Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 2, 2003)
Local teens participate in farm safety course Qessi e ü ô t s ô l l U of 0 Ne*spayor L i b r a r y Sugano, OR 97403 [IF / > II wm CP «I (L-R back row): Dustin Padberg, Bill Broderick, Dan Jepsen, Kelly Thompson, Tyler Brown, Montana Marlatt, and Larry l.utcher; (L-R front row ): Sloan Keithley, Roy Proctor, Justin Gregory, Amy Jepsen, Brianne Jones, Emilv Tallnian and Austin Arballo. OSU Extension 4-H and Morrow County Grain G row ers team ed up to prov ide a tractor safety course for kids planning to work on farm s and ranches this summer. A safety program is required by state law for teens 14-17 working on farms and owned by persons other than their parents, however, many p aren ts also send th eir children for safety’s sake. This year 11 kids participated in the program, which provided hands-on experience in safe tractor o p eratio n and basic maintenance, as well as first aid and farm common sense. The 15-hour course, gave the teens in-field driving lessons and as well as testing their knowledge with a written exam . Scott D ougherty assisted w ith the combine. “This would not be possible w ithout G rain Growers,” said Larry Lutcher, with the OSU Extension Office. “Safety is the top priority,” he added. It’s official-lone has its own school district VOL. 122 NO. 27 8 Pages Wednesday, July 2,2003 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon lone's Fourth of |uly & Blues Festival % 66 L eap Into lo n e’s C elebration99 J J3 Annual 4th of July Golf Tournament at Willow £ Creek Country Club. ($35 per golfer.) Contact Craig ^ Holland, 422-7455. /jV 6:00 p.m. :oo p.m. Food Vendors and Beer Garden opens in park. Music by licit tilents Jeff Eyietlcb, |ln Logan anl Dustin Piriberf. FRIDAY, JULY 4th J3 i ^ * . i 7:30 a.m. ☆ j .J 2 Dawn's Early Light Fun Run, starting at lone School. ^ • Contact Jim Raible, 454-2830. 10:00 a.m. Horseshoe pit opens. 11.00 a.m. PARADE with theme "Leap Into lone's Celebration”, . J # ^ * Grand Marshals: Coach Del LaRue and lone Track Teams. ^ * J3 BLUES CRUISE CLASSIC CAR SHOW. Contact J 2 S Chuck Nelson, 989-8148. 12:00 p.m. Food Vendors and Beer Garden opens. f ■■■ ^ ~ Scheduled Events: ^ * Pie and Coffee in the Fire Hall, sponsored by the Altar Society Ladies. v* * Used Book Sale in the Fire Hall, sponsored by the Topic \LT Club. y fh * Bingo at the Legion Hall. Contact Harold Rietmann, 422- 7472. - Children’s Games: * Straw Money Pile (ages 3-8); * Fish Pond and Balloon ^ Races; * Bicycles raffled off; * Frog Jumping Contest -fc * (frogs provided). j- J - Other Events and Games: * Dunk Tank, sponsored by Creative Care Pre-School. * Volleyball for high schoolers and young adults 2:00 p.m. J * Swimming Pool opens - SWIM FREEI lone Booster Club Shirt Sale: Frog Theme - “Have A Blast”. 3:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. J + DUSK BLUES MUSIC: w ith Eddie Kirkland, Joanne Connors, Jimmy Lloyd Rea and Michael Burks. Jet Boat Fishing Trips Auction to benefit Mike Mathews Scholarship Fund and lone Education Foundation. D istrict as an interim su p erin ten d en t. Board positions have been advertised and are expected to be discussed July 9 at the ESD’s next regular meeting. G eorge M urdock could not be reached for comment Tuesday, so further details were not available. Health district board votes to drop Trauma Level IV designation Move could reduce emergency room coverage by physicians THURSDAY, JULY 3rd 9:30 a.m. School District No. 1 and the lone School District. The changes went into effect Tuesday, July 1. T hroughout the transition process, George Murdock, superintendent for the Umatilla-Morrow ESD, is assisting the lone School J* % Schedule oi Events G o v e rn o r Ted Kulongoski has signed the bill that allows lone to become its own school district. The U m atilla-M o rro w ESD Boundary Board met June 26 and held a hearing/meeting in which they redrew the district lines for Morrow' County J * FIREWORKS, FIREWORKS and m ore FIRE- WORKSI (Please, NO dogs or fireworks