New Oregon Program Pays Parents to Care for Kids with Intensive Medical, Behavioral Needs — But Few Can Access It
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In Oregon the Children’s Extraordinary Needs waiver allows parents to be paid for up to 20 hours of care per week that they provide for their children with severe disabilities. Just 155 families at a time can participate, though 10 times as many qualify.
By Kevin Opsahl
While a series of longtime Ashland restaurants recently closed, local business leaders say the health of the industry can’t be painted with a broad brush.
fluids through a feeding tube to her son
who requires daily medical care after being born prematurely at 29 weeks. Malachi has had outside care workers, but says he prefers his mother to care for him because she knows him best.
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Keeping Calm or Sounding the Alarm
Both JPR and NPR get plenty of feedback from listeners. This feedback runs the gamut from wild, expletive laden rants to well-reasoned, thoughtful critiques of our work.
At the national level, NPR employs a public editor to evaluate the feedback it receives and respond to it after researching the validity of criticism related to both specific stories and the overall tone and tenor of NPR’s journalism.
A recent post by NPR public editor Kelly McBride caught my eye. In a piece called “Questioning public faith in elections,” McBride responds to NPR listener Lance Brown who wrote to NPR in early October:
“I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the “Business as usual” and “Everything is normal” attitude expressed by (host) Scott Detrow and (correspondent) Miles Parks in their All Things Considered segment that aired on October 5th, 2024. While they do call out the largest lies told by former President Trump and the Republican Party, they act as if the massive disinformation campaign and outright lies being promulgated to generate fear in the (Republican) base is normal, runof-the-mill electioneering. It is not. I am saddened to see NPR accepting this framing of the situation and working within it instead of shattering that frame and calling out the liars and fear mongers for what they are. Instead, the speakers calmly discuss what’s happening as if it is usual. Everyone, especially journalists, should be alarmed by the false narratives being pushed on a credulous public and pushing back on them. They should be defending the truth instead of letting it be swept away in a torrent of false statements.”
In her response to Brown’s feedback, McBride notes that his perspective is similar to other criticism NPR has received about a range of topics, writing “When you are distressed over events, whether it’s climate change, reproductive rights or the war between Israel and Palestinians, there is a measure of comfort in getting your news from a source that can match your agitation.”
McBride explains that NPR does not take an alarmist approach to covering the news, instead seeking “to be a common denominator of calm through measured reporting.”
To provide context, McBride interviewed Miles Parks, NPR’s voting correspondent, who’s covered the election beat full-time since 2017, and its chief Washington desk editor Krishnadev Calamur.
Parks told McBride that his calm tone on the radio is deliberate. “I don’t think it’s really sustainable to be screaming every single day about everything,” he said. “I’ve found a more effective strategy is to talk to the people who are actually impacted by these lies and see how it’s impacting them.” McBride notes that Parks’ reporting has directly called out lies on election fraud claims by Republicans, outlined the party’s deliberate disinformation strategy, and has clearly set the record straight. He has also frequently reported that Trump and Republicans are devising a plan to challenge the legitimacy of the election if they lose.
Washington desk editor Krishnadev Calamur acknowledged that, while the concerted effort to undermine public faith in elections is unnerving, it’s not NPR’s job to alarm listeners, but rather to dispassionately establish the facts. “It’s the citizen’s job to get alarmed about whether they think elections are compromised or not,” he said.
Covering the 2024 election continues to be a wild ride for both journalists and news organizations. Here at JPR, and across the NPR Network, we’ll continue to ground our coverage in facts, identify and call out disinformation, and take a disciplined approach to our work that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards.
Paul Westhelle is JPR’s Executive Director.
New Oregon Program Pays Parents to Care for Kids with Intensive Medical, Behavioral Needs — But Few Can Access It
By KAYLEE TORNAY
Shasta Kearns Moore helps lead the group Advocates for Disability Supports, which is pushing for parents to be paid for the complex care they provide for their children who have intensive medical and behavioral health needs. On July 1, a new program made pay available to parents of 155 of these children at a time, though more than 1,500 may qualify.
Parents say limited pay, and a long waitlist are restricting the program’s effectiveness
Calli Ross’s son Tennyson was assigned a number this summer. It’s 136. So was Paige Hall’s son James. He’s 156. And Shasta Kearns Moore’s son Malachi is 1,151.
The numbers, which top out at 1,349, mark the spot that each boy occupies on the waitlist to qualify for a new Medicaid program in Oregon: the Children’s Extraordinary Needs waiver, which allows parents to be paid for up to 20 hours of care per week that they provide for their children with severe disabilities. Just 155 families at a time can participate, though 10 times as many qualify.
That means hundreds of families face a potentially years long wait to see if their child’s name will come up. In the meantime, those parents face a difficult but familiar choice: to keep seeking outside help that the state will pay for, which is in short supply and not always suited to their children’s needs, or to provide the care themselves, unpaid.
The Children’s Extraordinary Needs program , which kicked off July 1, represents a historic step forward to the parents who have pushed for this compensation. But the rollout thus far has also exposed major limitations, parents say.
The design of the program pays for only a fraction of the hours that many parents spend caring for their children, and a fraction of the hours that the state has agreed their children are legally entitled to. Others wor-
ry the income from the waiver would be enough to kick them off programs they rely on for food and housing assistance, but would not make up the difference if they lost those benefits. A third of the families selected in the original lottery have decided not to participate, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services, and advocates say these limitations are often why.
“It really keeps families in poverty, and we’re afraid that it’s almost set up like that to fail,” Ross said. “You have a bunch of people saying, ‘We can’t actually afford to be part of this program,’ but they’re terrified not to be a part, because if they don’t, they get put to the end of the waitlist.”
These parents aren’t new to supplying this care, which extends well beyond the typical demands of child-rearing. Ross, Hall, Kearns Moore and many others whose children qualify for the program have already logged thousands of hours standing in as respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, night nurses and mental health clinicians. They maintain the tracheostomies and ventilators that help their children breathe, manage at-home physical therapies and administer the medications that keep their children’s seizures at bay, help regulate their moods and ensure they can sleep. Many have sacrificed their careers and stay up throughout the night because they can’t find enough qualified professionals to provide these services.
The concept of paying parents to do this type of work also isn’t new. Parents become eligible for state pay once their children turn 18. And during the pandemic, the state began allowing parents of minor children to be paid for caregiving, with no limits on the hours, in order to minimize the risk of infection spread from outside workers entering their homes. It was widely popular, according to parents’ testimonies before the Oregon Legislature in 2023.
But the Children’s Extraordinary Needs program is limited by a $7.7 million annual budget. Parents and a few lawmakers will try to change that in the upcoming legislative session. “Tensy’s Law,” named after Ross’ son, would expand the paid parent benefit to all eligible children. It does not yet have a cost estimate.
“If the children and the families need these services, we need to help them access the care that they need,” said state Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, who is cosponsoring the legislation. “This is not just watching your kids and making sure they’re fed and get to school on time. This is the work of providing medical and educational support for hours and hours on end forever. It’s not like typical parenting in any way, shape or form.”
A thin lifeline
As a single parent, Paige Hall has primary custody of her son James, 12, who has drug-resistant epilepsy and nonverbal autism. She spends hours each day keeping him healthy and safe.
As is the case for many families whose children experience disabilities, that work is varied and complex. Paige works with him on self-regulation, using an adaptive communication device and training with his service dog. Sometimes, they’ve had support from outside certified workers that James was comfortable with. But many other workers have not shown up when they’re scheduled or haven’t been a good fit for James. Paige is
the one who knows him best and is best equipped to care for him, she said.
She was laid off from her part-time job during the pandemic. Since then, she’s worked mostly odd jobs, including as a paid part-time caregiver for another child with disabilities. James’ Social Security benefits and food stamps help ensure they have a roof over their head and enough to eat.
Being paid for his care during the pandemic took a huge weight off her mind, she said.
“That was life-altering,” she said. “For the first time in my child’s life, I wasn’t just completely stressed out about if his needs were being met, if he was being taken care of appropriately, if I could afford to feed him or myself.”
James was healthier, too, she said. While he had previously
says he is excited to go to the Oregon Capitol during the 2025 legislative session to advocate for “Tensy’s Law,” which will seek to make pay available to parents like his mother, who care for their children with complex medical and behavioral needs. “And not just for the break in school, I swear,” he said.
been hospitalized at least once a month, during the two years his mother was paid for caring for him, he had only one unscheduled hospitalization, she said.
“I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got put into a place where we felt secure and we felt safe and where we could really evaluate what was working and what wasn’t working,” she said. “That should always be the bare minimum.”
In an ironic twist, however, Paige is unsure whether she would participate in the Children’s Extraordinary Needs program if given the option.
That’s because she has estimated that the money would raise their income enough to make them ineligible for food stamps. But 20 hours a week at $20-$22 an hour wouldn’t be enough to replace what food assistance provides for them.
Paige said the 20-hour cap feels like “a slap in the face.”
“That’s not replacing the full-time job that people are giving up” to care for their children, she said.
Malachi
Waiting and watching
With 53 families turning down the new waiver so far, the waitlist has already moved forward, said Tom Mayhall Rastrelli, communications officer for the Oregon Department of Human Services.
But for Kearns Moore’s son Malachi, who is 14, the wait could still be years.
Kearns Moore said she had braced herself for her son to be waitlisted. But seeing that he was behind at least 1,000 other children was still a “gut punch,” she said.
“I had written off that my family would ever benefit,” she said. “But seeing it in black and white that my child is never going to get a spot without the program expanding, my heart sank.”
In an email, Mayhall Rastrelli said the department has heard from many families frustrated with the long wait and with challenges in finding services for their children.
In the meantime, officials within the state disability services office say they are collecting data throughout the next year to help lawmakers track participation and costs associated with the program. That includes a survey of the families who turn down the benefit.
Advocates for Disability Supports, a parent advocacy group that Kearns Moore and Ross help lead, is collecting data of its own. A survey of about 7% of eligible families found that some expected positive outcomes from participating: more than half said they could leave public assistance programs with the pay they’d receive from the program. The survey also found 91% of families were either unable to find enough professionals to provide for all the hours their children were allocated, or were choosing not to fill those hours with outside workers, choosing unpaid caregivers, such as parents, instead.
“We’re promising families support that isn’t real,” Kearns Moore said. “We’re saying, ‘Your child deserves this many hours of support,’ and looking the other way on the fact there is nobody to fill those hours.”
Hopes for the future
When Senate Bill 91 was signed into law, Ross was hopeful that it was a step in the right direction.
But then came the limited funding from the state. And then came the design that the Department of Human Services created, which sought to reach more families by capping the available hours per week.
