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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1996)
Rodeo Court has busy weekend BESSIE WETZEL!. U OF ORE newspaper LI B EUGENE 97403 OR Queen Brenda Holtz shake hands with Heppner city administrator Gary Marks, while princesses Dawn Boor, Stormy Howard and Beth Hermanns look on. VOL 115_______ NO. 30_______ 8 Pages Wednesday, July 24, 1996,_______ Morrow County Heppner, Oregon Auto accident victims update Adam Doherty, 16-year-old son of Mike and Cindy Doher ty, Heppner, who was injured in an automobile accident July 11, has been moved to another hospital to begin rehabilitation, his mother reports. Adam was moved from Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) to Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland. His address will now be: Adam Doherty, do Good Sam aritan Hospital, RIO Room 2B, Morrow County Jail dilemma By Sheriff Roy Drago Morrow County finds itself facing a continually worsening situation in lodging of our prisoners. The contracted jail bed resources with other jurisdictions that we have been using are continually shrinking. We presently are releasing approximately 78 percent of those people arrested for criminal acts that should be put in jail. This means that if someone is arrested on a felony or misdemeanor crime he/she is issued a citation to appear and released because there is no jail space available to lodge them. The person then frequently fails to appear on the court date given to them. A war rant for the persons arrest is then issued and if we can locate them they are arrested again. There usually is still no space available so the person has to be issued another citation to ap pear and released. This cycle can repeat itself several times. This is very frustrating for law enforcement and the victims as well as a joke to the criminal element. In one recent case the victim of a robbery reported the crime and identified the suspect that did it. That person was arrested and then had to be released because of the lack of jail space. The victim then sees the suspect in his local grocery store an hour later. Needless to say we now have a very unhappy victim. This is not an unusual occurrence. As this is being written we currently are holding 14 prisoners on various charges. They are serving sentences or awaiting court appearances. They are being held in three different jails. With the jail beds available to us now, we are holding an average of eight to 10 prisoners every day. We should be holding closer to 20 prisoners but are not because of the lack of jail space. The new state laws and projected increases will increase the number of prisoners in the next 10 years to an average of 20 to 25 prisoners per day under current jail space conditions for Morrow county. Your deputies that are transporting these prisoners are having to spend more and more time out of the county going to and from the different jails. This limits the county's effective law en forcement because its deputies spend so much time on these transports. No one is more frustrated than your sheriff at having to release these criminals back into our community routinely. In an effort to come up with a solution, your county commissioner are put ting together a county-wide committee to study our options and make recommendations to the citizens of the county. Any direc tion we go is not going to be cheap, so we need to take a close look at the options. I would urge anyone interested in being on this committee to call the county court and volunteer. I know there are a lot of very unhappy victims of these criminals in the county and I hope some of these people will serve on the com mittee. You have first hand knowledge of the frustration I speak of. As it stands now we are totally at the mercy of the jurisdic tions that we contract with. They could cancel our jail contracts, as Benton County Washington did, tomorrow and then where would we be? NEWS DEADLINE MON. AT 5 p .m . Advertising Deadline TUES. AT NOON 1015 N.W. 22nd, Portland, OR. 97210. Friends may visit him or call (503) 413-8752 evenings or weekends. Cindy says that he will be busy with rehabilitation during the day. Adam sustained spinal cord injuries in the accident. Bill Schlaich, 18, son of Lor- rie and Kelly Fox, and Terry Schlaich, who sustained severe injuries to his arm, has under gone several surgeries and is still at OHSU, 3 N.W. Room 3412, 3180 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR. 97201-3090. Brian Knowles, the son of Butch and Mary Knowles, But- tercreek, who suffered head in juries in the accident, was listed in satisfactory condition Tues day at St. Mary Medical Cen ter, 401W. Poplar, Walla Walla, WA. 99362. Upon admission to the hospital July 12, Brian's condition had been listed as critical. The other two teenagers in the accident, Shaun Hisler and Jim Schlaich were treated and released. Shaun, 18, the son of Paul and Susan Hisler, Hepp ner, sustained injuries to his knee. Jim Schlaich, 17, the son of Lorrie and Kelly Fox, and Terry Schlaich, received cuts and bruises in the accident. Accounts have been set up at the Bank of Eastern Oregon for each of the families of the in jured teenagers. Those who would like to donate money toward the families' lodging, travel, food, and other ex penses may do so at the bank. Lions help accident victims The Heppner Lions Club will be sponsoring a special blood drawing on Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 2-6 p.m. Donors will be able to credit their blood donations to recent accident victims Adam Doher ty, Bill Schlaich and Brian Knowles. "W e know the blood drive is a few weeks away, but we want people to mark their calendars early in order to help with this blood drawing," said Rollie Marshall, Lions Club organizer. Lea Calvert, Lions Club pre sident, said that she "wanted to let folks know that the Hepp ner Lions Club projects are almost always geared toward helping our local kids." Anyone interested in becom ing a Lion or if wishing to schedule an appointment now for the blood drawing may call Marshall at 676-9125. Last weekend, the 19% Mor row County Fair and Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo Court par ticipated in the Fort Dalles Days parade, queen's luncheon and rodeo grand