A8
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
BMCC to get Amazon money
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HEPPNER — Blue Mountain Community
College’s share of an $11 million Amazon gift
should go forward as originally planned, follow-
ing a meeting of the Morrow County Board of
Commissioners.
Commissioners reached the decision
in a meeting Wednesday, May 25, voting
3-0 for the college to receive the $627,517
share.
“We appreciate your eff orts,” Morrow
County Commissioner Melissa Lindsay
said to BMCC President Mark Browning
after the vote, as she expressed her sat-
Browning
isfaction with his work and the college’s
place in the region.
Browning was present at the meeting.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Dr. Jack Root feeds a tube into a horse’s nose. Riley Erickson, right, veterinary assistant,
helps.
Vet inspires next generation
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
NEWBERG — In his cramped offi ce
inside a horse barn, Dr. Jack Root, owner of
Oakhurst Equine Veterinary Services in New-
berg, was scratching out a drawing.
His client, Jean Marie Marsh, leaned in,
watching the veterinarian sketch a horse’s
spine. As he drew, Root described to Marsh
how he would perform incisions on her horse
for a procedure called “kissing spine sur-
gery,” intended to correct “kissing,” or over-
lapping, spinal vertebrae.
Root, 68, has performed more than 100 of
these surgeries using a technique and surgi-
cal tools he invented. Compared to traditional
kissing spine surgery, Root’s method is gen-
tler and less expensive.
“He is one of the few vets in the nation
that has this down,” said Marsh.
Root is widely considered to be an inno-
vator in his fi eld, and his work has created rip-
ple eff ects in farming communities across the
Northwest. Root is a farmer, expert horseman
and accomplished equine veterinarian whose
legacy includes inventing new surgical meth-
ods, treating lameness, developing famed
genetic lines and training the next generation
of large-animal veterinarians.
On the morning the Capital Press vis-
ited, Root’s schedule was packed: collecting
semen from a stallion to ship to Texas; treat-
ing a horse with a blocked intestine; checking
the health of a day-old foal; and between vet-
erinary tasks, feeding farm animals.
“Ehhh — Monday mornings,” he said.
He shook his head and chuckled.
Outside veterinary work, Root and his
wife, Cookie, run a working farm with cattle
and pigs on 147 acres in Newberg that they
bought in 1996.
“This is both a veterinary practice and
Lindsay’s impression of recent meetings, calling
them “very productive.”
“There is an opportunity to move some things
forward here, specifi cally for Morrow County and
the industries that serve Morrow County,” Brown-
ing said.
In addition, he expressed his appreciation, say-
ing “thank you,” specifi cally to Lindsay,
whom he called “gracious.”
Suspending the funds
a working farm. I love that about it,” said
Cookie Root.
Horses, however, are Jack Root’s favor-
ite animal — he has 35 of them. Root even
kept two Kentucky Derby winners as studs
at Oakhurst: Giacomo, the 2005 winner, and
Grindstone, the 1996 winner, who died in
March.
Root’s love for horses started when he got
his fi rst horse at age 6. By age 9, he knew he
wanted to be a vet.
He was captivated by race horses since
early childhood and got his fi rst Thorough-
bred broodmare while an undergraduate at
Oregon State University.
Root studied veterinary medicine at Iowa
State University, interned with equine veteri-
narians around the U.S., then returned to Ore-
gon, where he set up a practice in 1979.
Today, Root’s passion includes training
young large-animal veterinarians.
“There are fewer and fewer people doing
large-animal practice,” he said.
Root has seven veterinarians on staff at
Oakhurst. They help one another and draw
from Root’s wealth of knowledge.
One of the biggest challenges rural veter-
inarians face, Root said, is lack of work-life
balance. To combat burnout, Root has his vet-
erinarians take turns with emergency shifts.
Root said he knows that’s not possible for
everyone, but he encourages even solo vets
in rural regions to connect with other nearby
vets and form partnerships, covering each
other’s emergency shifts.
Root told the Capital Press that he has a
neurological autoimmune disease that almost
took his life at one point, but he survived
and was able to continue teaching young
veterinarians.
“I think God sent me back from the edge
of death to make these young people into
vets, so that’s what I’m trying to do,” he said.
Commissioners show support
In being part of the unanimous vote
to give BMCC its due, Russell voiced his
stance.
“I felt like we should have given the
funds to Blue Mountain all the time,” he
said.
He added he was happy to see this
happening now along with a “change in
thought process.”
Lindsay answered that this was not a
“change in thought process,” but a conver-
sation that parties were glad to have
With his vote, Doherty, who serves as
the board’s chair, spoke of someone at
BMCC who aff ected him.
The commissioner said he talked with
Paul Davis, who for 30 years taught animal
science courses at BMCC and is a strong
supporter of the college. Doherty said has
spoken of his support for the college in the
past and he expressed happiness at being
able to support it now.
In a meeting April 20, Morrow County
commissioners decided 2-1 to not give the
money to Blue Mountain, holding off until
Doherty
they were comfortable that the money to
the Pendleton-based community college
would benefi t Morrow County.
Lindsay, in particular, said she wanted
to know the money would help fund the
Workforce Training Center in Boardman.
Commissioner Jim Doherty agreed
with Lindsay, voting with her to suspend
the funds until further meetings with the
Russell
college.
‘It’s an exciting time’
Meanwhile, Commissioner Don Rus-
Leaving the meeting, Browning stated
sell called the suspension an overreach, as
the school is “on the right track, and that
he said BMCC had its own board of direc-
positivity continued the following day.
tors, which was charged to oversee funds
“I’m super appreciative of the commis-
and spend money where it “benefi ts the
sioners, especially Commissioner Lind-
most people.” Being a board comprised of
say, to continue talking and listening, and
elected members, the college board should
Lindsay
working with us to fi nd some solutions that
be allowed to make these decisions with-
out interference, Russell said at the time. As such, really can help move our eff orts in Morrow County
forward,” he said.
he voted against the other two commissioners.
