Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1980)
BESSIE W E T Z E I. L U OF ORE NEWSPAPER LIB EUGENE OR 97403 - (9AZET M VOL. 38 NO. 7 iMUKSUAI,rE.dnUAKI H. 1WU i - ' J; K 1 ' "I i . ' The Heppner Hi how Pre. li Morrow County's Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper Weather By Do Gilliam Tups.. Feb. 5 42 31 VVed.Feb.fi 51 30.23" Thurs..Feb.7 46 31 .10" Fri .Feb. B 37 31 .03" Sat.. Feb. 9 35 32 Sun.. Feb. 10 34 32 Mon.Feb. 11 33 31 2(1 CKNTS II PACKS IIKPPNFK. OHFGON : 0$: : Todd II;n rison i J Geri Grieb Larrv Snider i J Mi Six local students win cnoiar two o to distric Alice Ah rams Terry Slarr Geri Ann Grieb and Todd Harrison, both of Heppner, won $400 scholarships from the Heppner Elks Club, Jim Swanson, chairman of the scholarship committee, an nounced this week. Alice Abrams of Heppner finished second in the girls competition and Larry Snider of lone was second for the boys. They both will receive $200 scholarships. Marie Van Schoiack of Heppner and Terry Starr of lone finished third and will receive $100 scholarships. The members of the Elks scholarship committee were Marv Peterson, Mike Swee ney, Dan Sweeney, and Swan son. They judged the appli cants on financial need, lead ership and scholarship. "We had a tough job," Swanson said. The 11 applicants filled out a brochure that was a financial and activity report of what they do in school and outside of school. Three letters of recommendation were re quired from teachers and three from other references. The 11 persons were inter viewed last week and asked impromptu questions on local n problems. Swanson said the two first place winners have a "chance . to go quite a way" in the Elks competition. Grieb and Harrison will compete in the district compe tition Feb. 17 in Enterprise. ' The winners there will com pete in the state competition and then the nationals. The same brochure is used but the contestants must be interviewed again. The scho larship money can only be j used for college education purposes. Harrison is the editor of the high schol annual at Heppner High School, the vice presi dent of the national honor society, a member of the speech team, on the golf team, a member of church groups, participates in the 4-H pro gram and is in charge of the Wilderness and Survival 4-H club. He plans to attend either the University of Puget Sound or the Florida Institute of Tech nology and would major in aerospace engineering. Grieb is a member of the volleyball and basketball teams at Heppner, she is a cheerleader, a member of the FFA, secretary of the national honor society and secretary treasurer for the Oregon Junior Angus Association. She plans on attending Oregon State University and majoring in health and physi cal education. Abrams is a member of the volleyball and basketball teams at Heppner, president of the national honor society, president of the girls athletic booster club, a member of the Spanish Club, outdoor club, drama club, has participated in 4-H for six years and is an avid tole painter. She has applied to attend Stanford University but is also considering UPS and other colleges. Larry Snider from lone High School is a member of the national honor society, president of the letterman's club, on the track team and a football manager. He is planning to attend either OSU or Eastern Oregon State College and majoring possibly in geology. Terry Starr, also from lone, is the president of the student body and was vice president last year. He was a member of the state championship foot ball team and a member of the national honor society. He is planning to attend Lewis and Clark in Portland and would major in elemen tary education. Marie Van Schoiack is a member of the national honor society, an FFA district offi cer, senior class secretary, 4-H club member and has received her state farm de gree from FFA. She has already been accep ted to OSU and will enter the pre-vet program. She plans to continue in the vet program there for a total of eight years in college. a '-'. . i i i .. i V ' ' j -: Mr - h Increases $1,136,254 School budget debated Marie Van Schoiack Prior to the regular school board meeting Feb. 18. there will be an open meeting at 7 p.m. for anyone who is interested in commenting on the approved school budget for 1980-81. The school budget commit tee cut more than $117,000 out of the proposed school budget requests so voters will only have to decide on an A ballot at the election March 25 and not the B ballot too, superin tendant Matt Doherty said. The district budget could have totaled up to $3,745,546 