Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, March 1, 2023 -- EIGHT
Broken Spoke
-Continued from PAGE ONE
took a chance and said yes.
Carol spent the next four
years managing the Honky
Tonk in Salem.
“It gave me a perspec-
tive and experience for this
side of the business,” she
says. “It was definitely a
good fit for my personality
and what I like to do. I like
working with people. I like
working in service.”
They had visited the
Lexington area throughout
the years, so they were fa-
miliar with it. In fact, Sean’s
cousin, Sam Martin, lives
in the area, so Sean has a
long history here. Sean is
even the artist who painted
the lettering and rabbit on
the Lexington water tower.
Broken Spoke’s Missing
Man table, a tribute to fallen
soldiers.
When Sam told them about
the restaurant for sale, they
decided to give it a try. They
purchased the building last
April.
The couple had a few
different ideas for the name,
but narrowed them down to
the Elk Horn and the Bro-
ken Spoke. The proximity
to the Oregon Trail, the
western theme, and a love
them, I did this,” he says,
gesturing to the intricate
patterns on several of the ta-
bletops. “I built everything
here for my wife. I can’t do
anything less than the best
I’ve got for her.”
Other personal touches
can be seen throughout the
restaurant’s interior. The
glass doors on the reach-in
cooler came out of Jake’s
Bar and Grill in Portland
40 years ago. On one wall
hangs a wagon wheel with
a broken spoke. The bar
and restaurant also features
a “missing man table” to
honor veterans and fallen
soldiers.
“I had no plan. It’s been
a labor of love,” says Sean.
The building itself
wasn’t the only hurdle.
Starting and operating a
restaurant in a rural area
came with a few trials of
its own.
“It’s definitely had its
challenges,” says Carol.
For instance, she says a lot
of vendors weren’t used to
coming out to such a rural
area, and they had to work
hard to get vendors for ev-
erything from groceries to
appliances. “They’ve never
serviced out here before.”
Good service is import-
ant if you want to serve good
food, though, and that’s ex-
actly what the Doughertys
plan. Everything is made
in-house daily, including
the pasta, pasta sauce and
salad dressings.
“Fresh and homemade
as it can be,” says Sean.
They’re even looking
A section of ceiling formed by “sporadic” cuts of cedar.
of motorcycles (especially
Harleys) swung the vote to
the Broken Spoke.
From April to Septem-
ber of last year, the couple
came down every other
weekend to work on the
renovation. In September,
they moved here perma-
nently.
Sean says he purchased
it mainly for Carol, but it
has also become a labor
of love for him as he puts
his artistry to use in bring-
ing life back into the old
building.
“I built this whole
thing. Every bit of it,” he
says of the interior of the
small restaurant. “I’m an
artist, and I can’t do some-
thing just plain.”
The coffee bar was the
first thing replaced. The
top of the bar is made from
the pallet the new flooring
came on. One section of
the ceiling is covered by
an intricate design of cedar.
“I started putting spo-
radic cuts in, and this is
what I got,” says Sean.
The building, which
has sat empty for some
time, also wasn’t in the best
of shape. Sean says they
removed the shelves from
the walk-in cooler, and
all the walls in the cooler
caved in. He says that was
a low moment for them. He
called Sam Martin when it
happened.
“He walked in and said,
‘Man, you guys just look
defeated,’” he recalls.
“My cousin Sam was a
Godsend,” Sean adds. “He
came over and helped with
everything he could.”
He also says they re-
moved four tons of sawdust
from those cooler walls.
“Some of the tables
were in bad shape. To save
to source local beef, and
have been talking with sev-
eral local producers who are
USDA certified.
It’s not the easy way to
do things—“Not even a lit-
tle bit,” says Carol. In fact,
she adds that they could cut
their costs in half by using
frozen foods. However,
that’s not the vision they
have for the Broken Spoke.
“More of homestyle
cooking rather than fast
food,” says Carol.
Executive chef Shawn
Lifferth, who was trained in
New York, is busy creating
special items for the new
menu. One of Lifferth’s
creations is fried ice cream
topped with whisky cara-
mel sauce.
“We can’t keep them in
the doors,” says Carol.
They say kitchen
manager Katie Imes also
helps keep things running
smoothly. Some might as-
sume home cooking means
long waits, but among
them, they say they get
everything prepped before
opening so wait times don’t
get too long.
The Broken Spoke,
located on Main Street
in Lexington, is current-
ly in its “soft opening”
phase, with a grand opening
planned for March 11. For
now, they have a limited
menu, but plan to expand
their offerings after their
grand opening.
Their soft opening
hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Wednesday through Sun-
day. After their grand open-
ing, they intend to start
opening for breakfast on
the weekends. Their goal
is to be open for breakfast,
lunch and dinner, Tuesday
through Sunday.
