Local saddle maker to take work to
Cowboy Arts Association
By David Sykes
University o f o n ^
hu«ene, OR 97403
Paper L,hrar>
foundation.
Tod F ru s e tta o f
H eppner has been in the
cattle business his whole
life and has been m ak
ing fine quality saddles
since 1963. Last Thursday
he talked to the Heppner
C h am b er o f C om m erce
about his leather work and
his life as a cowboy.
“ I h a v e w o rk e d
with some very good saddle
makers, and 1 take pride in
my work,” he told members
o f the chamber. “I am work
ing on a saddle now for the
Cowboy Arts Association
at the Oklahoma City Con
vention.”
He says sad d les
accepted by the foundation
can bring premium prices
on the market when sold.
He is trying for member
ship in the a sso c ia tio n ,
which currently has only 22
members.
Some o f his other
notable work includes a set
of chaps he made for Bobby
Mote o f Culver, OR who
won four w orld titles in
bareback riding. Frusetta
said it made him feel “pretty
good” to see Mote wearing
his chaps while riding in the
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
National Finals Rodeo.
Frusetta has also
been involved with rodeo,
as he was a rodeo clown for
20 years, and has been to
the national finals himself
Wars anti-tobacco educa
as a saddle bronc rider.
tion program to Heppner-
area elementary schools.
The Oregon Acad
emy o f Family Physicians
is the largest medical spe
cialty society in O regon
and represents more than By April Sykes
1,400 fam ily physicians,
The Morrow Coun
residents and medical stu ty Health District approved
dents throughout the state. a proposed $9,943,705 bud
The mission of the OAFP get for the district’s 2011-12
is to advocate for family fiscal year at their regular
physicians and assist them meeting Monday night at
in providing for the health the Lakeview Heights Se
of their patients and com cure Residential Treatment
munities.
Facility in Heppner.
Out o f that amount,
only $1,131,502 is antici
pated in property taxes,
including the local option
levy.
MCHD Chief
said, “We continue to be
impressed with our growth Financial O fficer Nicole
o f deposits. Even in this Mahoney said that the pro
low rate environm ent we posed budget will see five
see strong growth. We at percent rate increases for
tribute this to the excellent all departments, except the
customer service provided swing bed nursing facility.
by our experienced banking She also said that M or
sta ff and the confidence row County Assessor Greg
our customers have in the Sweek projected three to
safety and soundness o f six percent less in property
taxes for the district.
our bank.”
Board Chair Larry
“ The strength in
M
ills
rem
arked that the
the farm economy contin
budget
appeared
to be a
ues to bode well for our
conservative
one.
agricultural loan portfolio.
T he b u d g e t in
The lasting effects o f the
cludes
a
$100,000 dona
housing crisis are waning
tion
to
the
Columbia River
and our non-perform ing
C
om
m
unity
H ealth Ser
assets are at a much more
v
ice
s
to
w
ard
th e ir new
m anageable level than a
clinic
facility
in
Boardman,
year ago,” said EVP and
C h ie f C redit O fficer, E. which was made on Mon
day. MCHD CEO Michael
George Kofifler.
Blauer and MCHD Board
-See BEO EARNINGS/
member Leann Rea attend
PAGE FOUR
ed the groundbreaking held
A lo c a l s a d d le
maker will be taking one
his saddles before the Tradi
tional Cowboy Arts Associ
ation and hopes to become
one o f only 23 m em bers
to be good enough to have
saddles accepted by the
HEPPNER
lines
VOL. 130
NO. 16
10 Pages
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Local family physician assumes
position on state academy board
Lo
cal p h y s i
cian, Betsy
A n d e rs o n ,
M D, has
Jetsy
been elected
Anderson,
to the Board
MD
o f Directors
o f th e O r
egon Academy o f Family
Physicians. Anderson was
e le c te d for a th ree-y ear
term at the Academy’s an
nual business meeting held
at the Skamania Lodge on
April 9.
