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East Oregonian
Richardson ends speculation
he will run for governor
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Secretary of
State Dennis Richardson
confirmed Wednesday that he
will not seek the Republican
nomination for governor in
2018.
Despite having raised no
campaign funds, Richardson
drew political speculation
that he might seek the state’s
highest office, building on
momentum from 2016 when
he became the first Repub-
lican to win statewide office
since 2002.
“I am serious about being
the best secretary of state I can
be and keeping my promise to
voters to provide transparency
and accountability and restore
trust in government, and that
is where my focus is,” Rich-
ardson said in a phone inter-
view with Pamplin Media/EO
Media Group Capital Bureau
Wednesday.
By putting the rumors to
rest, Richardson opens the
way for other Republican
candidates to consolidate
support.
The
campaign
for Rep. Knute Buehler, a
moderate Republican from
Bend who declared his bid
for governor Aug. 2, declined
comment on Richardson’s
announcement. Republican
Happy Valley Mayor Lori
Pamplin Media Group
Secretary of State Dennis Richardson said Wednesday
that he won’t seek the Republican nomination for
governor in 2018.
Chavez-DeRemer has said she
also may challenge incumbent
Democrat Gov. Kate Brown.
DeRemer said she is
focused on making the “best
decision for the people, the
investors and the state as a
whole” on whether to enter
the race.
“No announcement about
who is or isn’t running takes
us off our overall strategy,”
she said.
Brown has been fund-
raising and campaigning
since shortly after her election
in November but has yet
to officially announce a
reelection bid. Her campaign
did not immediately respond
Wednesday to requests for
comment.
Richardson, a former
lawmaker from Central Point,
lost a challenge to former
Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2014.
Kitzhaber stepped down
as governor less than four
months later in the midst of
an influence-peddling scandal
involving him and First Lady
Cylvia Hayes. A federal
investigation of the couple
ended without charges, but the
former governor and first lady
remain under investigation by
the Oregon Ethics Commis-
sion.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
TAXES: District working to see if they
can spread the increased payments out
Continued from 1A
during a meeting with auditors, but that it’s
unclear exactly what led to the mistake and
when it was caught. According to school
board meeting minutes, Kris James, the
district’s current business manger, said that
auditors gave the district a “good report
with few findings” as recently as February.
Liscom and James put the blame on a
previous business manager.
“It’s hard to know what the last person
was thinking,” said Liscom, who was hired
as the district’s superintendent in 2014.
Neither Liscom nor James would reveal
the name of the business manager at the
time the bond was passed or when the error
was discovered, but the East Oregonian
archive and previous audits show Leeann
ReMillard held the position for at least 12
years, until her retirement in 2016.
James, who is starting her second year
as Stanfield School District’s business
manager, said the issue came to light this
year, while auditing the 2015-2016 school
year. James said Pendleton-based Cock-
burn and McClintock brought the error to
the attention of James, Liscom, and two
school board members.
“They said they found there was
not enough tax dollars being levied to
adequately cover the bond payments,” said
James.
She also said this was not the first time
the firm had brought the disparity up to the
district.
“They brought it to the previous
business manager at least two times in the
past,” James said. “They suggested how
to correct it, and it was up to the person to
make those changes. That was not done.”
James said that to her knowledge,
auditors only told this information to the
business manager, and not to the superin-
tendent or anyone else in the district.
“I think they trusted that the business
manager would bring that information to
the superintendent,” she said.
Chalmers said Stanfield taxpayers have
been paying about $1.28 per $1,000 in
assessed value. After the increase, they will
paying about twice that much — $2.56 per
$1,000 in value. According to U.S. Census
Data from 2010, Stanfield’s average
home price is $110,000. That means
that according to Chalmers’ numbers,
the average homeowner will be paying
roughly $281 for the bond next fiscal year.
Some aspects of the property tax adjust-
ment are still up in the air. Liscom said on
Wednesday the district was working with
Chalmers and with auditors to see if they
can spread the increased payments out,
instead of making taxpayers fork up the
missing funds all at once. She said the
district may have more information about
readjusting the payments later this week.
Stanfield resident David Olson said he
had been researching the issue since he
received the flyer last week. He initially
thought the notice was a scam.
“There was no address, no phone
number, nothing,” he said. “It wasn’t on
official letterhead.”
