Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 2017)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 LOCAL NEWS New Hispanic Advisory Committee Water, sewer chair looking forward to challenge rates to go up By JADE MCDOWELL volved in the community for Staff Writer a long time, and people do Fighting addiction in not need to worry that under the community is a passion Garcia’s watch the Hispanic for the Hermiston Hispanic Advisory Committee’s ef- Advisory Committee’s new forts will flag. chair. “They’ve still got a lot of Jose Garcia was chosen as good plans. The committee the committee chair at is still going strong,” the end of November he said. after former chair Ed- The city council die de la Cruz moved honored De La Cruz, to Texas. He is also the who was a founding director of New Hori- member of the com- zons, which serves mittee, with a plaque those struggling with at Monday’s meeting problems such as drug Jose and thanked him for Garcia and alcohol addic- his four years of ser- vice. tions, gambling, anger Past initiatives have in- management and domestic violence. He hopes to use his cluded increasing voter reg- professional skills to help the istration and increasing in- Hispanic Advisory Commit- volvement in education, and tee look for ways it can assist Garcia said he also wants to in addressing those challeng- keep those things going, in- cluding a popular effort to es. “We do have some is- partner with the Hermiston sues in the community, and I School District to provide think we can work on that,” Spanish translators for par- ent-teacher conferences. he said. He said he also wants to Garcia said he has en- joyed getting to know city help Hispanic children in the councilor Manuel Gutierrez, community connect to more who acts as a council liaison financial aid resources for to the committee. Gutierrez pursuing higher education. Garcia said parents come also works in human ser- vices through Domestic Vio- to him all the time, worried their child might be doing lence Services. “He’s got a lot of ideas,” drugs or upset about con- Garcia said. “We’ve been firmed drug use. He said having some preliminary when parents get involved talks. With his expertise and in their child’s education, my expertise, maybe we can grades go up and attendance do some classes, educate improves, which helps chil- dren stay away from drugs some people.” Past board chair Eddie and gangs and other harmful de la Cruz said Garcia is a behaviors. The problem, he said, is “great guy” who has been in- By JADE MCDOWELL that many Latino parents are working multiple jobs to make ends meet or give their children a less impov- erished childhood than they had. They don’t always have the luxury of arranging their work schedule, as Garcia has done while raising his three children, so that they can drop them off and pick them up from school each day. “A lot of the factories and warehouses around here, they’re not family-oriented,” he said. Parents feel powerless over that, he said, just like he some- times feels powerless to help people turn their lives around when it takes four months to get someone into rehab. Gar- cia said he lost his own brother to addiction a few years ago for that very reason. That feeling of pow- erlessness is a reason that Garcia has been drawn to Donald Trump over the last year. While many Latinos have rejected Trump for his rhetoric about building walls and mass round-ups of ille- gal immigrants, Garcia said he finds hope in Trump’s message about fighting for everyday Americans and helping those in our own backyard. He said he wants to help calm fears by reminding His- panic community members that Trump needs Congress to approve many of his pro- posals and that he ran his candidacy on a pledge to help the working class. “I want to educate the Latino community to be optimistic and not have so much fear,” he said. Garcia said he also wants to help the Hispanic Advi- sory Committee be more connected to the city coun- cil, and to make sure the committee is helping sup- port “great” projects like the new, free bus system in town. He said he wanted to keep fostering new leaders in the Hispanic community and encouraging them to be more actively involved. Garcia moved to Herm- iston from Yakima in 1989 and said he really appreciat- ed the growing opportunities he had working as a drug and alcohol addiction counselor for Umatilla County when he first came to town. “I really thank the county for the product I am today,” he said. He said people he worked with in that job always told him he needed to learn to say no, because he would say yes no matter what new project or meeting was added to his plate. But he can’t help being a go-getter willing to tackle any problem, he said. He has been frustrated by the last two Hispanic Advi- sory Committee meetings being canceled due to weath- er, but plans to take the same go-getter approach with the committee. “They say you can be part of the problem or part of the solution,” he said. “Today I can tell you I’m part of the solution.” Rising painkiller abuse outpaces available treatment Hermiston forum explores chronic pain and opioid abuse By KATHY ANEY Staff Writer Dr. Chuck Hofmann helps people addicted to prescription painkillers find their way back to normal life. And he’s bringing what he learned to Hermiston for two forums this week. The Baker physician runs a clinic where he treats ad- dicts with a medication called buprenorphine to curb crav- ings. Hofmann said many of his patients got hooked on prescription painkillers after surgery or injuries. Hofmann described the recent metamorphosis of one of his patients. The young father was spending every waking hour trying to score drugs — first opi- oids and then heroin, which is