A n d e rso n , w ho
has worked for the M or
row County Health District
since 2007, received her
medical degree from OHSU
in 1997 and completed her
residency in family prac
tice at OHSU in 2000. She
worked at Samaritan Fam
ily M edicine in Corvallis
from 200 until she moved
to Heppner in 2007.
As an Affiliate As
sistant Professor for OHSU,
Dr. Anderson also teaches
first through third year med
ical students and has been
active in presenting the Tar
pleased that our efforts to
control expenses and tackle
r e m a in in g
problem as
sets are pay-
ing o f f in
the form o f
good e a rn
in g s,” said
p re s id e n t
a n d C E O , Jeff Bailv
Jeff Bailey.
Chief Financial Of
ficer, Mark Lemmon said,
“Return on Average Assets
is 0.80% and Return on
Average Equity is 12.60%
com pared to 0.74% and
11.96%, respectively, year
over year.” Lemmon went
on to say, “ We are able to
leverage a low cost of funds
and decent core earnings
into profits.”
C h ie f O perations
O fficer, G ary P ropheter
i jt A
mm
Local saddle maker Tod Frusetta shows a sample of his tooling
work to members of the Heppner Chamber of Commerce. He
was the featured speaker, talking about his life as a cowboy
and saddle maker. -Photo by David Sykes
He said it tak es
about two weeks to make
a saddle. He puts a lot o f
effort into the tooling, a
sample o f which he showed
chamber members. He said
all his saddles are made
to order and that the cost
o f m aterials has gone up
considerably in the past
several years, with leather
costing up to $250 for a side
(it takes two sides to make a
saddle) and trees going for
up to $600, an item he can
rem ember going for $26.
He buys his trees out o f
Alberta, Canada; there are
only 10 to 12 tree makers
left in the United States. All
-See SADDLEMAKER/
PAGE FOUR
Health district board approves
nearly $10 million proposed budget
BEO Bancorp reports first
quarter earnings
Heppner, OR BEO
Bancorp and its subsidiary,
Bank o f Eastern Oregon,
an n o u n c ed first q u arter
2011 consolidated net in
come o f $501,000, or $0.54
per share. That’s compared
to $444,000, or $0.49 per
share for first quarter 2010.
Total assets were $249.7
million, up 4.7% year over
year. Net loans o f $191.1
million were up 9.0% from
the same period in 2010,
w h ile d e p o s its w ere at
$221.2 m illion, up 7.2%
year over year.
BEO B ancorp is
the holding com pany for
Bank o f Eastern Oregon,
which operates 12 branches
and two loan production of
fices in nine eastern Oregon
counties.
“Our first quarter
results come on the heels
o f a strong 2010. We are
mm
Monday morning. Another
$50,000 o f the 2011-12
budget is earm arked for
the Boardman clinic opera
tions.
Proposed expen
ditures are as follows:
Pioneer
Me
m o ria l H o s p ita l, H ep-
p n e r - $ 4 , 9 8 8 , 1 98;
H om e H ealth and H os-
pice-$598,370; Boardman
Ambulance-$272,445; Irri-
gon Ambulance-$ 122,021;
Pioneer Memorial Clinic,
H e p p n e r-$ 9 3 6 ,2 0 5 ; Ir-
rig o n C lin ic -$ 3 2 9 ,9 6 9 ;
Em ergency M edical Ser
vices (Lexington and Ione)-
$15,063; Boardman Clinic
O perating/C apital Dona-
tio n s-$ 5 0 ,0 0 0 ; R evenue
Reductions and Bad Debt-
$1,077,964; Capital Pur-
chases-$664,587; Capital
L ease P rincipal R educ
t i o n ^ 15,000; Long and
Short Term Debt Principal
Reducation-$524,396; Total
Expenditures-$9,694,217;
N et In c re a s e in C ash -
$249,488.
