Rogue Valley News, Tuesday 5/17 – Jackson and Josephine Fire Agencies Complete Three Day Wildfire Readiness Exercise, Medford School District Seeks Feedback On New School Boundaries

The latest news stories of interest in the Rogue Valley and around the state of Oregon from the digital home of Southern Oregon, Wynne Broadcasting’s RogueValleyMagazine.com

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Rogue Valley Weather

Jackson and Josephine Fire Agencies Complete Three Day Wildfire Readiness Exercise

Fire agencies from Josephine and Jackson counties wrapped up day three of their annual Wildfire Readiness Exercise in the Murphy/Grants Pass area on Monday afternoon.

Units from Rural Metro Fire, Grants Pass Fire, Illinois Valley Fire, Jackson County Fire District #1, Applegate Fire District #9 and Williams Fire Department participated in the exercise the weekend of May 14-16.

Brandon Rigaud, Battalion Chief for Grants Pass Fire and Rescue, said that this exercise is usually done in June or July, but with fire season coming sooner every year, the agencies chose to do it now, especially as May is Wildfire Awareness Month.

“The actual exercise provides them the ability to practice firefighter skills so they’re actually deploying hose packs, digging line and doing line construction and urban interface structure protection,” Riguad said.

Crews practiced fire shelter deployment and command staff simulated setting up incident organization, command structure and communicating over radios.

“It’s really important to us because we get the opportunity to work together; agencies who don’t always get to see each other get to work together, prior to fire being in the environment,” Riguad explained. “It’s a really good piece for us to outreach to the community to show them that their firefighters are ready for fires when they do happen.”

Homeowners in the Murphy/Grants Pass area gave the fire agencies permission to use their property during the exercise.

The simulated fire was marked by red and white striped tape on the properties to allow a safe and effective way of practicing fighting a fast-spreading wildfire.

“I think this was a really good way to shake the rust off from last season if anybody developed that over the off-season and just get ready for whatever’s going to happen,” said recruit firefighter for Rural Metro Fire, Danielle Hauser.

Hauser added that the priorities of incidents are constantly changing during a fire. Her biggest takeaways from the exercise were practicing dynamic flexibility throughout the rapid deployment, wrapping up, and moving to the next place.

To make sure all regions are covered and fires have enough people working a scene, fire crews support one another in a strategy known as mutual aid. This exercise allowed them to work together and learn from each other ahead of a real fire.

The community of homes used were all firewise, meaning the homeowners have taken steps to make their homes more defensible to fires such as clearing brush and reducing lighter fuels.

Riguad said there are three important steps that homeowners can do to prep for fire season and make their homes and themselves safer.

“The first is to always have an evacuation plan and if there is a fire in their community, evacuate early. When people are trying to evacuate while we’re fighting fire, it makes it more difficult for us to get units in there,” Riguad said.

The second: do fuels mitigation prior to a fire occurring such as thinning trees. The third: contact your local fire department to find out about firewise programs. Rigaud added that while he does not know when fire season will start, local firefighters are prepared to battle wildfires at any time.

Medford School District Seeks Feedback On New School Boundaries

The district is looking to finalize new attendance zones for the city.

Medford School District leaders met at the construction site of the new Oakdale Middle School, just south of downtown on Monday. Adding an additional middle school to the district means revamping the attendance boundaries.

With the opening of Oakdale Middle School, the Medford School District is zeroing in on a plan to re-zone the school boundaries and is seeking feedback from parents and guardians during a comment period this month.

The new middle school opening fall of 2023 will allow all sixth-graders to move up, (excluding Ruch Outdoor Community School) freeing space in elementary schools, the district said.

The district began the process of redrawing the boundaries in 2019, but had to stop when the pandemic began. Having reconvened, the committee submitted an initial recommendation May 5 and will take all the public feedback to make a final recommendation to the board.

The school board is seeking feedback from the community Thursday night on the latest proposal, which seeks to balance the populations of the schools and maintain racial and economic diversity.

The opportunity for public feedback at the Medford School Board Hearing at 5:30 pm on May 19, 2022 at North Medford High School.

The committee’ priorities when analyzing potential attendance zones are as follows:

  • Capacity: reasonably equal for each middle school.
  • Continuity of feeder patterns: Cohorts stay largely intact (as much as possible).
  • Equitable student populations and opportunities at each school.
  • Community voice throughout the process.

Click here to view the rezoning committee charter, which includes detailed information about the process.

The board hopes to finalize the new boundaries in June to prepare for the opening of Oakdale Middle School in fall of 2023.