in the park.) Mislc spusiPf i ly lie Mirriw Cmty Uilflei Recre if lii District In a move to staunch the hemorrhage to its bottom line, the Morrow County Health District Board, at its Monday night meeting in Irrigon, voted to recommend that P ioneer M em orial Hospital drop its Trauma Level IV designation, which requires that a physician be on call 24- hours-a-day, seven-days-a- week. The board's decision, which would require a waiver from state officials, w ould, in effect, elim in ate the requirement for an emergency room physician ev enings and w eekends. MCHD CEO Victor Vander Does said that if (he waiver was granted, the district hopes to employ mid level providers, such as physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners, for after- hours em ergency room coverage. If PMH receives a waiver it would be the only hospital in the state to do so. Vander Does said that the district pays out around $200,000 annually for ER physicians’ coverage, while the cost o f a physician’s assistant is estim ated at between $70,000-$80,000. He says he believes the move could save the district between $130,000-5160,000 a year. _ ... Js T M X\\ As of May 31, the district lost over $519,000 for the fiscal year 2002-03. The change would not affect the salaries of Dr. Sam Datta and Dr. Ed Berretta, who are under contract with the district. Dr. Datta keeps office hours at the clinic and prov ides daytime emergency room coverage. Dr. Berretta also keeps office hours and prov ides ER cov erage some nights and weekends. Dr. Ken Wenberg, who operates a private practice in Heppner, would be primarily affected, since he prov ides ER coverage nights and weekends on an hourly-wage basis. He has also worked at Pioneer Memorial Clinic during office hours w hen contract physicians are on v acatio n or otherw ise unavailable. The board's move was influenced not only by the bottom line, but also by a study of patients v ¡siting the emergency room over the past year, from July I, 2002, to May 3 1 o f this year. The majority of emergency room visits, 271 out o f 696 v isits, was for fractures, sprains, head in ju ries, w ounds, lacerations and burns. Next, with 98 visits, was “ill-delined c o n d itio n s" including abdominal pain and elevated blood pressure. Third, w ith 79 visits, was respiratory illness, such as bronchitis, sinusitis, asthma and pneumonia. Fourth was 46 visits for complaints such as earach es, eye infections, migraines and multiple sclerosis symptoms. Fifth was 44 v isits for toothaches, stomachaches, c o n stip atio n and other digestive complaints. Sixth on the list was 41 visits for hypertension, angina, heart attacks, cardiac arrest and strokes. Vander Does says that he is confident that a physician's assistant or nurse practitioner could adequately handle all emergency room visits and stressed that in the event o f a serious illness or injury, such as a heart attack or stroke, the m id-level provider would be “on the phone” with a physician. Pioneer M emorial Home Health and Hospice director Molly Rhea, who was at the meeting, pointed out that all nurses are c ertified in “ advanced cardiac life support” and are required to attend “high level trauma training”. “I do not see quality going down,” said Vander Does, who added that this cost-cutting measure was the one of the “ last things” the district could do to reduce expenses. The district already em ploys tw o physician's assistants, Sheridan Tamaskv, w ho prov ides care at Pioneer Memorial Clinic in Heppner and Terry Anderson, who works at the district’s Irrigon Clinic. If the district does eliminate the need for a 24- continued page 2 HARVEST HOURS START MONDAY, JULY 7 Monday * Friday 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday 7 a.m.-S p.m. We w i l l be open Saturday, July 5 from 7 a.m .-12 noon ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: M ONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. I Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For farm equipment. visit our web site at w w w .m cgg.m t *
