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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1996)
County officials, home rule proponents face off By April Hilton-Sykes P r S S ! E W E T r r t L u or 0 Rr VOL. 115_______NO. 9 b N r w ■ i a r . R l i E U G i N fc 07403 OK 8 Pages Wednesday, February 28, 1996,_______ Morrow County Heppner, Oregon Lab program a community partnership Students learn metal working skills By Merlyn Robinson C h illy w e a th e r o u tsid e d o e s n 't keep things from heating up inside the Heppner High School Agriculture D e partment metals lab. W ith sparks from welders and tor ches flashing, metals lab stu dents are on a roll constructing heavy-duty projects. " I t 's a com m unity-based p a rtn e rs h ip ," says Barney Lindsay, instructor of the Voca tional Agriculture and Techni cal Science Department. Lind say believes students are d e v e lo p in g em ployable skills w ithin the com munity. As proof, former students Danny Sharp, G ene Lancaster and Mike Gorman, along with Ray and Ryan Miller, are all em ployed locally in agri-business occupations. However, Lindsay is quick to say that he doesn't take full credit for all the student train ing. He credits Miller and Sons and Jay Coil Fabricating for pro viding additional knowledge, the use o f tools and supplying materials. Additional help has also come from the Lexington Body Shop. Inside this school building, students have constructed stur dy carts for welders and a large metal rack to hold steel. Long pieces o f metal o f various lengths can now be stored for handy access instead of being heaped on the concrete floor. Presently under construction are metal panels that will be us ed in the land lab building ad jacent to the shop. Steel for these heavy-duty panels was partially funded by a grant. " T h e r e 's an u n lim ited amount o f exciting possibili ties,” claims Lindsay. Already in use are pickup guards and bang boards built by students Dale Wilson, Brian Struckmeier and Dan Samples. The material just arrived to make a flatbed trailer for the school district. Another class project under construction are bleachers for the H ep p n er H igh School baseball field. Donnie Pointer has masterminded much of the cutting for this project. The H eppner Booster Club pur chased the materials for one 16-foot and tw o 12-foot bleach er sections. Employees at the M orrow County Grain G ro w ers and Jay Coil Fabricating have agreed to donate a Satur day to weld the pieces together. Just another community part nership in action, says Lindsay. Students learn to safely use welders, torches, band and cut off saws, drill presses, grinders and paint sprayers. Thanks to a grant, the department also obtained a plasma cutter that is now in heavy use. From scrap pieces o f steel, students are fashioning miniature mus tangs, cap italizin g on the school's logo. Students hope to sell these are objects to provide funding for additional supplies and materials. FBI may investigate power outage The Federal Bureau of In vestigation might be called in to investigate the shooting of in sulators, and the pow er outage it caused Sunday morning, Feb. 26, according Columbia Basin Electric Co-op manager Fred Toombs. Toombs said someone shot the insulators off a Bonneville Pow er Administration pow er pole sometime Saturday, which caused the outage covering all of M orrow and parts o f Gilliam c ou n ties early S u n d ay morning. The O regon State Police are investigatng the incident, but since the vandalism was done on federal land (in the area of Juniper Canyon 2 miles west of Bombing Range road) the FBI m igh t also get in v o lv e d , Toombs said. The pow er was o ff for five hours Sunday morning, and Toombs is asking for help from the public in trying to catch the vandals. "W e 'r e asking anyone w h o might have information about this to contact either the state police or m yself," he said. Toombs also pointed out how dangerous it is to shoot pow er line insulators. " I t ’s a very poor thing to do. If the line happen ed to break and fall on so meone, they could get k illed ," he said. The stew over the proposed home rule charter now before M orrow County voters has passed the simmering stage and has now advanced to a full rolling boil with many county officials squaring off with home rule advocates. The Hom e Rule Pac com mit tee recently sent county resi dents a pamphlet outlining benefits the charter w ould bring to the county. M orrow County Judge Louis Carlson and M orrow County Counsel Val Doherty say that some of assertions made in the pam phlet are simply untrue. The pamphlet says that with home rule, the county would be able to enact laws and or dinances. " W e can do this n o w ," says Doherty. "T h e im plication is that w e're gaining something w e don't have now. That's simply untrue." Rollie Marshall, chairman o f the Hom e Rule Committee, says that while the county can enact ordinances, it simply does not have the "t e e th " to enforce those rules. "F o r example, if the county makes an ordinance that people are supposed to spray weeds, they can't enforce it, because they don 't have the statutory pow er to do that," says Marshall. Carlson says that the county can not only enforce ordi nances, but does so regularly. Carlson says that the county now has a code enforcer. If, for example the county receives a complaint about junked cars on a lot, the code enforcer (a M or row County Sheriff's deputy) has the ability to impound the cars and the county may sell them. If the county receives complaints about too many animals on a piece of property, the county can turn the case over to the district attorney for prosecution, says Carlson. If a county resident refuses to spray their weeds, the county can have the weeds sprayed and then apply the cost to the o w n e r 's p ro p e rty tax, he continued. The pamphlet says that the home rule charter makes the board of commissioners the governing body for the county, rather than the current county court. Doherty says that the present county judge and two county commissioners function just as a board o f commis sioners would. The pamphlet says that by having evening meetings any citizen, not just the retired, unemployed or self employed, would be able to either serve as a commissioners or attend meetings of the board o f com missioners. Doherty says that any citizen can now be elected as county judge or a commis sioner and adds that the job is too big for anyone expecting to spend only a night a month at a county commission meeting. According to home rule ad vocates, the home rule charter allows for nominal compensa tion to help defray the costs of being a commissioner. Doher