REGION
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
HERMISTON
Good Shepherd begins $11M expansion
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Good Shepherd Health
Care System broke ground
Tuesday on an $11 million
expansion project that will
bring an estimated 35 new
jobs to the community when
it is inished.
The expansion of the
north wing of the campus will
extend the Women’s Center
from about 4,500 square feet
to 11,000 square feet. It will
also add a slate of new exam
rooms, provider ofices and
room to grow.
In addition to the new
building space, the plaza
will also see a redesign of
its main boulevard through
the campus, add additional
parking and move the hospi-
tal’s community gardens to
a space that is three times as
large as the one at the Herm-
iston Butte.
“This project is going to
add a lot of lexibility and
room for future growth,”
Good Shepherd President
and CEO Dennis Burke told
the audience at the ground-
breaking ceremony Tuesday.
Burke said construction
costs were expected to be
more than $9.5 million, with
the purchase of new medical
equipment bringing the total
cost up to about $11 million.
He said it was exciting to see
another expansion project
go forward as Good Shep-
herd Health Care System
continues to grow with the
community.
“It just doesn’t seem that
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Good Shepherd Health Care System President and CEO Dennis Burke speaks at a
groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital’s newest expansion project.
many years ago that this was
all sagebrush,” he said.
The construction project
is expected to last 14 months,
with an opening in the fall of
2017. It will take 180 tons of
steel, 1,300 cubic yards of
concrete, 72,000 bricks, 4,100
tons of asphalt and 35,000
worker hours to complete.
Thane Eddington of PKA
Architects said his company
worked with Dr. Gary Trupp
to design rooms that were
patient-friendly.
“There is more room for
family members to be present
and more room for proce-
dures,” he said.
Nick Gonzales, senior
project manager for Bouten
Construction out of Spokane,
said his company was
honored to work on a project
that would have such a posi-
tive impact on the community
through improved patient
care.
“This is what gets us out
of bed: projects that matter,”
he said.
After the groundbreaking
ceremony,
GSHCS
spokesman Nick Bejarano
said the redesigned boulevard
through the campus should
On Tuesday, two more
local school districts reported
the results of testing for high-
er-than-normal levels of lead
in water.
The Helix School District
got news that its drinking
water is safe. At the Athe-
na-Weston School District,
however, three of 45 sites
showed lead above acceptable
limits.
“The
Athena-Weston
School District has complied
with Oregon state guidelines
to test our water sites and
we are now addressing the
sites where elevated levels
were detected,” said Athe-
na-Weston School Super-
intendent Laure Quaresma,
in a news release. “We will
continue to monitor and
update our parents and our
community.”
The three sites will remain
unavailable to children until
the problem is corrected.
The sites will be re-tested
after new faucets and other
plumbing ixes are inished.
Meanwhile, Helix School
Superintendent Darrick Cope
said he is relieved at his
district’s clean report. Cope
himself had collected water
from all drinking fountains
and kitchen faucets and sent
them in plastic 250-milliliter
vials to Table Rock Analyt-
ical for testing in July. The
samples came from the main
school buildings, both gyms
and the band/wood shop.
Testing cost $500.
He worried most about
Griswold High School, which
was built in 1923 and remod-
eled in 2013.
“The main piping coming
into the building had been
replaced but I was a little
concerned,” he said.
The Northwest’s accred-
ited water testing laboratories
are getting a serious workout
this summer after the Oregon
Department of Education and
the Oregon Health Authority
recommended that schools
test for lead in water. They
are moving toward a plan to
require testing for lead and
radon.
Beth
Read,
chemist
and owner of Table Rock
Analytical in Pendleton, said
the lab is exceptionally busy
collecting water samples,
submitting them for testing
and reporting the results.
Table Rock oversaw testing
for Hermiston, the Inter-
Mountain Education Service
District, North Powder,
Ontario and others.
Table Rock subcontracts
with other labs such as
Anatek Labs, which analyzed
Athena-Weston’s
water.
Justin Doty, who works in
claims services at Anatek,
said the workload has spiked
at the company’s Washington
and Idaho labs.
“Most of the schools we
are testing for are located in
Oregon,” Doty said. “Oregon
is the only state I’ve noticed
(that) is being proactive in
testing so far.”
Kari Salis, of the Oregon
Health Authority’s Drinking
Water Services program, said
the amount of lead in water
must test lower than 20 parts
per billion. Water is collected
following federal Environ-
mental Protection Agency
guidelines.
“The irst draw must sit
stagnant in the pipes for eight
to 18 hours,” Salis said.
If the water tests for lead,
another is undertaken. After
waiting another eight to 18
hours, a 30-second lush
of the pipes is done before
illing the vial with water. If
the water tests low this time,
the problem could be in the
faucet. If high, the lead might
be originating in the pipes or
solder.
Testing and mitigation
of lead in school water can
be expensive. The Portland
School District will spend
an estimated $1.2 million
on testing alone. State funds
may be available this fall to
reimburse districts that test
this summer.
