Submitted by Michael Brace
Curry 9-1-1 Director

From left to right: Michael Brace 9-1-1 Director, Gold Beach Police Chief Russ Merkely, and Commissioner Marlyn Schafer with some of the new emergency radios.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently awarded Curry County a grant in the amount of $84,142 for the purchase of portable radio equipment. This week, that equipment arrived and will be disbursed to fire departments and law enforcement agencies throughout the county.

The grant was written by County 9-1-1 Director Michael A. Brace.  “This project was designed to give the various agencies in the County the flexibility to add to their respective communication abilities,” stated Brace.  “They can not only talk to us here at dispatch, but amongst themselves as well.”  The radios can be programmed with numerous frequencies that span all law enforcement, fire, and medical agencies.

The project will support the continued interoperable communications capabilities of the infrastructure identified in the Curry County Interoperability Plan, the Curry County Telecommunications Strategic Plan, the Curry County Emergency Operations Plan, as well as the County's numerous Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA's), mutual aid agreements, and contracts it holds with the allied agencies located at its respective communications sites.

Commissioner Marlyn Schafer, the Sheriff’s Office liaison commissioner was pleased with the radio grant.  “Its important that our emergency services people can talk to each other in a true disaster, but its equally as important that we have someone like Mike who can write these grants, so we can receive the funding.”

The County also recently completed a $3.0 million upgrade to its interoperable communications infrastructure. This project consisted of five new repeater towers with microwave capability as well as narrow-band capable, digital communications and was paid for by grants and Title III funds. In addition, a $500,000 upgrade to its 9-1-1 Center was recently completed, increasing the center's square footage by 700%, in the basement of the Sheriff’s Office. 

The 9-1-1 Center is also getting a $14,000 equipment upgrade that will improve court and jail security.  This equipment will be paid for by state court security funds.  “All in all,” said Brace, “we have nice equipment to step into the future with.”

PUBLIC NOTICE
From Curry Commissioners

The Curry County Board of Commissioners will hold a Special meeting on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. in the Commissioners’ Hearing Room, Courthouse Annex, 94235 Moore Street, Gold Beach, Oregon. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss and to decide the process for filling the vacant Sheriff’s position and to approve the Consent Calendar. Other matters may be discussed. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

For more information, contact the Curry County Commissioners’ Office at (541) 247-3296 or 1 (800) 243-1996.

PUBLIC NOTICE
From Curry Commissioners
 
The Curry County Elected Officials Compensation Board will hold a meeting on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. in the Mini-Conference Room, Courthouse Annex, 94235 Moore Street, Gold Beach, Oregon. The purpose of the meeting is to prepare a recommendation for elected officials' salaries for FY 2008-2009. Other matters may be discussed. Members of the public are welcome to attend.
 
For more information, contact the Curry County Commissioners' Office at (541) 247-3296 or 1 (800) 243-1996.

Submitted by Mark Creighton, Chief, POPD

Port Orford Rural Fire, Ambulance, and Police recently attended training for behavioral restraints. The class was sponsored by Port Orford Ambulance and an instructor from Ashland was used. The class was to teach ambulance, fire and police, techniques in dealing with restraining violent persons who are under the influence of drugs or have physiological problems.

The class consisted of classroom lecture time about what influences violent persons and how to deal with them. Police and Ambulance handle violent persons differently but aim for the same result of no injury to emergency personnel or the suspect/person being restrained. All three agencies were able to share techniques and information. With the share of information and collaboration all three departments now have a universal procedure for handling these people.

by Police Chief Mark Creighton
E-mail: Creighton@popd.org
Cellular telephone 541-253-7547
Anonymous tip Line: 253-6271

05-03 Police arrested Gary Hettenback on an outstanding arrest warrant out of Coos County charging Failure to Appear for DUII. He was lodged in the Curry County Jail.
 
05-06 Police took a report of a criminal trespass on 20th Street. The case is being investigated.
 
05-07 Someone turned in a wallet to the Police Department. If you are missing one please contact us.
 
05-07 Police contacted a male subject riding a bike who had been identified by Curry County earlier as being wanted. Ryan Beech was arrested on a Probation Violation warrant out of Curry County and lodged in the county jail
 
05-08 Police took a report of criminal mischief to a campaign sign located at 20th and Highway 101. If anyone has any information please contact our department. 
 
Chiefs Note:  We had a nice slow week for crime, and traffic which was a good break. Traffic slowed probably because of cost of fuel but I saw that fuel prices are going back down so that will have a definite impact on vehicle traffic through our community through the summer. Thanks to Fire Chief Wilcox our department was able to attend combined training with both fire and ambulance personnel in several areas. One was for Hazmat which is a yearly mandatory class for first responders and one class on handling violent persons. It was great to work together with fire and ambulance personnel and share information. Ambulance handle violent persons different then police so the training allowed us to collaborate our different practices and policies and be able to come up with techniques that will able us to be on the same page when a violent person incident occurs allowing limited injury to both emergency personnel and the victim/suspect. Thanks to a vote by the budget committee after some necessary cuts the police budget is intact and we can now hire a replacement for Sergeant Halse who recently left the department. This will take some time so please bear with me. In order to provide 24/7 coverage I must have available an officer or two to responded anytime 168 hours a week. With the loss of the 40 hour additional patrol time some responses might be a little slower but I will continue to insure our department provide fast and efficient coverage and we will handle all emergency and backup calls immediately to insure the public and other agency responders remain safe.