He said he contacted Chalmers, who
told him the information was legit. But
Olson is still concerned procedure was not
followed.
“There was no amount, no information
whatsoever,” he said. “Just the idea of a
small community like this — it’s not the
right avenue.”
–——
Contact Jayati Ramakrishnan at
541-564-4534 or jramakrishnan@eastore-
gonian.com.
EYES: Make an appointment if
you experience spots in vision
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Dr. Dave Drotzmann discusses the results of a retinal scan with Abbie Ditton of Hermiston during a routine eye
exam Wednesday in Hermiston.
burned a hole in the person’s
retina, “like a magnifying
glass burning a hole in a leaf.”
Doctors have yet to come
up with a way to regrow
that tissue, meaning there
is no cure for the condition,
called solar retinopathy.
Some patients have reported
that the damage eventually
healed itself, but others, like
Portland man Louis Tomo-
soski, warned that their full
eyesight never did return after
watching a solar eclipse with
the naked eye decades ago.
Drotzmann said his
office has yet to see a patient
complaining that the eclipse
damaged their vision, but he
had noticed that other optom-
etrists across the country were
writing on online message
boards that they were seeing
patients with damage.
Thankfully, he said, tech-
nology and awareness have
increased since the country’s
last total solar eclipse. He
said many people probably
heeded warnings in the media
and purchased special mylar
glasses when decades ago
they might have just stared at
the sun without protection.
The advocacy group
Prevent Blindness posted
tips about eclipse-related
eye damage online prior to
the event, and cautioned
that people should make an
appointment with an eye care
professional if they experi-
enced spots in their vision,
changes in how they see
colors or other distortions.
President Donald Trump
caused a stir Monday when
a photo from the Associated
Press showed him looking
directly up at the sun for a
moment after taking off his
eclipse glasses. The White
House has not reported any
negative effects on the pres-
ident’s vision.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
MURRAY: ‘In 59 years, we’ve filled about three million prescriptions’
Continued from 1A
they said, is that insurance compa-
nies will give their customers an
incentive to use mail order pharma-
cies, offering a discount on some
prescriptions.
But Ann pointed out that this
practice drives out small, local
pharmacies who can’t compete on
a national scale — which poses a
problem for everyone.
“They want people to be able
to order antibiotics (at local phar-
macies), because they need those
immediately,” she said.
Privately-owned
pharmacies
also face competition from local
businesses
with
government
backing. This week, the Murrays
had to shelve plans to open a phar-
macy in Boardman, which they’d
been working on for the last several
months.
The Murrays had been in the
process of purchasing a building
in Boardman, and had almost
completed the purchase of the
business they hoped to take over —
Good Shepherd Pharmacy — when
they were forced to reconsider their
plans. Columbia River Community
Health Services, which operates
a clinic in Boardman, announced
plans this week to open a pharmacy
in October in the same town.
“It is not financially feasible
to have a second pharmacy in
Boardman, as the prescription
volume is not high enough to
support two, and it is too difficult
for a private company to compete
against one with government
money available to it,” John said
in a statement about the decision to
not open the Boardman business.
Incidents like that highlight
the challenges small, rural family
businesses face in trying to level
the playing field. For many, it’s too
hard to fight the bigger businesses
that want to open up in small towns.
“We get sent letters (from groups
Murray Drugs Inc. cancels plans for Boardman pharmacy
East Oregonian
The Murray family of Boardman will not open a
pharmacy October 1 in Boardman, as they had been
planning to do.
They have halted all plans for their third family
pharmacy in Eastern Oregon, after learning that
the directors of a clinic in Boardman — Columbia
River Community Health Services — voted over the
weekend to open their own pharmacy.
“We were blindsided by the news this far into
the project,” said John and Ann Murray in a written
statement. “We have worked for the past four months
in open communication and good faith to purchase the
Good Shepherd Clinic Pharmacy, and move it to the
vacant former bank building on Main Street in order
to provide a convenient drive-thru window option for
Boardman residents.”
Seth Whitmer, the CEO of CRCH, said the phar-
macy will be open some time in October and they are
still working out specific details. He said the business
wanting) to buy the pharmacy,”
John said. “About every two weeks.
