SANDY, Ore. (KOIN) — Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam describes his town as “the gateway to what I say is everything fun in Oregon, to get up to the Mount Hood recreational area, to go over to central Oregon.”
But he’s not thrilled with Gov. Kate Brown’s 2-week freeze and said he’s exploring what options they have at their disposal.
“I’ve asked our staff and our attorney to look at it,” Pulliam told KOIN 6 News. “The governor has indicated that she wants to lean heavily on local law enforcement agencies. We obviously have our own with the Sandy Police Department. So we’d like to see what our options look like in that regard as well as hear from our community members on how we represent them.”
He said he, like most people, is concerned about the rising daily case count of coronavirus and wants everyone in Sandy to take all the proper precautions. But he’s concerned about using law enforcement to enforce the governor’s orders.
“Really that’s what at our disposal to work with,” he said. “The governor has said as far as how she wants us to utilize our city government it would be for our law enforcement as elected leaders that oversee that department. We need to have a conversation about what that looks like.”
The main street businesses — the shops and restaurants — in Sandy depend on the traffic from the Highway 26 corridor, he said. But they’re barely hanging on.
“I worry with these new restrictions that it’s going to absolutely decimate our local main street economy.”
As the holidays loom, Mayor Pulliam doesn’t want “small business owners worried about local law enforcement coming in with these massive fines in already hard economic systems.” And he said he doesn’t want “neighbors turning in neighbors and police knocking or running through the front door.”
At a Sandy City Council meeting Monday night, multiple residents voiced their concerns — supporting the idea that Sandy stay open and concern that the health club may shut down.
Sandy Police Chief Ernie Roberts said he hasn’t yet spoken with Oregon State Police Superintendent Terri Davie. “I do know there were some meetings today and I expect to hear from them tomorrow morning.”
“The goal is always education first,” Roberts said. “The issue of a citation is an absolute last resort.” In the past we’ve treated this issue.”
OSP officials told KOIN 6 News their enforcement plans will be released after Gov. Brown releases her executive order.