We had a good meeting Wednesday evening with Undersheriff Jim Burge & Patrol Division Officer Lieutenant Brian Sanders attending. Sheriff John Hanlin had a prior engagement and was unable to attend. Both officers were warmly greeted by the twenty or so Tri City residents that were able to make it, and both answered a number of questions from the audience and board.

Police Chief Don Brown of the Myrtle Creek Police Department was invited, on very short notice, to the meeting, but was unable to attend due to budget meetings. In a phone call earlier in the day he did point out that the Myrtle Creek Police Department is no longer parking alongside Hwy 99 in Tri City, but that they were still making patrols out to Cherry Street.

In addition to the questions that we had for the officers, we learned a good deal about the current state of the Sheriff’s Department, including:

• There are 41 Patrol Deputies, including the Sheriff, 11 of which are stationed in Riddle.
• They are currently providing 24 hour coverage to the whole of Douglas County.
• Last year they were forced to lay off 2 Animal Control Deputies due to budget cuts.
• This year they are facing an additional layoff of 4 Patrol Officers due to budget cuts. The impact of this is that we will lose 24 hours patrol coverage. The hours between 12:00 and 3:00 am will probably not be patrolled.
• In addition, they will probably have to implement a policy of only responding to certain crimes.

All-in-all we had a good meeting, with everyone agreeing that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department is serving the people of Tri City very well. After the Officers left, we voted to send a letter to the Douglas County Budget Committee requesting that they find a way to keep the 24 hour patrol coverage as is. Joe Pospisil is drafting the letter.

Members of the board (myself included), and the audience asked several questions of the officers regarding the Myrtle Creek Police Department’s past practice of patrolling in Tri City, and writing traffic citations to Tri City residents. Questions were also raised concerning the relationship between Myrtle Creek’s current budgetary issues and the writing of citations to Tri City residents, unfortunately, Chief Brown was unable to attend, and these kinds of questions went unanswered.

Other issues that were covered include working with the Myrtle Creek Lion’s Club to restart the defunct Tri City Lion’s Club. Bob Sulon is heading this effort and will have membership packets at the next meeting, so be sure to attend if you’re interested in getting involved. Most of the board is likely to join.
Dan Wiggins signed the letter that we’ll be sending off to the USPS requesting that our addresses be officially changed from Myrtle Creek to Tri City. This letter represents the first step in a promising avenue for us to build our community identity.

We also discussed the state of the 1st Annual South County Fireman’s Cook-Off. Here is a brief of the latest happenings. We’ve held three meeting for the event, and both Canyonville and Riddle Fire Departments have already participated.

Fire Chief Bruce Stimpson was attending a South County Fire Chiefs meeting on Wednesday evening in Tiller, in which he was going to present the event to the rest of the Fire Departments.
 

We’ll have a separate web site up and running shortly with details of the event.

The board has also begun early discussions on finding a suitable place for a community park in Tri City. Carl White is currently taking the lead on researching this exciting idea.

Our next meeting will be on the 9th of March at the Veterans Memorial Building.