The latest news stories and stories of interest in the Willamette Valley from the digital home of Southern Oregon, from Wynne Broadcasting’s WillametteValleyMagazine.com
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Willamette Valley Weather
Today– Showers likely, mainly between 11am and 5pm. Snow level 3000 feet rising to 3500 feet. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 55. Light and variable wind becoming west 5 to 10 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Wednesday– Partly sunny, with a high near 58. Calm wind becoming north northwest 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.
Thursday– Showers likely, mainly after 11am. Snow level 3500 feet lowering to 3000 feet. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 54. Calm wind becoming west southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Friday– Partly sunny, with a high near 60.
Saturday– A chance of rain before 11am, then a chance of showers after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 59.
Kayaker Still Missing As Search Continues Near Monroe
The search for a 23-year-old woman continues after two kayakers were reported missing over the weekend in Benton County.
Monday morning, a 26-year-old man was found dead in the Long Tom River near Monroe.
They say law enforcement tried to ping the woman’s cell phone to hopefully get a location on her.
It led them to the area where they found the deceased male in the river without a life jacket.
“This time of year is very dangerous for people who are kayaking, people going on the water just recreationally,” said Lt. Chris Duffitt with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. “When the weather gets warm and water stays cold, it’s a dangerous situation for either people who are not experienced swimmers or unfamiliar with the area.”
Lieutenant Duffitt says they found two kayaks: one belonged to either the woman or the man; the other they are close to verifying.
But he says their priorities are 100% focused on finding the missing woman right now.
“We still aren’t positive if she’s in the river or if she was able to make it to land and there’s something else we’re able to find,” Duffit said. “There’s a possibility at this point that we’re able to find out that she was able to escape one of the kayaks. We’re able to use our search and rescue team to locate her somewhere else.”
Search and rescue, divers and drones will continue to search for the woman Tuesday morning.
Mobile Home Fire in Springfield
A mobile home in Springfield is unlivable after a fire broke out early Monday morning in the 5600 block of Daisy Street in Springfield at 3:15 a.m.
Eugene Springfield Fire said one occupant and a dog was in the mobile home when the fire started. The occupant was able to get out of the mobile home and was transported to Riverbend to be evaluated. The dog died in the fire.
Officials said the fire started towards the back of the mobile home and the unit is now unlivable.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Today Is Voter Registration Deadline For May Primary In Oregon
Tuesday is the voter registration and party choice deadline for Oregon’s May 17 primary election.
New Oregon voters with a valid state driver license, driving permit, or ID can register online at oregonvotes.gov until 11:59 Tuesday night – marking three weeks until election day.
If you do not have a valid oregon driver’s license or ID, you will need to fill out a paper voter registration card.
The cards are available at the post office, county libraries, or county elections buildings. Those must be mailed with a USPS postmark of April 26.
We want to keep you informed about COVID-19 in Oregon. Data are provisional and change frequently. This report covers the three-day period from April 22 to April 24, 2022. Visit our dashboard, linked below, and hover over the new cases graph to view new presumptive and confirmed case numbers reported to OHA by date.
Note: The summary tables for some of our COVID-19 dashboards will be temporarily unavailable today from 5 to 6 p.m. while Tableau engineers perform routine maintenance. We appreciate your patience. For more information, including COVID-19 data by county, visit our dashboard: http://ow.ly/zLvz50IRGwt
The number of identified coronavirus cases increased in Oregon for a fourth consecutive week, according to state data released Monday.
The 48% increase in weekly confirmed or presumed infections marked the second consecutive week with nearly 50% growth, pushing identified cases to their highest levels since late February.
But Oregon remains far below the case and hospitalization numbers seen during late 2020, summer 2021 and this year’s omicron surge. And the current rise in infections isn’t expected to have the kind of dire consequences as the delta and omicron waves did.
OHA partners with 147 community organizations across Oregon to advance public health equity
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is launching a new program to fund work by community-based organizations to help them focus on local priorities while meeting their health equity goals.
OHA’s Public Health Division recognizes the essential role of community-based organizations in partnership with local public health authorities and other community partners to implement community-led and culturally and linguistically responsive programs.