Josephine County 2022 Police Memorial

This year National Police Week is May 15th thru May 21st, 2022.  Every year during this time, ceremonies are held to honor fallen Officers. 

Historically we have hosted a ceremony at the Josephine County Courthouse however the event will not take place this year.  It is however, very important that we remember and honor those members of our law enforcement family who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the performance of their duties. 

Law Enforcement Officers Killed While Serving Josephine County

Oregon State Police

Trooper Burrell Baucom died July 1, 1933 when he was shot and killed on N. Pacific Hwy. by two suspects operating a stolen motor vehicle. Subsequent to Trooper Baucom’s death, a monument was placed at that location in his memory and the highway was named Monument Drive. The monument has since been moved to the northbound Manzanita rest area.

Josephine County Sheriff’s Office

Emmett J. Blackmun, Captain of Search and Rescue, was killed coming home from a search on Deer Creek Road on September 24, 1968. His pickup truck went over an embankment. He was killed in the crash.

Alice Moran, a Corrections Deputy, died in an airplane crash on November 17, 1971. As a recently hired matron for the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office, she was transporting witnesses from Salem to testify in a local criminal case. The airplane crashed on the western slope of Walker Mountain, which is located three miles northeast of Grants Pass, Oregon.

Glenn Allen, a Corrections Deputy, died in an airplane crash on November 17, 1971. Deputy Glenn Allen, a corrections deputy for 3 years, was transporting witnesses from Salem to testify in a local criminal case. The airplane crashed on the western slope of Walker Mountain which is located three miles northeast of Grants Pass, Oregon.

Marvin R. Brewster, Sergeant, died early on the evening of April 21, 1972. Sergeant Brewster’s vehicle collided with a log truck near Murphy, Oregon. Sergeant Brewster died at the scene of the accident. He was serving as a resident deputy in the Williams area. He was a six year veteran with the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office.

Tom Rice, Deputy, Marine Patrol, died in a helicopter crash on May 23, 2002. Deputy Rice was a passenger in a helicopter that was searching the Rogue River for a missing woman. The helicopter hit a cable that crossed the river, causing the death of Deputy Rice and the pilot. Deputy Rice was a nine year veteran of the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office.

I ask you to stop and take a moment to recognize the ultimate sacrifice that these individuals have made. Each and every day men and women in law enforcement leave their homes knowing full well this day could be the last time they see their families, yet they continue with this seemingly ordinary act of bravery.  Please recognize this bravery and the level of sacrifice placed upon the families or our fallen brothers and sisters.     Josephine Co. Sheriff’s Office

We want to keep you informed about COVID-19 in Oregon. Data are provisional and change frequently. This report covers the three-day period from May 13 to May 15, 2022. Visit our dashboard, linked below, and hover over the new cases graph to view new presumptive and confirmed case numbers reported to OHA by date. For more information, including COVID-19 data by county, visit our dashboard: http://ow.ly/cNGB50J9om6

Screen shot of linked dashboard shows an increase trend in cases, test positivity and hospitalizations. Vaccinations have plateaued. Please visit healthoregon.org/coronavirus for more information.

State health officials are urging schools across Oregon to return to COVID-19 safety measures as cases of COVID-19 begin to increase again. Six counties — including the tri-county metro area — saw their COVID-19 levels rise from low to medium this past week. Cases in the metro area are up more than 40 percent from woo weeks ago. State health officials say schools should reinstate masking policies before returning to remote learning again.

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Important Election Information

Registered voters in Oregon who have yet to vote in the May primary can choose between several options Tuesday to cast their ballot.

Voters can, for the first time in state history, mail their ballots as late as Election Day and have them count, as long as they are postmarked Tuesday. Up until 8 p.m., voters can also drop their ballot off at their county elections office or an official drop site.  This link on the Secretary of State’s website will help locate drop boxes near you.

  • May 17, 2022 – County Clerk’s office open 7 am – 8 pm. Official dropsites open until 8 pm, for minimum of 8 hours. (Primary Election)
  • May 17, 2022 – Last day to file write-in declaration or write-in nomination for precinct committeeperson. Must be filed no later than 8 pm. (Primary Election)
  • May 17, 2022 – Last day for voter to return ballot. Ballots that are mailed must be postmarked by election day. Ballots deposited in an official drop box must be received by 8 pm on election day. (May Election)

MORE INFO: https://sos.oregon.gov/elections/Pages/election-information.aspx

Oregon Being Sued Over Failure To Provide Public Defenders

Criminal defendants in Oregon who have gone without legal representation for long periods of time amid a critical shortage of public defense attorneys filed a lawsuit Monday that alleges the state violated their constitutional right to legal counsel and a speedy trial.

