Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1998)
" V Ê Ê tÊ Ê ttÈ àt FO U R - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, April 29,1998 Heppner wounding itself Letters to the Editor__________ Questions demand an answer Editor’s note Letters to the Editor must be signed. The Gazette-Times w ill not publish unsigned letters. Please include your address and phone number on all letters for use by the C-T office The G-T reserves the right to edit We don't need camp to prosper To the Editor: On March 26, 1998,1 attended a public meeting with over 100 other people in order to be informed about the sitting o f a Youth Accountability Camp in Heppner. In that meeting we were told that the county was willing to spend a total o f $50,000 to purchase 30 acres of land and to build a road up to the site. A Port of Morrow official told us that they were going to provide technical assistance in laying the water and sewer lines. When asked what the cost o f the road would be, we were told by the county road master and the county judge that the cost o f the road would be $20,000. After leaving this meeting most people believed that the total commitment of the county would be $50,000 and some technical assistance by the Port of Morrow. However, after receding the official documents from the state, submitted by the city o f Heppner, Morrow County and the Port of Morrow, I found that Morrow County was willing to spend much more money than they had told us. First, the cost to construct the road was estimated by the county road master to be $72,000. In addition to this the county committed up to $50,000 towards the purchase of the land. The Port of Morrow committed that they would dig and install the water and sewer lines to the site and that Morrow County would buy the materials. The cost of this was estimated to be $50,500, if they could be connected to the existing lines at the end of Fairview Street. However, I was told by a city official that they may have to go back as the elementary school, four times as far, in order to hook onto the main water lines. Would this ?&vf i v rtsfi -»'‘ * ‘•*r' mean four times the cost? Finally, in a promotional video to the state, the county and city said they would excavate the building site and build the parking lot for the state; They did not estimate the cost of this, but it is steep and rocky site very similar to the baseball field at the high school, and these costs could easily be $50,000 or more. This would raise our original commitment of $50,000 to $222,500 or more. These are not the commitments and costs that we were told at the public meetings, but they were all obtained from the documents and testimony o f our city and county officials gave to the state. I believe these are questions that we should all be asking the city and county officials. What other promises has the county made to the state? How much higher should we expect the costs to the county taxpayers to go? Why is the city "looking forward to and excited about the future expansion of the camp" as stated in the application to the state. Are there other projects in the county where this money would be better used? In a town that has worked so hard and done so much over the past few years to make itself more livable, is this youth prison the only way we can attract new people to move here?, Every time I come into town it amazes me how nice our town has become by the hard work of its residents. With over 2,000 new jobs in Hermiston and Boardman, I believe we already have Heppner’s best chance for growth in the future, which is a clean, safe, livable city to raise children and to retire. We do not need this youth camp in order to prosper and especially at this cost. (s) John Kilkenny Heppner Stable population needed to maintain services To the Editor: Mr. Armato has requested a guarantee from the state as to whether the state would not at any time in the future expand the pro posed youth facility in Heppner to more than 50 youths. Would Mr. Armato also like to request an iron-clad guarantee from Kinzua Resources that they will never in the future have cause to close the only substantial non governmental employee base here? Having served on the Heppner Chamber of Commerce board for 10 years, I am acutely aware of how difficult it is to attract busi nesses to south Morrow County. Mr. A rm ato works in Hermiston while his wife works via computer from Heppner. Not too many people are willing to commute 100 miles daily; also not too many are currently inter ested or capable of working via computer here. By the time Mr. Armato’s trickle-down theory of growth for south Morrow plays out, the people currently here would most probably be served by a gas station, a grocery store, a restaurant, a tavern and fewer churches. How many people can one en vision being drawn to a truly m edically underserved area? How many clothing stores, jew elry stores, newspapers and hos pitals have closed lately? The last time I read the statistics, 67 inde pendent pharmacies in Oregon had shut their doors permanently, and possibly