Timmons has a fix for Measure 110
By Terry Murry on Friday, February 9th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – Umatilla County Commissioner Cindy Timmons knows the top priority for the Oregon Legislature in the 2024 session is to fix the ballot measure that decriminalized individual amounts of drug possession. Another top priority is dealing with the problems posed by the homeless population. She believes a fix to both would be easy.
“This is simple,” she said. “They need to reinstate the mental hospitals that the state took away – period.”
Timmons is referring to facilities like the Blue Mountain Recovery Center which was closed by the state in 2014. Before that, it was known as the Eastern Oregon Psychiatric Center, and Eastern Oregon State Hospital. It was demolished and the land was turned over to the city of Pendleton.
“The state took those hospitals away and gave those mental health individuals back to the cities and now we’re dealing with them on our streets,” she said. “We need to reinstate mental health hospitals, and, believe me, I’m not the only one beating that drum.”
