Rogue Valley News, Wednesday 8/9 – Jackson County Employees Clean up White City Park, Another Illegal Grow Bust in Josephine County

Oregon Housing and Community Services awards $38.7 million to six permanent supportive housing developments across the state

SALEM, OR – The Oregon Housing Stability Council approved $38.7 million in Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) funding to six affordable housing developments across the state. These investments from Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) will provide 227 homes for people experiencing chronic homelessness or who need supportive services in addition to housing.

Permanent supportive housing is housing with on-site services connecting resident to food resources, transportation, employment, behavioral health support, and more. Rental assistance is also provided for individuals and families.

“Housing is at the intersection of everything,” says OHCS Director, Andrea Bell. “In centering the needs of Oregonians, we and partners across the state are continuing to work together to deliver results in building more affordable housing. This remains our focus.”

This was a competitive application process. OHCS received a total of nine applications, amounting to $40 million in PSH funding requests, greater than the available capital. OHCS is grateful to the internal and external scoring committees for their diligent evaluation of the applications. After careful review, six projects emerged for funding recommendation.

The developments receiving awards include:

The objective of OHCS’ PSH Program is to expand the state’s supply of affordable housing designed to serve households experiencing chronic homelessness. This successful housing method is a cost-effective measure shown to increase housing stability and improve health. PSH reduces public reliance on crisis services while ensuring people who previously experienced homelessness now have dignified housing options.

“By approving these funding recommendations, OHCS is taking a crucial step forward in addressing the pressing housing needs for people experiencing homelessness,” said Bell. “The PSH program helps provide more safe and secure places where individuals can reach their true potential.”

For more detailed information about each recommended project, please refer to the Housing Stability Council packet from Aug. 4, 2023.

Firefighters are busy after 191 lightning strikes hit the Umpqua National Forest last Thursday and Friday and started eleven fires.

Most of the lightning strikes hit near Diamond Lake. Firefighters were sent to all of the fires, and they have been contained or controlled. There are currently no closures in place because of the fires. Fire danger remains very high in the area and they’re asking people using the forests to take all precautions to avoid starting human caused fires.

Secretary Of State Will Disqualify Legislators With 10 Unexcused Absences From Running In 2024

Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, said Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023 he will sue over the secretary of state’s decision to exclude most Republican state senators from running for a new term. (Ben Botkin/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

The Oregon secretary of state said Tuesday that Republican state senators who had at least 10 unexcused absences during this year’s session will not be eligible to run in 2024.

LaVonne Griffin-Valade, who was recently appointed secretary, said in a statement she has directed her office to implement an administrative rule making it clear to legislators that Measure 113 will prevent them from running for a subsequent term. The measure was passed by voters in 2022 intending to end the walkouts by minority parties that have dogged the Legislature for years.

“It is clear voters intended Measure 113 to disqualify legislators from running for reelection if they had 10 or more unexcused absences in a legislative session,” said Griffin-Valade. “My decision honors the voters’ intent by enforcing the measure the way it was commonly understood when Oregonians added it to our state constitution.”

Almost all of the 12 Republican senators and one Independent joined the walkout over controversial bills, nearly stymying the session as it dragged on for six weeks. Ten accumulated at least 10 absences: Sens. Tim Knopp, R-Bend; Lynn Findley, R-Vale; Bill Hansell, R-Athena; Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer; Art Robinson, R-Cave Junction; Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook; Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles; Cedric Hayden, R-Fall Creek; Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls; and Brian Boquist, I-Dallas.

The Republicans ended their protest after Democrats agreed to water down bills on gender-affirming care and guns and refer a measure to the ballot to allow the Legislature to impeach statewide elected officials.

If those whose terms are ending are excluded from running next year, it would likely shift the makeup at least in the state Senate, potentially bringing in neophytes without much experience writing and negotiating bills and maneuvering in the Legislature.

It also could widen the majority of Democrats, who fell short in both chambers this year of having a supermajority that would allow them to pass new taxes without Republican support.

The 10 senators who are potentially barred from running represent one-third of the 30-member Senate.

Several Republican senators, including Knopp and Sen. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, have called the measure poorly worded and threatened to sue.

The measure states that 10 or more unexcused absences “shall disqualify the member from holding office as a senator or representative for the term following the election after the member’s current term is completed.”

Republicans have quibbled with the timeline on when they would be disqualified. They say they’d be excluded from running the term after the next one. That interpretation would mean that those up for a new term in 2024 could run next year but not in 2028.

But Griffin-Valade said the explanatory statement in the voters guide on Measure 113, court documents and even news stories back her interpretation. When interpreting ballot measures, the courts have looked at the intent, she said.