cheaper. He lost a good job. He spent time in jail. After starting a regimen of buprenorphine, under the brand name Suboxone, and undergoing counseling, he has found himself again. “He’s got his kids back. In three months, he’ll have a full-time job,” Hofmann said. “From a provider’s standpoint, it’s the most LEARN ABOUT PAIN FOR THE PUBLIC Pain relief forum Thursday, Jan. 26, 6:30-9 p.m. FOR MEDICAL PROVIDERS Non-cancer pain manage- ment forum Friday, Jan. 27, 5-9 p.m. Both at Good Shepherd Medical Center rewarding thing I’ve ever done.” Hofmann hopes other providers can catch the vi- sion and start offering med- ically assisted therapies (MAT), too. There simply aren’t enough providers who offer treatment. Many opioid addicts can’t easily access treatment without driving long distances. The few providers who offer treatment in Eastern Ore- gon are getting outpaced by the epidemic. The numbers are dis- heartening. The Oregon Health Authority reports that more Oregonians die from prescription opioids than any other drug, in- cluding alcohol, metham- phetamines, heroin and cocaine. An average of three Oregonians overdose on prescription painkillers each week. Opioid abuse has tripled since 2000 and someone overdoses in the U.S. about every 20 min- utes. Oregon ranks highest in non-medical use of pre- scription painkillers in the country. In 2014, a quarter of Oregonians received a prescription for an opioid. All that translates into a huge need for doctors, phy- sician’s assistants and nurse practitioners to join the ef- fort by taking the required training and applying for necessary waivers. Hofmann urged fellow providers to attend upcom- ing forums on non-cancer pain management in Herm- iston, Pendleton, Ontario or La Grande. The semi- nars offer free continuing medical education credits, funded by the Eastern Or- egon Coordinated Care Or- ganization and a state grant. The first forum is Friday at Good Shepherd Hospital, Hermiston from 5-9 p.m. Topics include talking to patients about addiction, the neuroanatomy and neu- rochemistry of addiction, pain schools, nondrug treat- ment options and the role of buprenorphine in treatment. Other free forums, open to the public, will ex- plore acute versus chronic pain, non-drug options for chronic pain and the role of psychosocial support in chronic pain management. The first is Thursday in Hermiston. Register online at www.eocco.com or call Briona at 503-952-5010 or email her at briona.camp- bell@modahealth.com. Staff Writer Water and sewer rates will increase in Hermiston starting in March. The city council unani- mously approved the rate in- creases Monday. Both water and sewer rates will go up 5 percent in March 2017, 5 percent in October 2017 and 4.9 percent in March 2018. Assistant city manager Mark Morgan said the in- creased revenue will help pay for maintenance, “re- mote-read” water meters and de-watering equipment for the wastewater treatment plant. Currently the city spends $225,000 per year, including two full-time employees, to read water meters one by one. Morgan said putting in meters that send data to the city automatically will put that down to the equivalent cost of one half-time em- ployee. The meters are ex- pected to pay for themselves in about 7 years but not need to be replaced for 15. Besides saving the city money and increasing em- ployee safety, Morgan said there will also be benefits to the customers. They will be able to track their daily water usage, which could be especially helpful for irri- gators. The system will also be much faster at catching leaks or a running toilet, and users can get a notification on their phone if a sudden, prolonged spike in usage in- dicates a problem. Morgan said he’s heard lots of sto- ries of people being hit with an unexpectedly huge wa- ter bill because they didn’t know for weeks that a pipe was leaking into the ground. “I went on a trip to Idaho and my toilet was running and I came back and my water bill was twice what I expected it to be,” he said. On the sewer side, the extra revenue will pay for de-watering equipment that will help more efficiently take care of the solids fil- tered out at the recycled wa- ter treatment plant. The city recently spent $1.4 million emptying the lagoons where the solid waste goes after it is filtered out, and Morgan said with the new treatment plant’s stronger filtering capabilities, that will now need to happen every three years. “It’s filling the lagoon much more quickly, and that’s not something you want to overflow,” he said. The $1.5 million equip- ment would reduce costs down to $85,000 per year, meaning the investment would pay for itself in three and a half years. The rate adjustment the council approved Monday means the average water user (at 11,220 gallons a month) will go from $27.83 per month currently to $29.22 in March, while the average sewer user will go from $23.56 per month to $24.74 in March. City councilor Doug Smith said that while the city understands that raising rates are a hardship on peo- ple, it also has decades-old pipes that “look like Swiss cheese” and it needs to save up some money to fix them before a major incident. “We’re trying to do as much as we possibly can with as little as we possibly can,” he said. On Monday the city council also approved new parking spaces downtown. As a “pilot program” for changes in the future, the council agreed to change the parking spaces on the north side of Gladys Ave- nue between Second Street and Third Street from par- allel parking to diagonal spaces. The change — which Morgan said was easily re- versible if people don’t like it — will add four new spac- es in front of the library and help address residents’ aver- sion to parallel parking if the parking lot is full.