’s floor manager, said about 150 voters in Marion County cast ballots in last year’s general election, but they did not count because they were received after Election Day.
He said the concept of election-day postmarks has been on the table for two decades, going back to when Republicans were the majority party in the House.
Rep. Greg Smith, a Republican from Heppner who then was in his first term, voted for it in 2001 and now. The only other Republican who voted for it Monday was Rep. Ron Noble of McMinnville. The other 21 Republicans voted against it.”
For those who like to get comprehensive results fifteen minutes after the polls close, legislation of this type delays the final outcome. It also put more demands on our election officials. But I am also concerned about the fact we live in a community where we can mail a birthday card to our next door neighbor and they might get it five days later.
The election conversation has become very complex with all sorts of arguments about access to the process. I guess, in the end, if someone practices due diligence and gets a ballot postmarked prior to the close of the polls that acknowledges a good-faith effort. The vagaries of our mail system aren’t their fault.
In the days before breathless election-night coverage, I am confident most Americans had to wait days or weeks before learning the final outcome.
Broadband
On a related topic of legislation coming from both the State of Oregon and the Federal Government, Mallorie Roberts, a legislative affairs manager with the Association of Oregon Counties writes……
“The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated school closures and remote work environments, including the virtual 2021 Oregon State Legislative Session, have fully exposed the human and economic consequence of the widening digital divide in Oregon, and nationwide. The historic wildfire season in 2020 destroyed essential communications infrastructure and set some of our neediest communities back even further. The results of a 2020 Oregon Broadband Study estimate that it would cost $1.32 billion to connect all unserved and underserved communities with broadband internet access service.
The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce recently introduced the LIFT America Act, which proposes $80 billion for the deployment of secure and resilient high-speed broadband infrastructure nationwide. Also included is $15 billion for Next Generation 9-1-1 services, $5 billion in low-interest financing for broadband deployment, and $9.3 billion for broadband affordability and adoption.
Historic levels of broadband infrastructure funding are also contemplated in the Governor’s Recommended Budget for the Business Oregon and the Broadband Office budget, in House Bill 5023. Business Oregon has been home to the State Broadband Office since 2018. The Broadband Office is tasked with developing broadband investment and deployment strategies; managing and awarding funds allocated to the office for broadband projects; and supporting and promoting broadband planning more generally.
The Governor’s Recommended Budget allocates $100 million for broadband infrastructure projects to be furnished by the Broadband Office. This critical investment will:
- Help unserved and underserved communities access technology and provide all communities, despite location or size, adequate service;
- Make Oregon more competitive in receiving federal funds — many federal programs require a 10 percent state match to access federal dollars, and others require broadband strategic plans;
- Ensure critical infrastructure for Oregon’s business community and growing workforce that is dependent on technology to stay competitive – COVID-19 has forced many people to work from home and some employees will continue working remotely even after the pandemic;
- Provide a remote healthcare opportunity for people and families who are not close to in-person health services; and
- Rebuild and update critical infrastructure that was damaged during Oregon’s 2020 wildfire season.
While neither the state nor federal proposals have passed through their respective legislative bodies, it is safe to say that a significant amount of broadband dollars are on the way. To that end, the Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) and the League of Oregon Cities (LOC) are in the process of setting up a broadband webinar in July to walk through available resources, share strategies and success stories, and connect with our state and federal partners to ensure local governments are prepared to apply for and deploy these investments.”
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I’m closing with a shout out to Joe Franell, president of Eastern Oregon Telecom and clearly this area’s Broadband champion. Joe heads the statewide group as well as his local enterprise.
I think the first time I met Joe was when Rep. Greg Walden held a special meeting in the basement of the community center in Weston to talk about Broadband and the problems we were experiencing in this area.
Today, Adams, Weston, and Athena are light years ahead of where they were then and now Franell has his eyes on Broadband connectivity all over Oregon.
If, heaven forbid, we ever have another situation like COVIID and learning from home, we will be in much better shape.
