Monday, Fabruary 15, 1982
Eugene, Oregon
Oregon doily
Volume 83
Number 102
emerald
Sacred Heart
spreads wing
About 400 see opening
By Richard Burr
Of the Emerald
Opening its doors to the community, Sacred
Heart General Hospital dedicated a new six-story
patient wing Sunday before a standing-room-only
audience
The new building, which cost $17 5 million to
construct and furnish, is scheduled to open officially
Feb 28 The structure will serve as the main hospital
building, with its 193 beds replacing beds in the older
wings
“It's not a building," said Gov Vic Atiyeh, who
spoke to a crowd of about 400 "it's a state of mind
that we must help people."
Providing maximum health care while attempting
to keep costs low is a constant contradiction, Atiyeh
said Because of financial limits the best alternative is
to make the community aware of preventative health
measures
"We should use these facilities only when in
need," he said
The new building "reminds me of the smell of a
new car," especially after driving through Albany, he
joked
The community should continue to support and
help improve the services of Sacred Heart, said
Eugene Mayor Gus Keller
"Without this facility, I'm sure the livability of this
community would be affected, he said
David Steirs, who plays the role of Major Charles
Winchester in the television series MASH, also was
scheduled to speak but cancelled because of illness
After the dedication, the hospital provided a
five-hour open house with informal tours of the
building
The building was constructed primarily to replace
obsolete patient care units, enlarge the emergency
department, and expand and centralize patient regis
"It's not a |J
building,
it's a state of
mind...”
I_L
tration, according to hospital officials Most of the new
rooms will be private
The new building enables our health care team
at Sacred Heart to provide all the benefits of modern
medicine to the patient and to communicate our
personal concern in making each patient’s stay as
comfortable as possible.'' said Sister Monica Heeran,
Sacred Heart administrator and chairman of the
Photo by Bob Baker
Gov. Vic Atiyeh spoke at the dedication for Sacred
Heart's new wing on Sunday.
Sacred Heart Governing Board.
A closed-circuit television educational channel
also was included in the new wing’s features.
Financing for the structure came partially from a
community fund-raising drive in 1980 that contributed
more than $1 million for Project III, a building and
remodeling endeavor.
With the construction completed, Project Ill’s
next step is to begin remodeling this month. The
Intensive Care/Coronary Unit will be renovated and
expanded along with several therapy facilities.
Sacred Heart’s chapel will be converted into a
new hospital auditorium for community health
education programs and medical staff meetings and
conferences These projects are scheduled for com
pletion in June, 1983.
Salem ponders larger deficit
SALEM (AP) — Legislative committees are
scheduled to get a look at the state s latest budget
forecast Monday, and the view is expected to be bleak
The Legislature recessed Tuesday after learning
that a tentative projection showed a potential deficit
substantially higher than the one lawmakers had been
dealing with
When the special session began Jan 18, estimates
were that lower than expected income tax collections
would cause the state to be about $237 million short of
meeting expenses in the current two-year budget.
The preliminary projection last week indicated the
potential deficit could swell by another $100 million or
more
The House and Senate revenue committees
scheduled a joint meeting for Monday to get a com
puter-produced. final forecast. The full Legislature is to
reconvene Tuesday to continue work on a
budget-balancing plan
Based on preliminary figures, the Legislative
Revenue Office estimated early last week that the
projected deficit would increase by $90 million
But some officials now guess the final prediction
will be lower, maybe in the $40 million to $70 million
range That's because some data in the draft report was
to be revised before being fed into the state Executive
Department computer
When Gov. Vic Atiyeh's Council of Economic
Advisors reviewed the preliminary report last week,
several members said they thought the state's 1982-83
predictions on such factors as employment and aver
age earnings were too pessimistic.
Whatever the new forecast shows, the Legisla
ture's options boil down to more budget cuts, an
income tax increase or a combination of both
The lawmakers have taken steps to generate $94
million in new revenue, mostly from a speed-up in
employer withholding tax payments. But that's all they
have agreed to. and a partisan fight has developed over
remaining budget-balancing strategy.
Most Democrats, who control both houses, want to
cut budgets less than does the Republican governor
and raise income taxes to make up the difference
Most Republicans oppose a tax increase and call
for more spending reductions.
The Senate, with Democrats in charge 22-8, has
approved budget cuts half as large as Atiyeh's and
passed a proposed one-time income tax boost of about
5 percent
But the House is another matter. Democrats hold a
smaller 33-27 margin there, and a handful of conserva
tive Democrats joined Republicans to kill a proposed
4 25 percent income surtax in that chamber.
Before the latest budget predictions surfaced, tax
hike backers said they were close to garnering the
needed 31 House votes to pass a smaller surtax of
between 3-4 percent.
But a larger projected deficit means a higher surtax
would be needed to balance the budget without added
spending cuts. Each 1 percent of surtax would yield
about $10.5 million a year
Some lawmakers predict renewed pressure this
week to slice money from a state property tax relief
program that pays about 30 percent of homeowner tax
bills.
The program is budgeted to cost $189 million this
year, and critics of the program say that expense should
be reduced along with cuts in other state outlays.
But taking away tax relief in an election year hasn't
had wide support among lawmakers.
J
Beer-gardeners
highlight Bud film
Beer-gardeners partied a little harder Friday,
mugging it up for the cameras, trying to be ideal
typical college kids.
The inspiration for the extra effort came from
a team of people from Budweiser who were
shooting a promotional film.
While Dan and Sally (two ' typical" University
students) played backgammon before the
cameras, the film crew perched from the EMU
patio, filming other students scurrying to and from
classes
"We wanted a lot of action," said Andrea
Berger, a senior project supervisor in marketing
communications for Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
"When students think of doing something
fun, like backgammon or skiing, we want them to
think of Budweiser,” Berger said
The crew from Bud were on campus shooting
a promotional film to show at colleges across the
nation. “The beer garden has had a contract with
Bud from the start,” Berger said
But why the University? Berger said she took
her masters from the University and she knows
the Gregg Tripp Band, who played at the beer
garden.
"We wanted to highlight the college market,"
Berger said. "Since I’d been to many beer gar
dens and I know the University, I thought this
would be an ideal place."
It's unlikely that many careers were launched
Friday, but a few people, like Dan and Sally, found
the spotlight, at least for a moment