Palmer sees negative impacts from unemployment

Published 1:35 pm Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Commissioner candidate Sam Palmer, 53, John Day, was born and raised in John Day and is a graduate of Grant Union High School and Blue Mountain Community College.

He’s been a registered nurse for 30 years and worked locally and around the U.S. in “frontier medicine,” including a stint as a flight nurse in Las Vegas. He works three days a week in Burns and will retire in about a year.

Palmer sees three main issues facing Grant County — a lack of jobs, a high suicide rate and a high child abuse rate. They’re interrelated, he said, noting that Grant County and Harney County have been No. 1 or No. 2 in unemployment among Oregon counties for 35 to 40 years.

“Now they have the highest suicide and child abuse rates,” he said. “Those are my issues because I care. I’ve done well here, and I want to give back.”

Palmer said he has some concerns about the current proposal to bring broadband to Grant County — hanging a main fiber optic cable on power poles doesn’t seem secure, and evolving technology could make the proposal soon obsolete.

“Grant County needs something,” he said, noting that his new home on Marysville Road doesn’t have good internet access and he’s trying to take classes online. Wireless might be the solution, he suggested.

Palmer said he favors keeping 911 dispatch local in order to protect jobs, but as a team leader on the county’s Search and Rescue team with extensive experience in the forests, he doesn’t believe the argument that local dispatchers are needed to help first responders locate incident sites.

At a public meeting, he proposed putting 911 dispatch under the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and then contracting service with local cities and users.

Palmer strongly supports the idea of establishing a natural resource adviser position with the county. He said it’s not a question of whether to establish the position but how to fund it. The adviser would help bridge the gap between county, state and federal governments, he said.

Palmer’s vision for the economy is growth. Burning down forests and locking up forest roads will not lead to prosperity, he said. Instead, he’d like to see biomass-powered generating plants in Long Creek, the John Day Valley and around Seneca to power new industry.

“I bring open-mindedness,” he said. “I listen to all sides before making a decision. As a trauma and emergency nurse, I dealt daily with conflict resolution. I want to be a servant of the people. I’m not in it for personal gain.”