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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2021
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System
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port.
Ramsey said he would be reaching
out to Oregon agencies personally to
convince them about the need to report
and provide their data.
“I have no doubt that any agency that
perhaps is not reporting is still just as
concerned as we are about hate crimes
in their community,” Ramsey said. “I’m
confident our message will reach them.”
Other agencies may have different
reasons for not participating, but the
Marion County Sheriff 's Office provided
the data in a format the FBI no longer ac-
cepts.
“At the Sheriff ’s Office, we have very
old and outdated records,” Marion
County Sheriff 's Office spokesman Sgt.
Jeremy Landers said, referring to its rec-
ord management system. “The only
mechanism we have to pull [crime re-
porting data] is through SRS reporting,
which doesn’t capture some of the addi-
APPEAL TRIBUNE
tional information that is really helpful.”
The agency has continued to report
data to Oregon State Police, which then
passes it on to the FBI, however, Marion
County has not had the ability to pull
out or analyze specific data like was rep-
resented in the hate crime report.
‘A month away’
Landers said the transition to the
newer system was "over a million-dollar
project that requires infrastructure up-
grades" and significant coordination to
implement.
But he admitted Marion County's de-
lay has “definitely been a limiting factor
for us."
There’s significantly more detail that
goes into NIBRS reporting compared to
SRS reporting, which is more helpful for
crime analysis, he said.
Individual incidents are still investi-
gated based upon the “merits of what’s
there,” he said, but access to NIBRS,
with its more specific data, “becomes
most valuable when we’re really looking
at trends, patterns, that type of analy-
Voters
Continued from Page 1A
things like cash registers, computers,
desks and display cases were, but the
marijuana and related products were
not.
“We lost north of $200,000 in 15 min-
utes,” Thacker said. “We had 15 grand
cash in the safe.”
Business partners Thacker and Roy
Mitchell asked Mill City’s city council on
Feb. 9 to overturn the ban on marijuana.
The council declined, citing possible le-
gal problems in going against the will of
the voters.
Thacker and Beverly Thacker
brought the issue back to the council in
July, and the city is sending the decision
back to voters.
“There was never a ban on marijua-
na. There was a ban on selling and proc-
essing marijuana in Mill City,” Mill City
resident Lynda Harrington, an oppo-
nent of the measure, said.
The closest marijuana dispensary is
in Stayton.
After opening the store in Gates in
2017, Thacker purchased another build-
ing on Highway 22 in Mill City at 415 NE
Santiam Boulevard that met the state’s
requirements for dispensaries, such as
how far they have to be from parks and
schools.
The idea was if voters in the city ever
changed their mind about allowing the
marijuana-related businesses, it could
be a second location.
Since the wildfires, that was turned
into a store for non-THC products like
CBD items. But it did a fraction of the
business of the original in Gates. He’s
since closed it, pending the results of
the election.
“We would have loved to have stayed
in Gates,” Thacker said. “I assure you if
we were still open in Gates, this push for
Tracer
Continued from Page 1A
son Jenna Wyatt.
Jason Davis, the spokesperson for
Lane County’s COVID-19 response, said
the county is under a similar surge pro-
tocol and only contact tracing with indi-
viduals who are over 65, under age 18
and involved in larger outbreaks.
“Contact tracing is just one part of
the case investigation process,” Wyatt
said. “Due to the high number of cases,
we have discontinued contact tracing
for household contacts and social set-
tings.”
According to Marion County’s CO-
VID-19 data dashboard, the county was
averaging 173 cases per day on its 14-day
moving average, down from a peak of
262 Sept. 6, but above where it was a
year ago when it was seeing 47 cases per
day.
The Marion County Health and Hu-
man Services Department, which in-
cludes its public health department, has
Pumpkins
Continued from Page 1A
The owners of Beal announced earli-
er this month they would be postponing
opening their pumpkin patch for anoth-
er year due to changing COVID-19 re-
strictions mandated by the state. De-
spite the pumpkin patch being closed,
customers can still buy pumpkins indi-
vidually and in bulk from the farm along
with other Halloween and fall items
available at the farm store.
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays, Sat-
urdays and Sundays starting Oct. 1.
Where: 700 Oak Villa Road, Dallas.
For more information: face-
book.com/pg/BealPumpkinPatch/
E.Z. Orchards
Stayton Fire District Chief Jack
Carriger stands before the district's
new wild-land fire rig, which replaced a
27-year-old apparatus. STATESMAN
JOURNAL FILE
Measure 22-188 wouldn’t even be there."
He said rebuilding in Gates wasn't an
option. Canyon Cannabis was not eligi-
ble for most forms of government aid as
marijuana is still illegal federally, Thack-
er said.
"We were pretty financially destitute
after losing everything," he said. "We
decided to see if we can push this.”
