Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 27, 2013)
I Health district board to put levy before voters Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 132 NO. 46 8 Pages Wednesday, November 27, 2013 Bv April Sykes The Morrow County Health D istrict, at their regular meeting Monday night in Heppner, voted to put a six-year levy before the voters for operating funds at a rate of .39 cents per thousand valuation. The district’s current .39 cent levy is set to expire and board members agreed that with an uncertain future, especially the upcoming closure of the coal-fired plant in Boardman, which puts around $200 thousand in tax monies a year into the district's coffers, it would only be prudent to seek another levy. The coal-fired plant is scheduled to close in 2020. The board approved contract changes with Dr. Ed Berretta and an extension to allow additional time for the district and Dr. Berretta to continue to negotiate terms. The d i s t r i c t a ls o a p p ro v ed a p ro p o s e d contract for Dr. Daniel Hambleton, who has said he intends to move from Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon A laska to re lo c a te in CREZ discusses county-wide housing shortage Morrow County. MCHD Fam ily Care w ould be CEO Dan Grigg said that staying in Morrow County the district was looking at in 2014. February as a possible start “We also have several date for Dr. Hambleton. patients w ho have expressed In th e p ro c e s s o f concern about the financial n e g o tia tin g c o n tra c ts , hardship they would have if Grigg has been working we followed through on our to standardize the district’s plans to stop accepting that contracts with physicians. plan,” said Grigg. So, after a G rig g a n d C h ie f conference call with Family Financial O fficer Care leadership, and N icole M ahoney “ assu ran ces th at told the board that they would correct th e d is tr ic t has the problems that agreed to continue have plagued us accepting Family for many years— C are or P rem ier despite unfulfilled Care, a M edicare Barbara Huwe prom ises in past A d v a n t a g e years,” the district insurance plan. The district agreed to continue their had earlier announced that re la tio n s h ip w ith the they w ould not accept insurance company with Family Care, effective Dec. numerous stipulations. 31, because of the difficulty Barbara Huwe from in communicating with the lrrigon attended the Monday insurance company (the night m eeting as a new district’s calls to Family board member, replacing Care went unanswered), David Bums, lrrigon, who d iffic u lty in receiv in g e a rlie r resig n ed citin g payment from them and personal reasons. other problems. The district In other business, the then learned that Family board: Care had been advertising in -approved a previous the district’s area and finally -See HEALTH DISTRICT received confirmation that LEVY/PAGE SEVEN Local woman raising aid for the Philippines Not enough available rentals By David Sykes The Columbia River E nterprise Zone board held a lengthy discussion Monday on the continued rental housing shortage in all parts of Morrow County. The board agreed that the problem is only expected to get worse as more jobs are added in the Boardman area . T he b o ard also discussed the dual problem that 80 percent of the people working in Boardman are living elsewhere, mainly in Hermiston and the Tri- Cities, WA. In response the CREZ has funded a two-pronged housing program not only to aid developers wanting to construct new rental units in Morrow County, but also to provide financial assistance to home buyers moving into the county. The board has funded the program with $135,000, but the actual plan is still in the development stages and not yet ready for implementation. At the invitation o f CREZ, two officials from G reater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation, GEODC, which administers housing programs, attended the CREZ meeting to discuss how the new program s m ight be im plem ented. The CREZ is considering contracting with GEODC to administer its new housing program. G EO DC E x ec u tiv e Director Christine Nelson questioned the wisdom of establishing a financing -See CREZ TALKS HOUS- ING/PAGE FOUR Murray family brings third generation into pharmacy business By Andrea Di Salvo M urray’s Drug is a long-established business in Heppner, and now Laurie Murray