Brent Clapp would make drug issue his top priority

LA GRANDE — Brent Clapp believes connecting people is one his strengths.

Clapp, a candidate for Position 3 on the Union County Board of Commissioners, is the owner of Brent Clapp Productions and Eastern Oregon Alive TV. He founded his video production company in 2008 and says he has been developing, in the course of his work, relationships with a diverse group of community leaders. He said these relationships make him uniquely qualified to help Union County move forward.

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“I don’t have all the answers but I know many very smart people I would get together to help come up with solutions to issues," he said. "I’m good at getting people to come together and work collaboratively."

At the top of Clapp’s priority list is Union County’s youth drug problem, one fueled by the presence of drugs like fentanyl.

“Addressing this problem is a passion for me," he said.

Clapp, who lives in Island City, believes that some teenagers in Union County are falling prey to drugs because they are not involved in extracurricular school-related activities like sports, choir or FFA.

“Some lot of these kids do not have adults who are influencing their lives in a positive way," he said. “They need a connection to an adult who can help them."

One way Clapp believes this could be achieved would be to get more young people involved in programs where adults reach out to guide young people. He cited programs like Youth for Christ or Youth 360, a Training and Employment Consortium program that provides wrap-around services for youths.

Clapp said that he has first-hand experience in overseeing programs for children because he was the youth pastor for a Church of the Nazarene church in Seattle for six years before moving to Union County in the late 1990s.

The candidate also believes that continuing to strengthen drug education programs in schools will go along way toward preventing more children from getting involved in drug use. He believes there should be a greater focus on drug education at the elementary grade level at schools throughout Union County.

“It is so important to start early," he said.

The candidate said he is not sure what the solution to Union County’s youth drug problem is, but said that this would not keep him from doing all he could to address it.

“We just cannot sit by and do nothing," Clapp said.

Air travel

Addressing the drug issue would be Clapp’s top priority but others high on the list include striving to get commercial air passenger service offered to the La Grande/Union County Airport, something he believes will become increasingly important because a growing number of people in Union County are working remotely. These individuals, Clapp said, periodically need to visit their families and the offices of their employers.

“These people still need to come in and out of our area," he said.

Clapp said five years from now this may be more important than it is now because there may be an increasing number of young people who are looking to work remotely in beautiful places like the Grande Ronde Valley. However, many, Clapp said, may choose only to come to places like this only if they have commercial air transportation service.

Clapp said bringing commercial air transportation service to Union County is not something that could happen overnight.

“There are huge issues involved in getting an airline to serve Union County," he said. “It would take a long time to make that happen."

Clapp is not a supporter of the Greater Idaho movement that calls for the western border of Idaho to be pushed into Eastern Oregon. The movement is being fueled by people who believe that their voices are not being heard by state leaders in Western Oregon.

Clapp said he does not believe many people in Eastern Oregon would like the general sales tax Idaho has and its minimum wage, which is significantly lower than Oregon’s.

“It is not a solution," said Clapp, who once lived in Idaho where he taught video production and photography classes at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa for four years.

Clapp, who has has lived in La Grande since 1997, enjoys operating Eastern Oregon Alive TV because it gives him a chance to put people in the spotlight for their accomplishments and to give those operating community service projects the publicity they need to get more public support.

“Eastern Oregon Alive TV has given me an avenue for giving to people," he said.

Clapp is one of nine candidates for Position 3 on the Union County Board of Commissioners. The candidates are seeking to succeed Donna Beverage who is completing her eighth year as commissioner and cannot run for reelection because of term limits Union County voters approved several years ago.