NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
A7
Wallowa woman grateful she moved back
Bethany Jones
fi rst moved to
Wallowa when she
was 3½ years old.
After
graduat-
ing from Wallowa
High School, she
moved away for
awhile and and
then came back
Bethany Jones
eight years ago.
She now lives
in Wallowa with her 10-year-old daugh-
ter and is engaged to be married to Frank
Meyers. She handles the billing for Alpine
Chiropractic in Enterprise.
it’s a really short drive. The scenery is
amazing.
Wallowa County
VOICES
By Bill Bradshaw
What’s the best thing or place in
Wallowa County?
I love lots of things about this county.
You can’t go wrong with all the wil-
derness areas. There’s so much diver-
sity here, whether you’re looking for the
mountains or the canyons or the lakes
or the rivers, you’re going to fi nd it, and
What’s the greatest challenge facing
the county?
I think to carve out a living here is
challenging at times, but well worth it.
You could go somewhere else and make
more money, but it wouldn’t be as fun.
What can people do to make Wal-
lowa County a better place for us all?
Just to spread kindness. I think that’s a
great ideology.
What have you learned from living in
Wallowa County?
I don’t know. I learn things every day.
Since you came back, what did you
learn about the county by living away
from it?
I love the people here. I love how quiet
and slow everything is. It’s not fast. It’s
not crazy. You don’t have all the crime
and things that go on in other places. I
love raising my daughter here. It’s just a
wonderful place to live and I’m so glad I
came back every day.
What’s your advice for people who
are thinking about moving here?
If they want a quiet, enjoyable, beauti-
ful place to raise their families, this is it.
Firewise: Neighbors in Lostine Canyon getting informed on wildfi re prevention
Continued from Page A1
Bill Bradshaw
The Lostine Wildlife Area was the site of a dedication ceremony
Friday, Oct. 11, for the Lostine Canyon Firewise Community
sign recognizing area residents’ interest in making eff orts to
safeguard their area against an inevitable wildfi re.
Lostine Canyon residents
interested in establishing a
Firewise Community con-
ducted their initial meeting
in April 2018. Since then,
neighbors in the Lostine
Canyon have been working
on becoming better informed
about how to prevent wild-
fi re from destroying their
create a map for our com-
munity that shows where to
go for certain services and
who is the contact for each
organization.
Police Chief Joel Fish Jr.
and Offi cers Jacob Curtis,
Cody Billman and George
Kohlhepp were certifi ed as
having completed the CIT
course.
Eilene Flory, a crisis
intervention
coordinator
for the institute, said it was
impressive that 100% of the
Enterprise Police Depart-
ment has received CIT cer-
tifi cation, even though there
are just four offi cers.
“It’s still 100%,” she said.
She noted that the state-
wide average is 33%.
Tosca Rawls, public
relations and development
director for the Wallowa
Valley Center for Wellness,
called the EPD’s certifi ca-
tion “a great accomplish-
ment and partnership within
our community.”
Sequential
Inter-
cept Mapping is a nation-
wide effort to address the
over-representation
of
adults with mental illnesses
in the criminal justice sys-
tem. During the process,
community
stakeholders
identify service and pol-
icy gaps and opportunities
to address the needs of this
target population, according
to the U.S. National Library
of Medicine National Insti-
tutes of Health website.
“As we go through your
community’s
resources,
we identify your commu-
nity’s resources and gaps,
and oftentimes in the map-
ping between law enforce-
ment and mental health it is
brought up that there’s a gap
between the two agencies,”
Flory said. “Sometimes it’s
just an understanding of
what law enforcement can
do, to take somebody under
custody because of a mental
health issue or law enforce-
ment not understanding
what mental health can do.”
Rebecca Frolander, the
district attorney for Wal-
lowa County, was one of the
attendees at the workshop
and offered input on some
of the gaps in the legal sys-
tem here.
“Generally, people with
severe mental health issues
shouldn’t be in the criminal
justice system,” she said.
Attendees
discussed
options, such as a diversion
to ensure offenders cooper-
ate with health care provid-
ers to ensure they’re taking
their medicines.
“The spectrum of behav-
ioral health is quite large,”
she
said.
“Depending
whether they are able to
understand what is required
of them. People who’ve
committed low-level mis-
demeanors, maybe they’ve
just stopped taking their
meds. We can do a low-level
diversion to force them to
restart their meds.”
Since SIM is an attempt
to divert those with mental
health issues from the crim-
inal justice system, alterna-
tives are necessary.
“If it’s appropriate, we
want to divert someone from
the criminal justice system,”
Flory said. “Our goal is to
help identify where the gaps
are and where we can help
intercept that person from
going into the jail. Looking
for what kind of resources are
out there to help divert them
because we have found that
jail is not necessarily the best
place for them. But it also
doesn’t give you a get-out-
of-jail-free card. If you’re a
danger to yourself or to other
people and if it’s needed to
keep the community safe, we
need to put you in jail.”
Wallowa County does
have a mobile crisis team
that works with police and
there is a one-bed men-
tal health holding room
at Wallowa Memorial
Hospital.
“It’s awesome that you
guys have a state-certifi ed
holding room because in a
lot of places we work with
in eastern Oregon the hospi-
tals are little and they don’t
have a holding room,” she
said.
