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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 2021)
Weiss POM Commissioner candidate 50¢ VOL. 140 NO. 17 8 Pages Wednesday, April 28, 2021 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Search for health provider reaches dead end, says MCHD CEO Ryan Fowler, Morrow County Health District CEO, told the MCHD board in a memo prior to the regular board meeting Monday night in Lexing- ton, that the search for an additional full-time pro- vider for the district has reached a dead end. “Un- fortunately at this time we have no providers in the pipeline,” said Fowler. “The few that we had have opted out regarding con- cerns about the remoteness of the community, limited medical staff support or focusing their search geo- graphically in areas that do not include our communi- ty.” “We continue to work with Pacific Companies and multiple contingen- cy firms to complete this search,” he added. Fowl- er was not present at the Monday night meeting. It was earlier reported that Dr. Emily Jack (Thomp- son) has officially signed on as a physician for the district beginning in Sep- tember of 2022. Concerning recent per- sonnel issues, following a lengthy executive session, the board approved a mo- tion to “direct our com- pliance officer to move forward in the process regarding personnel mat- ters.” The specific person- nel issues were not dis- cussed outside executive session. In other personnel mat- ters, the district has hired Kathleen Greenup, R.N., Heppner, as chief nursing officer to replace Jamie Houck, R.N., CNO, who has accepted the position of informatics analyst with the district via telecommu- nications. Houck has re- signed as CNO and will be moving out of the district. One registered nurse, Sean Adrasik, started full time with Pioneer Memo- rial Hospital on March 17 and another R.N., Shanan Carter, will start full-time in July. Two other R.N.s, Jennifer Nobles and Kim- berly Steele, have joined the nursing staff as per diem nurses. Other new hires include Michael Metzler, MD, a temporary emergency room techni- cian, Mary Duchek, a lab tech, and Mark Kerns, a ra- diology tech who will pro- vide Xray and Ultrasound services at the Irrigon Medical Clinic, in addition to providing Ultrasound services at PMH one day a week and filling in there as needed. In other personnel moves, Donna Sherman has been promoted to the general laboratory manag- er and Cynthia Johnson, was hired as the dietary director at PMH. Several people, Barb Coiner, Min- dy Coster, Lori Jones, Lau- ra Huizar, Jazmin Haak and Jennier Ohlde, have all passed their CNA-2 class, “which will allow them to have a larger scope of practice.” Houck told the board that as of April 16, 3,596 Morrow county residents have been vaccinated against COVID 19, with 2,855 fully vaccinated and 741 who have received the first dose of a two-dose se- ries. She said that “MCHD PPE (personal protective equipment) and testing supplies remain adequate.” The board learned that Pi- oneer Memorial Hospital will participate in a “sim- ulation resource team de- velopment event” which is a live hands-one trauma training event May 17-19. With this event, MCHD will team with the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Services, hos- pital staff and Life Flight to “work through a trauma scenario as a team from start to finish.” In other business, the board: -established an 11-step physician assistant pay scale as follows for clinics only, based on years in the profession, from $48 an hour for zero years in the profession to $58 an hour for 20 years in the profes- sion. -earlier received com- munication from Rusty Es- tes with EMS of his “frus- Kathleen Greenup, RN Jamie Houck, RN tration with the ongoing challenges in regards to the ambulance service area and challenges presented by the Boardman Rural Fire and Rescue.” -approved the purchase of a flexible nasopharyn- goscope, a scope for exam- ining the nasal and throat passages for $28,750. -approved the expenditure of $12,945 for the remov- al of a heat pump and air handler at the Boardman Clinic and installation of a new heat pump and air handler for Thews Sheet Metal-Heating, Air & Me- chanical -received the following profit and loss statement for March from Chief Fi- nancial Officer Nicole Ma- honey: gross patient reve- nue-$1,278,369, $83,904 in revenue deductions, $185,460 in tax reve- nue and $14,607 in oth- er operating revenue for $1,394,532 in total oper- ating revenue; $1,361,998 in total operating expenses and a $41,203 non-oper- ating gain for a $73,737 gain for the month and a $201,643 average monthly year-to-date gain. Mahoney earlier reported that the district is overall “financially stable for the year, largely due to the influx of COVID money from the CARES act.” -received input from Kris Jones, chief operating officer, that Centriq, the district’s current computer system, is being phased out and the district will likely be moved to an updated version, CPSI Thrive, in the fall of 2022. The dis- trict is also examining al- ternatives. -approved policy on Com- pliance Program Oversight and Oregon Consumer In- formation Protection Act Compliance. -received the following Pioneer Memorial Hos- pital statistics: five in-pa- tient admissions in March, six swing bed admissions, seven admissions for ob- servation, 765 out-patient admissions, 73 emergency room encounters, 2,014 lab tests, 111 x-ray/ultra- sound tests, 36 CT scans, five MRI scans, 21 EKG tests, two lower endoscopy procedures, 45 respiratory therapy encounters. -received the follow- ing clinic reports: Pioneer Memorial Clinic in Hep- pner-436 patient visits with five new patients, 28 seen by a nurse, 16 no-shows and 29 cancellations; Ir- rigon Medical Clinic-460 patient visits with 14 new patients; Ione Community Clinic-57 patient visits, 27 seen by a nurse and zero no-shows. -received the following reports: Home Health-206 patient visits; Hos- pice-three admissions, two deaths; Pharmacy-2,366 drug doses for $89,184 in revenue. -received the following ambulance reports: Hep- pner-25 total page outs with 18 transports for $26,891 in revenue; Board- man-44 page-outs with 27 transports for $53,307 in revenue; Irrigon-44 page- outs with 23 transports for $38,152 in revenue; Ione- no transports; four life flights. Port candidates discuss issues at forum Topics include cooperation, transparency and Port accomplishments By David Sykes Candidates