Heppner City Hall now open on Main Street
Bessie Ïatzc11
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N e * 3 p n p s r
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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.
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