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
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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 .
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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