REGION
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
East Oregonian
A3
‘I Love My City’
Volunteers wash a car for free in the
Ace Hardware parking lot in Hermis-
ton during the “I Love My City” event
on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. Other
volunteers cleaned up litter along
the railroad tracks, cleared weeds
out of the landscaping along High-
way 395, set up drive-thru prayer
booths and paid for peoples’ laun-
dry at laundromats or meals in the
McDonald’s drive-thru. Volunteers
also attended a socially distanced
worship service together on Sunday,
Sept. 27, 2020, at Butte Park. The I
Love My City movement was started
in 2016 by local churches that band
together each year for service proj-
ects to promote goodwill, including
the annual clean-up, which usually
takes place in the spring.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
The Panelview RV Park, just outside of Hermiston, will have
49 sites when it is completed and generate an estimated
226,357 kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity each year.
Solar array makes
Hermiston RV park
fi rst of its kind
Park will generate
roughly 226,357
kilowatt-hours
of renewable
electricity per year
By KATY NESBITT
For the East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The
new Panelview RV Park near
Hermiston is the fi rst of its
kind to provide solar shade
canopy solar arrays, mean-
ing on a sunny day more
energy could be produced
than a motorhome can use.
The 147-kilowatt solar
array system will generate
an estimated 226,357 kilo-
watt-hours of renewable
electricity per year, which
is enough to power 27 typi-
cal U.S. homes. Overall, the
solar array will help the RV
park reduce its utility bill by
$19,020 per year.
“We named the park Pan-
elview RV Park due to the
fact that our guests are sur-
rounded by solar panels
and the park runs entirely
on renewable energy,” said
Kent Madison, Panelview
RV Park owner
Overseeing construction
is Sunthurst Energy. Owner
Daniel Hale said his com-
pany is an Energy Trust
Trade ally and he became
familiar with the USDA
grant opportunity when he
built arrays for Wtechlink
and the Rees Ranch.
“From the beginning it
was deemed essential to add
solar panels to this project,”
Hale said. “Per our research,
at time of fi ling for the grant,
PanelView RV Park will be
the fi rst with solar shade can-
opies with nearly 100% net
energy metering.”
Net energy metering is a
solar incentive that allows
the owner to store energy
in the electric grid. When
solar panels produce more
electricity than needed, that
energy is sent to the grid in
exchange for credits.
The USDA Rural Energy
for
America
Program
grant funded $49,428 of
the $197,713 total cost and
Energy Trust of Oregon will
contribute $25,000 in com-
mercial solar rebates. The
remaining balance will be
paid for by the owner, Hale
said.
Madison said Panelview
will sell a little more than
half of a megawatt of solar to
Pacifi c Power.
“We wanted to control
our future power costs and
solar does that,” Madison
said.
Panelview RV Park will
have 49 sites when com-
pleted and is the fi rst in the
nation to have a Phage sewer
treatment plant that can con-
trol environmental wastewa-
ter process problems.
Hale said Sunthurst,
established in 2013, has built
solar projects of every type
from ground mount to can-
opy and rooftop and energy
storage. His company is
licensed in fi ve states and
has completed more than 18
megawatts of solar energy
systems. About 50 percent of
their work is Oregon.
Outside of Umatilla
County, many of their proj-
ects have been in Klamath
Falls, Ashland and Medford.
Sunthurst has installed
arrays at the Oregon Air
National Guard, Pendleton
Fire Station No. 1 and the
Pendleton Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
District Offi ce.
In all, $8.7 million in
REAP funding was granted
to Oregon to help 27 farm-
ers, ranchers, and rural small
businesses adopt renewable
energy technologies, con-
duct critical energy audits,
and make pollution and
cost-cutting energy effi -
ciency improvements.
“Energy
effi ciency
upgrades will help farmers
and ranchers lower costs, cut
pollution, and create jobs—a
commonsense, win-win-win
part of that path,” said Sen.
Jeff Merkley, who serves
as the ranking member on
the Senate Appropriations
subcommittee that over-
sees funding for the USDA.
“I’m pleased that these funds
are headed to Oregon, and
will keep working to ensure
that people in every part of
our state have the chance to
build better, more prosper-
ous, healthier lives.”
Jeremy Kurtis
Shipton
13 Sept. 1983 - 30 Sept. 2003
Some people come into our lives
and quickly go; much too soon.
They leave memories we carry with
us in our hearts and we are never,
ever the same.
Always in our hearts
In honor of our Mother, Frances King, who
passed September 16, we want to offer our
heartfelt thanks to all the friends and family
who loved and cared for her.
Special thanks to Phyllis Hunter, her best
friend forever; Cara Hamilton and
Ron Gray, who where always there;
Sheri Warnock, caregiver extraordinaire;
and the EMT's, Suttles and Hospice who
were so gentle in her final days.
Rest in Peace Mom,
Tim, Jimmie and Trish
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Metrics report gives snapshot of Eastern Oregon health
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY
— An annual report on
coordinated care organiza-
tions by the Oregon Health
Authority gives a snapshot
of health care for low-in-
come residents in Eastern
Oregon.
