Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2011)
John Gochnauer resigns from Health District Board due to ill health II.I..I...I.I..III. 111111111 Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 5<K VOL. 130 NO. 35 8 Pages Wednesday, September 7, 2011 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Morrow County DA Justin Nelson appointed to Oregon DOJ victims’ advisory committee Morrow County District Attorney Justin Nelson has been appoint ed to the Oregon Depart ment of Justice, Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Advi sory Committee. “I am honored to have been appointed to this committee. Dur ing my time as Morrow County District Attorney I have tried to make victim’s rights a top priority. With the exceptional work of my Victim Assistance director, Deona Siex, I believe the Morrow County District Attorney’s office has been able to provide the victims of crime all the services and information available. I look forward to bringing my background as a rural Oregon district attorney to the VOCA Advisory Com mittee.” The Victims of Crime Act was passed the Crime Victims Fund, a by Congress and special fund into signed into law which fines, pen by President Rea alty assessments, gan on October bond forfeitures 12, 1984. This collected from convicted feder act serves as the central source of al offenders and certain other col federal financial support for di lections are de rect services to posited; taxpay ers do not fund victims of crime. Morrow VOCA is admin County District VOCA grants. Attorney Justin istered at the fed Nelson Each eral level through state has a desig the U.S. Depart nated VOCA as ment of Justice Office for sistance agency to admin Victims of Crime which ister VOCA grants. While annually awards a grant minimal federal require to each state, the District ments must be met, each of Columbia and U.S. ter state is given great discre ritories. Those state agen tion in awarding specific cies, in turn, sub-grant to sub-grants. The Oregon organizations that provide Department of Justice is the direct services to victims designated agency for the of crime. The money for administration of VOCA these grants comes froih -See NELSON page EIGHT Morrow County Health District Board member John Gochnauer, Heppner, has resigned from the board due to ill health. Gochnauer, who submitted a ver bal resignation, has been under going treatment at a Spokane, WA, facility. T h e board accepted his resignation at their regu lar meeting on Joe Perry August 29 and appointed Joe Perry, Hep pner, to complete Goch- nauei’s term. Perry, 60, came to Heppner in July 2010 from Newport, WA. Perry is employed with the Bank of Eastern Oregon, Hep pner branch, as a com mercial loan officer. Perry, who is widowed, has four children and 17 grandchil dren. He active in Newport volunteer organizations, participating in Kawanis, rodeo boards, Chamber of Commerce and other community activities. He has been in banking for 30 years. He will serve out Gochnauer’s term for the at-large Position 1 which expires in 2013 Also at the meet ing, the board completed an evaluation of CEO Mi chael Blauer’s job perfor mance. “We think it was a good year,” commented Board Chair Larry Mills. “We think you’re doing well,” he said to Blauer. The board subsequently voted to approve a $3,500 annual raise for Blauer, which brings his salary up to $ 111,000 a year. The board also learned that the district has received a $5,000 grant from Wildhorse toward the purchase of a device that would make a tracheal in tubation procedure much $587,510 in gross patient less difficult. The device revenue, with $94,291 in costs $15,500, but with the tax revenue, $34,168 in Wildhorse grant, $3,300 other operating revenue, from the local Friends $9,861 in bad debts and Helping Friends group and $98,627 in contractual $4,000 from the and other adjustments for Hospital Foun $607,482 in total operating dation, the cost revenue. to the district is On the expense much reduced. side, the largest part of In oth $684,260 in operating ex er business, the penses was comprised of board: $386,048 in salaries and -heard wages and $ 101,169 in em a presentation ployee benefits and taxes from Home -received the fol Health and lowing report for July: Hospice Direc Pioneer Memorial Clinic tor Robanai Disque on the in Heppner had 402 patient favorable Home Health an visits, 25 new patients, 43 nual review and accepted seen by a nurse and 10 the annual evaluation. She no-shows; Irrigon Medi said that all deficiencies had cal Clinic had 147 patient been cleared up. “Home visits, 19 new patients, 49 Health and Hospice pro seen by a nurse and six no- vide an invaluable shows; Pio service to the com neer Memo munity,” remarked rial Hospital Mills, who thanked had two ad- Disque for her mi s si ons, -approved swing bed a draft of the dis had four ad trict board policy missions, 18 revisions relating admitted for to the delineation of observation, board and CEO re Michael Blauer 531 total sponsibilities with outpatients, a minor change. 