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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2019)
OPINION Wallowa County Chieftain A4 Wednesday, March 27, 2019 Oregon Capitol in need of a new normal O n the surface, life is back to normal in the Oregon Capitol. Senate President Peter Courtney returned this past week from his medical leave. Meanwhile, some bills are sailing through the 2019 legislative ses- sion, and others are fl ailing. The supermajority Demo- crats and minority Republicans are publicly battling on several fronts while calmly collaborating on the Legis- lature’s routine work. But “normal” will never be the same in the Capi- tol. Nor should it be. The sexual harassment incidents that shook the statehouse in recent years should never recur, and it is up to the legislative leaders to make that happen. Do they now get it? That remains uncertain, but the signs are positive. Courtney and especially House Speaker Tina Kotek had crit- icized a state of the agency’s fi nding of a “hostile workplace” at the Capitol. But this month the legislative leaders did an about-face, agreeing to a $1.3 million settlement. Most of the money will go to eight women who suffered sexual harassment. The settlement through the Bureau of Labor and Industries also removes the Legislature’s top lawyer and its human resources director from handling com- plaints of harassment. The bipartisan Joint Committee on Capitol Culture is working toward creating an inde- pendent equity offi ce to handle those issues, which is among the top-to-bottom recommendations from the Oregon Law Commission and which Courtney and Kotek agreed to adopt. Courtney took a big step by interrupting his med- ical leave and temporarily returning to the Senate on March 14 to vote for a resolution declaring support for survivors of sexual violence. HCR 25, which passed unanimously, is now in the House. “I publicly apologize to any and all survivors that have experienced any form of harassment — sexual harassment, workplace harassment — in the state Cap- itol,” Courtney said. “We must do better. I must do better.” His comments came after Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Cor- vallis — whose formal complaint eventually led to last year’s resignation of Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Rose- burg — had said moments earlier that the survivors of the sexual harassment never got an apology from the Legislature. The settlement underscores the severity of what has been happening in the Capitol for years, long before Courtney and Kotek came to power. Yet Courtney and Kotek have contended they did everything within their power to prevent sexual harassment, promptly investi- gate allegations and discipline perpetrators. From a purely legal standpoint, that might have been true. But laws and regulations only cover so much. On human resources matters, there always is more that can be done as far as treating people with respect, with empathy and with compassion when they feel wronged — regardless of the circumstances. A complete transformation in legislative culture is needed, one that upends the traditional power dynam- ics in the Capitol. Anyone — elected offi cials, legisla- tive staff, interns, lobbyists, contractors and members of the public — must feel free to raise concerns with- out fear of political or personal retaliation. The Capitol Culture Committee continues to refi ne its legislation that aims to improve anti-harassment training and handling of harassment complaints. It will be much harder, but crucial, to achieve what must become the new norm in and around the Oregon Capitol: zero tolerance of harassment, bullying or mis- treatment of any kind. VOICE CHIEFTAIN WHERE TO WRITE U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D — 516 Hart Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. E-mail: wayne_ kinney@wyden.senate.gov Web site: http://wyden.senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D — 313 Hart Senate Offi ce Building, Washington D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. E-mail: sena- tor@merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-228-3997. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R (Second District) — 1404 Long- worth Building, Washington D.C. 20515. Phone: 202-225-6730. No direct e-mail because of spam. Web site: www.walden.house. gov Fax: 202-225-5774. Med- ford offi ce: 14 North Central, Suite 112, Medford, OR 97501. Phone: 541-776-4646. Fax: 541-779-0204. Pending Bills For information on bills in Congress — Phone: 202-225-1772. Salem Gov. Kate Brown, D — 160 State Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-4582. Fax: 503- 378-8970. Web site: www.gover- nor.state.or.us/governor.html. State Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove (District 58) — Room H-384, State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., Salem OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1458. E-mail: rep.greg- barreto@state.or.us. Web site: http://www.oregonlegislature. gov/barreto State Sen. Bill Hansell, R (District 29) — Room S-423, State Capitol, Salem 97301. Rescuing Jeremy Taylor A bout a month ago, on a Sunday afternoon, a carpenter named Jeremy Taylor took a back road as he drove from the gas station toward his home west of Sunriver. Jer- emy lives alone, except for his dog Allie, and fortunately for both of them, they were together that day in Jere- my’s 4-runner. Little did they know at the time that on snowy forest service road #40, they were linked as friends in the most dangerous moment of their lives. Jeremy was accustomed to taking that road home through the Deschutes National Forest, but as everyone from central or eastern Oregon can attest, this has been a snowy winter. The depth of the snow was more than Jer- emy had bargained for, and as dark- ness was setting in, his SUV got stuck in a drift. He tried to drive out of it, but without success. So he made a wise decision, and settling into his car for the night, he curled up inside his sleeping bag with Allie to keep both of them warm. Unfortunately, it snowed heavily that night, and by morning, Jeremy’s rig was buried three feet deep. He couldn’t even open the doors at fi rst, but eventually, he was able to struggle outside. He relied on his wits as best he could, by tearing apart his ski rack and using the pieces to create a make- shift pair of snowshoes. Then he and Allie tried hiking out. But after they had gone about a mile, they were both exhausted. Allie, who is probably part border collie, was fl oundering in the deep snow, and one of Jeremy’s improvised snowshoes broke. Once again, Jeremy had to make a tough decision, and he chose to carry Allie and work his way slowly back to his SUV. By the time they got there, neither