La Grande votes to help fund Union County Safe Communities Coalition
By Garrett Christensen on Friday, March 6th, 2026 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – During a regular city council meeting on the evening of Wednesday, March 4, members of the La Grande city council officially approved a resolution to allocate the city’s opioid settlement funds towards the Union County Safe Communities Coalition.
Specifically, the city adopted a “Tiered Allocation Framework” that will annually distribute some the city’s opioid funds to the Coalition. In practice, this framework will initially allocate $50,000 dollars from the city for the first year, decreasing by $5,000 dollars every year down to an annual allocation of $20,000 until the funds are either exhausted or an alternative plan is adopted by the city.
During the meeting, various members of the coalition, including representatives from the La Grande School District, Oregon Department of Human Services, Grande Ronde Hospital, Center for Human Development, and La Grande Parks and Recreation encouraged the council to allocate the funding and support the coalition’s early prevention efforts.
Heavy emphasis was placed on the importance of early intervention for at-risk youth. Scott Carpenter, Assistant Superintendent with La Grande School District pointed to recent reported decreases in alcohol and tobacco use among local 11th, 8th, and 6th graders in the district, and that a similar focus needs to be given to opioid use prevention amongst youth.
Savannah Altenburg with ODHS child welfare services that, when examining child protection service investigations in the county, 52% of open cases involve substance abuse as a factor, while 63% of investigations that result in foster care have substance abuse as a safety concern. Other speakers emphasized the need to improve collaboration between prevention service providers and the wider community and that fragmented efforts are not viable in rural communities with limited resources.
Members of the question were largely in support of the allocation though, in an effort to prevent wastage of resources via ineffective programs (DARE being a comparison), coalition representatives were questioned on how the funding will specifically be used. Emphasis was placed on the need for evidence-based programs above all else.
Scott Carpenter explained that the coalition, in collaboration with Northeast Oregon Network (NEON) are developing prevention programs based on 12 researched criteria, and are also working with OSU on an evidence-based research study for youth prevention. Currently, the coalition is stamped as “researched based,” with the goal of transitioning it to evidenced based criteria as work continues.
Regarding more immediate concerns, La Grande Parks and Recreation Director and Coalition Co-Chair Stu Spence explained that the organization used to receive around $150 thousand dollars from the federal government annually. This has substantially been reduced to around $50 thousand dollars annually, made even more difficult by federal grant freezes. The funding provided by the city will generally keep the Coalition going in addition to supporting specific efforts.
After confirming with City Manager John O’Brien that La Grande would have around $250,000 dollars left in opioid settlement funds after the initial allocation, the city council unanimously approved the resolution.
