Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1973)
1 i j 'jm'" 1 f A ' 1 Vol. !I0, No. :ix Now for the bad news: The statements lly .MAltCIA BKDOKTHA The 1973-74 Morrow County property tax statements have been mailed to residents in the county during the past few days. County taxpayers have until Nov. 15 to pay tk first quarter taxes, according to Joyce Bergstrom. Morrow County tax assessor. The statements have been compiled from the tax infor mation Mrs. Bergstrom's of fice has compiled. This in formation includes the ap praised property, extended tax figures from the budgets of the 25 taxing districts in the county. Morrow County taxpayers probably will look at their statements and pay the bills without trying to understand the ramifications of budgeting and tax assessing. At one time the property tax was the most simple of all taxes. But the legislature keeps adding to the maze of offsets, refunds. The potatoes were great this year, layi Mr. and Mrt. Paul Taylor, who have 100 acres of them north of Lexington. Mi-re their son, Joe, 5, holds a 13-inch long russet grown on the Taylor farm. Harvest began Oct. I mid ended Oct. 31. The farm yields about 20 tons to the acre, for which they are paid a contract price of 145 per ton. It is. according to the Taylors, a "very good year." The Taylors have been raising potatoes for the past 15 years, two years here and the rest of the time in Washington. (SAZETTET 1973-74 tax exemptions, payments-in-lieu, restrictions. requirements, until now the property tax is no longer a simple system. But it is one of the most unpopular of taxes. , To undqrstand and pr operty taxes, maybe a look into what they are and how they operate would help taxpayers in Mor row County. The Oregon law provides that all real property within this state and all tangible personal property situated within this state, except as otherwise provided by law, shall be subjected to assess ment and taxation in equal and rateable proportion. Real property includes all land, residential, farm, com nierical. and industrial build ings; and timber. These are assessed by a county assessor under general supervision of the State Tax Commission. The commission is responsible fur obtaining appraisal of Western Oregon and is re sponsible for administration r llcppner. Ore'., Thursday, are out of the Eastern Oregon Timber Severence Tax. This provides for taxation of timber on a severance basis in the count ties in Eastern Oregon. The commission is also responsible for assessment of all utility property, real and personal. Personal property includes livestock, farm machinery, moveable machinery and e quipment, certain boats and vessels, business furniture and inventories. The county assessor assesses these pro erties. "Although this year HB 3247 adds farm machinery used in planting, cultivation or har vesting of farm crops as inventory for tax inventory phase out," said Mrs. Berg strom, "personal property is being phased out." The property tax collected in each county is used entirely, in that county for support of public schools, city govern ments, county governments, and special districts such as Hew road compleled- in time to be Marvin Chitty, Assistant Ranger for the Forest Service, Heppner District, was guest speaker at the Chamber of Commerce noon luncheon Monday. Chitty spoke on the new Western Route Highway 518, which connects Heppner to Ukiah via Cutsforth Park. Basis for location of the highway was the need of a cross tie as proposed by the Oregon State Highway Com mission under the 1959 Feder al Highway Act. The Forest Service made the preliminary survey of the route in the late 1960s. In the fiscal year 1972 the availabil ity of special funds from Congress for the accelerated timber acess road construc tion brought on the contract for this project The new road is 22 miles in length and was completed in 423 da ending Oct. 12. 1973. Grrccrs Ret tha County's f utuire is airdman area'-Boein B "Next year promises to be a good year for crops and grasses with the moisture we already have," Denver Grigs by, manager for Boeing's Boardman project told mem bers and guests at the annual dinner meeting of the Morrow County Grain Growers Mon day night at the county fair pavilion. Grigsby spoke to members about the rise and develop ment of the Boeing project and other projects in the north end of Morrow County. "Boeing has put over 6,000 acres in alfalfa and grasses since the project began,' he said. "This year we have put 2,800 acres in pasture of fawn fescue, clover and other varie ties of grasses. We ran over 5,200 head of cattle and average a 2.3 AUM, or animal per acre, per month. We are striving for 3 AUM next year and plan to put another 3,000 acres in green pasture." Grigsby pointed out that one of the goals of the Boeing pro ject in Boardman is to raise beef and to increase yields and values of the animals. "We are trying to feed out our beef in our pastures and