Today’s start of this new initiative reflects coordination of eight public health programs coming together to center health equity and community priorities in one centralized funding opportunity.
OHA’s commitment to eliminating health inequities by 2030 relies on building trusting relationships with community-based organizations that collectively serve every county, and on supporting their efforts to uplift community health priorities that are grounded in equity and accessibility.
OHA acknowledges that racism, settler colonialism, and historic and contemporary injustices have created policies and programs that led to unfair and unjust health inequities over time. In centering community strengths and wisdom for health, this grant opportunity supports community-based organizations as partners in Oregon’s public health system, working toward equity in: communities of color; nine Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon and tribal communities; people with disabilities; immigrant and refugee communities; undocumented communities; migrant and seasonal farmworkers; LGBTQIA+ communities; faith communities; older adults; houseless communities; and others.
Public Health Director Rachael Banks explained that “Building a more equitable public health future requires deep and meaningful collaboration with community-based organizations, and uplifting and centering health priorities that are important to communities across the state. This funding opportunity is an important part of OHA’s commitment to eliminating health inequities by 2030.”
Community-based organizations applied for and were awarded funds to carry out work in one or more of the following program areas:
- Adolescent and school health
- Commercial tobacco prevention
- Communicable disease prevention
- Emergency preparedness
- Environmental public health and climate change
- HIV/sexually transmitted infection education, outreach and community needs assessment
- ScreenWise: Breast and cervical cancer prevention
- Overdose prevention
OHA has awarded 147 community-based organizations a total of about $31 million across all eight program areas between April 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. Within the program areas, community-based organizations have agreed to focus on work aligned with their community’s priorities in one or more of the following categories of funding:
- Health education and communication
- Identifying and assessing community priorities
- Supporting prevention activities
- Policy development
Dolly England, the Public Health Division’s Community Engagement Program manager, said, “This is important equity work, and it cannot be done without the strength and support of community-based organizations.”
For more information, visit the Public Health Funding for Community-based Organizations page.
Oregon PUC Approves Three Utility Wildfire Mitigation Plans, One with Conditions
SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved the 2022 Wildfire Mitigation Plans (WMPs) for PacifiCorp, Portland General Electric (PGE), and Idaho Power and recommended the utilities collaborate with PUC staff to improve the information to be included in their 2023 plans. Idaho Power’s 2022 plan was approved with conditions, requiring a compliance filing to address identified deficiencies in their plan by June 28, 2022. The WMPs are the first to be filed since Senate Bill 762 passed during the 2021 legislative session.
Senate Bill 762 established formal standards for electric utility wildfire mitigation plans, including the information utilities are required to include in their plans. Plans must include identification of high-risk areas within the utility’s service territory and actions to minimize those risks, as well as protocols for implementing public safety power shutoffs. Utilities also need to describe how they determined which risk reduction strategies to pursue. The bill required the three investor-owned utilities to submit their plans to the PUC by the end of 2021 and the PUC to approve them within 180 days after their submission.
PacifiCorp, PGE and Idaho Power all filed their WMPs on December 30, 2021, as required by the bill. PUC staff and an independent evaluator reviewed each plan to ensure they met the statutory requirements established in the bill and to make recommendations to continue evolving the plans to further address future risk.
Both PacifiCorp and PGE’s plans met the requirements, leading to an approval by all three Commissioners of their WMPs and instruction to work with the PUC and interested stakeholders to address recommendations made by the PUC in their 2023 plans. Plans must be updated and filed annually with the PUC no later than December 15, going forward.
Idaho Power’s WMP was also approved, but with conditions by Commissioners. Idaho Power was directed to resubmit their WMP by June 28, 2022 with an explanation of their cost/risk mitigation assumptions and analysis that was completed but not described in their 2022 plan, their strategy to address these gaps in their 2023 plan, additional data relating to specific risk areas in their Oregon service territory, as well as projects to be pursued in Oregon, and the costs associated with those projects. Idaho Power was also instructed to work with the PUC and interested stakeholders to ensure they address recommendations made by the PUC in their 2023 plans due December 15.
