Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1994)
... i \ f, •- J ■ M M M M M M W M M tM w P U CF ORE NEWSPAPER K M - * ; r r i> HEDC focus on city improvements heppner 35C îmes VOL. 113 NO. 5 8 Pages Wednesday, February 2. 1994 would be to salvage everything and use the timber at other mills,” he said. About 180.000 acres of timberland are included in the sale. Pearson said Kinzua would continue to operate up until the sale. including buying timberland, cutting trees and pro ducing lumber. “ We’re not go ing to let the mill run dry, in fact we just bought 480 acres of timber this morning,” he said. Terms and conditions of the sale were not announced. customers over the last decade,” stated Jim O'Donnell. President of Kinzua Energy Co. Since coming on line in 1985, Kinzua has provided PGE over half a billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to serve the energy needs of more than 5.000 homes each year. “ We respect and appreciate Kinzua’s role as a reliable elec tric provider to PGE,” added Rich Davis. PGE’s Director of contract resources. “ It has been rewarding to work with an organization such as Kinzua that has helped us explore ways to lower customer costs and to im prove each companies’ com petitiveness.” Termination of the 30-year agreement will become effective February 7, 1994. Tourism to sponsor brochure racks lone’s entreprenurial class “ We Make Products” with Jean Nelson (far left. back). The Morrow County Tourism Comittee. at its meeting in Irrigon last week, voted to contract with the students in the lone shop en trepreneurial class “ We Make Products” to make racks to hold pamphlets dealing with attractions in Morrow County. These racks will be placed in various businesses in the county so that the information would be readi ly accessible to tourists, hunters and others passing through. There will be inform ative brochures dealing with such at tractions as parks and lakes, the Oregon Trail, the museum, the courthouse, the Blue Mountain Scenic Byway, atractions in the nine counties of the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, the Irrigon Fish Hatchery and the l m.idil.i W ild ttfc Refuge Hus is just one of the many projects that ^ WÍ III tr> ' n il John Huffaker at that time, the local co-op will remove Main Street service lines. Those overhead lines will be moved to the rear of Main Street buildings he said. To coincide with this project the city has obtained a sidewalk replacement grant of $108.800 through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Act. All Main Street sidewalks from the lower end of Main Street near the city park and ending at the May Street bridge below the courthouse will be reconstructed. To further enhance the downtown area, the Heppner chamber has been holding donations given to finance planter boxes and trees. While this major project won’t happen for three more years, ci ty manager Gary Marks said that two city streets will be . ; • r* ..••• ■ V- have been completed by the Tourism Committee since its organization in 1986. Anyone interested in working with this group is invited to con tact chairman Don Eppenbach, Irrigon. The group meets mon thly in different parts of the coun ty. The next meeting will be Feb. 8. at 4 p.m. at RJ’s Restaurant in Lexington. A lawsuit alleging that the city of Heppner’s performance based pay policy violated the city charter was dismissed on Thurs day, January 27, from Circuit Court. On June 7, 1993, city council member Martha Doherty filed a lawsuit with the circuit court alleging that Mayor Bob Jepsen, the other five city council mem bers and city manager Gary Marks had violated the city char ter when they adopted a new per sonnel evaluation and merit com pensation system for city employ ees in January 1993. In his ruling for dismissal. Judge Rudy Murgo found that ci ty manager Gary Marks was not a proper party to the action; the resolution adopting the merit pay system was validly adopted and that neither the resolution nor the merit pay system violates the ci ty charter; and the plaintiff has no standing to maintain the lawsuit. After the ruling. Marks said the city was pleased that the court had affirmed the legality of the city’s policy. ” 1 hope we can all put this behind us now and devote our complete attention as a team to the many projects and issues con fronting the city,” Marks said. » .. -id j* * J • * * * ♦ i V ¿ i i . • • — . i 1 , i *• •. , ï • » t J • * b -* Id - 'I > ; . - .1 - . »..* \ • ». • ■ - . • - * A M ■ ’ , ■ V .. • > ?• Suit against city dismissed in court Co-Gen plant to close Kinzua Energy Co., a sub sidiary' of Kinzua Corporation, and Portland General Electric Co. (PGE) have jointly agreed to ter minate a power purchase agree ment enterred into in 1983. Under the agreement, Kinzua has provided PGE electrical energy from its 10 megawatt cogeneration plant located in Heppner. Changes during the last several years in the forest and energy industries such as reduc ed availability and higher cost of wood-waste fuel, increased operation and maintenance costs associated with electrical genera tion. and lower-cost resources available to PGE made ter minating the current agreement in the best interest o f both companies. “ We are proud to have helped meet the energy needs of PGE M Morrow County Heppner, Oregon Kinzua Mill sold Kinzua Corporation announc ed Tuesday it will sell its Hepp ner sawmill to a Eugene-based group of investors. All 125 employees at the mill were notified Tuesday they will be layed off in 60-days. Kinzua General Manager Frank Pearson said he did not know if the new owners planned to operate the mill or close it down. Pearson did not divulge the names of the new owners, only to say there were four principals, an investor, a logger and two mill owners. The name of the limited liability company formed to buy the mill is called Pioneer Resources L.L.C. if 342 E. 112th Ave., Eugene. Calls placed to the company Tuesday to discuss the sale were not returned. Kinzua Corporation has been in operation in Heppner since 1959, and has been owned by the same group of Northwest families for over 40 years. The sale has not yet been finalized but should be completed in April. Pearson said. ‘‘The buyers have not made any decision to operate any por tion of the mill,” he pointed out. ‘‘There is a definite interest by them to continue to operate the v «£;iJl. I’m encouraged, but I don’t know. You don’t really know un til *jiey start hiring people back,” Pearson said. ‘‘The other option At the annual dinner meeting of HEDC (Heppner Economic Development Corporation) last Wed., Jan. 26, members were updated on