March 13, 2020
T he C olumbia P ress
5
Program a boost for healthy babies City’s new fire rules to cover burn barrels, debris piles
Families in Clatsop County
and seven other areas of the
state will be among the first
given an option of receiving
nurse home visits after the
birth of a child.
The new statewide initia-
tive, called Family Connects,
is the result of Senate Bill
526, which was passed by the
state legislature last year.
The eight “early-adopt-
er communities” are part of
the Oregon Health Authori-
ty’s debut of a program that
eventually will become na-
tionwide. Family Connects is
a voluntary, evidence-based
model that supports children
and families at a critical time:
a child’s birth, program lead-
ers say.
Family Connects Oregon
identifies what families want
from local resources, and
then provides an individu-
alized path into an array of
community services. The sys-
tem includes referrals to oth-
er, more established home
visiting programs that are
eligibility-based rather than
universally offered to all, as
the comprehensive Family
Connects program will be.
Services are intended to
Local officers
graduate from
police academy
Two of Warrenton Police
Department’s newest recruits
graduate today from the ba-
sic police academy in Salem.
The 16-week academy in-
cludes survival skills, firearms,
emergency vehicle operations,
ethics, cultural diversity, com-
munity policing, elder abuse,
and drug recognition.
Officers Madyson Hanna
and Dylan McCoy were hired
late last year to replace of-
ficers who have retired or
moved from the area.
Cannon Beach Officer Jen-
ny Thompson-Kiefer also
graduates today.
make improvements in child
health, child development,
school readiness, family eco-
nomic self-sufficiency, ma-
ternal health, positive par-
enting, and the reduction of
juvenile delinquency, family
violence, and crime.
Oregon Health Authority
was tasked with overseeing
the program of providing
nurse home visits to all fam-
ilies with newborns living in
the state.
The eight agencies first to
begin the program are Clat-
sop County Department of
Public Health,
Eastern
Oregon
Early
Learning Hub, Early Learn-
ing Hub of Central Oregon,
Four Rivers Early Learning
Hub, Lane County Health
and Human Services, Early
Learning Hub of Linn, Ben-
ton & Lincoln Counties, Mar-
ion & Polk Early Learning
Hub, and Washington Coun-
ty Public Health.
“We want Oregon to be the
best place in the country to
have and raise a child,” said
Cate Wilcox, manager of the
Maternal and Child Health
Section at the OHA Public
Health Division.
For more information, visit
healthoregon.org/homevisit-
ing.
B y C indy y ingst
The Columbia Press
Before striking that match,
make sure you’re not doing
something illegal.
Warrenton is poised to
adopt new rules regarding
outdoor burning.
While barbecues and small
recreational fires in backyard
fire pits would be allowed
without a permit, all other
forms of burning within city
limits would be regulated.
“Most of our complaints
that come are from people
clearing their lots … to pre-
pare it for building,” Fire
Chief Brian Alsbury said.
The new rules, which re-
quire a public hearing before
adoption, would require res-
idents to obtain permits for
use of a burn barrel or small
debris pile and include a city
safety inspection.
City commissioners were
concerned about placing too
many regulations on respon-
sible residents.
“There have been burn bar-
rels in the city my entire life,”
Commissioner Mark Baldwin
said. “The ones who do this
every year and we’ve nev-
er had a complaint against,
we’re penalizing them be-
cause of the jackwagons on
and $50 for larger
the other end doing
piles up to 10-feet in
whatever they want.”
circumference.
No
He was opposed to
slash burning would
the fire chief’s propos-
be allowed.
al to charge up to $75
“We’re just trying to
a year, which would
eliminate people from
cover an initial safe-
taking down trees and
ty inspection, printed
burning the whole
material on fire safety
Alsbury
thing or bringing
and rules and a year’s
waste from several ar-
worth of allowed
eas and doing it all in
burning.
one location,” Alsbury
Mayor Henry Balen-
said.
sifer wanted to ensure
The burning of in-
people could burn
dustrial, construction,
branches and other
demolition and home
yard debris that falls
waste would not be al-
during winter storms.
Baldwin
lowed under the new
“It makes no sense to
rules.
create a rule that’s un-
A review of the city’s rules
enforceable,” he said.
In the end, commissioners arose last year after a devel-
agreed to keep the cost of oper sent smoke through the
permits low -- $25 for burn city one weekend by burning
barrels and small debris piles felled trees in large slash piles.
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