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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1979)
f 4"j t ' yr- - i.. Sir,. 4 -m- TWO The Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, July 26, 1979 The Heppner GAZETTE-TIMES Editorials o Columns UDEUPODEJ1?. Letters From Readers Poll yields discontent about hospital levies In the wake of two failures by the Pioneer Memorial Hospital levy to secure a simple majority of votes, the Gazette-Times conducted a readership poll to determine why voters cast yes or no ballots and what their vote would be on the third levy election. The deadline was set on Friday, July 20, a day after the news appeared of the resignation of the Hospital Administra tor. We had low response to the anonymous poll; 30 submitted written ballots through the mail or by dropping them in a special box in the Gazette office. However, we did receive a number of remarks about personal reasons for voting yes and no. We don't know if the low turnout of votes cast was indicative of apathy in the approaching August 9 election, fatigue from casting so many votes on a single issue, vacation-time or farm activity at harvest time but if that holds true for the upcoming election, the turnout of voters could drop substantially. In the Gazette's poll on Willow Creek. 100 responses were received but at a different time of year. What comments we did receive were extremely interesting. Before the resig nation of the hospital administrator, a majority of the 17 ballots submitted felt changes were needed in the hospital administration and also the board of trustees. Very few had anything to say about the specific budgetary financing of the hospital levy. In fact, some went out of their way to say that hospital cuts weren't necessary to pass the levy request. Said one man and woman : "We want our hospital but feel there should be a change in the administration and the board." We feel that if these changes were made that the budget would pass without having to be cut. If the budget should pass the way conditions are now, which are very bad, it is not going to change the feelings between the people of the community and the board. The board and administrator must go. However, one man who will vote in favor of the August 9 levy, said, "We need the hospital and I like the administration. We must have the hospital regardless. We can't have something for nothing and I believe it is a modest levy." Another man who voted yes on both levies but said he would vote no in the August 9 levy before announcement of the administrator's resignation, stated, "The budget is still padded. They haven't fired the administration. The hospital board will not listen to interested parties of groups. Who knows how much the hospital should have to stay open?" A woman who voted yes the first time, but no the second time, planned to vote against the August 9 levy. "I feel we need the hospital very bad. It's a crying shame to let the organization collapse because the community won't support it. I voted no because I feel we should get rid of the administration and a member or two on the board." "If the County Court would wake up to what the people need and appoint some new board members and get rid of the administration, the public would pass the budget with no problem. It's not the levy stopping it from passing." People responding to the Gazette ' survey were positive in keeping the hospital. Said one woman who voted yes the .first time, no the second and will vote yes in the August 9 levy, "I don't like the idea of gambling on the continuation of our hospital. Infaltion hurts us everywhere else. How can we expect to escape when it comes." Another woman stated, "We need the hospital for heart attack people, broken bones, strokes and pneumonia and will vote for the August 9 levy because we are too far from the hospital and need one close." Her other comment was, "The levy isn't too big to get rid of the administration and some of the board and the vote will pass, more will vote yes." "Hospital facilities are needed in an area such as this especially with the mill. I feel the administration is hurting the hospital." was another reaction. A man who voted yes in both elections and will vote yes August 9 said he thought "a hospital is very important in an area like this with the mill and logging, also the large amount of area involved in ranches." "We need the hospital facilities period. It seems that some people want services but are unwilling to defray expenses," responded one man who will vote in favor of the levy. Need of the hospital came out strong in most of the responses received. Said one woman, "We need the hospital, personalities, politics or anything else aside." "This doesn't apply just to the upcoming levy. But I've long felt Boardman and Irrigon shouldn't be asked to pay for oufhospital where they probably would never use. I hope we can get other uses soon." The poll sparked a lengthy response from one man who said he did not vote for the hospital budget "because I do not believe the hospital board and admini stration are being realistic. Having lived in both