2A — THE OBSERVER
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2019
LOCAL
Lostine Canyon
neighborhood
becomes ‘Firewise’
D AILY
P LANNER
TODAY
Today is Wednesday, Oct.
16, the 289th day of 2019.
There are 76 days left in the
year.
their protection from the
potentially catastrophic
risks of wildfi re,” Roberts
said.
Eng emphasized the neces-
sity of the program.
“We live in an extreme
fire-risk area and we have
to learn to adapt to that,” he
said. “There’s not much we
can do about changing the
weather, changing the terrain,
changing the land ownership
and some of the ways it’s
managed.”
Lostine Canyon residents
interested in establishing
a Firewise community con-
ducted their initial meeting
in April 2018. Since then,
neighbors in the Lostine
Canyon have been working
on becoming better informed
about how to prevent wild-
fi re from destroying their
homes and their community,
how to respond in the inevi-
table event of a wildfi re in
the Lostine Canyon and how
to recover after a wildfi re
passes through their com-
munity. Residents have been
creating “fi resafe” perim-
eters around their homes,
removing closely spaced and
insect-damaged trees, trim-
ming low-hanging branches
and chipping. They have
taken advantage of offers by
foresters Tim Cudmore and
Eric Carlson, of the ODF, to
identify diseased and insect-
infested trees to help reduce
fuel loads around their
homes, while also preserving
privacy and wildlife habitat.
By Bill Bradshaw
EO Media Group
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Oct. 16, 1962, the Cu-
ban missile crisis began as
President John F. Kennedy
was informed that recon-
naissance photographs had
revealed the presence of
missile bases in Cuba.
ON THIS DATE
In 1793, during the French
Revolution, Marie Antoi-
nette, the queen of France,
was beheaded.
In 1916, Planned
Parenthood had its begin-
nings as Margaret Sanger
and her sister, Ethel Byrne,
opened the fi rst birth con-
trol clinic in Brooklyn, New
York.
In 1968, American
athletes Tommie Smith and
John Carlos sparked con-
troversy at the Mexico City
Olympics by giving “black
power” salutes during a
victory ceremony after
they’d won gold and bronze
medals in the 200-meter
race.
In 1991, a deadly shoot-
ing rampage took place in
Killeen, Texas, as a gunman
opened fi re at a Luby’s
Cafeteria, killing 23 people
before taking his own life.
In 1995, a vast throng
of black men gathered in
Washington, D.C., for the
“Million Man March” led by
Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan.
In 2002, President George
W. Bush signed a congres-
sional resolution authoriz-
ing war against Iraq.
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Submitted photo
The overturned vehicle of a man rescued by the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Offi ce
Search and Rescue Team sits in the East Fork of Eagle Creek in Baker County.
Man saved in Baker
County creek crash
By Jessica Pollard
EO Media Group
BAKER COUNTY —
While providing mutual aid
during the search for a miss-
ing hunter, local agencies
saved the hunter’s brother
from a single-vehicle car
crash into freezing water.
Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Offi ce Search and Rescue Sgt.
Dwight Johnson said Tom
Dennis, 48, of McMinnville,
was aiding in the search for
his brother, Andrew Dennis,
60, of Haines, on Oct. 5 when
he crashed his 1999 Toyota
Tacoma pickup truck into the
East Fork of Eagle Creek in
the Wallowa Mountains. The
area had recently been hit by
a snowstorm.
“He could have perished if
someone hadn’t found him
when they did,” Johnson
said.
Search and Rescue mem-
bers Travis Lundquist, Destry
Stewart and Danita Smith
were driving across the creek
bridge that evening when they
heard a horn honking. They
noticed a tire in the creek and
found Tom Dennis trapped
inside the truck, which had
overturned. The doors to the
truck were jammed shut, and
Tom Dennis couldn’t escape
as freezing water fi lled the
truck’s interior.
Johnson said that three
other cars had driven over
the bridge without noticing
the overturned vehicle below.
Baker County Sheriff Travis
Ash estimated that the truck
had been trapped for 30
minutes.
Along with Ash, the
Search and Rescue team
was able to use a car jack
and axe, with other tools,
to open a truck door and
remove Tom Dennis within
10 minutes.
He was airlifted to St.
Alphonsus Medical Center
in Boise, Idaho. The Union
County Sheriff’s Offi ce
provided aid on the scene
as well.
Tom Dennis, who suffered
from hypothermia and a
shoulder injury, has since
checked himself out of the
hospital, according to the
Baker City Herald.
