Think Out Loud

Linn County will soon dispatch a mobile mental health care clinic for residents. The Mobile Crisis Intervention Team will be able to work with residents throughout the county and assist in a crisis situation.  Workers have traditionally met with residents in emergency rooms but the mobile clinic, a modified van with a workspace and onboard generator, will provide more flexibility.  We hear more from Todd Noble, the county’s health administrator, about the need for more accessible care and how a statewide mental health crisis is affecting the region.

Grants Pass has been working on a sustainability plan that will help the city be more resilient in the case of a natural disaster. The plan includes projects like installing electric vehicle charging stations downtown and adding solar panels at city-owned landfills. But the city is struggling to find funding for the projects and has limited resources to work on grants that could help. Claire Carlson is a reporter for The Daily Yonder, a nonprofit newsroom that reports on rural America. She has reported on the challenges facing Grants Pass and joins us with details.

The United States Department of Agriculture issued two natural disaster designations, and they affect several counties in Oregon. Wasco, Hood River, Clackamas, Multnomah, Clackamas, Gilliam, Jefferson, Marion, Sherman and Wheeler counties were listed in the designations. This means that farmers in the affected counties are eligible to apply for emergency assistance.  Extreme weather events in recent years have affected Oregon growers and spurred agency action. Farmers have faced unseasonably hot and drought-like conditions in the past. In 2021, a heat dome destroyed cherries as they baked on trees. Last year there was a glut of cherries across the West which caused prices to plummet. Ian Chandler is the chair of the Oregon Sweet Cherry Commission and a cherry farmer. He joins us with more on what this means for fruit producers and how this year’s season is going

On Monday, Gov. Kotek announced that a proposed tolling project on Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 would not commence. The project was meant to reduce congestion and fund future transportation projects, but rising costs and uncertain toll revenues led the governor to bring the projects to a halt. Anessa Hartman is a Democrat who represents district 40 in the Oregon House, which covers Oregon City, Gladstone and parts of Clackamas County.  She joins us to share more on why she opposed this project and what the governor's decision to shelve it means for her constituents. We’ll also hear from Indi Namkoong, the transportation justice coordinator at Verde PDX. She shares how tolling can be a viable tool to address climate change, but how the Oregon Department of Transportation’s approach wasn’t what they had hoped for.

 Animal rescue organizations across Oregon could soon be paying thousands of extra dollars in license fees. That’s according to a proposal from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which oversees the organizations. The new fee structure would charge rescues and shelters based on the number of animals they take in per year. Nearly 200 people testified against the changes at a hearing last month, saying the tiered structure would disproportionately impact smaller organizations. ODA is accepting public comments on the proposal until March 15. Karen Green is the executive director of Cat Adoption Team, the largest cat-specific shelter in the Northwest. Beverly Beach is a volunteer for Cat Utopia, a foster-based rescue in Eastern Oregon. They both join us to talk about how the proposed changes could impact their services.   

Ecological restoration projects often require thousands of seeds or seedlings. But there's another approach that's gaining momentum, especially on Tribal lands: introducing water or fire to a landscape and then letting long-buried seeds come back to life. Portland-based freelance journalist Josephine Woolington wrote about this recently for High Country News and joins us with more details.

 The Grants Pass City Council recently passed an ordinance limiting the amount of time homeless service organizations can spend helping unhoused people in city parks and on other public property. Service providers would have to register with the city and provide data on the number of people they serve. The ordinance still needs the mayor’s signature to become law.  Sara Bristol is the mayor of Grants Pass, and Cassy Leach is the executive director of MINT, a homeless services provider that serves Josephine County. They both join us to talk about the ordinance and the challenges facing unhoused people in the region.

Portland General Electric residential customers saw an 18% increase in the cost of their electricity bills since the beginning of January, the highest rate increase within the past two decades. Now, a new proposal from the utility aims to raise those rates again. If approved, electricity bills could be 7% higher than they are now starting at the beginning of 2025. Bob Jenks is the executive director of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, an advocacy group that represents consumer interests in utilities. He joins us to share his thoughts on the proposal. We’ll also hear from a representative from PGE.

In Washington, school districts are working on how they interact with truant students. The state has laws in place that allow for school districts to work with kids and understand why they’re missing school so often. Rules include referring students to community engagement boards and working with juvenile court. But district success with current policies vary widely from county to county, and some kids are falling through the cracks. Kelsey Turner has covered this issue as an investigative reporter at InvestigateWest. She joins us with details.

In just 31 days, Oregon lawmakers ended the 2024 legislative session. They passed bills with bipartisan support that targeted affordable housing, homelessness, campaign finance and the fentanyl crisis. They also delivered on Governor Tina Kotek’s top legislative priority with a $376 million housing package to boost affordable housing construction, help counties acquire land to develop properties and expand emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness.   The governor has already announced she will sign into law HB 4002, which effectively ends Oregon’s experiment with drug decriminalization under Measure 110. But there were limits to that bipartisan cooperation, such as when Republicans blocked passage of a bill which would have made Oregon the first state in the nation to restrict corporate and private equity takeover of medical clinics. OPB political reporters Lauren Dake and Dirk VanderHart join us for a look at the key developments from the short legislative session.