Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Heading into summer, it’s been one of the wettest June months we have seen in decades. The photo above and below, titled “In the District” (taken during my travels through the district) depicts the lush green valley the rain has produced. Though most of us are ready for some sunshine, the rain has certainly been a welcome relief from the scorched wildfire conditions our state has endured these past few years. With that said, summer in Oregon officially begins today with lots sunshine in the forecast! Exploring Oregon’s outdoor spaces is a great place to be and students in Molalla have been doing just that in a story I share with you later in this newsletter. I hope your summer is off to a good start as we enter the season of parades, fairs, and fresh produce.
This month’s newsletter provides an overview of June legislative days and other news from the district and around the state. I appreciate the feedback I have received through these communications and always look forward to hearing your thoughts, concerns, and ideas.
Sincerely,
 Rick Lewis
State Representative
House District 18
Oregon’s Christmas Tree District
Legislative interim committees met earlier this month. Due to ongoing construction impacting the Capitol’s committee rooms meetings took place virtually.
The House Interim Committee on Veterans & Emergency Management, in which I serve as vice-chair, kicked off my first committee meeting on June 2nd. The informational meeting included an overview of the Occupational Licensure for Spouses of Military Personnel by the U.S. Department of Defense – State Liaison Office, followed by a status report from the Oregon Military Department on Oregon National Guard Deployments.
The Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs provided an update on the Veterans’ Home Loan Program. Lastly, we received a briefing on the outlook for the 2022 Wildfire Season by the Oregon State Fire Marshal and the Oregon Department of Forestry. You can watch a replay of the meeting on OLIS here.
The House Interim Special Committee On Wildfire Recovery received updates from
This unique committee was formed in the aftermath of the 2020 Labor Day wildfires. We are tasked with continued oversight of the state-wide wildfire recovery efforts to make sure the work the legislature intended to get done to help wildfire impacted communities and survivors actually happens.
The committee has also formed two interim work groups on disaster recovery authorities that focus on firefighting capacity inside the wildland urban interface and capacity for wildfire fighting from the forest perspective and budget issues. We are evaluating lessons learned from these tragedies and identifying any legislative changes needed as we move forward into the 2023 session. It is an honor to serve on this committee that focuses on both recovery and prevention of future tragedies and to co-chair a sub-group that is working to ensure local needs are addressed in future disaster recovery phases. You can catch a replay of the meeting on OLIS here.
On Friday, June 3rd, I closed out legislative days with my last two committees. The Joint Committee On Transportation received informational briefings from the Oregon Department of Transportation on major transportation projects, maintenance and operations throughout the state
One of the many major projects included the I-5 Aurora-Donald Interchange within House District 18. This is a comprehensive redo of the entire intersection to address safety issues and bring it up to current standards to meet the needs of the area given the regional connections, as well as the commercial development.
The committee also received a DMV service update relating to the department’s field office staff shortage resulting in temporary reduction in office hours and/or unplanned office closures.
DMV is bolstering recruitment efforts to fill these in-person field positions in a variety of ways by coordinated region-wide recruitments, streamlining the agency’s hiring processes, actively promoting jobs within the community, holding one-day hiring events and more. |
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Due to technical problems the Interstate 5 Bridge Replacement briefing was bumped to June 14th. You can find a replay of that meeting on OLIS here.
Lastly, the House Interim Committee On Judiciary meeting included a caseload update from the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) and public safety updates from the Oregon State Police, the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Oregon Association Chiefs of Police, Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association, and the Oregon Department of Corrections.
Across the board, Oregon’s judicial and public safety systems have experienced significant challenges that have pushed them to crisis levels. OJD reported that pending court cases grew in 2020 as filings outpaced case resolutions. The Courts were able to develop strategic ways to resolve cases during the pandemic and report that cases are now lower than in 2019. There are some factors still in play that could bring caseloads up with the significant number of outstanding warrants that exist. If those come in at the same time, numbers could go up. The Courts have also been told that in some jurisdictions there are a significant number of cases that have not been filed yet. Some of the filing slowed down with the pandemic so the Courts are not sure what to expect which could also raise caseloads.
Public safety professionals focused on the status within their agencies, divisions, bureaus, and departments related to the pandemic, significant “police reform” legislation, and recruitment challenges. They also shared their experiences as they have begun to implement new legislative adopted police reform policies that created new requirements for training, certification, and additional database entry. Smaller jurisdictions expressed the need for time and training resources to fully implement the legislature’s reform vision with a wholehearted willingness to meet reform goals.
