U of O
VOL. 120
NO. 43
10 Pages
Committee says: tear down old buildings
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Wednesday, October 24,2001
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Teachers bring variety of experiences
Heppner High School
has three new teachers this year,
each bringing a wide range of life
experiences to the job.
Jason Palmer, 32, is
originally
from
Heppner,
graduating from Heppner High
School in 1997. He received a
degree in aerospace engineering
from the University of Colorado
in 1991 and then began working
in Portland as a structural
engineer
for
a
skylight
manufacturing company.
Palmer returned to
Morrow County and worked at a
variety of different jobs,
including building log cabins
and working as a farm hand. He
also worked for TREO Ranches
for several years before returning
to school at Eastern Oregon
University.
He taught at Riverside
High School last year while he
completed his education via the
Internet and evening classes.
This year he transferred
within the district to take a
position at Heppner High School,
teaching chemistry, physics,
astronomy and eighth-grade
science.
Right now, his students
are working on constructing
catapults. "I try to get away from
textbooks as much as possible,"
says Palmer. "I like to teach
discovery."
Palmer's parents are
Roger and Shirley Palmer, Eight
Mile. His sister is Sandra Van
Liew and his brother is Larry
Palmer. He and his wife,
Jennifer, were maimed in June of
\ 2000. Palmer enjoys hunting and
fishing, coin collecting and
computers and is "getting into
astronomy."
Luke Casady, 27, was
bom in Klamath Falls, but moved
to Kenya with his missionary
parents when he was nine years
old. He attended school at an
American school in Kenya, the
Kijabe boarding school, from
1983-1993. He returned to the
U.S. for a year in 1987 and, after
graduation from high school,
returned again to attend Oregon
State University at Corvallis. He
graduated from OSU in 1997
with a degree in math.
After graduation, he
returned to Africa, where he
taught math at an African school
at Lesotho. After four months
there. South Africa invaded
Lesotho and he was forced to
leave. He was evacuated to
Tanzania.
He returned to the states
in February of 1999 and began
working for Hewlett Packard as a
technical writer. Last year he
taught school at Monument.
He and his wife, Callyn,
whom he met at a math class at
OSU, married in 1999. They
have a son, Maikol (pronounced
Michael), a year and a half.
Casady says that growing
up in Kenya "seemed normal."
Jason Palmer
His parents lived in an area
called Kitui, a semi-arid desert
region with "basically nothing."
He attended boarding school
around three hours away from his
parents' home. School was in
session year-round and students
attended school three months at a
time and then had a month off.
In Kenya, Casady's
father taught at a Bible school
and also provided an extension of
the program, traveling to students
who were weren't able to attend
the school.
His mother worked at an
orphanage, teaching elementary
children, and was also the
librarian at the Bible school.
Casady says while many
people in Kenya speak English,
everyone there spoke Swahili, a
language that he learned during
his stay. In his ministry, his
father also learned to speak the
tribal language of the deep bush.
While in Kenya, Casady
says he and his two brothers
made a lot of African as well as
American friends.
"Coming back to the
states was hard," said Casady. "It Kathleen Spinks
was a different culture." He says
"basically anything outdoors,"
that life in Africa is a lot more
including
snow
boarding,
friendship and family oriented,
mountain biking and archery
with less focus on materialism
and much slower paced. "Their hunting.
He is also currently
idea of time is completely
working toward his master's
different," he says.
After his return to the degree in education over the
U.S., while attending OSU
Internet through Western Oregon
Casady developed a love of rock
University.
climbing and mountain climbing
At Heppner High School
While his love for climbing was Casady teaches integrated I, II
honed in the Cascades, he got his and III and Web design.
first taste of climbing when he
Kathleen Spinks. 53. is
climbed to the high camp at Mt.
originally from Bend. She grew
Kenya at age 10 and in 1999 he up in Portland and went to high
climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. This school in Seattle. She attended
last summer Casady climbed six college at Mt. Angel College,
mountains-Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood, receiving a degree in elementary
Mt Ramer, Mt. Adams, the education.
North Sister and Three Finger
She taught for four years
Jack.