and still have qualified for just the A ballot, Doherty said. The one year special levy outside the tax base that the citizens will vote on is for $3,081,650. The actual amount for the school district budget that needs (6 be raised from property taxes is $3,670,160 but because state law says the budget can increase six per cent ($588,510) without an election, the voters only de cide on the amount above that six percent limitation, Including bonded indebted ness, the school district tax levy is $4,374,834. The school budget approved by the committee is for $5,563,854 but resources other than county property taxes -, will pay all but $3,670,160 of it. The budget for A.C. Hough ton is only increasing from $596,094 to $597,225. Heppner Elementary's budget is pro posed to increase from $480,568 to $565,092. Ione's Elementary's budget is proposed to increase from $206,096 to $249,716. The new Boardman Ele mentary School's budget will increase from $204,555 last year to $574,684 when it begins operation. The total district budget for the elementary schools is proposed to increase about half a million dollars. Heppner Junior High will rise from $225,783 to $272,022 and lone Junior High will go up from $90,491 to $104,156. Some offices closed for birthday This Monday, Feb. 18, is a stale and federal holiday for Washington's Birthday. Most government offices in the county will be closed. The First National Bank of Oregon and the Bank of Eastern Oregon in Heppner will be closed. Most of the downtown stores in Heppner will be open during regular hours of business. Schools will also be open. Power outage Sunday warns Columbia Basin Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative officials have issued a warning to Heppner residents about a power out age that will occur this Sunday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. A pole on Main Street is being replaced so power will be out for about two hours more or less. All of the downtown area and up Balm Fork Road and Shobe Canyon will be affected by the outage. Not affected are the areas north of Morgan Street and east of the Pioneer Memorial Hospital. Riverside Junior High will drop from a budget of $230,420 to zero because the students will be attending Columbia Junior High when it opens. The Columbia Junior High budget is scheduled to in cr(jase from $125,111 to $496,944. The entire junior high pro gram will rise approximately $217,000. The total senior high pro gram budget will increase approximately $350,000. Riverside High School's budget will rise from $570,940 to $768,715. lone High School will go up from $247,101 this year to $312,694 next year. Heppner's budget will in crease from $576,960 to $673,546 if the budget that was approved by the budget com mittee is passed by the voters. Most of the increases are due to the salary increases for district employees and ap proximately $200,000 is for the new teachers that will be hired for the two new schools in north Morrow County. Em ployees benefits naturally in crease with the salary in crease. Purchased services will have a "considerable in crease" Doherty said because " of the dramatic increase in utility rates. Most of the school depend on the electrical utility. Equipment in supplies is increasing because of all the merchandise that has to be purchased for the two new schools. The transportation section of the budget is set to increase from $305,971 to $458,663. Doherty said the increase is due to the fact that the district wants to improve the busing situation in the north end by building a facility to house the buses and hiring a mechanic lo repair them. "We all know eas is eoine to go up too," Doherty said. "We expect it to go up to almost $2 a gallon although we (the school district) won't have to pay that much for it." The approved budget shows an increase of $1,136,254 over liist year with more than half of il being caused by the seven percent increase in employees salaries. City committee approves 11 salary increase An increase of 11 percent in salaries for Heppner city employees was approved last week. In the first meeting Wednes day of the Heppner city budget committee, the proposed in crease of 15 percent by Marshall Lovgren. city admi nistrator, was denied but an 11 percent increase was ap proved "across the board" Lovgren said. Voters will decide if the salary increase wil be adopted in the March 25 election or the May primary election. The committee had its second meeting last night at City Hall at 7 p.m. Lovgren .said depending on the outcome of that meeting, the city budget