Though voters in Mill City opted to
not allow marijuana-related businesses
in the city in 2016, they overwhelmingly
imposed a 3% tax on marijuana sales in
the same election. That would still apply
if voters approve sales of marijuana in
this election, according to city recorder
Stacie Cook.
If it passes, the city will receive tax
revenue on sales in the city and could
share in the state’s 10% tax on marijua-
na.
“We need to divert more funds to ad-
diction and recovery services,” Harring-
ton said. “These claims of a bunch of
cash going into city coffers are specula-
tive at best.”
Thacker said, and officials from
Gates confirmed, that Canyon Cannabis
became the largest source of tax reve-
nue of the city, including contributing
been identified as a workplace outbreak
by the Oregon Health Authority, with
nine cases between July 21 and Sept. 9.
Marion County public health director
Katrina Rothenberger told the county
commissioners in August the depart-
ment didn’t have the staff to contact
trace all cases of the coronavirus as it
did for much of the pandemic.
Marion County had 305 new cases
per 100,000 people the week of Sept. 12,
above the state average of 257 per
100,000. Lane County was below the av-
erage with 246. Of Oregon counties, 26
were above the state’s average.
Active outbreaks in care facilities
These are the current outbreaks in
care facilities in Marion and Lane coun-
ties reported since Aug. 1:
h French Prarie Nursing and Reha-
bilitation Center, 18 cases, one death.
h The Springs at Willowcreek, four
cases.
h Avamere Court at Keizer, 42 cases,
one death.
h Tierra Rose Care Center, six cases.
This year’s Harvestfest will feature
hayrides, a petting zoo, corn mazes,
weekend live music and a pumpkin
patch.
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays-Fri-
days, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Sundays, Oct. 1 to Oct. 30.
Where: 5504 Hazelgreen Road NE,
Salem.
For more information: 503-393-
1506, ezorchards.com/harvestfest-info-
sheet
sis. It’ll improve our ability to correlate
things that are going on.”
Landers said the agency is about a
month away from its new records man-
agement system going live. It will enable
them to conduct NIBRS reporting and
significantly increase their “capabilities
to provide that type of information.”
But nearly a year of data will already
be lost.
The upgrade will not allow the de-
partment to retroactively enter previous
data or conduct more detailed analysis
on SRS reports, added Landers, because
“the only way to fix that would be to go
back and revise every historical report
and it would just be too labor-intensive
to be able to recreate that data.”
If all goes to plan, the Marion County
Sheriff 's Office hopes the system will be
implemented by the fourth quarter of
2021. More specifically, the system
could be online by Oct. 3 or 4, he said.
Because the reports are collected
quarterly, 2021 reports will be missing
data from the first three quarters of this
year. The first full year of NIBRS data
won’t be available until the end of 2022.
Landers emphasized the need to un-
derstand "the size and scope of what it
looks like to change the records man-
agement system." The department has
been working towards the implementa-
tion for "a few years" because the rec-
ords management system overhaul re-
quires the department to successfully
communicate information about the
nearly 30,000 cases a year the unit is re-
sponsible for.
"It's not something that we can just
go buy a product off the shelf and have it
up and running in just a month or two,"
Landers said. "It took significant time
and investment."
Morrison also points to the ongoing
pandemic as another potential reason
for agencies' delays.
"There's been a lot of short staffing,"
she said. "So people are just trying to get
under their feet again and trying to run
their command centers."
Dianne Lugo is a reporter at the
Statesman Journal covering equity and
social justice. You can reach her at
dlugo@statesmanjournal.com,
503-
936-4811 or on Twitter @DianneLugo.
more money for the city than property
taxes.
He said the potential financial im-
pacts of a dispensary in Mill City are im-
mense, not only from the local tax, but
from the share of state tax revenue the
city could receive.
“It’s really an uphill battle, but there’s
a lot of people passionate about getting
our store back open and equally the
ones trying to stop it,” Thacker said.
they also perform tasks such as admini-
stration, clerical services and mainte-
nance.
All calls outside of regular business
hours are currently taken by volunteers.
Stayton has about 50 volunteer fire-
fighters, but those ranks have been
stretched thin over the past year and a
half, according to Carriger.
“Definitely COVID, the wildland fires
have all taken a toll on our volunteers,”
he said. “Burnout rates have been pretty
high and we’re really struggling to get
volunteers to come to all the calls and
cover every call.
“We’ve kind of been going down that
direction, the entire nation has been
and all of the departments around us,
we’re all struggling to get volunteers.”
Carriger said the additional staff
would allow the department to staff the
station at all times and reach emergen-
cies more quickly.
“The additional response would, first
of all, get us on scene quicker and, sec-
ond of all, it’s three more bodies,” Car-
riger said. “It’s like having a whole
‘nother engine company be able to pro-
vide the service.”
