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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, JuNE 14, 2022
Hope House: A small operation that had a sizable impact
Continued from Page A1
David Duea, the president
and CEO of Lutheran Com-
munity Services Northwest,
said they realized funding for
Hope House would be unsus-
tainable around six months
ago.
“We were trying to hang
on, and as we were doing our
new budget cycle there was
just no sustainable revenue
coming in. And so we had to
make the painful decision,”
Duea said. “We had 30 great
years of working with kids
and families, and now we’ll
be working with seniors.”
Hope House was a small
operation, but had a sizable
impact. Since 2018, it has
hosted over 500 sessions of
therapy and other services,
including supervised paren-
tal visits with foster children.
“We’re trusting that those
services to children and fam-
ilies will be picked up by
other community members,”
Duea said.
Sheryl Redburn, Hope
House’s lead counselor and
program manager, said the
space allowed her to adjust
her methods to each child.
Kids could make art or play
basketball to get more com-
fortable during sessions.
“We already have a hard
time having enough coun-
seling for kids here. Not like
Hope House
Hope House has operated in a donated space next door to Peace First Lutheran Church.
we were like a miracle or
anything, because we were
always small, but I always
felt excited about what we
had because we could offer
not just sitting there with a
child but playing and doing.
A lot of kids, that’s really
important for them.” she
said. “I’m sad to see that go
‘yOu’RE HELPING PEOPLE
MOVE THINGS ALONG ANd IT
FEELS LIKE REALLy IMPORTANT
WORK TO HELP PEOPLE
RESOLVE THEIR ISSuES.’
Judge Cindee Matyas
Matyas: Retirement
represents a big loss
Continued from Page A1
Matyas said she won’t
miss witnessing “the petty,
angry, mean, hateful, evil
things people do to each
other.” Or the divorces
“where even the dog isn’t
spared,” Aho added.
But she will miss being
part of a system that helps
people as they get mar-
ried or divorced, adopt
kids, settle lawsuits or
put a criminal case behind
them.
“You’re
help-
ing people move things
along,” Matyas said, “and
it feels like really import-
ant work to help people
resolve their issues.”
Judge Dawn McIn-
tosh, the presiding judge
of the Circuit Court, said,
“It is going to be difficult
to replace the knowledge
that she has, particularly
the relationships she’s
developed and the sys-
tems she’s put in place to
address really significant
problems within our com-
munity and through the
court system.”
Matyas and McIntosh
served with former presid-
ing Judge Paula Brown-
hill. For a time, Clatsop
County had the only court
in Oregon whose judges
were all women. Brown-
hill retired in 2019.
When
Matyas
announced her retirement,
McIntosh said, “I’m abso-
lutely going to miss her.
We all will.”
As a prosecutor, Matyas
remembers being yelled at
by judges in courtrooms
and in their chambers. “I
didn’t want to be that kind
of a judge,” she said.
Matyas is known for
her kindness and patience.
She speaks with the
bright, encouraging tone
of a schoolteacher. She
wants her courtroom to
be a comfortable setting
for people, victims and
offenders, trapped in fight-
or-flight. She wants them
to feel supported by the
system rather than ripped
apart by it, she said.
The late local attor-
ney Pat Lavis advised her:
“Leave people with some-
thing. Even if you take
everything away, leave
them with something —
either their self-respect or
their integrity or some-
thing. You may not be able
to give them the answer
they want, but don’t take
everything away from
them,” she said.
District Attorney Ron
Brown said Matyas’ retire-
ment represents a big loss.
“You don’t run into too
many more conscientious
people than her,” he said.
‘You Did It!’
Earlier this month,
Matyas’ courtroom hosted
a graduation for three treat-
ment court participants.
The event marked the end
of their probation. A ban-
ner with “CONGRATS
GRAD” hung from the
bench. The space was filled
with graduation cap and
diploma decorations and
other festooning.
One graduate was
Kayla Heinzman. Years
ago, when she was liv-
ing in the Columbia Gorge
area, her grandfather asked
the police to check on her;
he hadn’t heard from her
in a while. She was found
wandering the street in a
drug-deranged state. Her
time in treatment court
began in January 2020;
her recovery spanned the
pandemic.
When
it
was
Heinzman’s turn to be rec-
ognized by the treatment
court team, Wintermute
told her, “I was worried for
you, honestly. You were in
a dark place.”
