Sign commemorates 1903 Heppner flood
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HEPPNER
Photo by Joyce Hughes
Wendy Cloyd (left) and museum director Marsha Sweek, unveil the new historical flood marker
to fourth graders and other onlookers. The marker is located in the new mini park.
imes
VOL. 112 NO. 43 8 Pages Wednesday, October 27, 1993 Morrow County Heppner, Oregon
New ‘deputy’ joins department
A new sign commemorating
the 1903 Heppner flood was
unveiled by Morrow County
Museum Director Marsha Sweek
in a ceremony Thursday, Oct. 21
at the new city mini park.
The sign sponsored by the
museum, with additional financial
support from the Morrow Coun
ty Historical Society, is the first
of its kind in the state, with im
bedded photographs and a new
type of support structure.
Speakers included Wendy
Cloyd of the Travel Information
Council of the state of Oregon,
Delpha Jones, from the Historical
Society, Heppner Mayor Bob
Jepsen, who spoke on the flood,
and city administrator Gary
Marks, who spoke about the
mini-park. The park is significant
because it is at the juncture of
Hinton and Willow creeks.
Also on hand for the ceremony
were
Jean
Nelson of the Morrow County
Historical Society; Kay Robin
son, Heppner City Council; John
Edmundson, Tourism Committee
and teachers Cara Osmin and
Karen Dubuque and their fourth
grade students.
Vandalism at dam could endanger town
Vandalism is senseless, un
sightly and expensive. But
sometimes it is dow nright
dangerous.
Vandals who destroyed the
high water alarms at the Willow
Creek Dam the night of Oct. 20,
could have endangered the whole
Heppner community, according
to James G. Williams, power
project supervisor with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers.
“ If we had not had a backup.”
said Williams, “ this town would
not have had a flash flood warn-
ing.
Williams discovered the van
dalism when he called the system
to get the water readings and got
a busy signal. When a telephone
company repairman went out to
the site, he discovered that the
terminal box on the side of the
dam had been hit with a big rock
and wires torn off
which
created the busy signal. The
system was out for four days dur
Terry Harper displays “ bite
suit”
Morrow County Sheriff’s deputy Terry Harper with dog Dax
If you don’t think the Oregon
justice system has any “ teeth” to
catch and keep criminals, you
haven’t met the new addition to
the Morrow County Sheriff s Of
fice. He not only has teeth, but
a bark and a bite.
The newest member of the
department is Dax, a three year-
old, 95-pound German Shepherd
trained for police work.
Dax, imported from Germany,
is a Schutzhund III. trained to the
third degree of difficulty and con
trol in obedience, tracking and
protection. In addition to around
2 Vi years of training in Germany,
he underwent a four-week.
160-hour class at Salem with his
new master Morrow County
Sheriffs deputy Terry Harper.
While Dax has become a
member of Harper's family, and
sleeps at the foot of his bed. the
dog also has a special make-up
that makes him a good police
d o g -s tre n g th , pow er and
courage. “ He's kind of a Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” said
Harper. “ His bites are fairly
severe. Anyone who wants to
take on teeth like this (displays
Dax’s inch-and-a-half canines)
has got to be in another dimen
sion.”
Dax is trained to respond only
to his master’s commands. “ He’s
not a department mascot,” con
tinued Harper, “ not a little
Cocker Spaniel. He’s basically a
one-man dog. He’s a trained
police dog that basically should
be left alone.” While he is train
ed to attack on command, he will
also attack without a command to
protect himself or Harper. Dax
responds in German to the
commands--sit, stand, heel, stay,
retrieve, run out. search, down,
jump and attack. Harper said that
the dog was taught in German not
only because that is his place of
origin, but because it is better that
the public does not know the
commands.
Dax is also trained in hot track
ing (for example when a person
jumps out of a car and runs), area
searches, building searches and
sniffing marijuana, metham-
phetamines and cocaine.
Becoming the dog’s master not
only takes a commitment for the
initial training, but also of time.
Training is an ongoing affair, said
Harper, who spends around four
to five hours a week providing
additional training. Dax is with
Harper at the sheriff s office and
has a special seat in Harper’s
patrol car. The dog will probably
have seven years of active duty
since police dogs are usually
retired at around 10. While
Harper stresses that he is commit
ted to the program, if he should
leave the force, the dog would
stay with the county. Dax would
have to be retrained, if possible,
with another master.
Purchased through drug
forfeiture assets, not county tax
monies, the dog and the training
package together cost around $9
thousand-$5.400 for the dog and
the remainder for the training and
equipment, which includes a bite
suit and protective gear. “ I
suspect that in narcotics alone,
he’ll replace the money that was
spent on him,” added Harper,
who notes that the county has
changed in the four- 'h years since
he joined the sheriffs office.
