OSP stays local with motorcycle purchase
Friday, August 19, 2005 1:15 PM PDT
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| ANDREW CUTLER | ARGUS OBSERVER
Apache Cycle Sales' Brian Belnap (left) and Bret Bennett (middle) load one of the Yamaha TT-R250's as Randy Caldwell, looks on. |
Andrew Cutler Argus Observer
ONTARIO
With more than 26,000 square miles to cover in three different counties - and only seven people to enforce the law - the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division's southeast team will take any new tool it can get.
A matching grant from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department helped enable OSP to purchase two new motorcycles and a new ATV to help patrol the vast high desert steppe in Malheur, Harney and Baker Counties.
"The grant funded our team," OSP Sgt. Eric Newman, who heads up the OSP Fish and Wildlife Division's southeast team, said. "It's 5.5 million acres. It increases our range. It will help us save fuel, and help us get out and make more contacts."
OSP was able to purchase a pair of Yamaha TT-R250 dirt bikes and a new ATV vehicle. Apache Cycle Sales, Ontario, submitted a bid that provided OSP the most value for what the agency could spend.
"Just like any other government service there is a bid process. We contacted a number of motorcycle dealerships in eastern Oregon, we really didn't want any over on the coast, because we also wanted some servicing," Newman said. "Apache provided the most value for the amount of funds we were able to spend. So it worked out great for us, we could purchase them locally and get them serviced locally. It was the right equipment we needed."
The total grant cost came to $20,000 for the bikes and the ATV, along with helmets and various safety equipment. Newman said the grant was a 60/40 match, so the total grant from OPR came to $14,000.
"We really only spent about $600. Our matches came through personnel hours, we get billed for our hours essentially," Newman said. "We are contacted to do a certain number of hours of patrol on the machines in these areas."
Funding for the grants come through ATV/OHV operating permit. The funding from those stickers goes to support a number of projects the ORP is involved in, including grants.
"(ORP) supports riding access programs for trail maintenance and a portion of that is law enforcement and medical services," Newman said. "We applied through the law enforcement grant and typically in the past grant funds were spent on small specific riding areas. We were funded on a pilot program basis where we cover just wide open areas of public lands, like BLM and forest service, places that receive no law enforcement services."
Newman said the new equipment was used during the first weekend of antelope season, with great success.
"I think it did a couple of things for us, it saved us a lot of gas, and gave us a lot of range. We could go further in a shorter amount of time, and we made more contacts with hunters," Newman said. "We just got into more remote areas in less time than we would have in trucks. And we were able to contact other ATV users, which was one of the primary purposes of the (new bikes)."
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And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "