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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1978)
TWO The Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, July 27, 197H Hospital board, administrator deserves support There are those who will look at Monday night's public meeting on the hospital, tuck their chin, shake their head and say nothing was accomplished. There are those who will look at Monday night's public meeting on the hospital, shrug their shoulders and say 'who cares'. There are those who will look at Monday night's public meeting on the hospital and say that while not all the questions were answered some positive action was derived. Each of those persons have one thing in common, however. That is, the need for a hospital in the community. One doesn't need to look very far within his or her circle of family and friends to find someone that has used a hospital for one reason or another as a patient. We are of the last group mentioned. Those who feel that while not all the questions were answered some strong, positive points were made. To begin with, the public let the hospital board know that it wasn't happy with the dissention and appranet conflict between hospital employees and the administration. The result was a board promise to establish a grievance committee and to schedule a public meeting to be conducted under executive session rules for next Thursday. The public also let Hospital Administrator Bob Byrnes know that his public relations were less than they expected both in regards to patients and their families and hospital personnel. Responding to that Byrnes has made a promise to make daily rounds of the floor to establish a better relationship with his employees and patients. Another positive point brought out was the fact that the hospital is operating at less of a loss now than in the recent past figures that can be verified by audited budget documents. New employee performance data and management controls are being established to keep pace with rising costs standard business practices that any private business with 70 employees would use to keep from going broke. It was pointed out that in regards to the budget and the levy request voters are being asked to approve less money is required this year to cover operating losses than before. The remainder of the budget is for other needed items; $50,000 for capital improvements and basic equipment and $20,000 for recruiting new doctors for the hospital and community. Most of those in attendance Monday night supported the board decision to appropriate the money for doctor recruitment and understood the need for basic equipment in nearly all areas of the hospital. Another thing that came through between the lines was that now more than ever the community needs to rally to the support of the hospital. Without a hospital attracting doctors would be impossible and a hospital without an operating budget isn't very convincing to doctors that will be looking at the community. In that same light, those who would be satisfied with nothing less than Byrnes resignation should realize that attracting another administrator to a hospital without a budget and to a community without doctors would be quite a chore. And we feel, after inspection of hospital books, budget documents and personal converstations with those directly involved in hospital matters that Bob Byrnes is doing a credible job as administrator. While he lacks in public relations by some standards, he is a capable business manager with qualifications and a background that can be respected. Both the hospital board and Byrnes deserve the opportunity to turn things around at the hospital at this time when the hospital needs the combined efforts and support of the entire community. Picture Credit A shipment of 376 fat, medium and feeder lambs left the Terry Thompson ranch near Heppner fol lowing a successful confer ence call lamb sale, carried out by the Morrow County Extension office and the Northwest Livestock Produ cers Market. The lot future mutton sold lor 57 cents per pound to the C i& B feedlot operation at Hermiston. The sale was made via a telephone confer ence call hookup to regional buyers last week. Area sheep producers tak ing part in the sale included Terry Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Sperlich, Shirley Garrett, Peter Lennon, How ard Pettyjohn and Mitch Ashbeck. County Extension Agent John Nordheim was in charge of this year's sale. The Heppner GAZETTE-TIMES V7DE Sifting through the TIMES ft : A v i : L0 ,r' V I K - - iL t Z If IJ La ii A y Willow Creek headwaters must be saved Editor: Are we going to sit on our fat butts and let the headwaters of Willow Creek be logged and be destroyed by the Forest Service as is Rock Creek? Rock Creek, the best of the four live creeks in Morrow County is now the first to go dry in the spring and the last to flow in the fall. If Harlon McCurdy were alive today he could f tell of pitching salmon out of Rock Creek with a pitch fork and now a fish would get sun burned in June. ..This stream was logged by Parkers Mill and old man Wetmore in the 'teens and twenties and has lost its continuous flow ever since. Now comes Willow Creek. The west side of the Coalmine Hill is scheduled to be logged in 1981. The rest of the Hells Half Acre (the headwater of Willow Creek), was cut in two by the objection of one man, when the transfer of the Arbuckle Drive way from the County to the Forest Service was stopped and we lost 1900 acres out of this tract. We will surely lose a great part of our shallow wells if this tract is disturbed. The shattered structure of the mountain range from Arbuckle to Highway oiling job rapped Editor: The Oregon State Highway Dept should be very proud of their recent oiling job on Highway 207, west of Heppner. They have taken the best stretch of road in Morrow County and turned it into the worst. We have four vehicles in our family and we now have a 100 per cent record. Every one of them has a broken or chipped windshield. I don't feel too badly however, almost everyone I have talked to has the same broken or chipped windshields. Is it any wonder that the proposed gas tax increase failed, if this is the kind of repairs we can look for. If everyone would turn these windshields into their insurance company, imagine what it would do to our insurance rates. Right, we pay again. Monte Stookey Box 66 Heppner, Oregon EGAZETTE - TIME The Official Newspaper of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow Published every Thursday and entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Heppner, Oregon, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second-class postage paid at Heppner, Oregon. CM. Reed, Publisher Dolores Reed, Co-publisher Terry M. Hager, Managing Editor Rick Steelhammer, News Editor Eileen Saling, Officer Manager Gayle Rush, Composing Chloe Pearson, Composing Justine Weatherford , Local Columnist Ron Jordan, Printer Madison Butte is a great reservoir of our water and any banker knows you cannot continue to write checks without putting a little money in. Lets save this little tract of about 5,000 acres out of our 700,000 acres of timber, here in Morrow County. O.W. Cutsforth Fairview Drive Hospital revisions needed Editor: We appreciate the board's response to our request for the "Hospital Board public meeting 'to clear the air'," concerning the recent defeat of the hospital budget. We would also like to commend Terry Hager for a job well done as moderator. There are several things that came up at the meeting however that we feel need to be put in writing since the board sees fit not to keep any minutes. It was recommended that a grievance committee be formed to represent the employes of the hospital. This was a very good suggestion and we hope the board takes this into consideration, soon ! We think the general feelings of the people who attended this meeting were quite obvious that under the present administration there is a lack of public relations by the administrator in addition to a lack of communication between the administrator, the board of directors and the employes of Pioneer Memorial Hospital. It is very hard for us to believe that someone who has worked on a day to day basis with their employes for a year could state that they were unaware of the problem existing until this meeting. The Hospital Eoard Chairman Fred Martin replied on the July 20 issue of the Gazette-Times "We have some personnel problems that have been attributed to the administrator, whereas they are actually board policy decisions, but as the administrator, he carries them out." In our opinion unless there is a change in the administrator or if the board is going to accept the responsibilities, then a new board should be appointed or the budget will surely be defeated again. The people of Morrow County know what level of health care we want available and without doctors, nurses, aides and other competent and qualified employes we will not have it. Many good things were brought out in this meeting. The budget was well explained by Mr. Mills, and the duties of the present director of nurses, Karmon Bjella, were clarified and we feel that he has been unduly criticized. We want it understood that we are very much in favor of the hospital. We feel it is an important and necessary part of this community. However, if there are some revisions that need to be made, let's do it NOW!! Fifty years ago in Heppner, residents were trying to cope with an intensive heat wave. Mercury passed the 108-degree mark on Wednesday, July 25, 1928. It had been 106 on Tuesday, 102 on Monday and 100 on Sunday. ' Frank Gilliam, government weather recorder, stated that the 108 reading was the highest ever recorded in Heppner up til that time. Three members