Speech: At The Dedication of a Fire Station

This speech was prepared for the dedication of the
Powell Butte Fire Station by Crook County Judge
Scott R. Cooper, Feb. 1, 2003. The speech was never delivered,
but was replaced by hastily written replacement remarks, more
reflective of the somber moment created by the explosion of the
Columbia Space Shuttle the morning of the dedication


Remember the old days in Powell Butte before we built the substation?

In the old days a Powell Butte Farmer might look out the kitchen window and see the barn on fire. Naturally, his first response was to call Prineville and yell into the phone, “Come quick, my barn's on fire!"

Being wise and calm types, the first question the firefighter or dispatcher on the other end of the line might be expected to ask was “Tell me where you are.”

Being a bit excited by the sight of flames shooting through the roof and his alfalfa stash going up in smoke, the Powell Butte farmer might likely reply: “I'm in the kitchen! Now hurry up, before my barn burns down!”

Fortunately, firemen are used to excited callers. "No,no!" he would say. "How do we to you?

To which the now exasperated farmer might reply, “Don’t you have those big red trucks anymore?”

Well that’s how it used to be in the old days. But not anymore. Because, now ladies and gentlemen, Powell Butte has its very own fire station in its very own backyard. Although the men and women of the Prineville fire department and the people of Prineville have always considered the folks in Powell Butte to be friends and neighbors just like the people next door, from now on when you call for help, it will REALLY be the people next door, and that’s a wonderful thing.

It’s a great honor and privilege to be here today to help dedicate this station, which has literally risen out of nothing. Despite the hard work of a lot of people, it seems like a dream.

Just a few weeks ago, I wandered out here and I thought I must have dreamed it.

I had a call from a photographer from Oregon Business Magazine who wanted to take a picture of me in front of something illustrating progress in Crook County. I knew the station was close to completion, so I offered to meet him in Powell Butte in front of the school and then drive to the new substation. It was one of those bitterly cold days, when frost was hanging from all the trees and fences in the area, but I figured it was just a photo. I could stand the cold for a little while.

At the appointed time, about an hour before dark, I jumped in the car and drove up the grade from the courthouse. And at the top of the grade I encountered dense, dense, fog. Remember? I had to meet the reporter who was working on a deadline, and I had come this far. I couldn’t turn back. So I found the reporter and we headed out toward Reif Road. But when we came to the fire station, it wasn’t there! It had literally disappeared in the fog. We wandered around for a good 20 minutes trying to find it and literally stumbled across it.

As it turned out, we got some pretty good pictures of me in front of a beautiful, pristine station, emerging sort of ghostlike from the fog. It was an apt metaphor for this facility and for Powell Butte, both of which are emerging into a new and exciting life.

I like to think that this is just the beginning of great new things in this community. Some of you were here earlier this summer when we broke ground for the community center—the community center which didn’t even have planning approval at the time. I took the golden shovel from that event back to the Courthouse and hung it on the wall outside the Planning Department, where it still is, serving as a daily reminder to everyone who passes through those doors that our local government is supposed to be about growing and building and developing communities as it is about saving, preserving and protecting them.

In that regard, good planning departments and fire stations have much in common. They serve common functions supporting growth and development and preservation and protection. I know that this one will serve those functions well.

In the end, of course, a fire station is only as good as the people as who work out of it. And no dedication would be complete without a nod of tribute to the men and women who dedicate their lives to saving the lives and property of others. The Crook County Rural Fire Protection District has an excellent and dedicated staff. They have gone through birthing pains and growing pains in the last couple of years, as they have shifted their focus from a small area to an enormous swath of the county. They have performed admirably without missing a step. We owe them gratitude, and I hope that each time you hear sirens of a fire truck or ambulances ring out, you will stop and say a little prayer for the safety of those who are racing to the aid of others.

Let me conclude then by saying that while this is a milestone in Powell Butte’s history and a milestone in the history of the Crook County Rural Fire Protection District, it is also a milestone for the history of Crook County as a whole.

By dedicating this station today, we join a long and distinguished line of historical community-builders. Indeed it was Benjamin Franklin, who established this country’s first volunteer fire department in Philadelphia in 1736. And it was George Washington who imported the first fire engine in 1765. In more recent days, we all remember the firefighters who became America’s heroes in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

Firefighting is a noble cause, a fine art and an essential element to every great community. Powell Butte is a great community, made better and safer by the presence of this station, and it is an honor and a privilege to join you in dedicating this station today.

Global Events Hit Close To Home

By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
published in the Central Oregonian, February 2003

An African proverb translates, “When elephants fight, the grass suffers.” Likewise, the Crook County government is beginning to experience the effect of tension in places around the globe most of us are unlikely ever to visit. Three events this past week directly related to international affairs have garnered the county’s attention.These events illustrate that no matter how remote from the problems of the international community we may sometimes feel in our corner of the world, we are still citizens of the world, and the world’s problems eventually become our problems.

