Couple mourn dog’s death; wonder why?
Beverly and Marvin Boyle are
not only mourning the death of
their dog. Lady, but are asking
why anyone would kill their
beloved 14-year-old companion.
The Boyles, who live in the
lone area, believe that Lady, who
had been crippled in a previous
accident, was beaten to death
The night before l.ady died,
they say they heard a prowler and
then heard Lady bark. The next
day they found her dead. The
Boyles took Lady's body to a
veterinarian, who performed an
autopsy and came to the
conclusion that she was beaten to
death w ith a blunt instrument.
"There is no way she could
have been run over, she never
even got out of the yard
anymore," said Beverly Boyle.
After Lady was accidentally
run over by a sheriffs deputy,
responding to a call at their
home, the Boyles spent over
$2,000 in medicai expenses to
enable Lady to walk again. After
veterinary care, faith healing,
acupuncture, a special wheelchair
made just for her and a rod
placed in her leg, Lady
eventually recovered enough to
walk on her own.
Bc33l« T fa ts e li
U o f u Nevi upas i r Libr ar y
tu ^ e a e ,
VOL 119
NO 24
8 Pages
OR
9 7 4 vi 3
Wednesday, June 14,2000
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
School Board approves budget;
vows to gain back community trust
budget. After the board earlier
The Morrow County School
Board approved the 2000-2001
budget document, including
amendments, six to one. after a
lengthy discussion at their
regular meeting Monday night at
Riverside High School in
Boardman.
Amendments included transfers
of $250.000 from contingency
for employment of additional
teachers in north end schools to
accommodate growth and reduce
class sizes. When questioned
about transfer of contingency
funds. Superintendent Bruce
Anderson commented, "When we
know we're going to have 28 kids
in the first grade at Sam
Boardman Elementary. I didn't
see any reason to wait until
school starts. I'm trying to take
care of some class size issues
now."
The amended budget also
increased cash carryover to over
$1 million..
The board also learned that
additional monies were available
to
reinstate
co-curricular
programs to last year's status.
Programs which had been cut,
such as golf at Heppner and
cheerleaders and middle school
track at all schools, were
reinstated.
Co-curricular
programs are funded through the
Morrow
County
Unified
Recreation District.
Board member Barney Lindsay
at first expressed a desire to
abstain from voting to accept and
adopt the budget, but then cast
the lone dissenting vote. Board
members, Dwayne Carroll. Gary
Fredenckson. Keith Lewis, Pat
McNamee. John Rietmann and
Julie Weikel approved the
budget.
Voting followed a lengthy and
som etim es
contentious
discussion concerning public
disputes among board members.
Board members and Anderson
expressed the need to regain
public trust and resolved to listen
to the community and work
toward a common goal before
discussion degenerated into an
argument among board members.
The disagreement was preceded
by board President Gary
Fredenckson
distributing
guidelines on proper conduct of
board members to Lindsay and
Wiekel.
Lindsay had vocally opposed
cutting teachers, and the Heppner
FFA program in particular, as a
way to balance the district's
Gun safe to be raffled off
Heppner Chamber of Commerce members (left to right) Cliff Green,
Darrell Raver and Tom Wolff show off the new gun safe that is to be
raffled off. Tickets for the raffle are $5 each or 6 for $25 and are
available from most chamber members The high quality fireproof safe,
which is on display at Heppner Hardware (formerly Coast to Coast), will
be given away Aug 20. Only 500 tickets will be sold Proceeds will be
used to fund community projects
approved over $1 million in
staffing reductions to meet a
budget shortfall, Lindsay wrote a
newspaper letter to the editor
criticizing the board. Carroll then
responded with his own letter to
the editor rebuking Lindsay for
publically criticizing the board.
"You might not like where the
vote's going," said Carroll at the
Monday night meeting. "But the
vote is cast and there's no room
for a minority position. We
cannot agree on all issues, but
when the vote's taken, then that's
the board position and that's the
end of it."
Lindsay also accused Anderson
and the board of violating the
open meetings law. Lindsay said
that Anderson listed an ORS as a
topic for an executive session,
when the actual topic did not
pertain to the statute. He also
said the board had discussed in
executive session items that were
not allowed under the open
meetings law and discussion had
veered off the stated reason for
an executive session.
Lindsay told the Gazette-
Times that he plans to file an
official complaint with the
Oregon Standards and Practices
Commission.
In other business, the board
reviewed the Nelson Report
which listed the results of a
survey
the
district
had
commissioned. The survey,
which primarily asked questions
about the board's image in the
community and the prospect of
passage of a bond levy for
construction of new school
buildings, came on the heels of
the resounding May 16 defeat of
the local option serial levy in all
precincts. The $1 million local
option levy was designed to fund
salaries for some of the teaching
positions cut.
The report indicated that 357
respondents were interviewed
between May 16-24
According to the survey report,
"budget and program cuts/lack of
funding" and "superintendent and
school board not trustworthy"
were perceived by respondents as
the district's most serious
problems with 49 percent citing
the budget and 17 percent citing
the trust aspect. Twelve percent
cited allocation of funds; 10
percent overcrowding; 10 percent
lack of quality teachers; seven
percent, quality of education;
seven percent, need for five-day
school week; and six percent,
school board not communicating
with parents.
Less than half of the
respondents. 43 percent, gave the
school district a positive job
continued page 2
Lady found dead
"I never saw a dog that would
just look at you with love in her
eyes," said Beverly. "She had
love in her soul."
"I'm a vegetarian," said
Beverly. "Our pets are our
children and our animals get the
best of care. Our veterinarian
even comes out to give them
their injections. Our Lady won't
be getting them this year."