more now. Heppner’s downtown business district suffers from a lack of fam ily-wage jobs in the area. Would the remaining people truly be happy with almost no services available locally? This is happen ing elsewhere. It takes a stable population to maintain services. They simply don’t exist in a vacuum. Tillamook has not experienced difficulty with their youth facil ity. The youths here would prob ably be our youths from Eastern Oregon. How many of us would prefer to have our newly tree-lined streets lead to vacant buildings'1 (s) Meg Murray lone City ignores dog poop problem To the Editor: It is my understanding the city o f Heppner does have a dog leash law. If the city is not going to en force it, why don’t they repeal it? We moved to the city a couple o f years ago and we have had nothing but problems with dogs- big dogs running through our yard, urinating on the bushes, poop on the lawn, on the drive way, even to backing up and pooping on the shrubs. I never had any problems with dogs in the country. The second time they showed up, they never came back. The law won’t let me take care o f the problem the same way in town. Wc Print B u sin ess Cards Gazette-Times 676-9228 I went to city hall many times about the dog problem. City hall chose to ignore the problem. I told city hall I was going to pick up the dog poop, put it in plastic sacks and deposit it on their door step and see how they like it. I did. City hall and city police still ignored the problem. I went out one morning to bum trash, stepped in a big dog poop pile. That did it. Several days later there was more dog poop. I gath ered it up, put it in plastic sacks, took it to city hall and deposited two sacks in front o f the city hall door and one in front o f the city police door. It seems as though they (city officials) don’t like dog poop on their doorstep, so gave me a ticket for offensive littering. I guess the city officials don’t believe it is offensive littering for the dogs to poop on city residents' yards. (s) Barbara Gilbert Heppner To the Editor: Is our community being sold? How much is our community worth? How do we put a value on the things we take for granted? Once lost, can we ever get them back? Is our way of life up for sale? Once lost, always gone? Are your property values on the chopping block? Are people going to have a dif ferent valuation of our town with a correction institute situated in our residential area? Are our young people’s jobs for sale? They say that the in mates won’t compete for local jobs. That’s what they say today, but take note o f the pressure now being applied in Pendleton to change the policy of no inmates working outside the prison. Ev erything is subject to change, in cluding good intentions. M orrow County allocates $50,000 towards new facility. Why do governments always give away our money to promote some new kid on the scene? Why not offer Kinzua $50,000 to the advancement of their busi ness endeavors, or Main Street merchants to upgrade and pro mote their businesses? Is there no value in supporting a community and its livelihood for years on end? City of Heppner commits to correctional institute. What are we committing? City services- utilities, employees, and outside the city limits too. For a facility that pays no taxes. The proposed location is zoned agricultural-how many o f you knew re-zoning was so easy? W hat do we value here in Heppner? I think its time to take stock of what we value and what builds a positive image for our future growth. A correctional in stitute is not a positive image for Heppner. There are a lot of areas in Or egon better situated to facilitate a correctional facility than H eppner. I ’m glad to hear Tillamook is one of them. What’s good for Tillamook says nothing as to its value in Heppner. That facility in Tillamook is a small impact on a much larger commu- nity-to build it in Heppner would impact this community in a much different way. We need to build on a positive image for our future growth, with value of life. A correctional institute is not a positive image for Heppner. Contact your representatives with your comments. (s) Dick Sargent Heppner Heppner needs wake-up call To the Editor: South Morrow County and Heppner, in particular, need a wake-up call. The Oregon Youth Authority has announced that Heppner "is the place" for siting a 50-bed youth accountability facility. Just why was Heppner chosen over several other qualified sites? Some very aggressive salesmanship on the parts of county and city officials certainly was a factor. Morrow County has pledged $50,000 of tippage fees as a start. The acquisition of 30-plus acres of land for the site, materials to extend the water and sewer services and labor equipment and material for road construction to the site are to be paid for by this money. In estimates made locally and forwarded to the OYA siting committee, materials for the road (1050 feet at a width of 30 feet with four-inch asphalt) totals $72,000. A 500 feet, four- inch water line installed with valves and manholes totals $25,000, with the possibility