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This is basically a re-do of a column I write each year. I've been on Medicare for quite some time. Nearly all of us need to purchase add-on insurance to help cover prescriptions and other expenses. This past week, I received a letter from Coventry Health Care, an Aetna Company, trying to convince me to quit using Holder Drug for my prescriptions and instead use their email service or Walmart. Their pitch was a money calculation that I would save (12 months X $9) $108 per year to take my...
In a report present to the Alva Hospital Authority, the Homestead occupancy is increased 8.4 percent over January 2017. One resident moved to the nursing home in January. Average January occupancy for all nights was 86.8 percent, which includes guest nights and comp nights paid to some providers at the hospital. Also in January, the Homestead converted two of three trial stays into rental agreements, and there is a possibility the third one may still happen. The Homestead is converting some apartments from two bedroom configuration to one. One...
City Manager Joe Don Dunham said he was in the process of writing job descriptions for two full-time employees at the Alva Recreation Center (ARC). Last month, Assistant Director Bridgett Gragg left to take a job as assistant director of EMS for the City of Alva. Dunham said he would like to change the title and job description of that position to activities director and shift the work hours to end at 7 p.m. in the evening. When asked what pay he was thinking, Dunham gave a range from $26,700 to $37,000 annually depending upon similar work expe...
Share Medical Center was not significantly impacted by the flu and cold season the first half of January 2018, However, the second half of the month was very busy. Total clinic office visits in January were 1,738 compared to 1,418 in December. For the hospital, gross patient revenue for the month of January totaled $1,815,214, which was a $94,070 increase over the previous month. The hospital net operating loss for January was $193,547. The net loss was $118,277 after the addition of sales tax revenue. What is burdening the hospital and the...
The Share Convalescent Home sustained a net operating loss for January of $9,167. Rita Goodrich said a large part of the loss could be attributed to the need to fill staff positions with agency nurses. She said such nurses cost about twice as much as normal staff nurses. The nursing home salaries and wages for January totaled $137,108, which was a reduction of $21,914. The reduction came about because of less pay to local nurses. The higher cost of agency nursing is not reflected in the local payroll stats. Goodrich said agency use in January f...
As part of their monthly report to the Alva Hospital Authority, the summary presented by the CFO shows that for the fiscal year so far the bill payers are as follows: Blue Cross – 29 Commercial – 10 Health Choice – 60 Medicaid – 13 Medicare – 524 Self-Pay – 20 United Healthcare – 8...
The three-member Woods County Excise Board approved the following proposed expenditures by county offices at their Feb. 21 meeting: • District 1 Highway Cash $172,647.23 • District 2 Highway Cash $200,370.23 • District 3 Highway Cash $171,384.08 • District 1 CBRI Fund-105 $7,670.55 • District 2 CBRI Fund-105 $7,670.53 • District 3 CBRI Fund-105 $7,670.53 • Enhanced 911 $28,731.97 • Assessor's Fee $427.33 • County Clerk's Lien Fee $1,444.94 • County Clerk's Preservation Fee $1,255 • Sheriff's Revolving Fund $1,982 • Treasurer's Resale $608...
The Alva School Board met in a special meeting, Thursday noon, Feb. 22, at the downtown administrative office. They had four agenda items: administering the oath of office and the signing of documents by two candidates for board positions; reorganization of the board, and the hiring of a new superintendent. After Tiffany Slater and Shane Hansen completed the oath of office paperwork, the board voted to name Jane McDermott as president, Tiffany Slater as vice-president, Karen Koehn as clerk and...
The Freedom Town Board moved their Feb. 14 meeting to a special meeting on Friday, Feb. 16, to be sure a quorum would be present. All three members – Shad Bracken, Terry Smith and Rolondo Galindo – showed up. Much of the discussion at the meeting had to do with the dog ordinance. There is an “old” dog ordinance that has not been repealed. A recent a codification of all the city ordinances, old and new, is in a single book. There were some differences in the wording, but Mayor Shad Bracken...
The Alfalfa County commissioners accepted bids to install new RV hookups at the fairgrounds at their Tuesday meeting. The winning bid was submitted by Moyer Electric of Woodward in the amount of $17,500. They also had an option of removing and replacing six wall packs located on the barn with new LED wall packs for $3,250. Other bidders were Northwest Electric of Alva who bid $23,400. Another bid was received from KC Electric of Enid, but no amount was named. Blanket purchase orders for District 1 (in the amount of $750) and District 3 (in the...
Ashley McDermott, representing Northwest CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of northwest Oklahoma, received permission from the Woods County commissioners to display wooden cutouts that have been dressed by groups around the county to make the public aware of the “silent children” who suffer from child abuse. The display will be on the county courthouse lawn beginning April 1. Each person or group who takes “responsibility” of one of the wooden cutouts pays $100, which is part of a fundraising effort to help victims of abuse and neglect...
• Venison for dinner again? Oh, deer! • How does Moses make tea? Hebrews it. • England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool. • I tried to catch some fog, but I mist. • They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Typo. • I changed my iPod's name to Titanic. It's syncing now. • Jokes about German sausage are the wurst. • I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time. • I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, then it dawned on me. • When chemist...