ty says that the board itself would determine its own salary under home rule. Marshall counters this, say ing that the charter specifies that the budget committee, not the com m issioners, w o u ld determine the commissioners' salary and adds that it would cost approximately the same to pay the salary of an adminis trator and nominal salary for board members as it does un der the current system. Both sides agree that with h om e ru le, the c o u n ty 's juvenile system would move to circuit court. However the sides disagree as to whether the move would be good. "T h ere's no way the juvenile court is go ing to get the kind of treatment that we presently g e t," says Doherty. "W e 're already down to pretty minimal service from district and circuit court. Clear ly w e're not going to have the same level o f juvenile service. W e haven't seen a circuit court judge here in at least tw o or three years. Virtually all the work is done by district court judges w ho pro-tem circuit cou rt." Doherty says that Carlson now holds juvenile court hear ings in Boardman and Irrigon as well as Heppner. Home rule proponents say that juvenile court matters would be better served by the circuit court, perhaps especially in the north end o f the county, and the cir cuit court will have enough time to deal with the juvenile matters. Hom e rule proponents say that with home rule, county governm ent can be streamlin ed. Present county officials say that the positions of assessor, surveyor, county clerk and treasurer are mandated by state law and cannot be combined. H o w ever, hom e rule sup porters say, for example, per haps it is not necessary to have six separate financial depart ments (the financial positions of treasurer, assessor, tax collec tor, finance director, clerk and county court) and that con solidation is not only possible, but would also be more effi cient and less costly. Hom e rule proponents say that the five commissioner home rule system will provide better representation through out the county. Those against home rule say that there is no guarantee of better representa tion. They say that because the commissioners will be elected at large, there is no certainty that all five commissioners w on 't be elected from south M orrow County, or, if the north M orrow population ex plodes as predicted, that all five w on 't be elected from north M orrow County in the future. Marshall says that with home rule, the at-large system can be changed to a district system by a vote o f the people. "T h ere's nothing to prevent the board of commissioners from putting it (districting) back on the ballot," says Marshall Marshall said, however, that the overw helm ing majority of those attending public hearings on the home rule issue favored at large elec tion of commissioners rather than districting. A change to the home rule system would change the coun ty assessor, treasurer, clerk and surveyor from elected to non- elected positions. Home rule advocates say that the depart ment heads would then be more answerable to the coun ty com m ission ers. Those against home rule say that the department heads are now resp on sive to the voters. "W h at people would lo se," says Doherty, "is their elected representatives. So one can tell them to shut up and hold the county lin e." However, she adds that the county court maintains control over the different departments through control of staffing, o f fice space and funding. Doherty says that what home rule will not bring is restructur ing of county government. "A ll of the state laws apply just as equally to charter counties as to statutory counties,” she said. " A ll of the laws that define the relationship between counties and the state apply equally to charter and non-charter coun ties. You don't change your basic identity as a cou n tv." The two sides also differ on their views on a countv ad ministrator. Those against home rule say, in effect, that an appointed administrator will pander to the board. Marshall looks at it differently. " If vou're running a S14 million busi ness," he said, " I think you need a professional." While home rule will be in ef fect "im m ed iately" after the election, says Marshall, current elected officials would continue their positions with the coun ty until their terms expire. However, the candidate w inn ing the commissioner's posi tion now held by Don McElli- gott, would be elected under home rule, since McElligott's term will be up Jan. 1, 1997. Home rule ballots, which were mailed to voters last week, are due into the county clerk's office by March 12. St. Pat's team roping March 17 The Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo (O T PR ) St. Patrick's Day Team Roping event will be held Sun day, March 17, at the OTPR arena in Heppner beginning at 11 a.m. Entries will be open the mor ning o f March 17 until 10 a.m. Classes are as follows: open- three for $20.50, limited to three entries; no. 9 and 7-three for $15.50, limited to three entries; and no. 5-three for S12.50, unlimited entries. Concessions will be available and spectator admission is free. For more information, call Ken Bailey, chairman. 676-5110 or (541)379-2812. Committee members are Mike Proctor and Bailev. W IC clinic scheduled March 18 A W IC (special supplemental food program for women, in fants and children) clinic will be held in Heppner on the third Tuesday of each month from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. W IC participants or those in terested in determining if they are eligible may call the M or row County Health Depart ment, 676-5421, for an appoint ment. The program is open to wom en w h o are pregnant or breastfeeding, wom en who have delivered babies in the last six months and infants and children from birth to five years o f age. Income must be within the W IC income guidelines. Forex- ample, a family o f four must make less than $28,028 a year or $2,336 a month and be residents of M orrow or Uma tilla counties Participants must also have a medical or nutri tional risk, which w ill be evaluated even - six months. W IC provides: sceening for anemia, poor growth patterns, inadequate diet and other heath problems and needs; n utrition cou n selin g and education to relate good nutri tion to their health and dietary habits; nutritious foods to im prove nutrition-related medical problems; and referral to other health or social services when needs are identified. Those attending the clinic- should bring income data and a list of hxids eaten in the last 24 hours. For more information, call 676-5421 or (541) 278-0770. GOOD LUCK Cardinals & Lady Cards at State Tournament Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 1-800-452-7396
