Mold Remediation in Central Point, OR

Published 3:56 pm Tuesday, March 11, 2025

‘By the time I was on the freeway, it was too late to get off’; RN, others rush to assist, perform lifesaving measures in middle of northbound lanes

Contractor Ted Schatz was pulling a load of concrete down the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 just before 1 p.m. Thursday when he realized something was gravely wrong.

Schatz was suffering from a “widowmaker” heart attack, which occurs when the main artery supplying blood to the left ventricle of the heart becomes completely blocked, and he had no idea he’d soon be lying in the middle of the freeway.

Schatz, who lives in Central Point, was working on rebuilding a Phoenix mobile home park destroyed during the Almeda Fire. With the load of damaged concrete in tow, he began feeling unwell as soon as he pulled his pickup truck onto the Exit 24 on-ramp.

“By the time I was on the freeway, it was too late to get off. I couldn’t really pull over, so I just went as far as I could … trying to keep it going,” Schatz, 63, said from a hospital bed Friday at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford.

“I guess I must have started hitting my brakes, slowing down to a roll.”

Behind Schatz, Talent resident and RN Michelle MacGregor noticed brake lights flashing and semi traffic slowing to a stop. MacGregor, owner of senior care agency Advanced Care Life Services, was headed to work hours later than her usual 9 a.m.

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh dear, I think we have someone who was hit or there’s a hazard in the road. I slowed down and put my hand out the window, flagging people to slow down,” MacGregor recalled Friday.

“His truck was stopped and angled into the other lane, kind of rolling. … I have a big ol’ SUV so I thought, ‘You know what, I’m gonna block the traffic and see what I can do.’ So I pulled into both lanes cross-wise and I blocked I-5.”

MacGregor and two men who stopped to help tried Schatz’s driver door, which was locked, then accessed the vehicle cab through the passenger side.

“He was clearly unresponsive. The other gentlemen who stopped reached through and turned the car off and unlocked the driver side,” MacGregor said.

“I could tell right away he was agonally breathing and had turned pale grey. … I yelled to the other gentlemen to help me get him out. I grabbed his legs and pulled him out and dropped him right into the middle of I-5 and started CPR.”

Over the next seven minutes, MacGregor said a series of events unfolded that undoubtedly saved Schatz’s life.

MacGregor credited the number of good Samaritans who stopped to help, which included Asante nurse practitioner Kelly Dale, an unidentified doctor, a critical care unit nurse and caregiver Melissa Mowery.

Several who stopped to help had trauma bags with life-saving equipment in their personal vehicles.

“He was very, very lucky. We had a doctor, two nurse practitioners and an RN. It was like his own trauma team,” she said.

In another instance of perfect timing, Jackson County Fire District 5 Division Chief Aaron Bustard was nearby and arrived at the crucial five-minute mark to administer a shock from the defibrillator he keeps in his rig.

“There were three of them working on him. They had him in the middle of the freeway, in the fast lane. It was pretty wild,” Bustard told the Rogue Valley Times.

While lifesaving efforts along the freeway are not uncommon, Bustard said Thursday’s rescue was unusual in that traffic came to a stop and full resuscitation occurred on scene.

“It’s pretty rare to get resuscitation. He was talking to us before he was transported. They did a good job, and it was such a great outcome,” Bustard said.

“This was a good reminder for the public to get out there and learn hands-only CPR and to not be afraid to jump in to help.”

While MacGregor planned to meet Schatz’s brother, Mark Schatz, on Friday – whom she found when he posted to social media about his brother’s rescue — she was surprised at the chance to meet her interstate patient.

MacGregor was directed to a hospital room filled with a smiling Ted Schatz and a grateful family.

Schatz teared up as he learned of the rescue efforts that transpired on Thursday.

“If I had been anywhere else, like in the woods hunting elk, I wouldn’t be here right now,” he told MacGregor.

Schatz said doctors found additional blockages, which they plan to address. MacGregor said the incident underscores the importance of CPR and need for first responders to carry defibrillators. Officers who responded to the scene did not have defibrillators in their vehicles, she said.

