TWO - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppnef, Oregon Wednesday, January 15, 2003
The Official Newspaper
o f the City o f Heppner and the County o f Morrow
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Heppner
GAZETTE-TIMES
U.S.P.S. 240-420
Relatives express thoughts on Jack Little
Morrow County ’s Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper
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David Sykes........................................................................................................Publisher
Katie Wall.............................................. ............................................................ . Editor
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Cham ber Chatter
By Claudia Hughes
As 1 rounded the comer three miles out o f Heppner this
morning, I was surprised to see a cloud had dropped over Heppner,
better know as fog. You could see the hills above and all of Heppner
was socked in. Just a bit gray everywhere! It’s difficult for many
people to be either black or while, given the issues we are all facing
in our everyday lives: education, health, safety, senior citizens,
economy, and world peace. Could be that we may have to think as
our ancestors did a few hundred years ago and become more active
rather than passive? "When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
What exactly does that mean for the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce and our community? What direction do we want for
Heppner in 2003? Think about some slogans: Heppner, the place to
be in 2003; Heppner, it’s you and me; Heppner, whatever will be will
be; Heppner, You Hold Hie Key. One theme is apathetic and doesn’t
give solutions, nor does it solve problems. When we choose to do
nothing, that in itself is a choice.
The Heppner Chamber during the past membership meeting
and Board o f Directors meeting voted to encourage support of
Measure 28. Measure 28 is a band-aid solution at best, but it could
save a few teachers, state troopers, senior services, and businesses
until "surgery” can be scheduled and the root o f the problem
addressed. If it helps the Heppner community in these tough times,
then the “band-aid” is worth a try. Whatever the decision, we then
must do all the research, communicating, and working together to
find solutions and make our voices heard. We cannot be a “whatever
will be” community.
The idea is to realize that it’s all of us (parents, grandparents,
businesses, citizens of Heppner, Lexington, and lone) who have to
pull together, come to the table, and be heard to make the needed
difference no matter what the outcome of Measure 28. When we
lose teachers, health care, state police, there’s a huge trickle down:
empty houses, fewer jobs, less business, smaller schools, loss o f our
basic needs, fewer to carry the load
Let’s make Heppner the place to be in 2003, bring visitors,
show people how great it is here, continue to work toward more
jobs, tighten our belts, support our local businesses. We need to
come out of the fog, leave our nests, our TVs, our coziness and pull
together. We need to go to Salem, voice our needs with one solid
message repeated over and over. Nothing that makes a difference is
ever easy! Heppner...we are the key in 2003.
See you at Town and Country this Thursday, Jan. 16. Tickets
available at Klamath First, the Bank of Eastern Oregon and Murray
Drugs. Treat yourself to a good time of visiting, humor and celebration.
You deserve it. Then back to the drawing board!
P.S. That fog turned into much needed rain, so sunshine can’t
be far behind.
Matteson resigns as Heppner’s basketball
maintaining a healthy blood
head coach
C huck
M atteson,
H eppner’s boys’ basketball
coach made a decision to step
down from his head coach
position, effective immediately.
Matteson made this decision due
to health concerns and lack of
parental support.
Matteson, coach of the
M ustang’s boys’ team since
1998 has had trouble with high
blood pressure, and the demands
that have been mounting as a
result ofhis being coach have not
helped the already tough task of
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Heppner G azette-Tim es
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pressure.
Along with his health, the
non-support from parents, who
have not been happy with the
amount o f playing time their
children get, made resigning the
best option for Matteson.
Matteson will continue
supporting the boys from the
stands and is planning on taking
the time to enjoy watching his
daughter, Lacey, play on the girls’
team.
Ken Eckman, formerly
the assistant coach, has been
promoted to the head coach
position and the Morrow County
School Board announced their
approval ofhis promotion at their
meeting, Jan. 13.
To the Editor:
To the friends and neighbors of
Jack Little,
The loss o f our brother
and your friend and neighbor
came with little warning but it was
merciful in that he was not
condemned to suffer long and for
that we can be grateful.
Jack was not one who
w anted his death to be an
occasion for ceremony. He lived
his life without the need of it and
would not welcome it now.
He was a simple man
who relished his privacy, his
hunting and fishing, time spent in
the forests and on the hillsides
from the days spent in the logging
industry to his later years building
fences, riding after cattle, feeding
stock in the midst o f winter or
helping to bring the newborn into
the world once spring arrived.
As we respected his
right to live his life as he wished
An lone resident’s thoughts on
community and government
To the Editor:
Well, we have a new
year. The beginning of the fourth
of the new millennium, and 1 offer
to all, my best wishes for the
coming year and beyond. I felt it
was time to acknowledge those
who cast their vote for me in the
“’02” primary election. Our new
year will present us with the
ordinary problems, and, those no
so ordinary at the county level.
