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