Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1979)
U OFORE . N E V; S P A P E R e v 'i n ok - Weather I B 7 The Heppner Hi Low Tues., May 29 66 35 Wed., May 30 72 35 " Thur., May 31 79 43 Fri., June 1 85 46 Sat., June 2 90 " 51 Sun., June 3 90 53 Mon., June 4 80 51 May precip. was 1.44. Norm is 1.34. In 1978 it was 1.16. VOL. 97, NO. 23 . .1 L i , .-, -- . . - . . , . - - - . -s . . s . . h-. . r .r ' - t . '- ; I - - 1 " .- , 1 ,' ' . - - ' ' .... m..,: A Junior Rodeo star hung on for dear life Sunday in the Morrow County Junior Rodeo held at the Heppner Fairgrounds while competing in the Senior Boy's Bull Riding event. See story on page 7 for complete results. Council to hold hearings on new land rules The final draft of new city zoning, mobile home and subdivision ordinances and enlargened . urban growth boundaries were unveiled Monday night at the Heppner City Council meeting. The City Planning Commis sion will conduct a public hearing Monday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. at city hall to consider adoption of the new ordinances. The city council will have a second public hearing, Monday, June 18 to consider the planning com mission's recommendations. Planning Commission Chairman Terry Hager said the enlarged urban growth boundaries will determine the future growth of the city and the areas which it may annex outside city limits. Property owners affected by the prop osed boundaries will receive a letter from the city, desig nating the area to be expand ed. Following adoption by the city, the County Planning Commission must approve or deny the Urban Growth Boun dary changes and its recom mendations presented to the County Court for final ap proval. The proposed expanison will include a portion of Cross Hill down to Baird's Addition and the Fred Hoskin's property near the Willow Creek golf course. Light industrial areas are set aside and mobile home designations made in the areas presently outside the city limits. Hager said the city should also consider a "building elevation limit" in these areas to avoid problems with water service. Regarding the proposed new zoning ordinance to replace current regulations, Hager said the commission inven tories lot sizes throughout the city and separated the lot sizes into zones creating "limited R-l, single family residential; R-2, single family and duplex zone; R-3, single family and apartment zones; central, business and light industrial zones. The proposed R-l zone is the most restrictive of the resi dential zones with only single family residences allowed; . i ' " s.. t -r - I the R-2 zone would allow general residential usage such as single family and duplex housing and permission would be needed for establishment of parks and mobile homes. The R-3 zone would allow single family, multi-family mobile homes and mobile home parks as outright uses. Hager said the light industrial area would allow light manufacturing and warehousing but not such industries as batch plants for concrete, etc. Persons desiring exceptions to the ordinance would be able to apply for a conditional use permit through the Commis sion. It also spells out peti tions, applications and ap Rachel Dick recognized for 21 years of service to community Rachel Dick, Heppner, was presented Tuesday with a special recognition certificate upon her retirement after 21 years of teaching by the Morrow County School Dist rict. Mrs. Dick was honored for her service to the community as a first, fifth and sixth grade teacher plus time as a high school English, journalism, special and development teacher. Making the presenta tion was one of her former grade school pupils, Matt Doherty, County Supt. of Schools and Heppner Elemen tary Principal Don Cole. The Primary Grade teach ers hosted Mrs. Dick to a retirement party Tuesday. She first began teaching at Camas Valley in Western Oregon before moving here in 1938. She was out of teaching for a while and then came back in 19C3. In 1970, she left the high school journalism program to serve as a first grade teacher at Heppner Elementary School, where she has taught until her announce ment of retirement. Another of her students was Jim Barratt, a former athletic director at Oregon State University. Morrow TWO SECTIONS 16 PAGES " v " ft " ' peals before the Commission. Some of the councilmen asked whether persons living in the R-l zone could divide present single-family dwell ings into apartments. Hager said if they were already there before passage of the ordi nance, they would not fall under the authority of the planning commission; how ever, the proposed zoning ordinance prohibits other than single-family dwellings unless the builder is granted a conditional use permit by the planning commission for a two-family dwelling, hospital or nursing home and care facilities. When discussing the prop 4,t " n I V Rachel Dick of Heppner received special recognition Tuesday from Matt Doherty, Morrow County superintendent of schools and Heppner Elementary principal Don Cole for