Now, a year and a half later, Ross is gearing up for another push in the Legislature to accomplish what advocates had hoped the 2023 law was going to accomplish. This summer, advocates decided to name the law after her 9-year-old son.
“All we’re asking with Tensy’s Law, at the very heart of it, is to do what they said they were going to do,” she said. “Have these highest-need children have the ability to pick their parent as their caregiver. Enforce a law that you’ve already passed.”
Ross and other advocates pushed for a bill with similar intent as Tensy’s Law this past legislative session. It died in the appropriations committee.
The question of cost is at the center of the debate. Opponents say the state can’t afford to cover all the hours of care that parents are providing.
The fiscal analysis for the 2024 bill that sought to make pay available to all parent caregivers of high-needs children projected the cost to be around $174 million from 2025-2027, 57% of which would come from federal matching funds. Additional personnel to support that at the Oregon Department of Human Services would cost another $3.5 million, according to the estimate.
However, advocates point out that the hours the state is talking about paying for were already promised to their children. But the Legislature budgets for the services their children need based on the hours that are used, not what they are owed, which sets the system up to be underfunded and to depend on unpaid parent labor, they said.
Sen. Cedric Hayden, R-Fall Creek, echoed this opinion during the 2024 legislative session.
“We’re not saying it wouldn’t cost more, but the state has signed up through their waiver to this obligation and they’re, in my opinion, not meeting their obligation,” he said in a Feb. 24 meeting of the Senate Health Care Committee.
Meanwhile, the state is continuing to invest in workforce development and retention initiatives to make services more accessible to families. This includes $47 million worth of COVID-19 relief funds that went to the Oregon Department of Human Services. That money was funneled into programs focusing on increasing the rural workforce, grants for incentive payments to attract workers, paying for completing specialized training, and “targeted marketing to attract workers,” Mayhall Rastrelli said.
Ross said it doesn’t have to be so complicated.
“We’re sitting here like, ‘Just pay parents,’” she said. “We’re the workforce.”
InvestigateWest (invw.org) is an independent news nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. Reporter Kaylee Tornay covers labor, youth and health care issues. Reach her at 503-877-4108 or kaylee@invw.org . On X @ka_tornay.
FOCUS BUSINESS & LABOR
Coquille Tribe Plans to Open Oregon’s First Tribal-Run Distillery
The project is in partnership with Washington-based distilling company Heritage and will include a tasting room at the Coquille Tribe’s casino in Coos Bay
Margaret Simpson has a vision for how locals and visitors can soon enjoy an evening at the Mill Casino in Coos Bay: sipping a craft cocktail made with liquor distilled onsite while enjoying a cigar and the stunning view of the water, with the tree-topped mountains on the horizon.
Simpson is CEO of the Coquille Economic Development Corporation, which runs the casino and is helping oversee the project that will make her vision a reality. In partnership with Washington-based distilling company Heritage, the Coquille plan to open the first tribal-run distillery in Oregon at The Mill.
“Cocktails are, for a lot of people, that preferred drink,” Simpson said. “By having a distillery — producing it ourselves in partnership with Heritage Distilling Company — allows us to increase our profit margins. It’s a very viable stream of revenue for the tribe.”
However, until 2018, it was illegal to site a distillery on tribal land. A bipartisan bill that passed the Senate unanimously before becoming law repealed the distillery ban. That paved the way for tribes to open and operate their own liquor-making businesses — but alcohol regulations and taxes vary from state to state.
Oregon has some of the strictest laws around liquor, which is controlled by the state. The Coquille Tribe spent two years working with Oregon’s alcohol regulators to reach an agreement allowing it to apply for a distillery license.
Until 2018, it was illegal to site a distillery on tribal land.
The more than 1,000-member, federally-recognized Coquille Tribe’s ancestral homeland includes Coos Bay and the surrounding area on Oregon’s south coast. Timber was the area’s main economic driver until the 1990s, when tighter environmental regulations and other economic and technological changes forced a steep decline in the industry in the Northwest. While nothing has quite replaced the timber industry, tourism has become a significant contributor to the local economy.
“Coming out of COVID, a lot of casinos have seen a big increase in volume and gaming,” Simpson said. “We also experienced that as well. It was a good opportunity for us to make investments at the property and start looking at: how we could build onto the model that we already have? How could we bring new amenities to the property, to the area, that would drive tourism?”
Michael Laffey, marketing director at The Mill, said Coos Bay already attracts tourists for its natural beauty and outdoor activities. On top of that, there’s a growing offering of local restaurants and breweries. Laffey said they were looking for something unique that would attract visitors from Eugene, Portland and beyond.
“We just wanted to do something where we can infuse local culture with something that’s hip and cool,” Laffey said. “And that’s really what I’m excited about is being able to brand these particular products after Coquille culture, after the region — those things really make it worth the drive from somewhere to come down here to check out.”
Simpson said construction started this fall on the distillery and tasting room. The project will include renovations to the casino’s fine dining restaurant and the creation of a new cigar lounge. An opening date has not yet been announced.
In addition to providing new opportunities for travelers or those living in the Coos Bay area looking for an evening out, Simpson said the distillery is expected to create 30 new permanent jobs.
“As a tribally-owned business, we really focus on growing our own, bringing people up within the organization, giving them the skills, the experience that they need to be able to execute a position on the highest level,” she said. “And this will open up new opportunities.”
Kyra Buckley is OPB’s business reporter.
KYRA BUCKLEY
Health of Ashland Restaurants Mixed, Despite Series of Recent Closures
By KEVIN OPSAHL
While a series of longtime Ashland restaurants recently closed, local business leaders say the health of the industry can’t be painted with a broad brush.
Having been in the restaurant business for 25 years, Jeramie Mykisen, owner of The Noble Fox Restaurant and Brewery in Ashland, can often “feel the energy of the night” and whether it will translate into customers coming in for a bite.
“You can walk down the street and look around and get a good sense of, ‘Is this going to happen tonight? Are we going to be busy?’” Mykisen said.
The Noble Fox opened in April, filling the space where Standing Stone Brewery used to be, before it closed in the waning months of the pandemic. The Oak Street location is the gastropub’s second since Mykisen founded the first in his hometown of Silverton, Oregon in October 2021. He describes the interior of the Ashland restaurant as having an “upscale industrial vibe” complete with exposed elevated brewing tanks that they use to make nine beers. Customers can enjoy their meal on a spacious outdoor patio or play pinball and other games in the arcade room.
Following its Ashland grand opening, The Noble Fox was “overwhelmed” with customers, with nights where patrons were placed on a waitlist before dining, he said.
But now, “We’re ... way off of our projections of what we thought we’d be doing for a restaurant this size,” said Mykisen.
“There are days here in Ashland when ... we’re all surprised,” he said. “[We ask], ‘What’s happening with town?’ You can walk around the corner and it feels like a ghost town.”
Mykisen is one of several Ashland business owners who are concerned about the local restaurant industry. They point to decreased business, the closure of several longtime restaurants in town, and economic factors contributing to consumers’ desire to eat out less.
“People are a little wary of spending money and going out to eat is a luxury,” Mykisen said.
The National Restaurant Association reported that 63% of operators said their sales declined in July, the seventh consec-
utive month of net-negative sales, according to the most recent data available. Seventy-one percent of restaurant operators said they saw a customer decline, the sixteenth successive month of net decreases in such traffic. Restaurant operators’ outlook on customer sales and the economy has also “deteriorated in recent months.”
Greg Astley, director of government affairs for the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association, a not-for-profit trade organization, acknowledged it is “a difficult time, still, for restaurant owners” as they battle new economic challenges following the pandemic.
‘Heartbroken and a little lost’
The Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant and Cucina Biazzi are two examples of longtime restaurants in Ashland that have closed in the last month.
The pub specializing in British cuisine shut its doors on
Jaramie Mykisen pours a pint of beer at the Noble Fox in Ashland.
The Black Sheep was one of several longstanding restaurants in Ashland to close this summer.
KEVIN OPSAHL/JPR NEWS
KEVIN OPSAHL/JPR NEWS
Aug. 18. A post on the restaurant’s Facebook page bid farewell after 33 years of “good food, comradery, and a lovely pint or cuppa. All the songs sung and words spoken created a place Where You Belong.”
The Black Sheep was considered an institution among Ashland restaurants and Clarinda Merripen, who co-owned The Black Sheep with her husband, Jon, for seven years, said in an interview that they found ways to “build community.” Weekdays featured recurring events, like “Game Knight,” trivia and karaoke, while weekends included Celtic bands and open mic night for kids.
Merripen said she feels “heartbroken and a little lost” over the closure. She said the pub shut its doors due to challenges associated with the restaurant industry, the decline of Ashland’s population and what she sees as burdensome city measures.
According to Merripen, the Black Sheep has no new owner yet but is looking for one.
A short walk up Main Street is Cucina Biazzi, an Italian restaurant nestled in a neighborhood that served customers for 20 years, before closing on Aug. 30.
“We couldn’t have done it without all of your patronage,” the restaurant’s chef Chandra Corwin wrote on social media without explaining the business’s closure. She did not respond to a request for an interview.
Katharine Cato, director of Travel Ashland, a division of the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, has spoken to Merripen, Mykisen and Corwin about working in the restaurant industry. She believes different factors were behind the closure of each restaurant, and the developments do not signify “a domino effect” in the industry.
“We’ve heard from restaurants that are having a strong summer,” Cato said, cautioning that not everyone working in restaurants sees the same business activity.
Despite some headwinds, Cato pointed to a few recent successes. The Winchester Inn was named the Best Bed and Breakfast in the 2024 USA TODAY 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards. Josh Dorcak, chef of MÄS Restaurant was nominated for a
Based on conversations the Chamber has had with restaurant owners, there seems to be agreement that “it’s never been more challenging.”
James Beard Award in 2023 and 2024.
Ashland has also seen a handful of new restaurants open including Coco Rico, Skout and Osteria la Briccola.
They’re ‘exhausted’
Sandra Slattery, executive director of the Ashland Chamber of Commerce, said it’s impossible to paint the state of the restaurant industry with a broad brush because some are faring better than others.
“You can’t just say, ‘all restaurants are struggling’ or ‘all restaurants are doing well.’ It is very different depending on the restaurant,” she said.
However, based on conversations the Chamber has had with restaurant owners, there seems to be agreement that “it’s never been more challenging.”
She cited the cost of food prices and labor, staffing challenges, and “exhaustion” among restaurant owners.
“It’s a tough business,” Slattery said, adding that it is not uncommon for restaurant owners to have a range of duties from cooking to dishwashing — all while raising a family.
