P Fs 5 l F
w F: T Z F L L
.
t
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J c
Saying hello... and goodbye
J
Students will say hello to three
new faces and say goodbye, at
least temporarily, to one at south
Morrow County schools
Three teachers, Ron Neighom,
Heather Hacking and Ralph
Werner, have been employed by
the district and one teacher, Vicky
Broden, will be out on maternity
leave
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VOL 116_______NO 3_______6 Pages Wednesday. January 15. 1997,_______ Morrow County Heppner, Oregon
Wheat seminar planned in lone
The 1997 O SU Columbia Basin
Wheat Seminar will be held on
Wednesday. January 22, at the
lone Grange from 9 a m to 4 p m
Some o f the topics included are
small grain nitrogen management;
disease« in dryland areas; Kamal
Bunt, and a chance to meet the
new OSU staff members
The $ 15 charge for the seminar
includes lunch. There will be four
pesticide credits available for
recertification Prercgistration is
requested
For more information call the
Morrow
County
Extension
Service, 541-6769642 or 1-800-
Regional strategies
meeting planned
A board meeting o f the North
Central
Oregon
Regional
Strategies will be held on
Thursday. Jan 16. from 10 a m to
2 p m at Grover Hall (senior
center) in Fossil
342-3664
State representative Chuck Norris honored
Representative Chuck Norris receives an award from the Columbia-
Blue Mountain RC&D for his outstanding leadership in the
legislature From L - R: Betty Lou Norris, Representative Chuck
Norris and Ray French, RC& D council chairman
Photo by Gina Kcrz.man. Natural Resources Conservation Serv ice
State representative Chuck
Norns was recently honored by the
C olu m bia-B lu e
M ountain
Resource
Conservation
and
Development Council (R C & D ) for
outstanding
leadership
while
serv ing in the Oregon Legislature
Norris and his wife. Betty' Lou,
were the guests o f honor at a steak
dinner during the RC & D quarterly
meeting on December 17 in
Heppner Ray French, chairman
o f the RC& D council, presented
Norms with a motiv ational portrait
o f a soaring bald eagle The words
"Leaders arc like eagles , They
don't flock You find them one at
a time," appear at the bottom o f
the frame
An extension o f the USDA -
Natural Resources Conservation
Service, the RC& D helps people
care for and piotcct natural
resources while improving the
area's economy, environment and
living standards A diverse group
o f 13 local volunteers serve on the
RC&D
council
that
covers
Gilliam,
Morrow,
Umatilla,
Wheeler and Grant counties, with
the main office in Pendleton
Among other projects, the RC&D
has been instrumental in installing
dry hydrants to protect rural
communities
As a result, fire
insurance costs are reduced The
RC&D has also facilitated the use
o f canola as an alternative crop for
fanners
Canola provides an
alternative from the standard
fallowAvhcat/fallovv rotation by
replacing one fallow rotation
Instead o f exposing the cropland
to water and soil erosion by
leaving it uncovered, farmers arc
using the canola to protect the
cropland and improving water
quality by reducing the amount o f
sedimentation in the waterways it
also provides an economic return
to the farmer
Norris attended RC & D council
meetings and sat on committees,
giving input on the needs o f the
communities that he represented
Norris was
instrumental
in
creating legislation for state recog-
mtion o f w atershed councils Due
to the legislation, the Umatilla
County Soil and Water Conserva
tion District was able to initiate
the formation o f the Umatilla
Basin Watershed Council
The
RC&D facilitated the formation o f
the council, and supports them in
implementing projects to restore
and protect the Umatilla Basin
Watershed "Chuck has gone
beyond the call o f duty to help
with water resource needs You
see him everywhere," say s Karl
Nicdcrwcrfcr. RC&D coordinator
"He has been willing to attend
meetings and functions in order to
keep himself informed and help
with
the
needs
of
the
communities "
In addition to many other
commitments.
