District cuts over $379,000 from budget
HEPPNER
imes
VOL. 112
NO. 16
8 Pages Wednesday, April 21, 1993
Morrow County Heppner, Oregon
G rieb w ins 1993 conservation farm
The Morrow County School
Board at its regular meeting Mon
day night, April 19, elminated
$379,000 from the 1993-94
school year and further directed
building principals to come up
with another $50,000 in cuts to
cope with measure 5 funding
reductions.
The board eliminated all ex
tended duty contracts for the
teaching staff district-wide. Ex
tended days are extra work days
before or after the school year
outside the regular number of
contract days the teachers are re
quired to work.
Also eliminated from the
budget were two teaching posi
tions, one from lone and one
either from Heppner Elemen
tary/Middle School or Heppner
High School and two certified
librarian positions, one from lone
and one from Columbia Junior
High.
The food service piogram was
reduced by 25.8 hours a day.
Confidential employees at the
district office were reduced by
4.5 hours a day (1.5 hours a day
for three employees) and a con
fidential maintenance position
was eliminated.
Proposed staff reductions
include:
Heppner Elementary/Middle
school-up to one fulltime teacher,
one computer coordinator, 33 ex
tended contract days;
Heppner High School-up to
one fulltime teacher, one com
puter coordinator, one rally ad
visor, one dance/drill team ad
visor, one journalism advisor and
93 extended contract days;
lone schools-one fulltime
teacher, one certified librarian,
one computer coordinator, one
assistant baseball coach, one ral
ly advisor, 27 extended contract
days;
Sam Boardman Elementary-
one computer coordinator, 23 ex
tended contract days;
Riverside High School-one
computer coordinator, one rally
advisor, one dance/drill team ad
visor, one newspaper advisor, 93
extended contract days, five
assistant coaches, boys and girls
basketball, girls volleyball, golf
and tennis;
Columbia Junior High-one cer
tified librarian, one computer
coordinator, 30 extended contract
days;
A.C. Houghton Elementary-
one computer coordinator, ^ e x
tended contract days.
The food service program cuts
are as follows: Heppner Elemen
tary/Middle School-5.3 hours.
Heppner High School 5.5 hours;
lone schools 7 hours: Riverside
High School 3.5 hours and Col
umbia Junior High 4.5 hours.
The board also approved addi
tion of staff, mainly in the North
county schools to cope with in
creased enrollm ent. A.C.
Houghton, Columbia Junior
High, Riverside High and Sam
Boardman Elementary will each
add one teacher. Columbia and
lone will hire library technicians
instead of filling positions
previously held by certified
librarians. The district office will
add eight addition special educa
tion assistants.
In other business the board:
-approved a request from the
citizens of Lexington to upgrade
and blacktop the district office
tennis court. The county court
will donate the materials and
equipment for a three inch
overlay for the courts and all
work to upgrade the courts was
volunteered. The district is being
asked only to remove the fence
so that the work may be com
pleted and to put the fence back
up when the work is done;
-voted to accept the title to the
Lexington baseball field if the
Lexington city council approves.
The council asked the board to
either turn the title over to the city
of Lexington or take the proper
ty back. The property was own
ed by the district but held by the
city. The city, however, could not
make improvements on the pro
perty because it was owned by the
district;
-approved a Riverside High
School request for bus transpor
tation for a drug/alcohol free
graduation party in the Tri-Cities;
-rescinded board policy which
authorized extended contracts;
-reviewed election results from
the March 23 election. Board
member Scott Bauska was elected
to Boardman-Irrigon Zone 7 and
Gary Frederickson to Zone 1.
Patrick McNamee was elected to
Boardm an-Irrigon Advisory
Committee position 6. Write in
candidates for the Boardman-
Irrigon Advisory Committee
were: Robert Byrd, position 2;
David Hirai and Robert Byrd,
position three.
Heppner-
Lexington Advisory Committee
members elected were Chloe
Pearson, position 1, John Boyer,
position 7 and Virginia Nairns,
write-in for position 2. Valerie
Doherty was elected Ione-
Lexington Advisory Committee
position no. 4;
-approved a $35,000 architec-
tural/engineering agreement with
SCM Consulting, Inc., for plans
for proposed construction of ad
ditional classrooms in the north
end of the county to cope with
growth. The proposed construc
tion will go before voters in a
bond levy;
-heard the first reading of board
policy to establish or contract
with another agency to review all
public contracts made by local
public agencies within the county;
-did not approve a request from
Bill Adams, former confidential
employee for early retirement
benefits. Adams, 62 and a half,
worked for the district 12 years;
continued page 7
Christman
receives no
jail time
for death
Ken, Virginia and Geri (front) Grieb
The 1993 Morrow County
Wheat League Conservation
Farm of the Year was awarded to
Grieb Farms, Inc. of Lexington
according to Doug Drake, Mor
row County Wheat League presi
dent. The announcement was
made at the spring meeting held
Tuesday night, April 20 in lone.
A tour to honor the Grieb Farm
is planned for June.
Grieb Farms, Inc. consists of
owners Virginia. Ken, Geri Grieb
and Julie Grieb Weimar. The
Griebs farm 3,550 acres with
1,280 acres supplemental ir
rigated, 320 acres dryland, 1.610
acres in fallow, and 340 acres in
perennial grass cover. The ma
jority o f the farm is in
wheat/fallow rotation with 100
percent in winter wheat (Stephens
and Madsen).