Schatz’s sister, Tammy Schatz, offered a tearful thanks to MacGregor. The siblings’ 85-year-old mother – whose birthday was Saturday – had been hospitalized, and family members were at the hospital when Ted Schatz arrived by ambulance.

“You made the difference by being there. He wouldn’t be alive if not for what you did,” she told MacGregor.

“I was going back to tell my mom what happened, and I cried in the elevator, all the way down, because I knew I had to go tell my mom. … We’re just so grateful he’s still here.”

MacGregor, who sprained her wrist performing CPR, told Schatz, “You had your own trauma team on I-5. … Literally, you were on the yellow line.”

She told Schatz to “live each day like there’s no tomorrow.”

“You fought so hard to stay here with us,” she told him.

“I remember telling you that you needed to stay with us. I wasn’t letting you go. I told you, ‘Not today, Ted. Not today.’”

MacGregor said Monday that her company, after Schatz’s rescue, planned to purchase defibrillators for company vehicles and fundraise to purchase units for local law enforcement vehicles. Additional info will be posted to her company social media page.

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or bpollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Infrastructure and framework for a 120,000-square-foot multi-use pandemic response center is underway on the grounds of The Expo in Central Point.

Footings for the outline of the facility took shape within the past two weeks amid the hustle and bustle of crews finalizing underground infrastructure.

Adroit Construction, contracted by Jackson County officials last year to build the $61.5-million project, broke ground in late July following the 2024 Jackson County Fair.

Ryan DeSautel, facilities director for the county, said structural steel framework should be delivered and erected in March.

Once complete, the county will operate the facility as a hub for managing regional emergencies while the city of Central Point will utilize a third of the facility as a long-awaited community center.

The facility will include a large commercial kitchen and shower facilities, and could be used for everything from aid distribution to vaccination clinics to temporary shelter in the event of a community emergency.

County officials said a regional need for a centralized response center became evident during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the Almeda and South Obenchain fires that occurred the same year.

For non-emergency use, the facility will provide office space for the neighboring Expo fairgrounds, as well as capacity for sporting and other large events.

The main floor will include eight full-size basketball courts, two of which will be used for Central Point after-school programs, community learning workshops and activities.

The city of Central Point, which contributed 30% or $1.1 million toward the $3.8-million design process by ORW Architecture, will have a 35-year initial lease for its portion of the facility.

John Gilbert, site superintendent for Adroit, said underground work for sewer, water, electrical and lighting systems were all nearing completion.

“We’re on schedule. Come spring, it’ll really start getting crazy,” Gilbert told the Rogue Valley Times in late January.

By design, the project will have two main entrances — one for county uses and one for the Central Point Community Center. A parklike setting will be designed for an area between the facility and the nearby Family Fun Center.

DeSautel said it was rewarding to see the project go from design phase to planned delivery of steel framework since last year.

“In a couple of months, things are going to look significantly different,” he said.

“We spent a year designing it. … Watching it actually come together has been pretty rewarding.”

DeSautel said the project had stayed under the project “Guaranteed Maximum Price” for construction of $53.4 million and was on schedule for a May 2026 completion.

Funding for the project was approved as part of the county’s annual budget process in June. The county will use a combination of $39,046,207 from the Federal American Rescue Plan Act and approximately $21 million in general fund reserves.

Jackson County commissioners approved an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Central Point in early July.

Donald Trump loves a deal. With the ageing Virginia class submarines, instead of decommissioning them, what better than to sell them to a subservient nation who not only will pay billions for them, but use them as a compliant extension of the US navy?

Australian Governments have made public statements about the need to defend ourselves against “threats from the North”. The unnamed and unsubstantiated deemed threat, of course, is China.

The statements go on to say that in the defence make-up, submarines will be required: not just conventional submarines, but nuclear submarines which will be capable of “travelling further, faster, and staying on station longer” – which, translated, means that they would have the capacity to travel to, and operate in, waters around China.

The above rhetoric is wrapped up in what are referred to as “defence white papers” or “defence strategies”.

In corporations, each part of a company may have, or develop, a strategy: manufacturing strategy, marketing strategy, IT strategy and so on. But, these do not stand alone. They must be linked to, compliant with, and supportive of the higher level corporate strategy.

