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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 2019)
HERMISTON CELEBRATES HOMECOMING » PAGES A10, A15 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 HermistonHerald.com $1.50 Staff photo by Ben Lonergan INSIDE A GROWING PROBLEM GUN CONTROL Eastern Oregon politicians and law enforcement react to a proposed ballot measure requiring secure storage of all guns in homes. PAGE A14 BY THE WAY City asking for feedback on parks projects Hermiston residents have an opportunity to pro- vide input for the parks and recreation department’s master plan. The plan currently being drafted will guide the department’s work for years to come, prioritizing spending and construction on new parks and other facilities. The city has posted an online survey, accessible until Nov. 1. The survey, which takes about 10 min- utes, can be found at bit. ly/hermistonparks_survey. It asks residents for feed- back on how happy they are with each of Hermis- ton’s current parks and rec- reation facilities, then asks them to prioritize other potential projects such as an indoor aquatic center, new playground, ice skat- ing rink or boat ramp. The survey is anony- mous, but people can sub- mit their contact infor- mation if they want a Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Harry Ramos, left, of Richland, Wash., serves lunch at The Salvation Army on Emigrant Avenue in Pendleton on Friday. Umatilla County organizations are taking aim at homelessness By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR f an earthquake toppled the homes of 20,000 people tomorrow, Oregon Community Foundation CEO Max Williams suspects those people wouldn’t be left to sleep under a bridge. Schools and churches would be turned into emergency shelters. FEMA would show up with tents and RVs. Nonprofi ts would send teams of workers to build new homes. I See BTW, Page A2 When thousands of people are made homeless through other circumstances — job loss, addiction, no-cause eviction — it’s a different story. “People make choices, but that doesn’t negate the fact that they’re people and deserve to be treated humanely,” Williams said. OCF, a public charity with more than $2 billion in assets, commissioned a study by ECONorthwest earlier this year on the root causes of homelessness in Oregon and recommendations for reducing it. A housing problem Casual observers tend to think addic- tion and mental illness cause most home- lessness, because those populations tend to be the most visible. But the EcoNorthwest report cites a national study by economists John Quigley and Steven Raphael that also ties homelessness to housing costs. A 10% increase in rent costs correlates to a 13.6% increase in homelessness, they found. The report also points to relatively low homeless populations in states with high addiction rates but low housing costs, such as West Virginia. “There’s a pretty clear relationship with the cost of housing,” Williams said. While the chronic, “unsheltered” home- less are the most visible, more common See Homeless, Page A16 Burke announces retirement from Good Shepherd By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR 8 08805 93294 2 Dennis Burke announced Friday he is retiring as CEO of Good Shepherd Health Care System in 2020. Burke said he doesn’t know exactly what he will be doing after, but he thinks he “still has a few years of rele- vancy left.” “I don’t want to just sit on the porch and rock,” he said. Burke Burke spent 31 years at the helm of the Hermiston hospi- tal, transforming it from a 250-employee hospital to a 700-employee health care system with services ranging from chi- ropractors to urgent care. GSHCS chair Steve Eldridge said Burke’s leadership enabled Good Shepherd to “thrive.” “We have experienced very signif- icant growth under his direction and improved quality of care,” he said in a statement. Eldridge said he helped put Good Shepherd on the “political map” through efforts with the state legislature and testifying before Congressional committees about rural healthcare. Burke has served on many boards and committees, including the Oregon Association of Hos- pitals and Health Systems board, OAHHS Small and Rural Hospital Committee, OAHHS Governance Committee and the Political Action Committee and the Critical Access Hospital Leadership Committee of the National Rural Health Association. “His experience, expertise and pas- sion for providing healthcare services See Burke, Page A16 HH fi le photo Good Shepherd Health Care System CEO Dennis Burke shares updates during a community meeting at the Hermiston Community Center in 2018.