of them had much strength left. For the next few days, the best Jer- emy could do was to start his car occa- sionally to keep him and Allie warm. Although he had a gallon of water in his car, the only food he had was Happy to see more Ag coverage; disappointed in some community member’s response I would like to thank the Chief- tain for the recent articles on women ranchers in Wallowa County. The arti- cles were well written and very infor- mative. When the new editor was hired I thought if I see him I will tell him to write more articles on our ranchers, farmers and loggers. Well he beat me to it but I was somewhat discouraged to hear the crit- icism that he didn’t mention the men. The article wasn’t intended to slight the men, it was to highlight the fact that women play a big role in our local economy, and the articles accom- plished that. I would like to see more thank you’s for some excellent articles. Dennis Sands Joseph POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY John McColgan a handful of hot sauce packets from Taco Bell. Meanwhile in the outside world, Jeremy’s friends had noticed that he was nowhere to be found. He hadn’t shown up at work, which was out of character for him. Some of his neigh- bors and friends noticed that his SUV was not outside his home. Day by day, questions evolved into concern and worry, until that worry spread hun- dreds of miles to Jeremy’s friends in more distant places. In Jackson County, where Jeremy had lived and worked for many years before he had moved up to Sunriver, his close friend Jesse had become so concerned about his buddy’s disap- pearance that by Thursday morning, he decided that he wanted to go up to Deschutes County to look for him. Jesse called my oldest son Gabe that morning, and Gabe, who is also a good friend of Jeremy, offered to leave his trucking brokerage offi ce to drive up with Jesse. Two other buddies, Chris and Brian, decided to join the search party. This gang of friends took time to gather some supplies and then headed off in Gabe’s car that afternoon. By late evening, their group had arrived at Jeremy’s house, which hap- pens to be owned by Jesse’s aunt. She was able to let them in with her key, and when they found a space heater running, they felt convinced that Jer- emy had not intended to be gone long when he had left his house on Sunday. Here again, these guys made smart choices. Each was prepared to help by doing what he could do best. Gabe was the one with the car, so he shut- tled people and ran errands. Jesse is a social media whiz, so on Thursday LETTERS to the EDITOR Concerns over the Wallowa Lake Dam I am concerned about the Wal- lowa Lake Dam improvement pro- posed by Governor Brown and to be voted on soon. I agree with rehabilitating the dam for several reasons such as safety for people and equitable water distribution for irrigators. It has the potential to help many irri- gators and store more water. It also has the potential of making the newly formed irrigation district a lot more money. My concern is that perhaps over 16 million dollars will be provided the Irrigation District to get the dam to store more water which the Dis- trict will sell. I believe money from Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 M EMBER O REGON N EWSPAPER P UBLISHERS A SSOCIATION Published every Wednesday by: EO Media Group VOLUME 134 USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Offi ce: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Contents copyright © 2019. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. General manager, Jennifer Cooney, jcooney@wallowa.com Editor, Christian Ambroson, editor@wallowa.com Publisher, Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com Reporter, Stephen Tool, steve@wallowa.com Reporter, Ellen Morris Bishop, ebishop@wallowa.com Administrative Assistant, Amber Mock, amock@wallowa.com Advertising Assistant, Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com night and Friday morning, he joined several dozen local outdoor groups, such as snowmobilers, skiers and mountaineers, to post photos of Jer- emy, his SUV, and his dog Allie. Chris is a drone pilot, and on Fri- day morning he began fl ying his drone in the forest area not far from where Jeremy was actually lost. Brian is the most fi t outdoorsman of the group, so he joined up with Matt, another of Jeremy’s friends who had fl own in from Montana, to hike in snow- shoes up a mountain butte to see if they could spot Jeremy or his elusive SUV with binoculars. John, another of Jeremy’s buddies from Sunriver, cre- ated his own communications cen- ter to keep everyone apprised of new developments. By early Friday afternoon, a snow- mobiler came upon Jeremy and his 4-runner, and he notifi ed the Deschutes County Search & Rescue squad of their location. Gabe’s crew of friends were out looking for Jeremy near for- est service road 40 when they heard the good news, and the sheriff asked them to keep that road’s entrance blocked so that the rescue team could get Jeremy out. When the S&R unit brought Jeremy and Allie out on their snow machine, their buddy’s fi rst question for them was, “What are you guys doing here?” A few hours later, what they were doing was sharing lasagna and beer with Jeremy in his home, where he modestly fended off reporters at his door. The internet and Taco Bell might tell you that hot sauce kept Jeremy alive for fi ve days, but don’t believe it. What saved him was common sense, a full tank of gas, a gallon of water, a warm sleeping bag, an SUV that became an emergency shelter, and some very devoted friends, including his dog Allie. John McColgan is the proud hus- band of a woman who used to do Search and Rescue, and the father of four won- derful adult children, who have some awesome buddies. water sales would go to the District. If this is good for the county as a whole, Great. However I don’t think that Oregon taxpayers should have to pay money to help just a local few. If it is a good idea to fund the project, do it as a loan to be paid back with receipts from water sold. I don’t agree with funding west side projects with my tax dollars. I also don’t agree with asking the whole state to fund a project that only benefits a few and may pro- vide a profit to a private entity. Don’t beg the legislature to fund your activities. Agree to a loan and pay it back. I have contacted Sen. Bill Han- sel, and Rep. Greg Baretto on this and encourage any who agree to do the same. Do we want to help reduce or increase State debt problems? Joseph Zinni Sr. Joseph Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offi ces Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $45.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet Wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828