FROM PAGE ONE
A8 — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 2022
GIVING
WHAT’S NEXT?
Continued from Page A1
The La Grande School Board
will vote on adoption of the
proposed 2022-23 budget at its
meeting on Wednesday, June
22. The meeting will follow a
public hearing on the budget
which will start at 7 p.m. The
hearing and the board meeting
will be in the boardroom at
Willow School, 1305 N. Willow
St., La Grande.
SCHOOLS
Continued from Page A1
funding remaining to
buff er its enrollment
decline, he said, meaning
the chance of layoff s
starting in the 2024-25
school year will be much
greater if enrollment does
not rise signifi cantly.
The school dis-
trict’s enrollment has
been declining since the
COVID-19 pandemic hit
Oregon in March 2020.
Mendoza said the school
district is down 244 stu-
dents since the start of the
pandemic.
Mendoza believes one
reason for the decline is
that parents and students
want consistency and sta-
bility. School districts lost
an element of this during
the pandemic when they
were switching from
online to in-person instruc-
tion and a hybrid model,
which is a combination of
both.
“It was a yo-yo,” he
said.
The superintendent
believes this is why a
number of parents pulled
their children out of school
and began homeschooling
them. He said that home-
schooling allowed them to
provide a more stable edu-
cational environment.
families with a patch that has
the yellow and blue colors of
their nation’s f lag in the shape
of a heart.
“These are handmade gifts,”
said Ellen Carr, a Girls Night Out
member.
The local sewing club will be
sending 27 quilts to the Corner
Patch, an arts and crafts shop in
the town of Eccleshall in England.
The Corner Patch, owned by Janet
Markwell, is donating quilts to
Ukrainian refugees in England. To
date, it has received 100 quilts for
refugees.
England has at least 58,000
Ukrainian refugees, according to a
story in the May 24 edition of the
New York Times. They are among
the more than 6.4 million Ukrai-
nians who have left their country
since Russia attacked Ukraine in
February.
Naylor said she and other mem-
bers of Girls Night Out have felt
frustrated because they wanted to
reach out to the refugees but really
could not in a concrete manner
because they are separated by such
a great distance.
“This was something tangible
we could actually do,” she said.
Naylor and Carr are among
about 12 Girls Night Out women
involved in the Ukrainian project.
They are joined by Mary Brock,
Lessa Adams, Joy Cleaver, Susan
Le Page, Geri Hall, Cindy Jo
DeLong, Teresa Smith-Dixon,
Nancy Gromen, Patti Anderson
and Jan McDowell.
The quilts the club is sending
have an array of colors, including
orange, green, red and blue. Many
have varying dimensions but
they have an important quality in
common.
“Many are diff erent, but they all
are beautiful,’’ said Gromen, who
is Naylor’s mother.
Much of the work on the quilts
was done alone in the homes of
the Girls Night Out members. The
EXPANSION PROJECT TO DISRUPT
NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC
The following are descriptions of
how traffi c will be rerouted during
the Sunset Drive closure.
• Emergency medical services
traffi c will be coordinated to
reroute around the Sunset Drive
Avenue closure between H and K
avenues.
• Patient traffi c will be rerouted via
digital/mobile signage at the cor-
ners of C Avenue and Fourth Street,
and N Avenue and Fourth Street.
Sports Medicine Clinic and the
Sleep Clinic.
• GRH’s south campus will be
accessed via C Avenue to Sunset.
South campus includes the Wom-
en’s and Children’s Clinic, the
Specialty Clinic, the Therapy and
• The main hospital will be accessed
via N Avenue to Alder. The main
hospital includes emergency ser-
vices, the Cardiology Clinic and the
Out-Patient Surgery Clinic.
HOSPITAL
Continued from Page A1
She said the ceilings of
the operating rooms met
all state codes when built.
However, now they are
between 18 and 24 inches
too low to meet state
building codes, an issue
the construction of the new
building will address.
Ford said the state
granted a waiver to the
hospital for the ceiling
height problem, but the
waiver expires in 2028.
She said the new
building will help GRH
recruit and retain talented
surgeons.
“Surgeons interested
in coming here want to
know where they will be
working,” she said.
Ford said the ultimate
purpose of the project is to
help people.
“This building is for
everyone. We see it as a
gift to Union County,” she
said. “The entire purpose
of this is patient care.”
Ford said the fact the
hospital is now in a posi-
tion to launch such a major
project is an indication of
how well it survived the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is a testament to the
fact that we have had the
kind of leadership now and
over the past, that we are
in a position to even do
this,” she said.
The building project is
expected to take two years
and will force a 970-foot
segment of Sunset Drive
— from K Avenue south to
H Avenue — to be closed
for two years. The closure,
which will apply to all
vehicles and pedestrians,
will begin Monday, June
20. The intent of the clo-
sure is to keep everyone
out of harm’s way.
“Safety is our No. 1
concern,” Ford said.
Ford said the closure
will not adversely impact
emergency or patient
access to the main emer-
gency room or hospital
entrance or impact patient
access to the hospital’s
clinics on the south side of
the campus.
“GRH has worked to
anticipate and consider
every impact this expan-
sion project may have on
our community,” she said.
Ford said the hospital
has been especially con-
cerned about the impact
the closure and work will
have on people living
nearest to the hospital
campus.
Ford noted that on
Friday, May 27, the hos-
pital mailed residents
detailed packets of infor-
mation on the project and
invited them to meet with
Jeremy Davis, the presi-
dent and chief executive
offi cer, to discuss any con-
cerns or questions.
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The quilts completed by Girls Night, like these ones shown on Friday, June 3, 2022, have a variety of designs.
“Quilts bring comfort.
We are hoping that
these will ease their
struggle.”
— Bridgett Naylor, a Girls Night Out member
group, though, meets once a week
in the evening to discuss their
project and other topics. The meet-
ings have given rise to their name.
The Girls Night Out quilts will
later be taken across the Atlantic
Ocean by Naylor and her family
to the Corner Patch. Naylor is
familiar with England because
that is where her husband, Les,
is from and she met the Corner
Patch’s owner during a previous
visit. Naylor’s family will bring
the quilts in four suitcases. This
will save money because Nay-
lor’s family would have gone to
England anyway. Naylor said it
is much less expensive to pay for
check-in luggage on a fl ight than it
would be to ship the quilts from La
Grande.
Naylor and the other mem-
bers of the group know they will
likely never meet the refugees who
receive the quilts, but that does
not diminish the satisfaction they
are feeling knowing that they are
helping brighten the lives of people
who have just witnessed the hor-
rors of war.
“Quilts bring comfort,” Naylor
said. “We are hoping that these
will ease their struggle.”
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