Tillamook and Crook County, I have discovered that county hospitals in this day and age do not make it. The reasons are more complex than I can understand but management provided by the Northwest Medical Association has 'pulled both of these hospitals out of such problems as we have going here." He even had a comment about the Gazette's past news coverage, "If the newspaper had enough guts to investi gate and report the situation at that time, instead of hiding it, the whole problem might not have come this far." I am not against the hospital but until I see them trying to improve the care available and quit worrying about wasting money for empty buildings, I will not vote for the hospital." A man and woman said they would vote no on August 9 despite voting yes on the preceding two levy ballots. "If it can't support itself, it should close." It should be self-supporting, not tax supported." Why keep putting it up for a vote when it has already been voted down twice." Another couple who said they would also vote no, explained their reason "as a protest against handling of the manager ial situation at the hospital. The vote was not against the budget itself. The court should consider the wishes of the people they service; until that is done the vote will be negative as far as we are concerned." The idea of a hospital district came from one woman, "I feel if a hospital district could be formed to include Spray and Fossil areas would help; also I see nothing wrong with turning the hospital over to a church organization." One man and woman felt separating the hospital from the county levy hurt its chances "because I think the whole issue should automatically be included in the county budget instead of voted on separately." X They both felt the hospital "vitally necessarv for this area " was SB Legislative Report from the State Capita) EXCLUSIVE to Oregon's Weekly Newspa pers trom Associated Oregon Industries. Salem Scene It is not uncommon to equate youth with energy. And on that basis it would appear appropriate for Gov. Victor Atiyeh to appoint 28-year-old Lynn D. Frank as Director of the Department of Energy. But the Governor had even more appropriate reasons for elevating the youthful budget analyst to leadership of an agency which has achieved a particularly high degree of public awareness in a short period of time. Lynn Frank has played an important role in the fledgling agency's affairs since its beginning. Technically an employee of the Executive Department's Budget and Management Division, he was assigned to DOE as principal administrative analyst and wound up working about as closely as anyone could with his predecessor agency chiefs. Function of the Budget and Manage ment Division's analysts is to work hand-in-glove with agencies to prepare biennial operating budgets and help those agencies acquire funding from the Legislature. Elevated from his analyst role on April 11 this year, Frank found himself appearing before Legislative Ways & J OHPA Or.gon Nswtpop.r Publnhars Association The Official Newspaper of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow The Heppner GAZETTE-TIMES Morrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper U.S.P.S. 240-420 Published every Thursday and entered is second-class matter at the Post Office at Heppner, Oregon under the Art of March3, 1879. Second-class postage paid at Heppner, Oregon SUBSCRIPTION RATE $8.00 In Morrow, Unatilla, Wheeler & Gilliam County; $10.00 elsewhere Dolores Reed, Co-publisher GM. Reed, Publisher Terry M. Hoger, Generol Manager Eileen Soling, Office Manager Melissa Scott, Composition Justine Weatherford, Local Columnist Jim Hackett, News Editor Gayle Rush, AdvertisingComposition Cindi Doherty, Office By Jock Zimmerman Means Committee as agency head testifying in behalf of a budget document he had already fine-toothed professional ly. Not unexpectedly, the department's budget was looked upon favorably by lawmakers. And that was only the beginning for the Energy Department. DOE's entire legislative package prob ably met with more success than any other submitted by a state agency. Lynn Frank isn't taking credit for these accomplishments personally. He recognizes he has been thrust into a spotlight position at a time when his agency's purpose is uppermost in many minds. Circumstances locally and world wide combined to propel energy subjects to a level of public interest higher even than tax relief during this year's biennial meeting of the Legislature in Salem. The Department of Energy was conceived during the 1973-74 energy shortages and was concerned primarily with conservation and energy demand forecasting upon official formation in 1975. Operating during its first biennium on a budget of $1.6 million with a staff of 28 persons, DOE got off to a stormy and controversial beginning. Its first director was fired and his replacement after easing the turbulence, winning a $3.3 million budget and expanding personnel to 36 resigned before he could be reappointed following the successful bid of Gov. Atiyeh over former Gov. Bob Straub. As the national and world energy situation worsened, the