3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2017
Cannon Beach fi re fi ghts to fi nd funding Bend businessman
Future hurdles
Grants harder to
get due to past
paperwork errors
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Issues with past grant paper-
work could make it harder for
Cannon Beach Rural Fire Dis-
trict to secure certain types of
funding.
In 2016, the volunteer fi re
department applied for two
different grants from the Fed-
eral Emergency Management
Agency: one to fund a new vol-
unteer recruitment and reten-
tion position, and the other to
hire a fi re inspector. Both were
denied, due in part to the dis-
trict’s failure to properly close
out a grant received in 2010 ,
Division Chief Marc Reck-
mann said.
“When FEMA approves
or denies a grant, part of the
scoring is looking over seven
years at your completion and
performance,” said Reck-
mann, who wrote the grant
applications.
“In 2010, the district
received a grant for turnouts,
which required a period per-
formance report to be fi led
a year after and a close out
report after the grant was done
in 2014. Neither were done.”
The grant was applied for
and used under both former
fi re chiefs, Cleve Rooper and
Mike Balzer. Neither Reck-
mann or current Fire Chief
Matt Benedict were associated
with the district in th ose years.
The reason why the reports
weren’t fi led are unclear.
Chief Matt Benedict
What they do know is
soon-to-be expired breath-
ing equipment, outdated com-
munication gear and other
department needs will need to
be funded in the near future.
FEMA grants are a signifi cant
avenue for volunteer rural fi re
departments to pay for this
kind of equipment.
But if the reporting errors
continue to impact the depart-
ment’s competitiveness for
these grants, the district may
have to pursue other fundrais-
ing strategies to make ends
meet.
“We’re working to get
notes from FEMA so we know
what to do better next time,”
Reckmann said. “This isn’t the
end. We will keep applying.
These issues may have played
a role, but how large of one I
don’t know.”
Current needs
Like many departments
across the country, recruiting
and retaining fi refi ghter vol-
unteers is a challenge. The
department has about 18 vol-
unteers, when it is ideal to have
about 30.
“In general, it is hard to
recruit volunteers, but in Can-
non Beach it is even harder,”
Reckmann said. “With the
cost of living so high, it is hard
to fi nd volunteers who can
afford to live here and are also
able-bodied to do the job.”
To address this, Reck-
mann and Benedict applied
for a grant to create a recruit-
ment and retention special-
ist who would fi gure out what
resources are available to
solve the problem. This per-
son would explore different
community partnerships in the
hopes of expanding the pro-
gram, Reckmann said.
Reckmann and Benedict
are the only two paid employ-
ees of the fi re district. While
they each do their best to
recruit volunteers, the neces-
sity to retain volunteers for the
safety of the community is a
job in itself.
“I don’t think most peo-
ple in the community think of
our fi refi ghters as volunteers.
When they show up on scene,
they don’t have a clue who is
volunteer and who is paid,”
Reckmann said. “They just
expect a fi refi ghter who does
their job.”
In the next fi ve years, the
department will need to replace
all self-contained breathing
equipment and two 22-year-
old fi re engines, Benedict said.
The breathing equipment will
expire in 2019, and in total will
cost about $300,000 to replace
in full. Up-to-date fi re engines
usually run around $450,000
each, Reckmann said.
The department is also
looking to replace out dated
radios and repeaters. Because
of the geography of the
region and weak signals, fi rst
responders often have issues
communicating with each
other in places like Hug Point,
where they often go for search
and rescue calls.
“It’s hard to command the
scene when you have to walk
back to your truck to commu-
nicate. Then you don’t have
eyes on the situation,” Reck-
mann said.
Strict federal and state
guidelines mean not replacing
this equipment is not an option.
If the department continues to
be penalized for old report-
ing errors, Benedict will con-
tinue to look for other match-
ing grants, but in the meantime
could problem-solve by buy-
ing used equipment incremen-
tally rather than in batches.
For the engines, Reckmann
said proposing a levy may be
necessary down the road.
“It may come down to
decreasing the number of
engines we use, buying used
or getting a bottle at a time
just to get us by. We can do
that,” Benedict said. “We will
do what we need to do to keep
our fi refi ghters and the com-
munity safe.”
State Supreme Court rules health care ballot title is unclear
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
‘The court affi rmed
nearly 100 percent of our
concerns which the partisan
legislative committee
completely ignored.’
SALEM — The Oregon
Supreme Court has ruled that
the ballot title on the refer-
endum on the state’s health
care funding scheme must be
clearer.
Three Republican lawmak-
ers — s tate Reps. Julie Parrish,
of Tualatin/West Linn; Ced-
ric Hayden, of Roseburg; and
Sal Esquivel, of Medford —
want to repeal parts of a state
law that requires health care
providers and insurers to pay
assessments to the state for its
Medicaid program.
The three had argued that
the ballot title approved by a
legislative committee in Sep-
tember didn’t fully or clearly
explain the effects of the
potential repeal.
A ballot title is the offi -
cial written material that vot-
ers see. In Oregon, a ballot title
includes a caption, summary
and statements that explain the
results of a “yes” and a “no”
vote.
The court found that the
caption needed to explain the
assessments with more detail
or describe them as “taxes,”
and explain that insurers were
allowed to increase certain
premiums under the law.
The “yes” and “no” vote
result statements, the court
determined, should also be
changed to better explain the
Rep. Cedric Hayden
direct effects of the measure.
