NEW YEAR, NEW SERVICES IN CASCADE LOCKS:
PROVIDENCE HOOD RIVER DELIVERS COMMUNITY BENEFITS GRANT

Fire & Ambulance station, Cascade Locks

Mobile Health Unit

January 15, 2009

HOOD RIVER, Ore. – Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital delivered a $100,000 check this week to the City of Cascade Locks in support of new emergency services. The funds will be used to help the community upgrade its aging fire and ambulance services building amid critical challenges.

The City of Cascade Locks’ goals for this grant are: to replace a crumbling fire and ambulance station, bringing it to compliance with new regulatory requirements; to replace the City’s aging emergency vehicle fleet and to improve vital community safety services.

“This Providence grant helped us tap into Community Development Block Grant Funds (CDBG) and other grants to augment our City revenue sources. The grant will help us overhaul vital emergency services and demonstrates Providence’s commitment to serving all Gorge communities, expanding from their home base in Hood River,” said Cascade Locks Administrator Bernard Seeger. The Community is very grateful for their support.”

“Providence Hood River’s Mobile Health Unit continues to offer free health services twice a week in Cascade Locks and this grant for emergency health services takes their commitment to our community to the next level,” Seeger continued.

The need to equip Cascade Locks with reliable emergency services was underscored this winter after numerous I-84 freeway closures occurred due to unsafe driving conditions. The community affected by severe Gorge weather challenges, isolating neighborhoods and commuters from needed emergency care. The city’s emergency equipment is the only fleet available for 20 miles in either direction along the I-84 corridor.

According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, I-84 east of Portland has the highest daily traffic volume of all Oregon interstates - averaging 2 million vehicles per year. Average daily traffic for the Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks totals 11,000 vehicles per day, nearly 4 million cars per year.

According to the City of Cascade Locks, the former mill town has chronic unemployment and a high percentage of residents on public assistance. Many residents exclusively rely on Medicare and Medicaid or are uninsured. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Cascade Locks had a median family income of $37,422, substantially below both the Clackamas county median income of $54,700 and the average US median family income of $50,046.

“The City of Cascade Locks had an excellent funding plan in place for the new Fire and Emergency Services building but they lacked seed money to lock in other grant funding to make their overall plan work,” said Ty W. Erickson, chief executive of Providence Hood River. “Back in 2006, we committed $100,000 to fill a shortfall in a proposed $1.39 million dollar public project. Today the project is fully funded and this week we delivered the check.”

According to the City’s grant request, its existing fire hall is too small and structurally unsound. A support brace was added to stop a crack in the wall to prevent wall collapse but it would not withstand a Gorge earthquake, landslide or other disaster. Outdated wiring was the cause of fires in this fire hall building. The furnace could not be used in the equipment bays which reduced the reliability of emergency pumps and hoses that froze in bitter Gorge temperatures. Further, the City lacked a training tower for firefighters to practice new fire suppression techniques.

“We don’t typically fund bricks and mortar projects,” said Erickson. “But Cascade Locks had unique circumstances wherein the continuation of vital emergency and health services depended on replacement and updating of their antiquated fire station. The decision was made to help Cascade Locks address one of the county’s most pressing community challenges and greatest needs in the Providence Gorge service area.”

Erickson continued, “As a not-for-profit organization, we take seriously our mission of delivering services to the poor and vulnerable and we are committed to give back more than our share in community benefits to support Gorge communities.”

Every year, Providence Hood River gives back more than $3 million in donations to Gorge communities. In 2007, Providence community benefits dollars totaled $3.3 million – of this, $2.3 million was free or reduced cost medical care for patients in need and $1 million in financial support for Gorge community projects and organizations, improving access to health care and building healthier communities.

Nearly $500,000 in community benefits is allocated each year by Providence Hood River to improve access to health care, including free health services in remote and rural communities such as Cascade Locks. Providence Mobile Health Unit leaves the hospital in Hood River weekly and travels to Cascade Locks Wednesdays and Fridays to help uninsured or under insured people while parked at Cascade Market from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Mobile Health Unit provides medical screening and referrals and provides free lab tests and prescriptions for its patients in Cascade Locks and other rural communities.

“2008 was a time of even great economic challenges and greater local needs,” Erickson said. “Our giving back to Gorge communities trended even higher than the $3.3 million in 2007.” Final accounting 2008 Providence giving will be announced later this spring.

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Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital is part of the not-for-profit Providence Health & Services, Oregon’s largest health system and largest private employer. Providence Hood River is a full service critical access hospital with a 24-hour Emergency Department. Providence offers a wide range of health care services in the communities of the Columbia River Gorge through its clinics, programs and senior living facilities.