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Agencies raise concerns about hazards at OnTrack housing Bed bugs were reported at OnTrack facilities on Holly Street. Mail Tribune / Jamie Lusch Tuesday Jan 17, 2017 at 12:01 AM Damian Mann Mail Tribune @reporterdm Bed bugs, rats, an alleged drug deal and a baby burned by a heater are on a list of concerns local organizations and others have raised about OnTrack facilities in the last year. “We have recommended to our CASAs that they not enter OnTrack facilities at this point until we receive further information,” Wenonoa Spivak, director of programs and education for CASA of Jackson County, wrote in an email to OnTrack and other agencies in December 2016. “Part of the impetus for this recommendation is that during the last occurrence, one of our CASAs carried bed bugs home with her, and it was quite an ordeal, as we all know, to rid her home of them.” The Mail Tribune obtained the emails, as well as state site review reports on OnTrack and a tort claim notice, from an anonymous source. The documents detail safety concerns for clients and allege abusive behavior toward employees at OnTrack, Southern Oregon's largest addiction recovery services provider. OnTrack Executive Director Rita Sullivan has remained on paid leave since November after an investigator was hired to look into inappropriate interactions between management and staff. The Mail Tribune has attempted over the past month to get more information that would shed light on the email exchanges and other issues. OnTrack didn't respond to a request for public records the newspaper submitted on Dec. 14, 2016. Jennifer Mylenek, executive director of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Jackson and Josephine Counties, said that in December, OnTrack dealt quickly with the bed bug problem, which was the second outbreak of the year at the same OnTrack housing facility on Holly Street in Medford. She said it’s a difficult problem for CASA because those who go to the OnTrack facilities to work with children and families are volunteers who don’t want the burden of bringing bed bugs back to their own homes. Mylenek said OnTrack has had its share of problems over the past year, including inadequate food for children and families, electrical problems, rodents and safety issues. “We’ve had concerns for our kids who need that program for them to be healthy,” she said. “I think OnTrack needs improvement.” Despite the problems, Mylenek said OnTrack provides a valuable service to the community and has helped many families and children. She said the bed bugs and other issues created concern for the families in OnTrack facilities as well. At least four people at an OnTrack facility on Holly Street were housed in hotels — including Inn at the Commons, Rogue Regency and Candlewood Inn — for several days last summer while the possibility of bed bugs was investigated. “For the families, drama is a part of their lives, it’s part of their addiction,” Mylenek said. “They were happy to be moved to hotels.” But Mylenek said she doesn’t know what the root problem is with OnTrack over the past year. Jim Maize, president of OnTrack's board of directors, said the organization has begun a monthly pest control program to help address the concerns about bed bugs. In a series of emails between Child Welfare officials and three Jackson County Circuit judges, Judge Patricia Crain said Child Welfare's moving of a family to a hotel because of bed bugs was "clearly a substantial overreaction." She said three pest control companies didn’t find any evidence of the bugs. Crain, in a July 1, 2016 email, scolded Child Welfare officials for a "waste of taxpayer money," noting the county doesn’t shut down hotels with bed bugs. Child Welfare should reimburse OnTrack, Crain said. Crain, who has worked closely with OnTrack and oversaw drug treatment courts for 10 years, said every child has bites in summer, and if there was a real infestation, everyone would be affected. “You taught them that all they have to do is complain loudly and they will get what they want,” Crain said in the email. “In this case, a cushy stay in a hotel, which by the way, probably has in-room bars, and certainly a regular bar … I can imagine that from now on they will complain about everything, and child welfare will have trouble if they do not back them up rather than support the program.” Crain said Sullivan "moved heaven and earth" to obtain opinions that there were no longer bed bugs, so the clients should be returned to their homes. “This is a three-day weekend where drinking is notorious, there is no oversight at the motels, and I anticipate problems if you don’t get them home ASAP,” she wrote. The question of bed bugs returned when Susan Wahl, Community Family Court coordinator, wrote in a Dec. 19, 2016, email asking about the spraying for bed bugs and whether it was safe for women and children. "It is my understanding that one spraying isn’t enough to get rid of bed bugs, correct," she wrote. "I know that there are newborns and pregnant women there right now, and I just want to make sure it is safe." Rats and other issues have plagued different OnTrack housing units over the past year as well, according to the emails. “Also, (name redacted) who is now in Oakdale, has continued to have problems with rats in the walls/ceiling,” according to a Dec. 15 email from Wahl. “This morning there was a large dead rat on her porch. She shared in court that her children are afraid to go to the bathroom alone upstairs because of the noise the rats are making.” In an Oct. 18 email from Amy Jacobs of OnTrack, she said she’s received complaints about OnTrack’s West Main Street apartments. “A. is concerned about traffic and known drug users and dealers entering M. apartment at West Main,” she said in her email. Jacobs is also involved in a tort claim notice against OnTrack that alleges abusive behavior by Sullivan. On Dec. 15, Jacobs, in an email, said she was going to have to shut down the Holly Street apartments for at least a couple of days because the basement was flooded, resulting in burned-out wires. She said she got six hotel rooms for the clients affected. In another email from Jacobs on Dec. 7, she wrote that “Baby R.” was seen for burns from a heater unit in OnTrack housing. “He has second-degree burns, and both of his little hands are wrapped,” she said. Concern was raised about heaters in other apartments and protecting babies from them, Jacobs stated. As a temporary precaution, maintenance workers installed a safety gate around the heater. “I think it’s adequate for now but DEFINITELY NOT a permanent solution,” Jacobs wrote. When asked to respond to safety concerns at OnTrack housing, Maize noted in an email Friday that the safety guard was installed and exterminators hired in conjunction with the establishment of a pest control program. "OnTrack promptly responds to questions and issues as they arise," Maize said. Reach reporter Damian Mann at 541-776-4476 or [email protected]. Follow him on www.twitter.com/reporterdm.