Health district to interview CEO candidates
By April Sykes
The Morrow Coun
ty Health District Board,
after reopening its call for
a new administrator, said
M onday night that the
board members planned to
interview additional candi
dates Tuesday, June 2.
T he b o ard had
formulated questions for
phone interviews and then
in-person interviews. Cur-
'"llllllfllll i i i i n j • ■■ni
Be:
Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Libran,
University of Oregon
^
Eugene. OR 97403
HEPPNER
lines
VOL. 128
NO. 22
12 Pages
Wednesday, June 3,2009
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Armato heading east to Harvard
By Autumn Morgan
official letter and certificate
This A u
of acceptance from
gust a dream will
the university.
com e tru e for
A fter fi
ingoing college
n an cial endow
freshman Maggie
m ents from the
Armato. She will
u n iv e rs ity and
be traveling to
several scholar
Cambridge, MA,
ships, Armato will
to attend Harvard
be able to attend
University where
the university at
she plans to study Maggie Armato
little to no per
economics.
sonal cost.
It has been a whirl
Armato, who will
wind ride for Armato who be graduating from Hep
has subsequently been ac pner High School as co
cepted to six out of the eight valedictorian along with
schools she applied to. Har Sherlyn Peck, had SAT
vard accepts approximately scores o f 800 in critical
1,600 new students each reading, 690 in math, and
year and Armato “never 710 in writing. A perfect
thought of the possibility.” SAT score is 2,400 and she
But that possibility scored a 2,200.
became reality when, at the
School will begin
end of March, Armato re around September 6 for
ceived an e-mail from Har Armato w ho, as a freshman,
vard congratulating her on will live in a residential hall
her acceptance. That e-mail on campus. After complet-
was later followed up by an
rent administrator, Victor
Vander Does, said he w ould
extend the deadline for his
retirement, since the dis
trict’s first results in finding
his replacement were not
fruitful.
T he b o a rd a p
proved putting $75,000 into
an Irrigon Clinic building
reserve fund for expanding
and remodeling the Irrigon
Clinic.
The board also ap
proved $15,000 in the up
coming budget to commit
to an outreach program to
initially begin in Irrigon
at a date to be determined
later. The emphasis of the
program would be deter
mined by Irrigon residents.
The state program, called
the Com m unity H ealth
Improvement Partnership
(CHIP) through the Of
fice of Rural Health, has
previously funded a vari
ety of wellness programs
throughout the state, which
range from childhood anti
obesity program s, drug
and alcohol prevention,
diabetes education, mental
health, provider recruitment
and retention and other
health-related concerns.
The first step would be to
hire a coordinator to con
duct town hall meetings
to determine the emphasis
the community would like
to take. CHIP would nor
mally kick in $15,000 for
this process initially and the
health district would match
that, however the state has
indicated it will not fund the
program this upcoming fis
cal year because of budget
constraints.
Also at the meet
ing, the board:
-heard a report from
Vander Does concerning
Sue Peeples’ resignation.
Peeples, who was a nurse
practitioner at the Irrigon
Clinic, left to relocate to
another area. Vander Does
said that the district’s physi
cian’s assistant and physi
cians will fill in to cover in
her absence and the district
may hire a temp for a period
of time.
-learned that the
long term care facility has
six patients in the new
rooms with one bed still
available.
-learned that the
assisted living facility has
two openings for residents,
which will be selected from
a list of prospective resi
dents. Plans are to build two
one-bedroom units and a
solarium at the facility. The
land for the addition has
already been purchased and
$100,000 has already been
placed in a reserve account
for the project, how ever the
addition is still a ways off,
said Vander Does. “We’re
not even close,” he said. He
said that signatures from a
majority of landowners in
the subdivision must be
obtained before the project
can move ahead.
-received a profit
loss statement for the month
of April which showed the
district in the black for the
past two months with a
$14,168 gain for the April
and a $104,004 gain for
March. C hief Financial
Office Nicole Mahoney
said that the district had an
ing freshman year, the stu
dents then move into houses
on campus. The houses are
divided into groups that
have their own library and
professor who is available
for mentoring.
Armato is “nervous
and excited” to be moving Windwave prepares for switch from analog to digital
cross-country to attend Har
vard University. She plans
to come home at Thanks
giving and Christmas for a
visit and then again at the
1 :
end of the school year.
h
it
Armato was also
accepted to Seattle Pacific
s
University, Willamette Uni
versity, Claremont McK
enna College, Notre Dame,
-
and New York University.
Armato’s mother,
Kim, attended the U ni
Windwave employees have been working in residential areas around Heppner lately, stringing
versity of Oregon and her fiber optic cables to replace analog TV' cables. Pliolo bv Autumn Morgan
late father, Mike, attended
University of California at NOAA issues monthly climate summary for Heppner
Berkeley. Her brother, Joe,
According to pre lowest was 33 degrees, on inches, which is 2.06 inches
is a student at HHS.
below normal.
liminary data received by May 13.
The outlook for
On two days, the
NOAA’s National Weather
Service in Pendleton, tem temperature exceeded 90 June from NOAA’s Climate
Prediction Center calls for
peratures at Heppner aver degrees.
Precipitation to near normal temperatures
aged slightly warmer than
normal during the month taled 0.93 inches during and near to above normal
May, which was 0.74 inches precipitation. Normal highs
of May.
shelter at Heppner High
The average tem below normal. Measurable for Heppner during June are
School. The city crew will perature was 56.6 degrees precipitation -at least .01 77.0 degrees and normal
be at the rally points on high which was 0.6 degrees inch- was received on 10 lows are 48.5 degrees. The
ground and at the Emer above normal. High tem days with the heaviest, 0.30 30 year normal precipita
gency Operations center at peratures averaged 69.9 inches reported on May 3. tion is 1.08 inches.
the sheriff’s office.