projects already underway. Members discussed the Main Street Improvement Project, the need for more housing and the projected addition of a motel/restaurant facility. Guest speaker was John Huf- faker. The Dalles. He recently became the north-central regional business officer of the Oregon Ecomonic Development Depart ment, which includes Gilliam. G rant, M orrow , Sherm an, Wasco and Wheeler counties. Huffaker said communities must take a "bootstrap ap proach” by demonstrating a need for funding from state or federal agencies. Any project must fit with other aspects of the com munity. he said, and they must have the support of both the com munity and local government agencies in order to access federal or state funding. Members of HEDC plan to continue meeting with state highway department officials to ensure that Heppner’s Main Street reconstruction remains on the 1997 agenda. This project also includes new storm drains that will handle excessive run-off. Columbia Basin Electric Coop manager Fred Toombs said that reconstructted this year. Revenue bonds are now being sold to pro vide $370,000 for the project. These bonds are supported by state gasoline tax revenues an ticipated to be received by the ci ty. This will not be resident-tax supported. M arks said the engineering is now underway. The city hopes to award a bid in May with completion targeted for September 15. Like other towns, Heppner has a housing shortage. Many in quiries as to available housing are received, according to city of ficials and the chamber office. Greg Smith, Heppner, of GEODC said that Heppner now has a population of 1412 people. However 498 households are in the moderate to low income bracket. Smith said that there are low or no-interest loans available to help refurbish older homes. Meanwhile HEDC continues to research avenues to provide hous ing for middle income families and senior citizens. According to HEDC president Ann Spicer, the Port of Morrow has agreed to purchase ground that would be offered to a pro spective investor of a motel and restaurant facility. The Kinzua Corporation site for industrial development is projected as a means for adding commerce to south Morrow County. Spicer and Cliff Green were re elected to the HEDC board of directors. ;-V • *.’ *•' .. :■ • -■ • - »V V » * . - \ ■ *' v ] • \ .. . . ; 1 J v Hospital staff receives lab training The clinical laboratory staff at Pioneer Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home in Heppner have received a certificate of training from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. The staff has also participated in additional training over the past six months to keep their knowledge and skills updated in the “ ever-changing” medical field. Laboratory supervisor Jay Straley, Shelly W ight and Elizabeth Hickerson were able to attend classes through a grant from “ Northeast Oregon Area Health Education C en ter” (NOAHEC), Eastern Oregon State College, LaGrande. “ Without the funding from NOAHEC, our small rural hospital would be unable to afford continuing education for the staff,” said Straley. “ With health care costs rising and reduced reimbursement by Medicare, our laboratory had to make drastic cuts in its budget. We are thankful to the NOAHEC and hope they continue their necessary and important work.” “ In our rual setting quality education in our field is not available.” added Hickerson. “ We must travel great distances for continuing education and because of the NOAHEC we were able to afford this training.” “ In order to keep our license we must obtain a specific amount of continuing education. W’ithout the funding from NOAHEC the rural community would not have the same currently trained profes sionals that are available to the inner-city population,” said Wight. “ With health care under such scrutiny and the cuts demanded under Measure 5. it is nice to see some positive feedback from our tax dollars,” continued Straley. “ The rural community is often ignored in the media unless it is of a negative nature. The conti nuing efforts of NOAHEC need to be continued so all individuals have the opportunity to have ac cess to up-to-date diagnostic testing abilities in the clinical laboratory.” Free income tax aide available beginning Feb. 11 Do you have questions about your taxes? Would you like assistance in completing your in come tax forms this year? Free income tax assistance will be available to the community beginning Feb. 11 through the TAX-AIDE program of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to all low and moderate in come people. Sherron Woodside, local coor dinator for the tax program, said the service is designed to help all low and moderate income tax payers understand income tax forms and become familiar with special benefits available to them. “ The government may owe you money. Taxpayers who had 1 a job. earned less than $23.050. and had a child who lived with them may be due money from the government under the Earned In come Credit,” Woodside said. On another point Sherron stated “ we have learned that many older persons are unaware of special benefits they are entitl ed to claim. Some may not be re quired to file a return because of limited income.” Persons using the service should bring copies of their previous year's federal and state tax returns, forms for the current tax year, relevant material show ing income for the year (including W-2’s and I099’s etc.) and receipts, cancelled checks for personal deductions (medical, property taxes, contributions, etc.). According to Woodside. TAX- MCGG Sm all G rain s G r o w e r ’s M e e tin g S tagin g C lin ic February 11 W illow s G range 1-3 p . m . W illow s Grange AIDE counselors are trained to assist with basic tax forms and questions. The counselors receive a week of training covering federal and state taxes for which they must pass a test. Individuals with complex tax assistance needs may be referred to professional tax preparers. “ Our goal is to assist more tax payers with our expanded site hours as we are having two Satur days (Feb. 19 and 26. available to those individuals that are unable to receive the assistance during the week,” remarked Woodside. Some additional forms are also available that may be unavailable at the bank or post office. Interested persons may make an appointm ent by calling 676-5024. W elding Clinic MCGG lone Shop I . - * . ' " .» A o V - . . • \U i - -■ .. V; V*.- -; * ' ;* -v * « , * .’ ** _ V; •i. . ’.Y '1 •••/ ■■ I Î » ‘ ’ ' v • 3»' ■ , I ! - * ; . >\ % v i j - , ; t e w , Fi. 1:30 p .m . Starts 9 a .m . S p o n so re d by M C G G and D obyns Pest C o n tro l * * , « *■£ *' % s* * •
