Ridin' the Rapids

Which clinic? Many people still say they go to the "McKenzie River Clinic" even though the name was retired when the nonprofit, formed in 1974, changed its title to McKenzie Valley Wellness. The MRC hasn't seen patients in about five years after actual medical services were taken over by Orchid Health.

The recent news that the Oregon Dept. of Justice is investigating MVW, "has created confusion within our community and many have interpreted it to mean that Orchid is also under an ODOJ investigation," according to Jonny Cantrell, Orchid's marketing specialist.

"As you know," he noted in an email this week, "Our relationship with MVW is that of a tenant, and that we are cooperating with the ongoing ODOJ investigation of MVW but are under no investigation ourselves."

Val Raap, president of McKenzie Valley Wellness commented on the situation writing, "The Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) has started an investigation and is requesting records from McKenzie Valley Wellness (MVW). We are fully cooperating with them. The DOJ has not made any allegations of wrongdoing by MVW. At this point, the request for records is similar to an audit."

She also noted that "The only people authorized as spokespeople for MVW are Val Rapp, current president of the organization, and the legal firm Miller Nash, which represents MVW. No other person or entity has the authority or the specific knowledge to comment accurately."

People doing online searches for more information may have found a link to "opencorporates.com," which bills itself as the "Open database of the corporate world."

The site includes a posting for McKenzie Valley Wellness that says the corporation is inactive and that Val Rapp has been removed as an officer.

That's not true. Told about the site, Rapp's response was simple: "I can assure you that I am currently the president of McKenzie Valley Wellness."

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Up here on the River, we have nine unincorporated communities. So there's not one unifying organization – like a city - that acts as a central point to unite people and civic activities.

This business was started to try to fill some of that gap and has been doing so for the last 44 years - by reporting weekly - and preserving stories about the people who live here and the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Two weeks ago the company that's printed River Reflections for 30 years announced it was shutting down its newsprint press.

Luckily River Reflections is in much better shape than the majority of other newspapers that will have to move into the digital world we all knew was coming. All our issues – back to 1978 have been scanned - and all from 2018 on are on the web as pdfs.

Because of RAIN, the support group for entrepreneurs recently approved for our area, I've been gaining the tools to improve access for our loyal readers but also reach new ones and expose our advertisers to larger markets.

I'm asking for our print subscribers to send their email addresses. So far 61 have, but many more are needed.

I know mckenzieriverreflectionsnewspaper.com is a long address to type out, but I hope when you do - you'll go to that site and learn why people call River Reflections "the McKenzie Connection