Heppner gazette-times., July 14, 2004, Image 1

City finalizes bank building purchase
Besaie ïetzaLL
U o f 0 Newspaper L i b r a r y
E u g e n e , OR 9 / 4 J 3
r f
The city council Monday gave the final okay for puchase of the Klamath First Bank
building. The building will be used for the new city hall residence
V O L 123
NO. 28
8 Pages
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
The City of Heppner
voted Monday to finalize the
p u rch ase
the
form er
Klamath First Bank building
for use as a new city hall.
The city had been
negotiating a purchase over
the past several months with
the Bank of Eastern Oregon,
which owns the Klamath
Building. A final inspection
of the bank building, along
with the sale of the present
city hall, cleared the way for
the purchase.
The
H eppner
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
G azette has ag reed to
purchase the city hall for
$ 4 2,500 cash and the
G azette p roperty. The
G azette property will be
used for expansion of the
Heppner Fire Department,
which is located next door.
The vote on the bank
building purchase was 6-1 in
favor. A moving date for city
hall has not yet been set.
In other business,
the co u n cil heard from
public works director Bruce
Nelson who said that raw
sewage that was accidentally
pumped into the local golf
course irrigation system was
close to being cleaned out.
The city has an agreement
with the golf course where
Penland Lake lowered to remove weeds
« MaÉMftZEX
The lake level of Pendland Lake East of Heppner in the Blue Mountains has been
lowered by 30 percent to allow for the removal of weeds
the project as well as filing the U nited States Forest
Last fall, the Lake for the permits needed to Service- Heppner branch is
P enland
O w ners begin and co m p lete the watching closely to see if it
Association voted to rid the project.
is successful as they are
lake o f a weed known as
While this has been looking to remove Eurasian
Eurasian milfoil. Over the a private, volunteer project. milfoil from Bull Prairie.
last 15 years, this non-native
plant has embedded itself
into the “muck” around the
The newest Morrow
edge of the lake, causing C ounty School Board attending school to obtain
problems for native fish and m em ber,
D agoberto his electrical certification in
vegetation.
H ernandez, B oardm an. ad d itio n to raisin g his
A fte r
try in g presid ed o v er his first children. After serving an
he
herbicides on the weed, it official m eeting Monday a p p re n tice sh ip ,
com
pleted
his
electrical
was determ ined the only night.
way to rid the lake would be
While he could take certification in 2003 and is
to scrap away the “muck" credit as the first Latino to certified in both Oregon and
and rem ove the w e e d s’ have ever served on the Washington.
H ernandez credits
roots.
school
b o ard ,
the
G
e
n
e
To fa c ilita te the unassuming Hernandez says
A
l
l
e
n
,
removal the lake was drawn that he w ould rath er be
down to 70 percent capacity referred to as a member of long-tim e
in October 2003 to bring the the Boardman community. Boardman
lake down to approximately
Hernandez, 37. has community
100 feet from the high-water lived in Boardman for the l e a d e r
mark. “This still allows for past 17 years. He and his w h o
fishing,” said Tom Wolff, an wife, Maricela. have four r e c e n t l y
Association member.
children ranging in age from p a s s e d
The “muck" which four to 12 years old. He is away, for
is estimated to be about 12- em ployed
w ith
the encouraging Dagoberto
to
14 in ch es deep w ill be Boardman Coal Fired Plant. him
Hernandez
scraped off from the entire
Hernandez was bom b e c o m e
perimeter.
in Mexico and was raised in involved in the community.
The removal process California. He moved to the Allen had invited Hernandez
is scheduled to begin mid- Salem -W oodburn area in to become active during the
A ugust and should be 1983 where he worked in the 1993 census. Besides the
completed by October. The nursery fields in Salem- and school board. Hernandez is
lake is expected to return to also worked in the potato vice p re sid en t o f the
full capacity in May 2005. Fields, before getting a job at C olum bia R iver H ealth
The Lake Penland Simplot, where he worked in Services Board, which is
Owners Association, which maintenance and electrical. trying to establish a federally
is a cooperative entity of For a time he worked two funded migrant health clinic
owners of lots surrounding jobs, one graveyard and one in B oardm an, and the
the lake, has been financing m ow ing law ns, w hile Boardman Police Adv isory
Committee.