Our schools countywide should
take priority over any other
problem because they seem to be
the common denominator of each
county community. Our schools
are basically what mold our
separate communities, yet “WE”
are one!
Referring back to the
“ ’02”, primary election; did you
know that the State of Oregon is
an initiative Petition state? Check
the Oregon State Constitution.
Also Oregon is one o f the few
states that is. “Initiative Petition”
simply means that our elected
state Senators/Representatives
are supposed by referendum
ballot, any statewide affecting
measure for voter approval/
disapproval. A recent example is
Measure 28, with ironically, a
special election to be held on
Jan. 28. Should this (Measure
28) be handled differently it
would be Taxation w ithout
Representation; Taxation without
R ep resen tatio n w ould be
“unconstitutional.” The Initiative
Petition Process is intended to let
the people (voters) maintain
control o f their governmental
destiny including the persons of
elective positions, such as our
C ounty C ourt (Judge/2
commissioners); County Cleric;
and County School Board. Each
o f these persons accepting the
mandate of the vote becomes the
Voice and Will of all the people
wherefrom they were elected.
Our County Court is the
safeguard and overseers o f our
entire county governmental
systems, o f which our schools/
school board are very much a
part of. Our schools are the very
heart o f our county. A school
board is needed to manage the
school system and work with our
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so do we grant him the right to
choose how he would celebrate
eternity in a place he loved best—
in the forests that have always
been home to him.
For those o f you who
feel a need for sharing his loss 1
can think of no more fitting way
than to gather somewhere and
over a cup or two of coffee, even
a bottle or two ofbeer, share your
memories with one another
remembering other times and
others days knowing that if he
could join you he would be
topping your tales with some of
his own.
As his family we feel
grateful that he had you as a
friend, as a co-worker, as a
neighbor and to us that is his most
fitting memorial. He needs no
other.
(s) Geraldine Career Simon
(sister)
(s) Roy Carter (brother)
Prüfte - Urrwt Servier
County Court and keep the
county citizens aware o f the
needs for our schools. The school
board remains under the Will of
the voters who elected them and
should not in any way make
d ecisio n s to clo se or
geographically relocate any
school facilities without the use
o f the “ In itiativ e P etitio n
Process.”
The Morrow County
Schools “PER SE” represent
100 years ofhistory and from the
north side to the south side of the
County, have been solid and
productive education facilities,
turning out some outstanding
stu d en ts th at have been a
compliment vyherever their lives
have lead them . H as our
generation evolved to «.societal
position o f economics that we
have put our schools in the same
ra tio n a le as a co rp o rate
economic Bourgeois evaluation?
On the su b jec t o f
“evolution” perhaps we should
stand nude before a full-length
mirror to see if there is a tail
attached to our backside. Enough
is enough! lone needs their
schools, Heppner needs their
schools, Boardman needs their
schools and Irrigon needs their
high school back.
On the su b jec t o f
“needing,” our school board
needs to make what we have
“work” and so does our new
county school Superintendent.
Our school board wasn’t elected
to close, but to manage, likewise
with the Superintendent.
(s) David L. Barnett
lone
Justice Court
Report
Randall Lee Henrichs,
50, Heppner, Hunting a Bear
Prohibited Method- to wit: 22
caliber pistol, fine $ 187; and
Hunting a Bear with No Valid
Tag, fine $331.
Joshua Lee Henrichs,
28, Heppner, Borrowed a Bear
Tag, fine $ 187; and Taking a Bear
with No Valid Tag, fine $331.
Ben Johnson, 70, lone,
No O perator’s License and
Failure to Drive within Lane, fine
$309.
Tony Allen Fox, 34,
Heppner, Offensive Littering, fine
$ 111 .
Ronald D. Mecham, 44,
H eppner, No S eatb elt and
Failure to Change Address on
Driver’s License, fine $ 118.
D eborah
Lavonne
Wells, 39, Heppner, Driving
while Suspended-5, fine $297.
F ern an d o M adrigal
Cervantes, 31, No Seatbelt on a
Child, fine $59.
Site Council chair
voices opinion on
school budget cuts
To the Editor:
To the Board Members and
Superintendent Crippen,
The budget cuts made at
the December Board meeting
were based solely on income vs.
expenditures between schools.
We feel that they were not based
on the educational interests of our
district’s children. The budget
cuts present a potential loss of
four to five teachers, and other
staffin g cuts at H eppner
Elementary School.
The
H eppner
Elementary Site Council would
like to inform the Board o f the
probable effect these budget cuts
will have on our school.
C lass sizes w ill be
extremely large, representing a
c o n sid e ra b le d iscrep an cy
between students to teacher
ratios across the elementary
schools in our district. With the
staff cuts we may be forced to
have only one teacher per grade
level of students. The numbers of
students in each class will likely
be: kindergarten -17; first grade
- 20; second grade - 24; third
grade - 35; fourth grade - 33; fifth
grade - 28; sixth grade - 38.
