Video: 10/11 Goldendale City Council Meeting

Video courtesy of Nancy Kusky of Goldendale TV. Please subscribe to her YouTube Channel.

The Goldendale City Council also met last night after technical difficulties prevented people from attending by Zoom at last week’s meetings, including two members of council. Last night councilors  heard a presentation on the Oregon Trail rally, awarded a bid for the Simcoe Drive sewer project, approved an award for a study on declining well yield, and had the first  presentation of the proposed preliminary budget for 2022.

At the Goldendale City Council meeting Monday, Karen Jankowsi of the Oregon Trail Road Rally said that the race was coming to the Mid-Columbia for the 25th year this month. The three-day race starts at the Portland International Speedway on Friday, November 5, is based out of Goldendale on Saturday the 6th and is in Dufur on Sunday the 7th. Some 75 drivers from all over the world will compete on the racetrack in Portland and on secondary and gravel roads in Wasco and Klickitat counties. She said the Klickitat County portion of the event will start with a car show featuring the racers on Main Street in Goldendale  on the 6th:

“It’s just a nice way for you to meet the racers, see the cars. The kids love it, to be able to get close to an actual race car and get their pictures taken, And then, I’m trying to partner with the high school as far as doing a food drive, and ask fans to bring a can of food. Hopefully, that will help fill up your food banks before the holidays. We might as well take advantage of the fact this is in November.”

Councilors expressed their pleasure at hosting a portion of the event again this year. It had been postponed from an earlier date due to the pandemic.

Leslie Hiebert of KVH provided an update on the pandemic at Monday night’s Goldendale City Council meeting:

“We continue to provide COVID testing Monday through Saturday” she said. “It’s been quite busy, nd some weeks we’ve been booked out a little bit. We’re offering Pfizer booster shots and flu shots by appointment. Flu shots and boosters from from 5 to 7 Monday through Friday and then booster shots throughout the day.” 

She said people can make appointment on the COVID hotline, 773-4029 and people can get a booster and a flue shot at the same appointment.

From the hospital’s standpoint, Hiebert said that there had been a lot of hospitalizations throughout the state, which made transferring patients out a bit difficult. That includes sometimes having to transfer patients farther, as all the way to Seattle, rather than Yakima, Tri-Cities or Portland.

“We are experiencing staffing shortages, just like all health care organizations, and finding placements in long-term care facilities has been challenging. We sometimes have to keep people in the hospital longer than we normally would, and sometimes, when there is no room in the hospital, we have to keep them in the emergency department.”

She said that 95 percent of the hospital’s 300 employees have been vaccinated or approved for an extension with about a week to go before the governor’s mandated deadline for hospital employees