Norris
is
an
associate director o f the Umatilla
County
Soil
and
Water
Conservation District Norris is
retiring from the legislature after
10 years o f serv ice He did not
seek rcclcction and has been
succeeded by Bob Jensen o f
Pendleton
Ron Neighorn
Ron Neighom, 24, has been
hired in a temporary contract to
teach music and Spanish at
Heppner and lone schools for the
balance o f the school year
Neighom grew up in Estacada.
graduating from high school there.
He
attended
Clackamas
Community College and graduated
from
Central
Washington
University' at Ellensburg, WA,
with a degree in music education,
both instrumental and vocal He
recently
completed
student
teaching at White Swan, WA
Neighom's father, John, is
employed with Bi-Mart and his
mother. Itoko, who came to the
U S. from Japan as a young
woman, works for a gun accessory
company
His twin brother,
Richard, who just got out o f the
Navy, is attending Mt Hood
Community Colllege, and another
brother. Jimmy, is an engineer
Neighom's sister, Laura Nelson,
who works in retail, is expecting a
baby soon.
Neighom will teach third and
fourth grade music, fifth and sixth
grade band and seventh-12th grade
choir in lone in the afternoon., an
exploratory music class and two
Spanish classes in Heppner in the
morning.
"The community has been really
supportive, as are the students and
staff." said Neighom. "I’m looking
forward to liv ing in Heppner."
Neighom says that he loves
country music and hopes to get
together with other people in the
community to play once he gets
settled
H eather Hacking
Heather Hacking. 22. has also
been hired in a temporary contract
to teach music and Spanish at
Heppner schools for the rest o f the
school year She will teach two
Spanish three classes, a Spanish
one and two mixed class at
Heppner High School (HHS).
seventh-grade choir, high school
choir, and fifth and sixth-grade
choir In addition, she has an extra
duty contract as cheerleader
adv isor at HHS
Hacking was bom and raised in
Twin Falls. Idaho, graduating from
Twin Falls High School She
graduated from Linficld College
with a bachelor o f arts degree in
music education in June and
completed her student teaching at
McMinnville
and
Newby
Elementary She has lived in
Oregon for about four and a half
years
Hacking's father. Bill, owns a
themselves ."
In addition to teaching at
Heppner, he also teaches band at
Hermiston Junior Academy and
has priv ate students
Growing up near Glacier Park.
Wemer loves the mountains and
especially enjoys fishing He says
he plans to spend some time
fishing at Willow Creek Lake
Newlyweds, Wemer and his wife,
Sandy, have been married about a
year and a half She is self
employed as a Mary Kay director
and drives a pink Grand Prix
Wemer sometimes assists her with
her business
machine shop in Twin Falls and
her mother, Sandy, who works part
time for the state o f Idaho, recently
got her real estate license She has
a brother, Chad. 15
Hacking enjoys playing piano
and had been a piano performance
major before she was diagnosed
with carpel tunnel syndrome,
which causes pain and numbness
in the wnsts and hands She also
likes dancing, having performed
modem dance, ballet, tap, jazz and
character dancing (which could be
described as theatrical dancing)
since she was very young She will
put some o f her expertise in jazz
dancing to work as HHS
cheerleader advisor "It's been
fun," said Hacking o f the HHS
cheerleaders "It's a good squad
They 've been working really hard "
Hacking says she enjoys
Heppner and is looking forward to
meeting people in the community
Ralph W erner
Ralph Werner. 55, Hermiston,
has been hired in a temporary half
time contract to teach music in
Heppner.
