A6
STATE
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Offi cials hope consolidated child abuse call centers fi x fl aws
By PARIS ACHEN
Oregon Capital Bureau
The caller told Hannah
Lene about a child disci-
plined at school for spraying
water who begged school
employees not to send a note
home because he feared his
mother would then punch
him.
Another caller reported a
child whose nose was blood-
ied from her mother slap-
ping her face.
Lene starts the chain
that might rescue such chil-
dren from abuse. She is a
call screener for the state
child welfare offi ce. In her
fi rst year on the job, she has
answered hundreds of phone
reports of suspected child
abuse.
“The hardest thing for
being a screener is we don’t
know what happens after the
call,” said Lene. “We don’t
get to know the outcome”
after the report is passed on
to a state caseworker.
Those who call a hotline
to report child abuse can fi nd
themselves talking to one of
15 call centers around Ore-
gon, a fragmentation that
leads to uneven results and
gaps.
Flaws in the hotline sys-
tem have been known to
state offi cials for a decade.
By April, state offi cials
fi nally expect to have a sin-
gle call center with care-
fully trained employees who
will see that every abused
child gets prompt and useful
attention.
The dispersed call cen-
ters are being consolidated
at one location in North
Portland, which runs around
the clock. Some call centers
scattered around the state
Portland Tribune/Jaime Valdez/East Oregonian
Laura McGinnis, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Child Welfare
Division, and Jennifer Sorenson, a hotline manager.
function only during busi-
ness hours. About half of
the call centers have already
been consolidated.
“There really has been a
consensus for some time that
this is what is needed,” said
state Sen. Sara Gelser, chair-
woman of the Senate Human
Services Committee.
By spring, the statewide
24-hour hotline number —
1-855-503-SAFE — will
be emblazoned on buses,
popping up in social media
feeds and fl ashing on the
screen at movie theaters, an
effort to publicize the new
hotline and generate even
more reports.
For years, national child
welfare
organizations,
including the Children’s
Bureau, have recommended
that Oregon adopt a state-
wide hotline and screening
system to address inconsis-
tencies in how the reports are
handled at branch offi ces.
“The way training was
done for all of our hotlines
when they were sepa-
rate was each location was
responsible for making sure
that each of their screeners
were trained,” said Jenni-
fer Sorenson, a hotline man-
ager. Now, screeners will go
through the same academy
with the same training, she
said.
Centralized training and
screening reduces the risk of
information falling through
the cracks, Sorenson said.
Call volumes can reach
as high as 350 calls a day at
the central hotline with half
of the 15 branch offi ces still
to shift their operations to
Portland, said Laura McGin-
nis, a spokeswoman for the
state child welfare system.
In 2016, the hotlines
received nearly 77,000
reports of abuse. About
38,000 were sent to the fi eld,
resulting in 8,000 investiga-
tions by state Child Protec-
tive Services.
For the yearlong period
ending in September 2017,
the state determined 11,077
children were abused or
neglected. Nearly half were
younger than 6.
After receiving a call,
screeners and their super-
visors decide whether to
assign a case to a Child Pro-
tective Services worker or to
close a case after searching
agency history relating to
the family, Lene said.
Federal shutdown impacts projects locally and statewide
By KATY NESBITT
EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — As the
partial federal government
shutdown continues into
its fourth week some rural
Northwest communities are
feeling the pinch.
In western Oregon wolves
are under federal protec-
tion, but federal employ-
ees assigned to monitoring
them with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and USDA
Wildlife Services are on fur-
lough. Steve Niemela, Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife district fi sh biolo-
gist in Central Point, said his
offi ce is feeling the added
pressure.
“It has an impact on us,”
Niemela said. “We can’t
coordinate effectively —
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice is the lead agency in
wolf management.”
He said state and federal
biologists follow a “good set
of guidelines,” but the fur-
lough makes it challenging.
