Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1992)
School district hires asst, superintendent P F S S î F *J n p W F T Z F î L r» r? c F Vf £ 1 .• r • Ç. r. t •> E U G E N E OR » 7 - 1 0 3 Roger Helmer HEPPNER 35C Roger Helmer, 50, has been hired as the new Morrow Coun ty School District assistant superintendent. He began work at the district offices on Sept. 28. Helmer, who most recently came from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, replaces Mike Wsiaki, who resigned from that position in July. Helmer was a graduate student and teaching fellow working toward a Ph D at the University of Southern Mississippi prior to com ing to H eppner. He graduated from high school in Il linois and received his master’s degree in education administra tion from Northern Illinois University. Helmer has four years ex perience as a teacher and cur riculum coordinator in kindergarten through eighth grades. He was a principal for grades K-12 at Healy, Alaska, for seven years, was principal and superintendent at Jordan Valley and a principal at Fern Ridge both in Oregon. He was an assistant superintendent in both Illinois and elaska for around eight years. Helmer said that in his current position he will be responsible for district-wide curriculumn, text book adoption, special education, and special programs such as Chapter I, Chapter II, the Talented and Gifted programs and grant programs. Helmer, who says he has liv ed all over the world, plans to reside in Heppner. His wife of 25 years, Dona Helmer, is an associate professor in Montana. The couple has a 21 year old daughter who is a senior at In diana University at Bloomington. Helmer’s salary is $50,000 a year which will be pro-rated this year. The school board, at its Monday night meeting Oct. 19, voted to grant Helmer $1,000 for moving expenses. City administrator to speak at convention azette imes VOL. 111 NO. 41 8 Pages Wednesday, October 21, 1992 Morrow County Heppner, Oregon Mayor Kay Robinson has an nounced that the city of Heppner is being recognized by the League ot Oregon Cities for successful ly developing and implementing financial solutions to deal with the shortfall of Ballot Measure 5. Robinson said that the league had asked city administrator Gary Marks to speak at the annual League of Oregon Cities conven tion in November on the topic of successful financial planning and communications in the face of Ballot Measure 5 cutbacks. She said that the invitation was made because of the league’s recogni tion of M arks’ success in developing innovative financial solutions, that ultimately gained voter support, at a time when many Oregon cities have been paralyzed by voter rejection of such efforts. “ We’re very lucky to have an administrator of Gary’s caliber and the league’s speaking invita tion demonstrates that point.” Robinson said. “ When we hired Gary 18 months ago, Ballot Measure 5 was just coming into effect and the city was about to Engineers confirm s assessment o f pool Bank of EO uses high tech An engineer’s report on the condition of the Heppner swim ming pool released this week by Skip Matthews, chairman of the Willow Creek Park District’s Ex ploratory Swimming Pool Com m ission, confirm s earlier assessments of the condition of the pool. The report found that “ the ex isting municipal pool is in bad repair” and that renovations of $600,000 to $800,000 would be ‘ required to make tnat pool safe and usable.” “ Unfortunately, because of the restricted site, the existing pool could probably never be com pletely brought up to current code and safety standards," according to the report. Commenting on the report Matthews said, “ City staff, the city’s Ad Hoc Pool Committee, the city council, and our ex ploratory pool committee had all examined the pool and we all came to the same conclusion that the pool was unsafe and unusable. This report confirms what we all believed.” The report was prepared by Robert Bignold, engineer and principal-in-charge of the ORB O rganization of Renton. Washington, a 20 year old engineering firm that has work ed on more than 145 pool projects in and around the Pacific Northwest. In the areas of safety and code violations, the report found that “ the present pool tank does not meet present pool diving safety standards.” The report goes on to say that, in the event of an ac cident, failure to meet these stan dards would mean ’’the city would be susceptible to a damage claim” and “ we feel that the ci ty would be judged by legal ex perts on the generally accepted standard of safety.” The report found that “ the pool tank has only one main drain which does not meet existing state codes. The high velocity through a single main drain grate is con sidered a safety hazard, as a swimmer could be sucked against the bottom of the pool and drown ed.” In addition, Bignold’s report found that the filtration system does not meet health code stan dards. The filter "is sized for ap proximately two thirds of the re quired code flow,” according to the report. The engineer also found that the narrow deck on the north side of the pool "makes it impossible to properly guard the pool and restricts its use as a recreational pool." Moreover, the weight of the concrete overlay on the deck along with the deteriorated footings and temporary cinder block foundations “ give me reason to doubt the structural in tegrity of the deck," Bignold wrote. The report comments that the pool’s piping system is 40 years old and that the “ piping has from 1/8 to '4 inch of oxidation on the interior of the pipe. It is our opi nion that you have very little re maining life in the pool piping system.” The report estimates that repairs would cost anywhere from $600.000 to $800,000 and would extend the life of the pool another 20 to 25 years and would still not be able to meet all code requirements. In contrast, the engineer estimates the cost of a new outdoor pool to be between $800,000 and $1 million and would provide a useful life of ap proximately 35 to 40 years. Matthews said that if the engineer’s cost projections are amortized over their expectan cies, a repair job could cost bet ween $24.000 and $40.000 per useful year, while a new outdoor pool could cost between $20,000 and $28,600 per useful year. The Exploratory Swimming Pool Commission was formed in the summer of this year to analyze the pool situation and develop an appropriate swimm ing pool proposal tor considera tion by the Willow Creek Park District Board. Matthews said that the Ex ploratory Pool Commission would be holding public hearings this winter in Heppner, Lexington and lone to take community in put on the future of swimming pool facilities in the south Mor row county area. Chamber hosts after hours satellite network for training Salad supper slated Oct. 27 Employees of the Bank of latest banking issues.” Eastern Oregon have