“Voters universally understood Measure 113 would prohibit legislators who accumulate 10 or more unexcused absences during a legislative session from holding office in the immediate next term,” the release said.

A secretary of state lawyer, who advised Griffin-Valade on the measure’s language, said in a memo obtained by the Capital Chronicle that “once a chamber has determined that a member has the requisite number of unexcused absences during a legislative session, the provision operates to disqualify that member from the following term of office. Accordingly, the secretary may use her preexisting statutory authority to reject candidacy filings from those persons.”

But Knopp disagreed. In a statement Tuesday, he attacked Griffin-Valade’s decision, saying she was quashing “the free speech of the minority.”

“We believe the plain language of Measure 113 allows for members to run again in 2024 elections,” Knopp said. We disagree with the secretary of state’s determination and will challenge it in court.”

Knopp also lashed out at Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, saying his response to the walkout was “unlawful and unconstitutional” and that Wagner retaliated against Republicans by refusing to accept excuses for absences. The Senate president decides whether an excuse is legitimate.

“Wagner was quick to impose unexcused absences on members who challenged his failed leadership,” Knopp said.

A spokesman for Wagner declined to comment on Knopp’s statement and referred a reporter to the party’s Senate Democratic Leadership Fund, saying it’s an election matter.

That organization also declined to comment.

Wagner denied requests by Sen. Cedric Hayden, R-Fall City, asking to be excused from Senate floor sessions for religious services and to take care of his disabled daughter. He has filed complaints with the Bureau of Labor and Industries and the Legislative Equity Office against Wagner, saying his denials violated his religious freedom .

Hayden has asked the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for advice on how to legally solicit funds to cover attorney costs without violating ethics laws for a potential lawsuit. (SOURCE)

Oceans around the world are hotter than ever before in the record-keeping era and those high temps have now reached the Pacific Northwest.

Colin McCarthy, an atmospheric scientist and extreme weather influencer tweeted that “[o]ne of the most intense marine heatwaves on Earth has developed off the West Coast of the US, with water temperatures peaking nearly 5°C (9°F) above normal.”

The marine heatwave off the coasts of Oregon and Washington has reached “extreme” levels, an event that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ranks a Category 4 on a scale of 5.

In the Pacific Northwest, those immediate impacts include higher temperatures on land, algal blooms off the coast, and warmer rivers. The water temperature in Astoria where the Columbia River meets the Pacific was 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday — nearly 2.5 degrees higher than average, according to NOAA.

As Oregon faces a mental health crisis, state leaders ask for patience as they tackle problems

Gov. Tina Kotek, who signed six bills on behavioral health that were passed by the Legislature, says more work needs to be done

State leaders, from Gov. Tina Kotek to prosecutors to public school educators, are waging a war.

Hundreds of Oregonians are dying every year from fentanyl and opioid overdoses, from teenagers to elderly Oregonians. Others wait in jail cells with pending charges before they can go to Oregon State Hospital for court-ordered mental health treatment. And still others need treatment for an addiction or behavioral health conditions and cannot find a residential facility with room to serve them.

Some of the foot soldiers in the war – legislators, advocates and others – gathered with Kotek on Tuesday for a ceremonial signing of six bills. At the core of the bills is a goal to save lives. The legislation will make opioid overdose reversal medication more available, expand fentanyl drug education in public schools and start a 40-cent phone line tax for the 988 state hotline and mobile crisis response teams that help people in crises.

Yet the state’s work remains unfinished and leaders recognize that Oregon needs to do more as deaths pile up. In 2021, 745 Oregonians died from opioid overdoses, nearly triple the number in 2019, according to Oregon Health Authority data.

“I also want to take a moment to speak directly to Oregonians who are struggling with substance abuse, a mental health challenge, or in a lot of cases both,” Kotek said. “I want Oregonians to know that your state – my office – wants to help. We are here. We are trying to make sense of how we can best help you no matter where you live, no matter what you can afford. And we want to make sure that those services are going to be there when you need help.”

Unfinished work

One part of that system is the Oregon State Hospital, the state-run psychiatric residential facility where people with pending criminal charges go for treatment so they can aid in their defense in court. The state hospital has faced challenges for years in admitting patients from county jails in a timely fashion amid staffing shortages and complaints from workers about safety.

Asked about unfinished work, Kotek said the state hospital needs a better staffing system.

“They need to be funded for a 24/7 staffing model that allows them to do their work, but also be in a workplace that supports them,” Kotek said. “And that is an ongoing conversation with the Legislature.”

