WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL NEWS
New Hispanic Advisory Committee Water, sewer
chair looking forward to challenge rates to go up
By JADE MCDOWELL
volved in the community for
Staff Writer
a long time, and people do
Fighting addiction in not need to worry that under
the community is a passion Garcia’s watch the Hispanic
for the Hermiston Hispanic Advisory Committee’s ef-
Advisory Committee’s new forts will flag.
chair.
“They’ve still got a lot of
Jose Garcia was chosen as good plans. The committee
the committee chair at
is still going strong,”
the end of November
he said.
after former chair Ed-
The city council
die de la Cruz moved
honored De La Cruz,
to Texas. He is also the
who was a founding
director of New Hori-
member of the com-
zons, which serves
mittee, with a plaque
those struggling with
at Monday’s meeting
problems such as drug Jose
and thanked him for
Garcia
and alcohol addic-
his four years of ser-
vice.
tions, gambling, anger
Past initiatives have in-
management and domestic
violence. He hopes to use his cluded increasing voter reg-
professional skills to help the istration and increasing in-
Hispanic Advisory Commit- volvement in education, and
tee look for ways it can assist Garcia said he also wants to
in addressing those challeng- keep those things going, in-
cluding a popular effort to
es.
“We do have some is- partner with the Hermiston
sues in the community, and I School District to provide
think we can work on that,” Spanish translators for par-
ent-teacher conferences.
he said.
He said he also wants to
Garcia said he has en-
joyed getting to know city help Hispanic children in the
councilor Manuel Gutierrez, community connect to more
who acts as a council liaison financial aid resources for
to the committee. Gutierrez pursuing higher education.
Garcia said parents come
also works in human ser-
vices through Domestic Vio- to him all the time, worried
their child might be doing
lence Services.
“He’s got a lot of ideas,” drugs or upset about con-
Garcia said. “We’ve been firmed drug use. He said
having some preliminary when parents get involved
talks. With his expertise and in their child’s education,
my expertise, maybe we can grades go up and attendance
do some classes, educate improves, which helps chil-
dren stay away from drugs
some people.”
Past board chair Eddie and gangs and other harmful
de la Cruz said Garcia is a behaviors.
The problem, he said, is
“great guy” who has been in-
By JADE MCDOWELL
that many Latino parents
are working multiple jobs
to make ends meet or give
their children a less impov-
erished childhood than they
had. They don’t always have
the luxury of arranging their
work schedule, as Garcia has
done while raising his three
children, so that they can
drop them off and pick them
up from school each day.
“A lot of the factories and
warehouses around here,
they’re not family-oriented,”
he said.
Parents feel powerless over
that, he said, just like he some-
times feels powerless to help
people turn their lives around
when it takes four months to
get someone into rehab. Gar-
cia said he lost his own brother
to addiction a few years ago
for that very reason.
That feeling of pow-
erlessness is a reason that
Garcia has been drawn to
Donald Trump over the last
year. While many Latinos
have rejected Trump for his
rhetoric about building walls
and mass round-ups of ille-
gal immigrants, Garcia said
he finds hope in Trump’s
message about fighting for
everyday Americans and
helping those in our own
backyard.
He said he wants to help
calm fears by reminding His-
panic community members
that Trump needs Congress
to approve many of his pro-
posals and that he ran his
candidacy on a pledge to
help the working class.
“I want to educate the
Latino community to be
optimistic and not have so
much fear,” he said.
Garcia said he also wants
to help the Hispanic Advi-
sory Committee be more
connected to the city coun-
cil, and to make sure the
committee is helping sup-
port “great” projects like
the new, free bus system in
town. He said he wanted to
keep fostering new leaders in
the Hispanic community and
encouraging them to be more
actively involved.
Garcia moved to Herm-
iston from Yakima in 1989
and said he really appreciat-
ed the growing opportunities
he had working as a drug and
alcohol addiction counselor
for Umatilla County when
he first came to town.
“I really thank the county
for the product I am today,”
he said.
He said people he worked
with in that job always told
him he needed to learn to say
no, because he would say yes
no matter what new project
or meeting was added to his
plate. But he can’t help being
a go-getter willing to tackle
any problem, he said.
He has been frustrated by
the last two Hispanic Advi-
sory Committee meetings
being canceled due to weath-
er, but plans to take the same
go-getter approach with the
committee.
“They say you can be part
of the problem or part of the
solution,” he said. “Today I
can tell you I’m part of the
solution.”
Rising painkiller abuse outpaces available treatment
Hermiston forum
explores chronic pain
and opioid abuse
By KATHY ANEY
Staff Writer
Dr. Chuck Hofmann
helps people addicted to
prescription painkillers find
their way back to normal
life. And he’s bringing what
he learned to Hermiston for
two forums this week.
The Baker physician runs
a clinic where he treats ad-
dicts with a medication called
buprenorphine to curb crav-
ings. Hofmann said many of
his patients got hooked on
prescription painkillers after
surgery or injuries.
Hofmann described the
recent metamorphosis of
one of his patients. The
young father was spending
every waking hour trying
to score drugs — first opi-
oids and then heroin, which
is cheaper. He lost a good
job. He spent time in jail.
After starting a regimen of
buprenorphine, under the
brand name Suboxone, and
undergoing counseling, he
has found himself again.
“He’s got his kids back.
