Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1986)
P F S S l E U OF W E ? Z E L L ORE | i £ WS HAPf. R L l P EUGENE OR &74C 3 The Heppner Aprii 22 : h Gazette-Times M o rro it' V O I 104 NO 17 C ounty's H o m e-O w n e d W eekly N ew sp ap er Heppner. Oregon 25 ' W . . |9 B6, Heppner. Oregon ednesday a p r ii jo Hi|(h lo w Weather Tuesday Wednesday Thursdav Friday Saturday Sundav Monday P r n ip 50 20 52 vy bt) 1 1 08 53 20 07 58 45 0 1 1 s ’ M 07 53 31 l)\ tht* ( !it> of lleppntT Columbia Basin board approves City’s personnel policy updated construction of transmission line The Columbia Basin Electric Co- .>p board o f directors approved a long range plan for the recon si rue tion o f the transmission line from Bonneville Power Administration point o f delivery into Heppner at an estimated cost o f $1 7 m illion at an April 24 board meeting At the present time, said co-op manager Fred Toombs, with work loads permitting, the construction contract is expected to he let for bids in October with work to begin in late March. I*4K7 and to be completed by November I. 1987 RFA loan funds w ill be used to pay for a portion o f the work with the balance o f the money coming from co-op operating revenues “ The reason for the tremendous expenditure on the transmission facility is because the system has deteriorated to a point where service is no longer reliable to a majority o f customers in this area." he said " I t w ill take the cooperation o f every customer to get through this massive project with its series or outages." Columbia Basin is continuing the process o f inserting poles at mid span in the ice areas to help prevent breaks during the next cold spell Win mom a diamond Area businesses arc celebrating Mother's Day this year with a free drawing for a % carat diamond Anyone eighteen years or older may enter to win at participating businesses No purchase is necessary Retail value o f the diamond is 5299 95. and is on display in win dow o f Peterson's Jewelers Enter between now and Saturday. May 10 The drawing w ill be held at 5 p m Saturday Enter at any o f the following businesses Sears. Country Rose M A R Floor Covering. McDonalds C hevrolet. Shoe Box. Central Market. Petersons, Court Street Market. Dr Rolen. Ix s Schwab. Bud's Pub. Case Furniture. R A W Drive In. Murrays Drug. Gardners Mens Wear. Coast to Coast, Hepp ner Elks. Morrow County Grain G row ers, Pettyjohns Farm A Builders Supply the hoard also discussed -current insurance problems and approved a property damage and public liability insurance package as submitted by the staff Tixtnbs rvxed that huge increases in cost for this type coscrage had occurred in recent years, particularly notable in 198b By Avon Melhv Personnel policy tor the City of Heppner was worked out at a four hour special session o f the council last week "There has been a 50 year accumulation of personnel jx'licies which have never been com piled into one document." said W illiam Kuhn, city attorney "Several scars ago when the citv created the post of city ad numerator, the policies should have been compiled.'' Kuhn said But this was never done The new policy sets up a clear chain o f command The mayor and council w ill direct the city ad ministralor on matters o f personnel policy City Administrator Marshall lavvgren w ill implement them He I he board also approved the order for installing controls on the River side High School boiler alter hear ing the superintendent's report that the boiler needed a control system to increase efficiency I he cost is ex peeled to he 59.182 In other business, the hoard look no action on a complaint bv Russell Oil ol Boardman that Devin O il is oversharging the district tor gasoline and diesel -adopted the school calendar lor next year with school beginning September 2. 198b and ending June 5. 1987 approved new policies on com lliunicable diseases and drugs and alcohol for the district ; accepte< a bid tor $619 for an •vlven iscd ous, rejected the bid on the Pontiac sedan took no action concerning out of state transportation heard that the highway engineer out ol TYndleton has protected a cost o f 519.578 to replace the retaining wall and sidewalk at Heppner Elementary Temporary and alter native solutions lor this problem were discussed, but no action was taken heard that moving the lax base election to November consumes one ol the two elections allowed above the tax rale limitation This means that there is need tor a strong effort to pass the tax base electwvn approved hiring D jn Marshall as head custixfian maintenance person at the district office approved extru duty contracts tor Brent t