East Oregonian : E.O., September 04, 2018, Image 1

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
142nd Year, No. 217
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WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Change
coming
to health
office
Umatilla County
will try new
approach after
fourth director
leaves department
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla County is reor-
ganizing the leadership in
the public health department
this week.
Commissioner George
Murdock didn’t offer details
but said the department will
have a new director while
embracing a team approach.
“I can tell you we’re not
going with someone from
outside,” he said, because
the department has staff with
the depth of experience for
the job.
Jim Setzer was the fourth
director to head up the
department since 2014, and
he resigned Aug. 6. Mur-
dock said the county was
not expecting that. He is the
county board of commis-
sioners’ liaison to the health
department and has twice
served as the department’s
interim director. He said he
sat down with the depart-
ment staff soon after Setzer
announced his departure
and asked them to come up
with a plan to shut down the
revolving door.
“I gave them some param-
eters on what I’d like it to
look like,” he said, including
staying within the budget.
The staff filled in the frame-
work, he said, and came up
with a creative solution.
The Umatilla County
Public Health Department
has almost 27 full-time
employees and a budget of
$4.4 million. The depart-
ment encompasses several
programs, including on-site
septic inspections, family
planning and school-based
health. Commissioners see
the proposal Tuesday morn-
ing during their meeting
with department heads then
vote on the plan Wednesday
morning at their regular pub-
lic meeting in Pendleton.
Murdock also said com-
missioners
are
voting
Wednesday to end the agri-
cultural burn ban. He said ag
burning in the county will
again be OK as soon as the
“ayes” have it.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Judge Heidi Van Kirk speaks with a candidate in treatment court, not photographed, on Friday in Hermiston.
A SECOND CHANCE
Treatment court offers
way out of addiction
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
A
laska Koski liked what
she saw Friday in Uma-
tilla County’s new drug
treatment court.
“I think it looked really sup-
portive,” she said. “No one claps
for you in regular court.”
Koski is 27. She said she tried
marijuana when she as 11, alco-
hol at 15 and got into hard drugs
at 19.
“I was 20 when I started shoot-
ing up,” she said.
She used methamphetamine
and heroin. Police arrested her in
early 2016 for meth possession.
She said she came to a recent
point where enough was enough
and she wanted help. She said
she has been sober since May 8.
“I like feeling all my feel-
ings,” she said. “I’m tired of
numbing out.”
Koski said she tried getting
clean three times but they never
took. Her probation officer rec-
ommended she apply for the
revamped treatment court.
“This is really like a sec-
ond chance for me,” Koski said.
“I come from a long road of
addiction.”
And treatment court offers her
some real hope.
Staff from state courts, Uma-
tilla County Community Jus-
tice Department and Community
Counseling Solutions, the court’s
treatment provider, teamed up
to launch the court this summer
after a lack of funding last year
ended the local drug court pro-
gram. Funding comes from a
chunk of the $917,000 the county
receives from the state’s Jus-
tice Reinvestment Act to divert
offenders from state prisons. The
new version of drug court has
been running a few weeks with
two clients. Koski and two others
are new admissions.
Dale Primmer, director of
Community Justice, said the
court is on the front edge of
taking referrals for offenders,
and that’s a process. Court staff
and others conduct background
checks and make sure the person
is a good fit for the program.
See COURT/10A
“I like feeling all my feelings.”
— Alaska Koski, attends treatment court
Next generation of dance
HEPPNER
Neighborhood watch group
formed out of crime meeting
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Weptas Brockie, 11, dances during Saturday’s Kidz
Pow Wow at the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute.
More than 200 Morrow County resi-
dents showed up at a meeting last week
to talk about crime in the city of Heppner,
and potential solutions to the concerns
many community members have.
The complaints have ranged from a
perceived increase in criminal mischief
and vandalism to drug use, to an influx of
people that are not working or attempting
to get jobs.
The meeting was organized by county
commissioner Melissa Lindsay, the City
of Heppner and the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce.
Lindsay said there had been a growing
conversation in several different circles
about those issues. She added that there
were also two parks in Heppner that were
vandalized recently.
“For me, instead of everyone talking
and complaining, let’s come together and
find a solution,” she said.
Community members agreed to
form two groups — a neighborhood
watch group and a community pride
organization.
Both Morrow County Sheriff Ken
Matlack and Undersheriff John Bowles
were at the meeting.
Bowles said he hadn’t noticed any
major spikes in the number of calls the
sheriff’s office gets for property crime.
“Criminal mischief is basically van-
dalism calls,” he said. “I don’t see those
increasing at all.”
The sheriff’s office compiled data
from 2015 to 2018, looking at calls from
January to August in each of those four
years. In 2015 there were 19 criminal
mischief calls, dipping to four in 2016,
and holding at 15 calls in 2017 and 2018.
Calls for juvenile complaints were
similarly irregular, with 17 in 2015, 16 in
2016, 46 in 2017 and 29 in 2018.
“We really encourage people to call
and report, so we’re seeing a lot more
people calling,” Bowles said.
He said he doesn’t attribute prob-
lems in the community to any one spe-
cific group, though he did say a couple of
groups of teens have been contacted mul-
tiple times about vandalism.
Morrow County District Attorney Jus-
See CRIME/10A