P ro jected R e
sources include:
P io n e e r M e m o
rial H ospital-$5,223,527;
H om e H ealth and H os-
pice-$464,824; Boardman
Ambulance-$232,468; Irri-
gon Ambulance-$ 171,224;
Pioneer Memorial Clinic,
Heppner-$927,233; Irrigon
Clinic-$407,976; Other Rev
e n u e ^ 14,464; Donations
and Grants-$69,000; Inter
est Income-$45,322; Capital
Leases-$390,000; Operating
Capital, Long & Short Term
Loans-$328,687; Commu
nity Service Fees-$78,528;
Electronic Health Record
Reimbursements-$358,950;
Total R esources E xcept
Taxes-$8,812,203; Prop
erty Taxes (Including Lo
cal Option Levy if appli-
cable)-$ 1,131,502; Total
Resources-$9,943,705.
Also at the m eet
ing, M ahoney presented
th e M a rc h p r o f it/lo s s
statement, which showed
a $58,325 profit for the
month of March. She said
that the gross patient rev
enue for March was more
than $139,000 above the
previous month. Total oper
ating revenue was $66,835.
Operating expenses were
$623,770.
In other business,
the board:
- l ear ned from
Blauer that he has spoken
to Oregon Health Sciences
University concerning car
diology outreach to Hep
pner via OHSU’s clinic in
The Dalles. Dr. Tim Hanlon,
who previously had held
-See HEALTH DISTRICT
BUDGET/PAGE TEN
Swashbuckling good time Umatilla National Forest to begin invasive plant treatments
® ®
The Umatilla Na- used include clopyralid, the Invasive Plants Treat- flax and houndstongue.
tional Forest will soon be p ic lo r a m , g ly p h o s a te , ment Project.
Funding includes
planned at dinner theatre gin an integrated approach m etsulfuron m ethyl and
Invasive species appropriated dollars and
Cara Arhoga.vt (L) and Diana Healv (R) prepare for Pirate
Island Dinner Theatre to be held this weekend. The dinner
theatre, which is presented by the Heppner High School and
Community Drama Group, will take place April 29 and JO in
the HHS cafeteria. Both shows start at A p.m. The evening w ill
feature pre-show hors d'oeuvres, dinner and show, with a tropi
cal dance party to follow. Adult tickets are $15 and children
are $12. Those interested in attending can call 54I-A7A-H022 or
visit Sweet Productions for tickets. Photo h\ David Sykes
o f prevention, manual, me
chanical, herbicide, bio
logical control and cultural
treatments to reduce the risk
o f invasive species expand
ing on the forest. This work
will be implemented under
the 2010 decision for the
Invasive Species Treatment
Project.
Treatm ent on the
forest is scheduled to begin
in May and is expected to
continue through October.
“The majority of herbicide
treatments will be spot ap
plication to individual inva
sive plants using backpack
sprayers and ATVs,” said
Joan Frazee, forest botanist.
Some broadcast applica
tion is also planned along a
small subset o f roadsides.
H erbicides to be
I
c h lo rsu lfu ro n . “ M anual
and mechanical treatments
are planned for a number
o f small infestations, some
o f which have been treated
for over a decade and are
subsequently much reduced
in size,” noted Frazee. Her
bicide treatm ents will be
carried out following the
project design features o f
the Record o f Decision for
have been shown to reduce
biodiversity including wild
life habitat, w ildlife and
domestic livestock forage
and streamside vegetation.
Invasive plants targeted for
treatm ent include yellow
starthistle, leafy spurge,
spotted and diffuse knap
weed, rush skeleton weed,
S co tch th is tle , su lp h u r
cinquefoil, dalmation toad-
grant money from Title II
projects. Rocky Mountain
Elk Foundation and Blue
M ountain Elk In itiativ e
Challenge Cost Share proj
ects.
Treatment sites are
located across the U m a
tilla National Forest and
-See UMATILLA
NATIONAL FOREST/
PAGE FOUR
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