Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2005)
Local group tours glue-lam plant looking at Heppner II.M...I.UII Il,In.II Bessie Wetzel Newspauer Library University o f Oregc i Eugene, OR 97403 (Left to right) Morrow County Commissioner Ray Grace, plant manager Mike Rinkaee, Willow Creek Valley Economic Development Vice President Nancy Snider and Bank of Eastern Oregon President George Koffler look over newly opened glue-lam plant in Molalla. A contingent from Mor tives o f the county, Port of eration at the industrial park row County, interested in Morrow, Willow Creek Val by the end o f this year to fill helping open a glue-lam ley Economic Development a high demand for its prod plant in Heppner, toured a Group, the city o f Heppner uct The company has been meeting with local officials similar operation Tuesday and private businesses to work out financing plans that recen tly o pened in The to u r o f the plant Molalla The plant is owned showed how large glue lami to bring in the plant which by a company named Savan nated beams are made out of could employ up to 40 or nah Pacific 2X4s. The company is hop more people Traveling to Molalla ing to start the Heppner op More photos and information in next week's Gazette-Times. Tuesday were representa City of Irrigon wastewater treatment change could cost school district VOL. 124 NO. 15 10 Pages Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Terrace residents enjoy tea party Residents at Willow Creek Terrace in Heppner were treated Wednesday, April 6 to a tea party given by the Red Hat Society ladies. The gathering room at the Terrace was filled with ladies in red and purple hats and the “gents” were invited as well. New auto body/custom painting business opens in Heppner Kirk Looslie, with a car he is performing a complete paint job on. Kirk Looslie o f Lex ington has recently opened L ooslie’s Auto Body and Custom Painting in Heppner Looslie previously worked with his father at Lexington Auto Body and has grown up around the business He has also worked at several other auto body shops, gain ing experience along the way. Looslie does custom cars, complete paint jobs and insurance work He also has painted customized snow mobiles and enjoys jobs on old cars and Mustangs By summer, Looslie plans on adding a paint booth to his operation The paint booth will be a “clean” room set aside for painting L oo slie hps also worked with Mike Hann, who has helped him with custom lettering for his sig nage and in c re atin g Looslie’s recent float in the St Patrick's Day parade Looslie's shop is lo cated at 235 Linden Way, across from Green Feed and Seed For more information or to set up an appointment with Looslie. call 676-5280 A city o f Irrig o n w aste w ater treatm en t project may end up costing the Morrow County School D istrict as much as $ 100,000, according to Kei th White, city o f Irrigon pub lic w orks superintendent White spoke to the school board at their regular meet- ing in H eppner M onday night White said that the city is in the process o f changing from a septic sys tem, in which solids are stored in septic tanks and “gray water” is released, to a gravity system, which ac cepts both solids and liquids. According to White, under the city's waste water facili ty plan, 90 percent o f new c o n n e c tio n s in the city should be made to the new gravity system in order to keep a biological balance for treatment, as per the DEQ. Because the school district plans to build a new 9,000 square foot agricul- ture/shop building at the Ir rigon Junior/Senior High School, the school would have to be hooked up to the new system. This would en tail installing pipe to connect the school to the gravity sewer that is approximately 2000 feet away, which could result in a substantial cost to the district White said that if the city allowed the school district to hook onto the old effluent system , the city would compromise its DEQ permit. “Irrigon has no plans to stop or diffuse plans for the ag building,” he said “We want to see you build that to its fullest potential ” He added that the city of Ir rigon and the Morrow Coun ty School District will have to work together to resolve the issue White also said that some o f the residential users in the area will share costs with the school d istrict B oard m em ber Pat Mc- Namee, Irrigon, suggested that installation o f the pipe required could be done by volunteer labor to cut costs for the district MCSD Superinten dent Mark Burrows said that the building plans for the “professional/technical/edu- cation” building have been completed and bids for con struction will go out this week He said that bids will be open for three weeks with building planned to get un derway before the end o f May. Also at the meeting. Burrows announced that the Heppner Schools principal interview process is under way, with interviews sched uled for Tuesday, Wednes day and Thursday o f this week The public is invited to attend. Current Heppner Principal Wade Smith has accepted a position as assis tant superintendent for the district In other business, the board: -heard a presentation from Smith concerning a newly implemented work order system to expedite re pairs district-wide The sys tem involves e-mail notifica tion and on-site maintenance workers, which should im prove response time -heard a request from a citizen to change the district’s policy on rehiring retired PERS employees Board Chair John Renfro said that the district does not prohibit rehiring retired PERS employees, if they were the best qualified for the job -heard from B ur rows that increases in PERS (employees retirement plan) could skyrocket, dramatical ly affecting the district’s bud get According to Burrows, PERS costs amount to 111 percent currently. PERS costs will rise to approxi m ately 14.7 percent the coming year; and could go as high as 19 or 20 percent Burrows said that Deputy Clerk Rhonda Lorenz esti mates that every time PERS increases one percent, it costs the district approxi mately $100,000 -heard from B ur rows that schools statewide are expected to be funded at $5 175 billion, which is good news for the district, because its budget was built on $5 billion for statewide educa tion Burrows said the in crease could yield the district in the neighborhood o f an additional $300,000 -learned from board secretary Julie Ashbeck that the new electronic board packet system should be in effect by the next meeting The move from paper to an electronic system could save the district $3000 to $4000 annual -thanked state Rep resentative Greg Smith for inviting the state H ouse Committee on Elections to meet in Heppner last week A dinner following the ses sion was hosted by the Lind say and Murray families and the school district. -learned th at the East Oregonian will no long er cover MCSD meetings, unless a significant issue is to be discussed and the board requests the EO to at tend -discussed eliminat ing some meetings in order to reduce the number board members are required to at tend, perhaps combining the Site Council and CEC meet ings. The H eppner CEC meetings have had difficulty in achieving a quorum -adopted a resolu tion to adopt public con tracting procedures to con form to state regulations -approved the assis tant superintendent’s con tract -approved the first reading of the district’s alter native education diploma, which, according to Renfro, is “not all that different” from the requirements for the regular diploma -approved resigna tions for: Jill Sabo, A C. H o u g h to n E lem entary School counselor; Kristi McNamee, ACH special ed ucation one-on-one assis tant, Tiffanie Greenup, Mor row Education C enter ed assistant -approved transfers/ promotions for Dan Van- Liew, from Heppner High School assistant custodian to Heppner-Lexington facilities coordinator, Elaine Miller, Continued on page 6 F U d & rs & White • Cub Cadet Snapper • Troy Built M o rro w C o u n ty G ra in G ro w e rs Lexington 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 • 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 rrtv m equipment, v M t our web (Ite at w w w .m c (| net