Heinzman
joined
Matyas at a podium in
the well of the courtroom
and thanked the team for
helping her and her fel-
low alums: “It gave (us) a
chance to learn and a place
to grow.”
Heinzman had 499
days of continuous docu-
mented sobriety. She has
a job and lives in a sober
living house. She wants to
become a mentor for the
program.
Matyas
presented
Heinzman with certifi-
cates, including a “You Did
It!” award for embracing
her independence. As the
judge listed her achieve-
ments, Heinzman leaned
over to Matyas and hugged
her.
and hope that there’s more in
the community.”
Redburn said she’ll miss
the family kinship placement
program for people aging out
of foster care. Working with
Hope House, the foster youth
would decide if they wanted
to fully reconnect or just get
access to names and family
medical history. The service
would research their con-
nections and vet them before
making contact.
One client was excited to
have found people to sit on
her side of the aisle during
her wedding, Redburn said.
Hope House will be
spending the rest of the
month working to connect
their remaining clients with
family before the program
shuts down.
Redburn has accepted a
job at Clatsop Behavioral
Healthcare, where she will
apply what she learned about
trauma and addiction during
her decade with Hope House.
Staff are hopeful that other
counseling programs and ser-
vices will expand to fill the
gap Hope House leaves for
children and family care.
Lutheran Community Ser-
vices Northwest will remain
in the community at a differ-
ent capacity by launching a
Santa for Seniors program.
The service organizes vol-
unteers to visit isolated and
homebound seniors, espe-
cially during holidays and
birthdays, and served over
4,000 seniors in Washington
state last year.
The organization seeks to
expand to a national level,
and has chosen Astoria as
its first location outside of
Washington. The expan-
sion is funded by a $15 mil-
lion donation from the Seat-
tle-based William A. Looney
Family Foundation.
“Lutheran
Community
Services Northwest has been
there for over 30 years. And
with closing Hope House, as
painful as that was because
we just didn’t have any fund-
ing for it, it just made sense,”
Duea said. He added that
he hopes to bring in more
churches and faiths to the
program.
“We love Astoria. We’ve
had a presence there and with
the closing of Hope House
it just seemed like a natural
progression,” he said.
Morrow County declares emergency
over high nitrate levels in wells
Port was fined
by the state
By MONICA SAMAYOA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Morrow County has
declared a local state of emer-
gency after private well test-
ing showed high levels of
nitrate contamination.
During a special meeting,
Morrow County commis-
sioners voted 3 to 0 on Thurs-
day in favor of the measure,
which will allow the county
to take immediate action
to protect drinking water.
It’s the first time an Oregon
county has declared a state of
emergency because of water
quality issues.
The county will start dis-
tributing bottled water and
will be setting up water dis-
tribution trailers in Board-
man so residents can fill large
containers.
Groundwater is the pri-
mary drinking source for
county residents. But that
groundwater
has
been
plagued by high levels of
nitrates.
The state designated Mor-
row and Umatilla counties
as groundwater management
Monica Samayoa/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Silvia Hernandez’s private well in the outskirts of Boardman.
areas more than 30 years ago.
A committee was formed to
address the issue and iden-
tify activities that contribute
to the contamination.
But state data shows the
nitrate problem has only got-
ten worse.
“It’s been an ongo-
ing issue,” Morrow County
Commissioner Jim Doherty,
the board chairman, said.
“It’s not something that just
hit us in the last week, and
we’ve been approaching it
from lots of different angles.”
Drinking high levels of
nitrate can lead to respira-
tory infections, thyroid dys-
function and stomach or
bladder cancer. It can also
cause “blue baby syndrome,”
which decreases the blood’s
capacity to carry oxygen,
especially in infants drink-
ing baby formula mixed with
contaminated water. Accord-
ing to the U.S. Environmen-
tal Protection Agency, nitrate
levels exceeding 10 milli-
grams per liter can cause seri-
ous health effects.
Earlier this year, the Ore-
gon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality fined the
Port of Morrow $1.3 mil-
lion for overapplying 165
tons of nitrogen-rich waste-
water onto agricultural fields
over a four-year period and
failing to monitor the nitrate
contamination.
The Port of Morrow
released a statement on
Thursday saying it’s consid-
ering millions of dollars in
upgrades to reduce pollution
and is eager to play a role in
finding workable solutions.