ggers. Heppner High School assistant track coach, and John I d mundson Heppner High Assistant golf coach accepted resignations from the following certificated employees el fective at the end of the school year Kipp Norris, lone Junior High. Vanessa Ihompson. Riverside High, Barbara Stcfani. Heppner High. Brent Eggers. Heppner H igh. Kathryn Dean, retiring from River side High, and from Thad K ill ingheck as head baseball coach at Columbia Junior High The Morrow County Court turn cd the Building Inspection services over to the Stale Department ol Commerce at the Wednesday. April 23 session ol County Court This was done after weeks of serious deliberations and not until all major projects that were nearing comple tion has been finalized by a contract inspector, said Judge Don M il lligott The major consideration to return the function to the state was based on the tact that salaries tor tul ly certified inspectors necessary to maintain the service tall within a salary range of 524.1X81 to 5MI.IXXI a year Morrow County's salary ranges for department heads and division level employees does not reach that amount M cElligott con turned Budeet levels resulting from severe cutbacks and low anticipated revenues from inspection fees made it impossible to retain this service In further action, the Court re q .sted the Planning D irector .^organize his department and con tmuc operation of permit centers in l^xtngton and Irrigon. and develop with the ( Iregon Stale Department of Commerce a regional coordination program Planning Director Deane Seegcr w ill meet with stale officials later in the month to negotiate a greater share ot permit fees for the county so that costs and overhead in solved in maintaining permit centers may be recaptured < >nc stop permit locations would remove the burden ot citizens having to drive to. or call, the Department of Commerce field office in Pendleton Washington Public Power Supp ly Svstem lawsuits It is now estimated that the lawsuits w ill come to trial in late 198?. Ti*>mhs said Pre trial activities continue The judge, he said, anticipates that the trial w ill be held outside the Pacific Northwest lone school sewer system to be completed The M orrow County School Board decided to complete the lone sewer sy stem at their Monday . April 21 meeting Since arbitration over the system has been completed, said Supcrintrn dent Doyle McCaslin, the board ap proved completing the system as originally planned Since the ar bitrator rullcd that the district dal not have to pay for work improperly done or not done at all. the hoard is in the process ol developing con tracts and bid specifications At the May 19 meeting, they expect to open bids from contractors and be ready to approve a contract lor completion of the work at the lone school The area in front o f the scfuxil currently has an "under construction" look, said the superintendent, and septic tanks are still uncovered with bar racades in place to protect their tons The Board antic qiates it w ill cost 58,000 to complete the D E requirements Finds balloon A card from a balloon released by a Troutdale elementary student was found in a field where Dean Hunt was seeding a week ago Monday The balloon was not with the bright yellow card when Hunt found it. but was released by fourth grader Jixli Fairbanks as pari o f a Weekly Reader W riting Pals contest The message on the card said that she promised to write back if the tinder of her halhcn would return the card with a letter to her school Ians (Mrs Deanl Hunt said that she had written a letter to the stu dent This is the second balloon message her husband had found while working in the field About a year ago. he found a balloon rclcas ed at Madras w ill work with department heads, who w ill give instruction to other c i ty employees "Losgren w ill be at the end of the line as tar as responsibility goes." Kuhn said He w ill be in charge of both the city crew and police departments His dec isions may be- appealed to the mayor or council How police w ill be reimbursed lor overtime was a matter o f some discussion at the last regular court ctl meeting In the special session it was written into the new policy that police w ill receive compensatory time o il. the same as other city employees The city has not had overtime pay covered in the budget lor at least two years," said Kuhn Need lor the personnel |volicv up date has existed lor years according to Kuhn Policies in effect in other towns were studied bv council members, in arriving at what would work best for Heppner The new document w ill be discussed, and a vote is expected ai the regular meeting oI the council Monday at 8 p m at city hall Also at that meeting an updated policy on peddlers and door to door salesmen w ill be adopted by the council State to do county building inspections mem under the direction ot the assis tant planner. Lori Bergstrom, issues Currently, the planning depart state plumbing and electrical per mils The county retains 10 percent o f these fees Stale laws tequire obtaining not only building permits, but zoning and DEQ permits as well These regulatory functions are both frustrating and time consuming, both to the general public and to enforce tnent agencies at .