of a railroad work crew making repairs on tracks in the county collapsed from the heat, as did three men on a State Highway Department oiling crew working below lone. A Pilot Rock man driving along Willow Creek Road was overcome while changing a tire. Area farmers, however, were making hay while the sun shined, with an abundant second cutting of alfalfa being cured in record time. Prohibition laws resulted in the arrest of three Lexington men, who were attempting to cope with the heat by use of illegal refreshments. The Lexington trio was apprehended in a raid of a woodshed, which contained a large keg of homemade beer. The raid ruined a dance party that had been planned for thirsty Lexington residents that night late in July, 1928. Sixty years ago this week, Heppner serviceman Sid Hallock was enjoying shore leave in Hawaii. He reported that his first meal on shore consisted of turtle steak, "it tasted more like veal than anything I have eaten," and fried bananas. In a letter to his mother, Hallock reported that he was disappointed in 1918 Honolulu, since he was "expecting to see a much larger town. All we could see was a few large buildings around the docks and trees at the back of them." Meanwhile, back in 1918 Morrow County, fire destroyed 40 acres of grain, a barn and two horses at the A.D. Sachter ranch on Balm Fork. Miss 'Austria was in Heppner 25 years ago. Lore Felger, the Austrian beauty, came to Morrow County to visit with long-time pen pal Virginia Gonty. Miss Felger had come to America to participate in the Miss Universe contest, held in Long Beach, Calif. In other events during the final week of July in 1953, Eugene Sawyer of Lexington was returning from Gary, Ind., after meeting with his father for the first time since they became separated when the Lexington man was six. It had taken Sawyer a number of years to locate his father, finally discovering his whereabouts with the help of the American Red Cross. Back in Indiana, his newfound father held an open house in his honor, inviting a number of mutual relatives. But is was a bad week in 1953 for area stockmen. Feeder steers at the Hermiston auction were being virtually given away lor 15 cents per pound or less, with slaughter ewes bringing only six cents a pound. Ten years ago in Heppner, the Kinzua Corp. announced that it had purchased 52,000 acres of forest and open land from the estate of Prineville lumberman Lloyd Hudspeth. The land, most of it located in the Rudio Mountain area above Monument, Kimberly and Dayville, was to be added to Kinzua 's tree farm operation, bringing total tree farm acreage to 224,500 acres. The Boeing Corp. was handling a complex testing program for jet engine noise suppressing equipment at its facility near Boardman. OBITUARY Naomi Rice Naomi L. Rice, 42, of Kinzua died July 14 of natural causes in Prineville. Graveside ser vices were held July 18 at the Deschutes Memorial Gardens, Bend, with Elder L.D. Perdue of the Missionary Baptist Church officiating. Mrs. Rice was born to .George L. and Cleo Gowing Oyler on February 6, 1936 in Lamar, Colo. She married Howard W. Rice on July 17, 1953 in Neodesha, Kans. Mrs. Rice is survived by her husband at the family home in Kinzua. Other survivors in clude a son, Michael W. of Kinzua; a daughter Linda K. Conklin of Prineville; three brothers, John Oyler of Gra vette, Arkansas, Paul Oyler of Bend and Edward Oyler of Independence, Kans.; six sis ters, Viola Slinkard of Prinev ville, Mary Tuckee of Cherry vale, Kans. Shirley Holeman of Tulsa, Okla., Lora Butter of Orville, Ohio, Grace Suddock and Esther Meadows both of Emporia, Kans. and one grandson Dustin Michael Conklin, Prineville. She was preceded in death by three sisters and one brother. Mr. Businessmen Your firm can save many dollars a year by having its printing done at Gazette-Times PRINTING Cell Today 676-9228 signed, Judy Buschke Diana Ball Joan Hughes Shirley George Judy Groshens LeRoy Gardner June Gardner Trish Toll Truman E. Messenger Oral C. Wright Ted Toll Thomas R. Blue Joyce Kay Hollomon Calvin Sherman Mary E. Bryant Lorraine Brosnan Beverly Sherman Sandi Hanna Wilma McTimpeny Jerry Hollomon Joan Hudson . Mary Benge Ida Farra Ruth Nutting Leita Messenger Marjorie Wright Sandy Stuchell Community Sponsored By BILLBOARD JfS boyce Call CEj INSURANCE 676-9228 Thursday, July 27 Willow Creek Little League All Stars begin regional play off tourney, The Dalles Saturday, July 29 Rodeo dance honoring Prin cess Kim Pettyjohn, Jim Ackley Bank, 9 p.m., Fair grounds. Sunday, July 30 Gubernatorial candidate Vic Atiyeh arrives in Morrow 228 N Mom St. Heppner 676-9625 County. Valby Church, 9 a.m.; Don Peterson ranch, 10 to noon; Willow Creek Country Club, Sunday afternoon. Monday, July 31 Bluebird, Campfire day camp begins, Cutsforth Park Heppner Swim Team vs. The Dalles, Hermiston, Muni cipal Pool , Chamber of Commerce, noon, West of Willow