Of note, was the alarming number of deaths due to drug toxicity being seen across the state related to the high volume of overdose of fentanyl and oxycodone. Overdose deaths have increased by 36% in the past year alone. Public safety agencies report staffing shortages in all jurisdictions, creating significant challenges in recruiting, retaining, and training new officers due to the high attrition rate in sworn divisions and within the correctional institutes.
Oregon’s opioid epidemic continues to be a serious problem plaguing our communities. In earlier newsletters this year, I shared the missed opportunity where legislators failed to pass HB 4135 that would have closed a legal loophole exploited by drug traffickers - allowing them to continue dealing substantial quantities of illegal drugs in neighborhoods and to our children. In case you missed it, last month I provided resource information on the risks of fentanyl overdose deaths in school-age youth and guidance for parents and schools from the Oregon-Idaho HIDTA. This month, I am pleased to learn that authorities arrested a Vancouver fentanyl dealer that will face federal charges in connection with the overdose death of a Portland high school student in March. I am grateful for the work of our dedicated public safety professionals who are willing to serve during this difficult time to keep our communities safe. You can find more on this story here.
While this is only a brief overview of the Judiciary committee briefings, the gravity surrounding Oregon’s public safety landscape is best heard by watching a replay of the meeting on OLIS here.
Exploring Oregon’s outdoor spaces is a great place to be and students at Molalla River Academy have been doing just that! Their curiosity about the forest area behind their school gave way to a vision that shaped the landscape for their learning this year as they created the Dickey Creek Walk. This is a very special place for their school community and families to enjoy and these "trail blazers" got to cut the ribbon on their completed trail last week. Molalla River Academy students vision to explore Oregon’s outdoors is a lead we can all surely follow.
June 14th I attended the Northwest Willamette Research & Extension Center (NWREC) quarterly meeting in Aurora.
There is always something exciting happening at NWREC. The Center serves growers in the North Willamette Valley area with research and educational programs that focus on the region's most important crop systems. Extension faculty, staff, and trained volunteers work alongside local partners to provide educational workshops, activities, and services tailored to the unique industries, natural resources, and people in our communities.
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On June 16th, I enjoyed spending time with folks in Monitor at their monthly community meeting at the Monitor Volunteer Fire Station to discuss community safety issues and other local topics of interest. A big thank you to Ginger Redlinger for an invitation to join in the evening’s discussions and for the warm welcome from those who attended. Among the topics of discussion were highway traffic safety concerns in the area, illegal marijuana grows, concerns about the Ag Overtime bill passed last session, drug overdose deaths and the lack of mental health resources in rural schools. I provided several updates and a handout to assist citizens in getting more involved in the Legislative process.
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Monitor is located in House District 18 and is an unincorporated community in Marion County about 3 miles northeast of the city of Mt. Angel, on Butte Creek in the Willamette Valley.
Monitor is surrounded by farmland. Each spring, a tulip festival is held at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm about one mile north of the town center, across Butte Creek in Clackamas County.
The June 2nd communication from the Oregon Historical Society featured the Oregon State Parks Centennial by sharing information about exhibits created to provide visitors with a past and present view of Oregon’s state parks, some trivia and history of Silver Falls State Park. Effective in January 2023, a large portion of Silver Falls State Park will be included in House District 18’s boundary as part of the 2021 redistricting process.
This year, the Oregon State Parks system celebrates its centennial, a legacy dating back to 1922 when Oregon Trail pioneer Sarah Helmick and her son donated the 5.46 acres of land near Monmouth, Oregon, that would become Oregon’s first state park, Sarah Helmick State Recreation Site. Over the course of 100 years, the Oregon State Park system has grown to include 254 properties across Oregon providing rest and recreational opportunities for over 42 million visitors annually. Encompassing tiny waysides, the entire ocean shoreline, and massive tracts of forestland, rivers, and canyons, Oregon state parks are among the most visited and most popular in the United States.
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To celebrate this historic anniversary, the Oregon Historical Society has created two original exhibitions to provide visitors with a past and present view of Oregon’s state parks. In A Century of Wonder: 100 Years of Oregon State Parks, OHS commissioned photographer Peter Marbach to document the raw beauty of these natural spaces, spending two years taking photographs that he hopes “inspire people to seek out the gifts of joy, beauty, and healing that time spent in these treasured parks always provides.” In an adjacent gallery, visitors can see A Walk in the Park: Historic Photographs of Oregon State Parks, featuring a selection of prints from OHS’s research library collections. Using these historical photographs as a foil to Marbach’s contemporary works, A Walk in the Park serves as a reminder of the importance of these natural spaces to Oregon’s long, rich history.