As you are aw are,
research shows that, “Group size
and ratio o f children to adults
should increase gradually through
the primary grades, but one
teacher with no more than 18
children or two adults with no
m ore than 25 c h ild ren is
optimum.” (1) F inding adequate
time for individualized instruction
is needed in order for our
children to learn, as they should
be allowed to learn.
-There could likely be
no music teacher and no special
reading teacher. You have
already taken away our art
teacher, our PE teacher, and our
counselor.
-Testing for benchmarks
will probably decrease with these
class sizes, it is a current goal of
Heppner Elementary tqincrease,..
the scores for Benchmarks I and
II by four percent in reading,
math, writing, and math problem
solving. We do not see this goal
being obtainable.
We, as a site council of
faculty and parents, will do all we
can to implement the directive of
the Board. We will exhaust
ourselves with examining every
idea presented and try to make
them possible. But, the fact
remains we may not have a
successful school system with the
cuts implemented. We will suffer
educationally more than any other
elementary school in our district.
The Board Goal is to
have equity in funding for each
individual school in the District,
but w here is the equity in
students’ educational needs? We
do not see any equity in what is
and should be important to the
Board: our children.
(s) Cara Osmin, Chair
Heppner Elementary School Site
Council
(1) National Association
for the Education o f Young
Children (NAEYC), the largest
organization in the nation for
educators of young children, from
their book, Developmentally
Appropriate Practice in Early
Childhood Programs edited by
Sue B redekam p and Carol
Copple, 1977, p. 24.
Births
A b ig a il
M arie
Prosser- a daughter, Abigail
Marie, was bom Jan. 7, 2003,
at Good Shepherd M edical
Center in Hermiston to Jessica
Pearl and W illiam H erbert
Prosser of Irrigon.
Julianna Marie Joyce-
a daughter, Julianna Marie, was
bom Dec. 19, 2002 at Holy
R osary M edical C enter in
Ontario, OR, to Philip and Tina
Joyce o f O ntario. Julianna
weighed 8 pounds and 6 ounces
and was 20 ‘/ j inches long.
Grandparents are Gary
and Marcia Kemp of Lexington
and Kitsie and the late Peter
Joyce of Ontario.
Vote yes on 28
To the Editor:
Dear Morrow County
Voters,
You have recen tly
received a ballot in the mail to
vote on a special tax measure,
known as Measure 28. This
measure protects education,
health care/human services and
public safety.
The q u estio n has
recently been raised, “Should I
vote in favor o f Measure 28?”
Although it may be tempting to
mark no against Ballot Measure
28 to send the message to the
Oregon Legislature that this is an
inadequate “quick fix” to our
State’s funding problems, we
encourage you to look at this
M easure from a d ifferen t
perspective.
We are hopeful that the
Oregon Legislature will solve the
funding problems, but in the
meantime our children’s future in
Morrow County Schools and
across the State o f Oregon has
to be protected. Our only option
at this point is to vote yes on
Measure 28.
These extra monies will
help offset some of the local cuts
made because o f equalization.
Passage o f Measure 28 will
provide some additional tap:
money for the next three years.
We ap p reciate your
support. Please realize that in
addition to helping our schools,
voting yes also helps our health :
providers and State Police
locally.
Yes On 2 8 ...Keep Our
Schools Great.
(s) Kay Fowler, President
Heppner Elementary School
Parent-Teacher Club
Friends and
Heppner will miss
Tom Sly
To the Editor:
On Jan. 4, we lost a
friend when Tom Sly died. On
January 4, Heppner lost a friend,
too.
Some people might not
have known Tom by name, but
he was hard to miss when
involved in a project around town,
the tall, white-haired fellow in the
striped bib pants. Some people
might not have known about Tom
because so much o f the civic-
m inded work he did, both
physically and intellectually, he
did quietly and without desire for
public recognition. But this man
who joined the community eight
years ago instantly believed in it,
adopted it and worked tirelessly
for it.
We have suffered a great
loss and have lost a fine model
o f a good citizen and neighbor.
No task was too small or menial
and no request was denied. In
fact, Tom did not wait for a
request when he noticed a job
that needed doing; he took care
o f it. He joined many local
organizations and served on
sev eral
bo ard s.
M ore
importantly, he was an active
member who brought to those
groups his analytical mind, his
listening skills and his carefully
considered perspectives.
Tom’s dedication to our
community was a tribute that we
hope everyone will carefully
consider. We certainly can be
proud of Heppner and optimistic
about our future if a man o f this
caliber chose it for his retirement
and worked so hard for it. No
one can fill the void and no one
can fill those striped bib pants,
but we are challenged to stay
engaged as citizens and to take
up some o f the slack that Tom’s
passing has created. We have lost
a friend, but we still have one
another.
(s) Dan and Doris Brosnan
Heppner
WE PRINT
BUSINESS
CARDS
Heppner Gazette -
Times
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