Easter Bunny visits Heppner
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Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library
University o f Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
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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. Remember to set
your clocks ahead one hour
Saturday night
NOW IN STOCK
Garden & Flower
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M o rro w C 'O u n ty ¿Jrvuw- (growers
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