A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
New dispatcher
on the line in
Grant County
Maynard: ‘This job
is truly a blessing’
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Christmas morning, kids
wake up as excitement fills
the air at the chance to open
gifts with family — a feel-
ing comparable to when
Darian Maynard returned to
the Grant County dispatch
center to begin her work as
the new dispatcher.
Maynard recently gradu-
ated after three weeks at the
Oregon Department of Pub-
lic Safety Standards and
Training where she learned
techniques for stress man-
agement, civil liability,
ethics, criminal law, over-
view of fire-rescue and law
enforcement operations and
more.
She also participated in a
three-day emergency medi-
cal dispatcher course.
“This job is truly a bless-
ing,” Maynard said. “It’s
like a lot of days I can’t
wait to be here. Whenever
I got back from academy
I couldn’t even barely nap
for the night shift the other
night because it felt like
Christmas and I get to go
back to work.”
The academy taught
Maynard the agency she
works for is very for-
ward thinking in regard to
debriefings, mental health
care and more. No mat-
ter the call, there is a sense
of camaraderie and unity
as every agency works
together to help people call-
ing 9-1-1.
Maynard said, even
when she first started train-
ing, she knew she could
stay calm in emergency sit-
uations because of the sup-
port and common goal that
everbody has.
“Everybody’s common
goal is to help people, and
that’s really cool,” she said.
Maynard said the Grant
County Emergency Com-
munications Agency did
well in preparing her for
the three-week endeavor.
She said she is grateful the
many things she learned
from the academy.
“Academy was awe-
some,” she said. “It was
funny, though, because they
did such a great job training
here (in Grant County) that,
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
One of the main reasons Travis Piercy joined the John Day Police Department was to serve the community.
Contributed photo/Andrew Martin
New Grant County Emergen-
cy Communications Agency
dispatcher Darian Maynard
shows a project that high-
lights the different aspects
of ethics training she learned
from the academy.
especially the first week, it
felt like a lot of eight-hour
review days,” Maynard said.
“But later on we had inter-
active scenarios, and you’re
still pretending to dispatch
during a traffic stop, which
could go bad.”
Maynard
especially
appreciated the academy’s
ethics training, which cov-
ered risk factors for first-re-
sponders, overconfidence,
preference for consistency
and more.
“There’s always a call for
help, but you never know and
you really have to put your
brain in gear, dissect the sit-
uation and ask the right ques-
tions,” Maynard said. “You
have to check on them, coor-
dinate, cover, calm them,
connect them and stuff like
that.”
Maynard said people
should know that, when
calling 9-1-1, they should
always give the address of
the emergency first so dis-
patchers know where to
send help. She said, if some-
one is unsure whether to call
9-1-1, dispatchers can verify
whether the situation is an
emergency.
Maynard said she is
happy for the opportunity to
help the community she is
happy to be a part of. Along
with dispatch, Maynard is
also planning to be a reserve
officer for the John Day
Police Department. Now that
she is back, she can begin her
reserve training.
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Darian Maynard is excited to help the community as a Grant
County dispatcher.
Officer Travis Piercy is glad
to serve the community
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Officer Travis Piercy is excited to
work in the John Day Police Department
and begin serving the community.
Piercy has been on the force for over
a month and already enjoys the time and
opportunity to work with the other mem-
bers of the JDPD.
Before, Piercy worked at the Grant
County Jail for three years.
“I always had an interest in law
enforcement, but never thought I would
end up there,” Piercy said. “The posi-
tion at the jail came open, and I took it. I
enjoyed it, and I ran with it.”
Piercy said the jail experience
was helpful, allowing him to become
acquainted with frequent offenders.
Piercy now has the opportunity to see
another side of law enforcement, dealing
with crime scenes instead of only seeing
what follows an investigation.
Piercy decided to transition to JDPD to
serve the community.
“The whole reason why I stepped
on this side was because we got a good
community with good people out there,”
Piercy said.
He wants to be a good officer for the
community and somebody that they can
trust, he said.
One of Piercy’s favorite parts of the
job has been the excitement that comes
with each day. Piercy said every day is
different, and he never knows if he will
work with a dog complaint, a traffic vio-
lation or serve a warrant.
“As soon as that radio goes off, you
Free summer lunches for kids return
Blue Mountain Eagle
The free Summer Food Service
Program for kids of all ages started
once again July 13.
John Day-Canyon City Parks
and Recreation District will be
serving lunches in John Day, Can-
yon City and Prairie City, July 13
to Aug. 21, Mondays through Fri-
days, according to a Facebook post
from the group.
