School board residency %J issue
likely to end up in court
E 0 3 3 i 3 17 2 t 3 O I I
U o f ü ÎI o . v 3 3 â p > p L i b r a r y
Cupone, OR 9 /103
V0L 120______ NO 24
10 Pages
Wednesday. June 13,2001
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Alumni golf tournament set for July in Heppner
This year's Heppner High School
Alumni Golf Tournament will be
held Saturday and Sunday, July 7-8
at Willow Creek Country Club.
Cost is S40 per person, which
includes a steak dinner following
play on Saturday.
Play format will again be a five-
member team scramble with two
teams per hole. Participants can put
together their own teams or can be
placed on a team by the committee.
Entry forms have been mailed
to last year's participants. Alumni
w ho would like to play but did not
receive a form may contact David
and Patti Allstott at 676-5216.
The tournament committee is
seeking input from alumni regarding
the tournament. The event has
always been held over two days,
and the committee would like to
know if more alumni would
participate if the tournament were
changed to just a one-day
competition. All alumni are
encouraged to give their comments
to the Allstotts or John and Sonja
McCabe at 676-5231.
Home school students hold awards night
A dispute concerning
legal residences of tw o Morrow
County School Board members
will probably end up in the court
system after action by the board
Wednesday, June 6. at a special
meeting in Lexington.
The board, going against
the sentiment of most of the 70-
plus members of the audience,
voted to turn the issue of the
residence of board members
Bamey Lindsay and Keith Lewis
over to an independent judge
who would be hired by the
district. Both Lindsay and Lew is
said that they would not abide by
the judge's decision, which
would not be binding.
Cost to the district to
hire the judge, a retired senior
judge
from
LaGrande, is
anticipated to be around SI.500.
Lhe board maintains that
it must resolve the residency
question to prevent further legal
challenge of board decisions.
"I really believe the
board is going at this in a good
faith way," commented John
Witty, the board's attorney. "1
believe it's sensible, rational,
reasonable to get someone
involved whose objectivity is
unquestioned."
Brian
Thompson.
Heppner, a member of the
audience, asked the board to hold
off on hiring the judge. "Why
don't you address it (the
residency issue) when someone
does bring suit instead?" asked
Thompson.
Lewis' attorney, Douglas
E. Hojem, said through a letter to
Witty, that the board is without
authority
to question
the
qualifications of Lewis and
Lindsay. Rather than have a
disinterested third party make the
decision. Hojem recommended
taking the issue to the circuit
> court judge. He also said that if
the school board took action, it
would force Lewis and Lindsay
to file an action in court. Hojem
said he conferred with Lindsay's
attorney Ed Sullivan, who
concurred with him on the
matter.
Ed Dick, Lexington and
an 18-year school board member
who was at the meeting said. "1
can't believe the board finds it
necessary to eliminate one of the
board members. They were
elected, i cannot see where this
Oregon Trail
announces
service upgrades
The EXCEL homeschool group
held its 10th annual awards night
on Tuesday, May 29, at the Christian
LifeCenter in Heppner. Twenty-five
children from Heppner. Lexington,
and lone participated.
Lhe children from each family
did a presentation for the audience,
afterwhich their parents presented
them with awards. Presentations
included singing, piano solos,
instrumental solos and ensembles.
Scripture recitation and signing.
Awards were given for character
qualities, completed grade levels,
and outstanding achievements.
Refreshments were served following
the program, and samples of
students' work were displayed.
Participating families included
Bill and Nancy Jepsen of Heppner.
Andrew and CJ Johnson of Heppner.
David and Patty McNary of lone,
C iabe and Becky Owen of I .exington.
Kelly and I .aura Sager of Lexington.
Dick and Karen Temple of
Lexington. Loren arid Kathryn
Unruh o f Heppner and Tim and
Myma Van Cleave of Heppner.
EXCEL (Excellent Christian
Education League) is a "group of
local homeschool families which
exists for the purpose of providing
support and encouragement to one
another." said a news release.
W illow Creek W ater Park opens for summer
procedure is helping kids in
Morrow C ounty."
"My advice to you (the
board) is to ignore this,” added
Virginia Gneb. Bombing Range
Road.
"We've
got
more
important things to do."
"Why didn’t this come up
before." commented Debbie
Stratton. Imgon. "Why is this
coming up now with Bamey in
for four years. That's a long time
for all of a sudden to make a
mistake."
"You could probably
rectify it next election." Stratton
added.
The
questions
concerning residency arose,
according to board chair Gary
Fredenckson. when the board
received an anonymous letter
accusing Bamey Lindsay of not
living in the district from which
he was elected (see adjacent
anonymous letter and statement
by Bamey Lindsay).The letter
claimed that Lindsay did not live
at his claimed residency on
Feedlot Road, which is in Zone
6. but actually at 68062 Lindsay
Road, which is in Zone 2. (see
/one descriptions and map).
At at earlier meeting
Lindsav said he had maintained
his residency at Feedlot Road Barney l indsav
since he returned from college.
