S ERVING THE S ILVERTON A REA S INCE 1880
50 C ENTS
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A U NIQUE E DITION OF THE S TATESMAN J OURNAL
V OL . 136, N O . 13
W EDNESDAY , M ARCH 15, 2017
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
Health care uncertainty a concern
Marion County Commissioner: We
don’t want to lose current services
JONATHAN BACH
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Marion County Commissioner Janet
Carlson voiced concern March 8 over
federal “uncertainty” on health cover-
age.
Her remarks at the State of the Coun-
ty address came after U.S. House Repub-
licans this week unveiled their proposed
replacement of the Affordable Care Act.
“I would say there’s a lot of uncertain-
ty right now at the federal level partic-
ularly around health-care and what’s go-
ing to happen with regard to Medicaid,”
Carlson told the audience at the Broad-
way Commons in Salem, where commis-
sioners spoke on issues such as econom-
ic development, homelessness, and
transportation.
Carlson has served as chair of the
Board of Directors for Willamette Valley
Community Health, a coordinated care
organization for Marion and Polk coun-
ties. There are more than 90,000 mem-
bers of the Oregon Health Plan in the two
counties, she said.
“On the one hand, we’re looking for
improvements in the Affordable Care
Act. But we’re also wanting to make sure
we don’t lose the great services that we
have for the people that need it so that
they can get back in the community and
become solid citizens,” Carlson said. The
Affordable Care Act is also known as
Obamacare.
The Marion County Health Depart-
ment serves people with addictions and
mental health issues; developmental and
intellectual disabilities; and offers im-
munizations. In fiscal year 2015-2016,
43,483 people received services from the
health department, Interim Director
Scott Richards said. Not all were on the
Oregon Health Plan.
Silverton girls fall
in state title game
As far as federal changes to the Af-
fordable Care Act, “it seems from a
health department perspective pretty
early to know for sure what all the im-
pacts will be,” Richards said, later add-
ing, “We still are committed to serving
those people that are most vulnerable.”
The Oregon Health Authority is look-
ing at the proposed Affordable Care Act
replacement to see how it would affect
Oregon. The agency has said more than
1.1 million people take advantage of the
Oregon Health Plan.
“Oregon currently has over 375,000
Oregonians on Medicaid expansion and
there are serious concerns about propos-
als that would scale back funding and
See HEALTH, Page 3A
DOUGLAS C. PIZAC, AP
Cottonwood Canyon, center, branches off in
the Grand Staircase-Escalante National
Monument east of Boulder, Utah.
GOP seeks
‘paradigm
shift’ in
federal land
management
BARTHOLOMEW D SULLIVAN
STATESMAN JOURNAL
PHOTOS BY DANIELLE PETERSON/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Silverton places second in the OSAA Class 5A state championship on Friday, March 10, at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis. LaSalle defeated
the Foxes 42-28.
The valiant
Foxes were
pleased to
make it to the
state champi-
onship. Read
more on Page
1B.
Silverton’s Paige
Alexander and
the Foxes fall to
La Salle 42-28 in
the OSAA Class
5A state
championship
on Friday,
March 10, at Gill
Coliseum in
Corvallis.
WASHINGTON — Four days after
Donald Trump took office, Utah Repub-
lican Rep. Jason Chaffetz introduced
legislation to dispose of 3.3 million
acres of federal land in 10 Western
states. Nine days later, after public pro-
tests and irate phone calls from sports-
men and others, he withdrew the bill.
Last week, Natural Resources
Chairman Rob Bishop, another Utah
Republican, wrote to colleagues, say-
ing “it’s time for a paradigm shift in our
nation’s approach to federal land man-
agement” and called for $50 million to
be set aside to facilitate conveyances of
federal land to state, local and tribal
governments.
Both proposals illustrate the radical
shift in public land policy that has been
a goal of Republicans for several years.
The 2016 Republican Party Platform
pointed to 640 million acres of land
owned or controlled by the federal gov-
ernment. “It is absurd to think that all
that acreage must remain under the ab-
sentee ownership or management of
official Washington,” the policy state-
ment reads. “Congress shall immedi-
ately pass universal legislation provid-
ing for a timely and orderly mechanism
requiring the federal government to
convey certain federally controlled
public lands to states.”
Overall public land policy — which
includes resource extraction, wildfire
policy, efforts to restore the timber in-
dustry and record-breaking declara-
tions of national monument acreage by
President Barack Obama — has been in
flux for some time. But with one-party
government in Washington, Republi-
cans think the time is right to make sig-
See LAND, Page 3A
Should voting be free in Oregon?
TRACY LOEW
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Do Oregon voters fail to return
their ballots because of the price –
or inconvenience of obtaining – a
postage stamp?
Two Democratic legislators
think in a significant number of
cases, the answer is ‘yes.’
They’re backing a bill to provide
postage on mail-in ballots, at a cost
to taxpayers of about $650,000 per
year.
“We know there are ballots out
there that are not getting in,” Sen.
Michael Dembrow, D-Portland,
told the Senate Rules Committee on
March 6. “We would like to remove
the impediment that is there for
some people to mailing their ballot
that has to do with the postage
stamp.”
“The purpose of this legislation
is to increase participation in our
representative democracy,” said
Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin.
“If this legislation were to lead to a
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5 or even 10 percent increase in vot-
er turnout then I believe this expen-
diture of public dollars will be very
well spent.”
Oregon is one of three states that
conduct elections entirely by mail,
eliminating polling centers.
Ballots are mailed to registered
voters, and can be returned by mail
for the cost of a forever stamp —
currently 49 cents. Or they can be
taken to county-designated drop-
Silverr ton Busiiness of t he Year 2 016
The Weather Is Not
Cooling This Market Down!
See VOTING, Page 3A
INSIDE
Classifieds..............................3B
Life..........................................4A
Obituaries.............................2A
Sports......................................1B
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