may be voted on in March or May. If the budget committee approves a budget and Lovgren can prepare it and have it certified in the county clerk's office by Feb. 19, then it will be voted on in March. Otherwise, it will have to wait until May. The 11 percent salary in crease, if approved by the voters, will affect the mayor, city administrator, treasurer, police chief, librarian, sewer labor, water labor, street labor and water crew fore man. The budget adopted last year by the voters was for $465,908. The total request for the 1980-81 budget was for $(')(K).839 but it is below the $595,000 figure after the first meeting. Last year voters approved a seven percent increase in salaries for city employees. The major increases in the proposed budget are for sala ries supplies and materials. R etraction Lovgren said last week's city budget story in the Gazette-Times was wrong when it reported that the proposed budget included al most $79,000 to be put in a reserve fund. He said the proposed figures were accurate for the salaries, materials and supplies, with increases of $23,366 and $79,094 but the rest of the budget increase is not for the reserve fund. If no more cuts were made in the proposed city budget, property owners within the city taxing district will be assessed a tax rate of $9.21 per $1,000 valuation. Taxpayers paid $3.90 per $1,000 this year. May or names commissioners City of Heppner appoint ments were made last week at the city council meeting and the committee system of governing was changed to the commissioner system. The city council members have been named as commis sioners instead of to commit tees. "Most of the towns are doing that now," Mayor Jerry Sweeney said. "It is a more effective form of govern ment." The new Police Commis sioner is Robert Laughlin, the Water Commissioner is Clif ford Green, the Parks and Pool Commissioner is Ronald Forrar, the Personnel (fran chises, contracts and ordi nancees) Commissioner is Warren Plocharsky, the Gen eral Government, Revenue Sharing and Budget Commis sioner is Frank Pearson and the Streets Commissioner is Joe F. Miller. The yearly appointments were also made with Dean M. Gilman named the chief of police, Forrest Burkenbine the fire chief, Abrams and Kuhn the city attorney. Dr. Wallace Wolff the health officer, Mary Jean McCabe the treasurer and Marshall Lovgren the recorder. John Canaday was named as the representative and Ronald Forrar the alternate to the Blue Mountain Economic Council. The Land Commission and Development Committee and Planning Commission was also named for 1980. John Shaw is the chairman, Larry Bowman the secretary with members Ed Tarnasky, Mike Gray, David Hanna, Robert Lankford and Richard Bige low. The budget committee was announced with members be ing Glen Ward, A K. Felt, Kenneth Miller, Allen Nistad, Rita Hedman and George Koffler. Willow Creek Dam approved The library board mem bers are librarian Bethel Heinrichs, Bill Rawlins, Myr na Johnson, Bill Kuhn, Pau line Winter and Gregg Sweek. The city councilmen are Warren Plocharsky, Robert Laughlin, Frank Pearson, Clifford Green, Ronald Forrar and Joe F. Miller. The $7.7 million Willow Creek Dam in Heppner was one of several Oregon water projects that were included in the Water Projects Authoriza tion Bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week by a vote of 283-127. President Carter has threat ened to veto the bill but the margin in the House would override a veto. The Army Corps of Engi neers has been authorized to construct the flood control dam, A Senate version of the bill is still in the water resources subcommittee of the Public Works Committee. Oregon Democrats Les Au Coin, Bob Duncan, and Jim Weaver voted in favor of the bill. Al Ullman did not vote. County budget presented The Morrow County budget message will be presented to the county budget committee by budget officer Alma Green Feb. 19 at 9 a.m. in the county courthouse. Budget requests have been submitted to the budget offi cer by the county department heads for the past several weeks. She is preparing a statement of the requests and the budget committee will decide what areas of the requests will be increased or decreased. Once a budget is approved by the committee it will go before the voters. The county is looking at the voting day of May 20. Included in the budget requests for next year wil be one made from the county owned Pioneer Memorial Hos pital in Heppner. Although historically it has been in cluded in the county budget, the hospital has not been a part of it the past few years. n
