TWO - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 25, 2022
The Official Newspaper
of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow
Heppner
GAZETTE-TIMES
U.S.P.S. 240-420
Morrow County’s Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper
SEARCH OLD COPIES OF THE HEPPNER GAZETTE-TIMES ON-LINE:
http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/
Published weekly by Sykes Publishing and entered as periodical matter at the Post
Office at Heppner, Oregon under the Act of March 3, 1879. Periodical postage paid
at Heppner, Oregon. Office at 188 W. Willow Street. Telephone (541) 676-9228. Fax
(541) 676-9211. E-mail: editor@rapidserve.net or david@rapidserve.net. Web site:
www.heppner.net. Postmaster send address changes to the Heppner Gazette-Times,
P.O. Box 337, Heppner, Oregon 97836. Subscriptions: $31 in Morrow County; $25
senior rate (in Morrow County only; 65 years or older); $37 elsewhere; $31 student
subscriptions.
David Sykes ..............................................................................................Publisher
Bobbi Gordon................................................................................................ Editor
Giselle Moses.........................................................................................Advertising
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For Advertising: advertising deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Cost for a display ad is $5.25 per
column inch. Cost for classified ad is 50¢ per word. Cost for Card of Thanks is $10 up to
100 words. Cost for a classified display ad is $6.05 per column inch.
For Public/Legal Notices: public/legal notices deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Dates for publi-
cation must be specified. Affidavits must be requested at the time of submission. Affidavits
require three weeks to process after last date of publication (a sooner return date must be
specified if required).
For Obituaries: Obituaries are published in the Heppner GT at no charge and are edited to
meet news guidelines. Families wishing to include information not included in the guidelines
or who wish to have the obituary written in a certain way must purchase advertising space
for the obituary.
For Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor MUST be signed by the author. The Heppner
GT will not publish unsigned letters. All letters MUST include the author’s address and phone
number for use by the GT office. The GT reserves the right to edit letters. The GT is not
responsible for accuracy of statements made in letters. Any letters expressing thanks will
be placed in the classifieds under “Card of Thanks” at a cost of $10.
A View from the Green
Over the Tee Cup
WCCC Ladies Tues-
day players met at 9 a.m.,
May 17 finally enjoying
a warm, sunny day and a
slight breeze. There were
12 women who turned out
to enjoy the warm weather
and the course looked great.
Low gross of the field
award went to Virginia
Grant and low net of the
field to Pat Dougherty.
Least putts holder was Kar-
en Smith-Griffith. Virginia
Grant also had a chip-in on
#11 and a birdie on #15.
Low gross winner for
Flight A was Karen Thomp-
son and low net was Tiffany
Clement. Low gross for
Flight B was Shirley Mar-
tin and low net was Sharon
Harrison.
Low gross for Flight C
was Betty Carter and low
net winner was Kathy Mar-
tin. Least Putts holder was
Kim Carlson and closest to
the pin was Kathy Martin.
A coming event on June
14 th is the Women’s Invita-
tional Tournament.
Tristan Schultz
awarded Fulbright
scholarship
Tristan Schultz
Tristan Schultz, grand-
son of the local Koerner
family, will graduate with
honors on June 12 from
Seattle University with a
bachelor’s degree in Inter-
national Studies with an
emphasis in Economics.
He is being awarded the
Fulbright Fellow Scholar-
ship. Tristan will begin his
Fulbright Fellow studies
in South Korea in January
2023.
Health District - Boardman Fire hire
attorneys in ambulance dispute
County Commissioners hear arguments in coverage disagreement
Both the Morrow
County Health and Board-
man Fire and Rescue dis-
tricts have now hired attor-
neys to represent them in
their on-going dispute over
ambulance coverage in the
north end of the county.
Last week the two sides
brought their disagreements
and lawyers to the coun-
ty commission meeting,
presenting arguments in a
public hearing-type setting,
At issue is whether the fire
district will be allowed to
operate an ambulance in
Morrow County, a service
now through county licens-
ing is only reserved for the
health district.
The health district’s
emergency medical services
include six ambulance vehi-
cles located at four separate
dispatch sites. Two vehicles
are located in Heppner,
two in Boardman, and one
each in Irrigon and Ione.
The fire district has a paid
fire department facility in
Boardman, and it received
a surplus ambulance from
Portland General Electric
when it closed its nearby
coal generating facility.
The fire district wants
a license from the county
to operate the ambulance
and transport patients, but
the health district contends
an additional ambulance
service is not needed and is
also concerned the service
will cut into its revenue.