69 emergency room en -learned from counters, 1563 lab tests, 98 Blauer that he has been x-ray procedures, 18 CT in touch with an architect scans, 28 EKG tests, one concerning a possible re treadmill procedures, one modeling of the Irrigon colonoscopy procedure, Clinic. one endoscopy procedure; -heard from Blau Heppner Ambulance had er that the switch to elec 17 total page-outs and 10 tronic medical records is transports for $10,455 in proceeding and represen revenue, Boardman Am tatives from the company bulance had 35 total page from which the computer outs and 19 transports for hardware was purchased $22,436 in revenue, Ir are expected to begin ini rigon Ambulance had 36 tial training this month. total page-outs with 20 -discussed sched transports for $21,634 in uling a district goal setting revenue and there were meeting. two flights; Home Health -received a finan had 84 nursing visits; Hos cial report showing that pice had one admission; the district showed a loss pharmacy had 1156 drug of $65,721 for the month doses for $46,762 in drug of July. revenue. The report showed CHIP ‘Biggest W inner’ program to begin in January An opportunity to win Hermiston water melons was offered to fair goers who stopped by the Community Health Improvement Partner ship booth at the Morrow County Fair. The event initiated the promotion of community, said Booster the “Biggest Winner” pro Club spokesperson Ron gram to begin in January. Bowman, C. J. Johnson, John Ed- Everyone is mundson, Sheryl Angeli, welcome to attend. Suzie Cason, Fran Green law, Becky Cannon, Kate Day and Ann Spicer won the giant green summer fruit. “The recipients learned that being obese is having too much body fat, which is different from be ing overweight,” according to a CHIP news release. “Thirty-eight of Morrow County residents are clas sified as obese and over Booster Club plans free hamburger feed Friday HePP”f r School Booster Club is holding a free hamburger feed this Friday, September 9, between the HHS JV and varsity football games, beginning around 5:30 p m at the football field The feed is a way to say “thank you” to the Heppner temperatures hotter than normal for August, no precipitation for the month 1 2 3 4 5 8 7 T »m pH n in T#mp * 8 9 10 According to pre liminary data received by NOAA’s National Weath er Service in Pendleton Oregon, temperatures at Heppner averaged slightly warmer than normal dur ing the month of August. The average tem perature was 70.5 degrees which was 1.3 degrees above normal. High tem peratures averaged 86.8 degrees, which was 1.6 degrees above normal. The highest was 94 degrees on August 22. Low tem peratures averaged 54.2 degrees, which was 1.1 degrees above normal. The I I 11 N o rm m «» T«mp « 12 1) N o rm 14 IS 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 U 25 28 21 1 8 O 21 Mm T«mPciim ate Data Provided By NOAA/National Weather Service lowest was 45 degrees, on August 31. On five days, the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. There was no pre cipitation during August, which was 0.54 inches be low normal. Precipitation this year has reached 12.07 inches, which is 2.95 inches above normal. Since Octo ber, the water year precipi tation at Heppner has been 17.99 inches, which is 5.08 inches above normal. The outlook for September from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Cen ter calls for above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation. Nor mal highs for Heppner fall from 78.7 degrees at the start of September to 73.4 degrees at the end of Sep tember. Normal lows fall from 48.4 degrees to 44.4 degrees. The 30 year nor mal precipitation is 0.69 inches. The National Weather Service is an of fice of the National Oce anic and Atmospheric Ad ministration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce De partment. Dr. Betsy Anderson and Casey and Cody Fletcher award one of the winning watermelons to Fran Greenlaw. 50 percent of adults in the county have been told by a health care professional that they have high blood cholesterol,” said the re lease. CHIP invites people to “look for more details coming soon about the ‘Biggest Winner’ weight loss and healthy lifestyle program brought to you by your local Community Health Improvement Part nership.” lone Education Foundation fund raising dinner set Sept. 24 wine, soft drinks). The lone Educa tion Foundation Fundrais ing Dinner and Auction will be held on Saturday, Septem ber 24, at the lone Ameri can Legion Hall.. Social hour will begin at 6 p.m., with dinner to follow at 7 p.m. Ticket prices are as follows: children six and under-free; children seven to 12 years-$10; and adults-$25. The dinner menu includes: primerib, salmon, salad, baked potato, bread and dessert. Two drinks are included with meal (beer. Tickets are avail able at Bank of Eastern Oregon or may be reserved by calling 541 422-7435. The evening will include a live auction and raffle items and musical performances by the lone Community School Music Department. BOOT SALEHM- A l l D a n n e r & G eorgia boots _______15% o f f ___________ Morrow County Grain Growers ^•xingtor^89^22^^800^52^739^^*nira^quipm «B M iw t^urj*^t^^*^nff^i^ I
