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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2017
Clatsop Care: ‘You’ve got to see improvement right off the bat’
Continued from Page 1A
Compounding struggles
The health district encom-
passes all of the Clatsop
County except the cities of
Gearhart, Seaside and Can-
non Beach. It oversees Clatsop
Care Center, Clatsop Retire-
ment Village in Astoria and
Clatsop Memory Care Cen-
ter in Warrenton, and provides
in-home care.
The district, and the care
center especially, have faced
compounding struggles in
recent years.
A state law passed in 2013
sought to reduce the number
of nursing home beds by relo-
cating patients and residents
from nursing homes into less
costly community-based care
settings.
But, statewide, nursing
homes could not sufficiently
reduce beds, so facilities like
Clatsop Care Center saw cuts
in Medicaid reimbursements,
which make up a sizable por-
tion of the care center’s bud-
get. Facilities that could not
withstand the cuts closed,
including Providence Seaside
Hospital’s long-term care unit
in 2014.
In addition, the state faces
a shortage of certified nursing
assistants, a staffing limitation
that forced Clatsop Care Cen-
ter to downsize its long-term
resident population last year.
One Clatsop Care patient,
Ron Meyer, said “the nursing
has been good, but the good
nurses leave. There’s been a
tremendous turnover in this
operation.”
Board member Heather
Reynolds said she believes
Aidan has the wherewithal to
attract patients and nurses to
the district, and advocate on
the district’s behalf.
Aidan’s fees will be 5 per-
cent of patient care revenues
for the first six months, then
6 percent thereafter. Based
on current figures, this will
cost an average of $31,900 a
month, then $38,280, accord-
ing to Amanda Hascall, the
district finance director.
Aidan manages seven long-
term care facilities: six in Ore-
gon, one in Nevada.
Hiring and firing
When Williams gave her
notice in December, she rec-
ommended that the board
contract with a management
company that specializes in
nonprofits and long-term care.
The CEO job, she said, had
grown too complex and cum-
bersome for one person.
The board reached out to
auditors, Oregon Health Care
Association, and LeadingAge
— an advocacy group for pub-
lic long-term care facilities —
to compile a list of companies
to consider. A board subcom-
mittee narrowed the options
down to three.
“Aidan was, far and above,
the better option than the two
that we did interview,” board
member Roy Little said.
Board members visited
Aidan’s other sites and con-
tacted references, including
“a public long-term care dis-
trict that, frankly, asked them
to leave,” Board Chairwoman
Karen Burke said.
In that situation, Burke
learned from an administrator
that the changes Aidan made
at a health district in Eastern
Oregon were not popular with
the district’s board of direc-
tors, which let Aidan go after
a year. Burke added, however,
that she did not speak with the
board members themselves.
Burke said the Clatsop
County Health District Board
chose not to issue a request
for proposal because “there
was not enough competition
out there that met our needs to
justify going through the RFP
process.”
The employees will remain
district employees. Aidan will
answer to the board. “Make
no mistake: We’re not the boss
here. The board is our boss,”
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
The Clatsop Care Center is struggling financially.
Remley said.
Section 5 of the contract
allows either party to terminate
the agreement with 30 days
written notice “with cause.”
The district can terminate the
agreement with 48 hours writ-
ten notice “in the event of any
situation involving immediate
jeopardy to resident health and
safety that is not cured within
such 48-hour period.”
Asked how Aidan would
run the district differently than
Williams, Remley said he isn’t
familiar with Williams’ work.
According to Burke, Rem-
ley told the board “it will take
(Aidan) a minimum of six
months of really evaluating the
district’s operations and each
of the facilities to determine
what kind of cost-effective
measures can be done, how we
can maximize census, how we
can maximize revenues.
“So I think (Remley is)
holding back on making any
commitment about what they
will do until they’ve actually
had an opportunity to study
what is.”
Standard of care
District employees past and
present expressed anxiety at
Friday’s meeting toward what
they view as a partial privat-
ization of the district’s oper-
ations, and whether the move
will impact quality of care.
Keyaho Rohlfs, a certified
nursing assistant at Clatsop
Care Center, said he wanted
assurance that Aidan would
maintain a high care standard.
