Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2023
Vol. 144 No. 49
$1.00
A moonshine drop before the wedding Ron and Jeane Moline celebrate 73 years of marriage
LOU MARZELES EDITOR After 73 years, it looks like the Molines’ marriage is going to work out. Their daughter, Debbie, relates the incredible story of how Ron and Jeane Moline happened to get hitched back in 1950. Their anniversary is December 10. “They met in high school,” she says. “Mom was a freshman. Dad was a senior. Dad lived down the street from Mom here in Goldendale. They saw each other a couple times in high school. When she was a sophomore and he’d already graduated, he still lived down the street. He came and asked her for a date. They went to a movie, a Western, and it was 15 cents each. It was very expensive at that time. Here’s the thing: my grandfather bartered everything. They didn’t have money, so he would say, ‘I’ll give you 10 chickens for whatever.’ That kind of thing. So they went to the Western movie. “Dad asked Grandpa [Jeane’s
dad] if he could marry mom. And his reply was, ‘If you can feed her, you can have her.’ Because they didn’t have money at that time. So they married in Yakima on December 10 in 1950. And Grandpa had to go with, because Mom was only 16 and Dad was 18. He had to go to give permission. And—well— Grandpa was a moonshiner. My brother, Randy, and I, we sipped the jars, and my gosh, it was like gasoline. It was about to kill us, but we lived through it. So on the way to the wedding in Yakima, Grandpa said, ‘I’ve gotta make a little detour, go over to my buddy’s house and drop off his moonshine.’ He
came back, and they ran outta gas coming back from Yakima on their wedding day because Grandpa had to go do his thing and didn’t have enough money for gas. Dad had to hike and find a farmer, and he said, ‘I just got married,’ and he gave them gas to get home.
“Dad worked for Ort Olsson at the gas station as an attendant, which is where CarQuest is now. Mom worked at the hospital as a nursing assistant, but at that time, they did everything. They assisted in surgeries and took care of patients—not like it is today. They helped in baby deliveries, surgeries, all that back in the day. Things have changed. “Then they moved to Vancouver where Dad attended college and became an accountant. Then they moved back to Goldendale. He worked for Ort again until he got on his feet enough to start his own business. His business was on Main Street. It was Ron’s
Business Service, which was taxes and accounting. He worked for 55-plus years before retiring. Mom was his office manager, assistant, and receptionist. She did everything. Plus she was raising her children. They had five kids: Rhonda, Randy, Debbie—me—Dyana, and Scott. All those kids had nine grandkids, 16 great-grandchildren, and one great-greatgrandchild. Wow. Since Dy and I haven’t had any kids, I include numerous grand dogs and cats. “Over the years, they traveled with their best friends, John and Maryanne Miller. The places they traveled were Germany, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Panama Canal, Mexico, and numerous places in the United States. They still live in Goldendale as a loving couple with awesome family and friends.” Those, of course, include the entire Goldendale community, which wishes the Molines a heartfelt, spectacularly Happy Anniversary.
Janitor to CEO: The incredible journey of Jonathan Hatfield LOU MARZELES EDITOR
Fentanyl 4: Our series on first-hand accounts of fentanyl in use LOU MARZELES EDITOR Today The Sentinel continues a multipart series of first-hand accounts from fentanyl users. The information is compiled from a variety of sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity either directly with The Sentinel or through an intermediary. To protect their privacy, names and details that could be used to identify the sources have been altered, though the information about how their experiences unfold is accurate. Here is a brief recap of key information from previous stories in this series: • A dose of fentanyl small enough to cover the tip of a pencil can cause death. • The fentanyl high is brief, typically lasting two to three hours. • It takes progressively more fentanyl to get high as the body quickly develops resistance to the drug. • As users increase their fentanyl quantities, the risk of lethal overdose increases. • Withdrawal from fentanyl occurs almost as soon as the high wears off. • Withdrawal can be physically and emotionally unbearable, leading users to immediately seek additional doses to avoid the pain. • Narcan will save a life in the event of an overdose, but it also instantly initiates painful withdrawal. • Fentanyl is cheap, usually less than the cost of a candy bar—until the addiction has taken root. • A steady supply of fentanyl— enough to forestall withdrawal upon the cessation of the high— ends up costing large amounts of money. ~ ~ ~ Simon, Rene, and Bob Simon’s fiancee, Rene, broke off
their engagement two weeks before the scheduled wedding. “Why?” Simon wanted to know. “You use too much,” Rene explained caustically. “You’re on the stuff all the time.” “You’re crazy. I don’t use all the time every day.” “The only time you don’t is when you don’t have the cash to buy more.” The conversation went around and around, but in the end the engagement was off. Rene would not have a man who was constantly buzzing on fentanyl, his drug of choice. So instead she married Simon’s dealer, Bob. ~ ~ ~ “I’m a businessman,” Bob was fond of saying. “I don’t use. I can’t if I want to stay in business.” Bob contended that if he were as high as his customers, and as frequently, he wouldn’t be able to keep track of his inventory and money. He smoked a lot of pot— no big deal, since that’s legal in Washington. “But I can’t touch the heavy stuff,” he often told Rene. She admired his resolve and professionalism in business, at least the way Bob painted the picture. “I’m service-oriented,” Bob liked to say. “I see a need, I fill it. I step up to help people get what they want. I do it well. I keep good records, not like most dealers who are just plain sloppy.” Before Rene broke off her and Simon’s nuptials, Simon told Bob that he and Rene were getting married. “Hey, that’s great, man,” Bob told Simon. But he told Rene a different story. ~ ~ ~ “Simon’s a good man,” Rene said to Bob when he asked her about the imminent wedding. “Problem is that he uses a lot, and I don’t like that it’s mostly fentan-
See Fentanyl page A8
Exactly one month ago today, Jonathan Hatfield became the new CEO of Klickitat Valley Health (KVH). Not bad for a man whose college degree was in Biblical Studies. Hatfield’s dad was a Baptist preacher in Oklahoma. Hatfield went to Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City and graduated in 2004. “I grew up in Tulsa,” Hatfield recounts. His college was in Hurricane Alley, probably the last place someone from Goldendale would want to live. Hatfield wasn’t from Goldendale, but his future wife—whom he met at college—was. And she did not want to stay in a hurricane zone. She came back to Goldendale, and in 2005 Hatfield followed. He was just going to stay for a short time, maybe six months, check things out. “I was a kid in love,” he recalls. “I moved up here not having a job, just had a little bit of savings, just out of college.” He was 25. Six months later, he was engaged to the girl who wouldn’t stay in Oklahoma. Six months after that, they were married.