The complaint, which seeks class-action status, was filed as state lawmakers and the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services struggle to address the huge shortage of public defenders statewide.

The crisis has led to the dismissal of dozens of cases and left an estimated 500 defendants statewide — including several dozen in custody on serious felonies — without legal representation. Crime victims are also impacted because cases are taking longer to reach resolution, a delay that experts say extends their trauma, weakens evidence and erodes confidence in the justice system, especially among low-income and minority groups.

“There is a public defense crisis raging across this country,” said Jason D. Williamson, executive director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at New York University School of Law, who helped prepare the filing. “But Oregon is among only a handful of states that is now entirely depriving people of their constitutional right to counsel on a daily basis, leaving countless indigent defendants without access to an attorney for months at a time.”

The lawsuit specifically names Gov. Kate Brown and Stephen Singer, the recently appointed executive director of the state’s public defense agency, and asks for a court injunction ordering criminal defendants to be released if they can’t be provided with an attorney in a reasonable period of time. The lawsuit doesn’t specify what would be considered “reasonable.”

Singer said he could not comment until he had fully reviewed the lawsuit. Brown’s office declined to comment on pending litigation.

Oregon’s system to provide attorneys for criminal defendants who can’t afford them was underfunded and understaffed before COVID-19, but a significant slowdown in court activity during the pandemic pushed it to a breaking point. A backlog of cases is flooding the courts and defendants routinely are arraigned and then have their hearing dates postponed up to two months in the hopes a public defender will be available later.

A report by the American Bar Association released in January found Oregon has 31% of the public defenders it needs. Every existing attorney would have to work more than 26 hours a day during the workweek to cover the caseload, the authors said.

Public defenders warned that the system was on the brink of collapse before the pandemic.

In 2019, some attorneys even picketed outside the state Capitol for higher pay and reduced caseloads. But lawmakers didn’t act and months later, COVID-19 crippled the courts. There were no felony or misdemeanor jury trials in April 2020 and access to the court system was greatly curtailed for months, with only limited in-person proceedings and remote services provided.

The situation is more complicated than in other states because Oregon’s public defender system is the only one in the nation that relies entirely on contractors. Cases are doled out to either large nonprofit defense firms, smaller cooperating groups of private defense attorneys that contract for cases or independent attorneys who can take cases at will.

Now, some of those large nonprofit firms are periodically refusing to take new cases because of the overload. Private attorneys — they normally serve as a relief valve where there are conflicts of interest — are increasingly also rejecting new clients because of the workload, poor pay rates and late payments from the state.

Governor Brown Discusses Oregon Wildfire Season

As Oregon approaches wildfire season, Governor Kate Brown held a news conference Monday with several fire officials to discuss how the state is getting prepared. Wildfires are becoming more of a threat across the Pacific Northwest, and Oregon has faced several challenging fire seasons over the past few years.

As summer approaches forecasters say Central Oregon has the highest fire risk. The outlook shows above-normal fire risk spreading across the state as the season progresses.

Gov. Kate Brown said Monday that last year’s passage of Senate Bill 762 has allowed the state to add additional seasonal firefighters in preparation for the drier months and purchase more aircraft. Hiring enough firefighters has proven a challenge nationwide this year.

May is Wildfire Prevention Month and ODOT and Keep Oregon Green want to make sure your summer memories don’t include starting a wildfire. Over 70% of wildfires are caused by people and in Oregon last year, cars were the number one source of wildfires during the summer months.

With persistent and deepening drought conditions, we’re all becoming more aware of the potential wildfire dangers our vehicles pose. And that means we all need to remember the lessons about how to make sure our vehicles don’t cause devastating wildfires.

The wildfire risk gradually increases as grasses cure, forests dry out and winds give accidental sparks or car fires the ability to spread quickly. Remember, we all have a role in preventing wildfires in Oregon, especially as extended drought conditions create a greater window of opportunity for roadside ignitions.

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Klamath County Sheriff’s Office Asks for Public’s Help in Search For Trucker Suspect

The first real clue to come in on all the missing person cases in the area. Help Klamath Falls Oregon Sheriff Office ID this trucker. He was the last to see this woman alive and could be the key to not only solving this woman’s disappearance but a number of the hundred other women missing in PNW. IF you have any information, please call (541) 883-5130

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Have-You-Seen-Me-Southern-Oregons-Missing-People-161249961222839/posts/

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