Boardman Fire seeks repeal of ambulance ordinance
-Continued from PAGE ONE Boardman area.
commissioners Jim Doherty
and Melissa Lindsay had
resisted putting a license
request on the agenda, say-
ing the fire district needed
to first provide evidence
of need for the ambulances
before the county would
consider moving forward
with a license.
Also at last week’s
meeting was MCHD CEO
Emily Roberts, who was
present to lay out the case
for the health district’s con-
tinued operation of Board-
man ambulance services.
“We all know where
this is,” Morrow County
Board of Commissioners
Chair David Sykes said,
warning the parties to stay
on topic on the issue, which
has sparked heated discus-
sions and hard feelings
several times. “It’s a big
discussion that’s been going
on for quite some time.
Hughes did not directly
address the issue of licens-
ing for the Boardman Fire
ambulances, but instead
requested that the board
of commissioners repeal
county ordinance MC-C-
4-98. The ordinance lays
out the regulation of am-
bulance service providers
in the county. Hughes said
the current ordinance was
more than 24 years old and
that he did not believe the
county was currently in
compliance with Oregon
Health Authority rules re-
garding Ambulance Service
Agreements (ASAs).
“As far as I can tell, it
appears that in 1993 that
ASA was crafted for Mor-
row County and approved
by Oregon Health Authority
as required by the ordinance
rules,” said Hughes.
He also said it was
“clear” that every five years
OHA must receive an up-
dated ASA plan to make
sure the county is still in
compliance with updated
laws. Hughes stated that the
plan was not submitted for
OHA approval in 1998—or
any time since. He said that
in February of 2021 Mor-
row County received an
email from OHA requesting
an ASA be sent because
they hadn’t received one
since 1993.
“Therefore, the process
has been missed through
the laws for over 24 years,”
said Hughes. Since the 1998
ordinance didn’t follow the
process, Hughes said, “it
could easily be argued that
it is invalid.”
In addition to asking
the commissioners to repeal
the ordinance, Hughes also
asked that the board tem-
porarily assign an admin-
istrator such as the public
health dept. or emergency
manager.
“Let them research and
come back to the board with
a permanent solution,” he
said.
Hughes also stated that
out of 108 ASAs in the
state, most use a public
health department, emer-
gency manager or CPA.
“I only know of two
personally where the ambu-
lance provider is the admin-
istrator,” said Hughes. One
problem with that model, he
added, was that the provider
was policing itself.
Hughes also refer-
enced previous mediation
attempts with Elizabeth
Heckathorn. He asked that
the county ask her to write
a new ASA and “follow the
process required by law.”
He suggested writing three
response models for the
The first model would
be that nothing chang-
es, and the health district
would continue to provide
ambulance services in the
Boardman area.
The second would be
a combination in which
MCHD continues to be the
primary responding agency
and Boardman fire becomes
the secondary.
The third would be for
Boardman Fire to have the
primary responsibility for
their response area.
“Now, this is all depen-
dent upon licensure,” added
Hughes. “As a commission,
I think one of your biggest
concerns if you repeal this
ordinance is, what happens
to ambulance service.
“The answer is noth-
ing,” he added. “Nothing
changes. Morrow County
Health District is the only
licensed operator in this
county.”
“I understand this is
an emotional topic,” said
Hughes, but I’m still a little
confused as to why more
ambulances wouldn’t be
better.”
Morrow County Health
District CEO Emily Rob-
erts responded by saying
that she agreed the ASA
needed to be approved ev-
ery five years but that she
did not agree that the county
has not been in compliance.
Roberts provided the
commission with a letter the
OHA had sent to the county,
which she said was given to
her by former county ad-
ministrator Darrell Green.
She said the letter stated
that the county is in com-
pliance and the current ASA
plan is approved.
“Every five years, the
county has submitted a new
one,” said Roberts, adding
that they would not neces-
sarily see a new ASA for
every five years. “Because
there’s a dialog between the
county and OHA every time
you resubmit that ASA,”
she said. “We know that
there can be a lag in their
response to that. This time
there was a lag of about six
months.”
“If you contact Oregon
Health Authority, which I
encourage you to do, they
will confirm that you are
and have been in compli-
ance,” Roberts said.
She added that Heck-
athorn also confirmed that
in the mediation process.
Roberts also said that not
every county had an ASA as
an ordinance, and it was up
to the commission to deter-
mine whether it should be.
“There’s nothing I’m
aware of that would require
it to be an ordinance,” she
added. “You would have to
adopt it. Ours specifically
states that it is an ordi-
nance.”
She also said that hav-
ing the health district as the
administrator of the ASA
plan was not an uncommon
model, and the decision was
most likely made to cast the
liability from the county
onto an entity that had more
EMS experience.
“As they like to say at
OHA, if you’ve seen one
ASA plan, you’ve seen one
ASA plan,” Roberts said.
“They are all very different,
and the intention was that
they would serve well the
community that they were
intended to serve.”
