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VOL. 144
NO. 26 8 Pages
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
BM 11U team wins
OD3 championship
BOC selects ambulance service providers
Health district to serve Irrigon, south county, while Boardman Fire
will serve Boardman
By Andrea Di Salvo
After years of tension,
the Morrow County Board
of Commissioners voted
to award contracts to two
county ambulance service
providers at its regular
meeting July 3 in Heppner.
The board of commis-
sioners chose to award the
contract for the Northen
Ambulance Service Area
(ASA) of Boardman and the
surrounding area to Board-
man Fire Rescue District
(BFRD).
The Northeast ASA
(Irrigon) and Southern
ASA (South Morrow) were
awarded to Morrow County
Health District (MCHD).
“I feel good about the
way we got here,” said
Morrow County Board of
Commissioners Chair Da-
vid Sykes. “We followed
the law. We did it the way it
was supposed to be done.”
“This has been a long
process,” said Morrow
County Administrator Mat-
thew Jensen. “While this
has caused much concern
and strife in the county,
we believe the adoption
of the ambulance service
plan that’s now in place
and the initial establish-
ment of these providers
will allow us to have some
groundwork where we can
rebuild some faiths, some
trust between providers,
and continue to provide
exemplary EMS service
to the residents of Morrow
County.”
The award to MCHD
carries the stipulation that
Morrow County staff and
outside legal counsel Bob
Blackmore will negotiate
the terms of intergovern-
mental agreements request-
ed by the health district if
MCHD did not get the con-
tracts for all three ASAs.
It has been more than
a year since the Morrow
County Board of Commis-
sioners (BOC) tasked attor-
ney Bob Blackmore and the
county administrator with
developing a new ASA plan
and updating the language.
Jensen, who took over as
county administrator last
August, said the update
re-establishes the BOC as
the authority over the am-
bulance service plan, with
an independent advisory
group, and also reestab-
lished the three ambulance
service areas in the county.
“This has historically
always been in the ambu-
lance service plan,” Jensen
added in reference to the
three individual areas. “It’s
just that we’ve had a single
provider for 30-plus years.”
The road to last week’s
BOC vote has been rocky to
say the least. In addition to
public outcry, accusations
and a recall effort against
the commissioners, MCHD
chose to cease operations
as the county’s ambulance
service provider on March
12 of this year.
Boardman Fire—
whose original request to
be licensed as an ambulance
service started the chain of
events a couple of years
ago—has been operating as
the interim county provider
since then.
The BOC adopted the
new ASA on April 17 of this
year, with an effective date
of July 17, 2024. Upon the
ASA plan’s adoption, Re-
quests for Application went
out May 8. Applications
were due June 3 rd and were
certified internally and sent
to the ad hoc committee
June 7.
Boardman Fire and
Morrow County Health
District were the only two
applicants.
Regarding the ad hoc
committee, Kelly Doherty
of Boardman spoke up
during public comment and
presented a grievance re-
garding the way the ambu-
lance service area requests
for proposals were handled,
even questioning the legali-
ty of the process.
She had concluded by
asking that the recommen-
dation be put on hold and
that the county set up “the
committee you were sup-
posed to set up” and redo
the application process.
During his presenta-
tion, Jensen didn’t address
her comments directly but
noted that the adopted or-
dinance had two options
for selecting a provider
or providers. One was to
have the county commis-
sioners make the selection
themselves, while the other
was to form a committee
to review the applications.
Jensen said the BOC had
taken the second option
and given him permission
to form the committee.
“This is allowed in
ORS,” he said. “We do
this all the time in county
government.”
He said the members
of the committee were not
appointed by the board of
commissioners but were
selected by the five cities
within the county, with the
addition of an EMS pro-
fessional from outside the
county.
City representatives
were Emily Jack of Hep-
pner, Sheila Miller of Lex-
ington, Jerry Rietmann
of Ione, Brenda Proffit of
Boardman and Michelle
Patton of Irrigon. The com-
mittee also included David
Anderson, EMS Coordina-
tor for North Gilliam Coun-
ty ambulance services. Jen-
sen and Blackmore rounded
out the eight-person com-
mittee.
“I’ll tell you, they did a
fabulous job,” Jensen said.
“They asked all the hard
questions.”
He also noted that the
ASA advisory committee
outline in the plan is meant
to have representation from
providers, which was dif-
ficult during the selection
process, since the county
was operating with an in-
terim provider.
“It’s kind of difficult to
have that committee formed
to talk about initial provid-
ers when that committee’s
not around and it’s not
effective until the effective
date on July 17,” he said.
Applicants were asked
to submit proposals for each
of the three ASAs, which
would then be scored indi-
vidually.
