u OF ORF
N F '.V S P A P F R
LIS
EUMENE
0 7 4 0 3
OR
Jepsens selected county
conservation farm of the year
The Jepsen family (L-R) Matt, Amy, Daniel, Rebecca, Nancy, Eric and Bill.
.
VOL 118_______NO. 19_____ 10 Pages
Wednesday, May 12,1999_______ Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
lone High School crowns prom court
lone High School crowned its 1999 prom court at the prom held May 1 at the lone Legion Hall. Court royalty
(left to right) included Princess Lela GribsKov, Princess Katie Tworek, Queen Jessica Krebs, Princess Niki
Sullivan, King Ryan Bennetto and Prince Serge Malouin. Not pictured are princesses Roseanne Baker and Tori
Odinet. Junior court members (front) are Cassie Arbogast and Tanner Rietmann.
Phyllis Danielson hired as HES principal
The Morrow County School
Board, at their regular meeting
Monday, May 10, hired a 20-year
veteran teacher as the new
principal at Heppner Elementary.
Phyllis Danielson, 46, of Irrigon,
will replace current principal Bill
Karwacki who will retire this
year.
Danielson has been the
seventh
and
eighth-grade
language arts and social studies
teacher at Columbia Middle
School the past year. Prior to
that, from 1979 to 1998, she was
a classroom teacher for grades psychology from Eastern Oregon
two, five and six. During that State College in 1979; and a
time, she was also an assistant to master's degree in school
the principal, a member of the administration from Eastern
Building Action Research Team, Washington University in 1998.
a member of the Site Council,
Danielson's husband, Paul, is a
chairperson for the Student geologist,
environmental
Management Committee, student specialist. Danielson has two
council advisor. Outdoor School children, Danielle, 12, and Drew,
teacher/director,
textbook 10, and four stepsons, Braden,
committees member and was 16, Brad, 15, Mikel, 11, and
creator and teacher of the Matt, 11.
Responsibility Awareness Class.
Danielson says she enjoys
Danielson received a bachelor backpacking, hiking, fly fishing,
of science degree in elementary reading, painting decorative
education with a specialization in birdhouses and walking.
Dr. Burnham resigns from health district
Dr. Clyde Bumham, a
physician employed with the
Morrow County Health District,
resigned from the district at their
monthly meeting held May 6 in
Lexington.
Bumham, in a letter to the
district, said that he had made
"poor choices which I regret and
which provide the district good
cause to ask for my resignation."
Bumham
added
that his
resignation was "freely and
voluntarily given."
Sheila Dahlman, MCHD
administrator,
said
that
confidentiality and privacy issues
prevented her from discussing
the reasons for Dr. Burnham's
resignation.
However, she did say that the
matter was discussed
in
executive session and the MCHD
Board voted unanimously to
accept Burnham's resignation
"I have an obligation to our
patients and to this community,"
said Dahlman. "I take that
obligation
very
seriously.
Unfortunately, as Dr. Bumham
states in his resignation, he made
choices which left me no choice
but to ensure Dr. Burnham's
departure from the hospital."
Dahlman said that MCHD is
"aggressively searching for
capable health care providers"
and added that many primary
care providers have expressed an
interest in delivering care to the
communities in addition to the
current providers. "We will
continue to work toward
providing the best heath care
delivery program to the people of
Morrow County.
Dr. Bumham worked at
Pioneer Memorial Clinic and
Pioneer Memorial Hospital in
Heppner and at the Boardman
Medical Clinic.
Dr. Burnham's resignation
leaves one physician. Dr. Ken
Wenburg. and one nurse
practitioner, Wendy Haack,
F.N.P., at PMH and PMC; one
physician at the MCHD's Irrigon
Clinic, Dr. Shamlka DeSoyza;
and
a physician's assistant,
Shendan Tamasky, who divides
her time between the Boardman
and Irrigon clinics.
The 1999 Morrow County
Wheat League Conservation
Farm of the Year has been
awarded to Bill and Nancy
Jepsen of Heppner. Morrow
County Wheat League President
Ken
Grieb
made
the
announcement this week in lone
at the Wheat Growers spring
meeting.
Bill Jepsen, his wife Nancy,
and children Matt, Daniel, Amy,
Eric and Rebecca, farm 3,500
acres located 18 miles west of
Heppner. Currently 2400 acres
are in crop land and an
additional 600 acres are in CRP.
Bill is the second generation of
his family to farm much of this
land. His parents, Bob and
Suzanne Jepsen of Heppner,
farmed there for 40 years and
Bob still helps out with the farm
work, especially during seeding
and harvest. Bob received the
Morrow County Conservation
Man of the year award in 1970.
Bill graduated from Iowa State
University with a degree in
veterinary medicine. While at
veterinary school, he met his
wife, Nancy, who also graduated
from Iowa State with a degree in
agriculture education.
Bill
owned and worked at the Oregon
Trail Veterinary Clinic in
Hermiston for 10 years before
moving back to Heppner to take
over the farming operation when
his dad retired in 1991.
The annual rainfall on the
Jepsen farm averages 12.4
inches. Almost all of the ground
is classified as highly erodible.
The clay loam soil and long
slopes make water erosion the
primary problem. The entire
farm is covered with a
combination of graded and level
terraces. "With the conservation
practices Dad implemented over
the years we estimate that soil
runoff had been reduced by 80
percent or more," stated Jepsen.