The Restaurant & Lodging Association’s Astley echoed some of Slattery’s comments, saying that restaurant owners, regardless of where they are in the state, face similar issues: inflation impacting food and fuel prices, increasing utility costs and staffing problems.
“A lot of this is universal,” Astley said.
He said the mounting challenges mean that even prominent restaurants that have been around for decades have had to close their doors because owners are “quite frankly, exhausted.”
Slattery said that for restaurant owners to be successful, they must manage their business costs while also adapting to market preferences, possibly changing their menu offerings.
Food and Beverage tax
Of all the factors stopping customers from eating out, the Black Sheep’s Merripen believes the biggest is Ashland’s Food and Beverage tax.
Downtown Ashland, across from Ashland Plaza
ROMAN
BATTAGLIA/JPR NEWS
The 5% tax is imposed on all food and beverages sold by restaurants in the city. Exceptions include alcohol and food items including whole cakes, pies, and loaves of bread if they are not consumed at a restaurant.
Funds generated from the 2012 tax go to a fund for street maintenance and reconstruction (73%), city parks projects (25%) and the city’s general fund (2%).
“The City [of Ashland], the council and the staff, do not understand that having a 5% tax depresses the number of people who eat out,” Merripen wrote in an email to JPR.
Ashland City Manager Sabrina Cotta said in a prepared statement that the tax “benefit(s) the whole community, as well as visitors to our town.”
City statistics show the tax has brought in $34 million since it was first passed. Cato pointed out that between April and June 2024 alone, the tax brought in over $844,000 — a record in that time period for the tax. She said the record could be for several reasons, but nevertheless felt it was a positive development for Ashland’s economy.
“There is some serious strength of sales happening,” Cato said.
Customers react
On Labor Day, Ashland showed signs of vibrancy. A band played oldies to the delight of onlookers in the downtown plaza. Across the street, people scanned the colorful menu of Louie’s Restaurant & Bar while a band played next door at Oberon’s Cocktail Bar & Restaurant.
That night, longtime Ashlander Jeanette McCartney was out with friends, who settled on Louie’s for dinner.
“I’ve gone there for years — Louie’s is a great place to go,” she said.
McCartney, who has lived in Ashland for 32 years, said the city has a lot of restaurants. Still, she noted closures like Cucina Biazzi.
“It seems like it just started in the last few months,” McCartney said. “Some of the people that own them are older and they don’t have the energy to pursue it.”
While McCartney said she supports Ashland’s restaurants, eating out has become more expensive these days.
“Now that we’ve gotten through COVID-19, it costs a lot more everywhere,” McCartney said. “It’s like $16 for a dinner that used to be $12.”
She is optimistic about Ashland’s restaurant scene, saying she does not think more will close in the near future.
Rogue Valley resident Kathleen Fitzgerald, who calls Ashland her “go-to town,” remembers when the city’s most prominent restaurant draw was Louie’s. Later on, The Black Sheep became another favorite.
“I’m supportive of the Ashland restaurant scene, of course. [I’m] so disappointed to lose The Black Sheep and some of the other old-timers,” Fitzgerald said. “I’m hopeful for new businesses that will take over the spaces.”
She attributes restaurant declines to inflation in food prices.
She eats with her family at Blue Toba, an Indonesian restaurant “as much as we can afford just to keep it open.”
However, Fitzgerald warned that her support is waning.
“We have been willing to pay a little bit more, but we’re backing off now because a little bit more is so much,” she said.
Helping restaurants
Following the pandemic, the Ashland Chamber created a free program called “The Language of Business,” a video series to help business owners manage finances. Topics covered include “what to know when accessing capital,” “protecting your business assets” and “building a team.”
After completing the program, owners should understand “the true cost of their operations and whether they are making a profit ... so they can do a better job,” Slattery said.
Aside from those resources, Chamber staffers regularly communicate with restaurant owners. The Chamber also includes local restaurant representation on its board of directors.
“We work to help [restaurants] and promote them so people know what an incredible restaurant community we have,” Slattery said.
The National Restaurant Association reported that 63% of operators said their sales declined in July, the seventh consecutive month of net-negative sales.
In a recent Facebook post, The Noble Fox’s Mykisen acknowledged “struggling” small businesses and told the community there are ways they can support them without spending a lot of money. His suggestions ranged from buying a gift card to checking out a new shop, even by just buying one item.
“It all helps!” Mykisen wrote.
Though relatively new to town, Mykisen said restaurant operators like him want to see Ashland businesses succeed.
“The last thing we want is any of them closing. We want every small business down here to thrive,” Mykisen said. “We want people to believe in that and vote for those businesses with their dollars.”
Cato said she is optimistic about the future of Ashland’s restaurant industry, noting it is already a draw for people, whether they’re residents or tourists.
“Coming to Ashland — that experience we’re promoting — part of that is very well anchored in restaurants,” she said.
When it comes to the local economy, Cato added, “there’s inevitably going to be an ebb and flow to the restaurant industry.”
Kevin Opsahl is a journalist based in Medford and a regular contributor to JPR News.
This article was first published on Sept. 12, 2024 at www.ijpr.org
MovingOurCommunity Forward
RVTD makes getting to work easier.
“I love my job at Ashland Food Co-op. They partner with RVTD’s employer bus program— making it super easy to get to work and save money.” —Toni
DOWN TO EARTH
JULIET GRABLE
“It’s a very positive thing to see a dedication of water to the refuge as an acknowledgment that they’re important and resources need to be prioritized to support the benefits of the refuges.”
— John Vradenburg, supervisory biologist at the Klamath Basin Refuge Complexes
Wildlife Rehabilitators Treat Birds One By One, as Botulism Outbreak at a Klamath Refuge Drags On
Anon-profit group fights an uphill battle to save the victims of a massive outbreak of avian botulism that continues to ravage waterfowl at one of the Klamath National Wildlife Refuges.
On a clear, sunny day in early October, January Bill peers under a drop cloth at the latest batch of patients at the Bird Ally X field hospital near the Oregon-California border. The birds— American wigeons, shovelers, and Northern pintails—are clearly sick: Some struggle weakly; some don’t move at all.
“They’re at different degrees of paralysis,” says Bill, a wildlife rehabilitator who co-founded Bird Ally X. “We rate it by a stage from one to four, with four being the worst; they are usually 100 percent paralyzed.”
These ducks are victims of a large outbreak of avian botulism that so far has killed close to 100,000 birds at the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Botulism is produced by a soil bacterium that thrives in warm, shallow water and newly exposed soil. The botulism toxin works by interrupting nerve transmission. Afflicted birds lose the ability to walk, then fly, then to move at all.
A non-profit network of wildlife rehabilitators, Bird Ally X has set up a M*A*S*H-style field hospital in and around a large carport to treat the birds. Inside, staff and volunteers work in pairs, treating birds that can still move. Working quietly, one person holds a swaddled bird while the other takes a temperature, attaches a leg band, and notes the species and stage of disease.
At a separate station, Lana Battaglia attends to the sickest patients, including an American wigeon that’s completely paralyzed—a “four.” She gently inserts a needle into the bird’s leg and depresses the plunger of a syringe. The goal is to get about 1 cc of fluids into the bird’s system.
“It’s really phenomenal how the basic treatments that they’re getting here can help support them through the process,” says Battaglia, who is an expert in oiled wildlife response.
The wigeon she is treating has about a 50/50 chance of surviving. Birds captured at earlier stages have a much better prognosis.
After intake, the birds that can at least lift their heads are given a tube feeding that includes dextrose for energy and Vitamin B complex, which helps regenerate nerves. Then they’re
Ducks recovering from botulism have access to “micro-habitats” that mimic natural wetlands.
Down To Earth
Continued from previous page
placed in special boxes to recover. The boxes are fitted with towels that serve as “keel protectors,” preventing a bird’s sharp breast bone from rubbing against the box where it could develop lesions.
“From there, we don’t touch them for the rest of the day,” says Bill. “It’s a very traumatic experience for them I imagine.”
Bill and Travers launched Bird Ally X Botulism Response in 2018 after being asked to treat birds during a botulism outbreak at the Klamath Refuges. They returned to the refuges in 2019 and 2020, when the worst outbreak in refuge history killed at least 60,000 birds.
Earlier this month, refuge staff were picking up an average of 800 dead birds a day, John Vradenburg, supervisory biologist at the Klamath Basin Refuge Complexes.–a sad end to a summer that began with celebration of the birds’ return to the refuges..
Earlier this summer, after receiving the first meaningful water deliveries in several years, wetlands in the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath refuges were thronged with birds.The refuges rely on water distributed through the Klamath Project, which is managed by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. But once the allocated water stopped flowing and temperatures rose, the risk of botulism grew. Some believe an outbreak could have been avoided altogether if the refuges had received additional water in time.
Bird Ally X was one of 16 conservation groups that signed on to an August 9 letter urging the Bureau of Reclamation to deliver water to the refuges to mitigate the outbreak. Separately, irrigators and tribes sent their own letters. The Bureau did deliver more water to the refuges in late August, but by then, birds had already begun to die.
However, Vradenburg says the water delivery helped prevent an even greater disaster by flooding additional wetlands and spreading the birds over more habitat.
“Many of those areas hadn’t been affected by botulism, so they had clean areas to go to,” he explains.
In September, the Bureau of Reclamation released its draft Environmental Assessment on the operation of the Klamath Project, which allocates Klamath Basin water to irrigators. Its proposed action includes, for the first time, a dedicated supply of water for the refuges.
Though not guaranteed to be retained in the final plan, the change in allocation is a hopeful sign that the agency intends to pursue an “ecosystem approach” to water management, says Vradenburg. “It’s a very positive thing to see a dedication of water to the refuge as an acknowledgment that they’re important and resources need to be prioritized to support the benefits of the refuges,” he says. Meanwhile, there’s no immediate relief to the current outbreak.
“Until we freeze, it’s just going to be persistent at this point,” says Vradenburg. Freezing temperatures arrest the reproduction of flies, which breed on the carcasses of birds that have succumbed to the disease.
Unfortunately, the lingering outbreak is starting to affect birds that are stopping at the refuges on their southward migration–something he saw in the 2020 outbreak, too.
“As we’re seeing these climate shifts and later and later onsets of first freeze, it’s starting to overlap with the first part of fall migration,” says Vradenburg.
Lana Battaglia injects fluids into the leg of a very sick American Wigeon.
When sick birds first come in, many are completely paralyzed and can’t even hold their heads up.
BIRDALLYX.NET
The sickened birds that make it to the Bird Ally X field hospital are the lucky ones.
