Park Watch and deputies awarded at WBS

On Wednesday, March 12, the Board of Josephine County Commissioners kicked off a “positive meeting” with the recognition of a community organization followed by a group of sheriff’s deputies.
The weekly business session was held at Anne G. Basker Auditorium in Grants Pass.
“This is more of a positive meeting today to recognize people and Josephine County needs to do a better job of that,” Commissioner Chris Barnett remarked. “We’re really trying our hardest to recognize our own employees, people that do goodwill in our community. And we have two sets of awards today. The first one we’re going to start off with is Park Watch Grants Pass.”
Barnett went on to say of the organization, “This group has been so active in the community, it’s unreal. I’ve picked up trash with them. I’ve been on location with them. They were diehards every week.”
Before bestowed members of Park Watch with certificates of appreciation, the board played a four-minute video compiling hidden camera footage the group had recorded showing drug paraphernalia and illicit activity that had been observed in city parks.
Barnett said he was “shocked” by the footage, before praising a Park Watch member for a recent interview with Dr. Phil, who traveled to Grants Pass while filming a documentary about the homelessness lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court.
Next, the commissioners presented certificates to four employees of the sheriff’s departments for their actions during a medical emergency, which Barnett recalled as a “heartwarming story.”
Deputies Jim Geiger and Kyle Henrich, as well as staff members Hailey Baird and Kayla Lauer rendered aid to a longtime county facilities worker who suffered a serious heart attack.
The employee had an arduous journey to the hospital, during which time Barnett said he was briefly legally dead and had to be resuscitated with an AED.
For their actions, the four individuals were given the Life Saving Award.
The rest of the meeting was taken up by requests and comments from citizens, including several Park Watch members who addressed their concerns regarding public safety.
Frequent meeting attendee Victor Zeitsev reiterated his criticism of the commissioners introducing a religious convocation at the start of meetings. Zeitsev also took aim at the Trump administration and recent economic policies with some harsh words, saying, “Today we have the fascist Christian National Movement with their MAGAnites wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross, blindly following a dimwitted drifter and huckster. They’re all too willing to drink the orange Kool-Aid and watch our great country die, destroying all of our institutions one at a time as he lines his pockets. And those are the 1%. While Elon (Musk) stops your Social Security payments and uses the money to go on a fool’s mission to inhabit Mars, the gang of crypto thieves plans to replace all the money in your bank accounts with the Trump Imperial crypto dollar.
“You think the homeless situation is bad now? Wait until the Social Security cuts and Medicare cuts and Medicaid cuts kick in and your 4O1K evaporates. As people pour into the streets because they can no longer pay their mortgage or rent and the nursing homes close their doors, you will see the America we once knew disappear.”
Zeitsev was the lone voice at the meeting criticizing the current presidential administration. The rest of the testimony leaned Republican, including meeting frequenter Judy Ahrens praising the president for cutting “woke programs” and conservative activist Mike Pelfrey wearing a shirt promoting “DOGE GP,” a reference to presidential advisor Elon Musk’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency.