Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
June 3, 2015
A7
FIRE TRUCK: Departments help each other out
Continued from Page A1
Enterprise’s 1974 La
France, for instance, was do-
nated to the Greater Bowen
Valley Fire Department out-
side of Baker City. Greater
Bowen has an identical La
France but theirs is pretty
much suitable only for parting
out.
“The Enterprise La France
will still be put to good use
in Greater Bowen,” Karvoski
said. “They got some money
to do some wiring and up-
grades and it’s in a lot bet-
ter shape than their other La
France.”
The “new” ’93 Pierce
custom pumper was paid for
out of the Sinking Fund, a
savings account the city has
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There was enough money
in the account to pay for an
even newer truck, Karvoski
said, but not enough for a
brand new truck. And, the
Pierce should give the city a
good 10-15 years of service
while the fund keeps growing
until it can support the pur-
chase of a brand new truck.
It will have been 56
years between new trucks if
it works out like Karvoski
plans; the 1974 La France
was purchased new by En-
terprise City back in ’74
for a cost of approximately
$32,000.
The truck has been out on
hundreds of calls. Karvoski
B ANK HONORS LONGTIME ACCOUNT HOLDERS
Steve Tool/Chieftain
As part of Community Bank’s 60th anniversary celebration, Community Bank President
Tom Moran (white shirt) awarded 10 oz. silver ingots to several of the bank’s longest-
term customers who appeared quite thrilled with the gift. From left: Jean and Malcom
Dawson, Gracy Gray and Ann Hayes.
estimates his department an-
swers 50 to 60 calls a year,
though most of those don’t
call out an engine.
The city began discuss-
ing replacement of the truck
when wiring repair and oth-
er issues started adding up,
Karvoski said. “We were
spending between $1,000
and $2,000 a year on repairs,
it didn’t have the safety up-
grades (such as seatbelts) that
a newer truck would have,
and I asked, ‘do we want to
spend $10,000 to upgrade a
truck this old or do we want
a newer one?’”
Once the decision was
made to look for a better
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chief Tom Clevenger took
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nia and spent a day with the
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the engine and determining
if it was right for Enterprise.
“We owe Tom a big thank-
you for that,” Karvoski said.
Once the Pierce passed
the Clevenger inspection it
was loaded on a low-boy
and shipped out. Then, the
trainings in Enterprise be-
gan. It’s all good-to-go, now,
Karvoski said, complete with
such modern features as seat-
belts and an eight-man en-
closed cab.
If Enterprise gets that 15
more years of good service
out of this one, it will be 37
years old when some other
small fire department re-
ceives it as a gift.
SHIRLEY: Retiring super leaves mark
Continued from Page A1
Other JCS staff members
voice similar sentiments.
“Rhonda has been the back-
bone of the Joseph School Dis-
trict for many years,” another
teacher, Marla Dotson, says.
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to access and manage funding
sources, knowledge of educa-
tional programs and ability to
manage people has made Jo-
seph Charter School an excep-
tional school. She is a wonder-
ful teacher, administrator and
person, and we will miss her
very much.”
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Kilgore, “To leave a 36-year
career and still have everyone
love, respect and admire you is
amazing. I am happy Rhonda
can retire on her terms, but I’m
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my boss, mentor, friend and
mom. Her leaving will affect
me greatly.” Kilgore added,
“She is leaving us in a state of
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building a charter school and
developing the most amazing
staff. For her to leave on ‘top’
of her game is the biggest ac-
complishment that any superin-
tendent can hope for.”
Shirley is a Wallowa Coun-
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second grade in Enterprise be-
fore attending school in Joseph,
where she spent the rest of her
school years before entering
college. Shirley is a graduate
of Whitman College in Walla
Walla. She started her Joseph
career in 1979, teaching both
computer science and mathe-
matics to grades 7-12.
After about 15 years in that
capacity, Shirley took advan-
tage of a half-time position as
school counselor while still
teaching math half-time, and
it was Shirley’s entrance into
an administrative position.
She also started taking admin-
istrative classes with the en-
couragement of the school’s
administrators and eventually
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Shirley’s other positions in-
cluded high school principal,
athletic director and elementa-
ry school principal.
Shirley still kept her hand
in at teaching even while per-
forming full-time administra-
tive duties. She occasionally
taught calculus classes. “Just to
stay in touch with it,” she said.
Shirley does not consid-
er her climb to the rank of
superintendent as the major
achievement of her JCS ten-
ure. “I guess it’s just being a
part of the school for as long
as I have and seeing the posi-
tive changes. Also, having an
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something I’m also proud of,”
Shirley said.
Although Shirley looks for-
ward to retirement, she’ll miss
aspects of JCS. “I’ll really miss
the people I work with, and the
students,” she said.
