LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
A5
New deputy in town comes from Washington
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
After months of short
staffing, the deputies of the
Wallowa County Sheriff’s
Office can breathe a little
easier after hiring a new,
full-time patrol deputy,
Austin Violette. The county
hired Violette on Jan. 30,
selecting him from a num-
ber of candidates for the
position.
“We’ve been short-
handed for so long, having
Austin is just going to take
a lot of heat off everybody
else,” Wallowa County
Sheriff, Steve Rogers said.
“We’re happy to have him
because he’s a great kid,
and he’s going to do an
awesome job for us.”
Deputy Violette comes
to Wallowa County from
Anatone,
Washington,
where he served as a law
enforcement ranger with
the state’s parks and recre-
ation commission.
The new deputy said
that he’s always gravitated
toward working with a
team while helping people
through precarious and
difficult situations.
“I enjoy being part of a
team responding to those
kinds of situations,” he
said. “I also like work-
ing in a rural setting in
an environment where
there’s mountains and lots
of recreational opportuni-
ties. I think I’ve found that
here.”
He said his specific
interest in law enforcement
stemmed from working in
the woods fighting fires
with the Bureau of Land
Management out of Reno,
Steve Tool/Chieftain
Deputy Austin Violette
‘I ENJOY BEING PART OF A TEAM RESPONDING TO THOSE KINDS OF
SITUATIONS,” HE SAID. “I ALSO LIKE WORKING IN A RURAL SETTING
IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THERE’S MOUNTAINS AND LOTS OF
RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES. I THINK I’VE FOUND THAT HERE.’
Deputy Austin Violette
Nevada, where he also
worked with a lot of BLM
law enforcement.
“That drove me into
becoming a law enforce-
ment ranger, and as I did
that, I realized I wanted to
go into a primary agency,
especially a primary agency
like this where in my mind,
it’s the ideal position with
all the mountains over into
Hells Canyon and all the
rural setting.”
Part of Violette’s duties
will include patrols of
Joseph, which had gone
months without extra patrol
from the Sheriff’s Office as
the city and the county tus-
sled over payment of the
sheriff’s services and hours
of patrol.
“[The Sheriff’s Office]
talked to me about the new
city of Joseph contract and
spending time there while
making it a priority for
us as well as county-wide
issues,” Violette said.
“Spending time in Joseph
will be good, and that’s
what the people want.”
Already having attended
an 18-week law enforce-
ment academy while work-
ing in Washington, Violette
will not attend the inten-
sive training of the Ore-
gon Public Safety Acad-
emy. He is, however, slated
to attend a two-week course
in Salem that is required for
all laterals and out-of-state
transfers.
The new deputy already
comes with some knowl-
edge of the area as he and
his wife were regular visi-
tors to the valley when they
resided in Anatone.
“We would recreate
down here, go swimming at
the lake, kayaking out at the
lake and the south fork of
the Imnaha,” he said. “Now
that we’re calling it home,
it’s just awesome.”
After a week on the job,
Violette said that the dep-
uty position is a little faster
paced than ranger work,
with a wider range of calls
and situations to respond to.
He also noted the similari-
ties, which include cover-
ing a large swath of territory
and traveling long distances
to respond to situations.
“Being able to work
as a team player here,
not only with the other
deputies, but also Enter-
prise [Police Department]
and even Oregon State
Patrol is great,” he said. “I
didn’t really have that as a
ranger.”
For now, Violette is
enjoying his time as the
new deputy on the sher-
iff’s team.
“I enjoy being here, and
I look forward to being here
through all the different
seasons,” he said. “Winter-
time has its own challenges,
but I’ll be here in the spring
and summertime as well.”
LETTERS to the EDITOR
our government? What is
the function of each branch
of government? Who is
the head of each branch of
government? Name them.
What is the Bill of Rights?
If you can easily roll the
answers to those questions
off the tip of your tongue,
you are probably ahead of
half of your fellow citi-
zens. But there is more to
being a citizen of a govern-
ment “of the people, by the
people and for the people.”
We need to be informed
about the present, as well.
As a retired educator,
I wonder whether it is a
failure of the schools that
Americans have so lit-
tle knowledge of our gov-
ernment. Or is there some-
thing about the American
psyche that says the things
we were taught in school
do not matter once we
graduate from twelfth
grade? Some adults dispar-
age both involvement and
discussion of the workings
of our government as ‘pol-
itics’. Whenever mention
of a government activity is
made in conversation, too
many people will declare
that they are not interested
in ‘politics’. With this kind
of attitude so prevalent, no
Where are today’s
civics lessons
I wonder why so many
people in the present
United States of Amer-
ica know so little about
their own country. What
has happened in nearly 250
years to bring about a pop-
ulation of Americans who
actually believe they have
no responsibility as cit-
izens other than to vote
every two or four years?
And why do so many
neglect to even vote?
Around 75 percent of
Americans who are 18
years old or older have
graduated from high school
or have passed a civics test
to become American cit-
izens. High schools gen-
erally require juniors or
seniors to study and take
a test in American gov-
ernment, while peo-
ple from other countries
who seek U.S. citizenship
must show an understand-
ing of the way our gov-
ernment was designed by
the forefathers. Yet, far too
few Americans are able
to answer a simple ques-
tion about the U.S. Consti-
tution. For instance, what
are the three branches of
HILLOCK’S
STOR-ALL
MINI-STORAGE UNITS
Enterprise & Joseph Locations
wonder we have people in
government who are dis-
honest and self-serving. Do
you remember the cartoon
character, Pogo, who said,
“We have met the enemy,
and he is us”?
Presently, regardless of
laws on the books, whether
the school is public, or pri-
vate or home school or
no school, there is no uni-
versally enforced require-
ment of any curricu-
lum that teaches the U.S.
Constitution and import-
ant Supreme Court deci-
sions. In the 1960s a pop-
ular cry arose that parents
should have freedom to
educate their children in a
school of their choice or at
home. Whether the impe-
tus of this movement was
that school taxes were con-
sidered burdensome, or a
sense that the government
might shape the minds of
children a certain way, or
that some schools were
not performing well, it
changed the educational
system across the country.
Without a common under-
standing of our country’s
values, we have become
so divided that even the
meaning of “freedom” is
controversial.
Like the school play-
ground, we adults choose
sides and refuse to consider
anything that is a reflec-
tion of the opposing side.
Each side does its best to
limit the freedom of the
opponent. If we could put
aside the game of choosing
sides and playing only for
our side to win, we could
possibly work together to
solve the issues we face.
7 Y EARS
One of our politicians
said recently, “America is a
great country, and we need
more great Americans.”
We need American citizens
who are steeped in the val-
ues of the founding fathers
of our country and who put
them in action every day.
Evelyn Swart
Joseph
‘Tax cuts’ not
benefiting us
We do not know who
President Trump’s “tax cut”
was intended to benefit, but
it certainly was not us, our
daughter, or several of our
friends and colleagues. For
the past few years, we have
received roughly a refund
from the IRS of $500. This
year we learned we have a
tax bill of over $1,700!
We will most definitely
be taking this into con-
sideration as we vote in
future elections. This is
unacceptable.
Lynn and Gina Perkins
Baker City
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