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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2019)
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon St. Charles nurses ratify new contract Tollgate group raises trail concerns BEND 4 St. Charles Bend nurses represented by the Oregon Nurses Association have voted in favor of rati- fying a new four-and-a-half year contract. <We are happy to have reached a contract agree- ment that both the nurses and St. Charles leaders feel good about,= said Debbie Robinson, chief nursing offi- cer for St. Charles Bend. <While it took many months of conversations, we ended in a good place and we are all ready to come together and continue doing what we do best 3 providing quality care for our patients.= Now that the contract has been ratified, St. Charles and the ONA will work together to develop processes to put the new contract language into practice in the coming weeks. <The newly ratified con- tract helps ensure we are pro- viding the best quality care for our community,= said local nurse leader and ONA bargaining unit chair David Hilderbrand, RN. <We look forward to taking the next step of implementing the new contract and utilizing the A group of Tollgate resi- dents is concerned about the impact of a trail rehabilitation effort on their private prop- erty rights. The Tollgate residents and one from Crossroads addressed Sisters City Council last week regarding the proposed refurbishing of the trail near Tollgate by the Sisters Trails Alliance (STA). The project was described in last week9s Nugget and explained on a guided walk along the trail the Saturday before. The article outlined plans by the STA to rehabilitate an existing trail that runs from Sisters High School to Tollgate through a pine for- est, which is administered by the Deschutes Land Trust for the Sisters School District. A rare species of plant, Peck9s penstemon, grows in the area. Over the years the trail condition has deteriorated with use and weather. The last 550 feet of the trail near the high school athletic fields has become overgrown with sod, creating a narrow single track rather than the original eight- foot width. By Sue Stafford Correspondent new tools provided to address shared concerns like staffing and practice standards, which allows us to focus on our patients.= Some highlights from the new contract include: " New groups have been created so nurses float between similar departments, providing more flexibility for staffing and ensuring every patient is treated by nurses trained to meet their specific needs. " Creates a shared gover- nance structure to increase accountability around staffing and practice issues. The new shared governance model will allow direct-care nurses and managers to work together to quickly address practice concerns. " Nurses can be hired into St. Charles at step levels that are consistent with their years of experience, which will enhance recruiting efforts. " The teams reached an agreement on wages and bene- fits. The agreement offers vari- able cost-of-living increases to provide financial flexibility for the hospital while help- ing recruit and retain nurses. The Tollgate residents appeared to be responding to wording in The Nugget article that stated, <The trail will also serve as a community-wide recreational extension to the Tollgate pathway network that is open to the public.= That statement was drawn from information provided on the guided walk by Kris Calvin, STA member and a 28-year resident of Tollgate. Calvin9s statement was based on wording in a 2018 grant proposal from the Tollgate homeowners asso- ciation to the State of Oregon Recreational Trails Program, which grants funds for public trails. The STA, SPRD, the USFS, and a number of other organizations and elected officials had provided let- ters of support for the grant proposal supporting Tollgate public trails. The homeowners associa- tion did not receive the grant. The Tollgate residents who spoke at the Council meeting seemed to be mainly concerned with public access to walking paths and roads within Tollgate. The roads and trails inside Tollgate are maintained by the homeown- ers association, and, there- fore, the residents who spoke said, they are not available to the public. They do not want people to come into Tollgate to walk or ride bikes in the subdivision. The 2018 grant applica- tion was for funds for <public trails= 4 thus the confusion for Calvin. A donor to STA originally offered $10,000 toward the trail rehabilitation. With a price tag of over $20,000, STA had hoped Tollgate would contribute some money toward rehabilitat- ing the part of the trail that lies on Tollgate property. The last 220 feet of the trail from the Tollgate well house to the gate at the end of Wagon Wheel belongs to Tollgate. Prior to the Council meet- ing, the donor had offered to cover the entire cost of the trail, eliminating the need for a letter of support (LOS) that had been requested from the City of Sisters to accom- pany an STA grant proposal for $5,000 from the Doppelt Foundation. 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