I
Bessie Wet/ell Newspaper l.ibrar\
University of Oregon
Eugene. OK 97403
Hometown woman now
Director of Oregon
Dept, of State Lands
Mary Abrams speaks at Chamber o f Commerce
imes
VOL. 133
N 0, 6
8 Pages
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Local man shows he is a
12th man with parody on
YouTube
Will Lemmon says.
There is no doubt Will
Lemmon o f Lexington is
a 12th man for the Super
Bowl C ham pion Seattle
S e a h a w k s. A nd if you
do d o u b t it, c h eck out
h is v id eo on Y ouT ube
If you don’t like typing
at: w w w .y o u tu b e .c o m / in all those letters, you can
watch?v=onsFbJrAwfY.
also find his video by going
Lemmon does a nice job to YouTube and searching
parodying Jeff Foxworthy’s for: 12th man parody.
“You might be a redneck.”
By David Sykes
Mary Abrams grew up
in Heppner, graduated from
high school, and then went
on to a diverse career before
being appointed in 2012 as
Director of State Lands by
Governor John Kitzhaber.
She spoke to the Heppner
Chamber of Commerce last
week about her travels and
her new job.
Abrams is the daughter
o f the late Bob and Marion
Abrams o f Heppner. Bob
had a law p ra c tic e and
served as C ircu it C ourt
Judge during their many
years in Heppner.
Mary
Abrams
graduated from Heppner
High in 1973. She worked
as a country director for the
U.S. Peace Corps in Africa
in 2006. Prior to that, she
was a division administrator
and water quality specialist
at the Oregon Department
o f Environmental Quality
( D E Q ). A b ra m s a ls o
w orked for the C ity o f
Portland and the Oregon
G rad u ate In stitu te. She
holds a Ph.D. and an M.S.
in soil science from the
University o f California at
Davis, and graduated from
the University o f Arizona
with a B.S. in agronomy.
She also w o rk ed in La
Grande for several years
while with DEQ.
Abrams said her time
w orking with farm ers in
Africa was very satisfying,
helping the young farmers
Form er Heppner resident Mary Abrams addressed the
Heppner Chamber of Commerce last week. - Photo by David
Sykes
im prove their lives. She
received a Ph.D. in soils
from UC Davis and she said
her family chided her that
she had “a doctor of dirt.”
But she said coming back
to speak at the H eppner
Chamber “was like coming
home.”
W hile w orking w ith
the Peace Corps Abrams
v o lu n te e r e d to go to
Rwanda, which has seen
trem endous political and
violence problems over the
years.
“ The e n tire country
suffers from post traumatic
s tr e s s ,” she sa y s. She
actually said there some
com parisons to M orrow
County in that everyone
knows everyone else and
it is a tight-knit society.
She w orked in Rw anda
for two years on conflict
resolution before returning
to the United States to help
out with her mom, Marion,
w ho was hav in g h ealth
problems.
From there she went
back to Zambia, home of
Victoria Falls.
“ I was expecting this
great place since Victoria
Falls was there,” she told
chamber members, “but it
looked like the Columbia
Gorge.”
From there she got a
call to interview for the
job w ith the Dept, o f State
Lands and was hired on
Oct. 9, 2012.
“ A s an O r e g o n ia n
who grew up in eastern
Oregon farm country and
attending public schools,
I am h o n o re d to lea d
O regon’s D epartm ent of
State Lands,” Abrams said
-See ABRAMS AT CHAM-
BER/PAGE FIVE
Normal temps for BMCC listens to Morrow County
January, but still College to decide if levy goes to voters again
not enough wet
According
to
preliminary data received by
NOAA’s National Weather
S e r v ic e in P e n d le to n
O regon, tem peratures at
H eppner av erag ed near
normal during the month of
January, but the year is still
on the dry side.
'
The
average
te m p e ra tu re w as 35.5
d eg rees w hich w as 0.3
degrees above normal. High
temperatures averaged 43
degrees, w hich was 0.6
degrees below normal. The
highest was 65 degrees on
the 16lh. Low temperatures
av erag ed 27.9 d e g re e s,
w hich w as 1.1 d eg rees
above normal. The lowest
was 19 degrees, on the 6th.