Casady says he loves continued page 2
The Heppner-Lexington
Advisory Committee, at their
meeting Wednesday night,
October 17,
recommended
demolishing both the Heppner
Junior High School building and
old gym and asked architects to
"explore" the cost of a double
gym floor for the new facility.
The group had earlier
recommended that the old junior
high building be tom down to
make room for a new gym-
cafetena-music room-auditorium
facility, but at that time they
recommended that the old gym
be left to
provide another
practice gym for students.
The group, given the task
of recommending a plan for
construction of the new building,
heard concerns Wednesday that
there would be no school district
monies to repair, heat or update
the aging facilities if they were
left standing. They also feared
that there would be no monies
earmarked for demolition of the
old gym if it became necessary
in the future.
"It’s the district's intent
to abandon the gym," said Nan
Hall, with Heery International,
project manager hired by the
district. "I don't think the district
envisioned maintaining that
building."
"Are we really sure we
want to leave the old gym
standing or do we want to deal
with it now and build the best
facility we can," said David
Allstott, Heppner, a member of
the audience. "I don't want to
have to turn around and deal with
it 10 years from now."
Several of those in
attendance at the meeting
suggested that demolishing the
old gym could also provide
additional room for parking.
Ron Barber with Barber
Barrett
Turner
Architects,
architect for the bond project,
showed the audience two
different plans for the proposed
campus. In one plan, Stansbury
Street, the road between the
current
elementary
school
building and the new facility at
the site of the old junior high
building, would be vacated. In
this plan the road would be
rerouted to the other side of the
old junior high building (between
the new facility and the old gym
site.
This plan would include
a play area with trees on
Stansbury Street between the
elementary building and the new
facility. Parking would be
located between the new street
and the new facility. A bus
loading area would be located
below the new facility.
Concerns had earlier
been raised about student safety
at Stansbury Street. Additional
concerns
were
voiced
Wednesday night that if the street
were rerouted, children would
still be crossing a dangerous
area, but the area would no
longer be in sight of the
elementary office. "That street
(Stansbury) has been there
forever and has there ever been
one kid hit?" commented
Allstott.
Several
teachers
responded
that
they had
witnessed near misses, however.
Concerns were also
raised about the degree of incline
of the new road required to
intersect with the street. The
Heppner City Council had earlier
said that they did not want the
road vacated because it would
cut off emergency access.
Rerouting the road
would also add considerably to
the cost of the project. "I'd rather
see more money put into building
rather
than
street,"
said
committee
member
Mike
Armato.
"If you put that street
there, there will be a split campus
10 years from now," added Cyde
Estes, Heppner. a member of the
audience.
The second plan would
modify the street between the
elementary school and the new
would be large enough for 600
folding chairs.
The Heppner-Lexington
Advisory Committee will hold a
work meeting on November 7 at
Heppner High School. Surveying
of the Heppner Elementary
building site is also scheduled to
be completed that day. A facility
meeting is planned with the
architects on Monday, November
19, at Heppner Elementary. The
architects expect to have
received the survey report and
completed a schematic design of
the
proposed
facility
by
November 27.
facility to slow traffic and
increase safety, but would not
call for street rerouting. This plan
would call for parking parallel to
Court Street and a drive-through
area between the new gym and
the old gym site.
Both plans are available
for
viewing
at
Heppner
Elementary School.
Barber estimated that
building a double gym, rather
than a single gym would cost an
additional $250,000-5300,000.
He also told the audience
that his firm estimates that the
gym-cafeteria-auditorium facility
County court meets
By Doris Brosnan
At the Morrow County Court
session on Oct. 17, public works
director Burke O'Brien reported the
completion of fog sealing, some hand
patching on Frontage Road and
painting for Gilliam County.
The crew has been sweeping the
fog-sealed roads in preparation for
paint striping and have been grading
on Morter Lane, Keith Rea, Dry
Fork, Dalzell, Ritter #2104, Penland
Lake #2103, Morphine Springs and
Sunflower Flat roads. They have
also been organizing the sign
inventory and repainng cattle guards
on Board Creek, Road Canyon and
Tupper roads.
