REGION
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
Wyden talks rural health at St. Anthony
Weekend visit
includes town
hall, health
care roundtable
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Oregon Democratic Sen.
Ron Wyden pulled double
duty Saturday during visits
to Umatilla and Morrow
counties, hosting a town
hall meeting in Boardman
followed by a private discus-
sion on rural health care with
local doctors, administrators
and patients in Pendleton.
The latter was part of
Wyden’s “rural health care
listening tour” that included
stops in Corvallis, Bend,
Medford and Newport.
Saturday’s panel at St.
Anthony Hospital voiced
concerns about how cuts
to Medicaid might affect
services, and the challenge of
recruiting new physicians to
Eastern Oregon.
Wyden said there is a
defi nite worry over budget
cuts to Medicaid, and if that
happens, it would “hit rural
Oregon like a wrecking ball.”
Harry Geller, St. Anthony
president, said the expansion
of Medicaid under the
Affordable Care Act has been
key to lowering the uninsured
rate for health insurance. Had
the Republican plan to repeal
and replace Obamacare
succeeded, Geller said
400,000 Oregonians would
have lost coverage.
Greg Miller, with the
Mirasol Family Health
Center in Hermiston —
part of the Yakima Valley
Farmworkers
Clinics
network — said Medicaid
expansion has allowed them
to provide more services
such as dietitians and dental
care for migrant and seasonal
farmworkers.
The more they can do to
keep Medicaid, the more
their patients can maintain
access to health care, Miller
said.
Troy
LeGore,
vice
president of Good Shepherd
Health Care System in
Hermiston, said Medicaid
expansion is a necessity for
their patient base. Another
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Sen. Ron Wyden speaks informally during a private roundtable discussion about rural health care with doctors,
administrators and patients on Saturday at St. Anthony Hospital.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Sen. Ron Wyden hugs Pendleton High School teacher
Kathryn Youngman at the beginning of a private discus-
sion about rural health care with doctors, administra-
tors and patients on Saturday at St. Anthony Hospital.
challenge, Legore said, is
fi nding ways to recruit physi-
cians into rural areas.
In particular, LeGore said
they do rely heavily on help
from overseas in the form
of Visa sponsorships to fi ll
those positions.
Man dead, Pilot Rock woman
injured in Rieth Road crash
East Oregonian
One man died and a
Pilot Rock woman suffered
serious injuries Saturday in
a one-vehicle wreck on Rieth
Road west of Pendleton.
According to the Umatilla
County Sheriff’s Offi ce, a
2001 white Jeep Cherokee
was westbound when it
missed a curve and hit a rock
outcropping.
It is unknown how long the
vehicle was in the roadway
before a passing train saw
the wreck and reported it to
dispatch Saturday at 7:16
a.m.
Emergency responders
found the vehicle resting
upside down in the middle of
the road with the passenger
side of the vehicle crushed
inward, according to a
written statement from the
sheriff’s offi ce. One woman
was outside the vehicle
receiving aid from passersby.
Sheriff Terry Rowan
confi rmed the victim was
Angela Salemme of Pilot
Rock. The Pendleton Fire
Department responded and
helped transport Salemme
via air ambulance to Kadlec
Regional Medical Center,
Richland, Washington.
Jim Hall, hospital spokes-
person, said Salemme was
in serious condition as of
Monday afternoon.
Sheriff’s deputies initially
thought Salemme was the
sole occupant of the Jeep.
However, the tow truck
moved the wreckage and
revealed a man dead in the
front passenger seat.
The crash is under inves-
tigation. The sheriff’s offi ce
reported it would release the
identity of the other victim
after contacting relatives.
PENDLETON
Lifelong quilter to share craft at show
East Oregonian
Joyce Dean Gieszler is
the featured quilter for the
Pendleton Quilt Show.
The Hillsboro woman
became fascinated with
sewing when she was 4 years
old.
“She told her mother
she knew why the sewing
machine was called a Singer
— because it hummed,” her
website biography said.
Presented by Krazy Horse
Quilters, the show will feature
special displays of quilts by
Gieszler and Alice Fossatti.
In addition, the show is
expected to display 200 quilts
from people from across the
region. Also, quilting vendors
will be on hand offering a
wide selection of quilting
supplies and sewing accesso-
ries.
The show is Saturday,
May 6 from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. and Sunday, May 7
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at
the Pendleton Convention
Center, 1601 Westgate. The
admission fee is $5, which is
good for both days.
Gieszler’s
love
for
quilting started when she
happened upon a quilt shop
in Texas that was housed in a
converted carriage house.
“It was love at fi rst sight,”
she said.
Gieszler
has
taught
quilting for 15 years and
designed patterns for more
than a decade. In addition,
she is the author of several
books, including “Fantastic
Stash Quilts” and “Then and
Now Quilts.” According to
her blog, Gieszler plans to
introduce a handful of new
patterns at the show.
A limited number of
quilters can take a class from
Gieszler Friday, May 5 from 9
a.m. to 1 p.m. Attendees will
utilize her pattern “Grandma’s
Surprise” with several vari-
ations available. The session
costs $40 and participants will
need to have a kaleidoscope
ruler with a blunt tip. After the
class, people can remain on
site to sew.
For more information,
contact Marilyn Lohmann at
lom1127@q.com, 541-377-
0005 or visit www.krazy-
horsequilters.org. For more
about Gieszler, visit www.
quilterchickdesigns.com.
———
Contact
Community
Editor Tammy Malgesini at
tmalgesini@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4539
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“If that’s impeded in any
fashion, that’s going to hurt
us,” he said.