T here w ere 22 days
with the low temperature
below 32 degrees. There
were six days when the high
temperature stayed below
32 degrees.
P recipitation totaled
0.64 inches during January,
w hich w as 0.83 inches
below normal. Measurable
precipitation o f at least .01
inch was received on four
days with the heaviest, 0.39
inches, reported on the 29th.
S in c e O c to b e r, th e
w ater-year precip itatio n
at Heppner has been 3.01
inches, which is 2.52 inches
below normal.
T h e h ig h e s t w in d
gust was 43 mph, which
occurred on the 11th.
T he o u tlo o k fo r
February from N O A A ’s
Climate Prediction Center
calls for near- to below-
normal tem peratures and
near-normal precipitation.
N o rm a l h ig h s fo r
Heppner during February
are 47.4 degrees and normal
low s are 28.2 d e g re e s.
T he 3 0 -y e a r n o rm a l
precipitation is 1.12 inches.
By David Sykes
Bl ue
Mount ai n
Community College came
to Morrow County recently
as part o f their listening
tour, to find out why voters
reje cte d the recen t $28
million bond measure.
The college’s district
c o v e rs b o th U m a tilla
and Morrow County, and
a lth o u g h the bond levy
passed in Morrow County,
it f a ile d in U m a tilla ,
providing enough no votes
to defeat the measure.
A b o u t 27 p e o p le
showed up at the SAGE Casey White-Zollman of ESD conducts a BMCC listening meeting with county residents in
-See BMCC LISTENS/PAGE Boardman recently. The college is contemplating putting a S28 million bond on the ballot again
FIVE but wanted to hear from voters first. - Photo by David Sykes
Health district discusses moving to
‘the cloud’ with data backup program
By A pril Sykes
The M orrow County
Health District Board, at
th e ir m o n th ly m e e tin g
on Jan. 28, a p p ro v ed a
proposal with Healthland,
Welcome to the snow
th e c o m p a n y w h ic h
c u rre n tly p ro v id e s the
d i s t r i c t ’s e l e c t r o n i c
medical records services,
for a one-year contract for
services and software in the
neighborhood o f $87,000.
Chief Financial Officer
Nicole Mahoney said that
she believes the district can
recoup 75-80 percent o f its
costs through Medicare.
C E O D a n ie l G rig g
said that the H ealthland
quote was comparable to
other venders and Mahoney
added that the district “was
a lre a d y dow n the road
with Healthland,” meaning
that it would probably be
more expensive to switch
c o m p a n ie s . E le c tro n ic
medical records are required
now by federal law.
“ W hat w e’re getting
is what w e’re required,”
com m ented D irector o f
Nursing Molly Rhea.
“Cloud-based storage is
required,” added Mahoney.
Mahoney said that the
district has met stage one
o f the electronic medical
re c o rd s M e d ic a re and
M e d ic a id “ M e an in g fu l
Use” requirements and is
now moving to stage two.
She said that the system
w ould even tu ally allow
patients to have electronic
access to their records.
T h e b o a rd a ls o
approved a cloud hosting
p r o g r a m t h r o u g h 3t
S y s te m s , an e x c h a n g e
hosting and data backup
com pany, w hich w ould
allow up to 78 users at a
cost o f $3,600 per month
and a set-up fee which is
estimated at around twice
the m o n th ly fee. Each
additional user over the 78
would cost the district an
additional $15 per month
per user. The board directed
Mahoney to try to negotiate
with the company to up the
num ber o f d istrict users
over the proposed 78. but
still stay at the $3,600 per
month proposed fee.
In an “ in fo rm a tio n
te c h n o lo g y a sse ssm e n t
and p ro p o sal e x e cu tiv e
s ummary,” district
management said that going
with 3t would outsource
the district’s email system,
storage and data backup,
-See HEALTH DISTRICT'/
PAGE FIVE
V A L E N T I N E ’S D A Y S P E C I A L !
If n r r n fain) i \ i r r rn.f i r r \T t nr r
Visitors to Heppner received a chilly welcome earlier this week, in weather if not in spirit,
when temperatures dropped and a light snow blanketed the area. -Photo by Mallorie Jones
,Am i M ontana
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