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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 2018)
PLAYOFFS HINGE ON HERMISTON WIN / PREP FOOTBALL 1B THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2018 143rd Year, No. 7 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD President signs Walden’s bill to fight opioid crisis By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Oregon Rep. Greg Walden’s sweeping bill to combat the nation’s opioid crisis is now law. President Donald Trump signed the 660-page SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act at a ceremony Wednesday at the White House. “Seldom can you say that a piece of legislation will save lives,” Walden said. “This will save lives.” The Republican from Hood River introduced the bill in June. The bill passed with wide bipar- tisan support in the House and Senate. During a phone interview Wednesday before the signing, Walden said the bill builds on work Congress did in 2015 and 2016 that “basically peeled the layers back on the problem” to show how widespread opioid addiction had become. Walden conducted 10-12 roundtable discussions in his dis- trict to hear from treatment provid- ers, law enforcement and addicts. He said parents told heartrending stories of their children becoming addicts, and addicts themselves recounted the difficulties of seek- ing treatment. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported the U.S. in 2017 had 72,000 drug overdose deaths, and 49,000 were due to opioids. According to data from the Ore- gon Health Authority, the state had 168 opioid related deaths in 2017, with 29 of those in the 2nd Con- gressional District, including nine in Deschutes County and one each in Umatilla, Union and Morrow See BILL/10A AP Photo/Evan Vucci President Donald Trump signs legislation combating the opioid epidemic in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday in Washington. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Water cascades over the falls on the Umatilla River as the fall colors settle in on the flora Wednesday in Pendleton. Pendleton council looks to ‘bend’ funding for roads Street funding may go as high as $1.6 million By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The phrase of the day for the Pendleton City Council Tuesday night was “bend the curve.” Armed with a new report that shows that Pendleton’s roads are continuing to deteriorate despite nearly tripling annual street fund- ing within the past few years, mul- tiple councilors spent the work- shop talking about how to bend the street’s maintenance curve back toward good condition. According to a recent study from consultant Capitol Asset & Pavement Services, the city street system’s pavement condition index, a metric that grades roads on a 0-100 scale, is rated at 61, down seven points from an analy- sis done five years ago. If the city doesn’t take any steps to boost its $825,000 road main- tenance budget, the consultant predicted Pendleton index score would fall to 53 in another 10 years. “The policy question we need to come up with, either tonight or sometime soon, is what is the glide path for us to bend the curve?” Councilor Scott Fairley said. Councilor Dale Primmer said the council needed to take a look at making cuts in other parts of the budget before discussing new forms of revenue. If they didn’t, Primmer anticipated members would be debating the issue again in two or three years because the council’s proposal had failed with the public. See ROADS/10A UMATILLA Correctional rehab facility changes focus at TRCI New center treats inmates as ‘client base’ By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Two Rivers Correctional Institution Superintendent Troy Bowsers speaks during a ceremony for the new correctional rehabilitation facility on Wednesday in Umatilla. The principle is still the same — helping inmates change their behavior and become productive members of society. But now, Two Rivers Correc- tional Institution counselors will get to work in offices that make meeting that goal a bit easier. TRCI unveiled its new correctional rehabilitation facility on Tuesday. In the same space where counselors used to work, the new facility gets counsel- ors out of cubicles and puts them into their own offices, which will allow them to have private conversations with inmates about their case plans. Previously, counselors would go to inmates’ individual units to meet with them, but prison staff said the prac- tice wasn’t conducive to working with them. “It requires privacy,” said Lisa Hall, Oregon Department of Correction’s correctional case management admin- istrator. “It’s hard to have a conversa- tion about your criminal behavior out in the corridor where everyone can hear. This really professionalizes it.” See TRCI/10A
