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143rd year, No. 190
REGONIAN
Thursday, July 11, 2019
Court documents say Walla Walla man was dismembered
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
BaKEr CITy — Pendleton
police officers had no idea who
Colby James hedman was when
they arrested him June 5 for
misdemeanors.
Maybe no one did.
Now hedman, 23, suspected
of killing and dismembering a
Whitman College employee on
Monday, has been charged with
first-degree murder.
Court documents released
Tuesday state hedman admitted
to police he struck Kyle J. Martz,
35, with an ax
multiple times
before stealing
his car and flee-
ing to Baker
City, where he
was
arrested
Monday night.
Hedman
No motive for
the killing was
provided in the report. Police also
reported hedman and Martz did
not know each other.
Police said they found two
coolers Monday in a locked
garage. The lock had not been on
the garage earlier, according to
reports. a square shovel, hammer
and ax with blood on them were
found nearby. Blood and dismem-
bered human remains were found
in one of the coolers, records
stated.
The incident began around
6 p.m. Monday night when
Martz’s roommate called police
about suspicious circumstances
at their Walla Walla home. The
roommate found blood in differ-
ent parts of the house and noticed
a strong smell of bleach, accord-
ing to documents.
Two people living next door
told police they last saw Martz
around 10 p.m. sunday on the
back porch, records said. The
neighbors also told police they
loaned an ax and shovel on Mon-
day to a man in a red shirt, later
identified as Hedman, records
stated. he allegedly told them he
See Murder, Page A8
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A pair of the district’s ambulances sits outside the Milton-Freewater Rural Fire District fire station Tuesday afternoon.
A difficult decision
Milton-Freewater
ambulance service
area health district
proposes formation of
ambulance district
By ALEX CASTLE
East Oregonian
M
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
IlTON-FrEEWaTEr —
Milton-Freewater
voters
may face a difficult decision
in November over the city’s emer-
gency medical services.
Board members for the Mil-
ton-Freewater ambulance service
area health district met with the
umatilla County Board of Commis-
sioners on June 26 to discuss the for-
mation of a new ambulance district
due to insufficient funding.
The proposed ambulance district,
which would encompass the city of
Milton-Freewater like its predecessor,
would be put on the ballot to raise the
permanent tax rate from 25 cents per
$1,000 of assessed value to a higher,
yet undecided rate.
“The only way we can survive, in
our opinion, is to receive more fund-
ing,” said George White, the ambu-
lance board’s treasurer.
The process of getting the measure
to the ballot hit a lull after the board
wasn’t able to present it at July’s city
council meeting.
“We won’t really know the status
until next month,” said Dan Kilmer,
the ambulance board’s president.
until the ambulance board receives
approval from the Milton-Freewater
City Council, they can’t move forward
in getting the proposal to the ballot.
at its current rate, the ambulance
district doesn’t collect enough funds
and is supplemented by the Mil-
ton-Freewater rural Fire district.
Rick Saager is the district fire chief
and privately owns Milton-Freewater
Emergency Medical service, which
provides the district’s ambulances
and service. Kilmer said saager has
had to shift funds to cover operational
costs but has told the board he can’t for
much longer due to a litany of issues.
For starters, the permanent tax rate
in the area is lower than other districts
yet receives more calls. White said
See Decision, Page A8
OREGON
Construction
bill divvies
up millions to
state projects
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
AND AUBREY WIEBER
Oregon Capital Bureau
salEM — Government agen-
cies across Oregon will go on a
run of remodeling public buildings
and erecting new ones under legis-
lation recently approved.
house Bill 5006 is a checklist
of big-ticket construction projects
from Tillamook to Condon costing
a total $528 million.
The money comes from lottery
and other bonds and $33.7 million
from the federal government. That
money will go to fund projects on
National Guard bases and aviation
facilities.
about $200 million will go to
tackling the state’s housing crisis.
about 14,000 Oregonians are
homeless, according to the u.s.