Leaders ask for patience

Oregon’s fight against drug addiction has shifted in recent years. Measure 110, the voter-passed ballot measure of 2020, decriminalized low-level drug possession, with the goal of putting more money toward addiction recovery services to help the state’s beleaguered behavioral health system serve more people.

In that vein, Kotek signed House Bill 2513, which is intended to strengthen the measure by increasing staffing and smoothing out the application process to get money to programs efficiently.

“Give this measure a chance and the time that it needs,” said Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland and chair of the House Behavioral Health and Health Care Committee. “We are only less than a year into actual implementation. And we have given the war on drugs over half a century and we know that that has not worked.”

The measure passed with a slim majority and critics, including police and Republican lawmakers, say it’s failed and needs to be overturned.

But Democrats say it’s starting to have an effect.

Nosse pointed to an Oregon Health Authority’s quarterly report that shows that addiction treatment services have grown in recent months, with more money to help detox centers, housing and other services.

Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt was among those present. In an interview with the Capital Chronicle, he said he supported House Bill 2395, which expands access to naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses, making it more available to first responders, schools and others. He said he testified before lawmakers about the bill after he met with a resident who lost her son to fentanyl.

“We need to do life-saving measures,” he said. “Start there, keep people alive, so that they can go to treatment. If they’re not alive, the treatment is not going to help.”

Schmidt, who supported Measure 110, said the benefits are starting to emerge, like a new treatment center in Multnomah County: Quest Center for Integrative Health. Measure 110 funding helped the center centralize its services and increase its capacity to take 500 new clients. (SOURCE)

If you’ve always wanted to purchase a home in the Bend, Redmond area, be forewarned- it won’t be cheap.

You might say that record-breaking home sales prices in Bend are getting to be … a broken record. Not every month, but often enough to fuel its symbolic marker for the conversation over how to keep housing in the area from getting farther out of reach for so many.

The July report from Redmond’s Beacon Appraisal group said Bend’s single-family home median sales price in July rose by $15,000 to a record $800,000, a milestone that’s nearly $40,000 more than the peak a year ago. Appraiser Donnie Montagner noted that nearly a third of last month’s 141 Bend home sales were for $1 million or higher.

The number of sales, however, is down to 141 for July, off 31 from a month earlier and 34 fewer than July of last year. Days on market for sold properties dropped to just nine days, about the same as a year ago

There’s still a two-month supply of homes on the market overall, but Montagner noted an increase in some price ranges – as the $1.6 million to $1.8 million category is nearly a five-month supply and above $1.8 million is nearly a six-month supply.

Redmond also rose to a milestone, with a median home sales price of $500,000, though that’s still $42,000 lower than last summer’s record level. Redmond home sales dropped a bit, to 66 in July. Sold properties are on the market for about two weeks on average, and Redmond also has two months of housing inventory.

American Idol Auditions At Oregon State Fair – Performers need to pre-register and submit their audition videos by August 15th

If you have what it takes to be an American Idol you can showcase your talent at the Oregon State Fair. American Idol is bringing auditions to the Fair on Saturday, August 26th.

Performers need to pre-register and submit their audition videos by August 15th. The top 40 performers will showcase their talents at the Oregon State Fair Idol competition.

Fairgoers will choose the People’s Choice Audition Award winner who will be submitted to American Idol for a virtual VIP Executive Producer Audition. MORE INFO: https://oregonstatefair.org/attractions/american-idol-auditions/

Safe Digging Day Reminds Oregonians About Importance of Free 811 Service

This Friday, August 11, is National Safe Digging Day – also known as National 811 Day. The annual observance exists to raise awareness about contacting 811 before beginning a digging or excavation project. The Oregon Utility Notification Center, which oversees the statewide call or click before you dig program, and the Oregon Public Utility Commission are reminding Oregonians that using the free service can save money and lives.

“Everyone knows to call 911 in case of emergency, but not everyone knows to contact 811 before digging so they won’t have to call 911 later,” said Josh Thomas, Executive Director of the Oregon Utility Notification Center. “By planning ahead and requesting a utility locate, you can prevent service interruptions, costly repairs, environmental damage, injuries, and worse.”

According to the Common Ground Alliance, nearly two out of five U.S. homeowners dig without requesting the free 811 locate service beforehand, and the estimated annual cost of damages to underground utilities nationally is $30 billion. To protect critical infrastructure and ensure public safety, the Oregon Legislature created the Oregon Utility Notification Center back in 1995.

Today, Oregon’s statewide notification center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and free of charge for homeowners, contractors, and professional excavators. Requests for utility locates must be made two business days before a project but not more than 10 days in advance. Dig sites are then marked with color-coded spray paint to avoid hitting underground pipes and wires.

