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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2022)
WEDNESDAY • July 13, 2022 Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50 READY FOR THE CHASE Portland-trained steeplechaser set for 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Sports A5 St. Charles Health System CEO Sluka steps down BY SUZANNE ROIG The Bulletin After eight years at the helm of Central Oregon’s four-hospital health system, Joe Sluka said he will step down as president and CEO. Sluka cited the challenges of the pandemic and the financial fallout from that effort at St. Charles Health System as reasons for stepping down. “I am so proud of this organization and the more than 4,500 employees who put their hearts into caring for our community every single day,” Sluka said in a prepared statement. “This is a very difficult decision. I feel it is time for me to step aside, recharge and provide the opportunity for new operational leaders to guide St. Charles forward.” St. Charles Health System ended the first quarter of the year at an operating loss of $17.2 million, ac- cording to the hospital. The losses have been attributed to caring for the community, at or near full ca- pacity over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, the hospital often paid wages that were three times higher than normal. And, during the early days of the pandemic, the hospital can- celed many private-pay surgeries that contribute to the hospital’s profit- ability. Earlier this year the hospital system laid off 105 nonclinical staff members and eliminated 76 vacant positions as a way to offset the losses. It also instituted other cost-cutting measures to stem financial losses. See Sluka / A4 Bird flu found in Bend Quarantine issued for surrounding area Bulletin staff report Bird flu has been reported in Bend. The Oregon Department of Agriculture and the U.S. De- partment of Agriculture con- firmed the state’s fifth case of highly pathogenic avian influ- enza, or bird flu, in Deschutes County, and has called for a regional quarantine of birds in Bend and the surrounding area. The disease was detected in a noncommercial flock affect- ing about 30 chickens and 40 ducks and geese, the Oregon Department of Agriculture said in a news release Tuesday. The quarantine includes the city of Bend and much of the outlying area. See Bird flu / A12 Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin Personnel from Bend Fire & Rescue, Deschutes County Search and Rescue and others conduct joint water-rescue training Tuesday at the low-head dam near Pioneer Park on the Deschutes River in Bend. CENTRAL OREGON SWIFT-WATER RESCUE State expands outreach to aging veterans Pioneer Park low-head dam poses unique danger BY GARRETT ANDREWS • The Bulletin J Sheriff’s Office’s Search and Rescue Team and volunteers and profession- als from Sisters and Redmond. In addition to swift-water rescue, the rescue teams conduct training throughout the year on rope rescues, working in confined spaces, on ice and in structural collapses. The De- schutes River in Bend being one of the region’s most popular — and af- fordable — attractions, it’s important for emergency workers to keep their skills honed, Boyd said. In the morning Tuesday, training focused on rescue techniques for foot entrapments in the river, a common rescue scenario. In the afternoon, Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin rescue personnel donned dry suits, tossed a tethered dummy in the rap- Rescue personnel pull a dummy aboard a raft during water-rescue training Tuesday on ids and used a raft to extract it. the Deschutes River. Low-head dams can be particularly hazardous because the way the See Rescue / A4 Program focuses on benefit education BY ANNA KAMINSKI The Bulletin Congress: “Be there, will be wild!” Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy said the tweet “served as a call to ac- tion and in some cases as a call to arms.” She said the president “called for backup” as he argued that Vice President Mike Pence and other Re- publicans didn’t have enough courage to try to block President Joe Biden’s win at the Jan. 6 joint session. Central Oregon is home to approximately 20,000 military veterans, over half of them above the age of 65. Many of these veterans either fail to utilize or underutilize govern- ment benefits. They often don’t know they qualify for them. The Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs hopes to change that. It announced on Monday that it is expanding a volunteer program to educate Oregon’s aging veterans about the availability of financial, health care and long-term care benefits. It is hosting a vol- unteer training on July 21 in Redmond. “We’re trying to reach out to the more rural areas and say, ‘Look. Everywhere is import- ant,’” said Mark Newell, the veteran volunteer coordinator for the department. See Jan. 6 / A12 See Veterans / A4 water circulates, it can easily trap someone underwater at the bottom. Jan 6. committee ‘Call to arms,’ ‘screaming,’ and a Trump tweet never sent Former president told repeatedly his election-fraud claims were false. He continued to push them anyway BY MARY CLARE JALONICK, NOMAAN MERCHANT AND FARNOUSH AMIRI Associated Press WASHINGTON — A presidential tweet that some saw as a “call to arms.” An “unhinged” meeting in the White House. Violent extremists planning to TODAY’S WEATHER storm the Capitol as President Don- ald Trump pushed lies about election fraud. At its seventh hearing, the House Jan. 6 panel on Tuesday showed fur- ther evidence that Trump was told, re- peatedly, that his claims of fraud were Mostly sunny High 90, Low 53 Page A12 INDEX Business Classifieds Comics A11 A13-14 A9-10 false — but that he continued to push them anyway. And at the same time, he turned to the widest possible audi- ence on Twitter, calling his supporters, some of them violent, to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, to not only protest but “be wild” as Congress certified Presi- dent Joe Biden’s victory. A major focus of the hearing was Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet about a “big protest” at the coming joint session of Dear Abby Editorial Horoscope A7 A8 A7 Local/State Lottery Puzzles A2-3 A6 A10 Sports Weather A5-7 A12 The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper We use recycled newsprint Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 1 sections DAILY ust downstream from Pioneer Park in Bend is a manmade feature interrupting the De- schutes River, a smooth and seem- ingly peaceful slope of water in this stretch. On Tuesday, rescue specialists from around the area conducted swift-water rescue training at the low-head dam near the park, an un- usual hazard in a river full of poten- tially deadly hazards. “If you look at it from upstream, it looks kind of innocuous,” said Brian Boyd, Bend Fire & Rescue’s special op- erations coordinator. “But it’s certainly a hazard. Fortunately, we don’t get a lot of floater traffic down in this section.” Taking part in the training Tuesday were Bend Fire & Rescue’s special op- erations team, the Deschutes County U|xaIICGHy02329lz[
