Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1983)
VOL. 101 NO. 2 THURSDAY, JANUARY IJ. 1M3 Guest speakers give Tony Barnhart Inventory your land, Inves tigate financing and pinpoint types of businesses, and above all don't be discouraged. Those were the words of ad vice given to the new Heppner Economic Development Corp. by guest speakers at the first annual meeting of the corpor ation, held Monday night. Joe Burns of the llermiston Economic Development Corp.. and Tony Barnhart of the East Oniral Oregon As sociation of Counties spoke to a group of about 50 people who had gathered at the Heppner Elk's Lodge, about the diffi culties and possibilities of economic development in Heppner. The Heppner corp., formed several months ago to pro mote growth and improve economic health In the area. now has 19 members, (five Joined Monday at the meet ing) and a host of ideas on Improving the economic sit uation here. Barnhart said Heppner should look at any possible sites for new businesses, check for proper zoning and Investigate avenues of finan cing for expansion or new businesses. Local congregations to sponsor Polish family By JUSTINE WEATIIEREOKD The Rev. John S. Maas of Hope and Valby Lutheran churches has relonwl en ex planation this week clarifying the sponsoring of a refugee family by these churches. He states that the two congrega tions were recently told that the Hiri Cerveny Family has been resettled In West Ger many. The south Morrow County congregations, along with much local help, had made all the preparations to resettle this Czech family in Heppner, The U.S. State De partment errantly released the Cervenys for sponsorship before it had approved them for immigration into the United States. "The congregations were stunned to hear that the Cer veny family was not coming. A home had been rented and furnished, job leads had been established, and plans had been made to help them fit into their new way of life. Fortunately for the parish, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the agency they are sponsoring the refu gees through, has been able to help with the rent because the family sponsorship fell through. The sponsorship costs of the refugee family is being borne entirely by the two congregations in the par "Look at your businesses that are already here. In Oregon 85 percent of new jobs are created by businesses already in Oregon," he poin ted out. He urged the corp. to make use of available resources; the port commission. G E O. D C. and the county. As far as the type of new businesses that may locate in Heppner, Gardner said to "decide who you want and go after them." He said the cor poration should make a "laundry list" of businesses from which to work. Joe Burns, who has had 17 years experience with the Hermiston Economic Devel opment Corporation, had some suggestions on how to Columbia Basin lowers increase An increase In electrical power usage costs will be reduced from 1.5 to 1.1 cents per kilowatt hour effective with the January billing, it was announced at a Columbia Basin Electric Co-op Board meeting last Thursday. Co-op Manager Fred Toombs said the reduction was due to re duced termination costs of Washington Public Power Supply System's nuclear plants 4 and 5. "Because WPPSS termination costs on 4 and 5 have been reduced, we are able to reduce the amount we have to collect from cus tomers." he explained. Rates were increased 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour last month to cover the coop's involvement in the two plants, even though the co-op won't start making payments on the debt until ordered to do so by law. Funds from the increase are being held in interest ish and other individuals of the county area," Maas said. Upon receiving the shocking news, the Lutherans immedi ately selected another refugee family to sponsor. The new family is Polish and the con gregations hope there will not be a long wait before they arrive. According to Barbara Daw son of the Lutheran Immigra tion and Refugee Service, names of refugees come to private placement agencies from the U.S. State Depart County's value increases By MARY ANN CERULLO Morrow County's assessed value has increased by $3,236,292 since July, reported Morrow County Planner, Deene Seeger, last week. Seeger stated that in the past six months the new build ing inspection office has brought in $19,471.55 in fees School board A regular meeting of the Morrow County School Board will be held at Sam Boardman Elementary School at Board man on January 17 at 7:30 p.m. The board will hear a dis cussion of the district's special education program and the use of non-teaching staff as athletic coaches, said a spokesperson for the board. Tit Hppiair c Morrow County's Home-Owned 8 PAGES Economic Dev. Corp. proceed. "It's tough out there. There's a lot qf competition, but you can start by making an Inventory of your assets. You have a lot of assets you may overlook." Burns urged the corporation to work with the port and check out ways to finance. "And protect what you al ready have," he urged. Burns said the development should be approached in a "methodical, think tank" way. "You have to do it your self." he said. "You have the expertise here to do it, and don't give up." Following the two guest speakers' discussions, presi dent of the corporation, Jim bearing accounts until them. If the co-op is not required to make payments to WPPSS. the funds will be returned to consumers either In the form of reduced rates or in cash. Columbia Basin Is one of 16 utilities involved in a suit