Twister hits Lexington airport
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Where the six-stall hangar used to be.
Where (what is left of) the hangar is now.
Kelly Boyer had quite a
day Sunday. Something that the
people of Lexington are calling a
tornado destroyed the hangar at
the airport and damaged many of
managers John and Kelly Boyer’s
property.
“I was mopping and it
banged my doors open, then shut,
then open again,” said Kelly who
VOL. 121
NO. 24
10 Pages
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
County Sheriff Department patrolling Heppner
I t’s official. The
M orrow
C ounty
S h eriff
Department is now patrolling the
streets of Heppner.
In a cost saving move,
the city disbanded its police
department at the end o f this
month in favor of contracting with
the sheriff department. The city
QV/fJUt
council made the agreem ent
official by approving the contract
Monday night.
Briefly, the agreement
calls for three sheriff deputies to
patrol not only the city proper, but
also an area outside the city from
just past the old Kinzua mill site
City crewmember Brian Harman shows new city dump truck
south to the Willow Creek Lake
Street from Gale to Minor Streets.
area.
everyone,” Sheriff Denton told the The project would include storm
Under the contract, the
council.
drains, sidewalks and overlays.
deputies assigned to patrol
Breazeale said the city at the
Heppner will be required to live
In
other
business,
the
same time wanted to do “water
in the city limits. The sheriff is
council agreed to raise the
lines and anything else that might
currently going through a selection
monthly sewer rate by $3.10 from need to be done underground”
process to pick the three deputies,
$ 18 to $21.10. According to city before the street work was to
but so far Randy Rayburn, Rory
officials
the increase is necessary begin. Breazeale estimated that
Bolter and Karen Zeiler have been
because of the large amount of the whole project would cost
patrolling in Heppner under a
expensive work that was done on between $60,000 and $80,000 but
previous temporary agreement
the sewer treatment plant this past that having the public works
with the city. Phil Morris of the
year. The repairs depleted the department handle a lot o f the
sheriff department will be the
sewer reserve fund.
work could contain costs. He also
supervisor o f the H eppner
The council also got said it would be necessary to form
deputies. Sheriff Verlin Denton
a look at a new dump truck
a local improvement district so
told the council Monday.
recently purchased by the city.
that property owners will pay their
The agreem ent
Public works director, Craig
share. B reazeale noted that
between the city and the sheriff
C anham , recently w ent to because the city did not have
is a one year renewable contract
Portland and purchased the 1991
enough money, if property owners
which calls for the city to pay the
Chevrolet Kodiak 34000 GVW
are
not willing to come up with
sheriff department $150,840 for
with cat diesel for $5,000 under their portion of the project, it
the com ing year for police
the city o f Portland’s surplus
probably would not happen.
services. AH city equipment and
property sale. Canham said an
At Monday's council
vehicles will be turned over to the
additional $1,000 was used to meeting, councilmember Tom
sheriff, however, if the contract
paint the city logo on the door and Wolff passed on what he said
is not renewed the city will get
do other work. He said overall it w ere general “co n cern s”
everything back.
was a good purchase for the city.
expressed to him by citizens about
The contract will save
At a May 16 utility
the city. “The people want to see
the city approximately $29,000
commission meeting, Breazeale pipe going in the street instead of
next year. Under the agreement
announced that the city has
people mowing lawns. They want
the city will also purchase a police
received a $25,000 grant from the to see money going into
vehicle, but will retain the title.
O regon
D epartm ent
o f in frastru ctu re
not
into
The arrangement insures that the
Transportation to rebuild Water m aintenance and w atering
city will still have police vehicles
flowers," Wolff told the council.
in the event the agreement is not
renewed.
The city council
Friday, until 7 a.m., Saturday. A
generally agreed the new
An
extended
Singspiration will be held on Friday potluck breakfast will follow.
arrangement was good for the
and Saturday, June 21-22, at the This is a family, multi-church
city, approving the contract
Heppner City Park. The evening
event and the community is invited
unanimously. “It’s not something
activities
will begin at 6 p.m. with to bring their lawn chairs and
we are going to get free, but we
events geared toward children. At com e share in the food and
are going to get good coverage,” 7:30, the Singspiration begins and
fellowship.
City M anager Jerry Breazeale
will include a time for sharing
In case of rain, the event
said.
testimonies.
will be held at Lynda Crane’s
The Singspiration will be house behind the motel. Call
“I think it will be a
followed by an all-night prayer
great relationship. I’m looking
Pastor C raig Strobel, 676-9224 or
vigil in the park from 9 p.m..
Pastor Tim Van Cleave, 676-
forw ard to w orking with
5581.
'
Singspiration to be held
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
lone gears up for
another Fourth of
July Blues
Festival
lone’s Fourth of July Blues
Festival will be held on Sunday,
June 30, Wednesday, July 3 and
Thursday, July 4.
The festival will kick off, Sun
day, at the lone Park with a per
formance of the Inland Northwest
Musicians - Patriotic Pops, start
ing at 2:15 p.m. There will also
be a children’s art fair and an es
say contest. Participants may
bring picnic baskets, beverages
and lawn chairs.