for the up- coming Port of Morrow Commission election at- tended a candidates’ forum last week and expressed their opinions on a wide range of issues from per- ceived secrecy at the Port, to better cooperation and communication with the public. The forum was spon- sored by the Heppner Chamber of Commerce and was broadcast live over facebook. Five of the seven candidates for open Port positions participated in the forum. Running for position one are Jonathan Tallman, Rick Stokoe and John Kilkenny; for posi- tion two is Joe Taylor who is unopposed and did not attend the forum; and po- sition three are Rick Weiss, Jerry Healy and Chandler Schaak. Schaak also did not attend the forum. Local attorney Bill Kuhn moderated the forum and read a series of ques- tions which the candidates answered. Following are the questions and the can- didate answers: Question: What was the primary reason you are running for port com- missioner and if elected what will be your first priority? John Kilkenny: I like the growth and diversifica- tion at the port area, but the port could do a better job with the other government agencies.” The county and cities must work together. Sometimes I think the port does things among them- selves and doesn’t involve the other people. I have an issue about Army Depot and CDA (Columbia De- velopment Authority) de- cision to turn the land over to the Port. They made the decision so quickly without involving the other people at all. That is not how I like to see things done. Rick Stokoe: I am running again.(he is an in- cumbent) to give public service and get outside the law enforcement commu- nity (he is the Boardman Chief of Police). I want to give back in other ways. There is a lot to learn with infrastructure and trans- portation. Jonathan Tallman: There is conflict of in- terest on the Port. This has to be exposed and addressed. There is also a housing shortage in Boardman. There needs to be affordable housing not $300 to $400 thousand homes. There was a water bond passed (by the city -See CANDIDATE FORUM/PAGE 7 Rick Weiss Rick Weiss is a candi- date for the Port of Mor- row Commission, Position #3. He is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boardman. Rick, his wife, Shara, and their three children moved to Boardman in November of 2019 from Gresham, Oregon. In ad- dition to their work for the church, Rick and Shara have been freelance inter- net specialists. Rick does web development and Shara has done social me- dia marketing. Both have spent most of their lives in Oregon but met in Ari- zona. Rick is a graduate of Arizona State Universi- ty with a degree in po- litical science. While at ASU he served as student body president, activi- ties vice-president and as a student senator. He re- ceived his master’s at Full- er Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. For several years he also worked in public policy as a part of a lobbying group for state and county issues in the greater Phoenix area. Serving the community is considered a significant part of how Rick sees his work. Shara and Rick were fully involved in getting the Boardman Food Pantry started at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns. They spent hours each day (sometimes seven days a week), delivering boxes of food, gathering donated items and organizing vol- unteers. They continue to serve on the Pantry Board and volunteer each Mon- day morning. Shara is the communications director for the Pantry. Rick also serves on the Board of the Boardman Senior Center. “My primary reason for running is to continue to seek ways in which I can serve the communi- ty. The Port of Morrow makes such an impact on the whole community, it seemed right to want to be a part of the process of advancing the great work that the POM does,” Rick said. Since deciding to run, Pastor Weiss has also “realized how important it would be for a com- missioner like him to be a part of the board.” He recognizes that the com- mission makes decisions that impact the Port as well as businesses with- in the county. “When the commissioners are also business owners, the po- tential for conflicts of in- terest are always present. Even though they regular- ly recuse themselves when votes are taken the poten- tial for conflict is still pres- ent,” says Weiss. “Most of the hard work of negotiat- ing and planning is done before the vote is taken at the board meeting. If the commissioner is involved in that early process, the potential for conflict is still present,” says Weiss. “While I don’t know that this has been the case, it seems wise for the com- mission to have people on the board who are without potential conflict of inter- est.” Another concern that Weiss recognizes is how communication is made with the community when there is a potential impact on the property of those not involved in the Port. He says that there appear to be some decisions made that affect neighboring properties, but the proper- ty owners are not aware of the changes until decisions have already been made. For example, if a per- son invests significant funds into their property, not knowing POM plans will affect the value of their property, it seems like a very unfortunate chain of events. The Port keeps those decisions private un- til the deal is done. “Some- thing needs to be done to protect the interests of af- fected neighbors.” “One way of doing this, and a way it can be done before negotiations require privacy, is to let the public know what the long-term plans are for a POM prop- erty. Even if the Commis- sion is only at the initial stage of planning, it would help the trust level of the POM with the communi- ty if these potential plans are discussed and made known,” he says. One of the requirements of the POM Commissioner is to seek public opinion in order to serve the entire citizenship of the district.” Weiss says he has not ob- served that this is being done effectively. “Our role is not only to advance the Port’s development. The role of the POM is to en- hance the entire district – seeking ways to build eco- nomic development and quality of life throughout the area we cover.” Weiss says it is important to de- velop a broad focus when looking at each potential new business. “The is- sues are more than what a particular business brings to the table, but how that business relates to the overall plan for the region and how it impacts other businesses and the quality of life for Morrow County citizens.”
