A6
FROM PAGE A1
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Hospital: Wallowa Memorial Hospital wins 2018 Women’s Choice award
Continued from Page A1
Other awards came the
hospital’s way, including the
2018 Excellence in Patient
Satisfaction, which is based
on patient survey after-
care. The hospital also won
the 2018 Women’s Choice
award as well. That award
is also based on patient
surveys.
“I’m not sure where the
men are at, but we’ll keep
working on them,” Davy
said with a laugh.
The CEO noted that
rural American hospitals
face increasing economic
challenges and many have
closed over the last decade.
National groups that assess
fi nancial strength of rural
hospitals noted that about
600 of the remaining 1,300
or so hospitals are in tight
fi nancial situations. Davy is
aware that Wallowa Memo-
rial Hospital has to remain
fi nancially strong to keep
offering excellent service.
To that end, he was
pleased to see the hospital
operate at a profi t in 2018.
“It seemed impossible,
but we pulled it off,” Davy
said.
In 2014, the hospital was
in $19 million of debt due to
the construction of the hos-
pital and clinic. The debt is
already paid down to $11
million and is expected to be
half that by 2022.
“The best thing we can
do for the next generation is
to hand them quality infra-
structure and services with-
out a debt load,” he said.
The
hospital
also
strengthened services by
offering access to an ortho-
pedic surgeon, a podia-
trist and an eye surgeon.
Although the physicians are
employed elsewhere as well,
it offers local residents the
chance for treatment without
driving long distances.
Also a big winner for the
hospital: Changing man-
agement of Wallowa Valley
Senior Living, the hospital’s
assisted living facility.
Vitalita took over man-
agement July 1 and made
immediate improvements,
particularly in operation
costs, said Davy.
“Vitalita and Lisa Hilty
(the company’s owner and
president) has done an
amazing job with that,”
Davy said. “She has cut the
losses signifi cantly.”
In the six months since
Vitalita entered the picture,
the hospital has paid about
$50,000, compared to the
usual $200,000-$250,000
per year the hospital used to
shell out for the facility.
“That’s a big positive for
us,” Davy said.
The hospital is on track
to essentially give away
$1 million in health care to
those without insurance or
other means to pay.
“Our goal is to make
sure no one is turned away,”
Davy said. “A million dol-
lars is a lot of money to a
small hospital.”
He also lauded the Chief
Joseph Days Rodeo for
donating each year to ensure
that every woman in Wal-
lowa County can obtain a
mammogram, regardless of
ability to pay.
Donations
via
the
Healthy Futures Dinner
Auction helped the hospital
to purchase a state-of-the-art
ultrasound machine as well.
“We had a lot going on in
2018,” Davy said.
Wolf plan: Ranchers, environmental groups still at odds over wolf management
Continued from Page A1
advocates formed by Gov.
Kate Brown to update the
state’s management plan
after an initial draft plan
was rejected in 2017. The
state is supposed to update
its plan every fi ve years to
account for changing wolf
population numbers but is
four years overdue with a
revision.
The
environmen-
tal groups Oregon Wild,
Defenders of Wildlife, Cas-
cadia Wildlands and the
Center for Biological Diver-
sity said in a Jan. 4 letter
to Brown that the fi sh and
wildlife agency has rejected
their suggestions for man-
aging wolf-livestock con-
fl ict as too expensive or two
diffi cult.
A key sticking point for
the conservation groups is
a plan provision that would
allow the state or deputized
private citizens — likely
ranchers affected by live-
stock attacks — to kill cul-
prit wolves after two docu-
mented attacks on livestock
herds by the same wolf pack,
said Nick Cady, legal direc-
tor for Cascadia Wildlands.
The groups are particu-
larly unnerved by a provi-
sion that would allow the
deputized citizens to keep
wolf pelts, said Cady, who
called the idea a “trophy
hunt.”
“With a population of
wolves that’s 120 animals
statewide, that’s a ridicu-
lous, ridiculous proposal,”
he said in an interview.