"The nagging problem is that
with a summer fallow system we
still have water erosion events,
especially
frozen
ground
runoff."
In 1996 Bill began looking into
no-till farming. This type of
farming method is a radical
departure from the traditional
methods
Morrow
County
residents are used to seeing. It
involves three major changes
from the present system.
-The only tillage performed is a
small amount at seeding time
with the drill. The seeding and
fertilization are accomplished in
one pass directly into standing
stubble.
-The crops grown are primarily
spring crops instead of winter
wheat.
-Crops are grown every year
instead of every other year.
To accomplish this, a new
piece of equipment is required,
the "no-till" drill. The drill that
Jepsen uses is a chisel type air
drill. An air cart carrying seed
and fertilizer is pulled in front of
the drill. A large fan forces the
seed and fertilizer through a
series of hoses back to each
opener on the drill. The drill
makes a narrow chisel mark 3-
1/2 inches deep. The fertilizer is
placed at the bottom of the
furrow. The seed is then placed
above and just 3/4 inch to the
side of the fertilizer row. The
banding of fertilizer below the
seed is one of the key
components to making a no-till
system work. The fertilizer is
immediately available to the
crop and not the weeds. By not
disturbing the soil with tillage,
the precipitation received is
quicker to infiltrate the ground
and slower to evaporate. Under
a continuous no-till system soil
erosion is almost eliminated.
Crops grown on the Jepsen
farm include wheat, barley, and,
most
recently,
mustard.
Experimental crops include
spring canola, flax, lentils and
garbanzo beans. This year Bill
also joined with the Monsanto
company to initiate a five-year
study of different crop rotations.
This research trial will compare
the yield and economics of a
traditional winter wheat, fallow
system to various no-till crop
rotations.
The Jepsen's are an active
family in the community as well.
Bill and Nancy are members of
the Lexington Baptist church
where Nancy is an AWANA
Bible club leader and Bill
teaches Sunday school to the
first through third grade class
Both are 4-H club leaders Bill
plays trombone with the Willow
Creek Symphony and is
currently on the Farm Service
Agency County Committee and
State
Cereals
Advisory
Committee. He is a past board
member of the Morrow County
Soil and Water Conservation
District.
"No-till farming has been
successful and is becoming the
predominant form of agriculture
in many parts of the world,"
explains Jepsen. "It's too early
to tell if no-till will work in this
part of Morrow County,
especially with our limited
rainfall, but the tremendous
conservation benefits that come
from this system make it worth
the effort. I am just one ot
several area farmers who are
trying to make this farming
practice work. It's an honor to
be chosen for this award."
A tour of the Jepsen farm,
followed by the annual steak
barbecue, will be held on Friday
June 18.
Lexington looks for
$2,000 discrepancy
The town of Lexington's has
yet to find a $2076 shortfall in
its bookkeeping system from
two years ago, and at last
Tuesday
council
meeting
discussed ways to deal with the
discrepancy.
The state of Oregon Attorney
Generals office apparently
received an anonymous tip that
the money was unaccounted for,
but so far has indicated it has no
intention of taking any action.
Some councilmembers
Tuesday were very concerned
about the shortfall, and
suggestions
ranged
from
ordenng a full scale audit of the
city's books, to calling in law
enforcement.
There
is
apparently also a $400 shortfall
in this years bookkeeping
system.
A representative of the city's
accounting firm Barnett and
Moro attended
Tuesday's
meeting and said that although
he would be glad to do an audit
to find the money, it might cost
more than $2,000 to find the
problem.
"This is tax payer money and
I don't feel good about this (the
shortfall)," said councilmember
Marsha Kemp. "It is our duty to
take care of taxpayer money."
Kemp suggested that maybe the
shortfall is an issue for law
enforcement.
The accountant said that
although he does do what is
called a annual "review" of the
city's bookkeeping system, the
city's budget is so small that a
full scale audit is not done on a
regular basis.
Councilmember John Renfro
echoed Kemp's concern. "We
can't have this kind of
discrepancy with taxpayer
money. We need to find this."
The council discussed several
options, included having citizen
volunteers try and ferret out the
shortfall, to purchasing a
computerized
bookkeeping
system to try and help find the
problem.
In other business at the
council
meeting,
Renfro
questioned whether the town is
following the law as concerns it
comprehensive plan.
The comprehensive plan is
suppose to guide the city in
development and other planning
matters, but Renfro said the
town is not following the plan.
After
much
discussion
including whether the town can
deny new water permits within
the
city
limits,
Renfro
volunteered to head up a
committee to update the town’s
comprehensive plan.
County Judge Terry Tallman
was in attendance at the
meeting and he asked the
council for a letter of support in
trying to establish an enterprise
zone for the whole south
Morrow County area. The zone
is being applied for in an effort
to stimulate new business
growth to replace the closure
and loss of jobs at the Kinzua
mill.
Tallman explained the
concept of tax abatements
within an enterprise zone and
the zone's use as a tool in
attracting new business. He said
the cities of lone and Heppner
have already endorsed the
establishment of a zone for
continued page 2
DELTA P ic k u p T o o l B o x e s
20% OFF
For slock on hand only - Through May 29th
Advertising Deadline
12 noon Tuesday
M orrow C ounty G rain G rowers
Lexington 989-8221 • 1 -800-452-7396 for farm equipmtnt. visit our w*b site at www mcgg.iwt