Werner was bom in
Pennsylvania and reared in
Montana near Glacier Park His
father was a Baptist preacher who
did missionary work with the
loggers and miners in the area and
established a church at Columbia
Falls Werner worked in a mill as a
summer job after high school He
received a bachelor o f arts degree
in music from Cedarville College,
at Cedarv ille. Ohio, and a bachelor
o f science in education at
W ilb e rfo rce
U n iv ersity ,
Wilberforce, Ohio
Werner taught orchestra and
band for grades five-nine in Boise,
Idaho, and then received a master's
degree in music education at
Eastern Washington University at
Cheney , WA. In 1970 he returned
to Cedarville. where he was an
assistant professor in music
education. From there. Werner
moved to Nyssa, where he taught
high school, junior high and
elementary band and high school
and junior high choir and then
elementary and junior high band
and choir and general music. He
then got a job with the Morrow
County School District, teaching
fifth and sixth grade band at A C
Houghton Elementary School and
sev enth and eighth grade band and
choir at Columbia Middle School
in Imgon. He taught K -12th grade
music, band and choir at Echo for
five years before taking a year o ff
Werner got back into teaching
when he was hired to teach
instrumental music by the Fine
Arts Council He also taught
home-schooled children, so it
seemed natural to step in as music
in south Morrow County follow ing
the death o f newly-hired music
teacher, Beth Slottce "I felt like I
knew the kids." said Werner "The
kids and I bonded pretty quick, so
I decided it would be kind o f nice
to teach " So. Werner applied and
was accepted for the half time
position "I think I'd like to
continue." he said "I'm hav ing a
good time and I just love to see
bands grow I feel this community
wants a band. I could eventually
sec the fifth and sixth grades as
separate bands and see those
numbers go into junior high and
high school I can sec a band o f
40-50 kids in three to four years "
U'lt's just a matter o f
encouragement." added Wcmcr.
"helping them play better and then
they start feeling good about
Vicky Broden
Vicky Broden, 36, Pendleton,
Spanish teacher at HJHS/HHS, is
on maternity leave and is
expecting the birth o f a daughter,
to be named Gabnela Christine
(for both the baby 's Ecuadorian
and Norwegian ancestry)
Broden was bom and graduated
from high school in Quito,
Ecuador She attended school at
the American School in Quito,
which was bilingual, non-religious
and one o f the few coed schools at
the time Her parents had lived all
over the world, in the U .S., South
America and Africa, and the
family spoke English as well as
Spanish at home. "I'm hoping 1 can
teach Spanish to my child." says
Broden Her parents now live in
Venezuela, where her father, Juan
Quevedo. is a general manager for
Texaco and her mother. Monica, is
a psy chologist who has established
her own practice
Upon graduation from high
school. Broden earned a full ride
scholarship to the University o f
Idaho, which was the third top
school in forestry in the U S She
received a bachelor o f science
degree in forest resorces and also
met here husband Bob there She
worked two y ears in forestry , but
jo b s at that time were scarce and
she decided to go back to school
Bob. who was from Montana,
got a job in Bozeman and she
enrolled
at
Montana
State
University there
She earned
bachelor's degrees in social studies
and Spanish and became certified
to teach both subjects She taught
at Bozeman Junior High for four
years before he got a job at
Lewiston, Idaho After
they
moved to Lewiston, she taught
school at Moscow Junior High As
a part o f her husband's job
working for a tree nursery, he
trav eled to Heppner to sell trees to
Kinzua
Corporation
Kinzua
offered him a job and, fortunately,
the summer the Brodens moved to
Heppner. there was an opening for
a part nmc social studies teacher at
Heppner Junior High She began
teaching Spanish at HJHS when
the school needed an elective and
then moved to the high school
building when the seventh and
eighth grades were relocated there
She now teaches Spanish in grades
seven-12 and Certificate o f Initial
Mastery (CIM) prep for seventh
graders "I feel very comfortable
and confident in what I'm doing (in
education)," said Broden "I hav e a
very clear vision o f what I want to
do." Broden goes beyond the call
o f duty. keeping her room open so
kids have a place to go during their
lunch break
Bob is now natural resource
manager for Kinzua Resources for
both Pilot Rock and Heppner and
the couple recently moved to
Pendleton
"I miss Heppner
continued next page
All Insulated -| r Q /
winterwear XD
/O O i l
Subject to stock on hand. Sale ends Jan. 25
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221
1-800-452-7396