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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1976)
BESSIE WETZELL U OF ORE NEWSPAPER LIB LUGENE OR 97 40 3 J 7 ;"' They call It money I71ay Trrainals aren't' caught or Imprisoned "Why aren't more criminals going to lain" That question is asked on every street corner and coffee shop every day in Morrow County. The answer is money or rather, the lack of money. Morrow County has $7,500 budgeted for taking care of jail prisoner:. Since the coun ty jail has been condemned it has been necessary to trans port prisoners to Pendleton for confinement. The daily rate for keeping a prisoner recent ly went from $7 50 to $15 a day. Last Friday a felony case was reduced to a misdemeanor. The judge sentenced the man i who had been charged with rape but had his rase reduced to sexual molestation, a mis demeanor) to one year in jail. There went $5,475 of the county's annual budget just to house and feed one convicted of a misdemeanor crime. Had the charge of rape stuck In this instance the state would have shouldered the expense rather than the county. Only two rases of this kind could wipe out a year' budget for prisoner Jail rare. District Attorney Dennis Doherty told the Gazette-Tim-es Tuesday that Increased costs of keeping prisoners has Sheriff John Mollahan "shop ping around" for better jail rates. He found a bargain at The Dalies, where Morrow County can house Its prisoners for $7.50 a day. School budget wins approval LFXINGTON-The School Budget Commillee of Morrow County Monday night approv ed 1978 77 budget ' of $2,659,540. This represents an Increase of $368.8.18 over last year's budget and includes the bond Issue. Cost to the taxpayer would be an added 50 rents per $1,000 of assessed valuatkm over last year's $9 10 tax rate, or $9 60 per $1,000 for the 1978 77 prrkid. Aflef three meetings the original proposal of $2,631,361 THE Vol.92, No. 51 i r pi f "This lack of funds inhibits law enforcement and the courts," said Doherty. "It doesn't muke for the best in law enforcement and the dis pensation of justice when both (he lawmen and the courts know that in some instances the amount of justice to be meted out depends largely upon how much money is left in the budget." He said this results in plea bargaining (reducing a char ge in exchange for a plea of guilty. Doherty said it costs $450 just to bring a jury into the court house. The justice court has a budget of $1,000 for jurors and witnesses; the circuit court is $3,500. "And if people want to know what the sheriff is doing instead of chasing criminals," Doherty said, "take last Friday as a good example. The 4 man sheriff department kept busy shuttling prisoners from Heppner to Pendleton and The Dalles, and return. Then the sheriff must go either to The Dalles or Pen dleton jails to take the prisoners out to see their attorneys, which saves the county money because the lawyers charge $.10 an hour to visit their clients in the jail, and it's much cheaper when the sheriff takes the prisoners to the lawyers' offices. Then he has to go hark and pick up these prisoners for arraign was Increased by $18,179 These increases are the result of the new Social Security rate Increases recently announced by IVesident Ford. Morrow County School Board of Trust ees will now receive the budget prowal. The budgets for each section of school operation are as follows: A C. Houghton. $133,181; Heppner Elemen tary. $381,871. Heppner Junior High. $153,252. Heppner High, $445,604, lone Elementary. $169,391; lone Junior High, GAZE I I Heppner City Police Chief Dean Gilman stares at two of the twelve marijuana plants recently confiscated in Heppner. At the base of the plants are some marijuana seeds used to cultivate the plans. ment, and (hen returns them to their cells in Pendleton or The Dalles." And that's why the sheriff isn't out chasing criminals, Doherty said. And the reason more people aren't going to jail is because there isn't enough money to put them there. A total of 59 felony cases were prepared and filed by the district attorney's office for the 1975 year ending Dec. 31, 8 of which involved juveniles. Most of them involved proper ty crimes; except for 6. There were 19 burglaries and 19 thefts in the total of 59 charges. Of the 59 crimes committed 36 were committed by persons residing in North ern Morrow County. Five of the convicted felons were sent to state prison. 17 of the cases involved transients or persons from other counties. About 52 cases for driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor were reported to the DA's office, and of this num ber IS went to trial and the rest pleaded guilty. 14 cases involved bad checks and 10 were habitual traffic offend ers. Doherty said the average criminal case, with a full court trial, costs an average of $4,500 Two such cases a yoar would exhaust the funds set aside in the budget to prose cute them. $5,795; lone High, $174,639. Kiverside Junior High, $123,110, and Kiverside High, $314,623. Transportation of students for the coming year will cost $2.10.933 if the school board and the voters approve the budget as presented. Operat ing costs for the district office are projected at $f5,8:fl. After study and approval by the school board this budget will be presented to Morrow County voters for approval. I Morrow County's Newspaper rrrvrr 11 Heppner, OR, Thursday, Feb. 5, 1976 . r I Annual meeting -at Lexington The 4lh annual meeting of the Morrow Soil and Water Conspiration District will be held Tuesday, Feb. 10. 