“I wish that there was some-
thing involved here in which
we could guarantee that,” he
said. “I haven’t heard it yet
from the representatives of
the agency. Maybe they have
the empathy that can under-
stand how personal this is to
us, maybe not; I don’t know.
Trust is something that comes
with time.”
Allison Sansom, a regis-
tered nurse and licensed health
care administrator who worked
for the district for 12 years,
said she supports the board’s
decision, and understands the
board has “no option but to
engage the services of a pri-
vate firm to turn the operations
around at Clatsop Care Center
specifically.”
However, Sansom, who
is running for board position
No. 7, said she worries that
the 26-month contract with
Aidan suggests a plan to out-
source the district’s operations
to a for-profit company for the
long run.
“The only way to make a
profit. I believe … is on the
backs of your staff, or to the
detriment (of) your residents,
and so that is very concerning
to me,” Sansom said.
Burke said she would not
use the term “privatization” to
characterize the agreement.
“I think that we remain a
public tax-supported not-for-
profit district, and the district
board remains in charge of
the district and what happens
within the district,” she said
after the meeting. “We’re sim-
ply hiring a management firm
to fill those responsibilities of
the CEO.”
The board, she said, does
not view Aidan as a tempo-
rary solution. As would hap-
pen with any hire, Aidan will
stay “as long as the relation-
ship between the CEO and the
board of directors is working,
and as long as the district is
well-managed.”
Thanking Rohlfs for his
comments, Little said the
board will meet with Aidan
regularly about the quality of
care being provided.
“I was actually a nurse’s
aide at one time. I know
what you do for a living. I’ve
done it; I don’t do it now. It’s
hard work, and it’s not paid
enough,” Little told Rohlfs.
“But we support what you
do, and we support what you
do to make the lives of our
residents better. And that’s
what we want to do with this
contract.”
Remley said that, since
Aidan will have a presence at
monthly board district meet-
ings, the company must earn
its contract every 30 days.
“You’ve got to see
improvement, obviously, right
off the bat to ensure the long-
term success of the contract,”
he said.
‘Don’t blindly trust me’
Pamela Wev, of Astoria,
told the board she felt the con-
tract’s initial 26-month term
was excessive.
Originally,
the
con-
tract stipulated a term of 14
months, to end in June 2018.
Aidan requested a June 30,
2019, end date instead. Board
member Mike Aho ques-
tioned why the shorter con-
tract didn’t work for Aidan.
Burke said she agrees with
Aidan that 14 months may not
be a reasonable time frame to
turn the care center around,
and to show the district how
well Aidan can perform as a
management company.
“This didn’t happen over-
night, that the health district
got into the financial situation
that it’s in … I don’t know if
14 months is realistic, given
all the factors that have con-
tributed to where it is now,
and that will contribute in the
future,” she said.
Little said reasonable
people can disagree about
whether an initial term length
is appropriate. “We think that
that’s the right way to give
Aidan a chance to do what we
want them to do.”
After the meeting, Rem-
ley said that, with the district
under Aidan’s management,
“in the first term, I would
hope that you would see the
district not only be able to
stand on its own two feet,
but that it will give the board
choice in how they move for-
ward from there.”
Remley said Rohlfs “basi-
cally hit the nail on the head.”
“We’re going to have to
earn his trust over a long
period of time,” he said, add-
ing that he has told board
members: “Don’t blindly trust
me. I’ve got to earn that over
time,” he said.
In other communities the
company serves, Aidan con-
tracts with third-party compa-
nies to conduct customer-sat-
isfaction surveys. Burke said
Aidan will do this in Clatsop
Care Health District, as well.
“You’ve got to reserve
judgment on me,” Remley
said. “I can say all the things
in the world, of what I want to
do and what I want to accom-
plish. But until I perform,
it just doesn’t really mean
anything.”
Pot lab: Sharp divisions in Jewell Harold: Missed interaction with kids
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
During a January meeting,
Jewell School Board mem-
bers roundly criticized Plew’s
proposed development, with-
out realizing he was sitting in
front of them. After surpris-
ing the board members, Plew
provided an explanation of
his project, albeit with little
support.
Referencing a Daily Asto-
rian article on the meeting Fri-
day, Plew said he has found
the school board’s comments
offensive and bordering on
discrimination, considering
he is trying to bring jobs and
tax revenue to the area. He
repeated that there are many
other marijuana operations
around Jewell School, and
that the district has staff, stu-
dents and families involved in
the industry.
“Where the Wild Things Are.’”
Harold, 43, took over the
part-time position in early
January, following Patty Skin-
ner’s 17-year tenure. She is
continuing the storytime ses-
sions for “movers and shak-
ers” (aged birth to age 2) and
preschoolers.
She recently launched two
new programs: an all-ages,
once-a-month family story-
time, which kicked off Sat-
urday and includes a craft
and snack, and “Read to the
Dog!,” where kids can read
to (and pet) Maisie, a certi-
fied therapy dog who acts as
a receptive, nonjudgmental
audience. “You can mess up,
or not be sure of the words;
Maisie doesn’t care,” Harold
said.
These activities culti-
vate “preliteracy skills,” she
said. “At it’s core, it’s giving
children the skills that they
need, so that, when they go to
school, they’re ready to learn
how to read.”
It exposes them to thou-
sands of words — such
as “frolicked” and “wig-
gle-waggle” — that kids
don’t encounter every day
and enriches their growing
vocabulary. And later, as they
begin learning complex ideas,
they have a ready-made men-
tal space for the ideas to live,
Harold said.
Too close
Jewell School representa-
tives have opposed the pro-
posed plant’s close proximity
to the K-12 schoolhouse and a
nearby flood plain.
Joseph Voboril, an attorney
for the school district on its
appeal, admitted Plew’s site is
more than 1,000 feet from the
school property, but that there
are two bus stops within 150
and 850 feet of his property,
respectively, for a school in
which 95 percent of students
take the bus.
Superintendent Alice Hun-
saker said the retail portion of
Plew’s operation could dis-
tract students and cause con-
gestion on the roadways
around the school. In addition,
she said, the site is at least 30
minutes from emergency and
medical services.
“I’m unwilling to have
our students’, faculty’s and
families’ safety compro-
mised if an accident were to
happen at the marijuana facil-
ity,” Hunsaker said. “Fur-
ther, our students will receive
constant visual messaging
about marijuana while on our
buses.”
Echoing Hunsaker’s sen-
timents, School Board Chair-
man Brian Meier also argued
that any potential runoff from
Plew’s operation would enter
Fishhawk, and eventually
Beneke, creeks, potentially
Submitted Photo
A proposed marijuana laboratory less than a mile from
Jewell School has set off controversy in the district.
affecting the district’s nearby
water supply.
In the details
Voboril and the district
argued Plew’s application
doesn’t provide enough detail
on how his operation can be
made suitable, and how he’ll
safely provide for sewage on
the site without impacting the
school district’s water source.
Voboril said the southern
third of the site is in a mapped
floodway off Fishhawk Creek,
and is further restrained by
environmental setbacks. “The
staff report acknowledges that
there might not be an ade-
quate amount of unrestricted
land upon which Mr. Plew
can build his proposed build-
ing and the necessary parking
areas.”
County Land Use Plan-
ner Bart Catching said staff
found that the site could han-
dle a building larger than the
1,600-square-foot building
Plew has proposed.
“If the uses are allowed in
the zone, and we make good-
faith findings that the applica-
ble criteria are met, then we
would be getting into a differ-
ent discussion about illegally
limiting a legal use of property
that meets the zone,” he said.
Catching said the site will
likely face more in-depth
scrutiny over flood plain and
other issues beyond a condi-
tional land use appeal.
For and against
Plew’s proposal has uncov-
ered sharp divisions in Jewell
regarding marijuana and its
place in the community.
Karl Meier, a self-de-
scribed
fourth-generation
farmer in the valley who owns
property near Plew’s, said it’s
crazy that the project has gone
this far. He said the land has
been vacant so long because
it’s not a fit place to put any-
thing more than trees.
“To put this kind of facil-
ity within 300 feet of a family
residence is unacceptable,” he
said. “I hope you heard that;
it’s unacceptable.”
