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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2010)
Ione Community School named Outstanding9 by U.S. News & World Report The lone School District, at their Feb. 16 meeting, learned that the lone Community School was named an “outstand ing” school by U.S. News & World Report. T he b oard also h eard an up d ate from Randy Hinrichsen, project u**fïSrSSS* Eugene, un. HEPPNER imes VOL. 129 NO. 8 10 Pages Wednesday, February 24, 2010 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Wyden would dump filibuster rule to pass health care bill By David Sykes Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said he would be willing to do away with the filibuster rule and use a procedure called recon ciliation, also nicknamed “the nuclear option”, to see a health care bill get passed through the Senate. Wyden made the comments at a town hall meeting in Boardman Sunday. Generally rec onciliation is only used for budget matters, and it allows the Senate to pass bills with only a simple ma jority instead of the 60-vote margin required under the filibuster rules, which have been in effect in the Senate for many years. “1 am open to us ing reconciliation,” Wyden told the crowd of around 50 people gathered at the Port o f Morrow building, “to pass the health care bill. If the president puts up a bill that is acceptable then 1 am open to reconciliation.” Wyden covered a wide range of topics at th e to w n hall m eet ing, taking q u e s tio n s at random fro m th e Don Russell a u d ie n c e . In response to a question from Don Russell of Boardman, who wanted to know why the country cannot drill for oil and mine the coal we have in a reasonable am ount o f tim e, Wyden said he was glad to see President Obama put nuclear power back on the table for use by the United States. (The president recently proposed large loan guarantees by the government for the nuclear power industry.) Wyden said he thinks A m erica should pursue more energy sources. “We need energy from every source that is safe,” he said. He said he w as in favor of speeding up the process to obtain new energy. On questions about health care, Wyden said he wrote the only bipartisan bill out there on health care reform, but the Senate has not considered it. He urged people to go online and read his bill, called the Ron Wyden Healthy Americans Act, which, he said, had sup port from, both Democrats and Republicans. He said free market forces should be used to bring down the cost o f health care, and that he thought Medicare could be cut without hurting seniors. “We need to put competition and choice into a program that has none,” he said about health care. He held up a plastic health care card and said he fa vored a national insurance exchange like members of congress have for the whole country. Wyden said he also favored medical mal practice reform, a feature most Democrats oppose, and shopping for insurance across state lines, which Republicans favor. Wyden was asked about the national debt by another Boardman resident. Art Kegler. “ T h is out o f co n tro l spending is destroying our co u n try. We are broke,” §J Kegler said. A rt K e g le r Wyden said he ag reed and felt we should be get ting the government out of some of things it has be come involved in. “I voted against the bank bailout three times,” he told the crowd. “I do not believe in ‘too big to fail’.” He said many of the lawmakers from back east voted in favor of the government bailing out banks because they felt if allowed to fail the banks, could bring down the entire US financial system. Another woman told Wyden the govern ment was like an unruly teen ager with a credit card and that since Wyden had spent the last 30 years in congress (16 in the House of Representatives and 14 in the Senate) he was partly responsible for getting us into this financial mess. “I have focused on spending less and getting the govern ment out of some of this,” he said in response. W hen asked “where in The Constitu tion the government had the right to buy car com panies, bail out banks, and try and run the health care system,” Wyden said a legal case could be made that those actions fell under the general welfare section of the constitution. On the subject of illegal immigration, Wyden said that the country must first secure the border and then deal with the illegals now in the country. “We have to secure the borders and then enforce the law that is on the books. After all we are a nation of laws,” he said. He said that after the borders are secure then businesses that employ il legals should be punished. “There are currently 12 million undocumented in the country,” he said. “That is not an ideal situation but what do we do with them? I don’t see how the govern ment is going to make that work,” Wyden said. He said there should be a pe riod of time when anyone who came forw ard who was in the country illegally paid a fine, mastered English and had not broken any other laws, should be considered for citizenship. “Some say that is amnesty,” Wyden said. Also discussed was a possible road be tween lone and Boardman in the north end o f the county. Port o f Morrow Com m issioner and lone resident Marvin Padberg asked Wyden to work on a solution to getting a road pushed through, maybe on the Western edge o f the bombing range. He said lone needs the access to the north especially with all the wind farms now going in around south Morrow County. “We would be very willing to get to the bottom of this (the road request)," Wyden said. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. manager in charge o f the district’s capital improve ment project through Wil lamette ESD. H in richsen p re sented a $2,465,495 up dated capital improvement project budget which in cluded the following newly approved projects: the high school gymnasium bleach ers at $48,735; playground softfall at $125,738; car pet in the library and two classrooms, $18,154; li brary blinds, $267; and the shop roof, $14,250. The original budget, without the recent inclusions, was $2,012,162. The project rev enue, originally estimated at $2,839,342, was updated to reflect additional rev enues for a revised amount o f $3,171,354. Additional revenues include the bond premium at $ 140,183; Busi ness Energy Tax Credit at $31,457; Bonneville Power Administration incentive- $12,390; insurance claim estimate for the original gym floor which was dam aged in a storm-$ 126,000; and an Oregon Department of Education Facility Grant- $43,543. Board member Lisa Rietmann, however, said that she believed that the ODE facility grant was not guaranteed, but rather determined