Ribbon cut on new Port of Morrow facility Eoaal« «letteli U o f 0 Wev; a p i , UR lib r a r y 97403 50 < HEPPNER Betty Carlson of Heppner (center) visits with Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Coppock of Adams during the Port of Morrow open house. e imes VOL. 118______NO. 49____ 8 Pages Wednesday, December 8,1999 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Lexington FD takes first in Parade of Lights A sumptuous foyer and kitchen, by Morrow Development and office and conference space and leased in its entirety to the port. a panoramic view of the Morrow Development, a re Columbia River awed visitors at lending organization, includes the ribbon cutting and open the five Port of Morrow house of the new Port of Morrow Commissioners on its board, facilities in Boardman on Dec. 1. along with bankers Harley Sager The $1.5 million, 20,000 and John Moffitt. Morrow square foot building was funded Development borrows money and re-lends it in conjunction with a bank for start-up costs for small business development, finance inventory and working capital, among others. In addition to Port of Morrow offices, around 4,5000 square feet are available for lease with several serious inquiries. Morrow County declared disaster area On November 15 Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, approved a drought disaster determination for Morrow County as well as five other Columbia Basin counties for the devastating weather conditions experienced in 1999, according to the local Farm Service Agency. "The Farm Service Agency County Committee has been monitoring the effects of the drought since August," said Skip Matthews, county executive director for the FSA. "We realized early on that weather was having a devastating effect on agriculture in our area." Morrow County dryland crop sales are estimated to be $8.2 million short of average during to the drought and grazing and forage production losses are estimated at $ 1.6 million. "The drought determination is the result of local, state, and other federal agencies working together." said Matthews. "The Morrow County Court was very instrumental in requesting this determination through Governor Kitzhaber's office." Other counties involved with this determination are Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, Umatilla Baker counties. This determination will allow eligible producers to apply for low interest emergency operating loans. The USDA is also making crop disaster payments available to qualifying producers. The 1999 Crop Disaster Program will provide benefits to any producer having more than a 35 percent loss on any crop. Morrow County has also applied for two programs to help livestock growers that have grazing losses due to the drought. A public meeting to discuss these programs will be held December 16 at 10 a.m. at the St. Patrick's Parish Hall in Heppner. Tillamook celebrates satellite cheese plant The Tillamook County Creamery Association held the groundbreaking ceremony of its satellite cheese plant, Columbia River Processing, Inc., on Tuesday, December 7 at the Port of Morrow in Boardman. A short program was held on the future site of Columbia River Processing, Inc. located at the Boardman site. "This is an exciting time for us in Tillamook and brings us one step closer to answering the demands of our customers in bringing them more Tillamook The Lexington Fire Dept. Auxiliary took First place in the Heppner Parade o f Lights last Thursday night. The auxiliary decorated one o f the town's fire trucks in bright Christmas lights to claim the prize. There were more entries in the parade this year. "I thought the turnout o f both spectators and participants was outstanding." said Parade o f Lights Chairman Darrell Raver. "We had an excellent parade with great floats. Hopefully next year it will be even bigger." Raver, who is employed at the Bank o f Eastern Oregon and has been chairman o f the Parade o f Lights since its inception three years ago, said he got the idea for the parade from a similar event IUCC ground breaking ceremony set Dec. 12 Members of the lone United Church o f Christ will hold a ground-breaking ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 12, to begin the building of their new church. As part of the 11 a.m. worship ser vice at St. William’s Catholic Church, members will form a pro cession to the site of the former church which burned last spring. From there they will go to the new site on Mam Street for a celebra tion service at 11:30 a.m. Festivities will include ground breaking with a special golden