7:30 p.m. at the Lexington School district of tire. Following the introductions and a business meeting fea turing Dan Wilson, Oregon Stale extension economist, project coordinator of the Stanfield-Westland project will address the members. Area engineer El in Host will also speak on toil loss in Morrow County tenuis quality standards. Jernstedt honored Slate Sen. Ken Jernstedt, Disl. 28, was named Hood River County 's First Citizen of 1975. The presentation was made at the annual Hood River County Chamber of Commerce awards banquet, Jan. 29 A resident of Hood Kiver for 30 years. Jornslcdt was cited for his many diversified com munity services, for leader ship in his church and for his work in the Lions Club. His (Jons Club activities have included club president and deputy district governor for easlern Oregon. Jernstedt was a Marine Aviator and served in China under General Claire Chenn ault and the Flying Tigers (AVID. He was Oregon's only Flying Tiger pilot, one of the groups lop aces, Oregon's first ace and the recipient of two decorations from Madame Chiang Kaishek for bravery in action. Now In his second term as state senator, Jernstedt pre viously served as a Hood River Councilman, Hood Riv-' rr mayor and stale represen tative. He was especially commended for humani larianism including his con tinued interest in legislation to benefit fregon's handicapped citizens. CC Guest speaker Bob Addleman, district con servationist, will be the guest speaker at Heppner Morrow ' Chamber of Commerce Mon day. He will present a slide program entitled, "In Touch With The Und " . i rrn A faulty muffler triggered a string of events here Saturday that landed two young men in jail charged with driving with a suspended drivers license, cow-killing and growing mari juana. It all started early in the morning when Chief of Police Dean Gilman was making a routine check of the town and noticed a car with a faulty muffler. He stopped the car with the intention of issuing the driver, Michael John Palmer, 18, Hermiston, a warning citation to repair the muffler. Gilman noted blood on the oun I 1 J JCi c nempioymen Morrow County has achiev ed the lowest unemployment rate of any Oregon county during December with 5 9 per cent. This figure was only 0.4 per centage points above Novem ber, but considerably below the reading of 8.9 in December 1974. The civilian labor force, although down 90 from Nov ember, was 850 above the corresponding level of a year ago. Non-agricultural wage and salary employment for Mor row County increased slightly, to 2,060 workers in December. A slight increase in food pro ducts; transportation and uti lities; finance; insurance and real estate more than made up for the declines in trade and con'ract construction. The total is 530 above a year ago. $9 billion gas line project outlined 'The proposed Arctic Gas Transmission Pipeline will be larger than the oil line in both length and cost." Ross Woodward of Pacific Gas Transmission Co. told the Chamber of Commerce Monday. The proposed gas line will begin at Prudhoe, AK. and continue to Calgary, picking up the gas at the MacKenzie Delta. The transmission line will split at Calgary with mains going to California and another the East Coast. Throughout the area of permafrost, north of 60 degrees latitude, the gas will be refrigerated at each compressor station to maintain a temperature below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. This chilled gas line concept will allow the pipeline to be fully buried along its entire route without risk of damage to high ice-content permafrost. Compressor stations, using jet aircraft type engines, will be located at 50-mile intervals when full capacity is reached. The surface over the pipeline will be revegetated to provide thermal insulation for the permafrost and to arrest alluvial erosion. t The Arctic Gas decision to build the pipeline follows more than five years of technical and environmental studies costing more than $70 million. Pure environmental studies alone cost more than $12 million, resulting in publication of 29 volumes ol original research, with more to come. Experts on mammals, birds, fish, soils and other areas were employed to make extensive and comprehensive studies. The information was used to plot the route and design the pipeline and ancillary facilities. The studies also served as a basis of the monumes! environmental report submitted to the Department of the Interior and the Federal Power Commission and counterpart agencies in Canada. (Continued on Paee 1) ) V I I ( "' t i I t - f i 4 j. ! f . ;;1 Lj' M Gary McKinney, left, area superintendent and Rosa Woodward, right of way agent for the Pacific Gas Transmission Company. TTT yJTTrn iivii ailed in vehicle and on Palmer's trousers. He asked for Palm er's operating license, which he found to be a suspended one. Gilman checked the trunk of the car and found the freshly butchered front and hind quarters of a cow. Gilman and an Oregon State Police Officer said Palmer admitted killing the cow. He and a friend had intended to kill a deer, but not finding one, they killed a cow belonging to Terry Thompson in Lunchford Canyon, south of Heppner. The officers and the suspect returned to the scene of the cow-killing to find that Thom Much of the yearly job increase occur ed as expected in food products, lumber and wood products and trade. Latest reports indicate that Portland General Electric Company is expected to begin ground site preparation for construction of its coal fired