claiming they are not respon sible for the debt because the plants were not completed and no energy will be obtained from them. Toombs said a review of the suit was heard at the board meeting Thursday. North co. A petition drive, requesting that a county sheriff's deputy be stationed in the Irrigon area, was started in Board man and Irrigon last week. Sponsor of the petition, George Kenny of Irrigon, says ment. The people that are released for sponsorship are supposed to be cleared by the State Department to come to the U.S. somehow, the Cer vcr.y's names were released before that approval was given. She assured Maas that the Polish family has been approved. This new family will be the Andrze Doboszynski Family. Mr. Doboszynski was intern ed, or Jailed, by the Polish government for seven months with $5,667.17 as the county's share. He said $3,236,292 in assessed value of construction had been done, the largest being the U & I Inc. project at the Port of Morrow in' Board man. This means that the county's assessed value has Increased by that same amount, concluded Seeger. to meet In other business, the board is expected to consider a request for attendance from an out-of -district student, the adoption of a procedure to be used to fill vacancies on the board and the district's stand ing committees, and direc tives to local committees In volved in preparing local school budgets. Weekly Newspaper 25 Hayes, of Heppner. gave an overview of how the corpor ation got started and what It was trying to accomplish. He said anyone can join the non-profit corporation, and , the membership fee is $100. Prior to the annual meeting, the corporation had 14 mem bers: however, five more signed up at the meeting. In other business, the cor- poration: elected Jim Hayes, Bob Abrams. Fred Toombs. Kent,1 Goodyear, Ralph Limanen, Charles Hutchinson and Joan McDonald to three-year terms as directors on the board. Joan McDonald replaced Helen Riehl who declined to run. and that the first hearing was scheduled for January 10. Toombs reported Friday that November 1982 usage was the lowest for any month in many years. "We had to go . back to 1972 to find when ' usage had been as low as " during November '82," he said. In other business, the board: changed two policies con cerning collecting past due accounts which put more re residents petition for the recent murder of a gas station operator here was "the catalyst" that got the drive going. "It wasn't the only reason," says Kenny, who along with because of his activities on behalf of the Solidarity Movement. He had served as a treasurer of a union local since 1981. He is 32 and is a trained technical mechanic. His wife, Barbara, is 29 and is a bookkeeper. Both have yars of experience in their professions. Their two child ren are a daughter, Inga, eight, and a son, Wojciech, four. The family is Roman Catholic, and they have little command of the English language. Maas said he does not know yet when this family will reach Heppner. Reservoir could begin to fill next month Depending rain, spring run-off and flood conditions, Willow Creek Dam reservoir could begin to fill with water next month, the Army Corps, of Engineers says. Ken Gardner of the public affairs office of the Corps, says gates to control the flow of water out of the dam are expected to be installed by mid to late February, after which water could be collected behind the dam. The water level in Willow Creek will have to be main HEPPNER. OREGON advice t IX Joe Burns : heard a report from Treasurer Kent Goodyear, who reported $1863.98 in the corporation account. : re-elected Jim Hayes president of the corporation. strictions and penalties on consumers who are discon nected for non payment. tnet with several local irrigators to discuss their problems caused by increas es. Toombs said the board is working with the irrigators to develop a rate which will allow them to keep irrigating their crops, at no cost to other consumers. his wife operates Kenny's Farm Market on the edge of town. "There has been a series of house hreak-ins and burglaries, including one here," he says, pointing to the store. Kenny says he hopes to gather at least 1,000 signa tures on the petition, which will be presented to the county court at its next Irrigon meet ing on Wednesday, Jan. 26. The petition, copies of which have been placed in all busi nesses in both Irrigon and Boardman, asks that the Mor row County sheriff's office give "more equitable distri bution of deputy officers." According to the petition, 45 percent of Morrow County's registered voters reside in Irrigon and Boardman, but of the six sheriff's deputies en gaged in police work, five reside in Heppner, the county seat, one in Boardman and none in Irrigon. The petition states that over tained at a certain level, so when the reservoir is filled will depend on the amount of rain fall, and run-off from snow in the spring, Gardner said. He said work at the dam is now limited, to grouting around the foundation where the foundation rock comes into contact with dam concrete. "There have been no serious problems (with the dam)," Gardner said. "Everything is going right along on schedule." Weather by the City of 50 to 60 percent of Heppner still lies in flood plain Heppner's Willow Creek Dam may not reduce the flood plain as much as expected. According to maps recently Sabre Farms final stages By MARY ANN CERULLO The sale of Sabre Farms on Homested Road, southeast of Boardman is currently being finalized by a Korean firm, announced Deene Seeger, Morrow County