by the amount of funds available on a first- come, first served basis. Total budget for the project, including ad ministrative, site, planning and miscellaneous costs, and Phase II contingencies (the bleachers, playground softfall, kitchen breaker panel replacement, carpet replacement in the library and two classrooms, a site fire alarm, library blinds, a high school lighting retrofit and woodshop ro o f up grade), was increased from $2,799,640 to $3,165,456. In other business at the meeting, the board: -heard the follow ing financial report for January from Chief Fiscal Officer Beth O’Hanlon: *the d is trict collected $121,609 in basic school support, $3,604 in property taxes, $21,192 in State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money (federal stimulus monies); $35,700 from the Morrow County Unified Recreation District; $4,173 in ARRA IDEA money (stimulus). O ’H anlon said that the primary, intermediate and Talented and Gifted cost centers remained over bud get due to the reallocation of salary and benefits noted in September. She added, “Although the district re ceived reimbursement from grants in January, additional expenditures cause deficit ending fund balances. All funds continue to be reim bursable with grants and should be whole by June 30, 2010.” -approved the fol lowing licensed contracts as follows: one-year con tract for 2009-10 second year licensed probationary teacher: Gail Pratt; one year contract for 2009-10 third year licensed probationary teachers: Lea Mathieu and Becky Wagenblast; two- year contract extensions for 2011-12 and 2012-13(with the exception of Dean Rob inson who has retired) for: Barbara Collin, Dale Hol land II, Jim Raible, Ryan R udolf, Thom as Shear, Brandi Orem, Erin Hansell- Heideman, Karen Holland, Linda Neiffer, Steve Schab- er and Stephanie Spivey. -accepted the 2010- 11 budget calendar as fol lows: March 2-teacher/ staff budget requests due to superintendent; March 24-publish first notice of budget committee meet ing; April 7-publish second notice of budget committee meeting; April 12-budget committee meeting at 7 p.m. with election o f officers, presentation of budget mes sage, presentation of budget document, citizen input and review of budget document; May 25-final meeting target date for approval of budget by budget committee; June 9-publication of notice of budget hearing and sum mary of budget and funds; June 21-budget hearing, 6 p.m., regular board meeting and adoption of budget with appropriations and levying of tax. -approved a resolu tion renewing cooperative agreements with Heppner for boys’ and girls’ golf, tennis, baseball and softball for a two-year period. - a p p r o v e d th e 2010-2011 Umatilla-Mor- row Education Service Dis trict local service plan. -learned that the next meeting will be Mon day, March 15, 7 p.m. Rep. Smith takes issue with pharmacy management company that cuts out local pharmacies Oregon Represen tative Greg Smith, R-Hep- pner, is taking issue with a pharmacy management company that handles many state health care programs in Oregon, including the Morrow County School District. Smith says Med lmpact Healthcare Systems, Inc. is not cooperating with an Oregon law passed last year that requires health care administrators in Or egon to negotiate rates with critical access pharmacies. Smith has contacted the company, but they have not responded. The end result is that “critical access” phar macies, serving remote ar eas and small populations, including the Heppner and Boardman areas, are not being reimbursed at sus tainable rates. Boardm an phar macist Ray Michael and Heppner pharmacists Ann and John Murray say that because Medlmpact reim burses at such a low rate, they cannot afford to carry contracts with the company. Since the Morrow County School District, by state mandate, joined a statew ide insurance pool, the Oregon Educators Benefit Board, John Murray says that he has lost betw een 75 and 100 customers. S ince M u rra y ’s Drug does not have a con tract with Medlmpact, it charges customers the full price and, as a service, sends in the receipts for the customers so that they may be reimbursed. MCSD Su perintendent Mark Burrows said at the last MCSD Board meeting, that he has seen the reimbursement on one of his prescriptions, which generally costs around $ 10, drop to the point that he recently received a check for 50 cents. The pharm acists say that because they are small, they cannot supple ment their income with non-drug items, such as large chain pharmacies do. Instead they have to cover their pharmacy costs. Mur ray said he could not accept a cut rate insurance plan that pays below his cost of dispersing medications and still stay in business. Smith said that if Medlmpact does not com ply with the law, he plans to hold a public hearing that includes all the stakehold ers and demand to know what it is doing to comply w ith the law. Area teams participating in state competitions Basketball teams from Heppner and lone will compete in state play off games this week. Also, Chance Day and Wacy Coil from Heppner will wrestle in state competition this weekend beginning Friday morning at Memorial Coli- seum. lone boys’ basket ball team will play Hosanna Christian tonight, Wednes day, at 6 p.m. in lone. HHS boys’ basket ball team w ill travel to play De La Salle N Catholic on Saturday, February 27, at 4 p.m. at the Salvation Army Community Center. HHS girls' basket ball team will travel to play Riddle on Friday, February 26, at 6 p.m. Annual Walk MS Heppner to be held The annual Walk 676-5238 or Joan Basile at 541-676-5832. MS 2010 will be held in Heppner on April 17. The day will begin w ith on-site registration at 8 a.m. at All Saints Episcopal P R E SSU R E WASHERS Church on 140 NW Church St. in Heppner. The walk • Great for cleaning your home, will begin at 9 a.m. at the cars, boats and more! city park. After the walk, • Deliver performance, people can return to the church for a free pancake reliability and value. meal and raffle. Join the walk and • Rugged frame sign up today by pre-reg- design, long istering online at www. life engine and walkMSoregon.com, or by phone at 1-800-344-4867. spray gun with 5 W'alkers may register at interchangeable any time, including the tips. day of the event. MS Walk PFP PW0102350 brochures w ith registration OJALY 2350 PSI @ 2 26PM Pressure Washer information will be located W/160CC Magna Force Engine $ in local businesses. For m ore in fo r Morrow County Grain Growers mation contact Co-Chair Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 Merilee McDowell at 541- Ttr lira n»lpm««t »1«H wir web »m at www n e » ml 359.99