(¿I levels says the ludge It is the sincere hope ot the County Court and the Planning Department whose function it is to administer these laws, that permit centers w ill ease the burden as much as possible Through m utual cooperation, understanding and pa lienee bv all o f us. we hope to pro- v ule a serv ice ami to keep a xuffit lent percentage of tees at the county level to cover all costs so we are not re quired to spend property taxes to find the service, he concluded Potato stocks 25% more than last year Stocks o f field run potatoes held in Oregon on April I. totaled 8 0 m illion hundredweight. (4<XI.(XXI tons), according to the Oregon Crop and l ivestixk Reporting Service This estimate is 25'< highc ’ than last year April I stock' are MPT of the Stales I98X (XHato production com pared with 27‘T ot production last year ('ullage and dumping ol potatoes continues to he above average because o f frost problems Export wheat-quality studied A recent L' S Department of Agriculture study concludes that l ! S 198' wheat exports met or ex seeded the importer'* grade require ment The study. conducted by L'SDA's Federal ( Train Inspection Service, analyzed 1985 official records from more than 878 bushels o f inspected wheal exports By class, the sample was broken down by 197 m illion bushels of Hard Red W inter I A4 m illion bushels o f Hard Red Spring. I 11 m illion bushels of Soft Red W inter. I 50 m illion bushels of White Wheat, and 4b million bushels of Durum Neatly 94 percent of the exports was certified l S No 2 and six percent certificated either t S No I or U S No 1 To determine quality, the study analyzed test w eight, heat damaged kernels, foreign material, shrunken and broken kernels, contrasting class, wheat of other classes, dockage and moisture A tree presehool screening clinic w ill be ottered Thursday Mas 29 from d a m to 1 p m at the Hcpp ner Elementary School for children from Heppner. Lexington and lone who plan to attend kindergarten next fa ll Parents o f next ye a r's kindergarteners need to call the elementary school. 67b 9128, to nuke an appointment lor their child Although the sc recning process has been streamlined and a shorter time is needed, appointm ents are necessary Parents need to bring their child's birth certificate and itti mum/ation records To begin kindergarten next fall, children must be age five before September I. |9Hb Younger children w ill be tested in specific areas upon request Readiness testing w ill be pros id cd in the areas o f vision, speech and language development, hearing, motor skills, and general maturation and development The town hall meeting on school finance scheduled lor A pril 24 at Riverside High School in Hoardman was postponed at the last minute and rescheduled for Mas 1 .7 p m at the Riverside High School auditorium in Boardman l ack o f attendance due to numerous conflicts was cited as the reason for the postponement A rt Kegler. Boardman/North Morrow County Chamber o f Com merce president and meeting moderator said, “ we picked a dale that turned out to have many con flicts. but the issue of school financ e and property taxes is too important to just torget it We need to give the people another opportunity to speak out " Flyers announcing the reschedul ed meeting w ill be sent home with Morrow County school children ear ly in the week to remind parents to attend For more information call Pal McClintock 4 k l 3014 Preschool screening clinic set School finance meeting re-set Tuesday morning fire d&troys structure The cause o f a si rue ture lire on Baltimore St in Heppner luesday ■noming is still under investigation ..nil a spokesperson 1er the Heppner hire Dept A small outbuilding us cd as a bedroom was completely destroyed follow ing the bla/e Twelve firemen with three trucks spent two hours at the site controll mg and mopping up the lire Fire Chief Tome Burkenhine was treated ai Pioneer Memorial Hospital and released after an aerosol can of insect rcpellant exploded in his lace No other iniuries were reported