Doherty said the fine
brought this issue back to
light and hopes the declara-
tion will open doors to get
funding for more testing in
homes. Doherty has been
going door-to-door with the
local health department to
test tap water for residents
outside of Boardman’s city
limits.
So far, he said they’ve
tested about 70 wells that
were “high enough to cause
some pretty severe health
issues.” He also found some
households were not aware
their drinking water was
unsafe.
Paul Gray, Morrow Coun-
ty’s emergency manager,
said he is now working with
the state to help residents
get immediate clean water
while planning for long-term
solutions.
Gray said he wants to
do more testing to identify
affected locations and get fil-
ters in those homes in the
next couple of months. But
he said the planning process
just started and his immediate
concern is to provide clean
drinking water and continue
to educate the public about
health concerns. He said he’s
asked the Oregon Health
Authority to provide a bilin-
gual public information offi-
cer to reach Spanish speakers.
Bjaranson: A big concern is always bringing in a former
catcher or two. In other words, someone with good knees
Continued from Page A1
or getting in the batter’s box
after a decade or more of not
playing.”
A big concern is always
bringing in a former catcher
or two. In other words, some-
one with good knees.
“My biggest fear is that
we won’t have any catchers
show up,” he said.
The process for the game
itself is like a sandlot game.
“We pick a couple captains
and let them select who they
want. Guys can play first
base, shortstop … wherever
they want,” he said. “They
can just take one at-bat or
move around in the middle of
an inning. There’s no rules.
It’s just a good time.”
There’s also a home run
derby. At the end of the day,
“everybody’s smiling and
having a great time,” Bjaran-
son said. “It’s more of an ‘old
timers’ game. It’s about fam-
ily bonding and reconnect-
ing with your old teammates.
I know it’s real enjoyable for
coach Wolfe to see his former
players.”
The Warrenton coach
since 1992, Wolfe is now
‘I LOVE BASEBALL, ANd THIS IS
My CHANCE TO GIVE BACK TO
THE COMMuNITy. JuST A WAy
FOR ME TO BE AROuNd THE
GAME I LOVE, ANd HOPEFuLLy
HAVE AN IMPACT ON KIdS.’
Ryan ‘Boomer’ Bjaranson
coaching the children of for-
mer players.
“He’s a Hall of Fame
coach, won a lot of games,
and Lennie is obviously
more than just the base-
ball coach here. He’s really
helping kids along the way,
developing the facilities and
much more.”
“Boomer” was a nick-
name “my mom and grand-
mother gave me when I was
little,” Bjaranson said. “I’d
pound on the wall when I
was a little baby, and when
I’d wake up, they’d just hear
‘boom, boom, boom’ on the
wall. And the name stuck.”
Boomer’s four siblings all
attended Warrenton: Broth-
ers Jeff, Jason (Jay) and
Adam, and Boomer’s twin
sister, Missy.
Bjaranson sells for a real
estate franchise, working
remotely for a company out
of Utah. Adam Bjaranson is
a television sports announcer
for KOIN 6 in Portland, well
known by followers of the
Portland Trail Blazers and
Oregon sports.
The family was stunned
by the death of Jay Bjaran-
son in 2012 — one of four
who died when the fish-
ing boat Lady Cecelia sank
20 miles west of Leadbetter
Point, Washington.
“We try to honor Jay and
his memory in any way we
can,” Boomer said. “Two
of my brothers were fisher-
men. We have friends who
are in the fishing industry, so
we know things like that can
happen, and unfortunately it
did.
“It’s still a little surreal
looking back. Jay and I were
close. He graduated in ‘91.
He was a wrestler. He was a
fishermen, loyal to his family
and friends … just a tough
loss.”
As for the alumni game,
the coronavirus pandemic
kept participation down the
past two years, so Bjaranson
is hoping the alumni contest
will bring some happiness
back to the community.
Bjaranson’s ultimate goal
is to have an alumni tour-
nament for the county, with
former players from Asto-
ria, Seaside, Warrenton and
Knappa meeting on the field
to decide who’s really the
king of baseball. Wherever
it’s held, a one-day tourna-
ment would surely bring out
the fans.
“I love baseball, and this is
my chance to give back to the
community,” he said. “Just a
way for me to be around the
game I love, and hopefully
have an impact on kids.”