high- quality, up-to-the-minute infor mation and training available in side the bank through American Financial Skylink. a satellite com munications network. “ We now have the latest information on new procedures, customer ser vice and much more.” said Gerald Pierson, president of the bank. ■* Skylink. a subsidiary of the American Bankers Association, offers programming on topics that range from preventing bank rob beries to providing excellent customer service. “ Our customers are going to see a difference. We’ve com pletely integrated Skylink into our training,” Pierson said. “ Every employee is benefitting from one or more of the programs. In turn, our customers benefit because our employees are in-the-know on the Skylink program m ing is transmitted via satellite to receiv ing dishes at subscribing banks around the country each week. “ This technology brings more than just training to the bank,” Pierson said. “ We will be able to access a variety of programming that, until now, was not available to us or to some parts of our com munity.” In some communities, banks make programs like the NASA shuttle launches available to area schools. Other banks give tapes of foreign language programs to language teachers at local high schools. “ Skylink is our link to the future,” said Pierson. “ We’ll never lack the kinds of cutting- edge information we need to stay com petitive and serve our customers.” Morrow County Grain Growers annual meeting set Nov. 2 The Morrow County Grain Growers annual stockholders’ meeting has been planned for Monday, November 2, at the Morrow County Fairgrounds pavilion in Heppner. Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. followed by election of of ficers’, a multi-media slide pro- duction entitled "The Land We Inherit” and reports. The multi- media program will be presented by internationally acclaimed photographer Don VanPolen. For those with young children, babysitting will be provided free of charge at the dormitory next door to the pavilion. ‘Dirty Work at the Crossroads’ mellerdramma set Nov. 15 Country Rose owner Cindy Schmidt will host business get-together. The Country Rose will host the first chamber “ Business After Hours” . Heppner business managers and owners are invited to an in formal gathering on Tuesday, Oct. 27 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Country Rose. Owner Cindy Schmidt will serve wine and cheese and will have a door prize. The agenda is visiting and get ting to know Country Rose, says cham ber m anager Claudia Hughes. Hughes says she hopes the idea catches on as it has in other communities. “ It’s important for all of us to be familar with our various businesses and know what they have to offer,” says Hughes. Schmidt has owned the women’s dress shop for the past 8 '/i years. She has two employees. Merry Brannon and Cindy Kennedy. lone community dinner set Oct. 25 The annual lone Community Dinner has been planned for Sun day. Oct. 25 at 4 p.m at the lone Legion Hall. Turkey and potatoes will be furnished Those attending should bring a hot dish, salad or dessert. An old-fashioned sing-a-long will be held following the dinner. The dinner is sponsored by St. Williams Catholic Church. lone United Church of Christ and Valby Lutheran Church. Everyone in the community is invited to attend. experience the third highest percentage cut-back in the entire state. Gary was able to quickly assess the problem and develop sensible plans, such as inclusion of the city library in the new Oregon Trail Library District and a first-of-its-kind police and fire bond measure, that the voters found deserving of support and passage.” "Although the city took some bad licks from the ballot measure, it would have been much more devastating without Gary’s advice and innovative leadership,” Robinson said. Theater goers who have mark ed their calendars for Nov. 7 to see HIT’s old time mellerdram- mer “ D irty Work at the Crossroads” should change the date to Nov. 15. The early Sun day evening dessert will begin at 5:30 p.m. with music follow ed by the play. “ The melodrama was popular in the late 1800’s. Now in the late 1900’s this form offers an even ing of fun with its extremely evil villain and female counterpan and extremely virtuous hero and heroine and songs of by-gone d a y s ,” said director Jane Rawlins. The audience's role is booing and hissing the villain and ap- plauding, ohhing and ahhing for the heroine and hero at the right time, she said. “ D irty Work at the Crossroads” , an authentic piece, actually played in the 1870’s has a sneaky villain Jim Raible and his wife Lee Matheiu who are foiled again and again, and super virtuous heroine Aleida Goodyear, and hero Bryce Tucker. It comes complete with a railroad track. Guests are encouraged to come early for sinfully rich or virtuous ly weight-conscious desserts, visiting and live music. Reserve tickets are on sale at Murray’s, $3 for adults. $2 for students and $10 for a family. There is no charge to attend. Those planning to attend should contact M arcia Anderson 676-5182, Beth Bryant 676-9411 or their local church. All area women are invited to attend the annual Christian women’s Autumn salad supper. The supper will be held Tues day, Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Senior Center. Parent-teacher conferences set Parent-teacher conferences for the first nine-weeks are schedul ed for November 5 and 6 at the Heppner schools. Heppner Elementary/Middle school will hold conferences on Thursday. Nov. 5 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Nov. 6 from 8 a.m. to noon. No classes will be held for students in kindergarten through eighth grade on those days. Kindergarten conferences will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 4, through Friday, Nov. 6. There will not be any kindergarten classes on those days. All parents will be notified by their child’s teacher regarding the date and time of the conference. If you are not contacted by Nov. 2. please contact the school to make an appointment. Heppner High School will hold parent-teacher conferences Thursday. Nov. 5 from 5:20 to 8 p.m. and Friday, Nov. 6 from 8 a.m. to noon. Regular classes will be held at HHS on Thursday but there will be no school on Fri day. Parents should contact the school to make an appointment or plan on dropping by the school during the scheduled hours. Both schools have established the Thursday evening conference session to better meet the needs of working parents who are unable to make a morning or afternoon conference time. Parents should feel free to con tact the schools' offices, HHS 676-9138 or HES 676-9128, if they have questions about parent- teacher conferences. Bank o f EastemOregon HOME LOAN PR06RAM Rates as low as 7.25% Member F D I C Arlington • Heppner • lone * * ) “ W l l h l r / K i h l t i l l Ih'im Ih u iril Hwlk