generating plant near Poverty Ridge in Morrow County by mid-February. Water storage for plant cooling and irriga tion purposes will be develop- cd by construction of the Carty Reservoir at the site. Up to 70 workmen are expected to be on the site after the first three months. PGE has indicated it hopes to eventually have a cluster of six generating plants at Carty, possibly four of them nuclear. The proximity of the U.S. Navy's Weapon System ty n 15c cow ki pson had just discovered the remains of the butchered cow. Later the same day Palmer implicated another youth as his accomplice. Shortly after noon the officers arrested Joseph Donald Mattison, 18, Heppner, in his apartment on W. Willow St. An investigation of Mattison's apartment re vealed 12 small pots, each containing a marijuana plant. Mattison admitted to officers his role in the butchering of Thompson's cow. Palmer was taken to Uma tilla County jail charged with theft in the first degree and for driving with a suspended lowes rate Training Facility, however, prevents development for nu clear reactors at Carty now. If and when the Navy moves its bombing range out of Morrow County, PGE officials hope to expand the power complex in this technological direction. Although minor revisions ere still to be made to 1974-75 labor force statistics, it now appears the annual average for Morrow County will be in the neighborhood of the fig ures given below: Morrow County Labor For ce Summary by place of residence for 1975: civilian labor force, 3,190; unemploy ment, 180; per cent unemploy ed, 5.6; total employment, 3.010. Recently the Center for IVIlO EiOS the plans ? The loss of numerous sets of approved sewer plans appear ed to be the main topic of discussion at the Heppner City Council, Tuesday night. Builder Randy Lott asked Mayor Sweeney why the common council had not approved plans for a sewer he had installed. Mayor Sweeney replied that neither he nor any member of the council had seen (he plans, nor had the c council given their approval of the plans. Loll remarked he originally had six sets of plans made of the proposed sewer line and that after having I hem signed by a registered engineer he had sent two sets of plans to the State for its approval. Upon the approval of the plans. Lott claims one set was forwarded to the city Contract rejected The Morrow County school advisory committee met Tuesday evening at the Hepp ner Elementary School to discuss the renewal of the tea chers contracts for the coming year. - Approximately 60 persons attended the meeting, some with petitions asking the contract of Dean Naffziger as athletic director and as bask etball coach, not be renewed. Le Padberg, presented a petition containing 38 signa tures requesting the dismissal of Naffziger. Head football coach Chuck Starr presented a petition In favor of Naffziger bearing less than 10 signatures. The school advisory com mittee then railed an execu tive session and interviewed all ol the people who had signed the petition. The Inter views were thorough with the executive session lasting more operators license. Mattison is charged with theft in the first decree and cultivating drugs. He is free on bail. Both the men are to appear for arraignment Tuesday in jus tice court. Monday morning Oregon State Police were called and further information given on the slaying of the cow. Impli cated was a third suspect, Michael James Pine, 22, Heppner. Pine is charged with shooting the animal and is charged with theft in the first degree. He is lodged in the county jail in lieu of $2,505 bail. ' Population Research and Census of Portland State University released its July 1975 population estimates for Oregon's 36 counties and 240 incorporated cities. These es timates are used by state agencies in establishing dis tribution levels to county and city governments for revenues derived from liquor profits, gasoline and cigarette taxes. Population for selected muni cipalities in Morrow County are given below along with county totals. Morrow County Boar dm an Heppner (one (rrigon Lexington 5,190 695 1,600 405 370 245 for approval. Awaiting appro val of the plans, Lott claims one set was forwarded to the city for approval. Awaiting approval of the city council. .Lott installed the sewer line and connected the main to an existing manhole. After the project was com pleted the city notified Lott that his plans have never been approved by the council and if a set of plans can be produced the city will accept his line, otherwise, according to the city engineer Steve Anderson, the sewer line will be consi dered a private line. Lott appeared before the city council Tuesday night and told the council that of the six sets of plans one can be found. While claiming the city has (Continued on page () than three and one-half hours. Following the executive session the committee return ed and the motion was made and seconded that Dean Naff ziger's coaching contract not be renewed for the coming year. The motion passed by a unanimous decision. A spectator asked the fol lowing question from the floor, "Does this mean that Naffzig er will still continue as athletic director?" The rommmittee replied. "There was only one petitioner Interviewed during the executive session who asked for the resignation of Naffziger as athletic direc tor." The advisory committee will present its recommenda tion to the school board for tht final decision. The next regu lar meeting of the school board will be held Feb. 18, 7:30 p m. at the Heppner Elemen tary School.