“It’s the next best thing to having x-ray vision,” said Thomas. “When it comes to construction and home improvement projects, whether the job is large or small, it always pays to know what’s below.”

For more information about the Oregon Utility Notification Center or the statewide Oregon 811 system, go to Oregon811.com.

# # # B Roll Excavating and Locating (vimeo.com)

In 1995, the Oregon Legislature created the Oregon Utility Notification Center (OUNC) to establish a statewide notification system to protect contractors, the general public and buried utilities from damages or injuries caused by excavation activities (ORS 757.547). The free service ensures that operators of underground facilities are notified of proposed excavation so the utilities can be located and marked in advance. For more information about the OUNC or the statewide notification system, go to Oregon811.com.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) regulates customer rates and services of the state’s investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities. The PUC also regulates landline telephone providers and select water companies. The PUC’s mission is to ensure Oregonians have access to safe, reliable, and fairly priced utility services that advance state policy and promote the public interest. We use an inclusive process to evaluate differing viewpoints and visions of the public interest and arrive at balanced, well-reasoned, independent decisions supported by fact and law. For more information about the PUC, visit oregon.gov/puc.

Red Cross: Donation shortfall may impact blood supply

$10 e-gift card for donors in August

— The American Red Cross has seen a shortfall of about 25,000 blood donations in the first two months of the summer, which makes it hard to keep hospital shelves stocked with lifesaving blood products. By making an appointment to give blood or platelets in August, donors can keep the national blood supply from falling to shortage levels. 

Right now, the Red Cross especially needs type O negative, type O positive, type B negative and type A negative blood donors, as well as platelet donors. For those who don’t know their blood type, making a donation is an easy way to find out this important personal health information. The Red Cross will notify new donors of their blood type soon after they give.

The Red Cross needs donors now. Schedule an appointment to give by downloading the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

All who come to give throughout the month of August will get a $10 e-gift card to a movie merchant of their choice. Details are available at RedCrossBlood.org/Movie.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities Aug. 16-31:

August 16

VFW #1324 Oregon City, 104 S Tumwater Dr., Oregon City, OR, 12:30 PM – 6:00 PM

OHSU Rood Family Pavilion, 3410 S Bond Avenue, Portland, OR, 12:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Blood Donation Center, 815 SW Bond St., Suite 110, Bend, OR, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

The Terrace, 1200 Mira Mar, Medford, OR, 8:30 AM – 02:00 PM

August 18

State & County Offices, 1300 NW Wall Street, Bend, OR, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Medford Blood Donation Center, 1174 Progress Dr., Suite 102, Medford, OR, 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM

August 19

West Linn Lutheran Church, 20390 Willamette Drive, West Linn, OR, 8:00 AM – 1:30 PM

AC Hotel by Marriott Beaverton, 15705 NW Blueridge Dr., Beaverton, OR, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Blood Donation Center, 5109 NE 82nd Ave., Vancouver, WA, 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM

August 21

Beaverton Hoop YMCA, 9685 SW Harvest Court, Beaverton, OR, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Blood Donation Center, 3131 N Vancouver Avenue, Portland, OR, 1:30 PM -7:30 PM

August 24

Mt Park Clubhouse, 2 Mt Jefferson Terrace, Lake Oswego, OR, 10:00 AM – 03:00 PM

Lloyd Center Mall, 2201 Lloyd Center, Portland, OR, 12:00 PM – 05:30 PM

Cascade Park Community Library, 600 NE 136th Ave., Vancouver, WA, 10:00AM – 3:00

Blood Donation Center, 1174 Progress Dr., Suite 102, Medford, OR, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM

August 25

Blood Donation Center, 3131 N Vancouver Ave., Portland, OR, 7:30 AM – 1:30 PM

Visit www.redcrossblood.org and put in your zip code to find a donation site near you.

How to donate blood 

To make an appointment, simply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enable the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device to make an appointment or for more information. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

Amplify your impact − volunteer!

A stable blood and platelet supply is critical to national preparedness. Additionally, as we approach the beginning of what is expected to be another active hurricane season, the Red Cross urges everyone to get ready now and consider becoming a volunteer to help people affected by the growing number of climate-driven disasters.

Support impacted communities by assisting at Red Cross shelters, using your professional skills as a licensed health care provider or becoming a member of the Red Cross Disaster Action Team. To learn more, visit redcross.org/volunteertoday.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood and is the primary blood supplier to 65 hospitals throughout Washington and Oregon; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org/Oregon or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCrossCasc.