NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Wyden talks mental health,
policing at virtual town hall
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Irrigation equipment waters a fi eld west of Echo on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. Morrow and
Umatilla counties are facing dry summers.
Morrow and Umatilla
counties declare drought
aging the county’s economy
and creating an increased
risk of wildfi res.
“If we get rain too late,
we can’t really recover,”
he said. “I think it’s still
at a stage where if we get
The Morrow County Umatilla County faces dry
rain, we’d have pretty good
Board of Commissioners has summer
recovery. But another week
The Umatilla County or two and we’re going to be
formally declared a drought
in the county and formally Board of Commissioners in beyond good recovery.”
asked Gov. Kate Brown for a Tuesday, April 20, meet-
Counties like Baker
ing moved unanimously to and Union have already
state support.
A letter from commis- declare a drought disaster declared a drought as much
sioners to Brown, dated in the county and asked that of Central and Eastern Ore-
April 28, describes
gon is experienc-
“RIGHT NOW, THERE’S ing either extreme or
conditions this year
as “severe” and pro-
drought con-
CATTLE FARMERS THAT severe
jected to continue.
ditions,
according
“There is a poten-
to
the
National
Oce-
ARE BEGINNING TO
tial for Morrow
anic and Atmospheric
HAVE TO BUY HAY
County agricultural
Administration.
and livestock, nat-
Umatilla County
BECAUSE OF NO EARLY Commissioner
ural resources, rec-
John
reational and tour-
GRASS, AND THAT’S A Shafer said he expects
ism, and related
even more counties
BIG WORRY.”
economies to expe-
to join Umatilla and
rience widespread
declare droughts in
and severe damage Umatilla County Commissioner Dan Dorran the coming weeks.
resulting in extreme
“As the summer
weather conditions in the Gov. Kate Brown and U.S. months are coming closer
County,” the letter stated. Agriculture Secretary Tom and closer, I think we’re
“The County is experienc- Vilsack follow suit.
going to see some serious
“We have a very large problems for our farmers and
ing negative impacts in
area in Umatilla County that I want to do everything we
agriculture.”
It asks that Brown issue is in the severe drought stage can to protect them,” he said.
an executive order declaring right now, with another
Despite the momen-
a drought in Morrow County equally large area in extreme tary relief brought by win-
and that state agencies, drought,” Umatilla County ter storms in February, the
including the Oregon Water Commissioner Dan Dorran month of March in Umatilla
Department, operate within said in the meeting, adding County was the sixth driest
their authority to assist the that “the rest of the county is on record in Pendleton and
county in mitigating damage either in abnormally dry or the second driest in Herm-
from the drought.
moderate drought.”
iston, according to Marilyn
Under Oregon Revised
Dorran said people in the Lohman, a hydrologist for
Statute 536, if the governor agriculture industry have the National Weather Ser-
issues an executive order been reaching out to him vice in Pendleton. Since the
stating that a county is expe- and voicing concerns over fi rst of October 2020, pre-
riencing a drought, it allows the current conditions.
cipitation in both Pendle-
for increased fl exibility in
“Right now, there’s cattle ton and Hermiston has been
how water is managed, and farmers that are beginning reported lower than normal.
gives farmers in that area to have to buy hay because
When interviewed near
a chance to apply for addi- of no early grass, and that’s the end of April, Lohman
tional aid.
a big worry,” Dorran said. said the month of April was
The resolution passed by “Dryland wheat farmers, shaping up to be one of the
the Morrow County Board where are they going to be driest on record, though rain
of Commissioners, declar- and what kind of moisture forecast for the fi nal week-
ing the drought on a county are they looking at? Are they end could shift that slightly.
level, states more than going to be able to sustain
“If it starts raining,
half the county is in severe the crops they have until the you’re going to hear the
drought and the rest is in next rain they get?”
farmers go, ‘That’s a mil-
moderate drought or abnor-
Don Wysocki, a soil sci- lion dollar rain,’” Shafer
mally dry conditions. If that entist for Oregon State Uni- said. “Because without it,
continues, the resolution versity based in Umatilla it’s going to cost them a lot
states, water users will have County, said this year’s of money, but with that rain
a signifi cantly shortened sea- wheat crop is in dire need of it’s going to bring in some
son for water access, dam- rain.
money.”
By JADE MCDOWELL
and BRYCE DOLE
STAFF WRITERS
Mental health issues
were top of mind for the
fi rst half of a virtual town
hall that Sen. Ron Wyden
held for Umatilla, Union
and Wallowa County res-
idents on Sunday, May 2.
Wyden broached the
topic during the fi rst ques-
tion of the day, asked
by Umatilla School Dis-
trict Superintendent Heidi
Sipe, about federal support
for students as the coun-
try rethinks “nearly every
aspect of education” fol-
lowing the pandemic.
Wyden addressed stan-
dardized testing, say-
ing that this year it seems
best for teachers to address
learning loss in the class-
room rather than taking
time out for standardized
testing this year. He said
schools will need addi-
tional funding to help stu-
dents catch up after lost
learning opportunities, and
pointed out the funding
included in the American
Rescue Plan for schools to
do just that through sum-
mer learning opportunities
and other strategies. He
said he is also concerned
about
students’ men-
tal health, and wanted to
see funding to adequately
address those needs, too.
“I am very troubled by
where we are with respect
to mental health services,
particularly for children,
(and) seniors in rural
areas,” he said. “The men-
tal health claims as a result
of the pandemic have gone
through the stratosphere.”
He revisited the topic
after a question by Uma-
tilla County Commis-
sioner George Murdock,
who said he was hear-
ing from police that they
want to “get out of the
mental health business”
and wanted to know what
Wyden was doing to
address that issue.
Wyden said he knows
that police don’t want to
be forced into acting as
mental health counselors,
but mental health profes-
sionals also don’t want to
be forced into acting as
police. So he is has been
pushing in the last year
for Congress to pass the
CAHOOTS Act, modeled
after a program started in
Eugene, that would fund
partnerships between law
enforcement and men-
tal health professionals
to form joint 24/7 crisis
response teams. One bil-
lion dollars in seed money
for a CAHOOTS-like pro-
gram reimbursed through
Medicaid was included in
the American Rescue Plan.
Wyden said the topic
is very personal for him,
because the Wyden house-
hold spent many years
worried about the safety
of his brother, who had
schizophrenia and was
often wandering the streets
late at night.
Murdock told Wyden
that Umatilla County is
very interested in partic-
ipating in a CAHOOTS
program, and has already
set aside hundreds of thou-
sands of local dollars in
the budget to be able to
jump on board when gets
started. Wyden said the
federal funding will be
channeled through the
states, and he hopes to
see rural communities
participate.
“I’m thrilled that East-
ern Oregon wants to be
the rural example for
CAHOOTS,” Wyden said,
Briana Spencer from
Pendleton asked about
what can be done to
increase racial equity in
rural Oregon, noting that
as a visible Black Lives
Matter activist in the
county, she has seen a lot
of racism coming her way.
Wyden said as chair-
man of the Senate Finance
Committee, the commit-
tee has tried to include a
focus on addressing racial
inequities in everything
it does. In talking about
banking, for example, he
said they have looked at
why Black and Latino
communities on average
have less access to capital.
“On the health care
front, a lot of our BIPOC
communities, as you know,
are almost health care des-
erts,” he said. “You know,
what we’ve got is fabulous
health care facilities in a
lot of communities, for
example, where affl uent
whites are, and then not
many services for Black
and Latino communities.”
One of the health care
disparities he has worked
to address, he said, is get-
ting additional Medicaid
funding to address mater-
nal mortality disparities.
According to data tracked
by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention,
Black mothers have 40.8
pregnancy related deaths
per 100,000 pregnancies,
compared to 12.7 deaths
per 100,000 for non-His-
panic white mothers.
During the town hall,
Wyden also addressed
questions on farming,
trade, natural resources,
unmanned aerial drone
ranges, student loan for-
giveness and voting. In
closing, Wyden described
a “love aff air” with East-
ern Oregon, and said he
wants to send a message
that he opposes the idea
voiced recently that some
people want to see East-
ern Oregon absorbed by
Idaho.
“We are not giving up
Eastern Oregon. It’s not
going to happen on my
watch,” he said.
A recording of the full
town hall can be found on
the People’s Town Hall
Facebook page.
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