ESTHER BRICQUES CAROLS
YOUNG WRESTLING, BASKETBALL TEAMS SHOW PROGRESS
Christmas Caroling at the winery Thursday, Dec. 18, 6:30 pm
See Sports, Pages A10-11
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North Valley Hospital District CEO resigns Michel cites new round of backlash for early retirement BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
TONASKET - North Valley Hospital District Administrator Linda Michel tendered her resignation to the NVH Board of Commissioners Thursday, Dec. 11, following a lengthy executive session at the end of that evening’s board meeting. Michel, who said she had originally planned to retire in Oct. 2015, moved that date up to April 3. Michel said she would have no public
Attorney General calls defendants ‘scammers’
comment at this time, other than the Michel wrote in her letter. “Nor am I contents of her letter of resignation. willing to watch the Senior Leadership In a letter dated Dec. 4, she cited Team - a highly intelligent, moral, carthe latest round of backlash ing, and committed team - put over her attempts to deal with through the stress of un-truths financial losses of North Valley and speculation about their Assisted Living. At a commisintelligence or capabilities. They sioners’ meeting last month she have sacrificed their most preput forth a plan to form a pair cious gifts, time and family, to of committees: one to find a make the best recommendations way to save the nursing home, for the District as a whole, with and another to determine what Linda Michel little or no appreciation, but very steps would be required to close vocal criticism.” it if such a plan didn’t come to fruition. Michel recalled some of the issues that Critics have accused Michel, the com- arose surrounding the closing of North missioners and the administrative staff of Valley Assisted Living in 2013. intending to shut the facility down. “It was a time of personal accusations, “I am no longer willing to have my inaccurate information, and unproducintegrity or intelligence questioned,” tive actions against the District, when
it was the Governmental Agencies and their reimbursement practices that made such action necessary,” Michel wrote. “These actions put undue stress on the entire staff working for the District. Now with the current estimated financial situation of our 2015 budget, this cycle seems to be beginning again.” Michel was hired in 2010 with the hospital district nearly $3 million in debt to Okanogan County, and with a directive to remedy the district’s debt obligations. During her tenure NVH has climbed out of debt but no longer has the option of borrowing money from the county. “I have thus fulfilled my commitment to the Commissioners, and feel that forward movement of the District will be hampered by my presence here as CEO,” she wrote.
Tonasket Pool Association unveils new plan for city pool
BY GARY A. DE VON EDITOR@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
SEE LAWSUIT | PG A2
SEE NVH | PG A3
Pool plan gets blessing
MOMENTUM BUILDING FOR TONASKET POOL
Former Tonasket School Superintendent target of lawsuit
OLYMPIA – Randall Hauff, a former superintendent of the Tonasket School District, has been named a co-defendant in a lawsuit claiming he defrauded Medicaid in order to benefit financially. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson says a Wenatchee-based school consultant company provided fraudulent Medicaid training to districts statewide. The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit filed the lawsuit Dec. 4 allegedly JT Educational Consultants (JTEC) provided fraudulent training to dozens of school districts around the state, leading to tens of millions of dollars in false Medicaid claims. The defendants are Thomas and Sheila Reese, their company, JT Educational Consultants (JTEC), and several employees and contract consultants including Hauff, Scott Adolf, Jack Hedgcock and Janine Welty. “These scammers lined their pockets with millions of dollars meant to serve the healthcare needs of Washington children and families,” said Ferguson. “This fraud will not be tolerated. If you steal from the Medicaid system, my office will hold you accountable.” Washington’s Medicaid program provides a critical safety net of healthcare services to low income residents. Through a reimbursement program known as the Medicaid Administrative Claiming program, participating school districts may receive Medicaid reimbursement for administrative costs they incur that directly support the provision of healthcare services to Medicaid eligible students. This lawsuit targets a group of individuals, including former school administrators and employees, who built a grossly profitable consulting business by marketing a corrupted version of this program, according to the AG’s office. JTEC was the consulting company for the Centralia School District, which settled related allegations for $372,000 in July. Rather than helping school districts obtain reimbursement for legitimate costs incurred helping Medicaid eligible students obtain necessary health care services, the defendants gamed the system and received millions of dollars in “consulting” fees by causing the districts to file tens of millions of dollars of false claims between 2005 and 2014, alleges the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. “They did this by misrepresenting the