Interagency Council on home-
lessness. and as of 2016, about
298,000 Oregon renters were “cost
burdened,” or paying more than
30 percent of their income toward
rent and utilities, according to the
Oregon Center for Public Policy.
lawmakers approved $150 mil-
lion in bonds to build about 2,100
units of affordable housing for
low-income Oregonians through
the local Innovation Fast Track,
or LIFT, program. Specific proj-
ects haven’t been chosen yet, but
the program is designed to priori-
tize rural communities with fewer
than 25,000 people and communi-
ties of color.
The legislature also approved
another $50 million for about 500
units to house low-income people
who have disabilities or are chron-
ically homeless.
Those units will be in the form
of permanent supportive housing,
which pairs housing with support
services such as health care.
The bill lays out about $65 mil-
lion to pay for maintenance, code
compliance, and to enhance safety
and accessibility at public univer-
sity buildings, as well as a $12.7
million project to build a rapid
toolmaking center on the site of
the Oregon Manufacturing Inno-
vation Center in scappoose.
lawmakers are also distribut-
ing about $24 million for projects
at community colleges.
some of that money is allocated
for community colleges in rural
areas to develop local workforces
in health care, agriculture and
other industries.
at
Klamath
Community
College, for example, the bill
approved $3.9 million for that col-
lege to build an apprenticeship
and industrial trades center that
See Bill, Page A8
Oregon kicks off next phase in Medicaid reform
By KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL
Oregon Public Broadcasting
salEM — Oregon’s years-long
effort to reform Medicaid took a big
step Tuesday. The Oregon health
authority awarded coordinated care
contracts to 15 organizations.
They’re spread across the state and
serve almost a million people on the
Oregon health Plan.
This new phase is known as CCO
2.0, and the state hopes it will reduce
costs, improve access to mental health
services, and reward providers for
improving health — not just for treat-
ing people.
Oregon health authority direc-
tor Pat allen, said the CCOs will also
spend some health care money on
problems outside the doctor’s office —
like housing and hunger.
“The most cost effective health care
system is one that you don’t have to
use very often because you’re healthy
to begin with,” allen said. “and that’s
really what we’re shooting for.”
Of the coordinated care organiza-
tions, 11 were awarded five-year con-
tracts. Four only got one-year con-
tracts, and have to prove themselves
over time.
Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care
Organization received a five-year con-
tract. EOCCO covers sherman, Gil-
liam, Morrow, umatilla, union, Wal-
lowa, Wheeler, Grant, Baker, lake,
harney and Malheur counties.
Primaryhealth
in
Josephine
County was the only current CCO
whose application to continue admin-
istering Medicaid was denied, due to
concerns reported in the organiza-
tion’s financial review. AllCare CCO
has now been awarded a contract to
serve Josephine County.
Three new applicants were also
denied.
In October 2018, at the request of
Gov. Kate Brown, the Oregon health
Policy Board approved a comprehen-
sive set of policies aimed at improv-
ing the health of Oregon health Plan
members, addressing health dispar-
ities, controlling program costs, and
continuing to transform health care
delivery in the state. These priori-
ties were affirmed during an exten-
sive public meeting process involving
2,500 Oregonians across the state.
Jackson Care Connect is one of
the CCOs to get a full five-year con-
tract. CEO Jennifer lind said she was
pleased with Tuesday’s announcement.
“As the sole nonprofit CCO serving
southern Oregon, our application was
backed by more than 40 letters of sup-
port from local partners and provid-
ers,” lind said. “We are looking for-
ward to continue working with them
and furthering our mission of improv-
ing the health, well-being and equity
of our community.”
There were some changes in how
CCOs will be organized. For exam-
ple, Trillium CCO in lane County
has been awarded a contract to oper-
ate in the Portland metro market. and
Pacific Source, which operates in Bend
and along the Columbia river Gorge,
will now operate in lane County too.
“We look forward to working
together with CCOs and communi-
ties to build on the gains of the first
six years of health transformation and
address gaps and challenges that per-
sist in the state’s health care system,”
allen said.