The Freedom Schools had 60 students at the start of school in August. By Christmas break, that number had grown to 70 students. Principal Michelle Shelite told the board Monday night that 11 more students had moved into the district since the Christmas break, bringing the total to 84. In her report, Shelite said traditional Valentine's Day parties will be held in the elementary classrooms, with cards and sweets. The basketball is winding down with the boys' team heading to district play in Leedy this week. The livestock show is happening in Alv...
The chairman of the Woods County commissioners, Randy McMurphy, spoke to the Alva Kiwanis Club last week and provided an overview of the various county government offices. He also told about his concerns of the current legislative session and how they may impact county funding. The entire speech may be seen at www.alvareviewcourier.com under the videos tab. At the end of his speech, in providing some good news, McMurphy said he has been told to expect a large wind-farm project in southern Woods...
All members of the Alva Board of Education were present for a special meeting held Wednesday, Feb. 7, 5–7 p.m. in the district's administrative offices to hear presentations from TriArch of Tulsa and Boynton Williams & Associates of Norman. The last bond issue payments are winding down and the board sees the reduction of those bond payments as good timing to vote another bond to address the problems at the high school site. At a previous community meeting a couple years ago, a few topics such as...
Each Woods County employee will be eligible for a $50 safety incentive for each quarterly safety meeting they attend. If they also attend the end of the year countywide safety meeting they will receive an extra $50 bonus, which will bring the total to $250. The criteria for earning the bonus is attending the safety meetings. Arrangements might be possible to view a video substitute for the meeting if the supervisor approves. Employees must be accident-free for the preceding 12 months and have been credited for all safety meetings to be...
The Alva School District is in good shape, according to Superintendent Steve Parkhurst. The fiscal year (FY) 2018 general fund is $10,417,593.89, up $765,158.74 from FY 2017. Warrant comparison shows the district has spent $295,378.73 more this year than last. Even gross production tax is up about $10,000 from the year previous. Employee changes include Clayton Walker resigning from Alva High School (AHS), Laura Beth Hamil resigning as a paraprofessional because she is facing numerous surgeries, and Louis Zwiefelhofer custodian at Longfellow...
Jeff White has retired from the Cherokee School Board after nine years of service. He was honored with a certificate and cake at the Monday night school board meeting. In other honors, Angel Hernandez, a state-level vice-president for the FCCLA, made the ballot for the state president's position. If he isn't elected president, he will still get the first vice-president's seat. Sydney Wyatt was one of three to receive the Harry Gore Scholarship at Wichita State. Taylor Miller received a...
(From the web.) For those who love the philosophy of ambiguity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of English: • One tequila, two tequila, three tequila … floor. • Atheism is a non-prophet organization. • If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes? • The main reason that Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live. • I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where's the self-help section?” She said if she told me, it would defeat th...
After a couple of large grassland fires last week, the Woods County commissioners instituted a two-week burn ban Monday. The burn ban continuance possibility will be placed on the agenda each week. Previously, the commissioners had not implemented a burn ban because no fire chief in the county had asked for one. That is usually the starting point in voting a burn ban. One of the commissioners, Randy McMurphy, commented, “I've been reluctant to do this because I'm not sure we've ever stopped a fire.” The state parks in the county will be res...
Lance McDaniel contacted us on Monday evening to remind everyone that the movie filmed in and around Alva back in August–September of 2017 will have a cast and crew screening this Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. at the Rialto theater. He said anyone in the community may attend and there is no charge. When the 15-minute movie is completed, a question and answer period will be opened up for those in attendance. After that, a reception will be held at the Graceful Arts Center. Tom and Brenda McDaniel, Lance McDaniel's parents, will also be in town. T...
(This writing is not by me, but rather submitted by Bill Springer, an employee at the newspaper who lives in Helena. Not very often do I allow this column to be such a strong commercial. But Bill is right.) I confess! My wife and I are not big movie-goers. Until recently, our trips to see a movie (three times in the past several years) were for special events and we would meet family in Moore at the Warren Theater. Recently, after my wife had seen repeated great reviews for the movie "The...
The Share Convalescent Home had gross patient revenue for the month of December 2017 of $322,915, which was a $13,836 increase over the prior month. Patient days were up to 1,692 compared to 1,645 a month earlier. The operating expenses for December, excluding salaries, benefits and depreciation was $116,252, a decrease of $1,704 compared to the prior month. Convalescent home salaries and wages for December totaled $159,022, which was a decrease of $1,645 compared to the prior month. One reason the payroll was lower was because the facility...
The Homestead report presented to the Alva Hospital Authority by Kelly Parker showed a good picture of growth. At present, occupied rooms are 44, with five reservations for people who plan to move in between now and the end of March. With the apartments used for overnight staff and other comped stays (for example, a medical student coming for residency next month) that will bring the Homestead to 49 out of 54 total apartments in use if nobody moves in or out. In December, one occupant moved to the nursing home because of the need for more healt...
The flu and winter cold problems sweeping the nation are hitting Oklahoma and Kansas hospitals, too. Dr. Phil Self mentioned before the start of the Alva Hospital Authority meeting that he was having to make numerous phone calls to find space in order to place seriously ill patients into larger hospitals. Share Medical Center (SMC) has not yet reached that status yet, but their urgent care service is swamped. Kevin O'Brien said it was a good thing they expanded the hours of urgent care at the first of January. CEO Kandice Allen was not...