Thus, in Australia, our “defence strategy” cannot stand alone. It must be linked to a higher level “national strategy”. So, what is Australia’s national strategy? Errr, well, it doesn’t exist. It is a void.

What might an Australian national strategic plan address?

Based on a set of foundational values (which might include the well-being of people here and now, those yet to be born, the environment etc) such a plan would look at, inter alia, Australia’s place in the world, seeking to optimise not only the well-being of Australians, but, of necessity, the well-being of all in the world at large – because without the latter, there can never be the achievement, or full achievement, of the former. The plan would also include a section on how to avoid state capture and exploitation by foreign military, government and commercial vested interests.

Addressing “Australia’s place in the world” would necessarily involve questions of governance. How might the world be run in order to achieve well-being for all? What would be Australia’s part in that? How might Australia govern itself, and advocate for the most appropriate form of global governance?

Without linking itself to a national strategy, Australia’s defence strategy is flying blind.

By signing up to AUKUS, with close inter-operability with the American military, Australia is not simply acquiring defence equipment. It is supporting the American hegemonic regime.

So, how did America get to be the world hegemon? Was it elected to this role by 50% of more of the world’s nation states? Or by more than four billion people? No. Notwithstanding claims about democracy, America’s rise to the position was not democratic. It was essentially autocratic. It had the power, stemming from its industrial might (and consequent military might); and it simply took the role, with little opposition at the time.

But the world is changing. China and India, in particular, have the potential to not only surpass America in industrial capacity (if they haven’t already done so), but from this, to surpass America in military capability.

We have a situation where America is strongly resisting change. Seemingly, it is prepared to go to war with China, or any other nation it sees as a threat, in order to remain top dog. This threatens the world at large.

If, in signing up to AUKUS, Australia is also signing up to support the hegemonic model of governance, we must ask “is that wise”?

Is it realistic to think that in a rapidly industrialising world, one nation state with just 4% of the world’s population can, on an unelected, unilateral basis, continue to be the world hegemon, and insist on its “rules-based order” when the US itself breaks those rules when it so chooses? Will the US hegemonic model of governance be acceptable to all other nations states, or not so?

Is the US hegemonic model wise when this is essentially a power/war-based model, with risks of escalating out of control at a nuclear level?

Are there alternative models of global governance, such as some form of multi-polar governance, or enhancement of the role, and empowerment of, the UN that would not only be safer for the world, but superior over the long run?

If a person presents at hospital with a lump in the abdomen, the first critical diagnostic question is “is it cancer”? It is not possible to proceed with treatment until this question is resolved. If yes, one course of action will follow. If no, an entirely different course of action is likely to follow.

Before signing up to AUKUS, an Australian Government must first address the critical upstream question: “is the US hegemonic version of global dominance the best version of world governance going forward, or are there better alternatives?”

Until this question is resolved, Australia is not in a position to make any decisions about buying weapons systems from the US – because buying inter-operative weapon systems is, ipso facto, supporting the hegemonic form of governance, which appears, blindly, to have been done.

Failure to address the governance question is the central point of failure of the AUKUS strategy.

World governance is not going to change overnight. But if after wise consideration, and extracting itself from state capture, Australia recognises that, for the greater global good, alternative models of global governance will be required, the first thing the nation can do is to prepare a stepwise exit strategy from the current AUKUS and associated military arrangements and treaties.

This is not to denigrate the US. If there is to be a change of global governance, the US will still be an advanced nation and major player. It simply won’t call all of the shots.

It is up to the Australian Government to think beyond short-term parochialism, or the election cycle, and consider more broadly not only Australia’s place in the world, but how the world itself may be better governed for the greater good over the long term.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

University of Melbourne: B.Sc (hons) Chemistry, Biochemistry; PhD Chemistry.Career: Industrial chemical research – 5 years; Management consultant: 20 years, working for private sector and government clients in industries including petrochemical, health, food, manufacturing, defence, legal, professional and human services; with projects relating to manufacturing control, organisation development, systems development, marketing and strategic planning. Corporate executive: 5 years in telecommunications industry with responsibilities including product development, systems development and marketing. Community service: Lifeline counsellor and trainer – 5 years. Peter Kent is the founder of Restart Health Services: a charity for those with severe mental illness. restart.org.au