Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 2004)
Board chairman, athletic director differ on school game scheduling Bessie fetzell U of O Newspaper L i o r a r y Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 123 NO. 37 10 Pages Wednesday, September 15, 2004 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon String o f burglaries, thefts leads to M orrow C ounty T hree unnam ed suspects have been linked to several area burglaries and thefts. One of the suspects, a 16-year-old juvenile from Hermiston is currently being lodged at Umatilla Juvenile Detention. The two other suspects, who are trying to be located, have been id en tified as Irrigon residents. The su b jects are su spects in th efts at Fredrickson Ranch and the RD Offutt property, as well as from several north M orrow County tractors. They are also suspected of burglary and theft at the Rill resident in the Heppner area. Items stolen include farming equipment, tools, tool boxes, radios, jewelry and vehicles. With the help o f the ju v e n ile su b ject, several item s have been recovered and returned to their owners. Jewelry and a 2001 Ford Mustang were stolen, and have not yet been recovered, from the Rill residence. The incident started when the suspects borrowed a vehicle from a friend who later reported it stolen. That vehicle was wrecked and a second vehicle was stolen from G illiam C ounty. G illiam County deputies then pursued the subjects into Morrow County where they had stopped at the Rill residence, burglarizing the house, stealing jewelry and the Ford M ustang. The vehicle out o f G illiam County was recovered at the Rill residence. A ccording to M orrow C ounty S h e riff Verlin D enton, the P endleton Police Department believe that the Mustang was traded by the suspects to another fugitive who is suspected to have left the area. An attem pt to locate the subject and the vehicle is still being made. City Council discusses expansion of Urban Growth Boundary The Heppner City Council made a preliminary m ove M onday tow ard expan d in g the U rban G row th B oundary surrounding the city. The diagram below shows the new proposed expansion to the Heppner UGB. The dashed line is the UGB. The narrow line shows the current city limits. the golf course and Dee Cox Road to the South Morrow Industrial Park, Each o f O reg o n ’s 241 cities is surrounded by continuedpage 3 M orrow C ounty School Board Chair John Renfro and Heppner High School ath letic d ire c to r Greg Grant, at the regular m eeting in L exington Monday night, expressed frustration over differing view s o f the d is tric t’s athletic policy concerning changes in school game schedules. Renfro maintained that the principals, athletic d ire c to rs and coaches appeared to be disregarding d istrict policy which he b eliev ed p ro h ib ited sch ed u lin g m id-w eek athletic contests and said that he had receiv ed com plaints from parents. G rant said that school officials were doing the best they could in discouraging mid-week games, bearing in mind that the M orrow County School District has to work with other districts, some o f which did not have that sam e em phasis. He asked Renfro to trust the “professionals” to do their jobs. He also said that he w ould also receive complaints from parents if the quality o f play went down. Renfro countered that while some may consider board m em bers “ dum b farmers and ex-cops,” the board sets the policy and the ad m in istratio n and sta ff should follow that policy. However, the board did not prohibit mid-week games or prohibit changes in the athletic schedules, but rather, on D ecem ber 8, 2003, rev ised policy concerning the scheduling o f ath le tic c o n tests as follows: building principals are required to subm it a written report for the board within 30 days o f the end of the season, which contains the orig in al ath letic schedule, actual schedule and start tim es, actual departure and return times for away contest and the num bers o f students tran sp orted to and from “away” contests. Since the district’s four-day school week was approved, the board vowed to cut down the num ber o f m id-w eek athletic contests and the am ount o f tim e students spend away from class time. The issue came to a head following scheduling o f recent H eppner High School mid-week games. H eppner High School Principal Wade Smith and Grant said that one o f the games was scheduled so far in advance that they did not anticipate that school would already be in session at the time o f the game. School started prior to Labor Day this year. One of the mid w eek aw ay gam es in question was to Walla Walla on the first