What will she do with all the
spare time on her hands? Not to
worry, Shirley has that covered
as well. “I’ve got two grandkids
and another one on the way to
spend time with, and I’ve got
a little farm to spend time on,
too,” she said.
At least for a time, Shirley
will make herself available to
answer any questions incoming
superintendent, Lance Homan,
may have.
Some progress made
BUDGET: PERS payouts increase COPS:
Continued from Page A1
take several more weeks to fully FODUL¿FDWLRQ RI SRLQWV DV UH-
Continued from Page A1
funding this biennium. The and the money counted, that
big gamble for the recently amount may only pay cost of
The legislative move was passed budget, said Royse, living increases.
intended to allow school dis- was whether or not the state
“What I understand is that
tricts to keep teachers and would have enough money in $100 million would be pro-
programs and in larger coun- the budget to provide addition- vided in the second biennium
ties it added up to millions in al support to school districts in (2015-2017) for roll-up costs
savings for districts for the the current biennium.
(increases in payroll and in-
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There seems to be a good VXUDQFH EHQH¿WV´ VDLG (6'
in.
chance the cavalry, or at least Superintendent Patton. “It’s
The move was immediate- the neighbor’s threshing crew, an inexact number, a moving
ly challenged, however, and will arrive to help.
target, it doesn’t necessarily
individual school districts had
Gov. Kate Brown signed mean new teachers could be
to gamble on which way the the Education Funding Bill hired. Many districts will need
court would go.
(HB 5017) in April. The bud- their share of the $100 million
Enterprise chose to spend geting process outlined in that just for roll-up costs.”
their “savings.”
bill included “a trigger that
So, money balanced?
“We budgeted the savings will send 40 percent of new
Perhaps.
into our school budget or we revenue to the State School
Royse and his school
would have had to use cash re- Fund if the economy shows board chose to gamble on
serves,” said Enterprise School improvement in the May eco- balance. “Our current budget
Superintendent Brad Royse.
nomic and revenue forecast.”
assumes some assistance from
Now the Supreme Court
The economy did show the state,” he said. “We’d got-
has reinstated the PERS cost improvement and Brown sub- ten a lot of indications that
of living increase. The new bill sequently announced another this money was going to come
for that comes due in the 2017- $100 million would be added through. It won’t be much
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to the education budget.
once it’s parceled out, but we
The four school districts of
It sounds like the cavalry, decided to budget a bit high
Wallowa County will now pay but when the bills are stacked and not cut any programs.”
out an estimated additional
$350,000 in PERS payments
in the 2017-2019 biennium.
“A statewide group of
business managers came out
and told us to anticipate a 5.5
percent impact to our 2017-19
budget,” said Karen Patton,
superintendent of the Wallowa
County Education Service
District (ESD).
“We hit Wallowa Coun-
ty Schools with the news as
schools were in the process of
passing their budgets of next
year. There’s not much they
can change for this year, but
for the following year they’ll
be thinking, ‘How can I brace
myself for this?’ It’s a big im-
pact. That’s a lot of teachers
we may lose.”
Local superintendents are
betting that losing teachers
won’t be necessary; certainly
not for this coming year.
“We have enough budgeted
to where we won’t be mak-
ing budget cuts,” said Joseph
Charter School Superintendent
Rhonda Shirley. “We don’t
know yet how much this will
be costing us, we’ll probably
have that number by the end
of June.”
Enterprise’s Royse had
519 W. North St.
made a similar decision.
Enterprise,
OR 97828
“We’re guessing the impact
will be about $115,000,” he
Call 800-678-3155
said. “That won’t be an all-at-
for appointment
one-time hit, it’s going to be
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to plan and haven’t met with
board on this, yet. It won’t hit
us till 2017.”
Which doesn’t mean su-
perintendents are free from
the gamble nature of school
See Philip Ruud at
Wallowa Valley
Eye Care
(Dr. Baileys Office)
June 10th
“George gives me a schedule a
week or two ahead of time and
we cover for them,” Rogers
said. “These guys (various law
enforcement agencies) cover
each other all the time on emer-
gency.”
Nevertheless, “It’s been pret-
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City Administrator Michele
Young. “They’ve been holding
up and doing a great job. The
council has nothing but praise
for them and the work they’ve
been doing.”
Praise, and overtime, will
have to do for some time to
come. The council expects to
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examine the preliminary docu-
ment produced by the agency
review team from the Oregon
Association Chiefs of Police
(OACP), Young said.
That document was submit-
ted in mid-May and city council
intends to work on the issue in
the coming weeks. OACP team
leader Chief Stuart Roberts of
Pendleton continues to commu-
nicate with the city, providing
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ment is still in the works.
The council has made some
progress since receiving the
preliminary report — following
through on a recommendation to
get a job description for a chief
written up and submitted to law
enforcement publications. It has
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that used to hire former chief
Wes Kilgore, Young said.
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