The groups also feel the
state agency’s plan favors
hunters, who contend more
wolves mean fewer deer for
them to hunt.
‘I DON’T THINK ANYBODY CAN
EXPECT TO GET EVERYTHING
YOU WANT, AND SO TO PICK
UP YOUR MARBLES AND SAY,
‘I’M GOING HOME BECAUSE
I’M NOT GETTING MY WAY’ IS A
LITTLE BIT UNPROFESSIONAL.’
Rodger Huffman, a small-scale rancher in Union County
Ranchers reacted to the
news with surprise and
disappointment.
Rodger Huffman, a
small-scale rancher in
Union County, said wolf
numbers have risen so dra-
matically in recent years
that it’s no longer useful to
focus on conservation. The
population now needs to be
managed to minimize dam-
age to livestock, he said.
T HE B OOKLOFT
“There’s a huge cost,
there’s a toll there,” said
Huffman, who’s negotiating
for the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association.
“I don’t think anybody
can expect to get everything
you want, and so to pick up
your marbles and say, ‘I’m
going home because I’m
not getting my way’ is a lit-
tle bit unprofessional,” he
said.
Confl ict between ranch-
ers and wolves has grown
sharply in recent years as
the species makes a come-
back after being wiped out
by a bounty-hunting pro-
gram more than 70 years
ago.
Wolves were reintro-
duced to central Idaho in
the mid-1990s and in 1999,
a lone wolf wandered into
northeastern Oregon. It
was trapped and returned to
Idaho.
Two more were found
dead in Oregon in 2000.
But the fi rst defi nitive proof
wolves had returned to the
Oregon came in 2007, when
a wolf was found shot to
death. The following year, a
wolf nicknamed Sophie by
conservationists gave birth
to the fi rst litter of pups
born in Oregon in decades.
Most Oregon wolves
live in remote northeast-
ern areas where cattle, lla-
mas, sheep and goats graze
on private land and in fed-
erally managed forests and
grassland. Ranchers often
use range riders, fl ashing
lights, remote cameras and
AND
Skylight Gallery
Finding books is our specialty
541.426.3351 • 107 E. Main • Enterprise • www.bookloftoregon.com
Church
Directory
Church of Christ
Grace Lutheran
Church
502 W. 2nd Street • Wallowa
541-398-2509
409 West Main -Enterprise
Worship at 11 a.m.
Mid-week
Bible Study 7 p.m.
St. Katherine’s
Catholic Church
Fr. Thomas Puduppulliparamban
301 E. Garfield Enterprise
Mass Schedule
Sundays:
St. Pius X, Wallowa - 8:00 am
St. Katherine of Siena, Enterprise 10:30am
Saturdays:
St Katherine of Siena, Enterprise 5:30am
Weekday:
St. Katherine of Siena, Enterprise – 8:00am
(Monday – Thursday and First Friday)
fl uttering devices on miles
of fence line to keep wolves
at bay — sometimes with
little success.
Several packs have also
established themselves in
the forests of rural south-
western
Oregon,
near
the
California
border,
where they have attacked
livestock.
The species lost its
endangered status under
Oregon law in 2015 —
when the state’s population
hit 81 wolves — and is no
longer federally protected in
the eastern third of the state.
As of April 2018, there
were at least 124 wolves
in Oregon. There were 12
known wolf packs and nine
more groups of two or three
wolves that are not consid-
ered packs were noted.
In 2017, two wolves were
captured by remote camera
in Mt. Hood National For-
est, a popular recreational
destination for hiking and
skiing about an hour east of
Portland.
It was the fi rst time mul-
tiple wolves were docu-
mented in Oregon’s north-
ern Cascade Mountain
range since they returned to
the state.
Time for a Computer Tuneup?