The court also said that the
statement and the summary
should not address an open
legal question — whether or
not temporary assessments on
hospitals would be delayed or
removed altogether as part of
the referendum.
The ballot title “no” state-
ment currently says that a part
of the law that the petitioners
want to repeal would merely
be delayed, due to how the ref-
erendum petition was written.
That’s a matter of legal
interpretation, the court said,
and added it should be resolved
at a later time, in the event that
voters vote “no” and the partial
repeal is successful.
The court did reject some
of the petitioners’ arguments.
For example, the court
found it was appropriate to
include, as ballot title writ-
ers did, that the revenues went
toward health care for low-in-
come individuals and families,
and “stabilizing reinsurance
premiums” through a reinsur-
ance program.
Styles self as a
Trump-minded
conservative
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Bend busi-
nessman Sam Carpenter has
announced he will challenge
state Rep. Knute Buehler for
the 2018 Republican nomi-
nation for governor.
“I confi dently predict an
enormous political and eco-
nomic turn around for Ore-
gon as we leave behind the
current failed progressive
far-left leadership of Gov.
Kate Brown, and move for-
ward to an executive branch
that is laser-focused on serv-
ing the people of Oregon
through a smaller, much
more effi cient government
machine,” Carpenter said in
a statement.
Carpenter, 67, is bill-
ing himself the conserva-
tive choice against the more
moderate Buehler, also from
Bend. The primary is in May.
His campaign motto is
styled after that of President
Donald Trump’s: “Make
Oregon Great Again.”
“Yes, I share President
Donald Trump’s vision of
a society truly in tune and
serving the needs of regu-
lar Americans, not the needs
of the intertwined cabal of
big government, big busi-
ness, and big fi nance,” Car-
penter said. “I’ll fi ght to
put the power back where it
belongs, in the hands of Ore-
gon’s citizens.
Buehler, an orthopedic
surgeon, is known for spear-
heading signifi cant pieces
of bipartisan legislation,
including increasing access
to contraceptives. The two
major reproductive rights
organizations — Planned
Parenthood and NARAL
Pro-Choice America —
nevertheless, have backed
Brown. He declared his run
for governor in early August.
Rebecca Tweed, Bue-
hler’s campaign manager,
said she had no comment on
Carpenter’s announcement
Wednesday.
Carpenter
told
the
EO Media Group/Pam-
plin Media Group Capital
Bureau in August that he
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Bend businessman Sam
Carpenter
announced
Wednesday that he will
seek the GOP nomina-
tion for governor. Car-
penter is billing himself
as the more conservative
choice, contrasting him-
self with moderate state
Rep. Knute Buehler.
was considering a campaign
for governor but was wait-
ing to see if any candidates
with Trump-minded agendas
made a bid. If no one else
he could support stepped
up, Carpenter said he would
seek the position.
The winner of the GOP
primary will face off with
Gov. Brown, who is seeking
her second and fi nal term as
the state’s chief executive.
Thomas
Wheatley,
Brown’s campaign adviser,
said Carpenter’s “entrance
into the race will add a lot
more sizzle to the Republi-
can primary.”
If elected, Carpenter
vows to streamline state
government, “facilitate a
private sector business envi-
ronment that allows a robust
economy” and curb govern-
ment “interference in our
personal lives.”
The Bend businessman
is CEO of Centratel national
telephone answering service
and has authored two books
on business management.
He fi rst entered Oregon
politics when he made a
short-lived bid for the GOP
nomination to challenge
Democrat U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley, then dropped out of
the race. He also unsuccess-
fully sought to unseat U.S.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon,
in 2016. He has never held
elected offi ce.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
The most valuable and
respected source of local news,
advertising and information for
our communities.
www.eomediagroup.com
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Parrish had previously
raised questions about the pro-
cess used to write the materials
that the Supreme Court said on
Wednesday should be changed.
Separate legislation had
created a committee of four
Democrats and two Repub-
licans to write the ballot title
for the health care referendum,
although typically the a ttorney
g eneral does that.
The ballot title was
approved in a 5- 1 vote by the
committee assigned to write it.
The sole dissenter was Repub-
lican Rep. Greg Smith, of
Heppner.
Both opponents and sup-
porters of the referendum say
the ruling is a victory.
“The court affi rmed nearly
100 percent of our concerns
which the partisan legisla-
tive committee completely
ignored,” Hayden said in a
written statement on Wednes-
day. “Their direction clearly
demonstrates why the Legis-
lature shouldn’t have hijacked
the time-tested ballot title pro-
cess which otherwise balances
the powers between the three
branches of government.”
Yet, their opponents —
the Yes on Healthcare c am-
paign — said that the Supreme
Court’s decision meant that
the ballot title committee was
“substantially accurate in the
description of Measure 101.”
“The court affi rmed that
Measure 101 is a tempo-
rary assessment, that it funds
health care services for low-in-
come individuals and fami-
lies and that it will stabilize
health insurance premiums,”
campaign spokeswoman Patty
Wentz said in a prepared state-
ment Wednesday. “In addition,
the ruling called for technical
fi xes to rearrange some lan-
guage. This is great news and
voters have been well-served
by this process.”
The ballot title will be
referred to the a ttorney g eneral,
who is tasked with making the
changes.
Carpenter to run
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