feedlots in stead of shipping them out of the area to be finished." Another way to insure proper feeding of cattle, he said, is to build a feedlot and use modern, up-to-date meth ods in feeding. Boeing is con structing a feedlot which will water, sanitary, cemeteries and parKs. The amount of money raised in Morrow County by property taxes is determined solely by the subjects of governmental units and spe cial districts. Each year each district body prepares a budget ac cording to past experience and further requirements. The budget itself is a listing of estimated expenses from which is subtracted an esti mate of anticipated receipts. The difference is the amount to be raised by taxes. Morrow County receipts include the Eastern Oregon Timber offset and trailer house offset. Once the budget items have been approved, the ammount of taxes levied is written. The county assessor determines the budgeting requirements by dividing this amount by the total assessed valuation (in thousands) of all property (Continued on page 9) closed $2 million at a cost of over $2 million Benefits to the local econo my include lower timber haul cost, increased access by recreation users, more timber available to local industries, and increased timber reve nue. The highway, built under supervision of the Forest Service, meets all construc tion codes for state highway, although the State Highway Commission has no plans for accepting the highway at this time. Should the state accept the lughway they would have to maintain the road, and keep the road open during the winter months. The highway is impassable at this time due to the snow, and the Forest Service has no intention of plowing the road at this time. According to Chitty. the road will probably remain closed until this spring crd hold f 000 head of cattle, and will use corn sileage and alfalfa from its Irrigated lands to feed out the cattle. "This feedlot will also relieve pressure on the pas ture which feeds the 5,200 head of cattle," Grigsby said. lie admitted Boeing has run into problems since the pro ject began. "One of the biggest problems has been wind erosion. We have spent more than $35,000 in research carried out by Oregon State University in methods to control the wind erosion." Other problems have been the Russian thistle and turn bleweed in the area. Looking into the future, Boe ing is planning to develop the desert land in North Morrow County to raise and support more cattle. Boeing has leased over 100,000 acres and has already started to put 16,000 acres under pasture, corn and alfalfa by next year. Concluding, Grigsby stated that "the growth of Morrow County lies in the Boardman area with all the corporate projects being constructed. The area in the next few years will grow rapidly, but will suffer from lack of housing and a labor market." Morrow County Grain Presi dent D. O. Nelson followed Grigsby with the announce ment of Grigsby's 25th anni versary with the Boeing Com pany. .JM 7 inches of snow now, More than seven inches of snow blanketed Heppner Sun day and Monday forcing closure of schools, creating traffic delays, causing resi dents to stay inside their homes and ranchers to start winter feeding. Snow covered Morrow County beginning last Thurs day evening and it continued . to pile up with the south end of the county getting more than 18 inches while the north end got only a couple of inches. By Tuesday morning Adrian Bechdolt, Hardman weather man, recorded 18 inches of snow. "Of course, there is a lot more snow in areas outside of Hardman," he said. "If the wind starts to blow, we could have more snow on the roads." In Heppner, weatherman Don Gilliam recorded over seven inches of snow Tuesday morning. He reported over .42 inches of precipitation from hXi'hx f ' 0 1 . 1 New directors are': Larry Lindsay, Ron Haguewood, Al Bunch and Gene Majeske. The associate directors are C, K. Peck, Lee Palmer, Lyle Peck, Tom Currin and Tom Pointer. Steve Green. Pendleton ac countant, gave the financial report of MCGG. Manager Larry Mills con cluded the meeting with re marks about the past year and predictions for the coming year. "The wheat price this year was a life saver due to the extreme short crop," he said. "Wheat prices went from $2 a bushel to over $5, while barley Bond Discussions of a proposed water bond election and the allowance of trailers and recreation vehicles to set up in the city dominated Monday night's meeting of the Hepp ner Common Council. Steve Anderson city engi neer, was unable to attend the meeting to present a study of his estimate of money re quired to modernize the city's water works. Cost of the project, which will relocate water mains and related in Heppner ice grips, area 4.7 inches of snow on Monday. "So far this month we have had almost an inch of precipi tation." he said. The normal for the month of November is 1.44 inches. According to the Morrow County School Superintend ent's office, two to three