Once birds have recovered overnight, they can join other birds in one of several conditioning pools, including “sun pens” located outside the carport. These kiddie pools, topped with a dome of netting for shade and privacy, are designed to mimic natural conditions: birds have access to water and food, but they can also “haul out” to dryer ground where they can preen and rest.
Marie Travers, co-manager of Bird Ally X botulism response, moves from one domed enclosure to the next. As she peeks under the netting at one, a cluster of ducks—wigeons, pintails, and a pair of shovelers—preen and waggle their tails.
“I’m just looking for birds that can’t get off the haul-out because they don’t have the strength or recovery time yet,” she explains. “Almost all of these birds are standing, so that means they’re pretty far along in their recovery.”
In a day or so, these birds will be released in Unit 2 of the Lower Klamath Refuge, which so far has not been affected by the outbreak.
The Bird Ally X operation has wrapped up this week, but not because the outbreak is over. Hunting season has begun, and refuge staff can’t safely deploy their airboats into the wetlands to collect new patients.
In total, thanks to help from professional wildlife rehabilitators, interns, and volunteers from advocacy organizations like the Bird Alliance of Oregon, Bird Ally X has rehabilitated and released more than 900 birds. They’ve treated 27 different species, from geese and ducks to shorebirds like ibis, black-necked stilts and dowitchers. Their operation has also helped train responders from across the country.
“Since [the outbreak] is human caused, I just feel like we have an obligation to treat them ... And individuals do matter.”
— January Bill, wildlife rehabilitator and co-founded Bird Ally X
“Since 2018, after we did our first response, we have been going to conferences and trying to present on how we did the operation to show other rehab organizations how you can collaborate with other agencies during large emergencies and care for large numbers of birds with very few resources,” says Bill.
She hopes their work will help drive more support for prioritizing wildlife when decisions about allocating water are made. Meanwhile, the mission and her colleagues keep her motivated to help as many birds as she can.
“Since it’s human caused, I just feel like we have an obligation to treat them,” says Bill. “And individuals do matter.”
Juliet Grable is a writer based in Southern Oregon and a regular contributor to JPR News. She writes about wild places and wild creatures, rural communities, and the built environment.
Ducks recover together in outdoor “sun pens” until they are able to fly. If treated in time, birds afflicted with botulism can recover completely and be released back into the wild.
Theadore Scuitto, Grants Pass · 1978 Ford F-150
“I remember driving with my dad… we were coming back [to Talent] from Jacksonville and he was talking about needing a truck. We drove by this [1978 Ford F-150] with a for-sale sign and he said ‘Something like that ’ … and came back later to buy it. In 1999 he started building a house in the mountains above Talent and needed a truck to haul materials. It was 20-year project designed and mostly built by himself with the help of 3 generations of family who — by the way — all listen to JPR. It was a big two-story house on a full basement… all concrete and steel. There was a lot of material being hauled. [My father] wanted to donate it to JPR. Whenever I’m driving around, I have JPR on the radio too. And it’s always playing in the house.”
Hassle Free · Tax Deductible · Free Pickup
INSIDE THE BOX
SCOTT DEWING
Technology is a Loaded Gun
As a technologist, I cannot help but see the world through the lenses I’ve crafted over years of reading, writing, and thinking about technology and its impacts on society, culture, and humanity. I’ll be the first to admit that this can taint one’s view of the world. Sometimes it can lead to insights, other times to myopia.
As a technologist, I see guns as a technology, that is, an invented extension of Man. Guns are weapons and weapons are a subset of technology created and used by humans to inflict damage upon others. Notice I did not say that weapons were designed to “defend” oneself. While self-defense may or may not be the purpose of the person using a weapon, it certainly is not the function of the technology. The function of weapons as a technology is to inflict damage upon another being, whether that being is a Some man-made objects can serve dual purposes as a utilitarian tool or as a weapon. A baseball bat or an axe or a kitchen knife are good examples. I won’t go into graphic detail about how these three tools can also be used as weapons. I’m sure you can imagine these things for yourself to whatever degree of CSI-inspired gruesomeness and horror your stomach can bear.
jects we call “bullets” that, when fired from a gun, can cause massive bodily damage and death.
When people argue that “guns don’t kill people,’’ they’re either conveniently missing this point entirely or they are purposefully trying to mislead you into thinking that guns, as a technology, are somehow neutral. No technology is neutral. Inherent in every technology is a bias toward shaping the world to be one way or another.
Inherent in every technology is a bias toward shaping the world to be one way or another.
Now, I’m not saying that guns make the decision to pull their own triggers. That would be silly. What I’m saying is that the “guns don’t kill people” line is just semantic folly. People can play whatever word games they want, but in the end, guns do kill people because, as a technology, that is exactly what they were designed to do. The inherent bias of the technology of guns shapes a world in which people die from gunshot wounds.
Guns are different from other weapons though. Guns have only one function and one purpose: to fire bullets that penetrate the bodies of other beings, causing organ damage, internal bleeding, and death. As a technology, guns serve no other purpose. I suppose you could use a pistol as a hammer but it wouldn’t be a very effective hammer and potentially quite dangerous if it were loaded.
“The uses made of any technology are largely determined by the structure of the technology itself—that is, that its functions follow from its forms,” wrote the late author Neil Postman in his book Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
As a technology, the function of guns is to inflict bodily damage. This is the only function of guns because their form is to harness and apply explosive pressure to a projectile, sending it down and out a barrel toward a target.
The earliest iteration of the gun as a technology was the cannon. Gunpowder was packed along with a cannonball into the breech of the cannon. A fuse then ran down into the gunpowder. A lit fuse brought fire down into the flammable gunpowder causing it to explode. The energy caused by the explosion propelled the cannonball down the barrel of the cannon and out toward its intended target.
Like any technology, cannons harness the power of natural processes to do what they do. Guns are just tiny cannons with the gunpowder and projectile compacted into tiny portable ob-
Postman argues, and I think quite correctly, that once a technology has been created and introduced into culture, there is no going back. “Once a technology is admitted [to culture], it plays out its hand; it does what it is designed to do,” he writes. “Our task is to understand what that design is—that is to say, when we admit a new technology to the culture, we must do so with our eyes wide open.”
As we move deeper into the unexplored territory of the technological revolution, I fear that we are not doing so with our eyes wide open. This is particularly the case with artificial intelligence. As we put greater trust into our technologies and cede power to the technocrats who control that technology, we become increasingly myopic and less able to see how things might play out in the future.
“Unforeseen consequences stand in the way of all those who think they see clearly the direction in which a new technology will take us,” says Postman. “A new technology does not add or subtract something. It changes everything.”
Scott Dewing is a technologist and writer. He works with and writes about high tech from his home office located inside a low-tech barn in Carver, Oregon.
JPR NEWS FOCUS LAW & JUSTICE
BEN BOTKIN
The commission aims to eliminate the number of in-custody people who lack representation by the end of March 2025 and end the out-ofcustody backlog of unrepresented people by the end of March 2026.
After Reforms, Oregon Still Struggles with Shortage of Public Defenders
More than 3,500 people are out of custody but have no representation and about 160 without a lawyer are stuck in jail
Thousands of Oregonians face criminal charges and do not have an attorney to represent them.
About 160 of them are sitting in jail. Another 3,550 people are out of custody with no representation as they face charges. The figures underscore a persistent problem: Oregon has a shortage of public defenders, who represent people when they are charged in court and cannot afford an attorney. It’s a constitutional crisis because people have the right to an attorney when charged if they cannot afford one.
Without representation, cases are delayed or dropped — or defendants are not well represented. When an overworked public defender cannot thoroughly review police camera footage or other evidence, the defendant does not get an adequate defense.
In recent years, state lawmakers have tried to address that by restructuring the Oregon Public Defense Commission and temporarily raising the hourly rates of public defenders. In 2023, lawmakers put $96 million toward the crisis. But more work is necessary to shore up a frayed and complex system that often struggles to recruit and retain attorneys, both because of high caseloads and low pay.
New commission programs have increased the number of public defenders and more people are being represented, but little progress is being made.
“Despite numerous initiatives, the in-custody list remains consistent, while the out-of-custody list has grown,” Jessica Kampfe, executive director of the Oregon Public Defense Commission, wrote in a July report to Gov. Tina Kotek. “Thus, although the commission has taken steps to address the constitutional crisis, the problem remains significant and will only fully improve when we have adequate funding.”
Kampfe echoed the need for more money in a briefing with state lawmakers on the House and Senate judiciary committees last week.
Long-term goal
The commission aims to eliminate the number of in-custody people who lack representation by the end of March 2025 and end the out-of-custody backlog of unrepresented people by the end of March 2026.
In the short-term, the commission has a 90-day plan that includes redirecting eight trial attorneys the agency received for drug cases through House Bill 4002 to help with the backlog. The law created a new misdemeanor drug possession charge that took effect Sept. 1. The commission also wants to extend a
temporary increase in hourly rates for attorneys, which would cost another $40 million for the rest of the current budget cycle.
Public defenders are paid and work through a variety of formats, such as contracts, nonprofit public defender organizations and the commission’s trial division.
Since 2023, the commission has opened three trial division offices throughout Oregon to help the backlog in different regions, including the Portland area, southern Oregon and the mid-Willamette Valley. With 14 attorneys, they have closed 180 cases and have another 359 open cases.
But overall, the plan is for the number of attorneys to grow, from the equivalent of 506 full-time attorneys now to 986 in six years. That’s another 480 attorneys, or an average of 80 annually.
For the next two years, the commission wants to hire 160 attorneys to work in a variety of ways, whether as state employees for the commission or attorneys who work on contract.
Through House Bill 4002, lawmakers intended for people to access drug treatment programs and avoid misdemeanor drug possession charges. But not everyone will access those programs, and more people will be charged because of the recriminalization of low-level drug possession.
When the bill was debated early this session, the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission analysis estimated it would lead to nearly 2,300 more convictions annually.
“What we will be looking at and I think what we have to be considering is what is that impact and how do we address that?” said Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Ben Botkin covers justice, health and social services issues for the Oregon Capital Chronicle
Thousands of Oregonians face criminal charges yet lack a public defender to represent them because of the state's shortage.
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JPR NEWS
FOCUS ENERGY
MONICA SAMAYOA
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Oregon more than $113 million for two new home energy rebate programs.
Oregon To Receive $113 Million In Federal Funds for Energy Efficiency Home Retrofits
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Oregon more than $113 million for two new home energy rebate programs aimed at boosting energy-efficient home retrofits targeting low- to moderate-income households.
