PENDLETON â A growing consensus among local officials that mental health services in the Umatilla County are in need of change sparked a recent meeting with Sen. Ron Wyden.
âAs you listened to the speakers, you heard in their voices this tremendous compassion and desire to mobilize a fresh strategy,â Wyden said. âAnd the big challenge is there havenât been the dollars.â
The group that met with Wyden at the Umatilla County Courthouse Saturday, May 29, in Pendleton included county, city, law enforcement, education, mental health and tribal officials. They discussed student counseling, establishing a team of professionals to support law enforcementâs response to mental health-related calls, helping American Indian and Hispanic residents, finding housing for those experiencing homelessness and the countyâs meager supply of mental health and addiction treatment facilities.
UMATILLA COUNTY — As schools have returned to in-person classes in the spring, the Oregon Health Authority has started to record small outbreaks of COVID-19 among students across Umatilla County.
UMATILLA â About 40 firefighters from four departments responded to a fire at Country Club Apartments in Umatilla on Monday, May 17, according to Steven Potts, fire chief of the Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District.
Firefighters with the Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District were first notified of alarms going off at the complex at 8:13 p.m., followed by reports of smoke coming from a third floor apartment, Potts said. Crews arrived on the scene in seven minutes, and by then, the fire had spread to the apartment on the fourth floor.
Because of windy conditions, there was concern the blaze would spread even further, but firefighters contained the blaze using portable water extinguishers while establishing a water supply on the third floor, Potts said.
A former Umatilla superintendent and city councilor was honored in the Oregon House of Representatives recently.
The House voted unanimously to adopt House Concurrent Resolution 13, honoring George I. Fenton, who died in November 2019 at the age of 88. The resolution is headed to the Senate for a vote there.
Kristle Wyant, Fentonâs daughter, said it meant a lot to her to hear state legislators praise her fatherâs life work on the House floor.
âItâs nice knowing people held him in such great respect,â she said.
The resolution states Fenton âwill be forever remembered as a dedicated educator and a gentleman statesman who touched countless lives and made his community a better place.â
UNION â Union School District Superintendent Carter Wells starts each day expecting to be surprised.
Still, none of his wildest expectations could have prepared him for the surprise he received on Monday, May 3.
Wells received the Doug Flatt Memorial Leadership Award.
âI was extremely shocked,â Wells said, also noting nobody dropped the faintest of hints about possibly receiving the award.
The Mid Columbia Bus Company and InterMountain Education Service District sponsor the award. Flatt was the chief executive officer of Mid Columbia who died in a plane crash in 2003. The purpose of the Doug Flatt Leadership Award is to recognize a school administrator in a district Mid Columbia serves who exemplifies the same qualities Flatt was well known for.