Joe Anderson, who’s lived
in Jewell the past decade, owns
property next to Plew’s proj-
ect, Anderson was recently
named the first state-approved
commercial grow site in the
county for recreational retail-
ers. He said there has been dis-
crimination against the canna-
bis industry, even though it’s
bringing jobs and tax revenue.
“No laws are being bro-
ken,” Anderson said. “If any-
thing, we’re going above-
board to prevent kids from
having any access to cannabis.
That’s what this is all about.
You know, the real danger-
ous substances that these kids
have close to them is alcohol,
probably prescription drugs
in every one of these people’s
medicine cabinets.”
Olsen agreed to keep tak-
ing written materials on
Plew’s conditional land use
application until 4 p.m. Fri-
day, after which there is a
weeklong period to rebut any
new material. Plew can then
request a final week to rebut
any new materials before the
hearing closes.
‘The child’s truth’
Harold moved to Astoria
from Portland with her hus-
band and two children about 3
1/2 years ago.
A former staff member of
Multnomah County Library,
Harold reviews picture books
for School Library Journal
and chapter books for Book-
list Online.
In 2010, she served on the
committee for the Caldecott
Medal — the American
Library Association’s annual
award to the artist of the most
distinguished picture book —
which that year went to Jerry
Pinkney’s “The Lion and the
Mouse.”
“We must have looked at
somewhere between 700 and
800 picture books that year
that came to our houses,” she
recalled.
She also coordinates
Libraries Reading Outreach
in Clatsop County, a program
that provides free library
cards to kids who live outside
Astoria, Warrenton and Sea-
side’s library service areas.
Having consumed hun-
dreds, possibly thousands, of
children’s books, Harold has
an idea of what makes the
great ones great.
First, the book needs to
reflect reality as children
understand it. “It needs to res-
onate with the child’s truth.
It can’t be an adult’s idea of
what life is like to be a kid,”
she said.
Second, “it either needs to
be sincerely funny, or it needs
to reflect their sincere feel-
ings,” she said.
Take “Where the Wild
Things Are”: It is a fantasy
about a child in his room who
imagines adventuring with
wild creatures.
But it isn’t smarmy chil-
dren’s fare; there’s darkness,
too. “It’s also about getting
really angry, and getting sent
to your room,” which children
can relate to, Harold said.
The wild child “returns” to
a bowl of warm soup that his
parents left out for him. The
feelings of love and safety that
parents give their children —
“that tends to be really com-
pelling, too.”
‘A lifeline’
Harold, who earned a mas-
ter’s degree in library science
from Syracuse University,
was born in Astoria and grew
up in Tillamook.
“For me,” she said, “the
library was a lifeline — it was
a chance to see a world big-
ger than the world that I was
growing up in, and a way to
escape.”
She studied Russian lan-
guage, literature and history at
a liberal arts college in Iowa,
and spent her final semester
in Russia. “And I don’t know,
without having been exposed
to so many worlds through
reading, if that would have
felt possible,” she said.
Though she has been sub-
stitute teaching in Astoria and
surrounding communities, “I
was itching to get back into a
library.”
“I missed that daily inter-
action with kids. I’d been
doing a lot of subbing in the
schools, I was kind of getting
my kid fix there, but I love
it in the library,” she said.
“You’re just there to have fun,
and to get them excited about
books.”
— Erick Bengel
Storms: Area schools affected
Continued from Page 1A
without reporting the acci-
dent. He was later located
and arrested by the Warren-
ton Police Department for fail-
ure to perform the duties of
a driver, failure to carry and
present and driving without a
license.
Just after 9 a.m. today, a
dark Ford Ranger was involved
in a single-vehicle accident on
Highway 26. One injury was
reported. About an hour ear-
lier, a garbage truck slid off the
roadway on U.S. Highway 101
Business, but no injuries were
reported.
Since
the
inclement
weather began, cities have
been working to keep the
streets safe during the snow-
hail-sleet event.
The Astoria Public Works
Department applied sanding
gravel in the higher elevations
of Astoria on Saturday and this
morning.
Snow in March is “very
unusual,” Astoria Public
Works Director Ken Cook
said.
Knappa
and
Jewell
school districts closed today.
Astoria schools were delayed
three hours and Clatsop Com-
munity College opened at
noon.