Department again found itself involved in legislative Cont. on page 7 FROM OUR READERS Develop Bombing Range land Editor: I want to thank Mr. C.K. Peck for his thoughtfully written letter in this column July 19. I totally agree with his reluctance to develop the U.S. Navy bombing range into more irrigated farming land with the market prices of farm products as they have been for so many years. However, I have reason to believe these prices will soon change for the better. Corrine, Larry Lindsay and I attended the Western Regional Gasohol Symposium July 9-10 in Klamath Falls. As a result, I am convinced that Gasohol is the only practical answer our nation has for an alternative liquid fuel. To quote Robert Soleda, Director of the National Gasohol Commission, "U.S. Agriculture is a renewable energy producer. Each year the farmers of America harvest the crops to continually supply our energy needs this is a use of solar power that is abundant and available now." And this totally new demand for our agricultural crops will put an economic base under all we can produce. Full production is essential to supply our energy and food needs. Ethanol can be distilled from any agricultural crop. 100 bushels of corn, for instance, will produce 260 gallons of 200 proof ethanol plus corn oil, yeast carbon dioxide and still have left 1850 lbs. of 62 percent protein livestock feed from the stillage. When this stillage is dehydrated, the same 62 percent protein is concen trated into a granular corn meal much in demand in the Orient and other areas of the world as a human nutritional supplement. Using agricultural products for alcohol production does not compete with human and animal food needs, the process maximizes use of that product for both, plus helping supply our nation's "liquid energy needs. The demand for gasohol is here, now. Idaho Senators Frank Church and Jim McClure recently conducted hearings held by the Senate subcommittee on Energy Research and Development in Boise, Idaho. Title VIII of the Energy Supply Act requires the sale of a 10 percent alcohol 90 percent gasoline blend equal to 1 percent by volume of all the gasoline in the country by 1981, 5 percent by 1985 and 10 percent by 1990. Senator Church is considering amending his bill to accelerate this production schedule. At the Gasohol Symposium Dennis Young, Director of the Seattle district office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told us there are now 500 applications for permits to build ethanol distilleries in the 10 western states. As these, plus hundreds of others throughout the U.S. are constructed and in production, the demand for our crops will totally change the economics of agriculture and marketing, i So, how does all of this pertain to the U.S. Navy bombing range? I believe this land held by the U.S. Navy is energy wasteful. The training flights from Whidbey Island to this range use hundreds of thousand gallons of precious fuel each month, they do have other i Do you have something to say... The Gazette-Times welcomes letters from readers on any subject of general interest. Letters should be less than 250 words in length and should be signed by the author. Names of letter writers will be withheld on request, for just reason. bombing ranges closer to their base and they have modern electronic technology available to them for training their pilots. Giving up the lease on this land would not endanger our national defense. I believe the bombing range is land wasteful. This area of Morrow County is contributing nothing to the economy of the county, state or nation. Our schools, hospital, highway department and other tax supported services desperately need more funds and it is only through additional developed land and related industries that we will get them. Morrow County needs one or more farmer-owned ethanol distillery plants in the middle of the bombing range right now, to put a base under Morrow County farm products and to create new opportunities in agriculture for the young people of this state as irrigated family owned farms are developed around the plants. Thanks to the foresight of Rupert Kennedy and previous commissioners of the Port of Morrow, the Port has an easement from the Columbia River to the northern border of the bombing range land for the laying of the primary water delivery system to the land as well as an underground pipeline to transport the ethanol from the distilleries to storage' facilities on Port of Morrow river front property and from there to populated areas of the country by barge, rail and truck. The American farmer can feed the world, produce the energy necessary to protect our American way of life and the future of our country and finally become solvent himself while he does it. I believe the bombing range land developed to its full agricultural poten tial , to help fill our nation's needs for food and energy, is its most valuable use. Beverly Kyd Vote for hospital levy Editor: I did not receive a ballot but am writing to say I nope all voters will vote on August 9 to keep our hospital. I have lived in Heppner for many years and for the last 10 years