is continuing the family business into the third generation. M urray, 25, is the d a u g h te r o f M u rra y ’s D rug ow ners Ann and John M urray. The lone female in a family with four brothers—Luke, Sean and Ian in college or graduate studies, and Kevin still attending H H S— she is the third generation o f the Murray family to don the title and uniform o f the pharmacist. She is the sixth pharm acist in the family, after grandfather Rod Murray, parents John and A nn M urray, and John’s siblings, Mark and Maralee Murray. Sean, who currently has two years left in pharmacy school, will make seven. Murray started with the p harm acy in m id- S eptem ber, rig h t afte r receiv in g the required certificate from the Oregon Board of Pharmacists. “ You have to have that paper certificate in your hand,” says Murray, adding that unlike some c e r tif ic a tio n s , o n lin e validation isn’t enough. “As soon as that came, I was working.” M urray divides her time between the family’s Heppner and Condon stores. working in rotation with her parents and her grandfather as well as spending two weekends a month filling in at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, OR. She is a full-fledged pharmacist, a title that did n ’t come without effort. M urray says being a p h a rm a c is t u sed to “only” require a Bachelor o f Pharmacy, a five-year degree, which is what her parents have. Now, though, the bar has been raised, and pharmacists are required to have a Doctor of Pharmacy, or PharmD, degree, which means a total of seven or eight years of college. Murray says part of this is because of the changing G-T Trophy Corner role of pharmacists. While the work always included more than simply doling out pills, she says pharmacy w ork is m ore c lin ic a l now; pharmacists have to understand disease states and how the drugs affect diseases and patients, as well as drug interactions. Pharmacists may have to give immunizations, and some pharmacists even run clinics and work closely with doctors. Murrays says pharmacy work wasn’t a given for her, but there was a natural attraction. “ I knew I w an ted something in healthcare. I like being with people and interacting with them. I considered nursing but came back to pharmacy because I grew up around it,” she says. “I’m interested in helping people know and manage their medicines, because that can be pretty daunting at times. It can get pretty confusing; there’s a new drug on the market every week, it seems.” So, after graduating from Heppner High School in 2006, Murray headed to Oregon State University, w h ere she re c e iv e d a Annabelle Dayandante Campbell Annabelle Dayandante C am pbell, H eppner, is raising donations to aid the people of the Philippines who are suffering from a devastating typhoon. She has been in front of the Heppner post office for around a week seeking donations. She says that the response in Heppner has been very good; she has filled five boxes, which is even better than when she had been seeking donations in Hermiston. Cam pbell, 36, came to the U .S . from the Philippines in 1996, first living in Hermiston and then moving to Heppner in 2003. She is married to Robert Campbell. She is from Montalban, Rizal, The Philippines. Her mother and one brother live in Hermiston, but she still has two sisters and one brother in The Philippines. C am pbell says that LBC Cargo and Carrier service will ship the items and has said they will waive the shipping costs. Melissa A nn M a c a ru b b o wi l l -See PHILIPPINE RELIEF/ PAGE TWO Jfrom the 1944 arcfiibesi of the GAZETTE-TIMES Gazette closed for Thanksgiving The Heppner Gazette- T im es w ill be clo sed in o b s e rv a n c e o f the Thanksgiving Day holiday Thursday, Nov. 28, and Friday, Nov. 29. Normal business hours will resume Monday, Dec. 2 . We wish everyone a safe -See THREE GENERA TIONS OF PHARMACY/ and happy Thanksgiving PAGE THREE weekend. BE CLOSED T h u r s d a y 28 t h f «FRIDAY 29 t h SA T U R D A Y 3°Tr TpPtanlcsflivinfl Kenzi Hughes, 16, of Heppner took down this monster 6x6 bull elk on her family's property in the Columbia Basin Unit. She shot the elk Friday, Nov. 15. with a 7mm Shooting Times Westerner. Kenzi is the daughter of Kevin and Angie Hughes. -Contributedphoto ■ l V u « * * *urfs, Ntorrow County Grain Gro' Laxington 989-8221 • 1 -800-452-7398 for tarn equipment n*tt nur web me u www men net \ \
