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• Low-income Oregonians can get up to $5,000 to help with housing lost in wildfire Gettl~g
ByTaylorW.Anderson
help
WesCom News Service
O«gonians who have DarreH Reynolds lost fheir lost housing three-bedroom house near during a Troy in late Auymt. They heard &om fhe sher- wildfire have six months ifF's office fhe day after fhey to aPPly evacuated that their home, shop and vehicles aH burned f««nding in the Grizzly Bear Complex under the Fire that charred more than P r ogram. Given that 76,000 acres in WaHowa houses County and in Washington were lost in eastofWa llaWaHa before firefighfers caughf, up wifh it. August, the "I had a great big shop and Legislature will have just if was plum fuH of every enough time g Tanume Reynolds in March to We losf aH offhaf see whether A monfh later, fhey're livthe $50,000 is ing in a 12-foot camp trailer enough. in Enterprise, welcoming the help that comes in from friends and former neighbors See Study / Page 5A
SALEM — T, e and
CheriseKaechelerrhe Observer
Matt Grishim, left, is one of Jeremy Arno's new clients after recently being released from the Union County Jail. Grishim left the jail and met with Arno immediately outside to get some encouragement and the promise that if Grishim needed to talk to someone, Arno was available.
• Life coach works to make sure they stay out of jail By Kelly Ducote The Observer
0$cials are hoping a new, personal touch at the Union County Jail can help inmates stay out of the facility for
good. Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen has launcheda mentorship program at the jail in hopes that one-on-one, face-to-face counseling can help some of the inmates return to a productive life, away &om crime. "Our focus for this program is pre-prison, younger kids as a general rule," Rasmussen satd. The sheriff said he had been mulling the idea of
What do you think? We want to hearyour thoughts. Email letters to the editor to newsl lagrandeobserver. com and join the conversation on The Observer Opinion
page. bringing in a life coach-type mentor for inmates when behavioral problems began escalating at the jail a couple months ago. "It's getting to the point where we don't have the ability to deal with these behavioral issues," Rasmussen said. "Our jail's just too small for
this community. We've got to reduce inmate levels while keeping the community safe." At the height of the behavioral problems, Rasmussen contacted life coach Jeremy Arno, a native of Eastern Oregon and graduate of Eastern Oregon University. Rasmussen knew Arno and ofhis work, which includes a speakingengagement atLa Grande High School as part of an anti-bullying campaign. "I just felt he had the right skill set, the right personality, the right attitude to make this program work," Rasmussen said. As coincidence would have it,Arno, who lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, was able to come to the jail the day Rasmussen called. "I happened to be in town,"
Arno said."It really was meant to be." ButArno's involvement didn't end in that first trip to the jail. He's now traveling to La Grande once a week from his home in Coeur d'Alene to visit with male inmates at the facility. 'They need a shot to come out and be productive and to serve the community and also be the best they can be,"Arno said of the inmates. Arno and Rasmussen believe the key to this approach is that Arno doesn't just talk to inmates in the jail — he stays in touch with them after they're released.
' They say,Who am Igoing to call when I get out?"'Arno said."I say, You can call me."' Although Arno doesn't live SeeCoach / Page 5A
InterMountain
ESD still strong following pull out • School districts will receive same level of ESD services Getting out
By Dick Mason The Observer
Group plants a seed to secede &om Oregon • Rural communities lose political voice to metro areas, supporters say By Cherise Kaechele The Observer
It may sound like a tall task. It may even sound impossible, but some living in the rural areas of Eastern Oregon and
Washington are fed up with the political power going to the western side of the states. The idea has been planted and a group has been formed to discuss the possibility of secession. Ken Parsons, of La Grande, said he wants the seed planted in more thanjust his mind about the rural area of Oregon — basicaHy eve~ ea s t of the Cascades, as well as Eastern Washington — to secede &om Or-
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egon to become a partofIdaho. "A coupleofm onths ago,an acquaintance in another small town wrotea lettertothe editor to our La Grande Observer newspaper," Parsons wrote in an email.'The letter included the suggestion of'rural Eastern Oregon counties joining Idaho.' Gee ... I never thought of that." With this idea, Parsons said he's had discussions with many other people who are upset that
the political power goes to the western side of the state and the rural communities lose their voice. But Parsons admittedhe isn't going to do the leg work on this. "There's a whole lot of smart people out there who have some answers and some thought on how to do this," Parsons said. Parsons created a Yahoo Group to give those who live in Oregon,Washington and Idaho See Secede / Page 5A
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Hermiston pulled outofthe InterMountain ESD effective July 1. The move was made because the Hermiston School District wanted to provide the services it received from the ESD on its own.
CONTACT US
F ull forecast en the back of B section
Friday
The InterMountain Education Service District's budget is about $2 million smaller than it was a year ago, but this will have no impact on the services it provides to Union County school districts. Mark MulvihiH, superintendent of the InterMountain ESD, made this point W ednesday ata m eeting of the ESD Board in La Grande. The InterMountain ESD's budget took a hit earlier this year when the Hermiston School District pulled out of the ESD, costing SeeESD / Page 5A
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71 / 3 8 Mostlysunny
541-963-3161 Issue 113 4 sections, 30 pages La Grande, Oregon
MONDAY IN HOME COMFORT FOOD: ALL THE FLAVOR, NO GUILT lg
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Email story ideas to news@lagrande observer.com. More contact info on Page 4A.
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