Browning added there is a need to train staff s
Crucial coff ee meeting
from Boardman-area employers. Such work can be
In the time between the two board of commis- done at BMCC’s Workforce Development Center
sioner meetings, Lindsay said “deeper conversa- in Boardman, he said, and he committed to doing
tions” took place between her, Blue Mountain and more of that going forward.
“It’s an exciting time not only for Morrow
local industry.
One meeting in particular was especially pro- County but for Blue Mountain Community Col-
ductive. Lindsay said she and Browning met lege,” he said, “and we’re very grateful.”
The college also remains in the midst of a seri-
together over coff ee, and she gained a great appre-
ous dispute between Browning and the Blue Moun-
ciation for the “big tasks” at the college.
And in that meeting, she said, Browning tain Faculty Association over his proposal to slash
teaching jobs and programs. Browning contends
expressed his commitment to Morrow County.
Another meeting followed, taking place a week the cuts are necessary to close a $2 million bud-
before the recent commissioner board meeting. At get gap the college faces in the upcoming 2022-23
that time, she said, she business leaders and repre- budget. The faculty association claims Browning
sentatives from Blue Mountain discussed what was is running a snow job and there is no need to slash
and wasn’t working at the college since the start of instruction.
The full college board of education meets again
the pandemic.
At the May 25 board meeting, Browning echoed to consider the budget proposal on June 1.
Bend student veteran designs app to help prevent veteran suicides
BEND — Clay Webster, a
U.S. Marine Corps veteran, sat
in his truck outside the Bend
Municipal Airport on March 10,
reading through the Facebook
post that began: “FINAL CRY
FOR HELP.”
The 23-year-old student vet-
eran at Central Oregon Commu-
nity College scrolled with grow-
ing sadness as he took in the
story of yet another veteran at the
brink of suicide. The post, written
by Steven Osborne, a 32-year-
old Marine Corps veteran who
served four years in Afghanistan,
described the “internal pain, sor-
row and depression” that looms
over many veterans post-combat.
The post read: “I hope now
with this letter, it will send a mes-
sage to the (U.S. Department of
Veterans Aff airs). And not just
another forgotten letter that the
VA hides in it’s closet full of dead
souls from those who served
proudly but came home broken
like me, asking for help but had
the door slammed in their face …
They pushed me to this level.”
Webster had never met
Osborne before he died by sui-
cide that day. But to him, this was
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a story that was all too familiar.
In 2016, his high school friend
Grant Hodge had died by sui-
cide while also serving as a radio
operator in the Marines. “At
the time, it seemed like a freak
accident, but as you go through
enlistment, you see that it hap-
pened more and more to diff er-
ent people in diff erent areas,” he
said.
Webster wanted to fi nd a solu-
tion. His hint came in the com-
ments below Osborne’s Face-
book post, which veterans had
fi lled with their names and phone
numbers, in case another veteran
needed someone to talk to. Web-
ster, however, knew someone in
the throes of crisis would need a
quicker, easier way to seek help
and likely wouldn’t think to log
on to social media.
That’s how Webster got the
idea of an app he is building for
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Clay Webster, a U.S. Marine
Corps veteran, wears a brace-
let in memory of a friend and
fellow veteran who took his
own life.
veterans needing help while con-
templating suicide. The free app,
called LifeLine Find, allows vet-
erans to type in their ZIP code
and search for other veterans in
their area who can counsel them
in a time of need, providing a
path past the red tape that often
impedes the process of getting
help.
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story out there that this is some-
thing that could have been pre-
vented,” he said. “It’s a story that
is all too common.”
The app, Webster said, will
be available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, which Web-
ster stresses is essential because
too often mental health crises
spurred by trauma occur outside
the normal working hours that
mental health facilities are open.
He said veterans will even be
able to use a fi lter to fi nd people
of certain branches of the armed
forces. He plans to launch the
app next month, he said.
Webster is quick to describe
the statistics behind what he sees
as a stigmatized problem that
can lead to tragedy among ser-
vice members. Department of
Defense data show suicide rates
among active-duty service mem-
bers increased by more than 40%
from 2015 to 2020, as reported
by the New York Times.
In all, 30,177 active-duty mil-
itary personnel and veterans who
have served since the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorism attacks have died
by suicide, according to a Brown
University study. That’s more
than four times as high as service
members killed in combat during
that time period, the study found.
Webster said he believes
mental health issues among ser-
vice members often go uncared
for “more than any place.”
“The stigma around it is that
it’s a sign of weakness, which
it’s not,” he said. “But that’s the
way that a lot of people view it.
It’s hard for them to seek help
because they don’t want to be
viewed as someone who needs
it.”
Osborne’s death inspired
Webster to build this app to
help other struggling veterans.
He said he received approval
from Osborne’s fi ancee to fea-
ture the Marine’s story in its
advertisements.
When he created a
GoFundMe to raise money
to build the app, Webster said
Osborne’s fi ancee was the fi rst
person to donate. So far, he has
raised about $700, and the rest
of the funds for the app Webster
is paying out of pocket.
Webster served as a Marine
in Japan, Thailand and in South
Korea during then-President
Donald Trump’s summit with
Kim Jong Un in 2018. Born
and raised in a small town in
Southern Illinois, he attends
COCC’s aviation program with
the hopes of being a helicopter
pilot.
Webster clarifi ed that, at
this point, although the app is
intended for veterans, anyone
who either needs help or wants
to help others can use it.
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