The Oregon Department of Energy’s new programs will be available for both single-family and multifamily homes. The retrofits could include the installation of heat pumps, smart thermostats or electric water heaters. The money is part of the federal government’s billion-dollar Inflation Reduction Act.
“Our agency will work with our partners and stakeholders to stand up these programs as quickly as possible,” Oregon Department of Energy Director Janine Benner said in a statement.
The funding comes as Oregon continues to support programs to move away from using fossil fuels to power homes and increase the use of electric appliances. Earlier this year, the state was awarded nearly $200 million to lower carbon emissions from three sectors, including buildings.
The rebates announced in early October will vary depending on the projects
The Home Efficiency Rebate program, or HOME, will provide performance-based rebates for energy-efficient retrofits that can demonstrate at least 20% in energy savings. The program could offer higher rebates for projects that show at least 35% in energy savings.
The Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate program, or HEAR, will provide rebates at the time of purchase to lowand moderate-income households who retrofit their homes with high-efficiency electric appliances like electric upgrades, insulation or air-sealing windows.
HOME projects would cover at least 50% of costs, up to $10,000 per project, depending on the household income and how much energy saving was achieved. The HEAR program would also cover at least 50% of project costs, up to $14,000, depending on energy upgrades and the household income. The program is only available to low- to moderate-income households. Both programs will prioritize households making between 80% to 150% of area median income, and at least 40% of rebates will go to low-income households, with an additional 10% available to low-income multi-dwelling households.
Oregon Department of Energy senior incentives analyst Kristina Donnelly said the programs are designed to meet the needs of different customers.
“So if you have a home that really needs a whole lot of different things in order to make the home comfortable and energy efficient, maybe the HOME’s program is more effective, or if you’re a low-income customer and you really just don’t like
family home in Portland, is heated
Dec. 1, 2022. The single-family home has been retrofitted to reduce the family’s carbon footprint, and is equipped with solar panels, hybrid heat pump hot water heater, high-efficiency appliances and lighting, an electric vehicle charging station and a whole-home battery storage system.
your gas stove and you want to install an electric stove, you can do that as well,” she said.
The HEAR program is also specifically designed as an electrification program, she said, where only electric appliances will qualify for a rebate.
People could also receive rebates from both programs, she said.
“However, they are not allowed to receive rebates from both programs for the same measure,” she said. “So, if I selected a heat pump water heater from the HEAR program, I would not be able to count that in my energy savings model for eligibility for the HOMEs program.”
The Oregon Department of Energy estimates about 13,000 households in Oregon could benefit from these programs. It’s currently working on building a website Oregonians can use to see if they qualify.
Donnelly believes the programs will help the states’ lowest-income households the most.
“They are really designed to be deep rebates that will benefit households with the greatest need, especially because the HEAR program has rebates for appliances like electric clothes dryers and electric cooktops,” she said. “The customers will be able to install appliances that maybe they wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise and there aren’t currently rebates in existence for a lot of those other appliances.”
The state energy department expects both rebate programs to be available by the end of next year.
OPB’s Monica Samayoa is an award-winning climate and environmental journalist.
The basement of the Musser
with ductless mini-splits,
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WFMT OPERA SERIES
November 2 – La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini
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This is a Met premiere of a contemporary English language opera based on George Brant’s acclaimed play about a female fighter pilot in Las Vegas striving to be the perfect soldier, wife and new mother.
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December 28 – Hansel & Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck
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A Beijing production of Richard Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer, the story of the cursed ghost ship captain seeking redemption through true love, with Ólafur Sigurdarson as the Holländer and Diana Lamar as Senta.
PHOTO: ISOLDE
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JANE VAUGHAN
HOUSING
Royal Oaks Mobile Manor in Phoenix was destroyed in the 2020 Almeda Fire.
Long-Awaited Rebuild of Modular Home Park for Wildfire Survivors Gets New Manufacturer
In 2021, Oregon’s housing agency, called Oregon Housing and Community Services, purchased 118 modular homes to rebuild Royal Oaks. The project broke ground in November 2022 with an opening originally scheduled for September 2023.
But last summer, those homes were found to be unfit to live in due to mold, leaking water and other defects. This delayed the move-in for wildfire survivors, many of whom had been living in temporary housing for years. There are unresolved questions about why the homes had defects.
The state then provided approximately $17 million in June to buy 118 new homes.
But this time, a local housing authority was in charge of choosing the manufacturer.
Ryan Haynes, director of real estate development for the Housing Authority of Jackson County, said his agency recently chose construction company InteliFab from Klamath Falls, and they’re taking a much more hands-on approach.
“This factory is going to allow us to show up and oversee the work and inspect the work unannounced. So we are going to be able to make sure that everything is being completed in a firstclass manner, which is something that I don’t think happened with the previous units that the state procured,” he said. “We are going to be involved, and we are going to be over there, and we are going to observe throughout the entire manufacturing process to make sure things are being done the way they’re supposed to be done.”
Haynes said the county’s housing authority recently placed an order for the first 40 units, some of which could be ready for move-in as early as April. There will be two more orders for about 40 units each later on.
“We’re optimistic that this project is now finally on the right path. I think we’re disappointed by how long it took us to get to this point,” he said.
Meanwhile, OHCS and Oregon’s Department of Justice are in ongoing legal proceedings related to why the original batch of modular homes had defects, according to OHCS. Those modular homes were constructed by the company Nashua Builders based in Boise. A representative for OHCS declined to comment further on the nature of the legal proceedings.
Some have wondered if the state was negligent in caring for the original modular homes in the period between construction and installation. It took time to find a suitable location for them, so they were left sitting for months. OHCS said the problems were not due to the homes being unoccupied for so long but because of problems with the manufacturing.
The Housing Authority of Jackson County owns the site and will manage Royal Oaks. The homes are for those who lost their
housing in the 2020 Labor Day wildfires and who meet certain income eligibility requirements. Previous residents of Royal Oaks will also be prioritized.
According to a statement from the nonprofit organization ACCESS, which has been helping fire survivors find housing, they are “currently waiting for clearance from OHCS or the Housing Authority to move forward with qualifying fire survivors for Royal Oaks. We are happy to see movement in a positive direction and look forward to helping place fire survivors.”
“Those who qualify will be granted a manufactured home at Royal Oaks” and pay rent for the space, according to the statement.
Jane Vaughan is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. Jane began her journalism career as a reporter for a community newspaper in Portland, Maine. She’s been a producer at New Hampshire Public Radio and worked on WNYC’s On The Media
The future site of the Royal Oaks Mobile Manor in Phoenix on September 26, 2024.
The defective modular homes have been removed from the Royal Oaks site, and the carports are ready to receive new units.
TROY BRYNELSON
The contrasting approaches may look starkest at the border of Douglas and Lane counties.
Drug Laws Are Back in Oregon: How They’re Enforced Depends on the County
Counties will approach enforcement differently, providing yet another large-scale experiment in drug policy.
Days after Oregon officially recriminalized drug possession, Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Gomez found himself helping with an arrest.
Officers in the town of Sutherlin stopped a car near a park, he recalled. They spotted fentanyl and methamphetamine inside. He and the officers arrested the man for misdemeanor drug possession.
Recriminalization went into effect Sept. 1. Before that date, drugs would have resulted in far less punishment. Officers would have ticketed the man.
“Now, there’s consequences to the actions,” Gomez said. “He has to face the judge and explain his actions.”
It may have been a different story for the man had he been stopped in a county deploying a new state program called “deflection.” It aims to get people criminally charged for possessing small amounts of drugs into treatment, in lieu of going to court.
Lawmakers over the summer offered counties state dollars in exchange for creating their own deflection programs. More than 20 counties applied, submitting plans that involved activities like establishing shelters and pairing police with substance use experts.
For example, a person in Multnomah County who has drugs, but no outstanding warrants, may be deflected away from the justice system. They go to treatment instead. A successful trip could result in the person never facing a criminal charge.
Other counties, like Douglas, didn’t apply at all.
What’s left is a patchwork of drug enforcement policies across the state. The contrasting approaches may look starkest at the border of Douglas and Lane counties. Both counties straddle Interstate 5 and are planning widely different approaches.
Lane County officials tell OPB they are planning a robust deflection program. Douglas County, on the other hand, plans to try policing illicit substances like the old days.
‘By golly, he‘s going to prosecute them.’
In opting out of the state’s deflection program, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin is conscious that the county may look severe. He believes jail and the justice system can turn lives around.
To him, Measure 110, the voter-approved decriminalization of drugs in 2020, failed in its aim to improve drug users’ lives. He and his deputies had few means to get people into treatment without criminal charges looming over their heads.
“Don’t get me wrong; I believe treatment is an extremely important component to this drug problem that we’re dealing with,” Hanlin said. “Treatment works, but only if there are consequences that go along with that.”
While every deflection program will be different, criminal charges can still be leveled against a person if they don’t comply.
Hanlin noted that landing in jail for a drunken incident when he was a teenager proved a wakeup call. He also brought up his 31-year-old son’s ongoing addiction, which has led to a lengthy rap sheet of misdemeanors and felonies in Douglas County.
“If he got arrested and spent a day in jail and got out the next, that wasn’t even long enough for him to realize that he’d done anything wrong,” Hanlin said. Jail is “a necessity if you want to wake them up and get them to think, ‘You know what? I think this problem is getting out of hand.’”
Deputies made nine arrests in September under the new recriminalization statutes, according to a sheriff’s department spokesperson.
Overdose deaths have been rising. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose deaths rose from 23 in 2020 to 43 in 2023. That’s less than 4 for every 10,000 people.
The sheriff, first elected in 2008, said it was a joint decision not to participate between himself, District Attorney Rick We-
Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Gomez, right, stands outside his cruiser while responding to a call in Glendale, Ore. Gomez is a field training officer and said he has helped arrest people after Oregon’s recriminalized drug laws went into effect Sept. 1.
TROY BRYNELSON / OPB
JPR News Focus: Law & Justice
Chelsea Jones and Dawn Hemry, staffers with the organization Adapt Integrated Health Care, stand in a crisis resolution room at Roseburg’s sobering center on Sept. 16, 2024. The crisis resolution rooms are offered to people in crisis to stay voluntarily.
senberg and the county’s Board of Commissioners. Wesenberg and the county commissioners did not respond to multiple requests for interviews.
Hanlin said he wanted to take a wait-and-see approach with deflection: Let other counties go first with their experiments. He added that the county worried about using one-time state grant dollars without assurances of ongoing funding.
He doubted empowering his deputies to enforce stricter penalties would lead to unintended consequences, such as crowding the jail.
“Most of these cases are going to be cite and release cases,” he said. “But the DA assures me that, by golly, he’s going to prosecute them.”