Morrow County’s ASA
plan specifically sets up an
EMS advisory committee
of ten people with represen-
tation including fire, EMS
and dispatch. Those 10
individuals are tasked with
overseeing the ASA plan.
They have public meetings
at least quarterly and make
recommendations back to
the health district board.
“In terms of need in the
service area,” said Roberts,
“to open the ASA again,
you need to prove that there
is need or that services
are not being met as they
should in the ASA plan.”
Roberts said MCHD
has two Boardman ambu-
lances, while Boardman
has a population of 3,921,
which means there is one
MCHD ambulance in ser-
vice per 1,961 people. They
had 318 transports in 2022.
“We may be called out
more, but in terms of people
who actually need to go to
a hospital, there’s 318,” she
said. She compared that to
Hermiston, which has four
ambulances with a popula-
tion of 19,455, for a ratio
of one ambulance for every
4,864 people.
“So you can see Board-
man’s coverage, by those
numbers, is twice as good.”
In Morrow County as
a whole, she said, there
are seven ambulances for
a population of 12,303, or
one ambulance per 1,758
people. Roberts pointed to
those numbers as a reason
the ASA did not need to be
changed.
Morrow County Com-
missioner Jeff Wenholz
asked about the ASA that
Roberts said was adopt-
ed by OHA in 2022 and
whether the board of com-
missioners had approved
that. She answered that they
had; Green had submitted
an ASA to the OHA, which
was returned with requests
for changes. The changes
were made and resubmitted
to the OHA. The OHA then
approved it and issued an
approval letter.
“The BOC did not then
readopt it, but it is not le-
gally required that they do
that,” said Roberts. “The
OHA themselves said it is
unusual for a county to go
back and readopt it after
those changes from the
Oregon Health Authority
because the Oregon Health
Authority mandates that
you make those changes.”
“How I would view
it is, the county submit-
ted a draft to OHA. OHA
redlined it, it came back,
and then the board never
had a chance to review
it and formally adopt it,”
said Wenholz. “Granted,
I understand what you’re
saying, but the board never
got to review and give their
blessing to what the OHA
had given.”
“Because Oregon
Health Authority has ad-
opted your plan,” Roberts
replied, “they legally con-
sider that to be your plan, so
you would actually need to
go back to them and reopen
it if you chose to.”
She added that in the
absence of that plan being
effective, the law states
that it refers to the previous
plan. “Which is largely the
same, except that it doesn’t
have the definitions updated
as the OHA wanted to see,”
she said.
Sykes asked Morrow
County Counsel Justin Nel-
son for his input. Nelson
said he did not feel pre-
pared to give one as he
was not as well versed in
the ordinance. The issue
of repealing the ordinance
was new to the ambulance
debate, which had previous-
ly centered around dispatch
services, letters of support
and licensing.
“The review of the or-
dinance and the effects of
it being repealed have not
been determined, so that’s
why I say I don’t have a
position here,” said Nelson.
“The question has come up
saying, ‘Whats going to
happen if its repealed?’ It’s
all going to stay the same?
I can’t guarantee that.”
“I would be asking for
time to look that over,” he
added. “To come back with
that analysis.”
Hughes again ad-
dressed the board, saying
Boardman Fire in 2021 had
requested in writing to be
part of the process in the
writing of the 2022 ASA.
“We were then sup-
posed to be given a part in
the writing of that ASA. We
were not,” said Hughes.
He said Boardman Fire
requested participation in
another additional writing
as well.
“That is my conflict
that, again, process was
not followed and, therefore,
we were not allowed to
participate in that process,”
Hughes said.
Roberts responded that
Boardman Fire had request-
ed to be part of the process
but that work groups had
been held to try to make
them part of the process,
and it was her understand-
ing that they did not then
have a viable financial plan
or a way that they could
take over the ASA.
“They had essential-
ly copied our plan,” said
Roberts. “Our plan doesn’t
apply to anybody else, be-
cause we get cost-based
reimbursement from the
federal government. We are
the only entity in the entire
region that can get that type
of reimbursement.”
Nelson said it would
take several weeks to re-
view the ordinance and the
ramifications of repealing
it.
“It’s just more of an
involved conversation,”
he said.
The board of commis-
sioners voted to allow Nel-
son time to research the
possible effects of repealing
the ordinance and revisit the
issue on March 15.
Winter market
hosted at Blown
Away Ranch
Blown Away Ranch
will be hosting its first-ever
indoor winter market on
Sunday, March 12, from
1-3 p.m. There will be a
number of vendors with
products ranging from can-
dles, glassware and wood
signs to Tastefully Simple,
Arbonne, feed bag totes,
farm-fresh produce, Park
Lane Jewelry and more.
The event includes free
beverages and pastries for
shoppers. The public is in-
vited to come and support
local vendors and artisans.
Directions and more
information can be found
at www.blownawayranch.
com, or by emailing
blownawayranch@gmail
or following the farm on
Facebook.