The daily Astorian., May 03, 2018, Page 7A, Image 30

7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2018
Rape kits: Tracking
system in the works
budget by $1.5 million, spe-
cifically to add five new posi-
tions to help with processing
the kits.
Given the public inter-
est in the untested kits, audi-
tors recommend that the state
police publish the progress
of testing more frequently on
their website, as public labs
in Texas, Idaho and Florida
have done.
State police started a proj-
ect modeling the Houston,
Texas, website within a week
of discussing the idea with
auditors, wrote Capt. Alex
Gardner, director of the OSP
Forensic Services Division,
in a response to the audit
report.
The webpage is up
and accessible using the
Chrome browser, but addi-
tional enhancements may be
needed, Gardner noted.
Auditors also recommend
that state police launch a
tracking system where vic-
tims can see results.
A tracking system project
modeled after one at the Port-
land Police Bureau also is in
the works, Gardner said. The
agency has received a grant
to fund the project and plans
to deploy it before the end of
this year, he said.
The testing of sexual
assault kits has led to neglect
in processing DNA sam-
ples from the scenes of fel-
ony property crimes, auditors
noted. They asked Oregon
State Police to come up with
a plan for addressing DNA
testing from those crimes.
“OSP decided to suspend
analysis of DNA evidence for
property crimes to focus on
(sexual assault) kits. This cre-
ates a risk of a future backlog
of property crime evidence at
local law enforcement agen-
cies,” auditors wrote.
State police will soon have
enough capacity and expe-
rience from addressing the
sexual assault kit backlog
to find a balance in allocat-
ing resources for DNA analy-
sis of property crimes, Gard-
ner wrote. He estimated that
the lab could begin accepting
some DNA work on property
crime investigations by early
2019.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Continued from Page 1A
Photos from Margo Lalich
Two field officers work on mapping households in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Nurse: Volunteers around the world
is so complex, we make so
many assumptions. And yet
you can do a lot to take care of
a lot people. Our expectations
are just higher here. Keeping
that in perspective is a tremen-
dous asset.”
Continued from Page 1A
As of April, there are more
than 781,000 Rohingya refu-
gees living in camps and set-
tlements, according to the
BBC. The Rohingya, an eth-
nic Muslim minority, have
been driven out of their
home country of Myanmar
since 2015 due to religious
persecution.
For the past 20 years,
Lalich has interwoven a
local career in public health
with frequent trips to volun-
teer at refugee camps around
the world. Her life reflects
a blended passion for con-
necting with other cultures
and health care, two ideas
both deeply rooted in her
upbringing.
Daunting scale
Female community health workers train before going
into the field at a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Child of ‘adventurers’
Born in Liberia, Lalich
was the child of “adventur-
ers,” as she called them, who
met in Greece during her
mother’s stint working with
Hungarian refugees in Europe
in the 1950s. Over the course
of her childhood, Lalich grew
to love learning about differ-
ent cultures and experiences.
Lalich decided to study
sociology at the University of
Washington. But as she stud-
ied, she couldn’t help but long
for travel.
To help finance her adven-
tures, she worked as a fisher-
man in Alaska, where she met
the father of her children —
the man she eventually moved
to Clatsop County for in 1987.
She received a nursing degree
from Clatsop Community
College and began work as a
nurse at Providence Seaside
Hospital for 10 years before
joining the county in 1998 as
a public health nurse.
“I’ve always had a pas-
sion for public health,” she
said. “Whether it’s in Clatsop
County or a refugee camp,
standards for public health are
the same. It’s water and san-
itation, basic hygiene … it’s
taking care of basic needs.”
After receiving her mas-
ter’s in public health, Lalich
Some aspects of working
abroad will always be differ-
ent. The sheer scale of peo-
ple who need treatment at
one time is daunting. Some of
the most specific challenges
to treating public health in
camps are the lack of pub-
lic infrastructure and danger-
ously low vaccination rates
for preventable diseases.
“People are dying on a
daily basis from things we
don’t even think about here,”
she said.
But to Lalich, her passion
to serve is driven by a belief
that human suffering doesn’t
have borders.
“I’m aware that I’m in a
different environment. But
we see trauma in our own
communities — it just pres-
ents differently,” she said. “I
guess I feel like a chameleon:
I deploy and I adapt. I feel
like I’m coming home when I
deploy. I’m not thinking about
lack of resources, or my dis-
comfort. I just see what is in
front of me and what needs to
be done.”
Last trip
Rohingya refugees can wait in line for water two times a
day at a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
balanced her love for working
abroad and keeping a home
base for her family. In 2002
she transitioned into working
full-time with the county to
help manage the public health
program, including the coun-
ty’s immunization strategy,
emergency preparedness and
other services before becom-
ing the director in 2010.
Lalich stepped down in
2013 to pursue an opportu-
nity to be the director of the
Multnomah Education Ser-
vice District.
She found her experi-
ence working out in the field
as a significant asset while
addressing emergency man-
agement at home.
“It’s really informed my
practice. We have a very cum-
bersome system of practice in
this country. When you work
in other places that aren’t bur-
dened by complexities, you
get to focus on the issues,” she
said. “Emergency response is
a perfect example. Here it
After 20 years, Lalich
decided to make her trip to
Bangladesh her last.