of additional pressure boost necessary. Sewer lines of eight- inch PVC, installed, total $25,500. This adds up to a grand total of $122,500 for road and utilities. After using the $50,000 tippage fee, there will be a $72,500 shortfall and the acquisition price of the land remains to be negotiated as well as any overage which might occur. Where will this additional funding be found? The city has pledged in a letter from the city manager, "to include the site in the urban growth boundary, annexation of the subject property (following the UGB adjustment) into the city (without charge) thereby .assuring a lower water usage rate, use of city public works department personnel as needed for assistance with trenching, pipe laying, backfilling and other labor intensive tasks, use of city public works equipment and operators as needed to assist with p u b lic in f r a s tr u c tu r e development." The Port of Morrow has committed to install the water and sewer lines and the port manager, states, "any fencing, paved areas, utility improvements within the site, the water tank for fire protection, as well as other improvements, would be something we could include in a long-term land lease with the Oregon Youth Authority." Is it any wonder that the state chose Heppner? The gift of land, considerable monetary outlay for roads, utilities, plus "free" use of city, county and port labor and equipment makes it a very good deal, indeed. It might also be noted that in response to a question on expansion of the facility, the answer was, " The city of Heppner would not only be willing, but would also be excited to help accommodate future expansion of a YAC facility." They then added, "Moreover, the proposed site is large enough to accommodate expansion." Heppner needs to take a lesson for our neighbors in lone and encourage families to move in from surrounding areas. Let’s sell our quality of life, community spirit and recreational facilities to families and not to the State Corrections Department. Citizens and taxpayers have until May 15 to make their wishes known before the youth accountability camp becomes a reality. We would be happy to share our documentation to anyone interested in more information, (s) Terry and Karen Thompson Heppner Marshall a man of character To the Editor: husband. He has also raised three Here’s why I plan to vote for ' great girls. He is an honorable R ollie M arshall for Morrow man whom I respect and submit County Judge on May 19. to as an elder of our church. I vote for candidates who are If Rollie is voted into office, not only qualified with appropri there will be no scandals, inves ate skills, education and experi tigations or impeachments. Our ence, but that have for years dis tax dollars will be spent wisely played morals and ethics in the as he will be using his time to ful home and workplace. As is occur fill the job duties of judge-he will ring with the U.S. presidency, not be wasting time defending elected officials have no privacy- himself to the media or the courts. past and present actions will be Nor will he lose the respect of his known. It can be difficult to look . colleagues in the midst o f per at the yard/field signs and other sonal controversies. campaign literature and know You can be proud to vote for what kind of person a candidate Rollie Marshall-a man of charac is, so I am here to testify to ter. Rollie’s values. (s) Chandra Arbogast Rollie is a Christian man who Heppner has for 23 years been a faithful i f COPIES I Of • Double-Sided Copies 1/^ (Oar lie* Copy Machine Makes Great Copies) H p p p n e r te tte -llB e s JJ To the Editor: In March residents of Heppner received a letter from the Heppner Chamber of Commerce. This letter, in a question/answer format, contained information That was intended to "help you make an informed decision about how you feel about this opportunity for the Heppner Community". Unfortunately the information provided was both incorrect and incomplete. Please consider the following before you support this community commitment. From the chamber letter: "Question: Can the state change the use of the facility in the fiiture? Response-County officials have said that they will negotiate with the state a clause that the work camp will not be able to be changed with out specific county approval for any project." From Heppner's application to the Oregon Youth Authority for siting of the Youth Accountability Camp: (this is a public record) "Question:(Expansion): 'Describe the capacity and willingness of the local jurisdictions to accommodate any future expansion of the facility." Answer: The city of Heppner would not only be willing, but would also be excited to help future expansion for a YAC facility.'" In fact the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) requires a site large enough to accommodate any future expansion (30 acres for a two-three acre youth accountability camp). The OYA requires total control and flexibility for future use of this site. The OYA expects to expand and change the use of this site. An important criteria for