North Morrow Volume XVIII Number 2 September 3, 2010
PGE and CRCHS to speak at luncheon Staff of Portland General Electric will be the featured speakers at the Boardman Chamber of Commerce Membership Lunch on Wednesday, September 15 at the Port of Morrow Office Building at 12:00 noon. The PGE folks will talk about the issues surrounding the closure of the PGE Coal Fire Plant. Also on the agenda of the meeting is a quick update by Columbia River Community Health Services on their goal to raise enough money to construct a state-of-the-art medical clinic. The lunch will be catered by River Lodge & Grill and is $10.00 per person and please remember to RSVP by Monday, September 13, to the Chamber at 541481-3014. Why does Columbia River Community Health Services need a new building? Since 2005 the CRCHS Clinic has experienced a 240% growth increase from about 5,000 patient visits to the current patient load of over 12,000 patient visits annually. During the same time period, staffing has increased 342% from 7 employees to the current service team of 24. CRCHS has also increased medical providers 100% from 2 to the current 4. They have made 4 building additions to their current facility and their electrical capacity is maxed out for any future growth at their current location, 201 SW Kinkade Road. Why has there been such growth for the clinic? In 2005 the CRCHS Clinic became a Federally Qualified Health Care Facility, and received federal funding to enable the clinic to serve
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Clinic seeks final funding for new building
This architectural drawing shows the proposed new building that Columbia River Community Health Services hopes to start early next year. The non-profit clinic has purchased the land for the new construction on Willow Fork, in Boardman. uninsured and low income patients. Currently 32% of the services provided at the clinic are charity care, while 42% of the patients have commercial insurance and the other 26% are covered by Medicare and Medicaid. The Port of Morrow has been instrumental in the growth of CRCHS. Since 2007, the Port of Morrow has seen the startup of RDO/Calbee Foods, Boardman Foods has expanded, Pacific Ethanol has opened a new facility, GreenWood Resources has opened the planer-kiln plus the sawmill on the farm, McKinstry Reklaim has a new facility, ZeaChem has broken ground, all business examples of some of the new industries that currently need or will need CRCHS for occupational health care. These services include pre-employment physicals, drug screening, hearing testing,
pulmonary function testing, mask fit testing, and various other services as required by the individual company. A new CRCHS Clinic is vital and critical to the economic development of our Boardman business community. Why was an outside firm hired to assist CRCHS with this project? CRCHS completed a feasibility study in 2008 and the Board of Directors decided there was a conclusive need to bring in a professional fundraising company to help identify current viable funding sources at the local, public and private levels. Westby Associates, Inc. joined the CRCHS team to work with the local business community, regional foundations and local, state and federal elected officials as a united priority to complete critical funding to this important community health project. They have currently raised over $1 mil-
lion through public and private sources and secured a USDA low interest loan for $1.25 million. They need to raise approximately $1 million to finalize the project. They have the potential of $650,000 in foundation funding support; however, that is not possible without identifying strong local financial support in the range of $500,000 in pledges, grants or cash commitments that will further leverage required public and foundation support to complete the building project. Foundations and public funding sources look for and respond to strategic partnerships and community support. Without the immediate support from the business community and public dollar investment at the local, state and federal level, the CRCHS building project will be in jeopardy of not being completed, and the current capacity and service levels
would not be able to respond to the growing demand of our local community. Our nearest hospital is 25 miles away--that is not the day-to-day answer for the urgent daily needs of our Boardman community. What does a new clinic mean for the rest of the Boardman business community? The new CRCHS clinic will enable more residents to utilize our local providers, which keeps our residents here to fill their prescriptions, maybe stop by the grocery story and purchase other things in Boardman. Let’s keep our investment HERE in Boardman. Your cash investment or pledge to this building campaign will leverage critical foundation support and help secure public funds. Contact CRCHS, 201 SW Kinkade, PO Box 397, Boardman, OR 97818 or call 541.481-7212 with your pledge.