On Wednesday, July 3, the
annual Fourth of July Golf Tour
nament will be held at the Willow
Creek Country Club in Heppner
starting at 10 a.m. Cost is $35 per
golfer. For more information, con
tact Craig Holland at 422-7455.
Continuing the day’s festivities,
food vendors and the beer gar
den will open at the lone park at
6 p.m. Heppner native, Lindy
Gravelle, will perform music at
the park starting at 7 p.m.
On Thursday, July 4, the
Dawn’s Early Light Fun Run will
begin at 7 a.m. For more infor
mation. contact Jim Raible at 422-
7141. All day events will include
a frog jumping contest (frogs pro
vided), bingo at the Legion Hall,
hoop shoot, straw money pile for
ages three to eight, dunk tank and
more.
At 11 a.m., the Red. White
and Blue - Banding Together Pa
rade and Blues Cruise Classic Car
Show will start. Grand marshals
are the Willow Creek Valley Po
lice Dept., Fire Dept., and EMTs.
For more information on the car
show, contact Chuck Nelson at
989-8148. Food vendors and the
beer garden will open at 12 noon.
Pie and coffee, sponsored by the
Catholic ladies, will be served in
the fire hall. The pool will open at
2 p.m. for swimming.
From 2 p.m. until dusk. Mu
sic in the Park will be held; and
at dusk the fireworks show will
begin. Everyone is reminded that
no dogs or fireworks will be al
lowed in the park.
Gambler's Anonymous
will hold meetings
A Gambler’s Anonymous meeting
w ill be held every M onday
evening at 7 p.m. at the Umatilla
Electric Co-Op building. 203 E.
Boardman Ave, Boardman. For
more information, call (541) 922-
2437.
SW
was home alone when the twister
hit her property.
“It lifted the hangar’s roof
about 60 feet off the ground,” said
a Lexington resident. Three
planes and a boat were in the six-
stalled hangar at the time of the
disaster, but only one plane was
dam aged. Trusses from the
hangar flew all over the airport
property, dam aging some o f
Boyer’s tanks and mixers. “I
personally probably have around
$6,000 worth of damage.” said
John.
Many local residents
helped get the mess under control
and Boyer figures he will be up
and running again shortly.
“Hopefully w e’ll be running
tom orrow ,” said Boyer on
Monday.
HCC works on the Heppner
strategic plan
Heppner citizens will
have an opportunity on Tuesday,
June 25, to help shape the
community’s plan for the future.
The
H eppner
C oordinating
Com m ittee
continues to work on revision of
H eppner’s strategic plan and
invites input from community
members. “We need information
from as many sources as possible
because we are trying to identify
every strength and need our
community has and to form a truly
common vision for Heppner. Our
local organizations, especially, can
become the main beneficiaries,
and for the work to be completely
representative, we have to have
help from the rest o f the
community.”
A “strategic plan” is the
compilation of a community’s
vision for today and tomorrow, its
mission as it moves into the future,
the principles on which the writers
of the plan base goals and action
plans for the community, and those
goals and plans.
The strategic plan has
become a necessary addendum to
every application for state or
federal ftmdmg for projects that
any organization or agency in that
com m unity or the local
government might make. The
agencies with funds to award
require that projects support a
com m unity’s vision, mission,
principles, goals, and action plans.
The HCC encourages all
community members with a stake
in H eppner’s future to attend
public meetings on Tuesday, June
25, at the St. Patrick’s Senior
Center. A brown bag lunch will
be held from 11:30 to 1:00. and an
evening meeting will be held from
7:00 to 8:30.
At Monday school board meeting
Delegations oppose teacher cuts
Despite objections from
a large delegation of parents and
teachers from lone, the Morrow
County School Board was not
moved to go against a
recom m endation
from
Superintendent Bruce Anderson
to transfer an lone Junior High
math teacher from lone to
Heppner.
At the district’s regular
board meeting Monday night,
Anderson said the transfer was
made simply because a junior high
math teacher is needed at
Heppner Junior High School since
long-time HJH math teacher
Karen Beck retired at the end of
this school year. According to
Anderson, lone has two additional
math teachers who can pick up
the math classes taught by Steve
Schaber, and staff who can teach
other classes he taught.
The district plans the
reduction o f five teachers by
attrition in order to balance the
budget. The reductions include
(salary and benefits) a teacher at
Heppner Elementary School-
$69,538; a business teacher at
Heppner High School-$69,535; a
teacher at Colum bia M iddle
School-$69,538; two half-time
positions at Riverside High
School-$24,298 and $21,591 ; and
math teacher at Ione-$56,580.
The district will also save an
additional $12,960, resulting from
the retirement of teachers earning
higher salaries. The board has
said that they will further reduce
costs by offering teachers a two
percent salary increase, rather
than the six percent increase they
had offered. The district is
anticipating less money from the
state because o f a state budget
crisis.
M embers o f the lone
delegation said that they
understand that cuts must be
made, but commented that lone
values its core classes, especially
in math and science, and asked
that the board elim inate the
business and music programs in
lone instead of a math teacher.
Many also com m ented that
because of previous cuts, lone
teachers are already stretched to
the limit and are required to teach
many classes outside their area
of expertise.
Anderson said that cutting
the business-music teacher at lone
would set off a series of “bumps”
continued page two
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