Though Wyden said he
is a supporter of the Visa
program to recruit physicians,
he added that better medical
training in America needs to
be part of the solution.
Kathryn Youngman, a
Spanish teacher at Pendleton
High School and three-time
cancer survivor, was also
asked to relay personal
experiences dealing with her
health insurance network
while she was sick.
Youngman
described
one situation where it took
eight months to resolve a
confl ict in network, all while
undergoing chemotherapy.
That being said, she is quick
to point out that she is in a
relatively great situation.
“I’m golden. I have insur-
ance. I have a good provider.
These folks on Medicaid,
they don’t,” Youngman said.
“It is essential that rural
populations have Medicaid.”
In addition to Medicaid,
Youngman urged Wyden
to continue pursuing a bill
he introduced in March
that would force pharmacy
benefi t managers, such as
Express Scripts Holding
Company and CVS Health
Corporation, to disclose the
discounts they receive from
drug manufacturers and shed
more transparency on the cost
of prescription medication.
Wyden discussed that bill
further in Boardman, saying
he would not sit around and
allow drug middlemen to
throw a veil of secrecy over
what they charge.
“The problem is, we
don’t know what they’re
putting in their pocket and
what they might be putting
in your pocket,” Wyden told
the town hall at Riverside
Junior-Senior High School.
Town hall
Other questions raised by
constituents at the town hall
ranged from immigration to
veterans benefi ts and funding
for higher education.
When it comes to Amer-
ica’s immigration system,
Wyden said it is a “broken,
dysfunctional mess.”
“This is very high-stakes
stuff,” he said.
Wyden said he has worked
in the past with a bipartisan
group of lawmakers that
voted to improve border
security, while also allowing
undocumented immigrants
in the U.S. to pay a fi ne and
place themselves on the track
for citizenship — so long
as they can prove they’ve
committed no other crimes.
“I’m still hopeful we
can get something like that
passed,” Wyden said.
Jennifer Rodriguez-Peña,
an 18-year-old senior at
Riverside, said she is the fi rst
member of her family to go
to college and asked Wyden
what Congress is doing to
make school affordable.
Wyden pointed immediately
to the Secure Rural Schools
Act, which has contributed
$3 billion to the Oregon
Common School Fund
through timber payments on
federal land.
“Now, what we gotta do
is fi gure out how to pay for
it again and get harvest up in
a sustainable way,” Wyden
said.
Larry Lindsay, who
recently celebrated 50 years
on the Port of Morrow
commission, pointed out that
trade along the Columbia
River has taken a massive
hit since the Port of Portland
lost its container shipping
service.
Lindsay said businesses at
the Port of Morrow are still
fi nding ways to ship their
products overseas, but are
paying more money than they
did before to truck containers
up to Seattle and Tacoma,
Washington. That cost can
add up to an additional $500-
$1,000 per container.
“We suffer when Portland
suffers,” Lindsay said.
Wyden said he does not
have all the answers, but
listening at town halls allows
him to take those perspec-
tives back to Washington,
D.C.
“This is what the
Founding Fathers wanted it
to look like,” he said.
Wyden held another town
hall Saturday evening in La
Grande and at McLoughlin
High School in Milton-Free-
water
Sunday.
About
100 people attended the
Milton-Freewater event.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
BRIEFLY
Five Pendleton men face
charges for fake money
He has an arraignment Tuesday to face fi ve
counts of fi rst-degree forgery.
PENDLETON — Umatilla County
District Attorney Dan Primus revealed the
names of the fi ve men facing charges for a
counterfeiting scheme in Pendleton.
Dustin Verrall, Timothy McMurphy,
Zachary James Norton, Tyler Dunn and
Daniel Wilson, all of Pendleton, are under
indictment for felonies, according to
Primus.
Fake $100 bills started showing up
at Pendleton businesses in early March.
Pendleton police detective Howard Bowen
said the culprits used chemicals to remove
ink from $1 bills, then printed $100s over
the blanks.
Umatilla County Circuit Court records
revealed no past criminal cases for Dunn or
Wilson.
McMurphy in 2008 pleaded guilty to
second-degree robbery and burglary in
Umatilla County, both felonies. He took
another deal in 2015 and pleaded guilty
to felonies of coercion and third-degree
assault. And in 2016 he pleaded guilty to
possession of methamphetamine.
Norton pleaded guilty in 2014 in
Umatilla County to second-degree burglary
and in 2015 faced domestic violence
charges and pleaded guilty to misde-
meanors of assault and strangulation. He
pleaded guilty in 2016 to tampering with a
witness, a felony.
Verrall has a 2012 conviction in Umatilla
County for possession of Hydrocodone.
Quaempts resigns from
CTUIR board
MISSION — Justin Quaempts, an
at-large member of the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s
board of trustees, submitted his resignation
Monday.
The board accepted the resignation,
according to a press release from CTUIR,
which was effective
immediately.
Quaempts was in
his second two-year
term on the board after
receiving the most
votes in November’s
election for the at-large
seat.
“We appreciate
Mr. Quaempt’s
Quaempts
service to the Tribal
membership,”
Board Chairman Gary Burke said in the
statement.
The general council and election
commission will schedule a special election
to replace Quaempts.
The move comes eight weeks after the
resignation of Dave Tovey, the executive
director for the CTUIR. It also follows the
October recall of Board Secretary David
Close, who was replaced in a special
election in February by Kat Brigham.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.com or drop off to the attention of
Tammy Malgesini at 333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211 S.E. Byers
Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-966-0818 with questions.
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