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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 2003)
Bessie lïetzell U M e- »s pa T e r of 0 fcugene, OR VOL. 122 NO. 37 Judge’s recommendation-Morrow County School District to give $100,000 to lone Lib rary 97403 8 Pages Wednesday, September 10,2003 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon The M orrow County School District is expecting to lose an additional $ 101,000 to th e lo n e S ch o o l D is tric t, M C SD learned at its regular m eetin g M onday n ig h t in I rr ig o n . J u d g e F ra n k J. Yraguen, who was employed to assist in the division o f assets and liabilities betw een the M orrow C ounty School District and the newly-formed lo n e S c h o o l D is tr ic t, reco m m en d ed in his final report that M CSD pay ISD a c c o r d in g to a fo rm u la w hereby ISD is entitled to 7- 3/4 percent o f M CSD ’s assets a n d lia b ilitie s. T he 7-3/4 percent figure was specified in lo n e ’s bill to form its ow n district, which was approved b y th e O re g o n S ta te Legislature. A ccording to Judge Y raguen’s recom m endation, M C SD ow es ISD $55,050 fro m th e E q u ip m e n t/ O p e r a tio n s R e s e rv e , $ 5 9 ,6 3 7 .5 0 fro m th e C o n tin g e n c y Fund, $ 14,956.66 from the Interfund Transfers Fund and $12,250 from insurance prepaid for the 2003-04 school year. Judge Y raguen also recom m ended th a t IS D p a y M C S D $40,111.09 from the Capital Im provem ent Fund-A ssets E v a lu a tio n . H e f u r th e r Fires destroy two homes in Heppner Tw o fire s, o n e on Thursday, Sept. 4 and one on M onday, Sept. 8, took the h o m e s o f tw o H e p p n e r families. The fire Thursday at T erry L u p in a cc i and Lyn B rew er’s house on H w y 207 w a s c a u se d by e le c tric a l problem s with an exhaust fan in their kitchen. The fire was called in by another party at 3:11 p .m . H e p p n e r F ire D epartm ent arrived on the scene and called for mutual aid from the Lexington and lone Fire D epartm ents. The fire took approximately five hours to put out, according to Rusty Estes, H eppner Fire Chief. The fire damage was extensive and the house was a complete The remains of the home of Dale and Diane Munkers on Water Street in Heppner. loss. M o n d a y n ig h t, a house on Water St., Heppner, rented by D ale and D iane Munkers caught on fire due to an electrical problem in the living room . The M unkers w ere hom e in bed w hen the fire began. The H eppner Fire Departm ent was called to the scene and it took around three hours to extinguish. The fire c o m p le te ly d e stro y e d the house. “Your sense o f smell shuts o ff w hen you sleep,” s ta te d a fire d e p a rtm e n t w orker. Due to this fact, the H ep p n e r Fire D ep artm en t would like to remind everyone to check their smoke detectors and if you do not have one or m ore in your hom e to add them . Sm oke detectors are relatively inexpensive, around $15-20, and in the long run Firefighters work at extinguishing the fire at the Lupinacci-Brewer residence as smoke billows out can save you m oney or your from the hack of the house. life. Little League to hold annual meeting H eppner L ittle League C om m ittee will be holding their annual election of officers on Sept. 25, at 7 p.m., at G D ’s restaurant. Anyone interested in b e c o m in g a H eppner C o m m itte e m e m b e r o r volunteer for Little League should plan on attending this meeting. Present members will need to be at G D ’s by 6:30 p.m. If you w ould like to volunteer and cannot attend the annual m eeting, please contact Mindy Christianson at 676-5818. recom m ended that the bond levies should be left where they are; that the two parties advise PERS to split the account and perform an actuarial study to determ ine how the split shall be accom plished, w ith each school district paying h a lf o f the cost o f the study; that the fumiture/'equipment line item b e h a n d le d as p e r th e a g r e e m e n t b e tw e e n th e s u p e rin te n d e n ts ; and th at v e h ic le s be d iv id e d on a 92.66/7-3/4 ratio. According to Bill Kuhn, M CSD Board m em b e r, th a t m ea n s th at M C SD also ow es ISD one vehicle. T he rec o m m e n d e d payment to ISD prompted the M CSD Board to revisit their e a rlie r d e c is io n to a llo w L exington area students to c o n tin u e to a tte n d lo n e Schools if the student had already attended the previous year. M CSD estim ates that it will lose around $ 100,000 to IS D e a c h y ear, b a se d on approxim ately 24 students w ho fall into that category. M CSD plans to discuss the issue further in subsequent m eetin g s, but has already c o m m itte d to a llo w th e Lexington students in question to attend lone Schools for the currentyear. T h e H e p p n e r C ity Council Monday continued to debate the size