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The Chronicle
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Wednesday, August 28, 2019
City passes new parks fees schedule
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A place for people to fall:
Jordan Center to be revamped
Christine Menges/The Chronicle
The sign where park reservations are placed at McCormick Park. CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
The St. Helens City Council is moving forward with a new parks fees schedule, which will replace the current system of exclusive use, half day or full day reservations. The new schedule will now consist of session reservations of threehour blocks throughout the day for parties to sign up for online, beginning in September. Parks and fields that will use the new system include McCormick Park, Campbell Park, Godfrey Park, Columbia View Park, 6th Street Park and fields near the Recreation Center, often referred to as the Boise Fields. The system includes all the parks’ associated fields as well as the Veterans Pavillion and the Gazebo Amphitheater for McCormick Park and Columbia View Park, respectively. While current fees range from $10 to $40 for different half- or full day uses, the new system ranges from $5 to $25 per session depending on the field. The schedule change also includes an increase in lighting charges from $10 to $25, which reflects the demand charges and light increases from the Columbia River People’s Utility District (CRPUD), which have incurred over the last several years, but have not yet been accounted for in parks fees, according to the resolution. Individuals who book the fields will have to pay the lighting fees for evening practice sessions. At the city council’s regular session on Aug. 21, Jeff Kroll, president of the St. Helens Softball League, along with Andrea Heart, registration manager, requested the city be lenient with their organization regarding fees on the softball fields near the recreation center. Kroll suggested they have their fee be waived at least partially. Kroll said he put a lot of hours into maintaining the fields with no monetary compensation, and presented the councilors with evidence of hours worked as well as photos showing before and after pictures of the states of the fields. Kroll said he put 165.5 hours
See PARK Page A12
Vol. 137, No. 35
Julie Thompson/The Chronicle
Wauna Communications Specialist, Michael Murdoch, CCMH Executive Director Julia Jackson, CCMH PR and Director of Development, Hope Wirta, and Jordan Center Clinical Director, Ben Weaver, stand alongside Nick Jordan’s photo inside the Jordan Center. JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
Sometimes those navigating the mental health system just need a place to land with like-minded peers who understand what they’re going through and have been there themselves. They need someplace to hang out, to connect, maybe play a few games, and to socialize when their illness might otherwise tell them to isolate themselves. With that in mind, the Jordan Center will be seeing big changes this year in an effort to expand their program and make the building more comfortable, thanks to new direction from Columbia Community Mental Health (CCMH) and community partnerships with Wauna Federal Credit Union, NAMI Oregon and donor Peggy Hammond. The Jordan Center, located at 297 S. 1st Street, first opened in 2012 and has been a resource for CCMH clients and community members seeking support and alternatives to traditional mental health services. The center is named for Nick Jordan, a long-time, well-liked client who passed away from cancer. Hammond was his mother and is credited by those involved as being a major force in helping secure needed funds, as
initial funding came from a state grant and private donors. “Peggy would say that this center was the key to him having quality of life,” CCMH Public Relations and Director of Development, Hope Wirta said. According to Wirta, the Jordan Center came about after several years of planning by a Consumer Council that was organized and mentored by Linda Pritchett of CCMH. The council incorporated ideas from the recovery movement, which focused on empowering mental health clients through peer support and other clientcentered, non-traditional methods. After the center opened, the peers working there splintered off and
created their own organization and board, with a plan to become a private non-profit. However, this never came to fruition. So, in 2018, after spending some years floating the rent and bills, CCMH began taking a more active role in overseeing Jordan Center activities. According to The Jordan Center’s Clinical Director, Ben Weaver, those on the Jordan Center board have now been asked to be a part of an Advisory Council, who will continue to retain input into how the center is run. CCMH Executive Director Julia Jackson said CCMH stepped in to take ownership of the center, to ensure it had the finances and the staffing it needed, but wants to keep
the program in line with the same community investment model it has always been, run by Peer Support Specialists and volunteers. “I would say we’re just in the infancy stages and have a really exciting future ahead of how we’re going to grow this center and we’re not going to do it on our own,” Jackson said. “I think there are some exciting possibilities with some of our other key partners and players in the community that we are absolutely going to approach and involve, whether on a staffing level, financial investment level, referral level – let’s get this place popping. Let’s have this be a main hub.” Jackson envisions the program will work much in the way the St. Helens Recreation Center is operating to provide engagement for community members, with the Jordan Center’s eyes on supporting those with mental health struggles. “This could be so much more and that’s why we really stepped in. We want to get it there, but we’re going to do it through staying true to that peer model and community investment,” Jackson said. Wauna Federal Credit Union was the first to step in to pledge some
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Medicine Wheel Recovery Services helps participants find better lives and taken the best of everything and tried to incorporate it here,” Howtopat said.
CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
When Kamala Tewee first heard about Medicine Wheel Recovery Services in June of 2017, her life was in chaos. Tewee was living from couch to couch and struggling with addiction. She had never been able to successfully parent any of her five children. Previous efforts had led to recovery, but she had recently relapsed. Around that time, Tewee found out she was pregnant again. A practicing Shaker, Tewee met Clarissa, the daughter of Tana Howtopat, Co-executive Director of Medicine Wheel, at a church meeting. Clarissa told Tewee about the program, and the two kept in touch with each other for more than a year. “I’d call her and tell her what I was going through,” Tewee said. “She finally asked me if I wanted to change my life around, and I said yes, and she picked me up. I had a really rough road. I believe the light came when I met Clarissa and I came here. She has helped me get to
How the program works
Christine Menges/The Chronicle
Members of Medicine Wheel Recovery Services including Kamala Tewee, holding her baby, gather around a table before one of their weekly meetings. Medicine Wheel aids people struggling with addiction.
where I am today.” Tewee is one of 697 people who have been through the Medicine Wheel program since it began in 2016. According to the organization’s mission statement, the program helps participants move toward “sustainable recovery from addictions and mental health issues.” Co-executive Directors Tana
Howtopat and Pam Councell founded the nonprofit after having been addiction counselors themselves. While Howtopat said both she and Councell worked with admirable organizations previously, they wanted to design a facility where they could do treatment their way, in a program that combined best practices. “We have taken information that we’ve learned at different places
Medicine Wheel employs ten people, who serve as counselors or mentors. The program treats people who have the Oregon Health Plan open card, also known as fee-for-service, which provides health care to eligible Native Americans and Alaska Natives. According to Howtopat, the program is set up to be approximately six months, although some patients stay longer and some stay shorter. On a patient’s first visit, he or she will partake in an initial assessment with a counselor who will create a Service Plan for the patient. All patients will take part in at least one support group a day, and sometimes two or three support groups a day. The first 30 days of a patient’s stay,
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