day of school. Also at the meeting, the board awarded bids for roofing projects for A.C. H oughton E lem entary School, H eppner E lem en tary School, Heppner High School and R iv ersid e High School. S u p erin ten d en t Mark Burrows told the board that the bid was initially too high, at $1.6 million, but he was able to negotiate a reduced amount. The initial amount was sent at $1.25 million, but the board approved the bid at $1,396,800. Burrows said that the additional cost was due to the high cost of steel. In other business, the board: -received a report from B urrow s w hich showed that districts with four-day school w eeks ach iev ed state-w id e benchm arks at approximately the same rate as districts with five-day school weeks. Results were compiled from 10 Eastern Oregon school districts with four-day school weeks and 10 with five-day weeks. On an average, in grade three: in 4-day week schools, 15 percent did not meet the benchmarks, 64 percent met and 21 exceeded, compared to 25 percent not meeting, 52 m eeting and 23 ex ceed in g for five-day schools; in grade five: in four-day schools, 18 percent did not meet, 62 percent met and 20 percent exceeded, compared to 17 percent not meeting, 63 percent meeting and 20 percent exceeding in five-day schools; in grade eight: in four-day schools, 43 percent did not meet, 29 percent met and 28 percent exceeded, compared to 44 percent not m eeting, 28 percent m eeting and 28 percent exceeding in five- day schools; in grade 10: in four-day schools, 60 percent did not meet, 31 percent met and nine percent exceeded, compared to 58 percent not meeting, 29 percent meeting and 13 percent exceeding in five-day schools. -received a report from Burrows concerning the V-tel classes scheduled throughout the district as follows: a V-tel calculus class o rig in atin g from Candidates9 Fair to be held A Candidates’ Fair will be held Sept. 16 and 30 at John's Place in Heppner from 12-1 p.m. The general public is invited to attend these meetings to meet the various candidates. On Sept. 16, candidates for County Clerk and County Sheriff will be on hand. On Sept. 30, candidates for Justice o f the Peace and City of Heppner Mayor will be on hand. The H eppner Chamber of Commerce and Willow Valley Service Club are sponsoring the event. Town Hall meeting to be held in lone Heppner city lim its A town hall meeting to d iscuss the proposed medical district levy will be held in lone on Sept. 29. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the lone Legion Hall. Officials from the medical district will explain the levy and take questions from the audience. All interested persons are urged to attend. Riverside High School has four students from RHS and two from H eppner High School; a psychology class originating from Heppner High School has 17 HHS stu d en ts and 10 RHS students; an ag-leadership class originating at Irrigon High School has 16 IHS stu d en ts and five RHS students; an ag-business class originating from IHS has 18 IHS students and two RHS students. -receiv ed an elem en tary class load a n aly sis from Burrow s w hich show ed the following: A.C. Houghton Elementary-four kindergarten classes with c ontinued page three L ocal m an grad u ates from M arin e basic train in g Travis Bellamy H eppner H igh School g rad u ate T ravis Bellamy, 20, graduated from the Marine Corps Recruit T raining D epot in San Diego, CA on July 16 after attending the C o rp s’ 12- week boot camp there. Since then, B ellam y has com pleted Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton's School of Infantry in southern California. He is currently attending M ain B attle Tank Technicians School in Fort Knox. KY. D ay indicted on num erous th eft ch arges Sandi Day, o f H eppner, was indicted Tuesday, Sept. 14, by a Morrow County grand jury on 85 co u n ts, m ostly pertaining to theft from the Morrow County Transfer S tatio n , acco rd in g to M orrow C ounty D istrict Attorney David C. Allen. One count of tampering with public records and one count o f official misconduct are included in the indictment. Allen said his office would apply for a warrant for Day and set bail. If Day is unable to make bail at that time, a release hearing will be held the following day, during which a judge will decide whether she may be released or must post bail, he said. D A N N E R BOOT SALE The dashed line outlines the proposed expanded Heppnerllrhan Growth Boundry ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. c Jj 2 0% OF F M o rro w C ounty G rain G r o w e rs Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 H r farm equipment, «Wt our web rite at www meg* net
