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February 18, 2015A8 A8News

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Immunization deadline Feb. 18THE NEWS GUARD

Lincoln County Public Health officials are urging parents to double check with children’s immuniza-tion records.

School Immunization Exclusion Day is Wednesday Feb. 18. Children who are not up to date on all of their required immunizations will not be able to attend school or childcare facilities. State law requires all children en-rolled in public and private schools, preschools, Head Starts and certified child care facilities to be vaccinat-ed against certain prevent-able diseases.

Heath officials said these children will not be allowed to attend school or day care facilities beginning on Feb.18 until their immuniza-tions are up to date. Only children whose parents have filed valid medical or non-medical exemptions are excused from the rule.

The need to protect chil-dren from vaccine prevent-able illnesses is especially important in light of the current rapid increase in the number of confirmed measles in the United States, according to a release from the Lincoln County Health Department.

The Oregon Health Au-thority and the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion (CDC) recommend that all children should get two doses of measles-mumps-

rubella (MMR) vaccine, starting with the first dose at 12 through 15 months of age, and the second dose at 4 through 6 years of age. Children can receive the second dose earlier as long as it is at least 28 days after the first dose.

Parents whose children are not up to date on all re-quired immunizations were to have been notified last week by mail. They will need to have their children im-munized in order to attend school as of Feb. 18. Parents will also need to get this updated information to the school or childcare facility that their children attend.

Parents whose children still need to get required vaccinations should contact their health care provider or Lincoln County Health and Human Services. All required vaccinations are available by appointment at Lincoln County Health and Human Services Primary Care Clinics,School Based

Health Centers,and the Pub-lic Health office. No child will be turned away because of inability to pay for these vaccinations.

For additional informa-tion, call Lincoln County Public Health at 541-265-4112 or check the Lincoln County website at http://www.co.lincoln.or.us/ for special immunization days and times.

FAST FACTState law requires

all children enrolled in public and private schools, preschools,

Head Starts and certi-fied child care facili-ties to be vaccinated against certain pre-ventable diseases.

Congress will have to either transfer additional money into the Trust Fund or cut spending on roads and transit by about 30 percent. Brouwer said while Con-gress has always stepped into fill the gap, he couldn’t guarantee that will occur.

“As you can imagine, this uncertainty causes us significant problems in de-veloping projects and plan-ning our long-term STIP capital program,” he said. “It’s difficult to program projects six years from now when we don’t know how much money we will have six months from now.”

Brouwer said nonethe-less, ODOT is required under federal law to develop a STIP, and the agency is currently undertaking that effort with strategies that will mitigate the risk of re-duced federal funding.

“We are beginning discussions with the Oregon Transportation Commission about, and will be propos-ing, that the Commission base the STIP on an as-sumption that federal fund-ing may not stay at current levels,” he said. “That will allow us to move forward with developing projects without being paralyzed by uncertainty, while reducing the likelihood that a federal funding shortfall would force us to cut projects that we have already selected.”

New funding options

Hunt said the big issue is how to raise revenue for the federal highway funding system. He said an addi-tional gas tax isn’t likely the answer.

“That is complicated be-cause with new technology we have cars that are very energy efficient and some that don’t even use tradi-tional fuels, so how do you access a fee for use of the highways if those vehicles are not using gasoline,” he said. “The other com-plication is the traditional distribution formulas are in question.”

Hunt said there are reve-nue options, such as vehicle registration fees and simple assessments of other fees through other programs.

“So that everyone is pay-ing a fair share of the cost of using the highways,” he said.

Hunt said the worst-case scenario is that neither the federal government nor the Oregon Legislature would come up with an effec-tive highway funding plan, putting needed projects on hold.

“It is a situation where the county has limited reve-nue,” he said. “We are in fact spending reserves right now to maintain our highways, which can’t go on forever, so unless there is some new source of revenue, or change in technology, we are facing a situation where we would no longer have the money to maintain our roads. That will have very serious im-pacts on lifestyles, livability, economic development and safety.”

Hunt said another challenge is educating the public on the need for more highway funding

Congressional review

Schrader said he and the Oregon Congressional delegation are working to prevent the loss of the fed-eral highway money.

“As Co-Chair of the No Labels Problem Solvers Caucus, I am putting Demo-crats and Republicans in meetings in and around the Capitol to see if we can find common ground on how best to improve the solvency of the Highway Trust fund in particular,” he said. “It seems that we have some agreement that whatever we put forward in terms of infrastructure priorities must be paid for. User fees, like the gas tax, seem to be reasonable for Democrats and Republicans alike. Last Congress, we had some suc-cess on funding Ports in the bipartisan Water Resources

bill which provided a dedicated source of funding through the Harbor Mainte-nance Fund for small ports like Newport and Garibaldi.”

Schrader said the fed-eral government currently spends $50 billion a year on transportation, but the existing gas tax only brings in approximately $34 billion.