TENSIONS HIGH AT BOARD MEETING A number of passionate speeches and statements, as well as questioning by Commissioner Teresa Hughes, highlighted a tense Board of Commissioners meeting that focused on the possible fate of the nursing home, as well as opinions on hospital district finances. Chief Information Officer Kelly Cariker, speaking on his own behalf in the public comment portion of the meeting, asked that all parties concerned about the nursing home and the hospital district as a whole find a way to work together. “At one point we were $3.8 million in debt,” he said. “We dug our way out,
BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
TONASKET - The Tonasket City Council voted Tuesday, Dec. 9, to draft a resolution in support of the Tonasket Swimming Pool Association’s fledgling plan to construct a new swimming pool to replace the one that was condemned more than three years ago. The citizens’ committee has spent that past year working up a plan that would serve the needs of the community while also being affordable. “We really needed a pool that would serve our purposes, would be easy to maintain, and would be something Tonasket could be proud of,” said association president Norm Weddle, adding that the plan the committee settled on differed from the preliminary designs the city paid Pool World for nearly a year ago. “It’s not that the Pool World designs weren’t a good idea. They seemed to us to be expensive to maintain; the other thing is they would encroach on the park and take quite a bit of space. This design would fit the footprint of the old pool. It may go a few feet into the park, but mostly back toward the parking lot.” Weddle said there were a number of “minimum requirements” that the association decided any plan must include:
The Tonasket Swimming Pool Association, a nonprofit citizens’ group dedicated to getting a new swimming pool built, unveiled its preliminary drawings for a pool they say “will be easy to maintain, and something Tonasket could be proud of.”
Drawings supplied by Tonasket Swimming Pool Association
SEE POOL | PG A2
Wool co-op plans Oroville mill by spring Group buys former warehouse BY GARY A. DE VON EDITOR@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
OROVILLE – The local chapter of the North American Wool Co-op has big plans for fiber production, resurrecting an industry, as well as a one-time apple warehouse in Oroville. The chapter was started in 2013 by Australian-born Vicki Eberhart, whose family goes back generations as sheep farmers and wool and meat producers in her home country. After coming to the U.S. and settling in the Okanogan Highlands, Eberhart says she looked around and saw there was a need for fiber producers in the state and helped form the Washington Chapter of the North American Wool Co-op, whose headquarters are now in Oroville. Speaking at the Thursday, Dec. 11, Oroville Chamber of Commerce meeting, Eberhart said, “I come from
OKANOGAN VALLEY GAZETTE-TRIBUNE Volume 110 No. 51
Australia where a whole industry was built on the back of sheep. When I arrived in the U.S. about 12 years ago there wasn’t much of a wool industry here.” She said she went to California and was surprised to be able to purchase Tasmanian sheep, a breed developed in Australia. “They are from an area very similar to this area here in Washington,” she said, adding that in the U.S. it seems most sheep are raised for their meat and that the wool goes to waste, often ending up as “compost.” “In Australia they raise sheep to produce both meat and wool. In certain years you might earn money on one or the other, but in a good year you have both markets and make double the money.” Scott Turnbull is the chairman of the co-op, he said their goal was to address many of the problems local producers have with shipping their wool. “Much of the wool ends up in landfills; that’s why we wanted to start a community owned and operated mill. We thought of locating it in the highlands, but decided it is more practical to locate it here where there are
SEE WOOL MILL | PG A3
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existing buildings and it would be easier for farmers to ship to,” said Turnbull. The co-op has purchased the old Thorndike apple warehouse near the end of Kernan Road, next to the Similkameen River Trail trailhead. The site has four existing buildings and one will be used as an office. “We are convinced there are long term benefits to starting the mill here for Oroville and the surrounding communities,” said Turnbull, who presented at the meeting along with Eberhart and Sally Facer, the secretary for the organization. “We want to connect the fiber producers with the mill.” Turnbull said in addition to giving wool and other fiber producers a place to have their products milled, the group has taken steps to increase the quality of fibers by training “graders” who can go to farms to help grade the types of fiber before it is shipped to the mill. So far 22 people have been trained, with five apprentices.
Cops & Courts A4 , A12 Letters/Opinion A5 Community A6-7
Obituaries Classifieds
A7 A8-9
Sports A10-11 Santa Letters B1-4