A drug user’s fate is then up to the courts, Hanlin said. Douglas County does offer diversion programs and a drug court that aim to soften punishment and help drug users get clean.
“I don’t think we can arrest our way out of the drug addiction problem,” Hanlin said. “But I know that, obviously, doing nothing isn’t going to cause the problem to go away either.”
Chelsea Jones, of Adapt Integrated Health Care, opens the door to a stimulation room at a sobering center in Roseburg, Ore. on Sept. 16, 2024. The sobering center opened in 2021 and often functions as a holding cell.
‘A
lot of folks just want to see people get help’
Crossing the county line north into Lane County, one will find a completely different approach. Officials there hope to get more people into treatment and keep them away from jail cells and courtrooms as much as possible.
Oregon gave Lane County $2.1 million to assist. That will help pay for housing, officials said, and for a team of substance use specialists, known as navigators, who work with police and decide if a person should be deflected.
Clint Riley, who is leading the program, said he has traveled to the county’s various police agencies to help train them on when to call a navigator.
“That’s a different training that most of us have never been to before,” Riley said. “Maybe five years ago, you would have taken this person to jail. Now, we’re using a different approach. So it’s crucial that the relationship between navigators and law enforcement is good.”
Law enforcement agencies seem to have bought in. Chris Parosa, the Lane County District Attorney, said officers are glad
TROY BRYNELSON / OPB
TROY BRYNELSON / OPB
drug laws have more teeth yet they aren’t necessarily being asked to make many more arrests.
“That’s where the opportunity lies for them,” Parosa said. “Instead of having to — prior to ballot Measure 110 — have those people arrested, take them down to jail, fill out probable cause affidavits and immediately begin writing reports because that person is in custody, they can call out a person who is detached from the criminal justice system to take custody and control.”
Lane County is already home to one innovative first-responder program. CAHOOTS launched in the 1970s as one of the first-ever services dispatching mental health specialists through 9-1-1 to help people in crises.
Their deflection plans will effectively turn Riley and the navigator into case managers for low-level drug offenders. Parosa said the navigators will keep informing the county if people are actively pursuing treatment and not skirting responsibility.
“I’m not trained in the realm of substance abuse treatment,” Parosa said. “I’m a criminal attorney. It would be highly inappropriate for me as a criminal attorney to ultimately tell a substance abuse or behavioral health specialist how to do their job or what a person needs.”
Many of the navigators themselves will be ex-addicts, Riley said.
“Some law enforcement in our community might have arrested that navigator 15 years ago, when they were in that situation, and now they’ve completely changed their life,” he said. “They got help, got treatment, and now they’re working as a professional in our community with credentials.”
Lane County saw overdose deaths rise recently, too. From 2020 to 2023, deaths rose from 97 to 212, according to CDC figures. That’s about five-anda-half deaths per 10,000 people.
The navigator program has not launched yet, according to Riley, but he envisions a system with wide latitude. A person facing criminal charges that aren’t inherently drug related — such as trespassing or theft, for example — may be able to get those charges deflected, too. The victim of a crime would have to agree, too.
“A lot of folks just want to see people get help, if they think it’s going to stop,” Riley said.
He doesn’t criticize counties like Douglas that are not participating in deflection. He acknowledged that many perceive Oregon’s drug decriminalization efforts to have failed. Another experiment can be daunting.
Riley formerly commanded the Lane County Sheriff’s Office jail. He said he saw firsthand that it was treatment, not jail in and of itself, that helped people. He said he helped launch new programs to get people medication and counseling.
“We started seeing people leave the jail in a better space, in a better place,” Riley said. “I’ve seen a lot of people spend a lot of time in jail and prison due to their addiction and, at some point, what stopped their addiction? For most people, they got treatment.”
Hanlin, the Douglas County Sheriff, said they are willing to learn from other counties if their programs succeed.
This story comes from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
Clint Riley stands at the Lane County Courthouse on Sept. 17, 2024. Riley is leading the county’s deflection program that aims to keep low-level drug users out of court.
2024–2025 SEASON
Telegraph Quartet
Friday, September 20 v 7:30pm
Quartetto di Cremona
Saturday, October 26 v 3pm
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Winds & Piano
Friday, November 15 v 7:30pm
Israeli Chamber Project
Wednesday, December 4 v 7:30pm
Isidore Quartet
Wednesday, January 8 v 7:30pm
Ulysses Quartet
Friday, January 24 v 7:30pm
AGAVE with Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Sunday, February 9 v 3pm
by request: tenThing
By Request: Underwritten by Dr. Margaret R. Evans & Anonymous
Wednesday, February 26 v 7:30pm
Marmen Quartet
Saturday, March 8 v 3pm
Leonkoro Quartet
Friday, March 21 v 7:30pm
Trio Zimbalist
Saturday, April 12 v 3pm
UNDERGROUND HISTORY
CHELSEA ROSE
Ice, Ice, Baby
Vast deposits of environmental and archaeological knowledge have been frozen in time—until now. As the world warms, ice-patch archaeologists have been scrambling to document the refuse from thousands of years of life on earth that has been preserved within the once-vast ice fields. We recently spoke with Lisa Baril, author of The Age of Melt: What Glaciers, Ice Mummies, and Ancient Artifacts Teach Us about Climate, Culture, and a Future Without Ice, about what this means for all of us.
While this conversation can feel a bit grim, I mean, the title of the book asks us to consider a world without ice, it is also exciting to think of what scientists are learning about ancient humans, extinct species, and microorganisms. The race to document the rapidly melting world has brought scientists from a variety of backgrounds together to investigate the cultural, biological, and ecological impacts of the new realities we are encountering every day. This could lead to a greater understanding of how humans have navigated change in the past, provide clues about how to mitigate some of the impacts of a warming world, or—as my brain exposed to X-Files during formative years can’t help but wonder—it could also lead to the thawing of ancient viruses that will wreak untold havoc… only time will tell.
This urgency, to document or “save” cultural resources as the doomsday clock ticks ever faster, is what has ice-patch archaeologists scrambling.
For us west coasters, our climate change reality is primarily drought and fire. But the water we lack is posing its own challenges across the globe. With the recent devastation in North Carolina, I had heard that flooding not only destroyed buildings and communities, but scoured the earth down to bedrock. This poses a challenge for those left with little to no land to rebuild upon, and also means that archaeological deposits were scoured from the landscape, effectively erasing artifacts, heirlooms, and archaeological deposits that chronicle the long history of the people who had lived in these places and spaces. And this urgency, to document or “save” cultural resources as the doomsday clock ticks ever faster, is what has ice-patch archaeologists scrambling.
I took a university class on European prehistory in my undergrad days, and was fascinated by the story of Ötzi, the Iceman. Encountered in the early 1990s in the Ötzal Alps on the border of Italy and Austria, this tattooed ancient man was
murdered and abandoned with his belongings in a harsh mountain landscape, only to be unceremoniously “discovered” more than 5,000 years later. After decades of study into what has become know as Europe’s oldest natural mummy (and one of its earliest true crime cases), scientists have learned much about this man, his life, and the world in which he lived. The frozen conditions that preserved him allowed us to see what his last meal was, what he was wearing, what was in his tool kit—most of which would never be possible without the ice to cryogenically suspend the deterioration of these fragile organic materials.
Likewise, a 10,000-year-old atlatl dart found in Yellowstone National Park in 2007 allowed researchers the rare opportunity to hold a sophisticated ancient technology in their own hands. Around the world, the melt is exposing textiles used for clothing, shoes, and basketry, wooden dishes and tools, all of which reflect the skill and beauty of the everyday objects from long ago that we usually have to imagine based on tiny traces. Baril writes that glaciers are one of our most obvious metrics for global warming, yet, “while it is tempting to think of ice-patch archaeology as a silver lining to climate change, its very existence also signals its own demise.” The relatively newfound field might be offering job security for the next few years, but it comes with the bittersweet responsibility of documenting the vastness of life on earth as it grows demonstratively smaller. The loss of glaciers has an impact on drinking water, agriculture, sea levels, as well as the human, animal, and plant communities that will be climate refugees dependent on, and competing for, fewer resources. It seems like we are long past any quick fixes for the situation we find ourselves in, but there are things we can do both collectively and as individuals to slow the completion of the melt, and keep those ice-patch archaeologists working just a little bit longer.
Chelsea Rose is the director of the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) and host of the Underground History podcast, which airs during the Jefferson Exchange on JPR’s News & Information service and can be found on all major podcast platforms.
APPLEGATE VALLEY OREGON
“Aside from the excellent Applegate wines I’ve had from producer, Vineyard, made such an impression on me over the last few years that I from the July the attitude, which are
“But Aside from the excellent Applegate wines I’ve had from Willamette producers, the wines of one producer, Troon Vineyard, made such an impression on me over the last few years that I drove seven hours from the Mendocino Coast in July to pay a visit to Applegate Valley, While I admire the way Troon farms and its empirical attitude, the proof is in the wines, which are invariably fresh, lively and expressive,”
—Eric Asimov The New York Times
—Eric Asimov, The New York Times
JPR NEWS
JANE VAUGHAN
& HOMELESSNESS
Stenson said disabled homeless residents have been cited and fined for not moving, but he believes those who are physically unable to move from site to site should receive accommodations.
Disability Rights Group Slams Grants Pass’s Treatment of Disabled Homeless People
Portland-based Disability Rights Oregon has sent two letters to Grants Pass officials, saying its new rules on homeless campsites violate federal and state law.
The city has designated two campsites for homeless people, and campers must move from one site to the other every week or risk a citation and $50 fine or potential arrest.
Tom Stenson, deputy legal director for Disability Rights Oregon, said the city should investigate whether disabled homeless people need reasonable accommodations, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“I think in this case, the notion that you’re going to get arrested if you don’t physically transport yourself and all your belongings on your back a mile through town, that has a very obvious physical connection. There’s very obviously a whole host of disabilities that would be affected,” he said.
Stenson said disabled homeless residents have been cited and fined for not moving, but he believes those who are physically unable to move from site to site should receive accommodations.
“I think it’s pretty easily understandable that you can’t arrest somebody just because they’re in a wheelchair, and they don’t have a home. [That’s] a pretty clear red line. Nobody’s really explained to me why that would be permissible, how that makes sense, either legally or morally or politically,” he said.
The city’s police chief and interim city attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, Grants Pass Mayor Sara Bristol reaffirmed the city’s goal of establishing long-term shelters.
“The intent is to provide a place where unhoused people can rest, but these sites are not intended to provide for indefinite camping,” the statement reads.
Stenson said he has received a phone call from the city attorney in response to one of the letters, but said, “He wouldn’t discuss anything of substance.”
