[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15419]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                     TRIBUTE TO JUDGE JEANNE BURCH

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, at the end of this year the 
smallest county in Oregon is going to lose its biggest asset. Wheeler 
County Judge Jeanne Burch is retiring only because of Oregon law, which 
requires judges to retire at a certain age. In this case, the law is 
depriving my State of an exemplary public servant.
  When she was appointed county judge in 1994, Wheeler County was close 
to bankruptcy. Since then, thanks to her leadership and perseverance, 
the county has been pulled back from the brink of insolvency. The 
county has also renovated its beautiful and historic courthouse and 
built a new family services center.
  Judge Burch helped bring cell phone service to this remote area of 
Oregon. She serves on the Frontier TeleCom Network, which provides 
emergency communications for many counties in Central Oregon, and the 
Telecommunications Committee for Association of Oregon Counties. 
Earlier this year, she was appointed to the Oregon Commission for 
Women, and is now its vice chair. She is the only member of the 
commission from east of the Cascade Mountains.
  Concerned about the growing epidemic of obesity, Judge Burch joined 
in an effort to make Fossil ``The Biggest Loser.'' Patterned after a 
popular television show, 20 percent of Fossil's 450 residents 
collectively lost 600 pounds to a successful effort to become 
healthier, eat better, and be more active.
  On a personal note, Jeanne Burch has become a valued friend.
  When I first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996, I promised the people 
of Oregon that I would hold a town meeting in each of the State's 36 
counties every year. On a wintery day in February 1996 I began 
fulfilling that promise by holding my first town hall in Wheeler 
County. From that cold day 16 years ago when I arrived in Fossil until 
now, Jeanne Burch and the people of her county have always given me a 
warm welcome.
  For several years after that, I made it a practice to hold my first 
town meeting of each year in Wheeler County. A few years ago when snow 
storms made getting to Fossil impossible, Judge Burch and the other 
members of Wheeler County Court gave me a special dispensation by 
passing a resolution releasing me from my commitment to hold the year's 
first town meeting in Wheeler County.
  When I held my 500th town hall in 2009 it was in Wheeler County and 
Judge Burch made sure that most of the town turned out. She did the 
same thing last year for my 600th town hall on a warm summer night on 
the front lawn of the courthouse she helped restore.
  For 18 years, Judge Jeanne Burch has been the steady hand of county 
government, a good friend, a wise steward, and the gold standard for 
what a good elected official ought to be. We will miss her as a county 
judge, but I know that when I return to Wheeler County next year for 
another town hall, she will be there for me as she always has 
been.

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