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
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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
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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
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