Niemela said much of the
habitat restoration planning
for Oregon’s fi sh and wild-
life is also on hold as many
of the projects are on land
managed by the U.S. Forest
Service and the Bureau of
Land Management.
“Just about everything
we do, there is some sort
of federal nexus,” Niemela
said.
In northeastern Ore-
gon, federal funding to
pay employees of the Tri-
County Weed Management
Area hasn’t been received,
according to Susan Roberts,
Wallowa County Commis-
sion chairwoman, so Baker,
Union and Wallowa County
leaders are looking for sup-
plemental money, possibly
in the form of a bridge loan.
“We are fi nding a way
around the federal reim-
bursements to keep our folks
paid,” Roberts said. “They
still have bills to pay, but we
can’t get reimbursed.”
Ongoing talks regard-
ing the Blue Mountain For-
est Plan Revision with
Glenn Casamassa, U.S. For-
T HE B OOKLOFT
est Service Pacifi c North-
west Regional forester, are
also on hold. Roberts had
hoped to talk to him during
the Association of Oregon
Counties meeting Mon-
day in Salem regarding the
plan’s progress, but he was
unable to attend because of
the furlough.
While most Forest Ser-
vice grazing allotment per-
mittees are not running cat-
tle on public land in January,
Rod Childers, who ranches
in northern Wallowa County,
said he normally has had his
annual operating instruction
meeting by now.
“I get mine done fi rst part
of January so I don’t have to
deal with it before calving,
but that isn’t going to hap-
pen,” Childers said. “Now
I’m concerned about getting
it done in time for turnout in
the spring.”
With calving season on
his mind, Childers said he
also worries about the Wild-
life Services fi eld agents
who control predators being
furloughed at his cattle’s
most vulnerable time.
As of today afternoon,
there appeared to be no end
in sight to the shutdown.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.,
said he agrees with the pres-
ident’s case for increased
border security, but he didn’t
support shutting down natu-
ral resource agencies.
“I don’t agree that it
makes sense to furlough the
people working on the bio-
logical opinion in the Klam-
ath Basin, forest fuels reduc-
tions in central Oregon,
or grazing permits in east-
ern Oregon,” Walden said.
“How does a nearly month-
AND
Skylight Gallery
Finding books is our specialty
541.426.3351 • 107 E. Main • Enterprise • www.bookloftoregon.com
Church
Directory
Church of Christ
Grace Lutheran
Church
502 W. 2nd Street • Wallowa
541-398-2509
409 West Main -Enterprise
Worship at 11 a.m.
Mid-week
Bible Study 7 p.m.
St. Katherine’s
Catholic Church
Fr. Thomas Puduppulliparamban
301 E. Garfield Enterprise
Mass Schedule
Sundays:
St. Pius X, Wallowa - 8:00 am
St. Katherine of Siena, Enterprise 10:30am
Saturdays:
St Katherine of Siena, Enterprise 5:30am
Weekday:
St. Katherine of Siena, Enterprise – 8:00am
(Monday – Thursday and First Friday)
long work stoppage benefi t
taxpayers who are waiting
for decisions and plans and
permits?”
Walden isn’t the only
Oregon representative con-
cerned about the shutdown’s
effects on natural resource
agencies. Oregon senators
Ron Wyden and Jeff Merk-
ley were two of the signers
on a letter sent to the pres-
ident Jan. 14 urging him to
fund the agencies responsi-
ble for wildfi re suppression.
The letter, signed by 12
senators said, “The failure
to reopen the government
puts peoples’ lives at risk
by undermining their abil-
ity to respond to wildfi res
and will only serve to delay
critical forest restoration
and safety projects. These
young men and women put
their lives on the line to
protect the nation’s natu-
ral resources and other pub-
lic and private property, and
they deserve to have the best
training possible in prepara-
tion for increasingly diffi cult
fi re seasons.”
Time for a Computer Tuneup?
