Holding facility receives stay of execution

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Mar 16, 2010, Updated Mar 16, 2010

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Police officers in East County will have some extra time to patrol the streets now that the county has reversed plans to close a temporary holding facility in Gresham.

The facility at the Gresham Police Department allows officers to drop off those they’ve arrested, to be picked up later by a county corrections officer and transported to downtown Portland’s Multnomah County Detention Center.

But on March 4, Gresham’s police chief and mayor received news that the service was being cut from the county’s budget.

“Gresham Temporary Holding will close and no longer be available for arrestee booking effective March 15, 2010,” read a letter from Sheriff Dan Staton.

Cutting the service from mid-March through June would save $30,000, said Gresham Police Chief Craig Junginger. Last year, county commissioners planned to make the same cut, but then-sheriff Bob Skipper vowed to continue operating the facility.

“Since that time, however, we, like may of you, have experienced further financial setbacks in the form of reduced funding for the current fiscal year, and constraints on program planning for the next fiscal year,” Staton wrote, adding he was “dissatisfied” with the change.

Staton, who spent Tuesday out of town for training, was unavailable for comment.

Last week Junginger and Mayor Shane Bemis met with Staton and Jana McLellan, interim chairman of the county board of commissioners.

As a result, funding for the temporary holding facility has been reinstated, Junginger said.

The facility is a significant help to officers in East County, he said. On the four busiest nights of the week, from roughly 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., officers in Wood Village, Fairview, Troutdale and Gresham take those they’ve arrested to the Gresham Police Department.

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