WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2020 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
YMCA plans CEO transition as building begins
Capi Lynn
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Sam Carroll, by all accounts, saved the Family
YMCA of Marion and Polk Counties.
It was in grave financial trouble when he became
CEO in late 2014, the decrepit headquarters building in
downtown Salem bleeding the organization dry.
Board members admitted the Y had a 50-50 chance
of surviving — at best.
Carroll made difficult decisions from Day 1 to keep
things afloat, including staff cuts, and dared to pro-
mote the idea of a new facility, which his predecessors
had tried and failed to do multiple times.
He rebuilt relationships in the community and faith
in the organization.
Fast forward to today, with $12 million in Lottery
funds from the Oregon Legislature and a $7 million
loan from the Faith Foundation, construction will soon
begin on the corner of Court and Cottage streets NE,
where the old YMCA stood for nearly a century.
“I feel great about everything we’ve been able to do,
but it’s not about me,” Carroll said this past week after
it was announced he would retire in October. “It’s
about the people that were involved: my staff, they’re
the ones that do the real work; the board, continuing to
have confidence and supporting me; and the commu-
nity, who believed in it and continue to believe in it.”
Carroll could have waited until the new facility was
See YMCA, Page 4A
A rendering shows the south end of the planned
Salem Family YMCA building downtown.
COURTESY OF CB|TWO ARCHITECTS
OSHA
enforces
Oregon’s
mask rules
Agency investigates complaints
about workplace violations
Claire Withycombe
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Farmer Bill Case is fighting an EPA settlement that requires removing two rock walls on the North Santiam
River. PHOTOS BY DAVID DAVIS AND ZACH URNESS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
Stretch of river may
get more dangerous
Removing dikes on North Santiam
could mean more trees down
Bill Poehler and Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
A dangerous stretch of the North Santiam River
near Jefferson where people have repeatedly required
rescue has the potential to become more hazardous in
coming years.
More than 20 people have been rescued, and some
have nearly died, on the popular stretch of river be-
tween Greens Bridge and the town of Jefferson as the
waterway became choked with downed trees this
summer.
Now a farmer’s removal of rock dikes from the edge
of the North Santiam, in accordance with his settle-
ment with the Environmental Protection Agency, has
the potential to make problems worse.
This week, farmer Bill Case started removal of one
of two nearly 1,000-foot-long rock walls that serve as
dikes to protect his farm outside Jefferson from flood-
ing. When the lower dike is moved, a grove of roughly
40 trees, many over 150-feet tall, could suffer erosion
and fall into the river.
“It’s historically been a terrible corner and if he
A rock wall separates Case’s corn field from the
North Santiam River near its confluence with the
South Santiam River.
moves that levy, it’s going to totally change the river.
(The river) is going to slam into the stand of trees,”
said Linn County Sheriff Jim Yon.
Case fought the EPA’s demands to remove the dikes
for years, but no longer has a choice. He reached a set-
tlement in May with the EPA that requires him to
See DIKES, Page 2A
Marion County cuts birth
control, pregnancy tests
Report steep decline in number of
patients seeking those services
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
After a steep decline in patients seeking reproduc-
tive health services over the prior decade, Marion
County’s Public Health Department is cutting ser-
vices like family planning, birth control, pap smears
and pregnancy tests at its clinics in Salem and Wood-
burn.
The county informed patients who have sought
those services at its clinics of the change by letter in
mid-June.
Shifts in funding from outside sources, such as
state government, has made those services more ac-
cessible through primary care providers like doctors,
leading to the county to stop offering those services,
according to Marion County.
Those seeking reproductive health services from
the county will be referred to other health care provid-
ers, including those who do not have a primary care
physician.
“We’ll help them any way we can,” Marion County
Health and Human Services spokesperson Jenna Wy-
att said.
The Marion County Public Health Clinic has been
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See OSHA, Page 3A
See CLINICS, Page 2A
Vol. 139, No. 30
Online at SilvertonAppeal.com
Now that Oregonians are required to wear masks
in indoor public spaces to prevent the spread of the
coronavirus, the state’s workplace safety agency is
preparing to handle enforcement.
Gov. Kate Brown ordered people to wear face cov-
erings as COVID-19 cases continue to rise sharply in
Oregon and elsewhere. She’s warned that tighter re-
strictions on businesses could return if Oregonians
don’t take the mask requirement to heart.
Oregon Occupational Safety and Health, com-
monly called OSHA, is already busy investigating
thousands of COVID-related complaints at Oregon
workplaces.
Since early March, Oregonians have filed roughly
5,500 workplace complaints related to the pandemic.
They have reported a variety of concerns, including
worries about a lack of space between people and
lack of protective gear like gloves.
OSHA officials had by early June already received
some complaints about face coverings, including re-
ports of employees not wearing face coverings at a
furniture store and at a restaurant, according to
spokesman Aaron Corvin.
Corvin said the agency is expecting more com-
plaints to come in now because of Brown’s latest or-
der.
The volume of complaints has far outpaced the
agency’s typical workload. Generally, the agency gets
about 2,000 complaints total in a year, said spokes-
man Aaron Corvin. In addition to the coronavirus
complaints, the agency has also received about 1,000
non-coronavirus complaints this year.
“It’s been very busy for us,” Corvin said.
But Corvin says that while it’s “an all hands on
deck situation,” he said there are enough workers at
the agency to field the thousands of complaints,
which are essentially tips that the agency investi-
gates.
Field staff across the state are screening com-
plaints. Of the thousands of complaints that have
been filed, the agency has done about 42 inspections,
finding violations in roughly half of those inspec-
tions, Corvin said earlier this week. Several cases are
still pending.
The agency has 75 people who enforce workplace
safety and health in the field, and on top of that there
are technical, administrative and managerial staff
who also help with complaints, Corvin said. And the
agency is offering virtual consultations with busi-
nesses to help them comply with health and safety
rules.
“We’ve been able to absorb it,” Corvin said of the
unusually high number of complaints. “I think it’s
fair to say that it may have bent our system, but it
didn’t break it by any stretch of the imagination. So
we’ve been able to scale up and respond to this.”
There hasn’t been a consistent stream of com-
plaints, Corvin said — the volume has ebbed and
flowed. The state received a lot of complaints in
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“If we all wear face coverings, practice six feet of
physical distancing in public, wash our hands
regularly, and stay home when we are sick, then we
can avoid the worst-case scenarios that are now
playing out in other states,” Gov. Kate Brown said.
BETH NAKAMURA/ASSOCIATED PRESS