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Newspaper Archive of
The Goldendale Sentinel
Goldendale , Washington
March 11, 2004     The Goldendale Sentinel
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March 11, 2004
 
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SUBJECT TO LICENSE AGREEMENT. REPRODUCTION, DISSEMINATION, STORAGE, DISTRIBUTION PROHIBITED. 11, 2004 PAGE 3 • n languag conversational starting at library soon SKINNER Reporter Como estas? choovstvooyoo had trouble reading line (in Spanish) or (in Russian), then the need as a second lan- this month the Community will host a m-week program to help ~ speakers improve gather in Room library nights The help came in the form of a $40,000 grant from WSL Money from the grant covers, among other things, the conversation circles. The Goldendale circles are based on a successful program, Talk Time, that has been in action throughout the Puget Sound area for years, said Fisher. Funds also go into training the staff of the Goldendale library, getting them ready to lead conversations among speakers of Spanish, Chinese I hope this will help the non-native speakers to participate in our commu- nity. - Naomi Fisher pation as each circle member can share what holidays are celebrated in their homeland, and they become better English speakers in the process. A theme of some sort will occupy each week's con- versation, and to continue vocabulary growth, games like Pictionary will be on hand. To facilitate the weekly conversations, the Goldendale library has trained five people, but Fisher said that the program proved to be so popular that the library will soon seek more volunteers. The volunteers on line to facilitate the first session were trained at the Tacoma Community House. Photo by Greg Skinner John Tucker, Brim's senior vice president (LEFT), and John McCormick, regional financial officer, answer questions after presenting the company's proposal to the Klickitat Valley Hospital board of commissioners last Thursday 17. 0rmal lan- program a program pro- Washington (WSL), asking to join in a diversity project. meeting with var- groups in the e area, the ,e library deter- languageskills priority for the Project. more ESL librarian Naomi 1 -~ name of the chil- in Washington are of what cash- insured patients to the dentist. The is written also say that can be a lot Same throughout aren't enough to take any place," said Start, a federal devel- Program for low- Goldendale Community Library and Russian. Fisher has a goal for the conversation cir- cles: "I hope this will help the non-native speakers to par- ticipate in our community," she said. Between 20 and 30 people have signed up for the con- versation circles so far. The first week's gathering will center on the theme of holidays. Conversations involving holidays tend to bring people into a more comfortable level of partici- income children, encourages a visit to the dentist before a child enrolls in their preschool programs. Still, "Probably 3o percent do not complete work on the teeth," said Chambers. "It doesn't cost a dime to bring them in here." Chambers was the only per- son to offer an answer to the problem beyond "educate the parents." She said the state should require them to bring there kids in. "Erase the system and The current plan has ~ two people per week on a rotating basis Decision time: Brim offer to providing coverage and lead- ing the conversations. A sec- ond session will happen m Klickitat Valley Hospital sometime this summer. Conversation circles can extend into the larger com- munity, too. If over the next several weeks you hear some- one on the street or in church speaking another language, said Fisher, people can invite them deeper into the commu- nity with conversation, sim- ply asking "Como estas?" start over," said Chambers. What she means is, to change the DSHS system to hold back benefits paid to parents on a monthly basis if there is no visit to the dentist or the doctor in honor of pre- ventive medicine. In short, a system that forcefully benefits the child. - Brockus disagrees with that idea, "I would not agree ~ith something that punitive, we could not hold funds for that reason...The funds are for the children." By GREG SKINNER News Reporter Acknowleding that "It's not always easy having outsiders involved," Brim Health Hospital Management made its final management proposal to the board of commissioners of Klickitat Valley Heath Services (KVHS) and 25 citi- zens and employees last Thursday evening. The three-man presenta- tion team made a list of offers: to straighten out, tighten up, and better manage KVHS. "You desperately need leader- ship," said Steve Kinder, vice president. The most profound offer came from John McCormick, Brim's regional financial offi- cer, "Year one, we'll pay for ourselves." From there the proposed benefits seem to only get better. By year three, when the proposed offer contains a way out tbr either party, Brim pro- jects a net financial gain above current income for KVHS, of $481,ooo. That figure comes in after their management fee. For the moment Brim is the only management company interested in running KVHS. Two others declined to make an offer. Keith Mesmer, inter- im CEO of KVHS, said the heath group didn't meet the criteria of Adventist Health Systems. Another company, Quorum Hospital Manage- ment, was not willing to do business. Mesmer said Quorum was "angry" and "didn't bother to put in a pro- posal." Mesmer is a retired Brim employee still on the payroll, but answers to the board of commissioners. If KVHS decides to go a route other than Brim's man- agement plan, the board of commissioners has seven applicants to choose from in each search required to place a new head executive and new chief of finance. A 54-slide PowerPoint pre- sentation showed that through various methods Brim intends to: "Increase market share, build commu- nity confidence, enhance cus- tomer service, and improve the financial viability of KVHS." In lay terms, Brim intends to: Add :zo patients per year, better manage the employees, attract more heart patients, deliver more babies, improve Medicare-Medicaid billing and buy hospital goods at a lower price. Brim feels that those 2o customers are going elsewhere when they can be treated properly in Goldendale. Brim also intends to improve the operation of the Family Practice Clinic. The promise is to save KVHS enough money to pay Brim an estimated $16o,ooo in management expense and travel during the first year of their relationship and have ' $35,ooo of profit. McCormick said they could meet these goals without removing any of the n8 full time health district employ- ees. Brim does leave the possi- bility of not replacing people as they retire or move on. Mesmer said the board of commissioners would decide which direction to go at a meeting April 18 or 23. Cut $ Steak 87 lb y Ribs $ 87 lb Grown Boneless $ Chicken Breast lb Beef $ Short Ribs Ib Shced $ Beef Liver tb Cut PorkSteak $ l 7 lb rl • .--............-. 37¢ lb QQOQOOOOOOQ • • 000QO000001000000 7 7¢ Potatoes (U,S. # 1) ............ lO lbs for 97¢ Tomatoes, Large Slicers ............. 97¢ lb. Clip-top carrots 3 lbs for 97¢ o ib o IB ib o iPtl o Q ID o o o o Mushrooms, sliced or whole ...... 2 for $ 2.47 Cucumbers ............................. 3 for 97¢ Baby peeled carrots... 1 1-lb. bag for 97¢ Happy Tofu, red, yellow or green ... 1 1-1b package 97¢ lb.