Needing a job, he took one as night janitor at KVH. He had a small apartment and did some youth group work for a church in town. He’d come in to KVH at three in the morning and sweep, mop, and buff the floors. He worked his way up to changing light bulbs and ballasts and a little plant and facilities work. One day he was asked if he knew anything about information technology. “I have a computer,” he answered. He was introduced to a person from Skyline Hospital in White Salmon who was doing some work for KVH at the time. “There was not much in the way of technology in the organization at the time,” Hatfield says. The guy from Skyline offered to train him if he was interested. “So I started a kind of apprenticeship with him. They moved me into the IT space. He put me through a couple of certification courses.” After about a year and a half working that way, he was on his own. Then the KVH CFO said, “Let’s just expand the program,” Hatfield says, “and so that’s what we did. So that’s how I got into healthcare,” meaning IT services related to that field. “I started in
CONTRIBUTED
IS THIS A HALLMARK MOVIE?: Jonathan Hatfield started his career at KVH as a night janitor. Today he is its CEO.
the IT department. I just fell in love with it.” You’re following this trajectory correctly: freshly minted college graduate with a degree in Biblical Studies to janitor to IT apprentice to IT healthcare. But we’re just warming up. Hatfield explains the path this way: it’s servant leadership. “You’re serving your community in one regard or another,” he states. “My dad was really big on servant leadership. We did courses in our church on servant leadership and how our
See CEO page A8
City water, sewer rates going up RODGER NICHOLS FOR THE SENTINEL
Goldendale water and sewer rates, which haven’t increased since 2020, are going up with the new year, following the passage of an ordinance raising the rates at the Goldendale city council meeting Monday night. The monthly water base meter charge for someone with a 3/4inch pipe service will go from $37.60 a month to $41.36 a month, starting in January. That’s a 10 percent increase. The ordinance also adds another 10 percent increase in 2025, a 5 percent increase in 2026, and a 3.5 percent increase in 2027 and every year thereafter. Sewer rates will take a bigger hit. The monthly charge for someone with a 3/4-inch pipe service will go from $46.50 to $55.80 a month, a 20 percent increase, also starting in January. The ordinance adds another 17 percent in both 2025 and 2026, and 9 percent increases in 2027 and 2028. Though the council held public hearings on this and two other issues at Monday’s meeting, there was no comment from any members of the public. Only two
people attended in person and one online. The other two hearings involved the second reading of the city’s 2024 budget, which was approved, and an ordinance correcting conflicting language between the Goldendale Municipal Code and the Goldendale Water Comprehensive Plan on new requests to hook up to city water. City Administrator Pat Munyan explained it this way: “The city ordinance says any application outside city limits has to come to the city council for authorization,” he said. “But then you have your water comp plan, which has been adopted by the city council as well. That language reads that anytime it’s in the service area, the city, under Washington State’s law, has what’s called a ‘duty to serve,’ whether it’s part of the city limits or not part of the city limits.” Councilors also approved an updated agreement for dispatch services with the county’s 9-1-1 dispatch center. The two-year agreement includes a three percent cost of living increase each year. And the council approved a memorandum of understanding
involving retention bonuses that was negotiated two years ago with the police union but was not formalized at the time. The agreement promised a $3,000 endof-the-year bonus to police force members who were working on January 1 and stayed the whole year, as small towns have difficulty hiring and retaining police. Police Chief Mike Smith urged councilors to approve the agreement so that officers who worked this year would receive it, saying the department had lost officers for the failure to pay the retention bonus last year. “Two years ago, when we did our contract when Larry Bellamy was here, it should have been done then,” he said. “It was agreed upon then, it was changed, and I have had employees leave my department because this has not been done. They’re not asking for the moon. I believe it’s fair. They’re still being gypped a whole year’s worth of retention pay because of the lack of this not being done.” The council passed the motion, with Councilor Loren Meagher abstaining because he thought the matter should be discussed
See City page A8