Spyware Removal • 541-426-0108
103 SW 1st St., Enterprise
SUNDAY WORSHIP
at 9 AM
12:30 Guest Pastor
Colin Brown
phone (message): 541-426-4633
web: gracelutheranenterprise.com
A Non-Profi t Community Health Center
St. Patrick’s
Episcopal Church
100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise
NE 3rd & Main St
541-426-3439
Worship Service
Sunday 9:30am
All are welcome
CLUES ACROSS
1. Icy rain
6. Gas guzzler
9. Choose
12. Fast dance
13. Summer drink
14. Muck
15. More qualified
16. Spoil
17. Liquor from molasses
18. Lyric poem
20. Bakery workers
22. Reduce in rank
26. Baltic or Bering
27. Hymn finisher
28. Large snake
30. Soft lump
34. Small coin
35. Leather punch
36. Volcano flow
37. Put on cargo
38. All the ____ in China
39. Historic ages
40. Gibbon or gorilla
42. Confuse
44. Plastic material
47. Bro or sis
48. Lennon’s mate
49. To the back, matey
51. Aquatic animal
56. No ____, ands, or buts
57. Ill-humor
58. Mindful
59. Bambi’s mom
60. Here and ____
61. ____ down (softened)
CLUES DOWN
1. Resort, of a sort
2. High tennis shot
3. Wing of a building
4. ____ out (barely make)
5. Fortuneteller’s card
6. Protection
7. Hubbub
8. Fasten again
9. Grimm monster
10. Rain hard
11. Male turkeys
19. Speakers’ contest
21. Sent a telegram
22. Papas
23. Give forth
24. Note
25. Type of street
26. Delicatessen item
29. Be in debt
31. Hog fat
32. Track shape
33. Low
41. Simple
43. WWII craft
44. Bare
45. Data
46. Schnoz
47. Hearty soup
50. To and ____
52. 1 + 1
53. Sun-bronzed
54. Browning’s before
55. Primary color
OHSU Resident
Joseph United
Methodist Church
Summit Church
3rd & Lake St. • Joseph
Pastor Cherie Dearth
Phone: 541-432-3102
Sunday Worship Service
10:00 am
Gospel Centered Community
Service time: 10:30 am
Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise
541-426-2150
Interim Pastor: Rich Hagenbaugh
JosephUMC.org
John Mitchell
January 1 – February 7
Hours:
Monday-Friday
7:00am to 7:00pm
Saturday
9:00am to 1:00pm
603 Medical Parkway
Enterprise, OR 97828
www.summitchurchoregon.org
Enterprise
Christian Church
Christ Covenant
Church
85035 Joseph Hwy • (541) 426-3449
Pastor Terry Tollefson
Worship at 9 a.m.
Sunday School at 10:30 a.m.
Evening Worship at 6 p.m.
(nursery at A.M. services)
Family Prayer: 9:30 AM
Sunday School: 10 AM
Worship Service: 11 AM
“Loving God & One Another”
David Bruce, Sr. - Minister
723 College Street
Lostine
Lostine
Presbyterian Church
Enterprise Community
Congregational Church
Discussion Group 9:30 AM
Worship Service 11:00 AM
The Big Brown Church
Childrens program during service
Blog: dancingforth.blogspot.com
541.398.0597
Hwy 82, Lostine
Stephen Kliewer, Minister
Wallowa
Assembly
of God
606 West Hwy 82
Wallowa, Oregon
541-886-8445
Sunday School • 9:30
Worship Service • 10:45
Pastor Tim Barton
wallowaassemblyofgod.com
with an open door
Pastor Archie Hook
Sunday Worship 11am
Bible Study 9:30am
Ark Angels Children’s Program
Ages 4-6th grade, 11am
Nursery for children 3 & under
MEDICARE?
still
I’m here!
Call
Kathleen
301 NE First St. • Enterprise, OR
Find us on Facebook! 541.426.3044
Seventh-Day Adventist
Church & School
305 Wagner (near the Cemetery)
P.O. Box N. Enterprise, OR 97828
541-426-3751 Church
541-426-8339 School
Worship Services
616 W. North Street, Enterprise, Oregon
Sabbath School 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Worship Hour 11:00 a.m. - Noon
Pastor Jonathan DeWeber
541-426-4208