Newest member joins board
»
r
treated effluent from the city
sew er plant is used to
irrigate the golf course. Last
m onth a valve was
accidentally left open that
allow ed the u n treated
sew age to en ter the
irrigation system forcing it
to be shut down. The golf
course has been unable to
water its course since then,
which has caused the grass
to become brown and the
fairways hard. Nelson said
the
D epartm ent
of
Environmental Quality is
not going to fine the city for
the accident at the sewer
plant.
Nelson also reported
that the chlorine injection
equipment has been hooked
up to the city water system,
which has had higher than
accep tab le
levels
of
chloroform over the past
several months.
It was also reported
that the city once again
experienced extraordinarily
low w ater levels in its
drin k in g w ater storage
tanks. City Manager Jerry
Breazeale and the rest of the
city crew have been trying
the last several months to
locate the cause of the low
levels. Monday, Breazeale
said the city is losing 58
percent of its water. Leaks
and broken valves have been
fixed to lower the water loss
over the past couple of
months. The repairs, along
with finding un-m etered
users, have helped the
situation he said, but crews
are still working to correct
the water losses.
In other action, the
council:
-heard from a citizen
who asked that the yellow
ribbons honoring our
military troops be put back
up on the trees on Main
Street. The council agreed
and voted to allow the
ribbons to be put back up.
-learned another
local person, G ladys
Alderman, has volunteered
to pay for a plaque at the
veteran’s memorial in honor
of veterans. The plaque will
cost her $750.
-learned that a car
with its keys left in it was
stolen from the front of the
grocery store last month. It
was driven to Hermiston
where police caught one of
the suspects.
Irrigon Booster Club fundraising plans
introduced to school board
The new president
of the Irrigon High School
Booster Club, Dan Young,
was in tro d u ced at the
reg u lar m eeting o f the
M orrow C ounty School
D istrict Board M onday
night. Young told of some
fundraising projects already
underw ay for the newly
formed club, in preparation
of the opening of the new
school this fall.
Young p resen ted
“Irrigon Knights" buttons to
school board members and
showed sweatshirts with the
new Irrigon High School
logo. He told the board that
the group had already raised
around $ 1,200 and has plans
for other m oney-m aking
projects to help raise funds
for athletics, academics and
scholarships.
S u p e rin te n d e n t
Mark Burrows also told the
board that he met with a
co n su ltan t on the ro o f
b u ild in g p ro ject who
indicated that the estimated
total cost for renovation of
roofs at R iverside High
School, H eppner High
School,
H eppner
Elementary School and A.C.
H oughton
E lem entary
School
is
in
the
n eig hborhood o f $1.25
million.
He also said that the
district has a cushion of
around $200,000 for bond
projects. He said that the
m odification o f the life-
skills room and the gym at
the new Irrigon High School
will go out for a bid shortly
with the cost estimated at
betw een $57 and $75
thousand; $135,000 has
been budgeted for the
R iverside
w restling
building; $75.000 has been
pledged in matching funds
for the Heppner High School
track, but costs have gone up
and B urrow s did not
recommend increasing that
amount; $75,000 has been
earmarked for bleachers and
lights for the new Irrigon
High School; a shop for the
Irrigon High School has
been put on hold because of
a lack o f funds, with
estim ates
of
around
$466.000 for a shop building
with weight and wrestling
rooms.
The board voted to
designate $145,(KX) from the
sale o f the d is tric t’s
alternative school building
tow ard start up for the
Irrigon High School and
make the shop building a
priority.
In other business,
the board:
-reelected
John
Renfro as board chair and
elected Craig Miles as vice
chair.
-learned
from
B urrow s
that
the
m o tivational
speaker
planned for the teachers' in-
service
has
been
rescheduled for Wednesday,
Aug. 25. w ith teach ers
beginning
in -serv ice
Monday. Aug. 23. at 8 a.m.
at Riverside High School.
-approved
the
second reading of a plan to
hire three school-fam ily
liaison employees, one at
continued page two
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