The Boyles, who have been
married since 1973. say this is
not the first time one of their pets
has been hurt or killed over the
past three years. Previously they
believe that Lady, wbo was not
able to walk at the time because
of her accident, had been carried
over to the other side of a creek
and shot with a bb gun; one of
their cats had been "cut end to
end" and thrown under a desk in
their shop; another cat was
discovered bleeding from a
wound to the neck before it ran
off; a third cat was found dead in
a neighbor's field; and a fourth
cat was found "peppered with
bullets."
"If they have an argument with
us, why do they have to take it
out on our animals?" asked
Beverly. "They're terrorized.
They're scared."
The Boyles say that not only
have their animals been harmed,
but claim they have had
groceries, canned goods, money.
credit cards, house plants and
"you name it" stolen, garden
tractors damaged, the water
drained out of the radiator on
their four-wheel drive and their
door kicked in more than once.
"We're not going to sit by and
let anyone get away with this
They've pushed it far enough,"
said Beverly. "We're hurt and
angry."
The Boyles reported Lady's
death to the police, but sav
incidents are too numerous to
report. "We haven't reported
everything to the police." she
said. "Because we'd be calling all
the time. I feel like they would
think I would be a nuisance."
The Boyles say they have
bought electronic surveillance
equipment and burglar alarms
which they plan to install In the
meantime, in fear over the next
attack and to prevent copycat
incidents, the Boyles declined to
make their address public and
won't even give the names ot
their other pets.
Lady
Mayor, three councilmembers out
Four out of five quit
Lexington council
Almost the entire towTi council
of Lexington resigned Monday
night, including the mayor, who
said he could no longer work
with the
lone remaining
council member.
Pat Baker. Duane Disque.
Marsha Kemp and Mayor John
Renfro all submitted their
resignations at the council
meeting Monday, and when
everyone left there was only
councilmember Glenn Anderson
and about 15 stunned members
of the audience.
Neither Disque nor Baker were
at the meeting, and their letters of
resignation had been delivered
earlier to the council. Disque
said he no longer had the time
necessary to devote to the job.
and Baker said he had other
obligations
that
made
it
necessary to resign.
Kemp’s explanation was much
more lengthy. In a half page
letter she said she was resigning
because among other things
when she found last year that the
town "had not been obeying the
law. following rules and was
negligent in record keeping and
accounting and nearly financially
broke." and she tried to fix the
situation, "I have met with
resistance by my fellow council
members when I sought to seek
legal advice, financial advice and
state assistance. Furthermore,
when I tried to make the town
employees accountable and
responsible I had no support
from council members. I am
constantly
being
ridiculed,
criticized and not respected by
these council members. These
council member do not share my
council ethics," said Kemp. She
did not name any particular
councilmembers in her letter.
Contacted Tuesday. Renfro
said he resigned because he
could no longer get along with
councilman Glenn Anderson.
Renfro would not go into detail,
only to say that he was not able
to work with him. "This is not
something
that
happened
overnight. It has been building
up." Renfro said.
Renfro had once before tried to
resign when faced with a
threatened recall, however,
citizens in the community had
gathered over 100 signatures on
a petition saying they approved
of the job he was doing, so he
withdrew his resignation.
"I should have done it
(resigned) a long time ago." he
said Tuesday. "There was the
petition, w ith 100 odd signatures
in support, and I appreciate that.
But there is a limit."
Rentro said he had tried to be
fair with the public during his
time as mayor. "I have been fair
particularly when following the
law. There have not been
favorites and exceptions and
that got me in a lot of trouble,"
he said. "There are people who
arc mad at me that 1 didn't even
know a year ago (before he
became mayor). But legally,
moralh and ethically I have been
committed to the good of the
town, not an individual, and a lot
of people don't agree w ith that."
he said.
Renfro has been at odds with
the fire department over
expenditures
and
other
procedures for quite some time.
Following his turbuleni term as
mayor of Lexington Renfro said
he doubted he would get
involved with politics again.
"Why should people get
involved," he said. When people
get involved they have to feel
they are doing something good
for their community. Renfro said.
'The payoff is you are the
subject ot discussion at the
coffee shop. You get tired off all
these people attacking you
personally. I'm not making my
living at this. If people think
they accomplished a lot by
getting rid of me they are wrong.
I'm not making a big salary. I
don't need it," he said.
Renfro added that he had in
fact done a lot of things for the
town that he paid for himself,
including phone calls and
mileage.
Following the meeting Monday
night, town attorney Bill Kuhn
was asked what the procedure
was when almost an entire
council resigns. Kuhn said he
was not sure, but would research
what the next step would be for
the town.
An immediate problem was
getting a budget passed in time
so the town could have money to
operate next year. Since none of
the council resignations was
accepted all members were
technically still part of the
council. Kuhn said he would ask
Disque and Baker to serve long
enough to get a budget approved
for the coming fiscal year. With
Anderson. Disque and Baker
there would be enough votes to
pass a budget.
Anderson was to be out of town
starting Tuesday, as he started a
two week ministering sabbatical
in another city, and thus would
be unavailable for business.
Kuhn thought, however, that he
could arrange a phone hookup
for Anderson to vote
Provider day
set at clinic
The community is invited to
meet the health care providers at
Pioneer Memorial Clinic on
Tuesday. June 20.
People are invited to stop by
and get acquainted, enjoy cake
and punch and take advantage of
the clinic's "free appointment
with the provider day.”
Call 676-5504 for a free
appointment. Appointments are
limited to the first 75 callers and
lab and x-ray fees are not
included
NEWS DEADLINE
5 p.m. Monday
-H a r v e s t S p e c ia l
ei« »t 1 mow out
U n id e n P ro510X L
T h ro u g h June 2 4 th
M
o rro w
C
o unty
Lexington 989-8221 • 1 - 8 0 0 - 4 5 2 - 7 3 9 6
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