selection of Heppner was the willingness of the local jurisdiction to accommodate any expansion. We are buying a Youth Accountability Camp. But they are selling us a prison. Remember, Pendleton started with 350 prisoners and they now have 1,500. ( It seems as though Heppner is wounding itself to purchase a bandaid. We need to carefully consider the future of our town and the values we hold dear. The state should not be able to control our entire destiny as a community. Please ask the council to withdraw our application. (s) Kim Cutsforth Heppner In opposition to youth camp To the Editor: I am in opposition to the siting o f the Youth A ccountability Camp in Heppner. A lot of prom ises have been made to the com munity as how positively this will affect our lives. The city of Union withdrew their application for some of the same reasons we are in opposition of siting the Youth Accountability Camp in Heppner: 1) No guarantee of jobs gener ated for current residents o f Heppner. 2) No guarantee of Heppner residency by prospective employ ees of the camp. 3) Negative association of this type of facility, which, legitimate or not, nevertheless exists (the NIMBY syndrome) and detracts from the desirability of Heppner. 4) No local tax revenue gener ated from the facility. 5) Escapes will occur, putting the city of Heppner’s residents in harm’s way. 6) Punishes law-abiding kids by allowing work crews from the camp to take jobs away from them. 7) Funding of the facility by county officials with taxpayers’ money. 8) Probable expansion of the prison facility with a possible change of the type of inmates, to inmates with more violent histo ries. 9) Fifty-eight percent of re spondents to the state are op posed. Opposition is not a minor ity. It is not too late to voice your opposition. Ask the city to with draw the application: Mayor Bob Jepsen, 676-9850; Skip Mathews, 676-5490; Loretta Naims, 676- 5334, Tim Van Cleave, 676-5448, Kay Robinson, 676-9678; Mike McGuire, 676-9661, Jeri Sly, 676-9151. (s) Diane Kilkenny Heppner Cast vote for Lynn Lundquist To the Editor: It is with total dismay with the political antics displayed in House District 59 that I write this letter in support of one of our s ta te ’s greatest diplom ats. Speaker o f the House Lynn Lundquist. Beginning with an undocumented voice vote, during AG-PAC’s candidate endorse ment meeting, in which more than 50 percent of the attendees have since identified themselves as having supported Speaker Lundquist in that vote; to the unrepublican antics o f Tan Hermens’ campaign rhetoric that offers nothing to District 59 but innuendo and negativism. My comment on the tactics of Ms. Hermens is that she has no talent or skills or history of any nature that would benefit either the ru ral natural resource communities or the conducting of the business affairs of our state. Speaker Lundquist has the wis dom, intellect and background of education and professional expe rience to bring consensus on the challenges that overlap both ru ral and urban issues. We are not two factions, like Ireland, that must maintain a warlike atmo sphere to maintain our identities and agendas. We are one Oregon and we need to act accordingly. This is the era of consensus build ing; we have to work with one another. There is not room to make economic progress and keep drawing lines in the sand at the same time. Both political parties need more people like Speaker Lundquist that have the long- range interests of Oregon as the core of their convictions. I am proud to see more progressive individuals in the political arena who can see beyond the pettiness o f what Speaker Lundquist’s challenger has demonstrated to date. I hope that the negative under tow of the House District 59 can didate race backfires on the chal lenger in such a manner as to re ally showcase the many fine qualities o f our Speaker o f the House Lynn Lundquist. Support consensus building; support wisdom and intellect; support long-term economic sta bility; support District 59 House Representative Lynn Lundquist in his bid for re-election. All o f Or egon will benefit from this wise choice. (s) Susan Ramsay Oregon Cattlemen’s Associa tion member and committee chair Scio For Rollie Marshall To the Editor: I am writing this letter today to let you know a little about Rollie Marshall, who is running for Morrow County Judge. I have known Rollie for many years and can attest to his character, honesty and the caring of the people of this community. He has always been involved with the youth of our county, helping out with Little League coaching, high school basketball coaching, junior and senior youth group leader, and has been president of the Heppner Little League. He really understands our youth today and no doubt will have many ideas in helping the juveniles of our county. His professional record speaks for itself with 20 years in banking, preparing financial statements and budgets. He has also served on the city of Heppner Budget Committee. Rollie is a public relations man and the right man for the job. (s) Barbara Watkins Heppner