WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2021 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Allowing marijuana businesses a sticky proposition
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Thorin Thacker said he didn’t intend
to get into the marijuana retail business.
He was the mayor of Mill City in 2016
when voters in cities were allowed to
choose whether they would allow mari-
juana businesses after the substance
was legalized for recreational use in
Oregon.
Mill City voters chose 53% to 46% to
not allow such businesses. In the same
election, voters in neighboring Gates
voted to allow them.
After leaving office in 2017, Thacker
and a business partner opened Canyon
Cannabis in Gates within view of High-
way 22, the only dispensary on the high-
way between Salem and Bend.
But after the business burned down
in the Labor Day wildfires of 2020, he is
advocating for voters in Mill City on Nov.
2 to reconsider their stance and allow
marijuana-related businesses.
Also in the special election, voters in
the Stayton Rural Fire District are being
asked to increase their property taxes to
pay for nine additional full-time fire-
fighters and emergency medical techni-
cians.
Ballots for the election will be mailed
to voters Oct. 13. The Marion and Linn
County elections offices will be open
from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 2 to accept
ballots.
Mill City marijuana
Voters in Oregon chose to legalize
recreational marijuana in 2014, but cit-
A PATCH OF FALL
ies and counties are permitted to decide
whether to allow retail sales in their
communities.
In the November election, voters in
Mill City will choose whether to allow
dispensaries to sell marijuana for med-
ical and recreational purposes, as well
as manufacturing and production of
marijuana, in their city.
Canyon Cannabis’s Gates location
was a total loss in the wildfires, and very
little of it was insured or insurable –
See VOTERS, Page 4A
Marion County
fails to update
crime data
tracking system
Dianne Lugo
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The data that could tell the Marion County Sher-
iff 's Office whether hate crimes are on the rise, or
when a certain neighborhood is experiencing a rash
of burglaries is sitting in a shared computer drive, un-
readable and unusable by state and national law en-
forcement.
It is one of a handful of agencies in the state and
the country that missed the FBI deadline to switch to
an improved method of reporting crime data to Ore-
gon State Police and federal officials.
The FBI gave them four years to get it done.
“They can still submit their data to OSP, but it’s
just going to be saved on a shared drive and nothing
will be done with that data because ... there’s no way
to translate that data into something readable,” Mel-
oni Morrison, Interim UCR Program Coordinator at
Oregon State Police, said.
Transition to a newer system
Kyler Miholer looks for a pumpkin at Greens Bridge Gardens in Jefferson. The farm kicked off fall with a
u-pick pumpkin patch, corn maze and other activities. PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
7 pumpkin patches and corn mazes in the Mid-Valley
Whitney Woodworth
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The mid-Willamette Valley has a
plethora of pumpkin patches, includ-
ing:
Bauman’s Farm & Garden
For years, crowds have flocked to
Bauman’s Farm for the annual Harvest
Festival, with features mazes, a mas-
sive pumpkin patch, farm animals,
rides, and apple cider donuts.
When: Harvest Festival hours are 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. until Oct. 30.
Where: 12989 Howell Prairie Road
NE, Gervais.
For more information: 503-792-
3524, baumanshf.com
Beal Pumpkin Patch
Salo Crowther, 11, looks at chickens at Greens Bridge Gardens.
See PUMPKINS, Page 4A
Don’t expect a call from a
contact tracer in some places
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
If you had dinner with a friend who turned out to
have COVID-19, don’t expect a call from a contact trac-
er.
At least not in some places in Oregon.
Marion and Lane counties said they have had so
many new cases recently that their public health de-
partments are in ‘surge protocols,” meaning they only
contact people who are exposed in workplace out-
breaks and congregate care settings.
According to the Oregon Health Authority, sporadic
cases of COVID-19 – ones that weren’t traced back to
a known case – have skyrocketed since early in the
summer.
In the most recent week reported by the OHA, the
week of Sept. 11, there were more than 10,000 sporad-
ic cases in the state. There were about 1,000 the week
of June 26.
Marion County has so many cases of COVID-19
that the county’s public health division is primarily
tracking cases in congregate care settings like nurs-
ing homes and workplace outbreaks, according to
Marion County Health & Human Services spokesper-
See TRACER, Page 4A
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For years, the FBI has collected and provided
crime statistics nationwide through its Uniform
Crime Reporting Program relying on the traditional
Summary Reporting System to collect and aggregate
a monthly tally of crimes.
The National Incident-Based Reporting System,
first introduced in 1988, was implemented “to im-
prove the overall quality of crime data collected by
law enforcement,” according to the FBI website.
The newer system allows law enforcement to re-
port more details about each crime incident. It also
allows agencies to report on separate offenses within
the same incident, such as when someone is assault-
ed in the midst of a robbery.
The newer system also collects additional infor-
mation on victims, known offenders, relationships
between victims and offenders, arrestees, property
involved, and day and time of the crime.
In 2016, the FBI gave law enforcement agencies a
deadline to transition to the newer system.
"SRS sunsetted January of 2021 and we were en-
couraging all SRS or non-reporting agencies to go to
NIBRS or ONIBRS and start reporting that way," Mor-
rison said. "Marion County was unable to meet that
deadline."
OSP "did everything we could to get them to meet
the deadline and since they were unable to, we just
save their data and don't do anything with it," she
said. "There's nothing we can do with it."
In a 2016 memo about the transition, former FBI
Director James B. Comey cited "recent events" that
"underscored the importance of having informed
conversations about policing and crime policy."
Those conversations concluded with the decision
to discontinue SRS reporting.
“Once complete, the FBI will have faster access to
more robust data that is necessary to show how safe
our communities are and to help law enforcement
and municipal leaders better allocate resources to
prevent and combat crime,” Comey said. “Through
the NIBRS, law enforcement agencies can be more
transparent and accountable to the communities
they serve.”
With a fuller context of crimes, the statistics are
vital for more informed policing. The data is also nec-
essary for the FBI and other local agencies to spot
trends and respond.
Marion County among the few
Last year, fewer than 10,000 of nearly 18,000 par-
ticipating agencies submitted data via the newer sys-
tem.
In Oregon, 207 of the 234 law enforcement agen-
cies submitted data to the FBI for its 2020 Hate
Crimes Report, fewer than in 2019. Most of those
were very small communities, although Lane County
Sheriff 's Office also did not submit data.
According to OSP data, Marion County appears to
be the only Oregon agency still submitting under the
old format.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has
charged FBI officials across the country with identi-
fying the agencies that did not provide their data,
special agent in charge of the Portland Field Office
Kieran L. Ramsey said when announcing the new re-
See SYSTEM, Page 4A