Applications were
scored using an 80-point
scoring metric. Of those,
25 points were for ability
to provide service and meet
specifications, 25 points
were for provider stability
and experience working
with local governments, 25
for team member qualifica-
tions for the type of services
required, and five points for
reference checks. Financial
considerations were not
part of the scoring.
“They (the committee)
should not be driven by
who’s the cheapest,” said
Jensen.
That said, Jensen said
Boardman Fire had pro-
vided an “up-to” cost esti-
mate, while Morrow Coun-
ty Health District expressed
some uncertainties and had
chosen to provide an es-
timated loss that it would
expect the county to cover.
MCHD had also provided
a slight discount for being
awarded more than one
ASA.
Jensen said the com-
mittee did provide con-
sideration for “synergies”
in having multiple ASAs
awarded to a single pro-
vider.
The selection commit-
The Blue Mountain 11U boys Baseball team and their
coaches. -Photos contributed.
The Blue Mountain
baseball team won the
Oregon District 3 Little
League Championships in
the 9-11 yr. age group and
will be advancing to State.
They defeated Pendleton,
Hermiston, Baker, and
La Grande to secure the
championship.
Morrow County Fair harvest
photography contest
Farmer Ken Nelson, Norman Nelson, and Alfred Nelson Jr., and
“Porky” Lyons using the model 30 gas Cat, ca. 1929.
-Photo contributed.
Wheat harvest is the
lifeblood of Morrow Coun-
ty, and the 2024 County
Fair celebrates its impor-
tance with a special contest
in the photography depart-
ment. The winning photo
of harvest in our county, a
photo that has never been
entered in the Fair before,
will receive a $25 award
sponsored by Jake Lindsay,
the President of Morrow
County Wheat League.
In keeping with this
year’s Fair theme, “Admira-
tion for Generations”, the
harvest photo may be from
the past or the present. The
exhibitor is encouraged to
provide as much informa-
-Continued to PAGE SEVEN
Dooney sworn in as
Patrol Deputy
-Continued to PAGE SEVEN
Ione School District Gears up for exciting new construction
projects with support from project managers
By Annalynn Black
The Ione school dis-
trict is embarking on an
exciting journey with the
help of project managers
Doug Carl and Eurl Eas-
trum from the company
Alliance. Two years ago,
they were entrusted with
the responsibility of add-
ing onto the existing K-12
building to create a unified
campus. After much hard
work and preparation, a
bond was finally put to-
gether by members of the
Ione community, followed
by a three-month bidding
process from contractors.
To ensure community
involvement, a committee
of five dedicated individu-
als was formed to oversee
the bond creation. Their
ultimate goal was to bring
all K-12 classes on one
campus, with a particular
focus on constructing a new
high school building. Addi-
tionally, plans were made to
include a football field and
track field, as well as career
technical education (CTE)
classes.
The project is moving
Ione School District staff (L-R) Chelsea Geer ELA Teacher,
Cathy McCabe, Tracey Johnson-Superintendent,
Lea Hagenauer- Secretary posing in front of the last beam. The
beam is decorated with a tree and a US flag.
-Photo contributed
forward steadily, with the
track and field expected to
be completed this summer.
The high school build-
ing is set to follow, with a
projected completion date
around next February. Once
finished, the remodeling of
the current school building
will commence.
One special aspect of
the construction process
is the tradition of “topping
out” observed by iron work-
ers. This tradition involves
hoisting a tree, wreath, or
flag to the top story of a
framed-out building when
the last beam is placed.
This custom, which can
be traced back to ancient
Scandinavia, represents the
conclusion of the project
and brings good luck to its
future occupants.
Tracy Johnson, the Su-
perintendent of the Ione
School District, is eager-
ly looking forward to the
changes taking place. She
emphasizes the importance
of creating a cohesive
workplace, stating, “The
staff and students are ex-
cited for the new building,
science labs, shop/ CTE
(career technical education)
area and flexible classroom
space. Looking forward
to creating a central office
space connecting the two
buildings creating more co-
hesiveness for the staff and
students. The community
of Ione was so generous
in passing our bond, we
want to make sure we are
honoring their vision and
increase all opportunities
in Ione for all our students
and community members.”
Sheriff David Bowles and Patrol Deputy David Dooney.
-Photo from the MCSO Facebook page.
MCSO- Sheriff Bowles
did the honors and swore-
in Patrol Deputy David
Dooney today. We could
not have wished for a
more perfect candidate for
the job. He is retired from
30 years in the U. S. Navy
with over 20 of those Mas-
ter-at-Arms (Navy Law
Enforcement) and retired
as a Master Chief (the
highest rank for enlisted
personnel). He served both
on ship and shore, all over
the world. (Thank you for
your service!)
CALL
541-989-8221
ext 204
for more
information