Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1994)
d " 3 s i e. w 7 • *_ C ity dedicates wastewater fa cility E U a f. H y Oh 374 7 heppner Photo by Joyce Hughes Cutting the ribbon at the wastewater treatment facility dedication Friday were L-R: past mayors Cara Osmin, Kay Robinson and present mayor Bob Jepsen. imes VOL. 113 NO. 49 6 Pages Wednesday, December 7, 1994 Morrow County Heppner, Oregon Santa makes annual visit to Heppner A dedication ceremony Fri day, Dec. 2 capped the city of Heppner's long and sometimes frustrating effort to upgrade the city w astew ater treatm ent facility. On hand for the 11 a.m. dedication were the current mayor of Heppner, Bob Jepsen; two form er m ayors, Cara Osmin and Kay Robinson, who had been involved in the pro cess; city m anager, Gary Marks; city clerk, Rene Devin; DEQ rep resen tativ e, Don Caldwell; city foreman, Dave Winters; council member, Mar cia DeBo; and Allen Rieke, Anderson Perry Associates en gin eerin g firm , am ong others. The plant had been in the planning stages since 1987 w hen D epartm ent of E n vironm ental Q u ality , E n vironmental Protection Agency and federal Clean Water Act mandated the city to come up with an alternative way to dispose of the treated effluent which had been dumped in Willow Creek. The city would no longer be able to pipe the ef fluent into the creek during the summer months of low stream flow. The city now has a con tract with Willow Creek Coun try Club to spray the effluent on the golf course during the summer months. A series of problems, involv- ing engineering, siting, lan downers, the DEQ, funding, and most recently, leaks in the newly constructed sludge tank, plagued the project over the years, exasperating city officials and causing delays. The $2 million project was funded through a $625,000 ci ty sewer bond, $250,000 in grant monies and a $220,000 loan through the Oregon Economic Development De p artm e n t's Special Public Works Fund; $800,000 in EPA grant monies; and around $115,000 in accrued interest. The wastewater treatment facility includes a chlorine con tact basin, a sludge storage tank, a 460,00 gallon effluent reservoir, an irrigation pump station and a modem control system. The sewer plant con trol building, clarifiers and sewer filters were refurbished and the sewer pipelines re paired. Jepsen said that the treatment facility has the capacity to serve a community of over two thou sand people. Since Heppner now has around 1,400 residents, the facility will ac comodate for growth. "W e all feel real good about the whole thing," said Mayor Bob Jepsen. "O ur contractor did a real good job for us. We have a first class plan t." In his dedication speech, Jepsen took note of the mayor Neighborhood Center receives donation from Lutherans Linsey Hodges visits with Santa during the Artifactory last Saturday, Dec. 3 in Heppner. The annual Artifactory, sponsored by the Soroptimist International Club of Heppner is held at the Morrow County Fairgrounds the first Saturday in December. Passing school bus when lights are flashing is against the law Motorists are reminded to take extra caution when ap proaching school bu ses. Drivers who pass school buses on a yellow light are endanger ing children, and are advised to slow down and be prepared to stop. Drivers who run red lights on school buses can be heavily fined. Failure to stop for the bus safety lights is a class A traffic infraction and can result in $630 in bail, warns Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Tim Cundell. Morrow County School Dis trict transportation supervisor Burke O'Brien says that failure to stop for school buses has become a problem. Trooper Cundell notes that the law applies to drivers ap proaching school buses from either direction. Motorists must stop before reaching the bus and remain stopped until the bus safety lights are no longer operating. Cundell says that bus drivers and private citizens may file complaints with law enforce m ent p erson n el against motorists disobeying the bus safety laws. "D o n 't run the yellow lig h t s ," cau tions Cundell, "a s red are soon to follow ." Irrigon man arrested by narcotics team Victor Angel Olivas-Lopez, 1800 N.E. 10th, Space 67, Her- miston, was arrested Nov. 30 by the Blue Mountain Enforce ment Narcotics Team and of ficers from the Morrow Coun ty Sheriff's Office, the Umatilla County Sheriff's Office and the Oregon State Police. Olivas-Lopez was charged with three counts