The Jackson County Board of Commissioners, due to hazardous conditions in the natural, have closed off-trail areas of the Bear Creek Greenway owned by Jackson County. This nine-mile stretch of county-owned land is along the greenway from Ashland to Central Point. Jackson County, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arborists, and many others fell the trees near the trail to allow the greenway path area’s safe to reopen. The cost to remove hazardous trees throughout the entire area would be extensive and ineligible for State or Federal reimbursement. Instead, Park workers will continue to monitor the burn scar and allow nature to…
Author: Tony Cooper
Jackson County public health officials are asking people who test positive to inform all of their close contacts right away. At the start of the pandemic, contact tracers from the county would immediately identify and inform people who came in contact with the infected person. Nichole Brickey manages the contact tracers in Jackson County, and she says that because timing is so important, it’s best to leave some responsibility up to the public. “There’s such a backlog of people that tested positive that by the time that the investigation was done and we found out who the contacts were, we…
If you live in Baker County and have tested positive for COVID-19, or spent much time close to someone who contracted the virus, there’s a good chance you’ve talked to LeAnne Bourne. Bourne didn’t expect to spend dozens of hours on the telephone in 2020, asking Baker County residents whether they’d been feeling ill, and dispensing advice about quarantining. But then almost nobody anticipated a pandemic. “I’ve had to adjust to this; it’s a new part of the day,” Bourne said. She has worked as the office manager for the Baker County Health Department for the past three years. But…
Jail security camera footage shows Juan Anthony Sancho handcuffed in a cell after he was brought to the jail while allegedly intoxicated and under charges of resisting arrest. Sancho moved his handcuffs from his back to his front. In the footage he taps on the cell door, backs up, and then three officers rush in, aggressively forcing him to the ground, where deputies “delivered multiple knee strikes” and “kneeled on Plaintiff’s upper back and neck,” according to court filings. According to the court complaint Sancho “briefly lost consciousness from these jailers kneeling on Plaintiff’s neck and pinning him to the…
Many traditional Halloween activities can be high-risk for spreading viruses. Jackson County Public Health has several safer, alternative ways to participate in Halloween this year. If you may have COVID-19 or you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should not participate in in-person Halloween festivities and should not give out candy to trick-or-treaters. Health officials say it is best to engage in lower-risk activities and limit or avoid activities that carry a higher risk of spreading and contracting COVID-19. During the fall celebrations, it remains critical that everyone wear a mask, maintain a physical distancing and limit close…
The Medford Police Department has asked for help in tracking down a runaway teenager who evaded officers on Tuesday, according to the agency. 15-year-old Natalia Jones ran away from home, though MPD did not specify when. Officers saw her along Highway 62 near the Volkswagen dealership on Tuesday. “She ran from officers and flagged down a random vehicle, who picked her up, not knowing she was running from us,” the agency said. The vehicle that picked Jones up is described as a grey sedan, similar to a Ford Taurus. “If the person who picked her up can please reach out…
In 2003, Josephine Mandamin walked around Lake Superior carrying a pail of water. It was the first of many walks the Anishinaabe grandmother took to call for more action to protect clean water. Autumn Peltier is Mandamin’s great niece and a member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation. “When we’re born as Anishinaabe people, we’re automatically given that role to protect the water and the land,” she says. Sixteen-year-old Peltier has followed in her aunt’s footsteps as a water protector and climate activist. “My auntie Josephine is one of my biggest role models and mentors,” she says. Like her aunt, Peltier…
There’s nothing extraordinary about the structure that houses the Clinical Research Institute of Southern Oregon. The site, a beige building with an arched entryway and glass doors, sits just east of Crater Lake Highway’s wisps of everyday traffic. And yet, the fate of the world might just lie here, on Hollyhock Drive in Medford. Since July, the institute has been one of the staging grounds for a quest to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which causes a disease that has killed more than 700 people in Oregon, more than 230,000 in the US, and 1.2 million worldwide. And inside, Gregg…
At the start of 2020, Jackson County Parks and Roads Director John Vial had no idea his life was about to be taken over with responding to a pandemic and one of the most destructive fires in modern American history. The COVID-19 virus spread to the West Coast, and Oregon went into lockdown in March, closing schools and many businesses. The Jackson County Public Health Department, which responds to infectious diseases, was overwhelmed with requests for help. Local health care providers didn’t have enough personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves to keep themselves and their patients safe. Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan asked Vial to…
Klamath Basin water battles have again caused Oregon water regulators to exceed their litigation budget, prompting lawmakers to authorize an additional $650,000 for such legal expenses. The Oregon Legislature’s Joint Emergency Board voted on Dec. 11 to increase the litigation budget of the state’s Water Resources Department, which would otherwise be forced to cut services and lay off employees. The agency has already spent more than $1 million on legal battles during the 2019-2021 biennium, surpassing the $950,000 allocated by lawmakers for its litigation costs during those entire two years. Since OWRD is spending an average $67,000 a month fighting…