entry. They plac ed first in the courts division of the parade. On July 13-14, Queen Bren da Holtz and her court travel ed to Athena and Elgin. Saturday morning the royals were accompanied by pennant bearers Nonie Walters, Maci Childers and Katie Bacon for the Caledonian Days Parade in Athena. Following the parade, Queen Brenda Holtz, Princesses Stor my Howard, Beth Hermanns, and Dawn Boor, and their parents traveled to Elgin. Pennant bearer Sybil Krebs joined Katie Bacon and Maci Childers to escort the court along the parade route at Elgin. The pennants and chaperone Glenda Taylor joined the court at the Elgin Queen's luncheon where they invited all the courts to come to the Morrow County Fair and Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo Aug 14-18. All of the past queens for the Elgin Stampede joined this year's courts in the grand en try of the afternoon rodeo to celebrate the Stampede's 50th year. "In spite of the 100 degree weather both days, I think we all had a good time spreading the word about the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo Aug 1 4 -1 8 ," said a court spokesperson. Tuesday, the Queen and her court and pennant bearers were guests at the Heppner Chamber of Commerce lun cheon. They were accompanied by several of their mothers and chaperone Darcy Robinson. Next weekend, the court will travel to Joseph for the Chief Joseph Days parade and rodeo. Pool construction plans are on hold By April Hilton-Sykes Plans for construction of the swimming pool to be built in Heppner, funded through the Willow Creek Park District (WCPD), are on hold for the time being, awaiting a decision by Circuit Court Judge Rudy Murgo, as to whether certain petitioners will be allowed to withdraw from the district. "W e hope we would have had a decision by now ," said WCPD member Bob Kahl. "He (Murgo) has had over 60 days." Kahl said they are not certain how Murgo's decision will af fect the funding for the pool's construction. While the board is awaiting the decision, they are consider ing design issues for the pool, which they are proposing to build on the highway coming into Heppner. Kahl said that the board is now considering six lanes for the pool, rather than the initial ly proposed four lanes. Kahl said that six lanes are required for swim meet competition. Swim meets would increase utilization of the pool and in crease pool revenue, he said. They would also draw more people, and subsequently more revenue into the Heppner area. "It would be penny-wise and pound foolish not to consider it (six lanes for swim meet com petition)," said Kahl. Voters approved operating expenses for the pool for three years, but after that, funding • ‘or operating monies is uncer tain. An increase in space for lanes may somewhat alter the pool design and could possibly place a proposed therapy pool in a different place. People for the Pool, a fund raising group, is concerned that placing the pro posed therapy pool in a dif ferent location at the site, may put the therapy pool out of their financial reach. People for the Pool has raised between $68 and $69 thousand dollars to fund the therapy pool, which was originally estimated at around $100,000. Changes could bring the price tag for the therapy pool and its building up to as high as $170,000, said a People for the Pool spokes person. Kahl, however, stressed that the basic pool has always been the WCPD priority and that ex tras, such as a therapy pool, would have to be funded through grants, donations and other fund raising efforts. People for the Pool has planned a meeting on Monday, July 29, at 7 p.m. at the Colum bia Basin Electric Conference Room to receive input and discuss their options concern ing the therapy pool. Options could include: building a shell to house the therapy pool and waiting for construction of the therapy pool until additional funds are obtained; or continu ing their fund raising efforts to earn enough to build both the therapy pool and its building. People for the Pool is discuss ing hiring a professional grant writer to obtain the balance of the funds. People for the Pool are also seeking additional board members. Fair & Rodeo tab deadline July 26 The deadline for news and advertising for the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo supple ment in the Gazette-Times is Friday, July 26 at 5 p.m. Shrine game tickets still available Gene Orwick, in charge of local ticket sales for the annual East-West Shrine game, says he still has some "extremely good seats left" for the game, set for Saturday, Aug. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Baker City High School stadium. Chris Sykes of Heppner will play in the game. Orwick says that anyone wishing to buy tickets should contact him at 989-8342 by July 31 at the latest. Tickets are $8.50 each. The weekend starts off with a Cowboy breakfast in the park, followed by the parade at 10:30 a.m. Pre-game pageantry will get underway at 6 p.m. with kick-off at 7 p.m. Half-time entertainment will include the auction of a championship steer, one football and two caps autographed by Steve Young and Jerry Rice of the San Fran cisco 49ers. Special guest will be a three-year old bum patient from Vernonia. A video record of the game will be available. "T h e event can only be enhanced by a sell-out atten dance," said a Shriners news release. A squad of 32 players and 32 alternates was chosen for both the east and the west teams. A coach and two assistants have been selected by a rotating pro cess for each team, and the team officials have been nam ed by a similar process. Melody Wrightman of On tario is queen for the 1996 season. She and her escort will join the teams at player pickup at the Valu-Inn in Oregon City on August 7. The players will attend a seven-day training camp at Eastern Oregon State College in La Grande imme diately prior to the game. The time, talents and energies of all the participants are donated to the game. That, plus the state wide support of businesses, media, private individuals and a lot of Shriners help to make this event the number two athletic fund raiser for Shriners Childrens Hospitals in North America, said the release. Protect Your Stored Grain RELDAN 4 E RELOAN 3% DUST TEMPO Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 1-800-452-7396
