We hope you all had a wonderful and blessed THANKSGIVING!  Thank you for your dedication towards making Josephine County, our home, SAFE.

Our next meeting is Tuesday, December 2, 2014, at the Newman United Methodist Church in Grants Pass located at 132 NE “B” Street in Grants Pass from 5:15 PM to 6:15 PM.

NOTES from the last meeting on November 25th, 2014:

FBI Crime Stats:

Archie provided some food for thought regarding the most recent Crime Stats from FBI for Oregon Cities 2013.

David Smith analyzed said stats and made the following remarks:

Some quick calculations based on this spreadsheet. I’ve taken cities above 5,000 population (just because at a certain small size, one crime is enough to make the crime rate per capita look high, and I needed a cutoff somewhere), and ranked crime rates per 1000 population. There are 66 cities in this list with more than 5000 people.

Here are some interesting factoids:

– In terms of violent crime per capita in 2013, GP ranks #15 out of the 66 cities in Oregon with population over 5,000 (Medford is #1)

– In property crime, GP ranks #3 (Seaside is #1)

Where GP ranks on specific crimes:

– Murder & non-negligent homicide #14 – but the top 7 are all small cities with only 1 or (in the case of K Falls) 2 murders; among cities over 25,000, GP is #6 (of 21). (Gresham is #1)

– Rape (revised definition): #11 (Newport is #1; Medford is #4)

– Robbery: #9 (Gresham is #1, followed by Portland)

– Agg assault: #19 (Medford is #1)

– Burglary: #1

– Larceny: #4 (Seaside is #1; Medford is #3)

– Motor vehicle theft: #1

– Arson: #5 (Milton-Freewater is #1; Medford is #2)

GP’s violent crimes per capita were nearly two and a half times the statewide median. Our property crime rate was even worse – 266% of the statewide median.

Note that in only two categories is GP better than the worst 25% of Oregon cities in terms of crime per capita – and that’s only with murder and aggravated assault (where the numbers in any given year are likely to be small, and thus easily skewed by one or two cases). In most categories, GP is in the top 15%, and in all too many we are in the top handful of cities in all of Oregon in terms of both violent and (even more so) property crime.

Small city, big-city crime, for sure.

Note too that these stats are, presumably, just for the city of GP – not for Josephine County. GP is, of course, where we have law enforcement on the streets. Many, if not most, crimes in JoCo outside the city limits are not reported, much less prosecuted. So these statistics likely understate the problem for JoCo as a whole.

Food for thought.

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WE CAN DO THIS!

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.”

Thomas Edison

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SOS Sponsor Report – Jennifer Essick

• This committee met after the regularly scheduled SOS meeting; members included Colene Martin, Brian Pendleton, Jacki Holcomb, Kim Gasperson, Jay Meredith, and Archie Lidey

• Sponsor COUNT TBA

• This committee shall be working on the FORM for our Sponsors
• OUR Goal is to get every business to fly our SOS placard
• Attached is a photo of Frank N Stene’s Monster Growler’s located at 950 SW 6^TH Street in Grants Pass (541-450-3980), flying the SOS business placard, where one can sample and fill a Growler with a beer from of one of many local breweries! Try the Nikasi Wunderbier Kolsch…
• If you would like to join this committee, please e-mail Jennifer @ etopps_08@hotmail.com

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Continue reading SOS Meeting Notes – November 25, 2014 →

Our next meeting shall be Tuesday, November 25, 2014 from 5:15-6:15 PM at the Wild River Brew Pub!

Here are the notes from last week’s meeting {Thank you Holly Lidey for preparing them!}:

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Are the Federal O+C Funds going to come again?

Cherryl Walker

In the upper left corner of a handout provided by Cherryl, it showed what Josephine County has received since 2008.  We have 40 days left in this year with no money in sight!

Senator Wyden’s Bill – the House has said that they will not pass it.  There is too short of a time period to get something done in Cheryl’s opinion. There will be new members of Congress after this 40 days is up.  The prospect for money for this next fiscal year is probably zero at this point.

The commissioners start their next budget hearings in February 2015 as a county.  We are looking at what services we could cut, what we could combine, staffing, etc. And…EVERYTHING is on the table at this point and it is not pretty! We have committed 2.5 million dollars to public safety.  This money has been turned over to the public safety committee, but they have had meetings and decided that they will not make the decision on where it should go. They want the commissioners to decide.  The budget needs to be prepared for June as if May’s Levy does not pass.  We need to be prepared to know what it will look like if the Levy does not pass.  It will affect every department, but it will definitely affect public safety.  Some of the other departments survive on grants, fees, and rental fees.  Cheryl’s outlook is if we do not get any O & C fund this year we will have a harder time getting any funds in future years!

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MAT-C Committee

Nancy Yonally/Marilane Jorgenson/Dr. Felica Cohen

• Dr. Steven Rotter MAT-C Medical Director

Nancy Yonally  reported:

Continue reading SOS Meeting Notes – November 18, 2014 →

Good Evening SOS!

Here are the notes from last Tuesday Night’s Meeting (ELECTION NIGHT):

November 4, 2014

• We have many projects in the SOS works. I am very confident that by May 2015, we should have a solid foundation for our: “…citizen-voiced plan to provide for a secure, stable and sustainable Josephine County.”

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SOS Sponsor Report Jennifer Essick

• In conjunction with the Grants Pass Chamber of Commerce, we shall be forming another committee which shall aggressively seek out all of our business partners and unite them under one umbrella. Thus far, the people who have stepped up for this committee include: Jennifer Essick, Brian Pendleton, Colene Martin, Jacki Halcomb, Nadine Patel and Kim Gasperson
• Our GOAL is simple: unite all businesses in Grants Pass under one umbrella promoting unity and local shopping
• It is our intention to move forward by getting businesses to support SOS by allowing us to display their respective electronic logos on our site as well as displaying a small yellow laminated placard in their store window
• OUR future intention, once all of the businesses have been laced together, is to then pass the torch from SOS to our very competent Chamber of Commerce
• We will have SOS sponsored events at businesses throughout the county encouraging unity, local business and outreach
• We shall have a “Josephine County First” spirit resonate throughout the community
• If you would like to join this committee, please e-mail Jennifer @ etopps_08@hotmail.com

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Continue reading SOS Meeting Notes – November 4, 2014 →