He also said his official
residency had been investigated
previously and the issue had been
resolved.
The Lindsay family owns
property on both sides of
Bombing Range Road, which
divides the district. Lindsay's
father. Larry Lindsay said at the
Wednesday meeting that he
would be the best person to ask
as to his son's residence, but no
one had even approached him
concerning the matter.
Fredenckson said that
w hen the district looked into the
residency issue, they also
discovered that Keith Lewis Board ( hair G ary Krederickson
actually lived a block outside the minority dissenting votes Ihey
district from which he was both abstained from the v ote over
elected. Lewis was elected from hiring an independent judge to
District Four, which is a small decide the residency matter
district encompassing the city of Board members Julie Weikel.
Heppner, but he lives at 440 Boardman.
Pat
McNamee.
Terrace Drive, which is actually Imgon. Gary Fredenckson.
in District 6. the district from Boardman. Dwayne Carroll.
which Lindsay was elected.
Imgon area, and John Rietmann.
Lindsay had served four lone, v oted in fav or of hiring the
years on the board and was independent judge
recently re-elected to another
Zone map. anonymous
four-year term. Lew is had served
two years of a four-year term
letter and related news
Both the men had often been
turn to page 3
critical of the board majority and
on several occasions cast
BEO introduces on-line banking
Oregon Trail Internet (OTI)
announces several major upgrades
in Internet service to Heppner and
the surrounding local calling area.
These include:
1) Installation o f new T1 and
56k digital lines, offering faster,
more up-to-date dial-up options for
new and existing OTI customers:
2) High-speed DSL (Digital
Subscriber Line) service, offering
online connections at speeds from
10 to 30 times faster than a dial-up
modem, with always-on, 24/7
connection, no dial-m necessary,
and no busy signals;
3) Implementation of state-of-the-
art spam control and anti-virus
programming throughout the OTI
system, protecting customers from
most unwanted junk e-mail and
viruses before they reach the home
computer. "This is a major upgrade
in the level of Oregon Trail Internet's
services to their customers." said
an OTI news release. "OTI is
currently the only regional Internet
Service Provider to offer this
exclusive programming. This is a
service that is primarily used by
major international corporations
to protect their internal systems,
but. until now. has been unavailable
in a local ISP O i l has it. right now ,
for every customer in the Heppner
area."
For more information about
Oregon Trail Internet, or any of its
services, call 1-800-276-4363. or
go to www.oregontrail net
Bank of Eastern Oregon has
recently announced implementation
of its on-line banking product for
all customers.
According to bank president
George Koffler. "Some of our
customers hav e waited for some
time to get on-line banking After
an exhaustive search, we have
chosen a system that fits our needs
and has all the security features that
we want to deliver to our customers
to give them on-line banking."
The on-lme banking product can
be obtained by logging on to
wwav beobank.com. the bank's new
web site.
"With this new product, you can
view balances, pull up prev ious
statements, look at aetiv ity. transler
funds and even pay your bills."
Koffler said
On-line banking is free to all
customers and there is a modest
charge for bill payment l he bill
payment software is now being
tested and will be offered to
customers this fall
"We looked long and hard tor
a software package that had 12s bit
encryption and all the latest security
features to make sure our customers'
information is secure over the
internet." said Koffler.
On-line hanking can tv obtained
by stopping by your nearest branch
and signing an agreement and letting
the bank know which of your
accounts you would like to have
included in y our on-line banking
pool
"With our six branches in Morrow
and Gilliam counties and our 24-
hour telephone banking sy stem, the
on-line banking product tills out
our offerings and gives our
customers one more channel for
us to deliver top quality sen ice to
them." said Koffler
Local cowbov
wins bull riding
challenge
Local cowboy .lend Penturf
traveled to the Pro-Am Bull Riding
Challenge in llermiston and was
the top w inner at the event
Penturf. from Heppner. took
home first place with a check ot
S1.294 The w inning score w as ~9
points
Penturf rode against 33 top bull
riders from Idaho. Washington
( alifomia. Wy oming and < fregon
I le was invited to ndc with "Bucking
with the Stars" in Molalla in late
August and was also inv ited to go
on with the Pro-Am Bull Riding
( hallcngc
Penturt will be leav ing June 2S
for Oklahoma ( ity . ( fklahoma. tor
several bull riding tours
Penturf i s the son of R u s s and
(in d v Penturf. and the great-
grandson of Sally Marlatt. all ot
Heppner.
H i-Q u al H ea v y D u ty P a n e ls OX SAI.F
(K a le t h r o u g h S a tu rd a y . J u n e I t i)
C ~=---
j l __
I oca I kids enjoy the ssatcr on the opening das of the \ \ illoss ( r e c k \ \ ater Park in Heppner on Saturdas,
June
W ater park stafl sass that the first das ssas buss and the concession stand ssas a big hit for
ssvimmers.
-j
12’
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M orrow C ounty Crain G row ers
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