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RlOregon House speaker Tina Kotek proposes$13 an hour mixumum wage It 4 .t
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Tim Mustoe/The Observer
Grande Ronde Child Center Director Mark Kubin adjusts the outdoor sprinkler toy for Sam Clement while the center's executive secretary, Jane Peacock, background, adjusts the water pressure at the Grande Ronde Child Center.
c~ac'."' opened its doors to help children deal with problems
CHILD CENTER SET TO By Dick Mason The Observer
grande ronde ehild eeriter IN- -g
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Tim Mustoe/The Observer
GRCC's board voted in late May for closure after the nonprofit agency's contract with Greater Oregon Behavioral Health lnc. was not renewed. The contract provided GRCC with the bulk of its funding, said Executive Director Mark Kubin.
A linchpin in the La Grande educational community for more than four decades will soon shutits doors forever. The GrandeRonde Child Center, which opened 43 years ago to provide psychiatric services for children who are behind in school because ofbehavioral and emotional problems, will close at the end of this month. GRCC's board voted in late May for closure after the nonprofit agency's contract with Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc. was not renewed. The contract provided GRCC with the bulk of its funding, said Executive Director Mark Kubin. The looming closure is jolting GRCC's six-person staff and pulling on SeeGRCC / Page 5A
ELGIN
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Inside
The Associated Press
SALEM — House Speaker North Tina Kotek unveiled a Powder proposal Monday to gradutee nager has ally raise Oregon's statewide s econd heart lnllnlunl transplant. wage to $13 an P age SA hour by 2018 and give local governments the righttogo Kotek hig h er if they choose. The change would give Oregon the nation's highest minimum wage Jan. 1, when all workers would have to be
paid at least $11 an hour, up from the current $9.25. The wage floor would go up $1 a year until it hits$13 an hour in 2018. Coming less than a month before lawmakers must wrap up the legislative session, Kotek's proposal is a SeeHike / Page 5A
WALLOWA COUNTY
Fire on lower Imnaha River discovered • Little Basin Fire Going to work grows to 630 acres As ofTuesday By Katy Nesbitt
• De6cit forcing Elgin School District to cut two teaching positions for 2015-16 school year
The Observer
By Dick Mason
Basin Fire grew to more than 630 acres Wednesday as hand crews, engines and air attack battled Wallowa County's first big fire of the season. Paul Karvoski, Wallowa County Emergency Services manager, said the Imnaha Road is closed from Fence See Fire / Page 5A
The Observer
The Elgin School District, facing a budget shortfall, will cut two teaching positions. The school board voted Monday to adopt a 2015-16 general
fund budget of $4.178 million, one down almost $203,000 from 2014-15. The budget callsfora primarygrade teaching posi-
tion and an elementary school physical education position to be eliminated. The classroom elementary teaching position will be cut by not hiring someone to succeed a teacher who has retired, said Wayne Herron, superintendent of the Elgin School District. This will increase the number of students in some classes in
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the kindergarten through third grade category. It has not been determined which classes will be affected by the size increase. Herron hopes the school district ultimately will not have to cut the primary grade position. 'There is still a chance that the state will come through with a little extra funding for education," he said.
F ull forecast on the back of B section
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Shouldextra funding become available, Herron said, it will be used to add back the elementary school teaching position. The elimination of the physical education teaching position will add to the workload of some elementary school teachers by requiring them to also provide PE instruction, Herron said. SeeElgin / Page 5A
IMNAHA — The Little
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Issue 71 3 sections, 38 pages La Grande, Oregon
RIDAY IN HEALTH COLON CANCER SCREENINGS SAVE LIVES
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afternoon, about100 people were working the fire burning on U.S. Forest Servicemanaged land.
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Grande Ronde Hospital — Nation's TOP 100 CAHs Measured across 62 different performance metrics including:
• Quality • Outcomes • Patient Perspective • Affordability • • Population Risk• Efficiency — See more @www.grh.org ® • 0
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