have been a patient in the nursing home and want to spend the rest of my life here. It means so much to be near your friends and to have professional care when it is needed. Edna Turner Heppner North end opposes levy Editor: Morrow County voters are being asked to vote, for the third time, on a budget to support the Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Heppner. It should be clear by now that the north end of Morrow County does not feel responsible for paying taxes to operate a hospital in south Morrow County. If there is a need for a hospital in Heppner, why not form a South-Morrow County District and let the voters who would use the hospital decide if they want to finance it with their taxes. Taxes in north Morrow County have become so exorbitant, it is difficult to own your own home. We feel it is both unfair and unrealistic to ask us to pay additional taxes to pay for a hospital in Heppner. Apparently this is going to be voted on again the first part of August. I trust this time there will be a decisive no vote so we will not be constantly asked to vote on it again. We are not against south Morrow County-only against additional taxes to pay for a hospital that we could not use. Sincerely, Dennis and Erma Kotila . " . Irrigon, Oregon Sifting through the TIMES Fifty years ago: Miss Reita Neel of Heppner will be queen of the 1929 Heppner Rodeo, according to announce ments made today by C.W. McNamer, president of the rodeo association. Mr. McNamer considers the management very fortunate in receiving the official acceptance of Miss Neel. Prize money totalling more than $1,500 is offered again this year in the numerous events including the Morrow - County Derby, three quarter mile race on Saturday. Mrs. Wiles is harvest cook on one of the Rietmann ranches north of town. A.A. McCable reports that on his ranch the thermometer registered six degrees above zero. Last week there were some fine potatoes on display at the Bristow and . Johnson store. They were dry land potatoes raised by Earl Murray on his ranch near lone. Oscar Keithley who was in the city Wednesday from his Eight Mile farm reports that he will start cutting his wheat crop today. He has 600 acres to harvest and the grain promises to yield well. Twenty-five years ago, in an effort to find some means of solving Heppner's school building problems that will meet the approval of the voters of the district, the board of school District No. 1 Friday decided to call for another special site selection to be held on Saturday, August 14. The annual kickoff dance is this Saturday night at the fair pavilion in Heppner opening the series of dances and activities leading up to the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo on September 2, 3, 4 and 5. The first dance will present Queen Grace Miller of Boardman and her entire court. John B. Ernsdorff, administrator at Pioneer Memorial Hospital, revealed today he has resigned his position here to accept a similar one as head of St. Joseph's Hospital at Lewiston, Idaho. He will leave here October 1. Ernsdorff came here three years ago and was from Spokane. Heppner's notorious "deadman's corner" claimed another victim Sunday evening when a car carrying six persons left the road and crashed into a bridge abutment. Killed outright was Bill Wickland and the other five occupants suffered injuries. Wickland had been a prominent rodeo performer at the Pendleton Roundup. The accident occured one fourth mile south of Heppner on the Condon highway. It is the same spot where 17 other accidents, three of them fatal have occured since 1947. State highway department workmen Tuesday started construction of a triangular safety island in the center of the three way intersection in front of the courthouse. The safety island will be lighted and will hold road signs that have been nearly inconspicuous because of their distance from the intersection. A field and range fire, the first of the season in this area, burned between 150 and 200 acres of wheat and rangeland on the Bill McClintock Ranch in Gooseberry Wednesday afternoon. Two men who police say have admitted taking and slaughtering two fat lambs are free on $2,500 bail each after they were arrested last weekend near French Pass by state police and Sheriff C.J.D. Bauman. Five years ago, a native of Morrow County, Matthew Doherty, a 1945 graduate of lone High School, was named as superintendent of county schools. Doherty was assistant superintendent of the Hermiston Public Schools and has had 22 years experience in education. Doherty was active in sports as a student at lone High School and has continued his interest in sports. Patricia Van Schoiack says, "Come to the Fair: see what Morrow County kids can do," she knows what she's talking about. The search for another doctor for Heppner continues. Members of the doctor and hospital committee met at the courthouse July 17 to hear progress reports from Hospital Administrator Ilene Wyman and Morrow County Judge Paul Jones. Jones said a doctor recruiter and a representative of the Seventh Day Foundation met in Portland to receive assistance in obtaining a doctor.
