School board to receive $349,000 from
rec district; up $41,000 over last year
Bessie /.'etse 11
U of ü Newspaper Library
Eumene, U3 97103
VOL. 123
NO. 32
8 Pages
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Help celebrate Smokey’s 60th birthday
Sm okey the Bear
will be celebrating his 60th
birthday and you can join
him on Wednesday, Aug. 18
from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. at the
Forest Service Building in
Heppner.
Cake will be served
to attendees and Smokey
will be there to take pictures
w ith anyone who brings
their camera. There will also
be a fire engine at the event.
The story behind the
Smokey the Bear campaign
goes all the way back to the
1950s, when a bear cub
found him self in a forest
surrounded by flames. To
escape the fire burning
around him, he climbed up
in a tree. By the time the fire
fighters found the scared and
hungry cub, the forest was
charred and blackened.
The fire fig h te rs,
park forest rangers and the
warden were so moved by
the bravery o f this little cub
th at they nam ed him
continued page 3
Smokey the Bear will celebrate birthday August 18
Heppner Schools to hold new
student registration
H epp n er S chools
will be holding new student
registration on Thursday,
Aug.
12.
H eppner
Elementary registration will
be held from 8-10 a.m .
Heppner Jr/Sr High School
registration w ill be held
from 10 a.m .-12 noon.
Special Fair & Rodeo section
in this week’s paper
The Morrow County Fair
and Oregon Trail Pro Ro-
deo starts next week, and
included in this week's pa-
per is a 16 page special
section with articles and
advertisements about the
events._______________
Princess Emily Bergstrom
Em ily B ergstrom ,
16, once again has joined the
M orrow County Fair and
Rodeo, last year as a pennant
bearer and this year as a
princess.
Bergstrom tried out
for the Court because she
thought that being on the
Court sounded like fun and
she wanted to be able to
represent Morrow County
and tell people w hat
happens at the Fair and
Rodeo. She also has an aunt
that was queen in 1936 and
other relatives that have
been on the Court, which
brought about some interest.
Helping Bergstrom
represent Morrow County is
her 10-year-old q u arter
horse Morgan mare, Penny.
For the past seven
years, Bergstrom has been
active in 4-H with cooking,
sewing and horse. This year,
besides her performing her
duties as princess, she will
be showing her horse in the
h orse show, as well as
modeling for the sewing 4-
H Club. She has also taught
continued page 3
l
The Morrow County
School District approved an
agreement with the Morrow
County Unified Recreation
D istrict and accep ted
$349,000 from MCURD to
fund
e x tra c u rric u la r
activities for the 2004-05
school year. M CSD is
receiving $41,000 more than
it received from MCURD
the previous year, MCSD
D eputy C lerk R honda
Lorenz told the board at their
regular meeting in Heppner
Monday night.
L orenz told the
board to expect a reduced
contribution from MCURD
for the 2006-07 school year
because o f a d rastic
reduction in tax revenues
th at
year,
g en erally
a ttrib u te d to large tax
contributors moving into the
enterprise zone at the Port of
Morrow. Lorenz said that
M CURD is ex p ected to
spend dow n its cash
carryover that year also.
Also at the meeting,
the MCSD board authorized
S u p erin ten d en t
M ark
B urrow s to spend an
additional five percent for
possible cost overruns on
tw o d istric t p ro je c ts, if
necessary, to save time in the
bidding process. One o f the
projects, to repair roofs at
R iverside High School,
H eppner
E lem en tary
School, H eppner High
School and A.C. Houghton
E lem entary S ch o o l, is
estim ated around $1.25
million. The other project,
estimated around $75,000, is
to make changes to turn
Columbia Middle School
into a high school facility
(Irrigon High School), so
that it can open this fall.
B urrow s said that
the district will open bids on
both projects this Thursday
and will open bids for a new
R iverside H igh School
activities building on August
26. He also said that the
p ro ject to ren o v ate the
district office is “moving
right along.”
In other business,
the board:
-h eard
from
Burrows that state reports
indicate that there is “some
good news and some things
we need to work on” with
respect to student test scores.
-was introduced to
Daye Stone, the new half
time vice principal/half-time
counselor to begin work this
fall in Heppner. Stone has a
certified library license and
also coaches sports.
-learned that State
Representative Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, will be on hand
at a MCSD Board workshop
planned for August 26. The
w orkshop w ill be held
th ro u g h V-tel at both
Riverside High School and
Heppner High School sites.
MCSD Board Chair John
Renfro said that Smith has
indicated in terest in the
board’s position on certain
issues and the board intends
to ask him for clarification
on issues p e rta in in g to
charter schools.
-reappointed Marcia
Kem p, fo rm er board
member and former budget
com m ittee m em ber, to
budget committee position
# 2 .
-ad o p ted
a
re so lu tio n
c o n cern in g
em p lo y m en t o f PERS
re tire e s. The reso lu tio n
states that a PERS retiree
may be considered for re
employment by the district
“where another candidate
cannot be found.” Those
employees will be hired on
a tem p o rary , o n e-y ear
contract and will be paid at
Step 8 on the district salary
sch ed u le. "N o special
c o m p e n s a t i o n
accom m odations may be
made in lieu o f contributions
that the d istric t m ight
o th erw ise have been
obligated to make,” said the
new wording.
- a c c e p t e d
resignations as follows: Pat
S h errett, A C II/SB E and
Windy River Elementary
School music teacher.
- a p p r o v e d
em ploym ent for K rystin
M iller, SBE first grade
teacher.
-ratified the Morrow
C ounty
E ducation
Association coaches’ salary
schedule with payment as
follows (depending on five
steps):
-3-A
schools:
athletic directors ranging
from $3,412 to $4136; head
coaches from $3,205 to
$4,032; JV coaches from
$2,481 to $2,895; Head golf,
tennis and wrestling frorn
$2.636 to $3,205; Third
assistants or C-team golf,
tennis from $1,654 to
$2,068.
continued page 3
Walden makes Heppner visit
G reg W alden, (back) visits with local kids L-R
Kile W ilson, 10, Kati Tavloe, II, and Kyle Tavloe,12,
when he made a visit to H eppner last Tuesday. Also
with W alden was Sandy B aruah, C hief of Staff of the
U.S. D epartm ent of C om m erce from W ashington DC
(right).
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, Bush’s tax cuts as helpful to
R -O re., a tten d ed the small businesses. He said
H eppner C h am b er o f the tax cuts are creating jobs
Com m erce luncheon and and
allo w in g
larger
said one o f most important corporations to issue more
issues in our district is the dividends. “The government
healthy forest initiative that doesn’t create wealth, you
would allow harvesting the create wealth.” Walden told
forest o f dead and dying the chamber.
trees. He said he also
B efore the m eeting
support setting aside $500 Walden took a walking tour
million to fight forest fires. o f Heppner including the
He ap p lau d ed President new Heritage Plaza.
Hunters take cougar near Troy
D ick Paris, of Heppner, with a small female cougar shot by
his son-in-law Farron Reynolds, of Milton-Freew ater at
Bartlett Bench near Troy on Sunday, Aug. 1. W hile on their
way to go hear hunting, Paris and Reynolds came upon the
cougar stalking a deer. Paris plans on m aking a rug out of
the hide for his living room.
MIST AND COOL
OUTDOOR COOLING SYSTEM
Makes outdoor areas up to 25 ° cooler
Uses only a few gallons o f water per hour
M orrow C ou n ty G rain G r o w e r s
Prince** Emily Bergstrom with her hor*e Penny.
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