BUSINESS NEWS
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019
Psychiatric hospital designed with patient safety in mind
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
When Eastern Ore-
gon residents experience
a severe mental health cri-
sis, they will soon be able to
receive inpatient treatment
at a local facility designed
to keep them as safe as
possible.
At the new Aspen
Springs Psychiatric Hospi-
tal in Hermiston, even the
landscaping in the courtyard
was given special thought.
“All of our plants out
here are non-toxic and also
edible, so if a patient were
to try to eat them they would
not be harmed,” Lifeways
director Micaela Cathey
said.
The hospital will start
taking patients sometime
in the fi rst quarter of 2020,
after it is fully staffed, but
for now Lifeways is offer-
ing tours to the public.
During a tour Monday,
Cathey pointed out how
everything from chairs to
door handles to railings
present a unique shape,
fl owing smoothly together
with nowhere someone
could tie a piece of clothing
to try to injure themselves.
Patients will be searched
and given special clothing
when they enter the facil-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Lifeways is preparing to open their newly constructed
Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital at 1212 W. Linda Ave. in
Hermiston. The facility will provide 16 private rooms available
for residents experiencing a severe mental health crisis.
Image courtesy of Cheryl McIntosh, DONE, LLC
The 16 private patient rooms feature attached bathrooms with fl exible mat doors that provide
privacy without allowing people to barricade themselves inside.
ity. Soft rubber hooks in the
16 private rooms can’t hold
more than a T-shirt’s weight.
Each of the individual
rooms — decorated with a
mural of an aspen tree —
has a small bathroom with
sink and toilet, walled off
with a fl exible mat attached
to the wall by velcro, pro-
viding visual privacy with-
out allowing people to bar-
ricade themselves inside.
In the center of the two
hallways is a lounge area
where patients can play
board games, watch tele-
vision, eat meals or social-
ize. A smaller “refl ection
room” allows for a quieter
atmosphere, and the super-
vised courtyard with anti-
climb fencing offers fresh
air. There are also rooms
where patients can meet
with their therapist and/or
family members.
Cathey said Lifeways
is “pretty proud” of the
hospital.
“It’s somewhere we
would want our family or
ourselves to come here,
should the need arise,” she
said. “We tried to make it as
home-like as possible.”
Before the state does its
fi nal sign-off to open the
facility, it needs to be fully
staffed. Cathey said recruit-
ing positions such as psy-
chiatrists and masters-level
therapists can be diffi cult
in a rural area, so if anyone
is interested in working for
Aspen Springs they should
give Lifeways a call.
She said the hospital will
be staffed around the clock,
with 12-14 staff during the
day and about half that num-
ber at night.
The average patient will
stay fi ve to eight nights.
While Umatilla County resi-
dents in crisis have been sent
out of the area for hospital-
ization in the past, Cathey
said, their discharge will
now be easier to plan while
their therapist, medical pro-
vider, family and friends are
in the same town or county.
“We will serve the entire
state, since psychiatric beds
are at a premium, but the
goal is to serve the com-
munity fi rst and foremost,
meaning Eastern Oregon as
a whole,” she said.
Umatilla Electric joins its voice with co-ops nationwide to protect nonprofi t status
By KATY NESBITT
FOR THE HERMISTON HERALD
Umatilla Electric of
Hermiston is one of doz-
ens of electric cooperatives
across the nation supporting
passage of a bill in Congress
aimed at protecting their
nonprofi t status.
The cooperatives are ask-
ing members of the House
of Representatives to pass
the “Revitalizing Underde-
veloped Rural Areas and
Lands Act,” also known as
House Bill 2147 and Senate
Bill 1032.
The bills were proposed
to fi x what Steve Myers,
Umatilla Electric mem-
ber services administrator,
called “an unintended con-
sequence of the 2017 tax
law.”