HERMISTON
City council adopts public art plan
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Whether it’s a watermelon
mural or a statue of the mayor,
the city of Hermiston now
has a plan for how to handle
public art.
The city council adopted
an oficial public art plan
Monday. The plan does not
allocate money, but rather lays
a groundwork of policies and
suggestions for community
organizations to raise money
for projects.
“This plan will sit on a
shelf and go nowhere if the
community does not pick it
up,” assistant city manager
Mark Morgan said.
Included in the plan are
37 suggested sites for art
installations, and ive themes
for public art in Hermiston to
be tied to: water, agriculture,
heritage, transportation and
watermelons. Morgan said
the themes could be loosely
interpreted.
“We’re not saying you
literally have to have water
in the art, or literally depict a
drop of water,” he said.
He used the hypothetical
example of a someone who
wanted to build a statue of
Mayor David Drotzmann.
Now, they could consult the
plan to see the community’s
most preferred locations for
a statue, see where the mayor
might it into one of the ive
themes (heritage?), study the
rules about commissioning
and maintaining the art, get
permission from the city
council and apply for a special
revenue fund where the city
would keep track of dona-
tions for them and possibly
leverage it as matching funds
for a grant to put a statue of
Drotzmann in front of city
hall.
“Could we raise money
to not have a statue of him in
front of city hall?” councilor
Jackie Myers asked jokingly.
Morgan said some of the
actual ideas on the list were
already being eyed by service
clubs in town — Hermiston’s
breakfast Kiwanis Club, for
example, said they would
like to start raising money for
uplighting and landscaping
around the old Armand
Larive Middle School arch on
Ridgeway Avenue behind the
library.
The plan was put together
by consultant Rebecca Couch,
the Community Enhancement
Committee and the Desert
Arts Council, with feedback
from the community to rank
the most popular of the 37
proposed locations.
“Everyone has a big focus
on putting art downtown,”
Morgan said.
That could be functional
art such as decorative benches
and lamp posts, but Morgan
said several cities also have a
popular rotating art program
where they build empty sculp-
ture plinths, and artists can get
approval to place sculptures
there temporarily while they
are for sale.
Drotzmann said even
though there is no money
allocated for art in the plan
itself, it is possible that the
city could use it as a guide to
funnel some urban renewal
money toward a city-funded
art project or two downtown.
Still, he said outside groups
were needed if Hermiston was
going to start putting art in
more locations around town.
“All those philanthropic
groups out there who would
like to help make Hermiston
more livable through public
art, please come forward,” he
said. “We have some ideas for
you.”
help improve pedestrian
safety. The project is expected
to wrap up about the same
time as a separate Oregon
Department of Transportation
project to add trafic signals
and more turn lanes to the
nearby intersection of 11th
Street and Elm Avenue,
which should further improve
trafic low in and out of the
medical plaza.
The project will also
include a new parking lot
with diagonal spaces and
electric car charging stations
to alleviate crowding in the
current lots.
Page 3A
Gibbon Fire
spreads over
100 acres
Blaze is zero
percent contained
Lead testing results continue to low in
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
East Oregonian
Steep
terrain
is
making life dificult for
crews battling the light-
ning-sparked Gibbon Fire,
about 20 miles east of
Pendleton.
The blaze, which was
irst reported Monday, has
now spread over 100 acres
near Meacham Creek and
Stumbough Ridge in the
Blue Mountains. It is zero
percent contained.
Fireighters
are
conducting back burns to
draw the ire onto safer
ground, while helicopters
dump water and retardant
to cool down the interior.
There are approximately
51 personnel on scene,
including the La Grande
Interagency Hot Shot Crew,
a Type 1 helicopter, a Type 2
helicopter, six engines and a
Type 2 hand crew.
The ire originally started
within the Umatilla Indian
Reservation on fee lands
protected by the Oregon
Department of Forestry,
and has since spread onto
the Umatilla National
Forest. No structures are
threatened. The CTUIR and
Union Paciic Railroad are
assisting ire managers.
Other Eastern Oregon
wildires include:
• Rail Fire — Started
July 31, and has spread over
10,702 acres approximately
10 miles southwest of Unity
in Baker County. There are
765 people, 26 crews, 10
dozers, 29 engines, 19 water
tenders and 7 helicopters
assigned to the ire, which
has entered the Monument
Rock Wilderness Area. The
cause is still unknown.
• Juntura Complex —
Made up of three wildires
burning near the Malheur
River between Vale and
Burns. Started Aug. 7 due
to lightning in the area.
All together, the ires are
burning 12,825 acres and are
threatening several homes,
along with rangeland, sage
grouse habitat and the
Highway 20 corridor.
• Durkee Complex —
Located west of Durkee in
Baker County, about four
miles from Interstate 84.
Started Aug. 5 by lightning,
the complex is composed
of six ires and 850 total
acres. It is now 75 percent
contained.
To report a ire, call the
Blue Mountain Interagency
Dispatch Center at 541-963-
7171 or dial 9-1-1.