Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1995)
gmêmnnmvmmmmmuum Public comments on Home Rule Charter proposal Students get a taste of the w orking w orld Although they didn't all agree on what changes would occur, most people who spoke at a public hearing on the pro posed county home rule charter Tuesday, did agree that a change in county government was in the wind. The hearing was the second of three around the county to hear public comment on the proposed charter. The main topic of discussion Tuesday was the number of commissioners there should be, and how the county should be divided into voting districts. An appointed committee has been working for the past 18 months to come up with a new county charter, or structure, which will most likely be put to county voters sometime in 19%. Proposals for the election of county commissioners ranged from five com m issioners elected at large, to three com missioners elected from various districts in the county. The draft charter presented at the meeting specified five commis sioners coming from five districts in the county, but to be voted on by all county residents. Charter committee members said that could be changed, however, based on public input. The draft charter also calls for eliminating the elected posi tions of county clerk, assessor, treasurer and surveyor, and making these positions ap pointed. The positions of sheriff and justice of the peace would remain elective under the plan. Jerry Rietmann of lone testified that he favored in creasing the number of com missioners to five, elected at large throughout the county. He pointed out that more com missioners, meeting at night, would open county govern ment up to more people, those who have jobs or own busi nesses and are not able to take the time off to attend day-long meetings as the present court does. "Business owners and workers are excluded from the county court presently," Riet mann said. "Now you have to be unemployed, retired or wealthy to serve on the court." He cited the county school board as an example of open government. Heppner resident John Ed- mundson testified that he had Mustangs place four on CBC baseball All Stars '*^anr‘ Students work at City Park By April Sykes It's a win-win situation all around, for kids, the school, the community and the city. > Two Heppner High School classes are in the final stages of completing a project at the city mini-park located at the en trance to Heppner. The project involves concrete skills, literally laying cement at the park, but also encompasses much more cooperative learning, com munication, problem solving and reasoning skills. The groups alternate pre-integrated mathematics (pre-algebra to all the old timers) and a technol ogy survey class. Technology survey is an overview of many areas of technology construc tion, communication, manufac turing and transportation. Over the course of the year, the classes covered fractions, decimals, percentages, cost estimation, formulas, area, volume, equations, graphing, mapping, scale, ratios, propor tion, angles, distances, estima tion and using various tools. Heppner High School Prin cipal Steve Dickenson is en thusiastic about the mini-park project. "This is really great," he said. "This is something these kids will have ownership of. There are some reluctant academic students down here working their tails off. Some who haven't been leaders have really taken charge. This is ap plied knowledge, plus it puts someting back into the com munity. They (the students) can always come by here and say they had something to do with this. It transfers to com munity pride, citizenship and community involvement.” And the students agree. "It's aw esom e," says freshman Deena Hendricks, who added that there was a little bit of com petition between the two ■ ■ classes involved. "The other class was bigger and they work faster. And they rub it in our nose," said Hendricks. HHS technology teacher Dave Fowler, who is on site with the students as well as in the classroom, said that the project, while successful, was almost too big. "It's a lot of work," he said, adding that the logistics of transporting the equipment and materials was difficult and the concrete work was extremely time consuming. Bad weather and availability of a school bus to transport the students sometimes cut into on-site work time. "A smaller project would be a really good learning experience," he said. Fowler said that John Ed- mundson first approached him about the project last spring. "The idea was to give kids the understanding of the world of The Heppner Mustangs plac ed two seniors on the first team Columbia Basin Conference east division all star baseball team and one senior and one junior on honorable mention. Seniors Chris Dickenson and Tr**nt Hughes were named to the i&Ji team, Dickenson as in-* field