Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2004)
Heppner City Hall now open on Main Street Bessie Ïatzc11 U o f 0 N e * 3 p n p s r E u j e n e * UR L i . i - r y c, . 4 J i HEPPNER Heppner City Hall employees Alice Ployhar (left) and Rene Devin man the desk at the new city hall building at 111 N. Main Street in Heppner. The city hall is now located at the old Klamath First hank building. Drug investigation leads to arrest of locals mmm o & unes VOL. 123 NO. 39 8 Pages Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Mush? Morrow County Sheriff Verlin Denton with seized marijuana plants Alaskan dog sled runner/racer Doug Ruzicka Heppner Elementary stu d en ts and teachers learned some fascinating information Monday. They now know that you can be a “ m u sh er” , but that real mushers never say “Mush.” (He usually says, “Hike.”) They learned how many dogs can pull a sled, what happens if you spit in 50 degree below zero weather, what 50-degree below zero tem p eratu res do to unprotected hands, how you can protect those digits from said conditions and how you w ipe your nose w hile running a dogsled. The kids and teachers were fascinated with the answers (you can have as many as 26 dogs pull a sled, but in the Iditerod race you must end up with at least five dogs, spit freezes in mid-air, hands freeze all the way through if you don't wear mittens, you wipe your nose with the fur-covered back of your mitten) and m uch m ore inform ation supplied by real-life dogsled runner/racer Doug Ruzicka of Anchor Point. Alaska, who spoke to the entire elementary school assembled on the playground. Ruzicka, who was bom in Nebraska and raised on a corn and soybean farm, said he discovered Alaska after he started driving truck right out of high school. He began running a dogsled team shortly after he moved to Alaska 13 years ago, but only fairly recently got involved in racing, after some of his children became interested, and has raced in the famous Iditerod dogsled race. R u z i c k a dem o n strated his sled, unfortunately without the benefit of his sled dog. which was stolen while he was on the road visiting classes in Nevada, and told the kids how he keeps the dogs from running away with the sled if he happens to fall off, which happens often, he said. He also showed the parka, boo ts, m ittens, flashlight and the cooking/ heating pot that he uses while running his dogs. He reported that the night before when he called his wife, his town had received its first snowfall, in contrast to the very warm autumn day in Heppner. R uzicka says he normally spends about nine weeks each spring and fall tra v e lin g th ro u g h o u t W ashington, O regon, N evada, Utah and Idaho visiting schools, but says he needs to spend more time at home and plans to cut back to only spring tours. He and his wife have six children, ranging in age from two to 25 years. One of his sons recently returned home after spending 15 months in Iraq. marijuana grow operations, said the MCSO. Also located in the resid en ce was a quantity of finished product, a set of scales, marijuana smoking pipes, and other paraphernalia, said MCSO. Several hours after dismantling the marijuana grow at the Stahl residence, B.E.N.T detectives went to the home o f Jered Lee Wicklund, 28, of 380 Union Street, in H eppner. Detectives discovered an indoor m arijuana grow operation in the crawl space of Wicklund's residence. The crawl space of Wicklund’s residence contained two grow room s, each co n tain in g num erous marijuana plants in individual pots. A total of 247 plants was seized from the W icklund craw l space, MCSO said. The crawl space had been ex cav ated and oth erw ise m odified to facilitate the tw o room growing operation. The two grow room s were each equipped with grow lights Local teacher to go to Afghanistan Heppner Junior High School te a c h e r Davi d M e lv ille e m p tie d his desk, %. packed up his w ife David Melville and young during last day d a u g h te r at Heppner and spent Junior High his last day at HJH M onday ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. J A Blue M ountain E nforcem ent N arco tics Team (B.E.N.T. Drug Task Force) investigation led to the seizure of a large number of marijuana plants from two commercial size marijuana growing operations in South M orrow C ounty and the arrest of three individuals on Friday, Sept. 24, according to Morrow County Sheriff Verlin Denton. The first grow operation was located at the home o f M ichael Duane Stahl, 43, and his wife, Shari Lynn Stahl, 38. of 63317 Meadowbrook Farm Lane in the tow n o f L exington. Some 132 marijuana plants were seized from several locations inside the residence, outside storage buildings, and from open air locations on the Stahl properly. The grows which were located inside the residence and in the storage buildings were equipped w ith a rtificia l lighting systems, or “grow lights,” commonly used in indoor Melville doesn't expect to return for quite some time. The 26-year old math and PE teacher, who doubles as a m em ber o f the O regon National Guard, has been put on alert and ordered to report for training, with the expectation of being sent to Afghanistan in March. W hile few would relish the idea of serving in A fg h an istan , M elville accepts his assignment with a sense of pride and duty, but. of course, also with some regrets. “I'm proud to serve my country,” says Melville, the father of a one- year old daughter, Hannah. "It’s hard to leave my family, but if no one serves, then we continued page two which were hard wired into the residence's electrical system. In addition to the grow lights, numerous pots, bags of fertilizer, and other items were found. Several ounces of finished product were located in the living area o f the residence, according to MCSO. M orrow C ounty S h e riff V erlin D enton responded to the Wicklund resid en ce and assisted detectives in dismantling the grow operation and later disposing of the almost 400 marijuana plants. Marijuana growing operations were nothing new to S h eriff Denton, who spent a number o f years as a n arco tics in v e stig a to r p rio r to be elected as sheriff of Morrow County, he said. The suspects in these cases were not lodged in the jail facility as jail space is in short supply, said Denton, and they w ere not considered to be a flight risks. Both cases will be referred to the office of the M orrow C ounty D istrict Attorney David Allen. The task force will recommend that the suspects be charged with M anufacturing and Possession of a Schedule I c o n tro lle d su b stan ce, m ariju an a. A pound of marijuana sells for between $300 and $1,000 dollars depending the quality, said MCSO. MCSO estim ates that a mature mari juana plant will produce from one to tw o pounds du rin g a growing season. DANNER BOOT SALE 20% OFF M o r r o w County G ra in G r o w e r s Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For firm equipm ent, viiit our web lite at WWW m e « net