Earlier this week, the county received the unhappy word that its oil provider may run out of supplies in early April. The explanation for this unfortunate event is that the on-going strike in Venezuela has paralyzed that country’s production system and reduced supply. Although the strike appears likely to end soon, it will still take time to rebuild inventories, and oil for road departments ranks well below heating oil, transportation fuel and military needs in priority. Additionally, as laws of supply and demand kick in, even those supplies of oil that are available have caused sharp price run-ups. The bottom line is that the projected cost of oil needed by Crook County this year to start its regular road maintenance this spring is an estimated 12 percent higher than projected in the county budget.

What this means for citizens is that Road Crews will reduce the number of miles of roads on which it schedules work this Spring. Although our intent will be to deliver as much service as the budget will allow, price and supply will still take a toll.

No discussion of oil, of course, is complete without mention of what appears to be a build-up to war in the Middle East. Most Americans are by now aware that our nation appears poised to launch a military strike against Iraq sometime in the next few weeks. A few Americans also followed the recent congressional discussion on reinstatement of a military draft. Sen. Wyden, among others, assured us at his recent town hall that this debate was going nowhere. Despite such soothing words, Crook County got a wake up call last week when our local representative to the state draft board was summoned to a statewide training to brush-up his knowledge and skills related to the involuntary induction process. The Selective Service and congressional representatives say the training was just “routine,” but this is the first time such trainings have been conducted in Oregon since Selective Service registration was reinstituted. It just goes to show, again, that what is happening in the rest of the world potentially has direct impacts on us in Crook County.

A third event of national significance worth noting in the last couple of weeks is activity surrounding the increased “threat condition” announced by the White House late last week in anticipation of some sort of attempted terrorist act. While there is no credible evidence that either Oregon, Washington or Idaho are likely targets for such attacks, the need to be vigilant in a post- Sept. 11 environment rules out the possibility that we can ignore these warnings. Thus, I found myself last Friday in a conference call listening somewhat uncomfortably to serious discussions among state- and county-level emergency response and public-health officials about measures such as dam security, chemical weapons response and even how to detect radiation burns.

All three of these events—advance planning to deal with the global problem of oil, advance planning to ensure a ready supply of military personnel and preparations for attacks we hope will never come—leave me a little bit in awe. We live in “the middle of nowhere.” These “macro” issues aren’t supposed to be of concern to us. Elected officials with much graver responsibilities than mine are looking out for our interests in these areas. But the truth is, the issues eventually hit home, sometimes in unexpected ways.

In the end, all this serves to remind me that while we in Crook County are not the main actors on the world stage, neither are we the audience. Even as minor characters, we are still a part of the drama. And make no mistake about it, the play is going on around us all the time.

Speech: At the dedication of a fire station

Remarks delivered at the Dedication of the Powell Butte Fire Station
by Crook County Judge Scott R. Cooper, Feb. 1, 2003

As you might well imagine, this morning began for me with the sounds of a crumpled speech hitting the bottom of a trash can.

Today, as it turns out, is not a day for telling jokes and speaking lightly things. Today, it turns out, is a day to reflect on more somber themes.

As you all know by now, the space shuttle Columbia apparently exploded this morning shortly after 6 a.m. in the skies over Texas. Six Americans and an Israeli astronaut were killed, as they returned triumphantly from a successful mission. I’m sure all our hearts go out to their families and to their colleagues, who even though they knew the dangers of the work at hand, are nonetheless plunged into grief today.

For firefighters and emergency response personnel tragedy such as this is all too familiar. If you read the poetry and the literature that surrounds firefighting it is filled with fatalism. References to those who lay their lives on the line for others, to destiny and fate known only by God and to extreme sacrifice are the stuff of which the Fireman’s Prayer, Ode To Firefighters and Firefighters Poem are made of.

And yet there are still those who pursue this calling. They are a dedicated and selfless group, and it is for them that we are gathered here today to dedicate this station.

The ranks of those interested in the profession of firefighting is filled with notables. Benjamin Franklin formed the first fire company in the United States in 1736. George Washington himself imported the first fire engine to American from England in 1765.

And none of us will soon forget the men and women of Ladder Company 12 who were first responders to World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. How many lives were saved because of the proximity of that station and the immediate response of those heroes we cannot say. But we know there were many, and we are glad they were there on that terrible day.

Powell Butte is far from Ground Zero. And none of us expect that a space shuttle will likely fall from the sky in this neighborhood. In the best of circumstances, we hope those attached to this station will spend their days extinguishing barns blazes and smoldering haystacks and transporting patients only as a precautionary measure.

But we derive great comfort from the knowledge that the station is here, that the paid staff and volunteers who man it are caring, training professionals and that it is our friends and neighbors who are looking out for us 24 hours a day.

We live in uncertain times, and any small security adds to our peace of mind. The events on the greater national stage today appropriately distract us from the task at hand, but it is no less important for being overshadowed by history. As we dedicate this station today, let us celebrate appropriately what it means in terms of the progress and bright future of this community, but let us also be mindful that the station itself is ultimately only the vessel, which contains the heart and soul of the firefighting mission--the men and women who protect us all, each and every day. It is in gratitude to them to them that we should dedicate this facility.

Thank you for the opportunity to join you today.