Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2005)
Easter Bunny visits Heppner Ililiiliiililiillliiiiiililiuli Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 «^,«*** ‘L , *■ Mt L M i, <* _ . * . . . ~ '• • a Ì | The Easter Bunny made his annual visit to Heppner on Saturday, March 26 at City Park where Kayla Vandercoevering, 3-14, of North Plains, granddaughter of W arren and Irene Plocharsky, of Heppner, got a chance to sit on his lap. Health district approves raise for RNs; district in the black for month V O L 124 NO. 13 8 Pages Wednesday, March 30, 2005 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Heppner Ranger District welcomes new district ranger Joining the Heppner Ranger District as the new D istric t R anger is Tom Mafera. M afera has been with the United States Forest Service for over 20 years and began his c a re e r in the so u th ea st region o f the country, but has spent the past 14 years in Oregon. M afera, w ho was raised in New Hampshire, g ra d u a ted from the U n iv ersity of N ew Hampshire in 1980 with a bachelor o f science in forest m anagem ent. A fter graduation, he spent two years in the US Peace Corps, serving in N epal as a v o lu n te e r w o rk in g in reforestation It was in Nepal that Mafera met his wife o f 21 years, Debra, who was also a Peace Corps volunteer and now currently works as a b o ta n ist on the Paulina Ranger District After returning from Nepal, M afera began his c aree r w ith the F o rest S ervice w orking in the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana and the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. While working in the southeast region, he held p o sitio n s including pest m anagem ent, tim ber m arking, d istric t silviculturist and prescribe burning manager Wanting to expand his career, in 1990, Mafera moved from the south and a tten d ed O regon State University where he earned his master o f forestry degree in 1992. After graduation, Mafera moved to Prineville, where he began working for the Ochoco National Forest M afera spent 10 y ears on the O choco N ational Forest, holding positions as the assistant timber staff officer in the supervisor’s office and as the natural resource team leader on the Paulina R anger The Morrow County H ealth D istrict B oard Monday night approved step increases for the district’s registered nurses for one year, which would amount to increased c o sts for the district amounting to over $20,000 a year. MCHD CEO Victor Vander Does said that the increases would bring the RNs’ wages more into step with those in surrounding areas. RNs’ wages start at $2 1.98 an hour, rise to $22 64 at four months and $23.92 at one year, with additional increases for years two through four, five years- $25.83, seven years-$27.09, 10 years-$27.89, 15 years- $ 2 8 .7 1 , and 20 y ears- $30.50 Also at the meeting the board learned from CFO Electric Co-Op to conduct extensive line patrols Tom Mafera is 20-vear veteran of Forest Service District. As a timber staff officer, Mafera had oversight o f the timber sale program Being a natural resource team leader saw M afera supervising and managing aspects o f the forest such as archeology , w ild life, hydrology, silv ic u ltu re , timber, fisheries and botany. For the past couple o f years, Mafera has been the environmental coordinator on the S isters R anger D istrict in the Deschutes National Forest With his diversity o f experiences, Mafera said he feels ready to step in and manage a district As the district ranger, he will be in charge o f management o f the Heppner Ranger District’s work force and the land base association He is also glad to still be in Oregon, which he says is a great state and where he plans to retire Local Elks Lodge installs officers, announces awards The Heppner Elks L o d g e recen tly held an installation ceremony and installed their officers for the 2 0 0 5 -2 0 0 6 Lodge year Installed as Exalted Ruler was Anthony Clement Other o ffice rs in stalled w ere: Leading K night- Lindsay Kincaid; Loyal Knight- Colin A nderson; L e ctu rin g K night- M arc O rem ; E sq u ire- Josh C oiner; Chaplain- Wade Smith; Inner Guard- Shad Jeffreys; Tyler- Shawn Chandler; Secretary- Roger Mortimer; Organist- Ken Turner; Treasurer- Joe Kenny; and Trustee- Burke O 'Brien Installing Grand Lodge Officers were Marvin B rannon, D ave B arnett, Roger M ortim ore, Eddie Gunderson, Jr, Glen Ward, Bob Lovgren, Tom Wolff and Scott Dougherty O utgoing Exalted Ruler Burke O'Brien and his w ife G in g er receiv ed accolades and plaques