THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022 A7
Voters
“I’m running out
of things to be
proud about,”
said Carson Jans-
sen, owner of
Janssen Metal-
works in La Pine.
Continued from A1
Deschutes County, home
to Bend, Sisters and La Pine,
is Central Oregon’s largest
county, with about just over
190,000 residents, accord-
ing to the latest census data.
About 87% of the county’s
residents are white alone,
just over 8% are Hispanic or
Latino, and the county’s me-
dian age is 42.4. A third of the
county’s 150,000 registered
voters are nonaffiliated; 31%
are Democrats, and 29% are
registered as Republicans.
Crook County, where
Prineville is located, has the
region’s oldest population,
with a median age of 46.8
among its 23,700 residents.
It’s also the region’s whitest
county, where 88% of resi-
dents reported being white
alone and 7.7% being His-
panic or Latino. Politically, the
county leans Republican, with
44% of its 20,000 voters reg-
istered as Republicans, 32%
as nonaffiliated and 16% as
Democrats.
Jefferson County, the heart
of Central Oregon agriculture
and home to Madras, is the re-
gion’s most ethnically diverse
county. Of 24,000 residents,
20% are Hispanic or Latino,
and 59% are white alone. The
county’s median age is 41. Just
under 40% of its 17,000 voters
are nonaffiliated; a third are
registered Republicans and
20% are Democrats.
Despite wide differences in
voter demographics, concerns
and hopes seemed to align.
Diane Belnavis — Prineville
Without hesitation, vendors
at the CROP Farmers Market
stacked leftovers in wagons,
filling truck beds with pallets
of berries accompanied by
sounds of folding lawn chairs
squealing. Belnavis said she
believes this is a space that cre-
ates a sense of community.
“We have different beliefs,
but we all love the same thing.
This community is forced to
interact with each other, and I
just love it,” said Belnavis, sit-
ting beside the farmer’s mar-
ket that she helps organize
weekly. “I’ve always lived ru-
Dean Guernsey/The
Bulletin
rally. I like to farm. I’ve been
living in Central Oregon for
the past 40 years or so.”
Belnavis shares her farm-
land with her neighbors allow-
ing the bordering sheep extra
space to graze, but also pro-
vides Belnavis a meeting point
for differing political parties to
communicate. She says their
fence serves as a place to dis-
cuss current events and learn
about their differing views.
Whitney Bell — Madras
“I like that we are the hip-
pie state; people in Oregon
are a lot nicer and a lot more
accepting of everything,” said
Bell, sitting behind a white
foldout table, which was cov-
ered with sweet treats, includ-
ing shortbread cookies glued
together by strawberry jam.
The tantalizing baked goods
could not divert from the con-
cern-ridden conversation.
While Bell has utilized health
care to overcome an inability to
eat — she was prescribed a pool
pass to swim weekly — the Ma-
dras resident recognizes that
not all health conditions are
equally considered.
“I hope our government
puts mental health in the same
category as physical health,”
Bell said. “We go once a year
to get physicals, but your pri-
mary care provider never says,
‘Hey maybe you should check
in with a counselor.’”
Laurie Gonzalez Axsom —
Madras
“They say we can’t save the
world, but we can save one
soul at a time,” said Gonzalez
Axsom, working at the Ma-
dras Saturday Market at Sa-
halee Park. She comes from a
family of addicts. A lack of re-
habilitation facilities and focus
on mental health causes the
“generations to mess up.”
The percentage of Oregon
residents addicted to drugs
and alcohol is among the five
highest in the nation, and the
state’s access to drug treatment
is the worst in the U.S., ac-
cording to the National Survey
on Drug Use and Health 2020
state report and the nonprofit
Oregon Recovers.
Gonzalez Axsom shared
that she sees a pattern of par-
ents not having resources to
help themselves get through
addiction, jail and mental
health crises. Children are left
to fend for themselves, often
falling into drug use as their
parents did.
Her daughter struggles with
mental health. “She’s at the
point of smoking marijuana,
and I kind of just want to say
it’s OK because it’s better than
doing meth because that’s
where I come from.”
Jeremiah Teter — La Pine
The aroma of greasy, home-
cooked burgers wafted around
the red leather booths and
framed jerseys at Coach’s
Drive-In. Heavenly scents
were paired with a discussion
of the rising living costs.
Teter has lived in La Pine
since 1996 and loves the hos-
pitality of Oregonians. His
appreciation of Oregonians’
kindness is outweighed by
frustrations that resources are
inaccessible in his community.
“I want to move out of it be-
cause everything is getting too
high priced and political ev-
erywhere,” Teter said.
Carson Janssen — La Pine
Sparks flutter like fireflies at
Janssen Metalworks. Janssen’s
hands were coated from nail
to wrist in dirt and his head
was covered with a weathered,
black bandana.
“I’m running out of things
to be proud about,” said Jans-
sen, sitting on the bed of his
truck as his golden retriever
begged to play. “The world
is changing, and it’s getting
scary.”
