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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 2016)
OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2016 Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Why the silence? County commissioners must set expectations for mental health agency f you have lived in Clatsop County for the past two decades, you have seen more than one mental health treatment crisis. This month’s resignations at Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorain are the most recent installment. Bob Quick and Troy Easton the afternoon before the first leg of their journey. It is true that Clatsop said anything for the public County’s dark history with record. mental health is not much dif- As the county moves to ferent from what you would the next chapter with Clatsop ind in many rural counties Behavioral Healthcare, it is across America. Treating essential that the commission mental health has none of the speak clearly to CBH’s lead- prominence that we accord ers and to the rest of us. What TRACK THE JOURNEY certain diseases or even our should be the benchmark for bobquicksjourney.com institutional responses to success at CBH? How do physical trauma. you measure success in treat- Quick: “We’re going to Haystack, Your crowning to Jack!” What is lacking in our ing mental health in the com- Quick agreed, and began prepa- county is transparency from munity? What do commis- moment is B y ration for the trip, which would con- the Clatsop County Board sioners want CBH to do? R.J. clude 3,400 miles away. right now. He got a “tune-up” from medical of Commissioners. While None of our commission- M aRx on a transcontinental ride with personnel, including another stent, interim County Manager ers are licensed to practice 16 heart stents and a deibrillator. implanted through the groin up the Rich Mays and new County medicine or diagnose men- Easton and his wife, Marla, owners of femoral artery. “The key was getting Easton Health and Safety Solutions in him ready internally, externally, mind Manager Cameron Moore tal illness. But we elect them Ogden, sponsored the ride from San for the next ride,” Easton said. have been forthright in to be our top policymaking hat a way to make a Diego, California, to St. Augustine, The Eastons used the same tests friend — in the back of an Florida. on Quick they use for performance addressing the most recent group. A large part of their The 91-day journey went through testing of ire and police personnel. trauma at CBH, none of job is to set expectations. ambulance as you’re suffering Southern California’s Imperial Val- This ride expands the original cardiac failure. the commissioners have That voice is missing. ley, where temperatures reached goals of the 2013 trip. Along with I Cannon Beach is launchpad for Bob Quick’s journey SOUTHERN EXPOSURE W Weyco gift is a step away from disaster O ne of the most horriic aspects of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China was the number of schools that collapsed, resulting in 7,000 wrecked classrooms. Up to 10,000 children died and another 15,000 were injured. The instinct to protect chil- dren is universal, but money all too often gets in the way of reasonable safety measures. In China, there were wide- spread allegations of govern- ment and contractor corrup- tion that resulted in schools that didn’t even meet basic seismic codes. The 2008 quake was extremely power- ful, testing the survivability of any building. But build- ing locations, designs and construction deiciencies all placed children at increased risk. The Seaside School District has been admira- bly proactive in seeking a safer site and stronger facili- ties for south Clatsop County kids and educators. It tried and failed in 2013 to win voter approval for a $128.8 million bond issue to build a safer school campus. That facility also would have served as a community disas- ter center in the aftermath of a massive 9-plus Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami. Such an event is certain, sometime between today and several hundred years from now. Landscaper Bob Quick of Roy, Utah — just west of Ogden — led an unhealthy lifestyle. He paid the price in 2004. “I could tell he was dying as soon as I saw him, for sure,” paramedic Troy Easton said. “Complete cardiac failure, ashen, blood pressure, 80 over nothing, he was real anxious, you know you’re dying. He said, ‘Please do everything you can to save my life.’” Easton, irst on the scene, said Quick had no pulse and was not breathing when they “let him have it,” shocking him with 360 joules from a deibrillator. For 3 1/2 minutes, Quick’s life hung in the balance. As Quick, now 55, entered the “white light,” he recounted last week in Cannon Beach, “I said, ‘I’ll do whatever I can to change,’ and I woke up three days later.” “I’m not sure whether I had a choice to save him or not, but he wouldn’t have had a very good life- style,” Easton said. “Not very many people come back.” Quick’s survival was a result of Easton’s quick action and subsequent medical treatment — stents, bypass surgery, and multiple cardiac proce- dures, according to Easton. Quick suffered so much damage — the lower third of his heart was dead — he required a pacemaker deibrillator for survival. Now, thanks to an 80-acre gift from Weyerhaeuser Co., the district will again have a chance to convince tax- payers to fund a new school campus above the tsunami inundation zone. It will be worth seeking state and fed- eral aid to take this needed step in a seashore recreation area of national signiicance. Irrespective of whether out- siders are able to help, local voters need to take a deep breath and approve the new campus. The need to act is, per- haps, even more compel- ling on the Long Beach (Wash.) Peninsula. Its two elementary schools are both well below the 80- to 100- San Diego to