for the successful year ju st co n clu d ed A steak and oyster dinner was enjoyed following the ceremony A full calendar o f community and charitable events will occupy the attention o f the newly installed officers ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. C o lu m b ia B asin Electric Co-Op, and their s u b c o n tra c to rs, will be conducting extensive and in- depth line p a tro ls and inventory o f the distribution network throughout parts o f their service territory during com ing year P erio d ic ex ten siv e p a tro ls are required by REA, RUS and the OPUC and help reduce failure ra te s and p ow er o u tag es. C rew s will be visually inspecting each pole unit for any degradation and inventorying each structure fo r type and location Vehicles will be marked with “Columbia Basin Electric Co-Op’’ signage Crews may be o p eratin g 4-w heelers when traveling from pole to pole along the power lines The Co-Op asks all their consumers to make a mental note o f this on-going C o-O p activ ity so as to reduce undue concern and alarm when seeing the crew conducting its operation All p erso n n el will carry appropriate identification Any comments, concerns or q u estio n s about the inspection crews or program may be m ade to S later M itchell at 676-9146 or cbecsdm@oregonvos net Nicole Mahoney that the district was $7,692 in the black fo r the m onth o f February The district has a $21,270 average monthly year to date loss. In other business at the m eeting, the board approved purchase o f a new traditional x-ray machine and authorized Vander Does to p u rch ase the T urnkey machine which would be around $94,050, if the machine receives a favorable report. Bids w ere within several thousand dollars of each other, ranging from $94,050 to around $96,940, including installation. Some site modification is expected Vander Does said he will come back to the board for purchase o f a digital m achine for the second- phase o f plans for the x-ray d e p artm en t T he d ig ital system , w hich w ould interface with the traditional machine, is also expected to cost under $100,000 In other business, the board: -heard that a new p h y sic ia n ’s assistant the d istrict plans to hire has cleared another credentialing hurdle and will soon have a temporary license -learned that current board member Leann Rea, B oardm an has filed for position #3 on the board; John Gochnauer, Heppner, has filed for position # I ; and John Murray, Heppner, and M argaret H ollandsw orth, B o ard m an , will vie for position #2. -heard a report from outgoing board member Ed Glenn concerning the status o f the new migrant health clinic in Boardman. -approved changes re g a rd in g e m p lo y e e s’ retirement plans -ap p ro v ed an intergovernmental agreement between MCHD and the city o f Boardman which w ould allow the district to accept monies from the city to be passed on for use by the migrant clinic -heard the following report: Pioneer Memorial Clinic had 421 patient visits in February with 16 new patients and an additional 45 seen by a nurse; Irrigon Clinic had 184 patient visits with 24 new patients and an additional 52 seen by a nurse; Heppner Ambulance had 13 runs, Boardman, 12, and Irrig o n , 10; Pioneer Memorial Hospital had six p atien t adm issions, 432 o u tp a tie n ts and 57 em ergency room encounters; 1430 lab tests, 107 x-ray procedures, 24 CT scans, 73 EKG tests, 34 re sp ira to ry th erap y p ro c e d u res, 180 Home Health visits and procedures and 690 drug doses were delivered for $26,937 in drug revenue Hager Park rest room proposal set aside The proposal to apply for a grant from the O regon State Parks and Recreation Department for a public rest room at Hager Park was discussed at a public meeting in Heppner on March 8 The local owners of residences on Hager Street facing the park were present at the meeting They were unable to reach an agreement on the proposal Consequently, work will not go forward on preparing a grant application and the project is set aside for now C ity o fficia ls indicated their intention to deposit the excess soil from the upcoming water system improvement project on to the low er (w est) end o f Hager Park This area will be leveled, seeded and irrigation will be extended in order to make this part of the park more usable The issu e of upgrading the playground equipment was discussed, but no decision was reached on doing this Daylight Savings Time begins D aylight S avings Time begins on Sunday, April 3. 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