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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
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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
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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