| Regional update |
Attorney general: Most rivers open to public
BY NIKI SULLIVAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALEM — Most of Oregon’s river
beds and banks are state property
and can be used by anglers and
boaters under common law rights,
Attorney General Hardy Myers
said Thursday.
The opinion was requested by the
state Land Board, which for years has
been grappling with the issue of
whether individual rivers are state
property and therefore open for
public use.
Myers said most river beds and
banks to the normal high water mark
are state property and are open to
public use, and he set out the type of
rivers to which the opinion applies.
Later on Thursday, Senate Demo
cratic and Republican leaders said
they were backing a bill to put those
rights into state law. Their proposal
also would charge boaters a
registration fee to help fund law
enforcement on the rivers, among
other things.
Both the attorney general’s opinion
and the Senate bill are in response to
individual navigability studies on
rivers across the state to determine
whether the public has a right to use
the banks and beds.
The most recent study was for the
John Day River, and six others are
pending, but the opinion and bill pro
vide a way to avoid most reasons for
conducting the studies by applying a
statewide standard.
In addition to setting standards for
what types of waterways are open for
public use, the opinion deals with
whether the public can use lands
over which the state has not yet
claimed ownership and what uses
the public can make of waterways.
The attorney general’s opinion
was praised by members of the
Land Board, which consists of
Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Secretary of
State Bill Bradbury and State Trea
surer Randall Edwards.
Bradbury said the opinion “does a
tremendous service for the people of
Oregon by clarifying the public’s
right to use Oregon’s waterways.”
Edwards agreed, saying the state
has neglected resolving state own
ership questions and that the pro
posed legislation would help bal
ance the rights of property owners
and the public.
The opinion does not, however,
identify eligible rivers by name. The
Department of State Lands said that
means that citizens take the chance
they are trespassing if a waterway
has not yet been determined to be
state property.
Senate Majority Leader Kate
Brown, D-Portland, and Senate Mi
nority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John
Day, said their bill will clear up the
law and make sure both upland prop
erty owners and those visiting the
river understand the rules.
Ferrioli said at the heart of the bill
was “a lot of practical solutions and
clarifications that people will need,
even with the attorney general’s most
recent opinion.”
Brown said it was important to set
a statewide standard instead of river
by-river navigability studies. The bill
would also put into writing what the
attorney general says exists under
common law and public use doc
trine, she said.
The confusion over river owner
ship started when Oregon became a
state and was given ownership of all
navigable rivers at the time.
But many of the rivers were never
officially declared navigable — and
therefore state property — which has
caused friction between recreational
groups and landowners.
The Association of Northwest
Steelheaders was glad to see the at
torney general’s opinion.
“The opinion substantiates what
we have always known — the pub
lic has a right to the use of Oregon’s
waterways,” the association said in
a statement.
Oregon medical students get
a shot at working in rural areas
BY LEANNE JOSEPHSON
THE DAILY ASTORIAN
ASTORIA — The last patient of the
morning was Olivia Rilatos, a blond
haired 2-year-old who sat quietly on
her mom’s lap sucking a pacifier.
Olivia had been sick for three or four
days, and her mom wanted to make
sure it wasn’t anything serious.
Dr. Kate Merrill stood in the hall
way while Chloe Allen Maycock, a
third-year medical student, asked
about Olivia’s wet diapers and how
much liquid she had been drinking.
She looked in Olivia’s ears and
pressed a stethoscope to her back.
Maycock is in the middle of a rural
clerkship, an Oregon Health & Science
University requirement that introduces
future doctors to rural practice and en
courages them to consider providing
medical care in an underserved area
after they finish their residencies.
“What have you got?” Merrill
asked as Maycock shut the examin
ing room door.
“Sick since Saturday or Sunday,”
Maycock said. “She’s been throwing
up and has diarrhea. She ate
some bread yesterday. Subjective
fevers at home, maybe 100. Has had
sick exposures. ”
“What’s your sense of what’s
going on?”
“She has the flu, or some kind of
gastrointestinitis. My main concern
is dehydration.”
“We’ve been seeing that go
around recently. ”
They both headed into the
room, where Merrill confirmed
the diagnosis.
“I agree with you Chloe, she looks
pretty good,” Merrill said. “We usu
ally let it run its course. Let’s keep an
eye on her and see how it goes.”
Not all physicians can work in
Portland — at least not if rural Ore
gon residents want access to quality
medical care.
The problem is recruiting them to
Astoria when the big cities offer
higher salaries, access to a network
of specialized doctors, better
jobs for physicians’ spouses and
even something as ordinary as
weekend shopping.