The N ational
Precipitation this
degrees, which was 0.8
degrees above normal. The year has reached 5.89 inch Weather Service is an office
highest was 91 degrees on es, which is 1.47 inches be of the National Oceanic and
May 30. Low tem pera low normal. Since October, Atmospheric Administra
tures averaged 43.4 de the water year precipitation tion, an agency of the U.S.
grees, which was 0.4 de at Heppner has been 9.51 Commerce Department.
debate on HB 2533A that grees above normal. The
this legislation would help, tv
Rails, Riches, and Rejection” to be held June 13
“increase high school grad
Many nam es in liam Penland. A Harshman and audience guests will
uation rates and satisfaction
with school, decrease the the June 13 play, “Rails, story is related. Lars Larson find a delicious, formal
impact of poverty on aca Riches, and Rejection," w ill entertain, and the Frank repast served in the farm
demic progress, and make will be familiar and some Parker family will also museum by Dino’s Delec
table Catering Service. The
shorter commute times to might even depict relatives make an appearance.
of audience members.
More recent histo menu will feature salad,
school."
Helping to carry ry will be seen through the roast beef, halibut over wild
Often the state re
quirem ents imposed on the story through the early telling of stories by Marian rice, roasted vegetables,
school districts require history of the OR& N Rail Good Brosnan to three of rolls, and almond delight
high schools to provide a road in the Willow Creek her great grandchildren, dessert.
Dining will begin
minimum amount of ser Valley will be Tom Ayers Thompsons and a McCarty.
vices. However, small high as he visits with newcomer Other familiar contempo at 6 p.m. and “Rails, Riches,
schools in remote areas Marian Good, and joining rary names that will play and Rejection” will begin
frequently require more them will be Jerry Brosnan. in the story are Laughlin, at 7 p.m., on stage by the
funding per student to meet Other early-day names that Gutierrez, Hughes. Har farm-museum murals. The
$20 tickets are available at
those mandates. Smith be will come alive on stage rison, and Osmin.
S o me of t he s e the Bank of Eastern Oregon,
lieves HB 2533A will be include Henry Blackman,
extremely helpful for these Jackson Morrow, Colum characters might be seen Community Bank, Heppner
rural schools to meet state bus Rhea, Frank Kellogg, at the dinner that precedes Chamber, Heppner TV, and
Henry Heppner, and Wil- the stage production. They Murray’s.
standards.
If
W
u
•
Heppner city crews to practice
flash flood emergency plan
The Army Corps of
Engineers will be sounding
the flood alarms on June
15 and 16 in Heppner. The
city crew will be rehearsing
the plan that has been put
into place in case Heppner
was threatened by a flash
flood.
In a real emergen
cy, the American Red Cross
would set up a mass care
New legislation may help
Morrow County School District
House Bill 2533A,
a bill to help Morrow Coun
ty Schools was adopted
by the Oregon House of
Representatives June 2 by
a wide margin. Represen
tative Greg Smith (R-Hep-
pner) spoke in favor of the
bill, saying “this bill does a
tremendous job in assisting
rural schools, our kids and
our communities.”
The m easure is
specially designed to assist
only four schools across the
state that have lost enroll
ment since 1999, allowing
them to qualify for a unique
status in the state school
funding formula. Under
the “small high school" cat
egory, the Morrow County
School District is eligible
t
state dollars. That means
$5,733 in extra funding per
student on top of what the
district already gets from
the state.
“ S m a ll s c h o o l
funding will make a posi
tive difference for Riverside
High students,” said Mark
Burrows, Morrow County
School District superin
tendent. “Currently we are
faced with a choice between
offering a full curriculum
with arts and technical
classes or providing reme
dial extension classes for
our struggling low income
and minority students. The
weighted funding will al
low us to provide both.”
R e p r e s e n ta tiv e
Smith noted during the floor
average $22,716 monthly
year-to-date loss.
-learned that the
district had 70.3 days in
accounts receivable as of
the April report, generally
because of reimbursement
issues out of their control,
but Mahoney said the busi
ness office hoped to get that
down to around 60 days.
-received the fol
low ing report: P ioneer
Memorial Clinic had 506
patient visits with 42 new
patients, 46 patients seen
by a nurse and 11 no-show s;
Irrigon Clinic had 215 pa
tient visits, 27 new patients,
56 seen by a nurse and 11
no-show s; Heppner Ambu
lance had 28 page outs with
20 transports for $ 18,978 in
revenue; Boardman Ambu
lance had 23 page-outs w ith
13 transports for $14.892
in revenue; Irrigon Ambu
lance had 24 page-outs w ith
15 transports for $14,570
in revenue; there were tw o
flights; Pioneer M emo
rial Hospital had eight ad
missions, three swing-bed
admissions, 14 admitted
for observation, 486 total
outpatients, 1604 lab tests,
91 x-ray procedures, 28 CT
scans, 32 EKG tests, one
treadmill procedure, five
colonoscopy procedures,
three endoscopy procedures
and 73 respiratory therapy
procedures; Home Health
had 108 patient visits; Hos
pice had one admission;
Pharmacy had 1719 drug
doses for $682,837 in drug
revenue.
-held an executive
session concerning CEO
candidates.
\