and Hughes as outfield. Chad Skroch and Rod Zum- walt were named on the honorable mention team, in field and outfield respectively. Others named to the first team included: Glenn Stillman catcher, Brandon Dames and photo by April Sykes Casey Perkins, pitchers, all Pilot Rock; Chris Whelan, Stan field, first base; Dickenson, technology and eventually Courtney Brody of Weston- align the curriculum with the McEwen and Josh Baker of project," he said. Stanfield, infield; and Hughes, After all the weeks of sket Lucas Pupo Weston-McEwen ching, measuring, mapping and putting the project to scale, the kids were really anxious to get to work at the project site. Once at the site, boys and girls alike excavated the dirt, put in forms and mixed and layed ce ment. They took turns being foreman, process observer (who keeps data on perfor mance), and workers. "These kids have an idea of what goes on at a construction site," said Dickenson." If their parents wanted to put in a patio, they would be able to tell them how to lay cement." After the sidewalks are com pleted, city plans are to install picnic tables and a water fountain. and Chris Humphreys, PR, outfield; Shawn Tracy, utility and Kyle Frederickson, designated hitter, both Umatilla. Chris Dickenson Trent Hughes Rod Zumwalt Chad Skroch It's Tupper time again no position on the proposed charter, but did think there would be no cost savings to the county with five commissioners. As with most others who spoke, Edmundson said that growth in the county would be in the north end of Boardman and Irrigon. Soon 70 percent of the population of the county would live within 10 miles of the Columbia River, he said. Boardman resident Ed Glenn presented the most vocal testimony at the meeting, say ing that no matter what the charter committee did, the power in the county would soon shift to the north end. "It doesn't make a bit of difference what you do," he told the com mittee. "Things will not change in Morrow County for five years, then there will be a shift of power to the north end." He said that at present county government is irrelevant to the people of Boardman and Ir rigon, and that the committee would be wise "to protect the minority with a seat at the table", because it will be the only way to guarantee the peo ple of Heppner have represen tation in the future. Scholarship apps. available Applications are now available for the Lexington Col lege Scholarship at Morrow County Grain G row ers' Business Office in Lexington. This $500 scholarship applica tion is available to any student who lives in the Lexington voting precinct or whose parents or spouse resides in the precinct. The student must have completed one full year of college, university or vocational training; this being two full semesters or three full quarters of school, and must include a transcript with the application. All applications must be com pleted and postmarked on or before August 1, 1995, and mailed to South Morrow Coun ty Scholarship Trust; P.O. Box 926; Heppner, Oregon 97836. The recipient will be announc ed in September. For more information, con tact board members: Reverend Stan Hoobing, president; Bill Reitm ann, vice-president; Sharon Harrison, secretary; Bob Kahl, treasurer; George Koffler; Dana Reid, or Jim Swanson. TV membership to decide program The Heppner T.V. Inc., board of directors has decided to put the fate of Channel 19 before a vote of the membership. WGN's contract has run out and the board may try another network. The Home and Garden Network and C-Span have been previewed. C-Span is now on until May 31. WGN is also a choice to renew, said Judie Laughlin, Heppner T.V. office manager. Ballots will be mailed to determine what the communi ty would like to place on Chan nel 19. Ballots must be return ed by 5 p.m. June 19, the day before the 40th annual meeting of the membership, Tuesday, June 20, at 8 p.m. at the Hepp ner T.V. office. Voting will follow the Heppner T.V. Inc., by-laws, with one vote per membership owned. A com mittee will count the ballots prior to the annual meeting and will report the results. G-T deadline strictly enforced The deadline for news stories for the Heppner Gazette-Times will be strictly enforced starting Monday, June 5. No stories will be accepted after the deadline which is 5 p.m. Mondays. The deadline for classified ads is Tuesdays at noon. The Gazette-Times will be closed for the Memorial Day holiday, Monday, May 29. photo by April Sykes Heppner and lone sixth graders with the help of teacher Bil Ewing examine organisms at Bull Prairie lake. The excursion to Bull Prairie was a part of a four day outdoor school experience at the Tupper Ranger Station May 15-18. Our Early Summer Sale Runs thru Sat., May 27th We will be closed Monday for Memorial Day Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 1-800-452-7396