He’s lived in La Pine on
and off since 1975. Janssen
described the vast amounts
of gentrification and other
changes affecting his small
town: Hiking trails now re-
quire parking permits, trash
blankets the forest and afford-
able housing plans are not de-
signed with the lowest income
demographic in mind.
“I lost my house in 2008,
and to get my feet back in the
housing market, to come up
with a down payment and af-
ford a house here in my own
town is almost impossible,”
Janssen said. “As little as this
town used to be, it isn’t that
way anymore.”
Michael and Ismael Morales
— La Pine
“When people get together,
they have each other, but I
think we are alone,” said Is-
mael Morales, a La Pine resi-
dent. “I don’t like politicians.
They don’t care and as soon
as they get elected, they forget
about all the issues that are go-
ing on.”
His son, Michael Morales
is 15 years old and plans to
get involved in voting. He ex-
plains how within his younger
community there is an expo-
nential increase in drug and
alcohol use. This is affecting
parent-child relationships.
“They usually have parents
who are out a lot of the time
and are addicted to drugs or
alcohol,” Ismael Morales said.
“They come back to rough
home lives with drinking, yell-
ing, drug use in the presence
of them.”
The father and son share
the belief that they need to
have more accessibility to re-
habilitation facilities that focus
on interventions for parents
and their children.
“I think drugs are the big-
gest issue in small and big
towns,” Michael Morales said.
“There should be more facili-
ties to help those guys because
there are not many facilities
for it.”
Lindsay Serrano — Redmond
Children drenched in chlo-
rinated water scooted their
way up to Serrano working at
the concession stand at Cen-
tennial Park, eager to pass
her a crisp dollar bill for their
Spongebob popsicle. A quint-
essential summer day brought
conversations about an ab-
sence of diversity in Redmond.
“We don’t have a lot of ex-
posure and education about
all different people, and I
think it makes people here
close-minded, which can
be bad and dangerous,” Ser-
rano said. “It’s hard in smaller
towns, but as we grow, it
would be nice to see more
people move here and feel
welcomed to come here.”
Serrano, 27, urges for inclu-
sion and diversification in her
community. She credits her
love for Oregon to the com-
munity’s respect for nature,
which is a sentiment that res-
onates with many rural Ore-
gonians.
“I love the area we live in;
the nature and respect we have
for nature is a big one because
I’ve been to other places and
the respect is not there,” Ser-
rano said.
Devon Bowen — Redmond
“There are always things that
are broken, but those are things
I respect. Everybody’s got a place
in our community,” said Bowen,
while standing by his farmers
market canopy, offering fresh
produce from the area. His fa-
ther and 9-year-old son stood
at a distance, ushering the local
regulars that strolled by.
Bowen owns a ranch and
has been a captain of the Red-
mond Fire Department. He’s
been fighting fires for 25 years.
The past three years have
been, “really bad,” he said. “We
just have water issues. The en-
vironmentalists came in and
took our water away for the
frog, so they’re pretty much
putting the frog above hu-
mans,” he said. “I don’t have as
much water. They won’t give
you water because you have
5 feet of water for the frog to
breed and that’s more import-
ant than feeding people and
the community.”
He’s referring to the Habi-
tat Conservation Plan, which
places limits on how much
water is supposed to remain
in the Deschutes River for the
frog’s survival and reproduc-
tion cycle, limiting the amount
of water released for irrigation.
“In three to five years, there
will be no farming, which is
the production of our entire
community. My son wants to
be a rancher, but it’s just not
a sustainable livelihood any-
more,” he said as his father and
son approached quietly. “Give
me an honest answer, and if
you’re not going to go that
way,” Bowen said. “Give me a
choice or else it’s a deception.”
William Schultz — Prineville
“We need to step away
from extreme political par-
ties and come back to a more
central, critical thinking po-
litical party,” said Schultz, a
17-year-old is a senior in high
school who is also taking col-
lege courses and working at
Prineville Men’s Wear.
When discussing the most
prominent issues facing his
community, Schultz said, “It’s
becoming increasingly harder
to find homes.” Housing has
skyrocketed in price. “We know
what’s happened to Bend, but
we don’t want that here.
According to Schultz, the
recent impacts of housing and
labor laws have led to an exo-
dus of young ranchers. Ranch-
ing has been a vital source
of employment and cultural
heritage for the people of
Prineville for decades.
With almost a year to go be-
fore he’ll be registered to vote,
Schultz said that he’ll, “vote for
somebody that understands
the entire state, not just the
West side,” said Schultz. “In
order to be a good leader, you
have to be able to understand
both metro and rural.”
█
This story was developed in
collaboration with the Catalyst
Journalism Project at the University
of Oregon School of Journalism and
Communication. Catalyst brings
together investigative reporting
and solutions journalism to spark
action and response to Oregon’s most
perplexing issues. To learn more visit
https://catalystjournalism.uoregon.
edu or follow the project on Twitter @
UO_catalyst.
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