St. Augustine feet elevation now consid- Less than a decade later, in 2013, Quick had built himself into shape ered safe, while none of its and proposed a unique thank you schools is likely to survive for the emergency responders who the 5 to 10 minutes of vio- came to his assistance. He con- ceived a plan to bicycle from coast lent shaking predicted in a to coast, the irst man to embark Cascadia quake. All school buildings along the coast need to be reassessed for seismic survivability. Part of the conversation Addressing deicien- he Daily Astorian is well aware that they are directed before every cies will be expensive. In a executive session that they are not to best-case scenario, we may report on items discussed in execu- have generations-worth of tive session. The deputy managing time. But Paciic Northwest editor did not even attend the Warren- ton City Commission meeting or the coastal communities must executive session on June 14; how- plan right now to avoid ever he wrote an article titled “War- mayor gets involved in dam China’s most regretta- renton talks” (June 16). ble mistakes. Schools must When asked to comment about the executive session, as an elected ofi- to be built to survive the cial, I was directed by the Warrenton earthquake and resulting city attorney that I was not allowed to conirm or deny anything regarding tsunamis. of the executive session. Shame on us if we leave the In subject regard to my public opposi- our kids in deathtraps. tion to the Eighth Street dam project 114 degrees on the ride. Quick and his son, Conrad, rode at night when necessary, “It was an appreciation ride and thank you to public safety for their response,” Easton said. “Bob’s job was to go shake hands and kiss babies.” “Say hello to your hometown heroes, because that’s what they are,” Quick said. “The ones that never hear a thank you.” When they landed back in Salt Lake City, they were greeted by ire- ighters and emergency personnel lined on the runway in a V-formation. Onward to Cannon Beach Quick, along with the Eastons and their two daughters, arrived June 7 in Cannon Beach via RV to launch the irst leg of Quick’s second transcon- tinental journey, a 3,400-mile trek from Cannon Beach to Fire Island, New York. This time, Troy Easton will pedal alongside Quick. “Being the irst paramedic to save him, I said, ‘I’ll go with you,’” Easton, 48, said. “I’ve got to watch him. He’s a go-getter, he’s done amazing things but I’ve got to reel him back. It won’t be much of an journey if we kill him.” Quick had never been to Oregon, and originally suggested San Fran- cisco as their launch point. Easton vetoed that. “Bob wanted to take me through Nevada,” he said. “We were going to go from San Fran- cisco to Nevada from Reno to Salt Lake — 512 miles of sheer hell. Why would you do that? You could cook an egg on the hood of your car.” Easton’s daughters had recently vacationed in Cannon Beach, and loved the city and its scenic beauty. He successfully pitched the idea thank yous to emergency services, Quick and his team hope to raise awareness of physical itness and health, and they are raising funds to provide iPads to schools that serve autistic children. Quick’s grandson, Bruce, 6, is autistic. On the road Quick and Easton, who took off June 1, were headed for Salem and then to Bend. The northern route promises cooler weather and scenic beauty, along with the opportunity to par- ticipate in a three-day event planned for St. Jude Medical in Minneapolis. They’ll then take 250 miles of trail from St. Paul to Milwaukee. With food, tents, sleeping bags and stoves, “We’ve got everything we need,” Easton said. They plan to travel about 50 miles a day. To prevent diarrhea or cramps, they eat glutamates and protein — to maintain their energy, they’ll need about 8,700 calories per day. “We’ve been training hard the last lit- tle while,” Easton said. “But once that heart rate goes up over your thresh- old and that lactic acid is rocking and you’ve still got 7 miles up that hill still, that’s so heartbreaking when you’re riding a 140-pound bike. I’m used to a 17-pound bike.” This should be a wakeup call for all of us — you don’t have to suffer a heart attack to participate in life, the “full catastrophe.” Your crowning moment is right now. The journey offers inspiration to “seize the day” — before the day seizes you. R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori- an’s South County reporter and edi- tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette. Open forum T on the Skipanon River near my home and business, I have contacted the Ore- gon Government Ethics Commission on three separate occasions to ask if I should recuse myself from voting. On each occasion they told me the economic impact of the pro- posed project is not clearly deined (either positively or negatively), and I did not have to recuse myself from the discussion or vote because it is a “potential” not an “actual” conlict. However, I chose to recuse myself from votes on the memorandum of understanding out of an abundance of caution, and I will continue to recuse myself on votes concerning the Eighth Street lood control structure. I have no intention of remov- ing myself from the conversation. This project might affect my home, my parents’ home and my business. While I choose not to vote out of a high ethical standard, I most certainly want to be part of the conversation. I have encouraged my family to be involved, and would give the same advice to any other citizen whose property could be affected by a gov- ernmental action. Votes are not taken during exec- utive session, and I did not call this executive session that the deputy man- aging editor wrote about. That session was called by my city attorney, and he did not object to my participation, and there was no anticipated vote to come out of this executive session. MARK KUJALA Warrenton