her 21 years of teaching. Mrs. Dick has announced her retirement as a first grade teacher at Heppner Elementary. One of her pupils over the many years of teaching was Matt Doherty. County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper 4 osed mobile home ordinance, Councilmen Frank Pearson and Cliff Green questioned the distinction between double wide mobile home and mod ular construction but the Council took no action to change the proposal. The R-l zone allows modulars but not double-wide trailers while the R-3 zone allows both uses. The proposed new subdivi sion ordinance would set up regulations for planned unit developments, require formal plans to be submitted to the Planning Commission and Council before approval and encouragement of under ground utilities. It also speci Conlinued on page 3 4 . ,. I I HEPPNER, OREGON Voters to polls again June 26 c The County Court has de cided to resubmit a tax levy of $494,410 outside the six per cent limitation without changes to the voters June 26, according to County Judge Delwin Nelson. The voters rejected the first levy election of the same amount in an election May 22. "If the voters reject the levy, this county government will have to lay off sheriff's deputies and probably lose as much as 10 employees," Nelson said. "The loss of those employ ees would greatly curtail services in the county," the Judge added. Nelson urged residents to go to the polls and register a decision on the requested tax levy proposals for the sepa rate county and hospital budgets, noting the light voter turnout experienced in the May 22 election. "One of the biggest prob lems in Morrow County is communication between the courthouse and the people with no one television station, no one newspaper and no one radio station," Nelson said. To inform the voters of the budget, Nelson, members of the county budget committee and county officials will be meeting with any organization j'vhicl) desires to arrange a budget explanation session. The time is critical with only three weeks left before the vote and several hours of meetings spent on post budget commentary. Nelson said the $247,000 increase in this year's budget from last was due to several reasons with roads as the major cause. The county has added $100,000 to the County Road Fund because of winter damage and cloudbursts this spring. With eight employees in the county road depart ment, the county is required to maintain 1,200 miles of road. The $100,000 is in addition to the $195,000 asked to continue a three year serial levy. ,1 iiirt Jh)acJk levie The higher budget is attrib uted to other factors ; the loss of $35,996 federal CETA em ployment funds for the sala ries of three employees, two appraisers and a land-fill operator, a $47,000 reduction in federal in-lieu taxes be cause of an increase in forest receipts (as explained by Nelson, the in-lieu monies are given to the county on the basis of forest lands but reduced by the Bureau of Land Management because of Morrow's greater share of forest land monies), a phase out of anti-recession funds amounting to $24,000 and a 7 and a half percent increase in road department salaries ' totalling $64,260. As for a proposed increase in the District Attorney's budget, Nelson said $18,000 of Hospital board votes $45,000 tax levy reduction Hospital board members requested the County Court Thursday to resubmit a tax levy to the voters to balance the budget for Pioneer Mem orial Hospital and North Morrow Clinic $45,000 less than the original proposal rejected by county voters May 22. The County Court accepted the request and directed the County Clerk's office to pre pare the ballots for a second levy election, Tuesday, June 26, the same date of the county's budget election. Voters will be deciding on a proposed $549,977 levy outside the 6 percent Constitutional limitation to balance the hospital budget. After meeting over three hours in a special budget session at Columbia Basin Co-op, Hospital Board Chair man Fred Martin and two members, Edward Dick and Alice Bartlett, visited the Court Thursday morning, re questing the revised tax levy be submitted to the voters. The rejected levy proposal of $598,587 or $1.32 per $1,000 in assessed valuation was trim med to $549,077. Two line items were changed by the hospital board; $50,000 ear marked for planning and development was cut to $25,000 and the fees generated by physicians at PMH in creased from $94,976, $20,000 than originally estimated. The board anticipates that the increased physician service fees will decrease the amount of funds the hospital wiy have to make up in balancing funds, lowered from $64,612 to $44,612. The new figure will lower the levy rate ten cents per $1,000 or $1.22 per $1,000 in assessed valuation. In response to County Judge D.O. Nelson's questions, Dick and Martin said the hospital has no tax base and should the budget go down a second time, "we couldn't operate on a $162,000 deficit." Judge Nelson said legally the county has responsibility for