Parks and Rec. will be serving
at the Humbolt Elementary par-
ent pick-up line from 11:30 a.m. to
noon, the Gleason Pool parking lot
from 11:30 a.m. to noon and Prai-
rie City City Park from 12:30 p.m.
to 1 p.m.
Unlike past years, though, all
lunches and snacks must be picked
up and taken off site, according to
the Facebook post.
“I imagine it will look differ-
ent than it has in years past just
because of the restrictions around
COVID,” board member Lisa
Weigum said.
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Blue Mountain Hos-
pital Rehabilitation Services
Department has expanded
hours for speech therapy.
Speech Language Patholo-
gist Charissa Moulton is now
seeing patients three days per
week in John Day, according
to a press release.
A speech language pathol-
ogist is an expert in commu-
nication. SLPs work with
individuals across the lifes-
pan. They treat a variety of
communication and swallow-
ing problems. These include
problems with speech, lan-
guage, communication, cog-
nition (thinking), feeding and
swallowing skills.
Speech is how sounds are
produced and put together to
form words. Problems may
include articulation or phono-
logical disor-
ders, apraxia
of speech or
dysarthria.
Saying “tup”
for “cup” is
an example
Charissa
of an articu-
Moulton
lation or pho-
nological disorder. Difficulty
producing sounds or slow,
slurred speech is dysarthria,
and difficulty imitating words
or saying the same word mul-
tiple different ways, saying
“pup, dup, fup, tup” to mean
“cup,” is apraxia of speech.
Speech problems can also
include a voice or fluency dis-
order affecting the pitch or
quality of one’s voice, such as
being hoarse or rhythm prob-
lems such as stuttering. Many
children will go through a
developmental stage of stut-
tering around 3 years of age,
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S195791-1
Debbie Ausmus
245 South Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845
OPEN WED. & THUR.
9 am - 5 pm
541-575-1113
24 hrs/7 days wk
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have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
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hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
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S195793-1
ing foods and liquids are
called dysphagia. Choking
or coughing when eating or
drinking, frequent drooling,
refusing to eat or drink cer-
tain things, being labeled a
picky eater or difficulty tran-
sitioning to solid foods as
an infant are examples. This
often leads to other issues
such as poor nutrition or
weight loss.
Feeding and swallowing
problems can begin at birth
when an infant is first learn-
ing to breastfeed or bot-
tle-feed and can affect indi-
viduals throughout their
lifespan. Moulton is also a
certified lactation counselor
and pediatric feeding special-
ist trained through Feed the
Peds. She firmly believes that
every individual deserves the
right to communicate effec-
tively in whatever way possi-
ble and that functional feed-
ing and swallowing skills
play a key role in overall
health.
For more information, call
541-575-4157.
S195790-1
CCB# 106077
A MAN
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but they should outgrow
that stage within six to nine
months. Continued stuttering
beyond that time may indicate
a need for speech therapy.
A problem with language
may affect what is said to
others (expressive language)
or what one understands oth-
ers to be saying (receptive
language). For children, this
may be an expressive lan-
guage disorder, a receptive
language disorder, a liter-
acy (reading) disorder or a
social-communication dis-
order. In an adult, a prob-
lem with language is usually
called aphasia.
Speech therapists also
look at how cognitive skills
affect communication func-
tion. This includes prob-
lems with memory, atten-
tion,
problem
solving,
organization and other think-
ing skills. Examples include
forgetting to take medica-
tions or frequently missing
appointments.
Problems with suck-
ing, chewing and swallow-
S197791-1
(541) 410-0557 • (541) 575-0192
Eagle file photo
Children enjoy lunch at the John Day city park near
Gleason Pool last year.
Blue Mountain Hospital expands speech therapy program
TOM CHRISTENSEN
CHRISTENSEN
TOM
CONSTRUCTION
don’t know if you’re going east or west,
and it’s pretty exciting,” Piercy said.
Piercy said the other officers have
been supportive.
“I’m very lucky to work with the indi-
viduals that work here,” Piercy said.
“They’re a great group of guys, and they
welcomed me with open arms, and I’m
getting great training.”
Piercy has gone to the academy for
corrections, but now he has to go to
the academy to become a police offi-
cer. COVID-19 has shifted the timeline
for that. He does not have an exact date
to the academy, but in the meantime, he
will receive more training on situational
awareness, case law and traffic violations
to prepare him for the academy.
Piercy said the community is a big rea-
son why he is in the JDPD.
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
541-523-6377
541-963-6577
541-573-6377
541-576-2160