and cost o f a p r o p o s e d w a te r s y s te m project that w ould overhaul and rep lace old and leaky pipes throughout the city. Council members are still unsure how big they want the project to be, but are sure o f one thing: they don’t water rates to go any higher. The recently enacted water rate increases will raise an additional $143,000 per year (if usage stays the same) a n d c o u n c il m e m b e rs , especially Tom Wolff, have repeated that they do not want the project to be any bigger or cost any m ore than the $143,000 per year can pay for. C ity m anager Jerry Breazeale said Monday he felt the city could replace all o f the pipes that need to be replaced in the city for $3.7 million, the am ount o f debt the $ 143,000 w ould pay o ff in 30 years. Wolff, however, said he didn’t want the city to spend the $3.7 million just because it had the money. “I don’t want to spend the m oney ju st because we have it,” W olff said. He said the city should not replace pipe on Rock Street for instance if the pipe was still in good shape. W olff said the city should prioritize w hat needed to be repaired and then spend only that amount o f money. W olff suggested that repairs m ight only cost $ 1.7 to $2 million. W en J o u o f A C E C onsultants, the engineers w ho studied the city 's w ater feature several action pictures system, was at the meeting and o f last F riday’s gam e with said he would do whatever the Reedsport, taken by Gazette- council desired, but asked the T im es sports photographer city not to completely scrap the Teresa H ughes, will also be o rig in a l $6 m illion w ater posted on the site.___________ ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. ffinnn„ *JJU /U (Z A / continued page 2 Water issues still flood City Council Football scores to be on Internet Scores o f this Friday’s away game with Umatilla will be p o ste d on the In tern et Friday night. The score o f the gam e will be updated each quarter. To access the scores go to wvm.Heppner.net and click on the M ustang football scores link. Also on the site are pictu res o f M ustang team m e m b e rs and th is y e a r ’s football schedule. As an added In other business, the board heard testim ony, both p ro a n d c o n , c o n c e rn in g establishing a high school in Irrigon. Generally, Boardman r e s id e n ts s p o k e a g a in s t forming an Imgon high school, while Irrigon residents were in favor o f the school. In a related issue, the board, anticipating opening a h ig h s c h o o l in I rr ig o n , established a boundary for s tu d e n ts to a tte n d th e p roposed high school and c o n seq u en tly for students attending Irrigon elem entary s c h o o ls . T h e e a s t- w e s t division w ould be along the Bom bing Range Road to the Columbia River, with students west o f Bombing Range Road a tte n d in g R iv e rsid e H igh School and students east o f th e ro a d a tte n d in g th e proposed Irrigon High School. M CSD Superintendent Dr. Jack C rippen said that the Bombing Range demarcation would facilitate the division, because the line runs through an unpopulated area in Port o f M orrow and Wildlife Refuge te r r ito r y . T h e e a s te rn b o u n d a ry w o u ld be th e Morrow-Umatilla county line. The southern boundary would project and start over. Jou said the city w ould be better o ff to im plem ent that part o f the city w ater m aster plan it could afford. The original m aster planned called for the city to upgrade the water system with three new w ells and a new 750,000-gallon water storage tank. The tank and wells would be needed to accom m odate a proposed future population o f 2,000. The wells and storage tank will apparently be cut fro m th e p la n n o w th a t spending is to be reduced and also the general public and council m em bers d o n ’t feel Heppner will reach the 2,000 population mark. Jou also urged the council to consider certain upgrades that will ensure the health o f the community. Low pressure and “dead ends” in the w ater system can cause health problems, he said. The health issue w as one reason the city was able to obtain low one percent financing on loans to finance the water project. C ity m anager Jerry Breazeale has said at times he “thinks” the city will be able to preserve the low interest loans even w ith the scaled dow n project, how ever, he is not sure. After much debate the council agreed that the project s h o u ld m o v e a h e a d w ith re p la c e m e n t o f th e m ost critically damaged pipes being the top priority. The engineer will come back to the city with a p rio rity list o f the m ost needed areas o f the city water pipes to be replaced. Bids for the project will then be asked for and the city will do the most continued page 2 20% OFT |N STOCK & ORDERS WELCOME! 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