Meyers said Oregon’s
other electric cooperatives
— which are collectively
represented by the Ore-
gon Rural Electric Coop-
erative Association — are
urging Congress to pass
the RURAL Act. He said
the co-ops are also ask-
ing their customers to con-
tact their congressional rep-
resentatives, as well, to ask
them to vote on the bills
in the respective houses of
Congress.
“We have joined other
electric cooperatives in Ore-
gon and around the U.S.
in supporting this legisla-
tion, and we would appre-
ciate any local support
for passage of the Revi-
talizing
Underdeveloped
Rural Areas and Lands Act
(RURAL) Act,” Myers said.
An effort has been under-
way since this past summer,
Myers said, and Oregon
Rural Electric Cooperative
Association, various elec-
tric-co-op managers, board
members and other staff
from co-ops met with leg-
islators in D.C. and sent
letters and emails urging
passage.
The concern stems from
a provision in the 2017 “Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act” that con-
siders federal, state and
local grants as “non-mem-
ber income” and poten-
tially taxable for electric
cooperatives.
Ted Case, executive
director of the Oregon Rural
Electric Cooperative Asso-
ciation, said in his online
newsletter, the RURAL Act
is “no run-of-the-mill piece
of legislation.”
“The RURAL Act allows
co-ops to receive grants for a
host of programs — includ-
ing disaster aid, broadband
and economic development
— without losing their tax
exempt status,” he said. “It’s
a complicated tax issue.
What you need to know is
that this bill needs to pass.
And soon. The Oregon del-
egation with its incredi-
ble seniority and clout is
well-positioned to make it
happen. Our senior sena-
tor, Ron Wyden, is the rank-
ing member of the Senate
Finance Committee.”
Before passage of the
2017 tax law state and fed-
eral grants that helped elec-
tric co-ops restore service
and rebuild electrical infra-
structures after a disaster or
expand broadband to under-
served rural areas were
defi ned as “capital” and not
“income.” Electric coopera-
tives serving 19 million cus-
tomers banded together to
encourage Congress to pass
the Revitalizing Underde-
veloped Rural Areas and
Lands Act.
In order to be considered
tax-exempt, electric cooper-
atives must receive at least
85% of their income from
their members. If a co-op
receives fi nancial support
from an agency like the
Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency follow-
ing a storm or wildfi re that
increases its non-member
income more than 15%, it
is at risk of being taxed. To
address this provision in
the 2017 tax bill a biparti-
san group from Oregon’s
congressional delegation
— U.S. Representatives
Earl Blumenauer, Peter
DeFazio, Kurt Schrader and
Greg Walden — co-spon-
sored the bill. Myeres said
the Oregon co-ops are
also looking to Sen. Ron
Wyden, the ranking mem-
ber of the Finance Com-
mittee, and Oregon electric
co-ops for help.
“This
summer
we
urged our federal legisla-
tors, especially Sen. Ron
Wyden, to support the pro-
posed law that would pro-
tect electric cooperatives’
tax-exempt status when
they receive state or federal
grants,” Myers said.
Wyden said he fought to
strip the new tax on rural
electric co-ops from the
2017 tax bill, something he
called a “serious concern
for electric co-ops and their
customers.”
The new bicameral bill
aims to eliminate it.
PET OF THE
W EEK
Danny is an adorable 9 week old pup who
is going to be a big boy! He is current
on vaccines, wormed and scheduled for
neuter and microchip. He is Husky, Lab
and Border Collie mix. Please research the
breeds before applying. He will grow quite
large and needs room to run and get regular
exercise. Fence is required.
“While the supporters of
the 2017 law would not lis-
ten beforehand to my com-
mon-sense solutions to
protect organizations that
receive federal aid from
getting hit with surprise
tax bills, I remain open to
sitting down with my col-
leagues to address the long
list of problems in this
deeply fl awed tax scheme,
including protections to
ensure ratepayers aren’t the
ones suffering from this bad
bill,” Wyden said.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Umatilla Electric Cooperative of Hermiston is one of many
electric cooperatives expressing their support for House
Bill 2147 and Senate Bill 1032 which would help protect the
nonprofi t status of the cooperative.
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