of delivery of a controlled su b stan ce, methaphetamine; four counts of possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine; and one count of theft by receiving. He was lodged at the Umatilla County jail. According to the Morrow County Sheriff's Office, a small quantity of methamphetamine was seized from the residence as well as approximately $5,000 worth of stolen property. The property included a motorcycle reported stolen from The Dalles, as well as miscellaneous tools and equipment from regional burglaries investigated by the Morrow and Umatilla counties' sheriff's offices. Morrow and Umatilla coun ties' sheriff's deputies are con tinuing the investigation regar ding the stolen property. The Neighborhood of South Morrow County was recently selected as the recipient of $200 through Lutheran Brother hood's "C are and S h are " program. Linda Shaw, fraternal com municator for Hope Lutheran C hurch and Tim K lipfel, Lutheran Brotherhood branch representative from Walla Walla, WA. coordinated the donation. Janice Skaggs, direc tor of the Neighborhood Center said she welcomed the dona tion at a time that funds were needed for the purchase of items for the Thanksgiving baskets for needy families in the local area. Lutheran Brotherhood, an aid association for Lutherans, provides a wide range of finan cial services, such as life in surance, for members. It also provides educational assistance and matching funds to con gregations, support for projects for disaster relief and orphans, and scholarships for higher education. Lutheran Brother hood's mission is "to work together to provide financial security for members and to serve Lutherans, their con gregations, institutions and communities, said Shaw. The "C are and Share" donation was the first one awarded in South Morrow County. Burkenbine steps down as fire chief H eppner V olunteer Fire Chief Forrest Burkenbine has announced that he will step down as fire chief as of Dec. 31. According to city manager Gary Marks, Burkenbine was ‘W e’(l asked to take over as "tem porary" fire chief 28 years ago. A new chief is to be named at the regular city council meeting Monday, Dec. 12. and city council members who were commemorated on a pla que when the first sewer plant was built in 1953. One coun cilman was Jack Van Winkle, who is now living in Sun City Arizona for the winter. Accor ding to Jepsen, who spoke with VanWinkle last week, Van- Winkle said that "T h e sewer plant was the best thing that ever happened to H eppner." Before that, the town was on septic systems. Problems often occurred with the septic tanks arid drain fields. Oddly, some areas on the outskirts of Portland are still on septic tank systems. According to VanWinkle, said Jepsen, the 1953 project was not without its problems either. The city had to dig deep trenches to lay the sewer pipe and they didn't get filled in when it was time for rodeo. Apparently city officials were concerned at that time that cowboys coming out of the bars after an evening of celebrating would fall into the trenches. The mayor at the time of completion of the 1953 sewer system was J.O . Turner, at torney. Council members, in addition to VanWinkle, were Ed Gonty, who owned the shoe store; Bill Collins, who had a dry cleaning business; W.C. Rosewall, who had the Ford-Mercury dealership; Bob Grabeel, who had a Caterpillar and John Deere dealership; and Dr. L.D. Tibbies. 1994 marks a busy year for the city of Heppner, with the culmination of the city sewer project, the fire hall addition and remodeling, and the street renovation project, in addition to the building of the Sperry Street Bridge. Jepsen says that keeping up city water service has also been a challenge this year. The 25 year-old monitoring system in city hall has not been operating correctly, at one point showing much more water in a well than was actual ly there; lightning hit one well twice and burned the motor out; and a tree fell and knock ed out the power to another well. Both Dave W inters and Marks have said that replace m ent parts for the aging m onitoring system are no longer available and repairs no longer possible. So, the city plans to install a new $30,000 electronic telemetry system to monitor the city's water. The project will be funded through a reserve account created in 1982 through a water system bond, which has since been paid off. keep y o u warm winter insu *ea, Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 1-800-824-7185
