Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2005)
Web site ranks Heppner number one for manufactured home living 1111111111111111111111 • Il 111 ( ! 11 Bessie Wetzel! Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene OR -t 7403 Upwardly Mobile Homes W herr j r r the best L Happnar O n 160 900 town» to live in • mo 1. Warsaw. *» »98.800 1 Thompson FaMs Most M/900 4. Fanning Sprwypv Fla. (4 4 Ü 0 0 b>lrhwnr>WeloufcriJ for 10 placet with plenty of people a nr 50 and older and loti of upscale manufac tured housing. H n r they are. with the corresponding modi an value» 1 Ripley. Ohio »43800 g CenlervWe. Tam. »42.400 7. Friendship Wit »39,800 g Fort Malte 1C. »39400 A Troy, Mo. »38.200 10 Bathany Barren Oat »38.000 Article in January issue of AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) magazine ran the above article about top ten places for manufactured homes in USA. Heppner is ranked #1. Bringing in a median value o f $60,900 for m anufactured housing, Heppner was recently listed as the number one place to live, if over 50 and into “ upscale m anufactured housing .” This listing was published in the January 2005 AARP Bulletin from ePodunk, Inc. EPodunk, Inc., is a privately owned company, started by three journalists and based near Ithaca, NY, that publishes in-depth community information on the Internet at www epodunk.com The company gathers statistics from the U S. C ensus Bureau, US Forest Service, NASA, United States Postal Service, National Center for Education Statistics and many o th er governm ent agencies, as well as from state and local governments, n ew spapers and organizations. From this gathered information, one can find information about a com m unity’s population, growth rate, school districts, local a ttra ctio n s, newspapers, etc EPodunk, Inc believes in “the power o f place” and that “there is no such thing as an unimportant com m unity.” W ith this philosophy, ePodunk publishes information not only about big cities such as Los Angeles, but also about rural communities, such as Heppner or Podunk, New York B esides the statistical in fo rm atio n , ePodunk com offers visitors a chance to brag about their towns through its “Claims to Fame” and provides Top 10 lists for a variety of subjects W hile we have already made number one on one their list, it might be worth taking the time to visit their site and brag a little on Heppner. We might ju st make their “Claim to Fame” with our great St Patrick’s Day celebration or even start a list o f “The Friendliest Small Towns.” School Board reviews proposal for Irrigon shop building Heppner seats new mayor and four 2005-06 fiscal year; July 15- The Morrow County The board also School District Board heard review ed B u rro w s’ job deadline to certify levy to council persons assessor. a presentation concerning perform ance during VOL. 124 NO. 2 8 Pages Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon City manage Jerry Brazeale (left) swears in council members Cindi Doherty, Kay Roibinson and Glenn Baker. For the first time in 12 years a new mayor will preside over council meetings at Heppner City Hall Bob Jepsen turned over the gavel to Tim Van Cleave Monday night and formerly stepped down from the city’s top elected position Before handing over the gavel to end his reign, Jepsen gave a farewell talk to the incoming council He urged them to be flexible and c o m p assio n ate in their decision making, relating how he had at tim es p ersonally paid for or arranged to be paid water bills o f fam ilies w hose service was scheduled to be terminated. “ I would hope you would still let me know if there is a family, especially with small children, who may be going to have their water shut off, because I still want to help them out,” he told the council City Manager Jerry Breazeale then swore in Van Cleave, new councilperson Glenn Baker, and re-elected members Cindi Doherty and Kay Robinson Later, the newly seated council voted unanim ously to appoint George Koffler to fill the seat vacated by Van Cleave Koffler will serve until November o f 2005, w hen he will then be required to stand for election. K offler is the president o f the Bank o f Eastern O regon and has lived in Heppner with his wife Debbie since 1974. His community service includes, among other things, past president o f the W illow C reek E conom ic D evelopm ent G roup, a member o f the Elks Audit committee and past board m em ber o f the G reater E astern O regon Development Corp On his application for appointm ent to the vacant council position, Koffler said he is interested in “delivering w ater and sew er services at an affordable rate; quality streets; city econom ic development, and quality police coverage.” A fter seating new members and mayor, the council: -heard a report from public works director Bruce Nelson, who said