The Stayton fire district had a less ag-
gressive operating levy of 25 cents per
$1,000 on the ballot in May 2020 that
would have hired an additional three
full-time firefighters, but that failed
55% to 44%.
Due to COVID-19, it was difficult to
get the message about the need for the
levy to the public.
“It’s not a huge, controversial elec-
tion or anything like that,” Carriger said.
“That’s what the district can do is just
educate people on it and most of all just
ask them to vote. We can’t really say
vote for it. We can say it’s an important
thing to vote.”
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for
the Statesman Journal. Contact him at
bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com
or
Twitter.com/bpoehler.
Stayton fire operations levy
For 128 hours each week, the people
in the Stayton Rural Fire District are
protected by volunteer firefighters.
In the November election, voters in
the 107-square-mile district in Marion
and Linn counties that covers Stayton,
Mehama, Elkhorn, Marion and Mt.
Pleasant will choose whether they want
paid firefighters available at all hours of
the day.
The district is asking voters in the
district to pass a five-year operations
levy that would charge property owners
an additional 88.85 cents per $1,000 of
assessed value beginning 2022.
According to estimates, the levy
would cost homeowners with an as-
sessed value of $300,000 an extra
$22.20 per month or $266 per year.
The levy would raise approximately
$4.8 million over the span and allow the
district to hire nine new full-time fire-
fighters and have paid staff on duty at all
times.
“It’s getting harder and harder to get
timely response,” Stayton fire chief Jack
Carriger said. “We need to look at having
a paid crew on 24/7, 365 to be able to get
to calls quick enough to make a differ-
ence.”
Currently, the department has five
full-time staff members who work for
the department from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday through Friday.
Besides their roles in firefighting,
h Brookdale Salem 16 cases, one
death.
h Hawthorne House of Salem, 14
cases, one death.
h Providence Benedictine Orchard
House, three cases.
h Brookstone Alzheimer’s Special
Care Center, eight cases.
h Harmony House of Salem, five
cases, one death.
h Battle Creek Memory Care, seven
cases.
h Emerald Gardens, four cases.
h Brookdale River Road, four cases.
h Bonaventure of Keizer, 29 cases,
one death.
h Independence Health and Reha-
bilitation Center, nine cases, one death.
h Marian Estates, four cases.
h Elliott Residence, three cases, one
death
h Cedar Village Memory Care Com-
munity, five cases.
h Madrona Hills Retirement, seven
cases.
h Rosewood Memory Care, 27 cases.
h Silver Creek Senior Living, three
cases.
Oregon Health Authority reported
these are the active workplace out-
breaks in Marion and Polk counties with
five or more confirmed COVID-19 cases:
h Salem Hospital, 327 cases.
h Amazon Aumsville, 211 cases.
h Oregon State Hospital (A), 59
cases.
h Oregon State Penitentiary, 30
cases.
h MacLaren Youth Correctional Fa-
cility, 25 cases.
h Polk County Jail, 18 cases.
h Do It Best Corp, 10 cases.
h Marion County Health and Human
Services, nine cases.
h Oregon State Hospital (B), nine
cases.
h Don Pancho Authentic Mexican
Foods, nine cases.
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for
the Statesman Journal. Contact him at
bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com
or
Twitter.com/bpoehler
For more information: 503-633-
8445, fpgardens.com/events
For more information: 503-362-
5105, fordycefarm.com/events
Fir Point Farms
Greens Bridge Gardens
A u-pick pumpkin patch, corn maze
and hay rides begin Oct. 2 at Fir Point
Farms in Aurora.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-
Sundays through October.
Where: 14601 Arndt Road, Aurora.
For more information: 503-678-
2455, firpointfarms.com
The farm offers a corn maze, pump-
kin patch and hamster wheel. Hayrides
and a big hay maze will be added later.
When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 25 to
Oct. 31.
Where: 3730 Jefferson Scio Drive SE,
Jefferson.
For more information: 541-327-
2995, facebook.com/greensbridgegar-
dens/
For questions, comments and news
tips, email reporter Whitney Wood-
worth at wmwoodworth@statesman-
journal.com, call 503-910-6616 or follow
on Twitter @wmwoodworth.
French Prairie Gardens & Family
Farm
Fordyce Farm
Fall at French Prairie Gardens brings
the annual pumpkin patch, corn mazes
and famous Pigtucky Derby Pig Races.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-
Sundays, Oct. 2 to Oct. 31.
Where: 17673 French Prairie Road,
St. Paul.
The fall pumpkin patch season kicks
off Oct. 2 with a $10 buffet-style break-
fast.
When: U-pick from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Mondays-Saturdays.
Where: 7023 Sunnyview Road NE,
Salem.
h Davenport Place, three cases.
Active workplace outbreaks