I fear they just want the files but
don’t want to operate it. So we’ve
always resisted, and we’ll continue
to do so.”
In doing so, they depend on a
network of loyal customers — who
are equally reliant on them.
“I calculated. In 59 years, we’ve
filled about three million prescrip-
tions,” John said.
They also deliver twice a week
from their Condon store to Fossil,
dropping prescriptions off at a
medical clinic.
One of the key reasons for their
success, John said, is their connec-
tion to the community.
“If you don’t treat people right,
a small community won’t tolerate
that,” he said. “We have to fight, but
we also serve. When you’re serving
your friends, you treat everyone
like family.”
Family business
The family atmosphere extends
will be located inside the Select Market grocery
store, where the Good Shepherd pharmacy currently
operates.
Whitmer said they had no plans at this time to
take over the inventory or files from Good Shepherd.
Whitmer said he couldn’t comment on the timing of
their decision to open a pharmacy coinciding with the
Murray family’s plans, but said the organization had
been discussing opening a pharmacy.
“We had lots of discussions about how to take care
of patients, and be a good medical home,” he said.
“We needed to have a pharmacy.”
The Murrays expressed their disappointment at the
last-minute change, and said it would not be finan-
cially feasible to run a privately-owned pharmacy in
Boardman in direct competition with CRCH, which
receives federal funding.
The Columbia River Community Health clinic is
a Federally Qualified Health Center, which employs
two certified physician’s assistants and two family
nurse practitioners.
behind the counter too — quite
literally. The Murrays have been
pleased that three of their five chil-
dren decided to follow them into the
business, though they didn’t plan it
that way.
“We didn’t encourage our kids
to become pharmacists,” said John.
“In fact, we did the opposite.”
He noted that they required their
children to work somewhere else
before deciding they wanted to
come back to the family business.
“But it’s an opportunity that’s
kind of hard to pass up,” he said.
“A community pharmacy in a store
like this is one of the most desirable
work environments for a pharma-
cist. We have challenges throughout
the day, but when we come home,
we’re not stressed out or burned
out.”
Their son, Sean, agrees.
Currently at a pharmacy in Enter-
prise, he has absorbed much of their
enthusiasm for the work.
“If you don’t care about what
you’re doing as a pharmacist,
you’re not going to be good at it,”
he said. “Letting me choose to be
a pharmacist was the biggest thing
they did.”
He noted that growing up, he
got to see all sides of the business.
“I saw them go in on weekends,
stay open after hours to get things
people needed because there were
no other options.”
He noted that the industry has
become increasingly profit-driven,
which puts extra strain on the small
pharmacies.
“It’s challenging, what goes on
behind the scenes,” he said.
But business pressures have not
diminished his desire to go back to
his roots.
“I’m looking forward to coming
back,” he said. “I don’t want to
work in a chain.”
A changing industry
The Murrays have also had to
stay up-to-date on the rapid changes
in the pharmaceutical industry.
“Pharmacists take a more active
role in prescribing and management
for patrons now,” John said.
They
communicate
with
doctors, and keep themselves
informed by attending trade shows
and continuing education classes.
Ann is a former board member
of the Oregon State Pharmacy
Association. They also rely on their
children’s expertise.
“Our kids are very connected,”
she said. “Our degree (took) five
years, but now they have to get an
eight-year doctorate.”
They recently leased out the
coffeeshop in the store, Breaking
Grounds, so they could focus on the
pharmacy.
They’ve also seen a turn toward
more preventive care instead of
reactive measures.
“It’s more clinical services,
and less dispensing,” said Ann.
“Managing medication can save
everyone money. If you mismanage,
you can end up in the hospital.”
They also have to keep up with
the trends in pharmacy if they want
to survive.
“We try not to be reactionary to
trends, but a lot of the time, it’s out
of our control,” John said.
“It’s good to ask questions, and
know what people are taking,” Ann
said.
John acknowledged that as tech-
nology gets more advanced, they
may face more difficulties.
“The medications that are
coming out are high-tech,” he said.
“They’re going to be bio-engi-
neering for individual prescriptions
shortly.
But John said they will continue
to stick with what’s worked well for
them for the last six decades.
“A drugstore, if run carefully,
will always be around.”
———
Contact Jayati Ramakrishnan
at jramakrishnan@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4534