Spyware Removal • 541-426-0108
103 SW 1st St., Enterprise
SUNDAY WORSHIP
at 9 AM
12:30 Guest Pastor
Colin Brown
phone (message): 541-426-4633
web: gracelutheranenterprise.com
A Non-Profi t Community Health Center
St. Patrick’s
Episcopal Church
100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise
NE 3rd & Main St
541-426-3439
Worship Service
Sunday 9:30am
All are welcome
CLUES ACROSS
1. Take a sharp breath
5. Spat
8. Farewells
12. Sector
13. Woolly mama
14. Cameo, e.g.
15. Skin
16. Feeling rotten
17. Eye
18. Moved sideways
20. Yellow jacket
21. ____ of luxury
24. Participates in
26. Little green men
28. Further down
32. Shopping places
33. Small orchard
34. Snoozing
36. Talked back
37. Beginner’s book
39. Curvy shape
40. Persian king
43. Social zeros
45. Mama’s fellow
46. Fearful admiration
47. On the crest
51. Roasting chamber
52. Bowling frames
53. Morse ____
54. “____ Pilot”
55. Grape drink
56. Recognized
CLUES DOWN
1. Mountain pass
2. “You ____ Sixteen”
3. Look
4. Lacking color
5. Rules
6. Young bird
7. Fused
8. Scanners
9. Type of exercise
10. Room extensions
11. Trickle
19. Thicker
21. Tibetan priest
22. Cry of dismay
23. Medicinal tablet
25. Esteem
27. Babar, for one
29. Model
30. Nights before
31. Scarlet and crimson
35. Fiesta decor
36. Peaceful
38. Cried like a kitten
40. Dirt stain
41. Possess
42. Mimics
44. Paper bag
48. Unit of weight
49. Lyric verse
50. Chapel bench
OHSU Resident
Joseph United
Methodist Church
Summit Church
3rd & Lake St. • Joseph
Pastor Cherie Dearth
Phone: 541-432-3102
Sunday Worship Service
10:00 am
Gospel Centered Community
Service time: 10:30 am
Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise
541-426-2150
Interim Pastor: Rich Hagenbaugh
JosephUMC.org
John Mitchell
January 1 – February 7
Hours:
Monday-Friday
7:00am to 7:00pm
Saturday
9:00am to 1:00pm
603 Medical Parkway
Enterprise, OR 97828
www.summitchurchoregon.org
Enterprise
Christian Church
Christ Covenant
Church
85035 Joseph Hwy • (541) 426-3449
Pastor Terry Tollefson
Worship at 9 a.m.
Sunday School at 10:30 a.m.
Evening Worship at 6 p.m.
(nursery at A.M. services)
Family Prayer: 9:30 AM
Sunday School: 10 AM
Worship Service: 11 AM
“Loving God & One Another”
David Bruce, Sr. - Minister
723 College Street
Lostine
Lostine
Presbyterian Church
Enterprise Community
Congregational Church
Discussion Group 9:30 AM
Worship Service 11:00 AM
The Big Brown Church
Childrens program during service
Blog: dancingforth.blogspot.com
541.398.0597
Hwy 82, Lostine
Stephen Kliewer, Minister
Wallowa
Assembly
of God
606 West Hwy 82
Wallowa, Oregon
541-886-8445
Sunday School • 9:am
Worship Service • 10:am
Pastor Tim Barton
wallowaassemblyofgod.com
with an open door
Pastor Archie Hook
Sunday Worship 11am
Bible Study 9:30am
Ark Angels Children’s Program
Ages 4-6th grade, 11am
Nursery for children 3 & under
MEDICARE?
still
I’m here!
Call
Kathleen
301 NE First St. • Enterprise, OR
Find us on Facebook! 541.426.3044
Seventh-Day Adventist
Church & School
305 Wagner (near the Cemetery)
P.O. Box N. Enterprise, OR 97828
541-426-3751 Church
541-426-8339 School
Worship Services
616 W. North Street, Enterprise, Oregon
Sabbath School 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Worship Hour 11:00 a.m. - Noon
Pastor Jonathan DeWeber
541-426-4208