In 2004, the Portland area had
302 physicians per 100,000 people,
while coastal counties had only 104
physicians per 100,000, according to
the OHSU Center for Rural Health.
For the past 12 years, OHSU has
tried to combat that trend by requir
ing the rural health clerkship. While
the program has been in place more
than a decade, this is only the second
time an OHSU medical student has
been sent to Astoria to experience
rural practice.
Before, doctors there were unwill
ing to take on medical students
through this program, said Patty Pe
tersen, assistant director for Area
Health Education Centers program
office, which partners with OHSU to
coordinate the rural clerkships.
“We’re hoping it becomes a regu
lar site for students to go to,”
Petersen said.
Merrill has already offered to pro
vide six clerkships at Pacific
Family Medicine to medical
students this year.
Medical students who have
worked only in Portland will notice
some major differences when they
try out Eastern Oregon or the coast,
Merrill said.
“It can be isolating,” she said.
“You have to do a lot of things on
your own without immediate
specialty access.”
Maycock has already found that
it can be difficult to line up care
for patients.
“Our proximity to resources can be
an issue if patients aren’t able to
drive,” she said.
Rural practice presents its own
learning experiences. Maycock said
she has gotten a better idea of the
continuity of care from home to office
to hospital and has learned more
about how specialists work together.
And rural clerkships allow stu
dents to be “real” doctors for a while.
“When they come back they’re
happy because they got to be a doc
tor, whereas here, they don’t always
get to put their hands on their pa
tients,” Petersen said.
At Merrill’s office, Maycock has
been involved in nearly all aspects of
the practice. The student and doctor
begin each day by checking on pa
tients in the hospital. Then they plan
which patients Maycock will see. She
assesses those patients alone, then
discusses her findings with Merrill
before the two of them talk to the
patient together.
“When you’re actually seeing pa
tients and think about what their
problems are and what processes are
going on in their body, it connects the
knowledge,” Maycock said.
While rural practice is new to
Maycock, rural living is not. May
cock, 30, is a fourth-generation
Astoria resident.
“There’s something about seeing
patients who are part of the com
munity that has brought you up,”
she said.
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Jury convicts man
of hiring hitman
after grave robbing
BY JEFF BARNARD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEDFORD — Former Grants
Pass insurance agent Jack Lee
Harelson was convicted Thursday
of trying to hire a hitman to kill a
former business partner he believed
turned him in for robbing ancient
Indian graves.
A Jackson County jury found
Harelson guilty of conspiracy to
commit aggravated murder, at
tempted aggravated murder and so
licitation of murder involving a plot
to kill Lloyd Olds of Brookings,
Harelson’s partner in a Nevada opal
mine. He was sentenced to 10 years
in prison.
The jury acquitted Harelson on a
fourth count alleging he tried to so
licit the murder of State Police
Lt. Walt Markee.
The jury deliberated less than an
hour before reaching the verdict.
Harelson was convicted in 1996
of stealing artifacts and the mum
mified remains of two Indian chil
dren from a cave in Nevada’s
Black Rock Desert.
In the course of a later investiga
tion into whether Harelson was still
dealing in stolen artifacts, authori
ties learned through an undercover
informant that Harelson was inter
ested in hiring a hitman to kill peo
ple involved in his conviction.
Last October, a Jackson County
jury acquitted Harelson on two
counts against him but deadlocked
on four other charges. That jury
found him guilty of being a felon in
possession of a firearm.
Harelson was accused of trying to
hire someone to kill retired
Josephine County Circuit Judge
Loyd O’Neal, Markee, and opal
mine partners Olds and the late
Richard Ledger, also of Brookings.
The four were involved in Harel
son’s 1996 conviction for stealing
ancient Indian artifacts.
The jury in October deadlocked
on charges of conspiracy to commit
aggravated murder, attempted ag
gravated murder and the two
counts of solicitation to murder
naming Markee and Olds.
The acquittals came on the two
solicitation to murder counts nam
ing O’Neal and Ledger.
In closing arguments Thursday,
prosecutor Tim Barnack told jurors
that tape recordings by an under
cover informant show Harelson
wanted the two men dead and paid
for it with opals.
But defense attorney Bob Abel
countered that Harelson was en
trapped by police who set up a pho
ny hit man scheme and that his
client never intended to go through
with it.
Abel noted that the tape recorder
used by the informant failed to
work during a final meeting, when
Harelson was shown a picture of his
business partner pretending to lie
dead in a shallow grave.
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