“Short term options for funding seem so far to re-volve around the gas tax that hasn’t been increased since 1993 and is not currently adjusted for inflation,” he said. “In my opinion, as vehicles become more fuel efficient we need to look to the states like Oregon that are doing innovative pilots on VMTs and weight mile adjustments as part of the solution to finance trans-portation projects.”

But Schrader agrees with Hunt, that if nothing is done, the highway crisis will have rippling adverse impacts on Lincoln County’s economic development.

“Building new roads and bridges is important for economic development, but repairing our existing infrastructure is even more important,’ Schrader said. “We to make sure families are driving on the safest roads possible, but states cannot afford to build new roads and repair existing ones on their own. They need this funding from the federal government, and it’s our obligation to make sure they have the resources they need.”

Join the conversation and voice you opinion on what the solution to the highway funding issue is and follow developments at thenews-guard.com.

HighwayFrom page A1

JEREMY C. RUARK/THE NEWS GUARDLincoln City officials are waiting for federal money to launch improvements at this intersection at Neotsu and Highway 101. Officials said the federal highway funding system could be broke by May.

miserably. It is an unfor-tunate situation. It doesn’t appear that he has been a good judge of character of his fiancée. I am disappointed in his behavior. We can’t keep excusing peoples’ past and present behavior. This is tak-ing the focus away from the issues important to Lincoln City and the state, but it is an important issue.”

“I think it is unfortu-nate that he finds himself in this situation,” Lincoln County Commission Chair Doug Hunt said. “In fairness to him, I am interested in hearing more specifics of the investigations. I hope the investigations can wrap up quickly. The situation is det-rimental to the state and to the legislature trying to pass legislation that has signifi-cance for Lincoln County.”

“I believe he is sincere and has tried to do what is right for the state of Oregon,” Lincoln County Commis-sioner Terry Thompson, a former Oregon legislator who has worked with Gov. Kitzha-ber, said. “But only he can make the decision to resign.”

Sen. Arnie Roblan’s staff replied to The News Guard saying the Senator echoed previous comments made by Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney:

“The governor is facing

serious challenges and he’s hurting,” Courtney said. “I want to be fair. I want to be compassionate. I want to do my job the best I can. I will not speculate on his future. As legislators we need to stay focused on providing money for our schools, taking care of our seniors, tending to our state’s transportation needs and balancing our budget. We have a lot to do and we need to get it done before July. We can’t let anything distract us.”

Rep. David Gomberg, who represents District 10 in Lincoln and Tillamook counties, said Kitzhaber has placed the interests of Oregon above his own in tendering this resignation.

“There is important work to be done this legislative session and a shadow has been lifted,” he said. “Those pending investigations can now go forward without compromising our need to strengthen schools, legislate marijuana, or improve our roads and bridges.

Gomberg said Brown would now have the task of working with the state legislature.

“I have an excellent working relationship with Secretary Brown and I know her commitment to our com-munities, our region, and the state,” he said. “The past few weeks have been very dif-ficult. But like a coastal storm that has blown through, we

can now start cleaning up and getting back to work.”

Gomberg said Kitzhaber has a remarkable list of ac-complishments

“Reforming health care, helping kids, defending Oregon’s spectacular natural heritage, and creating jobs,” Gomberg said. “He displayed a unique ability to negotiate agreements among Demo-crats and Republicans, busi-ness and labor, and rural and urban Oregon.”

Late Friday, Feb. 13, Willamette Week and the Oregonian reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had filed criminal subpoe-nas with the state of Or-egon seeking “information, records and documents, in-cluding data electronically or digitally stored on computer devices” related to Kitzhaber, Hayes, 15 other people and 11 state agencies, including the governor’s office.

State Attorney General El-len Rosenblum also launched a criminal investigation into the couple’s activities.

Join the conversation. What do you expect from Kate Brown as she becomes Oregon’s next governor? Post your comments on this story at thenewsguard.com. Read the entire Kitzhaber resigna-tion statement at thenewds-guard.com.

BrownFrom page A1

eral civil rights movements, Allen believes that the youth of America need to under-stand the history of their country to better prepare for the future. As she drew her speech to a close she was nearly brought to tears as she thanked all the staff and students for attending.

“I’m really happy you are all here today,” said Allen, “this is a small portion of our history and a chance for us to grow.”

The students overall reception of the movie was positive. Students were grateful for Allen’s dona-tion and had overwhelming thanks as they exited the theatre, with several hug-ging Allen and shaking her hand.

For the final scene of the movie Betsy Altomare, The Bijou Theatre owner, recalls the students listening intently and being passion-ately involved and applaud-ing loudly.

“Sometimes we get

people that applaud at the end of a movie, but this was different.” said Altomare,“Moving. Wow.”

SelmaFrom page A1

ERIN WALTER/THE NEWS GUARDSuzanne Allen delivers speech about importance of watch-ing the movie.