“Although some of Oregon’s regulated utilities have been developing wildfire mitigation plans for years and reporting to the PUC informally, this is the first formal filing to the Oregon PUC,” said Megan Decker, PUC Chair. “We recognize the enormous progress Oregon utilities have made and largely approved the plans, but also acknowledge that they need to continue to improve and adapt to meet the needs of communities and keep pace with the changing risks.”
Prior to the passage of Senate Bill 762, Governor Brown’s Executive Order 20-04 directed the PUC to formally evaluate wildfire protection plans and activities of regulated electric utilities to improve safety, reduce risks, and promote electric system resilience.
“The PUC launched the Oregon Wildfire and Electric Collaborative to facilitate conversations between all electric utilities across the state, experts, and government leadership from various agencies to share perspectives and approaches to the changing wildfire risk and its impacts on the utilities, their customers, and the communities they serve,” added Letha Tawney, PUC Commissioner. “That collaboration complements these written plans, enabling rapid peer-to-peer learning across Oregon between planning cycles.”
The 2022 Wildfire Mitigation Plans for PacifiCorp, PGE✎ EditSign✎ EditSign, and Idaho Power✎ EditSign✎ EditSign are available online.
The PUC regulates customer rates and services of the state’s investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities, including PGE, Idaho Power, Pacific Power, Avista, Cascade Natural, and NW Natural. The PUC also regulates landline telephone providers and select water companies. The PUC’s mission is to ensure Oregon utility customers have access to safe, reliable, and high quality utility services at just and reasonable rates. For more information about the PUC, visit oregon.gov/puc.
Gov. Brown Signs Drought Declaration for Four More Oregon Counties
Even though we’ve seen quite a bit of rain in parts of the state, we’re still in drought conditions in many places. Gov. Brown signed an executive order Monday that declared “a state of drought emergency” for Deschutes, Grant, Lake and Malheur counties, bringing to 11 the number of Oregon counties that have sought and received such orders for access to federal and state assistance.
“It’s forecasted to be a difficult drought year, and I am committed to bringing state agency resources to everyone impacted by low water and precipitation levels,” the governor said.
In the order, the governor said that based on recommendations from the Drought Readiness Council and a water supply panel, “I find the low snowpack, reservoir levels and low streamflow have caused or will cause natural and economic disaster conditions” in the four counties.
Other, similar drought declarations were issued earlier by the governor for Klamath, Crook, Jefferson, Morrow, Gilliam, Harney and Jackson counties.
A rainy, snowy early spring has buoyed hopes of a less severe curtailment of water supplies for agriculture and other uses this summer, as current, automated SNOTEL readings shows the snow-water content is back up to normal for the Upper Deschutes-Crooked River Basin, though water year-to-date precipitation is still 11% below the median for this point in the year.
But much of the area remains in severe drought after several drier-then-normal years in a row, dropping many reservoir levels and putting the squeeze on irrigation districts and agricultural interests, among others.
Grants Pass Missing Person
The Grants Pass Police Department is seeking assistance from the public in locating 30 year old Noah Baker. Baker was despondent after an argument and left his residence in Grants Pass driving a silver Ford Fiesta with Oregon Plate 671MUR.
Baker is described as a white male adult, 5’09”, 170 lbs, brown hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing black sweats, black shirt, black shoes and a black hat.
If anyone knows of his whereabouts or sees Baker, please call your local law enforcement agency or the Grants Pass Police at 541-450-6260. Reference case #2022-14203 Grants Pass Police Department
Klamath County Sheriff’s Office Asks for Public’s Help in Search For Trucker Suspect
The first real clue to come in on all the missing person cases in the area. Help Klamath Falls Oregon Sheriff Office ID this trucker. He was the last to see this woman alive and could be the key to not only solving this woman’s disappearance but a number of the hundred other women missing in PNW. IF you have any information, please call (541) 883-5130
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Have-You-Seen-Me-Southern-Oregons-Missing-People-161249961222839/posts/