O'Brien reported on a highway
meeting he and County Judge Terry
Tallman attended, at which ODOT
encouraged five counties to form
an advisory committee on
transportation. Morrow and Baker
counties were approved for such
a committee, with the understanding
that the counties will continue
working toward a five-county group
that will include Umatilla, Wallowa,
and Union counties.
The court approved a permit for
CenturyTel on Tom Camp Road
#562 and approved a plat of River
Ridge Estates. They discussed with
planning director Tamra Mabbott
the building permits for the dairies.
They read a letter from the shenffs
office concerning the need for a
speed limit on Kunze, Washington,
and Columbia roads. They had no
objection to a request from a citizen
for a sign to 1-84 at the end of Main
Street in Boardman.
The court recessed for the first
public reading of the updated and
amended zoning and subdivision
ordinance and they scheduled a work
session for Wednesday, Oct. 31.
Prayer for
Peace planned
An afternoon of prayer for peace
will be held at St. Patrick's Catholic
Church in Heppner from noon till
5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 28. At 5 p.m.,
there will be Benediction of the
Blessed Sacrament.
"During the afternoon there will
be times for scriptural readings,
prayer petitions, hymns and times
of silent meditative prayer for each
person to follow their own form of
spirituality," said Father Gerry
Condon.
Everyone is welcome to
participate.
Daylight Savings
Time ends Sunday
Daylight Savings Time
will end this Sunday, October 28.
People are reminded to
"fall back" and turn their clocks
back an hour before going to bed
Saturday night.
Everyone
is
also
reminded to be especially
watchful of children in the early
evening hours and on Halloween,
Wednesday, October 31.
Men injured when
tree falls on tent
Museum open
Halloween night;
closed for season
Two elk hunters were
injured near the Madison Butte
Lookout at Bottle Springs around
10 p.m. Monday when high
The Morrow County winds caused a 26-30-inch tree to
Museum in Heppner will be open fall on the tent in which they
were sleeping.
Halloween night, Wednesday,
One man suffered leg
October 31, for an open house injuries and the other suffered
and "treats."
back injuries.
This will be the
Both
men
were
museum’s last night of the transported to Pioneer Memorial
season; it will be closed until Hospital and then the man with
March 1.
back injuries was life-flighted to
There is no admission Oregon
Health
Sciences
charge. Hours are 1-8:30 p.m.
University in Portland.
Two other men in the
tent were not injured. The men
were from the Eugene and
Oregon City areas.
Heppner Fire
Chief
By Debbie Harper
Rusty
Estes
said
that
two
rescue
Morrow County Sheriffs office
received a call about a white powdery vehicles and an ambulance
substance found in a bathroom at responded to the remote site. He
a rest area on 1-84 in Morrow County said that because of the distance,
bad road conditions and the
on Oct. 17.
The Morrow County Sheriffs seventy of the men's condition, it
office responded to secure the scene. took the responders about an
The Hermiston Haz-mat team also hour to get to the accident site
responded, retrieving the substance and over an hour and a half to
and decontaminating the restroom. return.
At press time the substance had
not been identified.
Morrow C ounty C ommumcations
Sergeant Jeanine Dilley gave the
following guidelines for what to do
Ashley Ropp. a 19-year-
if you do encounter a suspicious
old Lexington woman seriously
substance:
Don't touch or smell the substance. injured in an auto accident
Stay where you are and call for October 14, was expected to
assistance. Containing the spread return home Wednesday. October
of a possible contaminant is the 24.
important issue. If you've already
Ropp, 19, suffered a
touched the object, put it in a plastic broken neck, a concussion and
bag, if possible, wash youi hands broken bones in her arm and
thoroughly with soap and water and femur as a result of the accident.
have someone else call for help. She underwent surgery to repair
For immediate assistance, call those injuries and a "halo" type
9-1-1. For further information,
brace was placed on her to
contact the Morrow County' Shenffs
stabilize her neck. She is
office at 676-5317 or the Pendleton
reported
to be up and walking
FBI office at 276-1433.
White powder
found at rest area
Young accident
victim returns
home
A N T IF R E E Z E SA F E
%
G a llo n s: 4 99/g a llo n
B u lk : 4 19/g a llo n ( 5 g a l l o n m in im u m , y o u r c o n t a i n e r )
Sale good through Nov. / Oth
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 • 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6
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