the hospital funds as part of the overall county budget, but if the vote fails to gain a simple majority June 26, the county could not make up the deficit. Although placing the hospi tal and North Morrow Clinic budget on a separate ballot besides the county's general THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1979 the $54,146 request has been earmarked for hiring an Assistant District Attorney and $7,000 for a secretary. Nelson defended the need for an Assit. D.A., remarking that the D.A.'s case load sharply increased because of the many requests for legal ad vice from county boards, such as planning, hospital and County Court besides that official's normal criminal prosecution. The county, said Nelson, is only required to pay $5,796 of the D.A.'s salary and the state makes up the difference. Inflation and state-mandated programs are also causing government costs to go up, Nelson said, pointing to the $3,000 increase in the Watermaster program, higher court costs and the increased fund tax levy, the County Court has endorsed the hospi tal budget, according to Judge Nelson. , Dick discounted what he felt was a misconception that it would be possible to establish a supplemental budget for the county's health care facilities if the hospital levy fails. He said severe cuts have already been made in the hospital's financial structure before this year. "There have been cost control programs instituted in the hospital," Dick said, "but food is up, fuel and utilities are up in price." Budget committee member Don Kramer felt the board had a realistic budget and asked D O. "Is there any way to use funds from the general fund for the hospital?" Replied D.O. "Unless we use emergency funds, there is no way we could control the general fund." The general fund is only $50,000 and covers any emer gencies which might cause a financial setback in the county this year. Hospital Bd. member Alice Bartlett said, "it was quite obvious that there was a concerted effort to defeat the budget. We had people in the north end phoning people to vote against it." In the Boardman and Irrigon areas, as few as 19 and 20 voters cast yes votes while the majority cast no votes. Nelson told the Gazette- Free swimming Sunday at Heppner The Heppner City Swim ming Pool opens this Sunday, June 10 in the first swim of the season. Sunday will be a free swim from one to five p.m. The pool will be closed on Mondays but open Tuesday through Saturday from one to five p.m. daily. Night swim ming will also be available from seven to nine p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Daily admission is as fol lows : 50 cents for youngsters through ten years old, 75 cents for 11-14 and $1.25 for swim 20 cents cost of hiring court-appointed attorneys, which will increase from $30 an hour to $45 an hour July 1. The short time period bet ween the second county levy election and the July 1 start of the county's fiscal year is causing consternation among county officials. Should the levy fail a third time, the county would have to gain special permission from the assessor's office. Judge Nelson feels the light voter turnout was a contri buting factor to the May 22 failure and notes that in the second go-around in last year's county budget and hospital election, voters in Heppner, lone and Lexington strongly supported the ballot issues. Times Monday that many voters in those areas were not aware that $157,000 of the total hospital budget is devoted to proposed expenditures for the North Morrow Clinic and Ambulance Service. Boardman City Manager Jim Thompson told the Court Thursday that the county "would find immeasurable support if it divided north and south ends of the county into two hospital districts. Judge Nelson and board members, Nelson and Dick were against the idea. Nelson said the county was already in the north and south division and implementation of two hospital districts would cause a further rift. Dick said it was too late to establish hospital districts and Martin added that the North Morrow Clinic was seen as a satellite of PMH: Board members answered several questions directed by the Court and budget commit tee. On the subject of attract ing new physicians to Heppner and Boardman, the board said efforts are continually being made to recruit new doctors and to attract the physicians, financial guaran tees are essential. Concern was expressed by the board that to increase the hospital's use by county resi dents, physicians must be recruited and that takes passage of the hospital budget allocating those financial in ducements. mers 15 years and older. Season tickets which may be purchased at both the city hall and swimming pool are $45 .per family, $17 for students and $23 for adults. Red Cross swimming class es start July 10. Registration is slated during regular pool hours on June 26 and 27. The youth lessons are $5 per session and will last until July 21. A second and final course will be conducted between July 24 and August 4 and youth Continued on page 3
