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Enterprise, Oregon
Wallowa.com
135th Year, No. 9
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
$1
‘MY FAMILY’S LIVING IN A 5TH-WHEEL RIGHT NOW WHILE WE’RE BUILDING.
THAT TAKES PRIORITY OVER ANY OTHER PROJECT.’
Andy McKee, contractor and property owner
McKee readies for
Litch Building overhaul
Ellen Morris Bishop
Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
CEO and Administrator Larry Davy, has guided
Wallowa Memorial Hospital to a ranking in
the 100 top Critical Access Hospitals in the
nation for the third straight year.
A
ndy McKee, the sometimes controversial contractor and property owner is ready to begin the ren-
ovation of the Litch Building, located at the corner of West Main and River Streets. McKee and
his brother, Todd, bought the property in 2017. ¶ Some citizens have voiced complaints that the
McKees, who are working on a number of Wallowa County projects, have overextended themselves and
couldn’t aff ord to complete the project. ¶ Not true, according to McKee. In fact he recently received
a matching funds Main Street Grant through Oregon’s State Historic Preservation Off ice, to the tune of
$200,000.
Hospital in top
100 (again)
By Ellen Morris Bishop
Wallowa County Chieftain
See Litch Building, Page A7
Wallowa Memorial Hospital has been
ranked among the top 100 critical access
hospitals of the 5,000 critical access hospi-
tals in the U.S. according to the annual rank-
ings of the Chartis Center for Rural Hospi-
tals. The results of the survey were published
in Modern Health Care, a weekly magazine
that covers business news for the health care
industry. St. Alphonsus Hospital in Baker
City was the only other Oregon hospital to
be recognized in the rankings. “It’s kind of
nice to be reassured that Wallowa County is
a good place to work, a good place to live,”
said hospital CEO and Administrator Larry
Davy.
The Wallowa Memorial Hospital has been
ranked 6th in the nation as a critical access
hospital for the past two years. In Septem-
ber, they’ll fi nd out exactly where they are in
the 2019 rankings.
A Critical Access hospital is a designa-
tion by the Centers for Medicare and Med-
icaid Services under the Medicare Rural
Hospital Flexibility Program to ensure that
people living in very rural areas are able to
access hospital services. They must provide
24-hour emergency care services seven days
a week, and meet specifi c on-site response
timeframes for on-call staff.
According to the Chartis Center for Rural
Hospitals, institutions in the top 100 crit-
ical access hospitals cultivate unique cul-
tures that encourage excellent commu-
nication among employees and between
physicians and patients, along with provid-
ing high-quality health care and safety at a
lower cost. The Chartis Center notes that the
top facilities had high-performing leaders
who help assure excellence and effi ciency
throughout the organization.
But Davy has a different idea. “You can’t
earn that award just through management or
leadership. The quality of work comes from
the employees, staff, and physicians that we
have, and who are doing a phenomenal job.
It’s a big family,” he said.
Communication among his staff is really
important to Davy.
“We’ve worked really hard on making
sure everybody in the group knows what’s
going on. We really value the input and sug-
gestions of employees. They have some of
the best and most innovative ideas.”
See Hospital, Page A7
The Litch Building, at the corner of River and Main Streets in Enterprise, was built originally in 1903, and is undergoing remodeling
by Andy McKee.
Work begins on Wallowa Mountain Loop Road
Will be completed
in November
By Ellen Morris Bishop
Wallowa County Chieftain
Road construction on the
$8 million dollar Wallowa
Mountain Loop Road Proj-
ect is scheduled to begin
June 17, 2019. Construc-
tion should be completed
by November 13, 2019. The
project starts at the intersec-
tion of the Wallowa Moun-
tain Loop Road and the
Joseph-Imnaha
Highway
(OR 350), and continues
fi ve miles south to the USFS
Wallowa Whitman National
Forest boundary. The proj-
ect is funded mostly by the
Federal Lands Access Pro-
gram (FLAP), with addi-
tional contributions from the
Oregon Watershed Enhance-
ment Board (OWEB). Wal-
lowa County is contributing
10.27 percent of the total 8
million dollar budget, Com-
missioner Susan Roberts
said.
Perhaps the most import-
ant component of the project
is construction of a new sin-
gle-span bridge over Sheep
Creek and realignment of the
highways’ intersection. The
work will transform the pres-
ent severely-angled intersec-
tion into a safer and more
conventional “T” intersec-
tion, including a right-hand
turn lane as you approach
the intersection from Joseph.
The bridge will replace three
culverts that are an imped-
iment to fi sh passage, and
is partly funded by a grant
from OWEB. Completing
the bridge in a timely man-
ner is a an important goal of
the project.
Roberts said that the con-
tractor, High Desert Aggre-
gate, was chosen because
they met all the criteria
placed on the project by the
funder, FLAP. “The road will
stay pretty much in its pres-
ent footprint,” Roberts said.
“The contractor will grind
off the asphalt, and then
resurface it where it is now.
There might be new guard
rails and other improve-
ments, but it will not make
the road wider or change its
alignment.” It will certainly
make it smoother, she added.
The project is adminis-
tered by the Federal High-
way Administration, Van-
couver, Washington. The
contractor is High Desert
Aggregate and Paving, Ter-
rebonne, Oregon.
Roberts noted that there
are several other road proj-
ects slated for this summer
in Wallowa County. They
include resurfacing High-
way 82 between Joseph and
Enterprise, Reconstruction
of the Zumwalt Road to the
Forest Service boundary,
and of course the realign-
ment of the highway along
the Minam Grade. “The
Zumwalt Road will be given
a new gravel surface,” Rob-
erts said. “When it was built,
it was planned to be a paved
road. but that never hap-
pened. The roadbed now
doesn’t have much in the
way of fi ne particles to hold
the larger pieces of gravel
together. So the gravel just
spreads out to the sides of
the road.” The Zumwalt
Road contractor is already
on-site, and may begin work
as early as next week.