In three months, he’ll have
a full-time job,” Hofmann
said. “From a provider’s
standpoint, it’s the most
LEARN
ABOUT PAIN
FOR THE PUBLIC
Pain relief forum
Thursday, Jan. 26, 6:30-9 p.m.
FOR MEDICAL PROVIDERS
Non-cancer pain manage-
ment forum
Friday, Jan. 27, 5-9 p.m.
Both at Good Shepherd
Medical Center
rewarding thing I’ve ever
done.”
Hofmann hopes other
providers can catch the vi-
sion and start offering med-
ically assisted therapies
(MAT), too. There simply
aren’t enough providers
who offer treatment. Many
opioid addicts can’t easily
access treatment without
driving long distances. The
few providers who offer
treatment in Eastern Ore-
gon are getting outpaced by
the epidemic.
The numbers are dis-
heartening. The Oregon
Health Authority reports
that more Oregonians die
from prescription opioids
than any other drug, in-
cluding alcohol, metham-
phetamines, heroin and
cocaine. An average of
three Oregonians overdose
on prescription painkillers
each week. Opioid abuse
has tripled since 2000 and
someone overdoses in the
U.S. about every 20 min-
utes. Oregon ranks highest
in non-medical use of pre-
scription painkillers in the
country. In 2014, a quarter
of Oregonians received a
prescription for an opioid.
All that translates into a
huge need for doctors, phy-
sician’s assistants and nurse
practitioners to join the ef-
fort by taking the required
training and applying for
necessary waivers.
Hofmann urged fellow
providers to attend upcom-
ing forums on non-cancer
pain management in Herm-
iston, Pendleton, Ontario
or La Grande. The semi-
nars offer free continuing
medical education credits,
funded by the Eastern Or-
egon Coordinated Care Or-
ganization and a state grant.
The first forum is Friday at
Good Shepherd Hospital,
Hermiston from 5-9 p.m.
Topics include talking
to patients about addiction,
the neuroanatomy and neu-
rochemistry of addiction,
pain schools, nondrug treat-
ment options and the role of
buprenorphine in treatment.
Other free forums, open
to the public, will ex-
plore acute versus chronic
pain, non-drug options for
chronic pain and the role
of psychosocial support in
chronic pain management.
The first is Thursday in
Hermiston. Register online
at www.eocco.com or call
Briona at 503-952-5010 or
email her at briona.camp-
bell@modahealth.com.
Staff Writer
Water and sewer rates
will increase in Hermiston
starting in March.
The city council unani-
mously approved the rate in-
creases Monday. Both water
and sewer rates will go up
5 percent in March 2017, 5
percent in October 2017 and
4.9 percent in March 2018.
Assistant city manager
Mark Morgan said the in-
creased revenue will help
pay for maintenance, “re-
mote-read” water meters
and de-watering equipment
for the wastewater treatment
plant.
Currently the city spends
$225,000 per year, including
two full-time employees, to
read water meters one by
one. Morgan said putting in
meters that send data to the
city automatically will put
that down to the equivalent
cost of one half-time em-
ployee. The meters are ex-
pected to pay for themselves
in about 7 years but not need
to be replaced for 15.
Besides saving the city
money and increasing em-
ployee safety, Morgan said
there will also be benefits
to the customers. They will
be able to track their daily
water usage, which could
be especially helpful for irri-
gators. The system will also
be much faster at catching
leaks or a running toilet, and
users can get a notification
on their phone if a sudden,
prolonged spike in usage in-
dicates a problem. Morgan
said he’s heard lots of sto-
ries of people being hit with
an unexpectedly huge wa-
ter bill because they didn’t
know for weeks that a pipe
was leaking into the ground.
“I went on a trip to Idaho
and my toilet was running
and I came back and my
water bill was twice what I
expected it to be,” he said.
On the sewer side, the
extra revenue will pay for
de-watering equipment that
will help more efficiently
take care of the solids fil-
tered out at the recycled wa-
ter treatment plant. The city
recently spent $1.4 million
emptying the lagoons where
the solid waste goes after it
is filtered out, and Morgan
said with the new treatment
plant’s stronger filtering
capabilities, that will now
need to happen every three
years.
“It’s filling the lagoon
much more quickly, and
that’s not something you
want to overflow,” he said.
The $1.5 million equip-
ment would reduce costs
down to $85,000 per year,
meaning the investment
would pay for itself in three
and a half years.
The rate adjustment the
council approved Monday
means the average water
user (at 11,220 gallons a
month) will go from $27.83
per month currently to
$29.22 in March, while the
average sewer user will go
from $23.56 per month to
$24.74 in March.
City councilor Doug
Smith said that while the
city understands that raising
rates are a hardship on peo-
ple, it also has decades-old
pipes that “look like Swiss
cheese” and it needs to save
up some money to fix them
before a major incident.
“We’re trying to do as
much as we possibly can
with as little as we possibly
can,” he said.
On Monday the city
council also approved new
parking spaces downtown.
As a “pilot program” for
changes in the future, the
council agreed to change
the parking spaces on the
north side of Gladys Ave-
nue between Second Street
and Third Street from par-
allel parking to diagonal
spaces.
The change — which
Morgan said was easily re-
versible if people don’t like
it — will add four new spac-
es in front of the library and
help address residents’ aver-
sion to parallel parking if the
parking lot is full.