the soil samples from the city yard under a buried paint barrel are being analyzed to see if further digging and how much excavation will be needed The paint is considered a h azard o u s George Koffler was sworn in to fill out Tim Van Cleave’s council position waste and the Department of Environmental Quality is studying soil from the burial area -heard a report from Breazeale that a study by the Federal Em ergency M anagem ent A gency is proceeding, which will most likely reduce the flood zone in the Willow Creek Valley He said many o f the “numbers are in” on the new study, but he is working with FEMA to possibly get the flood zone reduced even more in the South Morrow Industrial Park and the lone area -agreed to refer to the utility commission a proposal to add gravel and continued page two ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. t architectural plans for a new shop building for the Irrigon Junior/Senior High School at their regular board meeting Monday night in Irrigon, but deferred a decision until they are able to further study the proposal Jan 19. The proposal consists o f three options, depending on the board’s d ecision and funding available The first option would be to build the shop building only, the second would be to build a shop building and an uncovered commons area and the third option would be to build the shop, co n stru ct the commons area and provide a cover, uniting the new facility with the old building. The board and su p erin ten d en t Mark Burrows had been lead to believe that the construction could be completed by the start o f school this next year, but learned from the architect that construction will probably not be com pleted until around December or January 2006 Also at the meeting, the board heard a p resen tatio n concerning costs o f outfitting for the shop building, including tools and other equipment, and curriculum options In other business, the board approved purchase of the a lte rn ativ e school building from the troubled Union B aker ESD The board sold the building to Union Baker ESD last year for $146,000 and repurchased it for the same amount MCSD will begin operating its own alternative education program executive session Following executive session, board member Barney Lindsay gave Burrows “high praise for the short time he’s been here.” In other business, the board -adopted the 2005- 06 budget calendar as follows: March 1-budgets due from buildings and departm ents; M arch 30- publication o f notice o f budget meeting; April 6- second notice budget hearing; April 11-regular board meeting, distribute budget document; April 18- first budget meeting, budget message, with additional meeting dates to be set by the budget committee if needed; May 9-deadline for budget approval, June 1-publication of notice o f budget hearing, June 13-regular board meeting; July 1 -beginning of -heard a statement of assurances from Burrows that the d istrict is in compliance with standards for elem entary and secondary schools - a p p r o v e d employment for Elizabeth M elendez, B oardm an school-family liaison; Laurie H offm an, Irrigon High School part-time assistant cook; C hristina Chavez, R iverside High School English as a second language educational assistan t, rep lacin g E lizabeth Melendez; Hollie McGill, RHS Title III ed assistant, June Dabling, Windy River Elem entary Title I ed assistant, and Jarrod Pearce, A C. Houghton Elementary Title I ed assistant. -approved extra duty contracts for: Randy Barton. RHS head softball coach, replacing Tom Jensen; continued page two Health District position open Due to the resignation of member John Prag, who is moving out of the Morrow County Health District to the Tri-Cities area, one at-large position has been made vacant on the MCHD board The appointee will serve through June 2005, with an election being held in May. According to Victor Vander D oes, MCHD Administration, two other positions will also be on the May ballot Those positions are currently held by Ed Glenn, of Boardman, who will be resigning at the end o f the term (June 2005) and Kenneth Matlack, who has not indicated w hether he would run for re-election or not For those interested in the current opening, a letter o f interest should be provided by 1 p m , Jan 26 to: V ictor Vander Does, A d m in istrato r, M orrow County Health District, PO Box 9, Heppner, OR 97836 Interested parties should then attend the next regular meeting of the Board, Jan 31, 7 p m in lone at the lone United Church o f Christ, for an interview For any additional information, you can contact Vander Does by phone at 676-2915 10% OFF KEY CLOTHING M o r r o w C ounty G ra in G r o w e r s Lexington 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 • 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 Far farm «quipmant, vt»lt our W.b lit* at 1
