Document text
Academy honors marshal New Butte Falls cop graduates with high scores By MELISSA MARTIN BUTTE FALLS -- Town Marshal Melvin Ray received the Victor Atiyeh Award for high test scores, leadership abilities, physical strength and good attitude during his graduation from the Oregon Police Academy in Monmouth earlier this month. Ray "This is the highest award and it's given to one person in every police class," says Cary Gilman, training coordinator for Public Safety Standards and Training. "One person is picked who excels in all areas and the students and staff voted for Melvin Ray." Ray was hired last July. He replaced Jared Brown, who lost his job after he was caught drinking while attending Oregon Police Academy last February. Ray, 50, and his wife, Kathy, moved to Butte Falls last month so he could be part of the community he is protecting. They have three grown children. Ray retired last April after 22 years with the Oregon Army National Guard, most recently as battalion operations sergeant in charge of training for six companies and a detachment. His military history also includes four years in the U.S. Navy as an air traffic controller at Moffett Field, where he once helped the Good Year Blimp land. Until he was hired by Butte Falls, Ray was a Talent police reserve officer for 10 years. "I'm really proud of Mel and his accomplishments," says C.W. Smith, Talent police chief who helped train Ray. Ray was one of the first National Guardsmen who helped Jackson Hot Springs residents stranded by the New Year's Day Flood in 1997. His team also worked through the night evacuating 80 residents from Medford Mobile Estates in Phoenix. "Bear Creek in January is so cold," Ray says. "We were out there wading in waist-deep and chest-deep water, picking up residents and bringing them to safety." Ray hopes to be prepared for emergencies in Butte Falls as well. One of his goals as town marshal is to restore a search and rescue unit in this logging community. There's talk of Boy Scout and Explorer posts starting up to train young people in rescue techniques. New equipment at Butte Falls will help. Ray used a $3,000 Earl Family Foundation grant to buy portable radios with 200 channels, plenty for search and rescue teams. The radios also have a three- or four-mile radius, powerful enough to keep him in touch with dispatch during a foot chase with a suspect. "When I got here, there wasn't a portable radio. It was an officer safety problem because anytime I was away from my vehicle it put me away from my dispatch. So I borrowed one from the Medford Water Commission until I could get something," Ray says. Ray also hopes to find grant money to hire an officer who would spend time on school campuses, possibly teaching a course at the high school. "A school resource officer would get to know the kids, who will eventually be the adults in our community, and the students get to learn that the police officer is human, too," Ray says. "The officer would be someone the kids could emulate." Such a prevention program might reduce Butte Falls' greatest crime problem -- vandalism and criminal mischief. In the meantime, Ray says, he is always willing to listen. "I've got an open-door policy," he says. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA