The
Blue Mountain
EASTER EGG HUNTS
A list of where to find them – PAGE A3
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W EDNESDAY , M ARCH 23, 2016
• N O . 12
• 18 P AGES • $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
DOJ
opens
case
against
Palmer
Amanda Peacher
Oregon Public Broadcasting
When Oregon State Po-
lice stopped Robert “La-
Voy” Finicum along a re-
mote stretch of Highway
395, the militant was des-
perate to reach one man.
“I’m going over to meet
with the sheriff in Grant
County,” Finicum yelled to
troopers during the Jan. 26
fatal traf¿ c stop, moments
before his
death. “You
can come
along with
us and talk
with us over
there.”
Finicum
Glenn
had reason
Palmer
to try and
reach Sher-
iff Glenn Palmer. Over his
four terms in of¿ ce, Palmer
has been outspoken about
what he sees as government
overreach. Palmer met with
some of the key ¿ gures of
the occupation over lunch in
John Day in January along
with a small group of local
residents, but said he didn’t
know three of the occupiers
would be there.
“It was unbeknownst to
me,” Palmer told the Blue
Mountain Eagle. “I was
asked to go to a meeting and
when I got there realized
who they were.”
“He showed up just to
¿ nd out what was going on,”
said Jim Sproul, a friend and
supporter of Palmer’s. “As a
public servant, I really re-
spect that, because the man
goes to the source instead of
taking things second hand.”
But the fact that Palmer
even met with some of the
occupiers has drawn criti-
cism.
“His law enforcement
leadership is lacking,” said
Gordon Larson, retired area
commander for Oregon
State Police. “You need to
be careful of who you asso-
ciate yourself with. You’re
always going to be viewed
with the company you
keep.”
Larson believes that kind
of association with a law en-
forcement of¿ cial, explicit
or not, can lend credence to
a group.
“When you lend cre-
dence to somebody, that em-
Cousins enjoy once-in-a-lifetime adventure to the Holy Land
%\&KHU\O+RHÀHU
Blue Mountain Eagle
recent excursion to the Holy Land
brought the Bible to life for cousins Jo-
siah and Nathanael Martin.
Josiah, of Mt. Vernon, and Na-
thanael, of Sheridan, spent 10 days
last November with a group from Pilgrim
Tours exploring and experiencing more than
a dozen historical and archaeological loca-
tions in Jordan and Israel.
Their itinerary included such cities as
Amman, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Masa-
da, and several locales: Mt. Nebo, Caesarea,
the Mount of Beatitudes, the Jordan River,
the Mount of Olives, the Western Wall, the
Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and the Garden
of Gethsemane.
Both agreed their adventure was like
“opening the Bible and stepping inside.”
The pair were also in agreement about
one of their most memorable experiences
there — a sunset boat ride on the Sea of
Galilee, on a replica boat that was used in
Jesus Christ’s time.
Nathanael said they embarked on a Fri-
day evening just as the sun was setting and
the holy day of Shabat began.
“The evening was absolutely perfect,
clear and calm as we glided across the sea,”
he said. “It’s impossible to express how
meaningful it was.”
Josiah was struck by “seeing the very
water Jesus had walked on, and to see and
walk on the shore and hillsides where Jesus
performed the majority of his miracles.”
They stayed for three nights right on the
Sea of Galilee in a kibbutz hotel, a kind of
communal village, Nathanael said, which
was his favorite part of the trip.
“Josiah and I sat for a couple of hours by
the sea just reading all the different stories
of Jesus’ life on and around the Sea of Gal-
ilee,” he said.
Throughout the journey, they soaked up
the history, culture, people and food of the
region.
“Everywhere you look, there was some-
thing that had some kind of Biblical histo-
ry,” Josiah said. “We were traveling in one
of the oldest recorded populated areas in the
world.”
Every sight and every locale they visited
See TRIP, Page A18
Contributed photos
One of the most memorable experiences for cousins Nathanael, left, and
Josiah Martin during their Holy Land trip in November 2015 was a sunset boat
ride on the Sea of Galilee.
The Mount of Olives was among the
long list of sights Josiah and Nathanael
Martin visited.
Cousins Josiah, left, and
Nathanael Martin at Petra, an
archaeological city in Jordan
during their 10-day trip to the Holy
Land last November.
Nathanael, left, and Josiah Martin
astride a camel ride in the Holy Land.
They visited Amman, Jerusalem,
Bethlehem, Masada, the Dead Sea and
the Garden of Gethsemane.
See PALMER, Page A6
Blue Mountain Hospital parts ways with CEO
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
The CEO Blue Mountain
Hospital hired about nine
months ago no longer works
for the hospital’s manage-
ment company.
Amy Kreger, chair of the
hospital’s Board of Direc-
tors, said Randall Mee is no
longer the top executive.
“After careful consider-
ation, Health TechS3 Man-
agement Services found it
appropriate to move into
another direction in regards
to the CEO,” she read from
a prepared statement. “Kar-
in White, Chief Clinical
Officer, at BMH will be the
acting CEO until an inter-
im arrives. At that time, we
will begin the formal selec-
tion for a permanent CEO.”
Kreger said Mee was
technically an employee
of Health TechS3 Manage-
ment Services, a company
the hospital contracts with
for managerial services.
She said it was not a hos-
pital board decision, and
she declined to comment
further.
Mike Lieb, regional
vice president for Health
TechS3, said Mee is no lon-
ger a Health TechS3 em-
ployee. He said he could
not comment further about
personnel issues.
Mee began the job June
15, 2015, succeeding Bob
Houser, who retired after 15
years with the district. Mee
had been involved in health
care for 40 years, working in
administration for 25 years.
He was president and CEO
at St. Anthony’s Hospital
in Pendleton from 2008-11
and was an administrator at
Cottage Grove Community
Hospital before that.
Mee could not be reached
for comment.
Lieb said several rumors
circulating on the Inter-
net about the hospital af-
ter Mee’s departure were
untrue. He said the hos-
pital is not being sued or
sold.
“There are no active law-
suits against BMH or its
employees,” he said. “BMH
is not in the process of sell-
ing at all.”
File photo
Former Blue Mountain Hospital CEO Randall Mee,
pictured here at his desk in January, is no longer
the top executive. A vice president for Health
TechS3 Management Services, which provides
managerial services for the hospital, said Mee is no
longer an employee of the company.