After 30 years of living in
Clatsop County, she intends
to move away from Cannon
Beach to pursue more inde-
pendent projects related to
public health. But one lesson
will stay with her wherever
she goes next.
“When I come back (to the
United States), I recognize it’s
purely luck and circumstance
I was born where I was, and
not a refugee somewhere else.
I never take that for granted,”
she said. “So I take the best of
what I have experienced and
try to share that with others.”
Oregon State Police esti-
mate they will have largely
overcome the backlog by the
end of this year.
“It is too soon to tell if these
actions will eliminate the cur-
rent backlog as many of these
changes occurred recently,”
auditors with the Secretary
of State’s Office wrote. “Yet
OSP has shown substantial
improvement in the number of
kits processed in late 2017 and
early 2018 while the statewide
backlog has been significantly
reduced.”
“Melissa’s Law,” con-
tained in Senate Bill 1571,
was named for 14-year-old
Melissa Bittler, who was
assaulted and killed by a serial
rapist across the street from
her family’s northeast Port-
land home in December 2001.
At the time of her death,
sexual assault kits from at
least two other young victims
attacked by the same rapist
four years earlier sat unpro-
cessed on evidence shelves at
Portland Police Bureau. They
were tested only after detec-
tives investigating Bittler’s
case noticed similarities in the
attacks and sent the kits to the
forensic lab for testing.
“In the wake of #MeToo
and revelations of multi-
ple high-profile cases of sex-
ual assault and harassment,
a light is being shown on the
injustices many face on a
daily basis — especially indi-
viduals who do not have the
power or ability to call out
their abusers,” Secretary of
State Dennis Richardson said
in a statement. “As a husband
and as a father of eight daugh-
ters, I have a special concern
for the risks women face in
their everyday lives, and I will
always advocate for a safe
environment and justice for
all Oregonians.”
The kits typically contain
hair and body fluids from the
victim and, in some cases,
similar samples from the
attacker, which can be used to
identify a DNA profile.
The law requires police
to pick up a kit within seven
days after notification from
a hospital and submit it to
forensic lab for testing within
14 days.
State lawmakers boosted
the Oregon State Police’s
Broadband: NoaNet provides
broadband infrastructure
broadband
infrastructure,
other companies would pro-
vide any additional retail
internet.
Anacortes, Washington, is
exploring a municipal broad-
band system to provide more
affordable and reliable con-
nection, with NoaNet one of
the possible partners. Sandy,
in Clackamas County formed
a nonprofit broadband util-
ity called SandyNet that is
available to businesses and
individuals.
“When the growth in access
in broadband exists, the com-
munities grow and develop as
well,” Walker said.
Continued from Page 1A
Early adopters of broadband
are usually cities, police agen-
cies, fire departments, hos-
pitals and larger businesses
needing a faster connection, he
said, followed by medium- and
small-businesses.
“Generally we see a growth
and expansion in the busi-
ness community first,” Walker
said. “Residential internet lags
behind.”
Clatsop County is mainly
provided home internet ser-
vices through CenturyLink
and Charter Communica-
tions. While NoaNet provides
Bond Street: Work will occur in segments
Continued from Page 1A
anything that could possibly be
done to minimize the risk has
been done and will be done
throughout this process.”
The work to shore up the
slide and reopen the street will
occur in segments.
Since last year, the city has
changed little about the proj-
ect except for the type of grav-
ity wall it plans to set against
the slide. Originally, the plan
was to use concrete blocks,
but Harrington said there were
concerns about the ability of
local manufacturers to sup-
ply enough blocks within the
city’s time frame.
Now, the city plans to go
with a rock wall common to
some highway projects led
by the Oregon Department of
Transportation. Rocks will be
bound up in a strong mesh bas-
kets. This type of wall allows
for improved drainage, pro-
vides for better performance
Graduation
City of Astoria
An aerial view of the Bond Street slide near Uniontown.
in a seismic event and can be
built quickly, Harrington said.
The wall will also pro-
vide a less-inviting surface for
any would-be graffiti artists.
Plants often grow between and
around the rocks, causing the
wall to eventually form a more
natural-looking barrier.
Bond Street, which nar-
rows from a 32-foot wide two-
lane road to a 15-foot one-
lane road where the slide hit,
will be widened to about 20
feet. The street will be wide
enough to allow two cars to
pass in opposite directions,
but not wide enough to risk
unsettling the area even more,
Harrington said. The plan
still needs to receive several
authorizations.
To honor and congratulate the Class of 2018
The Daily Astorian is creating a graduation publication for our local high schools that will
publish on Wednesday, May 30th. This full-color publication will include biographies and
pictures of each valedictorian and salutatorian,
The graduation schedule is as follows:
name and photo of each 2018 graduate and
JEWELL
special congratulation ads from local businesses,
Saturday, June 2 @ 2pm
family and friends.
WARRENTON
Friday, June 8 @ 7pm
ASTORIA
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your sales representative today
Saturday, June 9 @ 4pm
503-325-3211
Saturday, June 9 @ 7pm
DEADLINE: FRIDAY, MAY 11
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