The fire district says
money is also the major
reason it wants to operate
an ambulance but says do-
ing so will not cut into the
health district’s revenue but
come from other sources.
“The primary reason we
are seeking the transport
license is to bring in out-
side revenue,” Fire Chief
Mike Hughes said in a
letter to the county com-
missioners which would
issue the license. Hughes
says, if licensed, the am-
bulance could also be used
to provide transport for
inter-hospital transportation
from Hermiston’s Good
Shepherd Hospital to other
locations, for which they
would be paid. He would
also like to provide medi-
cal coverage to the Navy,
which operates the nearby
bombing range, and the
Oregon Military Defense,
both who have asked for it.
Hughes says another
benefit to having an addi-
tional ambulance available
in Boardman would be to
back up the health district
ambulance service when
they are on other calls and
unavailable. He said the to-
tal number of medical calls
in Boardman per year are
around 500 and the need to
back up would not be very
often.
In response to the li-
cense request health district
attorney Troy Bundy said
the decision on whether to
issue a license did not rest
with the county commis-
sioners, but rather should be
guided by the Ambulance
Service Area (ASA) plan
which is administered by
the Emergency Medical
Services Advisory Com-
mittee. Hughes says it is the
committee which reviews
the plan to determine if
there is a need for additional
ambulance service, and not
the commissioners. He add-
ed that any ambulance op-
erating in the county would
have to comply with all the
rules spelled out in the ser-
vice plan. The 30-page plan
is a detailed description of
operating ambulance ser-
vices in the county and had
earlier been approved by
the Board of Commission-
ers and, as required by the
Oregon Health Authority.
A request by Hughes
was made in March of this
year to amend the ASA plan
and allow the Boardman
Fire District to “attend all
emergency calls within
Boardman Fire District
regardless of subject matter
of the calls.” At that time
the ASA advisory com-
mittee considered the re-
quest, and it was denied.
The nine-member advisory
committee is made up of
a physician from the am-
bulance provider, EMTs
from Heppner, Irrigon and
A Hunter Education class is coming up in June at the
Lexington Gun Club. Classes will be held June 14, 16, 21
and 23 from 6-9 p.m. and June 18 from 8 a.m. to noon.
In order to attend the class, students must register online
at https://myodfw.com/articles/hunter-education-class-
es-field-days.
Contact Jim Marquardt for additional information at
541 969-4845.
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Come down and join us to
that question. They look at
the plan and make determi-
nation if you need another
one or not. You can change
that (the plan) but that is the
way it is. If you talk about
an ambulance you have to
talk about the ambulance
service plan,” He argued.
“You need to use the plan.
Those questions need to
be answered by the EMS
advisory committee. You
appointed them; you need
to abide by the ASA service
plan. The fire district wants
you to answer questions
you are not equipped to
do,” Bundy told the com-
missioners.
The commissioners
decided they did not have
enough information to
make a decision at their
May 18 meeting and decid-
ed to put off a determina-
tion on issuing a license to
Boardman Rural Fire until
“no later than June 8.” The
commission also wanted to
wait and see what happens
when Umatilla County was
later considering a request
from Boardman Rural Fire
for an operating license in
that county.
$165,900
Hunter education
class coming up
Music by Frank Carlson
Saturday, June 4
Fettuccine Dinner 6 pm
Music 7pm to 11pm
Ione, a 911 representative,
directors of nursing from
both Pioneer Memorial and
Good Shepherd Hospitals
and a Heppner Rural Fire
Department representative.
Commissioner Don
Russell said he did not
understand why the county
resisted issuing the license.
“They want to have a li-
cense for an ambulance, so
they contract with Umatilla
Fire District that handles the
majority of ambulance calls
in Umatilla County when
they are overbooked and
need to transport patients
out of Good Shepherd Hos-
pital who need a different
level of care,” Russell said.
“That is the primary reason
they have the request. It just
allows Boardman Fire to
get additional revenue by
transporting patients from
Good Shepherd to other
area hospitals. Boardman
fire has an IGA (intergov-
ernmental agreement) with
the Oregon Military Au-
thority and Navy to provide
EMS service during live
fire and they will pay for
an ambulance out there,” he
explained. “They could also
be used as a resource during
a mass-casualty event. They
could be used as a resource.
It seems very simple. I
don’t get it,” Russell said.
“It boils down to do you
need another ambulance
service?” attorney Bundy
said. “The EMA answers
217 North Main St., Heppner, OR
Phone 676-9158 Floral 676-9426
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