Ash said that alcohol was
a factor in the accident, but
that no citations had been
issued.
Johnson said that Tom
Dennis assisted Search and
Rescue at a drone site in the
forest during the eight-day
search to fi nd his brother,
who was found dead on the
morning of Oct. 6.
“We worked with him all
day Oct. 4. He was upset and
despondent,” Johnson said.
He noted that while
Search and Rescue was not
trained in vehicle extrica-
tion, which they assisted
with during the crash, the
28-volunteer team receives
training in several areas
including navigation, fi rst
aid and radio. In 2016,
they implemented a drone
program.
“We’re very proud of our
volunteers for what they did
and how they responded.
We’re just proud that they
were part of it, and that they
heard (the truck),” Johnson
said.
LOSTINE — The Lostine
Canyon neighborhood has
become Northeast Oregon’s
fi rst nationally recognized
“Firewise” community, an
event that could lead to
more efforts to prevent or
combat wildfi res in Wal-
lowa County.
Firewise communities
are a part of the associa-
tion’s program that teaches
people how to adapt to
living with wildfi re and en-
courages neighbors to work
together and take action
now to prevent losses.
The approximately 110
properties with 120 struc-
tures make up about 15
square miles or 9,600 acres
south of Lostine. About
45 individuals are partici-
pating in the community,
according to Mike Eng, the
leader of the Lostine Can-
yon Firewise Committee.
On Friday, at the
Lostine Wildlife Area, the
Firewise group and Com-
missioner Susan Roberts
met to dedicate signs
along the road recognizing
the Firewise community.
Roberts expressed hopes
that the neighborhood’s
actions will be an example
to other communities in
the county.
“Hopefully, your ac-
complishment will serve
to inspire other communi-
ties to take important and
necessary steps to improve
Thank You Chamber Members
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Officers
certified in
crisis training
By Bill Bradshaw
EO Media Group
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“No persons are more
frequently wrong, than
those who will not admit
they are wrong.”
— Francois, Duc de la
Rochefoucauld,
French moralist
ENTERPRISE — Enterprise’s entire po-
lice force was certifi ed as having completed a
40-hour crisis intervention training last week
as part of a program on solving problems
related to mental health issues.
Representatives of the Greater Oregon
Behavioral Health Institute conducted a
daylong Sequential Intercept Mapping
workshop at the Community Connection
Center on NW First Street. The goal was to
help provide tools for behavioral health and
criminal justice integration and to create a
map for the community that shows where to
go for certain services and who is the contact
for each organization.
Police Chief Joel Fish Jr. and Offi cers Jacob
Curtis, Cody Billman and George Kohlhepp
were certifi ed as having completed the CIT
course.
Eilene Flory, a crisis intervention coordina-
tor for the institute, said it was impressive
that 100% of the Enterprise Police Depart-
ment has received CIT certifi cation, even
though there are just four offi cers.
“It’s still 100%,” she said.
She noted that the statewide average is
33%.
Tosca Rawls, public relations and develop-
ment director for the Wallowa Valley Center
for Wellness, called the EPD’s certifi cation
“a great accomplishment and partnership
within our community.”
Sequential Intercept Mapping is a nation-
wide effort to address the overrepresenta-
tion of adults with mental illnesses in the
criminal justice system. During the process,
community stakeholders identify service
and policy gaps and opportunities to address
the needs of this target population, accord-
ing to the U.S. National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health website.
“As we go through your community’s
resources, we identify your community’s re-
sources and gaps, oftentimes in the mapping
between law enforcement and mental health
it is brought up that there’s a gap between
the two agencies,” Flory said. “Sometimes it’s
just an understanding of what law enforce-
ment can do, to take somebody under custody
because of a mental health issue, or law
enforcement not understanding what mental
health can do.”
Rebecca Frolander, the district attorney for
Wallowa County, was one of the attendees at
the workshop and offered input on some of
the gaps in the county legal system here.
“Generally, people with severe mental
health issues shouldn’t be in the criminal
justice system,” she said.
Attendees discussed options, such as a
diversion to ensure offenders cooperate with
health care providers and take their medi-
cines.
“The spectrum of behavioral health is quite
large,” Frolander said. “Depending whether
they are able to understand what is required
of them. People who’ve committed low-level
misdemeanors, maybe they’ve just stopped
taking their meds. We can do a low-level
diversion to force them to restart their meds.”
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