Planner, last Wednesday. Seeger, who was unable to Proposed school budget up 4.3 percent Morrow County's proposed 1983-84 school budget is up 4.3 percent over the present year; ' however, locartaxes' to baf ance the budget are expected to raise about 13.6 percent, the budget committee was told last week. Meeting for the first time to start preparations for a bud get election, the committee heard a report from superin- deputy half the criminal activity in the county occurs in the Boardman-Irrigon area. "For the foregoing reasons, we request that there be a redistribution of sheriff's per sonnel which would ensure the presence of at least one resi dent deputy in Irrigon," the petition says. Kenny says facts in the petition were supplied by the sheriff's department and the county clerk's office. "There's more crime up here. We need more police protection. I don't think that's unreasonable," Kenny stated. New faces Mike Oths Photo and story by MARY ANN CERULLO Two new faces were seen at the Morrow County Court house in Heppner as they took over their new positions last Monday, Jan. 3. Irv Rauch of Lexington was the first new face who took over the position of Morrow County Commissioner from Dorothy Krebs of lone. Ac cording to Krebs, she will be hi Heppner released by the Corps, of Engineers, much of the town will still be in the flood plain even now that dam construe- sale in name the firm, reported that the sale will include 14,812.11 acres of land actually owned by Sabre Farms, plus 995.19 acres of state-leased land for a total of 15,807.3 acres. The figures of the sale hadn't been released, but See ger estimated it to be in the vicinity of $15 to $20 million. tendent Matt Doherty who said although the total in crease in the budget is modest,'outsklr revenue for the district is expected to be donw. This will cause more money to be raised locally, he said. "The revenue picture does not look as favorable this year. We expect to have less money from carryover funds, from federal forest fees, from prior years' taxes and from several of our smaller sources than we had available last year." Doherty said. Doherty estimated outside revenue to be down by $585,000 next year. However, he did say that basic school support, the lar gest source of revenue outside of local taxes, may be up from the present year. "The governor has proposed that the amount appropriated for basic school support should be increased next year." He added that the legislature will have more answers on basic school sup port once it convenes. The total amount of local seen at courthouse putting most of her efforts back into the family sheep ranching business. The other new face can now be found in the courthouse with the title of Morrow Coun ty Counsel. His name is Mike Oths, 25, originally from Ohio and most recently from Eu gene. Oths is currently settling in Heppner. During the first meeting of 1983 for Morrow County Court, on Wednesday, Jan. 5, the court authorized Judge Don McElligott to approve the re ferral of cases from the dis trict attorney's office to Oths' as indeendent special prose cuting attorney. The D.A.'s office reportedly has a back log of 60 felony cases. In other business, Al Corder and Nick Friend of the audit ing firm Nieni, Holland and Scott of Kennewick, Wash., discussed the 1982 Morrow County Audit Report with the court. HI LowPreclp. 55 42 59 39 .35 Tues., Jan. 4 Wed.. Jan. 5 Thurs.. Jan. 6 Fri.. Jan. 7 Sat.. Jan. 8 Sun.. Jan. 9 Mon.. Jan. 10 54 42 63 39 .02 T 48 18 48 42 55 30 tion has been completed. "About 50 to 60 percent of the town will still be in the flood plain," Heppner city attorney Bill Kuhn told the Chamber of Commerce Tues day. Some homeowners have re portedly already cancelled flood insurance which they will need to reinstate. "The restrictions won't be as great as before, but it's still more than we thought," said Kuhn. "For $40 million dollars I don't think we got a whale of a deal," concluded Kuhn. taxes needed to fund the bud get is estimated to be $5,894,273, up $703,747 over the previous year. " ' " Of the local taxes, $700,923 is within the tax base, $585,459 will be used to fund bonded debt, $3,721,565 would be the maximum allowed for in an A levy (partially funded by the state), and the remaining $886,326 would be a B levy (totally funded by local taxes). With an estimated property valuation of $644 million in the county, tax payers would face a rate of $9.15, up $1.20 from this year's rate of $7.95 per thousand. At the first meeting, Jan. 3, the budget committee elected Jack Strege as chairman, Jer ry Holloman vice chairman and Alice Vance, secretary. At its second meeting, Jan. 10, the committee reviewed the budget and made several minor changes. The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 24. The election for the budget is set for March 29. "With the economic climate as it is, Morrow County is doing phenomenally well and the court has acted as good stewards of the county assets," said Corder. The court continued with the following business: discussed negotiations that are being conducted be tween the court and Eldon Padberg of Lexington to ob tain a rock pit site on his property in exchange for a compressor and an old junked engine. discussed the resignation of Milo Prindle of Heppner from the Morrow County Air port Committee. looked over carpet sam ples for the interior of the new Morrow County Road Dept. office in Lexington with Don Briggs, Public Works direc tor. Briggs estimated that the department wouM be ready to move in by the end of January.