Frolander said she under-
stood the Center for Well-
ness was to create a roadmap
to fi ll gaps to fi nd a better
means of helping those with
behavioral issues.
“We’re very early in that
process,” Frolander said.
Zeb Ramsde llo n wa
to Wa
the week honor goes
This week’s athlete of yer, Zeb Ramsden. The WHS junior
Cougars football pla threat on either side of the ball as
poses a dangerous s’ 74-6 massacre of the Pine Eagle
he proved in the Coug msden bagged one tackle with five
Ra
Spartans last Friday. d an interception while haunting the
ge
ag
sn
d
an
7 yards on 10
assists
offense raced for 13
defensive side and on d hit pay dirt twice. Receiving saw
rds
touches an
receptions for 54 ya TD.
udly
Pro onsore d b y
Ramsden with four
and another
p
S
201 E. Hwy 82, Enterprise • 541-426-0320
www.edstaub.com
PET OF
K
THE WEE
Brought to
you by,
Meet Amelia
Born Dec. 1, 2018, Amelia is a
spayed, petite little girl with a
good appetite. She has made
friends with her foster mom’s
hound dog. Her personality is
very sweet. She is trusting and
loves to be held and cuddled.
She has a tiny little meow and
a loud purr. Give this little girl a
chance because she’s got a big
heart and wants to be loved.
She is up-to-date on her respi-
ratory vaccination, de-worming
and is litter box trained.
Coming Soon!
877-319-0328
WEEK
Continued from Page A1
to become nationally recog-
nized, it’s a very big deal.
It’s something, I think, you
should be very proud of.”
Howard hopes the Los-
tine community will serve as
an example for others in the
county. He expects the ODF
and Wallowa Resources can
begin work in the spring
organizing more such com-
munities at such places as
Wallowa Lake and Hurri-
cane Creek.
“You folks are a model
for other communities in the
future and your collective
experiences here are going
to help other communities
decide whether they want to
pursue being Firewise-rec-
ognized or not,” he said.
OF
THE
Training: Workshop for offi cers seeks to fi ll the gaps
your thinking from, ‘I’ll
reduce my fuel load one of
these years to I need to do it
this year,’ ” canyon resident
Fred Brockman said.
Oregon Department of
Forestry forester Matt How-
ard emphasized the inevita-
bility of another wildfi re in
the area.
“I don’t know if it’s
ironic or what, but we’re
standing in a fi re spot from
about 50 years ago,” he
said. “It started down in the
fl at here and with the north
wind went up the canyon. So
that’s within this generation.
The fact that you folks were
collective enough and had
enough gumption to stick
with it through this process
ATHLETE
Firewise Committee.
On Friday, Oct. 11, at the
Lostine Wildlife Area the
Firewire groups and Com-
missioner Susan Roberts
met to dedicate signs along
the road recognizing the
Firewise community. Rob-
erts expressed hopes that
Lostine’s actions will be an
example to other communi-
ties in the county.
“Hopefully, your accom-
plishment will serve to
inspire other communities
to take important and nec-
essary steps to improve their
protection from the poten-
tially catastrophic risks of
wildfi re,” Roberts said.
Eng emphasized the
necessity of the program.
“We live in an extreme
fi re-risk area and we have
to learn to adapt to that,” he
said. “There’s not much we
can do about changing the
weather, changing the ter-
rain, changing the land own-
ership and some of the ways
it’s managed.”
homes and their community,
how to respond in the inev-
itable event of a wildfi re in
the Lostine Canyon and how
to recover after a wildfi re
passes through their com-
munity. Residents have been
creating “fi resafe” perim-
eters around their homes,
removing closely spaced and
insect-damaged trees, trim-
ming low-hanging branches
and chipping. They have
taken advantage of offers by
foresters Tim Cudmore and
Eric Carlson, of the ODF, to
help identify diseased and
insect-infested trees to help
reduce fuel loads around
their homes, while also pre-
serving privacy and wildlife
habitat.
They have also taken
advantage of free exterior
home inspections by one of
their neighbors, Gary Wil-
lis, a former Hood River
fi re chief, to learn what they
can do to better fi reproof the
exterior of their homes.
“Being informed that
you live in an area with an
‘extreme’ fi re risk, it shifts
Available for Adoption
Contact Julia at 541-398-0393
$45 adoption fee
http://www.wallowacountyhumanesociety.org/
Do you have
something
to howl about?
Let your voice be
heard in the
Wallowa county
Chieftain!
Happy
A
-
-
W
L
EEN
W
O
H
Eagles in Oregon
Watching Them
Watch Us
Watch Them
Friday, October 18th
7 pm • FREE!
Join Frank Isaacs as he compares and
contrasts bald and golden eagles, and
discusses the latest nesting research.
Frank
Isaacs , MS
Oregon Eagle Foundation
2006 Order of the Eagle Award
1996 Oregon Wildlife Society Award
1989 Oregon Wildlife Achievement Award
1987 Dave Simons Award
Contact Jennifer Cooney
at jcooney@wallowa.com 541-805-9630
209 NW First St., Enterprise • 541-426-4567
Natural History Discovery Center
508 N. Main • Joseph • 541-263-1663 • wallowology.org