Dr. Bruce Murray, the chief medical officer for the Josephine County nonprofit MINT, which provides services to homeless people, said he has provided medical notes to about 25 homeless disabled residents, saying that each one “is medically fragile with complex health problems and should not move to an alternate campsite,” according to a template of the note. But Murray said Grants Pass police have disregarded the notes.
“The police looked at [the note], and they didn’t go as far as crumbling it up and throwing it away, but they said, ‘This has no legal standing,’” he said.
Murray said some people are in wheelchairs or have amputations or conditions like chronic kidney failure or heart failure.
“These are really sick people on a bad day, and they haven’t had any good days. So these weren’t frivolous, ‘You’ve got a hangnail, Bruce will give you a note,’” Murray said.
Stenson and Murray would rather homeless disabled residents be allowed to remain at one site, rather than having to move back and forth each week.
In his October 3 letter to the city, Stenson called the frequent moves “pointless,” saying, “Requiring such frequent and circular moves has the effect, not of vindicating some important city interest in sanitation or safety, but to make it as unpleasant as possible for people who are homeless to remain in Grants Pass.”
In recent weeks, the Grants Pass City Council has changed both the locations of the campsites and how long residents are allowed to remain there. The two current campsites are 1.284
A campsite designated by the city of Grants Pass for homeless people, shown on October 2, 2024, before any campers moved in.
JANE VAUGHAN/JPR NEWS
Poverty & Homelessness
Continued from previous page
acres at the future Water Treatment Plant site at 755 SE J St. and about a quarter of an acre at 712 NE 7th St. next to the police station. The city has received some pushback about the quality of these sites, including that they provided no shade or potable water. Local nonprofits have since provided shade canopies and bottled water.
Providing these two campsites is the city’s way of following Oregon state law in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. In June, the Supreme Court sided with the city in a long legal battle, upholding its ban on public camping. But Grants Pass still has to comply with a state law that says rules regulating where homeless people can camp must be “objectively reasonable”, although that term isn’t specifically defined.
Stenson said he would prefer to work with the city to find a solution to this problem rather than going to court.
“I don’t want to rush into the courtroom,” he said. “I could be filing stuff in court today, if I wanted to be. What I want to do is I want to have a discussion, and I want to resolve this issue.”
Jane Vaughan is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. Jane began her journalism career as a reporter for a community newspaper in Portland, Maine. She’s been a producer at New Hampshire Public Radio and worked on WNYC’s On The Media.
JES BURNS
SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
With isomalt as the base, the Idaho researchers have created a new kind of material — one that’s recyclable, reusable and quickly breaks down in the environment.
Idaho Researchers Cook Up a Sweet Alternative to Single-Use Plastics
Boise State University team creates a sugar-based composite material that breaks down easily in the environment.
I’m a much more precise scientist than I am a baker,” Miller-Cassman, a Boise State University Ph.D., said. “When I bake, I sort of just throw whatever I have into the pan or the oven and see how it comes out. Can’t do that here.”
And the primary ingredient for this project is often used in baking as well. The recipe for Miller-Cassman’s plastic substitute starts with sugar — specifically isomalt.
“We’re always thinking about, ‘What would the starting material be?’ Ideally not a fossil fuel — so plant based,” said Scott Phillips, head of the Macromolecular Sciences Lab at Boise State.
They landed on isomalt. It’s made from processing sucrose (table sugar), which in the United States, mostly comes from sugar beets.
“You take the beets, you turn that into sucrose, and then you can turn that into isomalt,” Miller-Cassman said.
Most people know of isomalt from baking competitions on TV. It’s used to create delicate glass-like sculptures for cake decorating. It’s technically a sugar alcohol, about half as sweet as table sugar. It’s edible, but eating too much of it will give you a bad stomach
Isomalt is also used in the movies to make smashable props.
“Whenever you see somebody jumping through a window and it breaks and they’re not cut and they’re not hurt, it’s not because they’re superheroes. It’s because when isomalt breaks, it looks like glass, but it’s not sharp,” Phillips said.
With isomalt as the base, the Idaho researchers have created a new kind of material — one that’s recyclable, reusable and quickly breaks down in the environment.
The plastics problem
Plastic is everywhere around us. And about half of it is designed to be used once and thrown away.
“We’re really dealing with this consume-and-convenience economy that we’re all addicted to, we’re all complicit in it. And it’s really hard to get away from,” said Shannon Jones, plastic reduction coordinator for the Washington Department of Ecology.
On top of that, less than 10% of the plastic produced is recycled, and when it ends up in the environment, it can stick around for hundreds of years.
“We have more plastics on Earth today than we ever have,” said Jones, who isn’t involved in the isomalt research. “Even if we recycle them, they’re never gone. They’re just down-cycled,
In this video still from January, the isomalt-cellulose-sawdust composite material breaks down into its plant-based components. Unlike plastic, it only takes a few hours of soaking in water for the material to dissolve completely.
effectively, into lesser products and then will eventually have to be disposed of.”
Miller-Cassman has seen the impacts of plastic on the environment firsthand. Before coming back to school, she had a job monitoring plastics pollution in San Diego Bay.
“To be perfectly honest, I got really pissed off because it’s everywhere. And it was a huge problem,” she said. “I got a little tired of just monitoring and creating reports on this problem that didn’t seem to be getting addressed.”
One of the issues with plastics used for single-use products is that their quality is just too good.
“The product that we make from them will last forever … but we throw it away,” Phillips said. “And so the question is, ‘Could we dial back? Could we re-engineer single-use items… [to be] just good enough and last long enough for the application?’ And then you don’t need it to be any better than that.”
Isomalt is just good enough for single use — but not by itself. Isomalt alone is brittle and would likely shatter on impact if dropped.
So Miller-Cassman looked for something else she could mix in to make the isomalt stronger. Sticking with their plant-based
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JPR News Focus: Science & Environment
Continued from page 37
guidelines, she found that cellulose, sawdust and wood flour all imbued favorable properties when mixed in.
“When they’re blended together, they form a tightly bound material called a composite,” she said. “If you find particulates that are compatible with the matrix, then they just help to strengthen the overall resulting material.”
The cellulose and the relatively long strands of wood in the sawdust provided strength against breaking.
The result is a material that’s strong and shatter-resistant. And it only takes a little water to break it down. In the environment, it disappears quickly.
“You could just bury it, and it would become nutrients for the soil,” Phillips said.
The material can be dissolved and reformed into new items without losing strength.
A biodegradable protective coating makes the isomalt mix waterproof long enough for a single use — and it hides the sweet taste.
But what would you use it for?
Miller-Cassman has spent a lot of time in the lab molding the isomalt-sawdust mix into different shapes. She uses an injection molder that melts small pellets of the composite, which she’s colored a rich, earthy green.
“One of the benefits of this project is that everything I work with smells really good,” she said, dropping the green chunks into the hopper. “Smells like melting sugar.”
The sticky viscous goo — the consistency of a slightly chunky toothpaste — is forced into the awaiting mold. The resulting object is a small flower-shaped bowl.
“[The isomalt composite] sort of looks and acts like a ceram-
ic. So you could make little ceramic decorations or food service ware. Things like that, I think, could be incredibly useful, especially from an environmental sustainability perspective,” Miller-Cassman said.
Their aim is to replace plates, cups, forks and spoons, party favors and decorations, basically things that would end up in the landfill after all the cake is gone.
The vision is ambitious: Isomalt from sugar beets grown in Idaho. Sawdust from local sawmills.
“We could potentially keep the entire process local, which would be ideal. That would be the dream,” said Miller-Cassman, who has now graduated.
Boise State University has filed for a patent for the team’s isomalt-based plastic substitute.
If adopted, the innovation could help replace some plastics that would stick around for centuries, while also reducing our reliance on fossil fuels as a raw material. Of course, to tackle the enormity of the plastics pollution problem, it’s going to take more than just one new plastic substitute.
Washington Ecology’s Shannon Jones said it might be nice to have a product that breaks down easily, even if it’s not as durable.
“There’s part of me that says, ‘Well, all we’re doing is supporting this mindset of single-use,’” Jones said. “Ideally, people would bring their own tableware and their own cup everywhere. But it’s just not going to culturally catch on at that level.”
But with increasing understanding of the scope of the plastics problem and growing public awareness, Phillips is a little more optimistic. When he started working to create more sustainable plastics back in 2008, there was recognition that something needed to be done, but nobody was willing to pay for it.
“I had a lot of people from companies tell me, ‘We’re never going to change from polyethylene — it’s too cheap. So, you’re wasting your time,’” he said.
But then a decade passed.
“I hear from a lot of companies that they’re all putting money and manpower resources into how to be sustainable in a real way, an authentic way,” Phillips said. “So I think that’s here to stay.”
Jes Burns works for OPB’s Science & Environment unit as a science reporter and producer of the Northwest science show “All Science, No Fiction.”
BRANDON SWANSON/OPB
In this video still from January, Boise State University’s sugar-based plastic alternative is ready to be be injection molded into a usable shape. The isomalt-cellulose-sawdust composite material can be used to create almost any shape. It was designed to work with existing plastic production equipment.
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Crater Lake’s New Hospitality Company Reflects on a Demanding First Season TOURISM & TRAVEL
As fall arrives, and snow appears on the horizon, the hospitality company ExplorUS is wrapping up its first full season at Crater Lake National Park. The company took over after the National Park Service kicked out the last vendor.
Crater Lake is the only national park in Oregon. Its breathtaking sights draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
While National Park Service rangers take care of the park and its natural resources, a private company — called a concessionaire — runs the restaurants, gift shops, hotels, campgrounds and boat tours.
This year, that company is ExplorUS. They also manage other national and state properties across the country, but it’s their first year managing Crater Lake. Another company, Aramark, ran the park until early this year.
“This was an unusual transition between Aramark and ourselves, because it was a very short one,” said William Boas, vice president of operations at ExplorUS.
The National Park Service terminated Aramark’s contract in February over consistent failures to meet park service standards.
According to annual reports, Aramark faced a number of food safety violations, poor employee housing conditions and a major diesel fuel spill.
After taking over the contract in late March, Boas said ExplorUS had just a few weeks to prepare before park facilities opened in mid-May.
“You have to remember too that at that time, we had 11 em-
had to try and juggle supplies around to make sure everybody has toilet paper.”
— Jordyn Evans, camp host at the Mazama Campground
ployees on site,” he said. “And we grew that staff from 11 employees to 200 employees in the course of about three and a half weeks.”