The Griebs property was ac
quired in the north Lexington
area in 1947 by Bert and Gertie
Grieb. Today the land is farmed
by Grieb Land Co., a partnership
of Ken and Geri. the third genera
tion on the farm. The Griebs have
one employee. Audomaro Vic-
torio, who has been with them for
11 years.
Although the farm is not deem
ed "highly erodible", the Griebs
are conservation minded and
believe in keeping the soil in its
most productive state. The prin
cipal conservation concern for the
farm is wind erosion. For this
reason the Griebs maintain an ex
cess of 1,500 pounds of straw
mulch cover. They also planted
340 acres in perennial grass cover
(crested wheat) that are not in the
Conservation Reserve Program.
The Natural Gas Pipeline Co.
has just recently completed going
across 38 acres of the Grieb
Farm. Despite replacement of the
topsoil by pipeline contractors,
the Griebs will have to stabilize
the disturbed soil. They will
spring seed wheat on 31 acres and
utilize Soil Conservation Service
technology of "hydro seeding"
on the perennial grass acreage.
The farming operation starts
with a spring application of
"RoundUp" to 1,600 acres of
fallow ground to reduce tillage
operations and to conserve
moisture in the ground. Next a
disk tillage is used for heavy
straw incorporation. The ground
is then chisel plowed, and follow
ed by successive rod-weeding to
control weeds and to maintain
surface straw cover. Fertilizer is
applied just before planting each
fall.
After harvest the stubble is
disked lightly to manage heavy
straw. Virginia Grieb says that
conservation practices used on the
farm since 1947 have been in
strumental in maintaining high
crop yield and good control of
soil erosion.
Supplemental crop irrigation
has been a practice on the farm
since 1968. Griebs use an 80 foot
wheel-move water distribution
system. The farm is in a critical
groundwater area and water
distribution is regulated by state
laws. The wheat crop is irrigated
in the spring, receiving 2.5 inches
of water. Five inches of water are
used to pre-irrigate summer
fallow ground in preparation for
fall seeding. The Grieb Farm is
able to maintain average crop
yields despite the drought.
Photo by Joyce Hughes
Soil samples are taken each
year to avoid over fertilization
and to coordinate fertility with
available water. The predominate
soil on the property is a Warden
silt loam.
The Griebs are members of the
Oregon Wheat League, Morrow
County Farm Bureau, and the
Lexington Grange. Virginia is
chairperson of the ASCS Com
mittee, a director of the Morrow
County G rain G row ers, a
member of the County Farm
Review Board, and a member of
the Morrow County Wheat
Marketing Club. Geri is secretary
of the Morrow County Extension
Advisory Council and an Oregon
4-H Foundation Assistant. Ken
has auctioneered the Morrow
County Fair 4-H and FFA Fat
Stock Sale for the past five years
and donates his time to auction
local FFA Slave Sales.
The Grieb philosophy on con
servation farming is to utilize
maximum resources for water
conservation, maintain a pnxluc-
tive unit, protect the soil from
wind erosion, and to manage the
land for future generations using
minimum tillage and good farm
ing management. This philosophy
has resulted in being selected as
1993 Conservation Farm win
ners. based on excellent conser
vation practices, management and
a sound economic base, said a
press release. The Grieb's farm
is a prime example of a successful
eastern Oregon wheat enterprise
that is competitive with other
areas of the world, continued the
release.
Carl Christman, lone, was
placed on parole and received
three years’ probation on charges
stemming from a May 11, 1990
incident in which one man was
killed.
Christman was convicted of se
cond degree m anslaughter,
failure to perform the duties of a
driver involved in an automobile
accident, reckless driving and
three counts o f reckless
endangering.
Christman, 35, was under the
influence of intoxicants and driv
ing at a high rate of speed when
he struck and killed Steven Leroy
Burland, 26, who had been lying
on the road following an earlier
automobile accident. Three other
people were endangered as they
gave Burland aid and attempted
to get Christman to stop before
he struck Burland.
Morrow County District At
torney Earl Woods, Jr., said that
he asked that Christman receive
20 months in the state peniten
tiary. Woods said that local
judges were either unable or un
willing to preside over the senten
cing. Judge Milo Pope of Baker
County was presiding judge.
Christman was convicted of
two previous charges of driving
under the influence. A third
drunk driving charge, in connec
tion with the manslaughter charge
is still pending and set for trial on
June 11.
BREAK IN - John Bristow, owner of Bristow's Market
in lone, checks damage thieves did to store's safe during break-in
Friday night.
Thieves gained entrance to the market by smashing open a back
delivery door. "It must have been somebody who knew the store
pretty good, because they knew right where to hit," Bristow said
about the broken door. John's brother Don discovered the break-in
when he opened the market Saturday morning.
From there Bristow said the thieves went to the front of the store,
disabled a surveilance camera, drank some beer and set about trying
to open a big safe in the back room.
The combination dial on the safe was knocked off, and sheet metal
was peeled off the front of the safe. "They must have worked on
it for a couple of hours," Bristow said. They never did get into the
safe, however, and so went to the front of the store and stole liquor,
cigarettes, some cash and other grocery items.
Bristow did not have a dollar amount for the loss, but did say there
was four to five thousand dollars in damage to the safe.
" I think they got around 60 bottles of liquor, and they took 14
cartons of cigarettes." he said He added that he was going to have
an elaborate security system installed soon.
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