Harper says he expects more
change, especially with the start
of street gangs in the north
county.
But perhaps we'll all sleep a lit
tle sounder with Dax on duty.
ing repairs.
W illiam s said that the
telephone system is backed up by
radio telemetry. “ But,” he add
ed, “ if the radio system were to
fail, we’d have no backup.”
Officials remind the public that
the property is federally owned.
If a juvenile was caught commit
ting vandalism on the property,
he would be referred to juvenile
court. In addition to restitution,
the juvenile may be required to
do some community service. The
sentence would also depend on
the severity of the crime, and the
juvenile’s previous record. “ It
could get real expensive for some
parent," cautions Verlin Denton,
undersheriff for the Morrow
County Sheriffs department.
“ There's no need of anyone
climbing the fence,” continued
Williams. “ If anyone wants in to
see what’s there. I’ll conduct a
tour at the drop of a hat. I’ll con
duct a tour for one person. All
I’m asking is your help.”
Williams said that if a flash
flood came down Willow Creek
or Balm Fork the dam would hold
it. But, the Corps would like to
have advance warning so they
could release additional water
from the dam in preparation for
a flood.
Williams said that the last two
months there have been four or
five occurances of vandalism at
the dam and. while the Corps has
been very tolerant of minor of
fenses such as tom fences and life
rings tom off and thrown in the
water, this most recent vandalism
alamied him.
“ When they do things like that,
they put the whole town in
danger,” added
Denton,
Denton and Doug Rathbun
Heppner Police Chief say they
will attempt to increase patrols
near the dam and ask that anyone
seeing anything suspicious near
the dam to call 911.
MCGG annual meeting Nov. 1 Sheriffs office
Fritz Hill
The 63rd annual meeting of
Morrow County Grain Growers
will be held Monday, November
1, at the fairgrounds pavilion in
Heppner, beginning with dinner
at 6:30 p.m.
The speaker for the evening
will be Fritz Hill from Pendleton
who promises a humorous talk on
agriculture, “ Are We Proud
Enough?”
The business meeting will in
clude a review of the financial
report by the company auditors,
plus reports from company of
ficers. There will be an election
of four directors for three year
terms. Nominees for the four
positions .are: Doug Drake,
Keven Haguewood, Steve Hill,
Dave Matheny, Barry Munkers
and Paul Proudfoot. Nominees
for the four associate director
positions are; Tony Ashbeck,
John Luciani, Joe Rietmann and
Tim Rust.
Babysitting will be provided for
those with small children.
has phone
problems
The Morrow County Sheriffs
office has been having trouble
with their phone system since
their move from the courthouse
to their new offices on
Willowview Drive.
Anyone wishing to contact the
sheriff s office is asked to phone
676-5317 instead of the former
676-9061. Calls cannot be
transferred to the new location
from the 676-9061 number.
“ We understand that means a
long distance call from the north
end.” said a sheriffs office
spokesperson.
“ and
we
apologize. Please be patient dur
ing our move and hopefully the
problems can be resolved.”
Red Cross offers disaster training courses
The Benton-Franklin chapter of
the American Red Cross en
courages participation in the
disaster training courses to be
held November 5. 6 and 7 at the
St. Patrick’s Senior Center in
Heppner.
The following courses will be
available:
3066-Introduction to Disaster,
Nov. 5, 6-10 p.m. This will be
a prequisite for all other authoriz
ed Red Cross disaster courses.
Basic information about disasters,
their effects on people and the
community, the roles of Red
Cross, government and other
agencies in responding to those
effects. The class includes the
Red Cross structure, policies,
procedures and how the organiza
tion provides disaster relief
services.
3068-1 Mass Care Mod I, Nov.
6. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Prerequisite In
tro to Disaster. This class teaches
the basic Red Cross chapter
responsibilities of establishing
shelters and feeding operations.
Included are key functions,
workers roles, resources needed,
inventory control, administrative
regulations and reporting
requirements.
Shelter Operations Workshop.
Nov. 7, 9 a.m .-l p.m. The pur
pose of this workshop is to
prepare Red Cross and other
agencies’ staff to effectively and
sensitively administer shelter
operations as a team, to meet the
needs of people placed as a result
of a disaster. Excellent for
members of local agencies or
facilities that may be recruited to
assist in Red Cross Shelter
operations.
Anyone interested in attending
any of these courses contact the
chapter or Jane Rawlins as soon
as possible.
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