shovel that was raffled off, a bon fire, hot dog luncheon, singing and more. The public is invited to attend “this important event in the life of the church,” said Betty Rietmann of lone. Contractors Allstott and Gen try will begin construction on the new church building in the near future. Christmas program planned The Heppner Junior and Senior High School music program will be held Monday, Dec. 20 at 7 p m. at the high school cafeteria. Musical favorites will include “Rudolph the Red Nose Rein- deer,” by the junior high band and “Sleigh Ride," by LeRoy Ander son performed by the senior high band The combined choir will sing familiar Christmas carols. Everyone is invited to attend. held at Harlem, Montana, where he lived prior to moving to Heppner. Following is a complete list o f participants in the parade: City o f lone, Heppner Fire Dept., Morrow County Farm Museum, Klamath First Federal, Heppner Elks (second place), Richard Paris, Heppner Chamber o f Commerce, Bob DeSpain/ Drew Brannon, Tom & Karen Wolff, Heppner FFA Chapter, Morrow County Fair Committee, Church o f The Nazarene, Columbia Basin Electric (third place), Greg Smith, National guard Family Wellness, Heppner Ambulance/ MC Health Dist., Archie Ball (Kris Kringle Award), Heppner Ranger District. “Best of Oregon” on display at museum “The Best of Oregon,” a trav eling juried fiber show, is on dis play at the Morrow County Mu seum in Heppner, Dec. 4-24. WeGo, the Weaving Guilds of Oregon, sponsored the show to demonstrate the range and diver sity of Oregon's fiber artists. Fifty-two pieces by 43 artists range from felt hats to hand- pamted silk shawls to rugs and wall hangings. Of particular inter est locally is the handspun, handknitted sweater by Sandra Van Liew of Heppner. Many of the items in the show are for sale, though all must re main with the traveling show until its final venue is complete in No vember 2000. An open house to celebrate the show will be held Saturday, Dec. 18, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at the museum. Admission is free and the public is welcome to attend. The show’s tour began at the Association of Northwest Weav ers’ Conference in Montana, then began its Oregon tour in La Grande, Roseburg and Coos Bay before coming to Heppner. In January, the show will move on to Eugene, Klamath Falls, Salem, Corvallis, The Dalles, Oregon City, New port, Tillam ook, Brookings and Jacksonville. Cheese," said Harold Schild, president and CEO of TCCA. "It will also signal the re-birth of the dairy industry in Morrow County." The Tillamook County Creamery Association, formed as a cooperative in 1909, is a national marketer of naturally aged cheddar and a variety of other cheeses, butter, and line of premium ice cream, sour cream and yogurt. TCCA is most famously known for its internationally award-winning Tillamook Cheddar Cheese. Record game animals tour to come to Heppner The Tour of the Northwest's Big Game Animals is coming to the Morrow County Fairgrounds in Heppner this Friday through Sunday, Dec. 10-12. Featured in this year's display are: the widest mule deer ever taken in Oregon, a "whopping 46 inches": the largest Rocky Mountain Elk ever taken in Oregon; "Taft," the bull from Wallowa Lake, measuring 411 0/8 B.C.; the Montana state record non-typical mule deer; both the Oregon and Washington state record non-typical whitetail deer; the Oregon state record typical whitetail deer; the world record Columbia whitetail deer; and five of Oregon's largest non- typical mule deer. Hours for the display are 3-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11; and 10 a.m. 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12. Admission is $3 each, with children through 12 years old admitted free. Also available at the show will be the newly-released second edition of the Record Book for Oregon's Big Game Animals. The illustrated book features over 3300 listings and over 400 photographs of Oregon's largest trophies. The book also includes a 64-page full-color section and many stories as told by the hunters. Everyone is invited to bring in homs, heads and antlers to be measured free of charge by official Boone and Crdckett and Pop and Young measurers. The minimum score requirements for Oregon's record book are 80-90 percent lower than the national requirements. A new youth division has been added for hunters 12-17 years old. Director is David M Moms, Long Creek, 541-421-3126, www.nwbiggame.com rZ)on V 7 C 7Tiss Our' C H R IST M A S OPElV H O U SE F r id a y . 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