The annual coordinated
care organization metrics
report published recently
shows a strong perfor-
mance from Eastern Ore-
gon in some measures, such
as controlling high blood
pressure and diabetes, while
the region lagged behind
the rest of the state in other
measures.
Coordinated care organi-
zations are networks of pro-
viders, insurers and com-
munity organizations that
agree to work together to
improve outcomes for Ore-
gon Health Plan (Medicaid)
recipients in exchange for
increased fl exibility on how
they spend those Medicaid
Risk of wildfi re
remains despite
recent rain
PENDLETON — The
recent rain in Eastern Ore-
gon didn’t wash away all the
risk of human-caused wild-
fi res, according to a Thurs-
day, Sept. 24, press release
from the Oregon Department
of Forestry.
According to the release,
the precipitation will impact
short-term fi re activity, but
warmer and drier weather
is still anticipated in the
forecast.
As of Sept. 24, 50% of the
fi res on lands protected by
dollars. They might pay for
home visits to a patient after
surgery, for example, in the
hopes of preventing the need
to pay for an emergency
room visit for post-opera-
tion complications. A por-
tion of the state’s payments
to CCOs is based on their
performance on certain
metrics, such as number of
emergency room visits, that
indicate they are prioritizing
quality care over quantity.
Eastern Oregon CCO,
which covers all Oregon
counties east of Wasco
County, met 14 out of 19
“quality pool” measures
to qualify for the money,
either through meeting the
state benchmark or meeting
a target for improvement,
according to OHA’s report.
When surveyed, 80.7%
of adult Oregon Health Plan
patients in EOCCO’s cover-
age area said they felt they
were able to get appoint-
ments and care when they
needed it, while 86.8% of
parents felt their child was
able to get care.
According to the report,
79.6% of children on the
Oregon Health Plan in
EOCCO received the rec-
ommended
vaccinations
before their second birth-
day, an improvement from
77% in 2018. OHA also
reported that 70.1% of chil-
dren covered by EOCCO
received appropriate devel-
opmental screenings in their
fi rst three years of life.
Twenty two percent of
EOCCO patients age 13 and
older who were screened for
smoking by a provider were
identifi ed as a smoker —
the second lowest rate of the
state’s 15 CCOs.
EOCCO worsened in
the emergency room vis-
its category from 2018 to
2019. There were an average
of 54.1 visits to the ER per
month for every 1,000 mem-
bers, up from 51.1 in 2018.
The CCO came in last for
the number of adults ages
50-75 who had a colorectal
cancer screening in 2019,
at 51.1%, compared with
48.3% in 2018.
It improved signifi cantly
in the percentage of adults
whose diagnosis of hyper-
tension was “adequately
controlled,” from 58.1% in
2018 to 64.8% in 2019. It
also successfully lowered
its percentage of adults with
diabetes who had concern-
ing hemoglobin levels, from
27% in 2018 to 22% in 2019.
And the number of women
covered by EOCCO who
received postpartum care
visits 21 to 56 days after
deliver jumped from 58.4%
to 65.5%.
In addition to the “qual-
ity pool” metrics, the report
also covers a long list of other
metrics that are tracked but
don’t affect the CCOs fund-
ing, such as well child visits,
hospitalizations for asthma
and preventative dental
care. To see the full report,
visit www.oregon.gov/oha/
HPA/ANALYTICS/CCO-
Metrics/2019-CCO-Perfor-
mance-Report.pdf.
LOCAL BRIEFING
the Oregon Department of
Forestry Northeast Oregon
District in 2020 have been
human-caused, the released
stated. Those fi res have been
the result of debris burn-
ing, abandoned campfi res or
equipment use, including the
use of ATVs or other vehicles
off of improved roads.
Fire offi cials urge the pub-
lic to use caution when visit-
ing the forest and follow pub-
lic-use restrictions regarding
chain saw use, campfi res
and vehicle usage off of
improved roads. Information
on all public-use restrictions
in effect in the Northeast
Oregon District can be found
at www.bmidc.org.
Pendleton Whisky
starts campaign
for charity fund
PENDLETON — The
Pendleton
Round-Up’s
namesake whisky is jump-
ing into the COVID-19 eco-
nomic relief effort.
Facing a year without
rodeo, the Round-Up has
spent the second half of 2020
raising money for organiza-
tions economically affected
by the Round-Up’s cancella-
tion through the Let ’Er Buck
Cares Fund.
On Sept. 23, Pendleton
Whisky announced the Let
’Er Buck Challenge, a com-
plimentary initiative that
will donate $1 to Let ’Er
Buck Cares each time some-
one uses the hashtag #leter-
buckchallenge on social
media. From now through
Oct. 18, Pendleton Whisky
will donate up to $150,000
through the campaign.
Those who would rather
donate directly to the fund
can make a donation at
http://pendletonwhisky.com/
leter-buck-challenge.
Launched in 2003 as
a drink offi cially licensed
by the Round-Up, Pendle-
ton Whisky was bought by
liquor giant Proximo Spirits
in 2017 for $205 million.
— EO Media Group