Supplies, schedules and sick leave
One of those new employees was Jordyn Evans, a camp host at the Mazama Campground. This was the first year that Crater Lake had camp hosts, who clean up facilities and campsites, deal with camper complaints and act as a welcoming face for visitors. Evans said he was hired quickly after applying.
“[The interviewer] kind of warned me during the interview that it was going to be a little bit chaotic, because it’s their first year having this park on contract,” he said. “But I wasn’t quite expecting it to be as chaotic as it is.”
Evans said that it was unclear to camp hosts when their first day working for ExplorUS was.
“I couldn’t get the HR to answer my question straight. I would compare it to text messaging some teenage boy. You send them three questions, and they answer one,” he said.
Another issue Evans said staff faced was getting supplies.
“We only recently started getting supplies for us to stock our bathrooms with consistently this month” he said. “Otherwise, we’ve had to beg for supplies. We’ve had to try and juggle supplies around to make sure everybody has toilet paper.”
Evans said staff also had to buy their own cleaning supplies, alongside issues with out-of-order showers and washing machines.
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Communication with HR was difficult for staff elsewhere as well, according to Emanuel Killian, who works overnight at the Crater Lake Lodge. He said there are ongoing issues with staff benefits like sick leave and scheduling.
“Everything seemed okay, but once everything started and opened, everything else, employee wise, kind of got last priority,” Killian said.
He said other staff haven’t been getting their sick leave or schedule as required by state law. Hospitality, retail and food service workers in Oregon are required to receive their schedules at least two weeks in advance, or they’re owed a penalty payment from their employer.
“If [employees] don’t speak up, or if they don’t know, on a case by case basis, they’re not getting their due rights, and they’re unaware of it,” Killian said.
He said the fact that a lot of young employees come to work at Crater Lake from other countries could contribute to their lack of knowledge of local labor laws. He said he’s brought this issue up with HR multiple times, but never saw the issues fixed across the board.
William Boas from ExplorUS said he doesn’t know of any issues with sick leave or people having to buy their own supplies. He said he’s visited the property around nine times since March and has never seen a shortage of supplies, but said it could have been a miscommunication between staff and the warehouse. However, Boas said there have been some hiccups with staff scheduling that he said he’s worked to address.
“The problem was, we had a little bit of a transition period where schedules were being created in an Excel form, and that was what was being posted,” he said. “And then they were trying to get back and put it within our payroll system. And that wasn’t happening.”
Making lemonade out of a lemon
The National Park Service declined to be interviewed. But in a statement, the park’s deputy superintendent, Sean Denniston, said, “We appreciate their commitment to significant investments in facilities, staff training, visitor services, and other areas over the next few years to improve conditions for their employees and guests. ExplorUS has been responsive to our and guests’ feedback and has demonstrated a commitment to providing quality visitor services.”
Camp Host Jordyn Evans said he won’t be returning to Crater Lake after this summer’s experience. But others are more optimistic about ExplorUS’ ability to turn things around, like Belinda Crompton, another camp host.
“There’s still some problems here, and they’re working on them,” she said. “Nothing’s going to get fixed in a heartbeat. But it’s slow.”
She said the visitor reviews online have been so much better this year than they were in the past. Realistically, Crompton said ExplorUS has done a pretty good job.
“They were handed an absolute lemon,” she said. “They’re figuring out how to make lemonade. They’re not there. They’ll get there.”
Crompton said she hasn’t decided yet if she wants to return to work at Crater Lake next year.
Renovations to come
William Boas from ExplorUS said as the season winds down, their focus turns to building renovations that were originally promised by Aramark, but never completed. Boas said they have a very small window between when staff are gone and snow starts to get in the way of construction.
“We operate Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine that has a similar kind of window of operations, and so it’s not unique to this park,” Boas said. “We leverage the experience that we have working in those environments to help us develop plans for here.”
One of the major renovations planned is for one of the two employee dormitories, called the Rim Dorm. The conditions were described as ‘disgusting’ last year by a former employee Boas said before the staff moved in this spring, ExplorUS did what they could to make the employee housing more comfortable.
“We made an extra effort to go in there and completely paint the interior of the building, to do a deep cleaning on all the carpets and all the facilities, the restroom facilities and kitchen area in there, so that people really understood that we wanted them to have good lodging conditions as employees,” he said.
Killian, who lived in the Rim Dorm, said there are still some rodent issues, as well as problems with the laundry facilities. But he did notice the new equipment and the deep cleaning that ExploreUS did.
Boas said most people may only visit a national park once in their lives, so making sure they have a positive experience is important. A review of this year’s operations by the National Park Service is expected in April.
“We don’t expect to be perfect, but we do want to be as good as we can be every day, and we preach that to our folks,” Boas said. “We try and make sure it’s a great environment.”
Roman Battaglia is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. After graduating from Oregon State University, Roman came to JPR as part of the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism in 2019. He then joined Delaware Public Media as a Report For America fellow before returning to the JPR newsroom.
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RECIPE
HEATHER ARNDT ANDERSON
Bread Dumplings with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce
We could say that bread dumplings are as economical as they are simple to prepare, but this does semmelknödel a disservice. Are they a poster child for food waste reduction? Sure. Are they made from just four ingredients that you probably already have on hand? Indeed. But semmelknödel exemplify the synergy of simple, homestyle foods — they’re so much more than a way to use up stale bread.
Unlike their descendant, the matzo ball (aka kneydl in Yiddish), served almost universally in a brothy soup, semmelknödel are an allpurpose carb, as equally suited to goulash as they are gravy. Because it is autumn, and wild mushrooms are superabundant in these parts, here I’ve paired them with a creamy wild mushroom sauce (pilzrahmsoße). You can use any kind of stale bread for these — Kaiser rolls are the norm, but I just happened to have a stash of day-old baguettes in my freezer because my friendly neighborhood cheese-and-cracker snack shop gives them to me for free.
MAKES 12 DUMPLINGS
Ingredients
Semmelknödel
1 pound stale bread (such as 1 baguette, 5 Kaiser rolls, etc.)
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon neutral cooking oil
½ cup diced onion
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper
Semmelknödel, or bread dumplings, may become your new favorite way to use up stale bread — especially with a creamy wild mushroom sauce
Mushroom sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ pound mushrooms, any kind, chopped or broken into pieces
½ teaspoon caraway seeds
½ cup of diced onion
2 teaspoons kosher salt
¼ cup of flour
3 cups whole milk
A few pinches freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon black pepper
Chopped fresh parsley, chervil and/or dill for garnish
Instructions
1. Cut or tear the bread into rough chunks, then arrange them in a shallow baking dish, cut side up. Pour the milk over the bread and let it soak, turning the bread as needed to ensure all the pieces get to sit in the milk and soften up, about one hour. When the bread has softened to the texture of a moist sponge (but not too mushy), blitz it in a food processor (or tear it up with your hands) until it forms a cohesive, pulpy mass of ¼-inch crumbs. Transfer to a bowl.
2. While the bread is soaking, heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and saute the onions until they’re fragrant and translucent, about 3–5 minutes. Allow the onions to cool slightly, then mix them with the soaked bread, eggs and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Form into 12 balls, packing them fairly tightly to ensure they keep their shape.
3. In the same pan that you used to saute the onions, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, caraway seeds, diced onion and salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms have softened and begun to brown on the edges and the onions are translucent, around 8–10 minutes.
4. Add the flour and stir it around to coat the mushrooms, adding more butter as needed to ensure it all comes together (it will still be a dry mess but that’s OK). Cook, stirring, until the flour becomes slightly toasty and fragrant, about 1–2 minutes. Pour in the milk, stirring to dissolve the flour, then add the nutmeg and pepper.
5. Reduce the heat to low and add the semmelknödel. Cover the pan and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the sauce is thickened (add more milk or water as needed to keep it from getting too thick) and the dumplings have firmed up and cooked through (they’ll be the texture of meatballs), turning gently about halfway through cooking to make sure they’re evenly coated with the sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed, then serve with a sprinkle of fresh chopped herbs.
Heather Arndt Anderson is an award-winning food writer and the author of four books on culinary history. She is the producer of OPB's Superabundant newsletter.
POETRY
CRYSTAL WILLER
The Arsonist Speaks of Her Beginnings
Before, there was no field beyond here. The copper jar didn’t fall so much as curl away.
The kitchen remained fixed. The blue of the counter and the blue of the smoke was the same mud gray.
The china that cracked and popped would have broken in the hollowed sink, the sink itself a kind of china.
Diptych in Black and White
Before, on the dresser in the bedroom, a line of glass jars: each air and a spider.
Each spider was large, unmistakable, the numbers made them all the more present.
Every night and every morning, a choir waiting, my mother the conductor.
Even before the fire, the house looked gutted. The thing of value, the piano, didn’t fit, calling out for so much care, effort. Shelves were already matches, kindling blankets.
I came back to my home a pilgrim, wanting, until I was all emptied valley, shallowed basin.
This one’s mostly made of shadow. In the foreground is the door. The doorknob is a clean black cut out in the white wood, shine reflecting on the roundest part, like a cartoon. There’s the vertical border of the door and on the left, the side black with shadow, a small rectangle of white, and inside that, my mother. Her head is turned back, into the camera, and her hair is cut just above the shoulder, pulled into a half ponytail. Flecks of white are her eyes and mouth opening, which make her look a little demonic, laughter in a featureless face. It’s easy to say it mocks me— the door as bad metaphor, the imp mother and her twisted look from the white shape saying, so little left, so little right.
This one’s divided evenly in two: on the right is a door painted white with a black metal knob and lock, on the left is a wall with a framed drawing, a hatted woman’s face and some curved shape on her right that looks like a boot but isn’t. Below that, my mother. She looks straight at the camera, doesn’t smile. Her hair is dark although I know it wasn’t. She’s wearing a black sweater and a heart necklace that’s whiter than the whites of her eyes. I never saw the necklace among her belongings, but I don’t think I would have worn it. There’s a shadow under her right eye like a bruise, or like her cheekbone is too high on that one side. I look right in her eyes. I don’t know what I’m looking at.
Writers may submit original poetry for publication in Jefferson Journal
Email 3–6 poems, a brief bio, and your mailing address in one attachment to jeffmopoetry@gmail.com , or send 3–6 poems, a brief bio, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Amy Miller, Poetry Editor Jefferson Journal
1250 Siskiyou Blvd Please allow eight Ashland, OR 97520 weeks for reply.
Crystal Willer was raised in Central Oregon and Idaho. Her poems have appeared in The Spoon River Poetry Review, Territory, West Branch Wired, The Columbia Poetry Review, Weekday, and elsewhere. She has an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter and works as an archivist at Lewis & Clark College.