Image Credit: Members of the Portland Women’s Forum Save the Gorge committee on the trail in front of Latourell Falls in Guy W. Talbot State Park. OHS Research Library, Org. Lot 1284, box 41, 1964-9.
Oregon Historical Quarterly Free Article: Silver Falls State Park and the Early Environmental Movement
In July 1933, Silver Falls State Park was officially dedicated as a state park. Notable for its numerous waterfalls, the park’s tallest is Double Falls at 178 feet, and the best known is South Falls at 177 feet. The creation of Silver Falls State Park played an important role in combatting the Great Depression and is reflective of two seemingly divergent movements — conservation and preservation — that marked the beginning of American environmentalism in the early twentieth century. In “Silver Falls State Park and the Early Environmental Movement,” published in the Spring 2011 issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly, historian Zeb Larson situates Silver Falls State Park within the context of national conservation and preservation movements and explores how park designers drew from both movements when they restored landscapes damaged by fire and logging, created structures that blended with the landscape, and built youth camps. During the Great Depression, Larson attests, “people looked to nature as a place of solace from the woes of modern life, a place where they could find beauty in the form of natural spectacles,” and Silver Falls State Park “ultimately represents the first wave of early efforts at nature protection and the birth of a popular environmental movement.”
Image Credit: Visitors walk along the path behind South Falls in Silver Falls State Park in this photograph taken by June Drake between 1925 and 1934. OHS Research Library, Org. Lot 678, box 9, folder 38.
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Trivia Reveal: Al Faussett
Al Faussett gained fame throughout the 1920s for “shooting” waterfalls in hand-built canoes throughout the Pacific Northwest. On July 1, 1928, Faussett made the drop over South Falls in a canoe-shaped boat that contained 36 inner tire tubes to reduce the shock. In terms of outcomes, the padding was more-or-less successful; Faussett survived. He was not able to exit the boat on his own, however, due to broken ribs and injuries to his legs. Newspaper accounts reported that some 5,000 people showed up to watch the stunt that some considered “nothing short of miraculous.” You can read more about Faussett’s life and many stunts in Louise Lindgren’s “Faussett, Alfred Irvin (1879–1948)” on Historylink.org.
Image Credit: Al Faussett sits in a hand-crafted boat as inner tire tubes are inserted to reduce shock from a fall, July 1, 1928. OHS Research Library, Org. Lot 678, box 14, folder 14.
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A message from ODVA: On June 12th, Oregon celebrated the 74th anniversary of the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, signed by President Harry S. Truman on June 12, 1948, we pay tribute to the rich legacy of diversity, courage, resiliency and perseverance of women veterans not only here in Oregon, but across the nation and all generations: many of whom paved the way for women veterans who continue to serve today, and for those who will serve tomorrow.
Oregon proudly recognizes that women veterans are the fastest-growing demographics of veterans across the nation, and we honor the approximately 28,000 women veterans who call Oregon home. Women currently make up approximately 10% of Oregon’s veteran population — and we anticipate the number to increase to more than 30,000 by 2029.
You can read more about Women Veterans Day in Oregon on ODVA's blog here.
With sincere appreciation and gratitude, I salute our women veterans who serve our country with strength, dignity, and honor every day.
Thank you to everyone who attended one of our four webinars during Wildfire Awareness Month. If you missed any of the May webinars they are available to watch on OFSM’s website.
As Oregon heads into the summer months OFSM’s Fire Risk Reduction Specialists are continuing to focus on ways people can prepare and protect their homes from wildfire.
Join us on June 28th, 2022 at 12 p.m., as we take a look at the Camp and Marshall Fires and what lessons were learned there.
Yana Valachovic will be our guest speaker. Yana is a forester and scientist whose skills and interests cover a broad set of natural resource fields. She is the co-lead of the Northern California region of the California Fire Science Consortium and is a founding member of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council.
Join OSFM for this fascinating case study and helpful information learned from these fires.
Use the blue “Registration Link” box above to sign up or click here.
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1418
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-484, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.RickLewis@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/lewis
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