inches of snow was reported in the Boardman and Irrigon area Tuesday morning. While schools in Boardman and Irrigon remainded opened Tuesday, snow forced schools . in Heppner and lone to be closed. "All the 1.100 miles of county roads in Morrow Coun ty are open." county road master Doc Sherer said. The only road that has been temporarily closed is the base line by D O. Nelson's, and that was due to ice. The county has four grad ers, three plow trucks and one sander clearing the roads. "So far we have had no reports of anyone stranded in 7 " if . r ' Saturday's simwfall made fairyland f foliage. in has gone from $80 a ton to J 220. Prices on cattle and hay havi also followed the grain pat tern." Prices for next year appear to be good with contracts for July and August 1974 delivery in a price range today of 13.60. Mills pointed out that this year and the coming year are plagued with shortage prob lems. "One of the biggest prob lems facing us is the fuel shortage. We have been able to supply our regular custom ers, but we are unable to take any new business. At present, we are overdrawn on our allocation of gasoline for the election? work, may run as much as $245,000. Anderson w ill be at a special meeting at city hall tonight, and the matter of a bond election will be more fully explored. This bond election must be approved by the voters before the State of Oregon will permit any fur ther water connections for new construction. A further meeting has been set for tonight. Present at tonight's meeting will be the council members, utilities commission and city attorney to decide what meth ods to use in bringing the . city's water facilities up to stale standards. There is a possibility that the state may allow a limited number of new water connec tions in certain areas of the city after state agencies have reviewed the engineer's plans for meeting the standards, and after the date has been set for the water bond election. The trailer problem was the snow," Sherer said. We have pulled several trucks and cars out of ditches." Snow has piled up 20 inches near Cutsforth Park. this snow reminds Sherer of the snow of 1936 which fell in November and lasted until April. ','We didn't see the sun for 45 days, and snowdrifts were up to 30 feet." Oregon State Game Biolo gist Glen Ward reported he heard Tuesday morning of a possible Chinook windstorm front moving in the area, bringing possible rain later this week. "If we have more snow with a heavy rain following, a flood situation could be possible," ' according to Sherer. Heppner wasn't the only part of the state hit with snow, Most of central and eastern Oregon has been hit hard since Sunday. In Bend, 30 inches of snow fell in a 12-hour period, forcing the town and schools to close. The Dalles had around fid month of November." Mills assured members that suppliers have adequate sup plies to Insure service for the coming year. Other shortage problems, Mills pointed out, are in the area of tractor tires, fence posts and wire. "We are ex periencing delays with these items. In the future many farm equipment items will be in short supply." Mills stressed that shortage problems reflect the strongest agricultural demands in his tory, and said it dramatically illustrates what a healthy ag riculture can do for the nation's economy. brought to a head when Dean Teal asked the city for temporary permit for his trailer.' Prior to granting a variance, a council member observed that trailers are being parked illegally within the city limits. Many residents have ap plied for trailer permits; and, upon removal of the trailer have parked a smaller one on the same spot without asking for a city permit. The legality of this procedure is being studied by City Attorney Bob Abrams. If the practice does violate city ordinances, the police may issue a warning and give the owner 30 days in which to apply for a variance permit, good for 90 days, or a trailer permit. The action was taken when it was found that some trailers are parked on property with no issuance of permits. In other action, the council granted Heppner merchants the right to bag all parking meters on all Saturdays in December. . , 10 inches Tuesday morning, with road conditions going toward Portland becoming hazardous. The coast and valley have been receiving rain all week end, and reports early Tues day morning were that snow had moved into these areas. According to the sheriff's department, Umatilla County has been one of the hardest hit areas, with heavy snow and ice. Motorists were driving with extreme caution. Some roads are closed, others re quired chains. The weather bureau pre dicts a 70 per cent chance of snow fall Tuesday night and Wednesday morning over most of Oregon. Morrow County wheat grow ers were sitting back and measuning the snow. Wheat growers who have finished seeding are pleased about the snow, other growers are waiting for snow to melt to start seeding wheat. MRM nilTTY
