From princess to queen, reading, riding and
M orrow C ounty blend together
Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library
University of Oregon
Eugene. OR 97403
V
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a
Queen Heather Yocom
Last year's princess,
this year’s queen, Heather
Yocom
c o n tin u e s
to
represent Morrow County.
The 18-year-old
daughter of Jack and Renee
Yocom of Heppner has been
involved with the fair and
rodeo and 4-H most of her
life. This year will be her
third year showing steers.
Her steer this year is 1-1/2
year old Joey. He is a
replacement as her original
steer. Butterscotch, was “too
wild and too mean.” Joey, a
Hereford, is “totally calm.”
Besides switching
steers. Queen Heather also
had to do a horse switch this
year. She had originally been
riding “Red,” but he had to
be put down after getting his
leg cut o ff on a fence
Memorial Day weekend at
Spray. She has switched to
“ Rowdy,” a four-year-old
quarter horse. Even though
his name is "Row dy,” Queen
Heather says he is totally
calm. “He just goes with the
flow,” said Heather, "kind of
like me. Our temperaments
are the same.”
"Rowdy” came from
the Mitch and Tag Ashbeck
Ranch and was trained by
her boyfriend, Ryan "Hoss”
Geer, this spring for 30 days
and Heather finished the
horse. “ H e ’s ab so lu tely
gorgeous," says Heather, of
his brown, with chestnut
color.
Q ueen H e a th e r's
fam ily has long been
involved with the fair, rodeo
and community activities.
Her mom, Renee, is the
M orrow C o u n ty Fair
secretary and has always
been active at the fair. Her
dad. Jack, works the bucking
chutes for the rodeo.
Grandpa, "Papa Joe” Yocom
has been involved with the
Rodeo Committee, the Fair
Board and numerous other
activ itie s
and
her
grandmother, Hilda, who
passed away, was “active
with everything.” Heather
also has two brothers. Justin,
14. and Zachary, 12, who,
she gets along with very
well. "They have been a lot
of help,” said Heather.
" W e ’re
really
focusing on the next
g e n eratio n ,” said Queen
Heather. The court this year
has been in v o lv ed with
various reading programs
th ro u g h o u t the county.
“We’ve read in every town
in the county at least once,”
added Heather. Last year the
court had w anted to get
involved in the SM ART
reading program, but were
unable to, so this year "we
got our foot in the door,”
said Heather.
The court also got
together with Oregon Trail
L ibrary
D istrict
and
participated in their summer
reading program. “The kids
are great, it was so cool.
They all look up to you,"
expressed Heather.
Jo in in g
Q ueen
Heather on the court this
year are Princess Josie Miller
and Pennant Bearers Jessica
Hamilton and Jarreid Miller,
Princess Josie's brother.
The
co u rt
has
already participated at Spray,
Athena. Elgin, The Dalles
and Umatilla Landing Days,
as well as other places.
Q ueen H e a th e r ’s
favorite event so far this year
has been
the
Elgin
...continued on page 2
School board passes tough, but compassionate drug,
Preparations underway for M orrow County Fair alcohol policies, testing procedures
VOL. 125
NO. 33
8 Pages
Wednesday, August 16,2006
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
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Percentage of students passing the benchmarks in Morrow County as compared to those through-
out the state.
Morrow County Judge Terry Tallman, Boardman and Sue Gibbs, Heppner, discuss a flower as
they ready floral entries for the Morrow County Fair to be held Aug. 16-20.
L exington C ouncil m em b er scolds audience
L ex in g to n Town
C ouncil m em ber Bev
Steagall ended the Aug. 8
council meeting by scolding
members of the audience for
attacking council members,
bickering, nitpicking and
“hassling over every little
thing." “That's why none of
us want to be on the
c o u n c il,” * a d m o n ish ed
Steagall.
Steagall, who was
appointed to fill a position
left vacant following a recall
of previous council member
Luella Taylor, said that she
w ould not run for her
position when it comes up
for election this fall, as did
council m em bers Jean
Brazell and Jim Nelson.
Brazell had earlier survived
a recall. N elson was
ap p o in te d
a fter
the
resig n atio n o f council
member Kirk Looslie. The
remaining council position is
held by Jay Papineau, who
filled the position held by
Mike Orwick who recently
resigned.
Mayor Val Doherty,
who was appointed mayor
after the recall of previous
mayor John Edwards, had
e a rlie r severely lim ited
audience participation to a
portion o f the m eeting
d e sig n a te d for public
comment said, “We're not
going to have this crap.”
D oherty had opposed
audience members entering
into a dialogue with council
members during meetings.
Also at the meeting,
the council discussed the
to w n ’s resp o n se to the
recent well crisis. The
re s e rv o ir
had
been
discovered only half full, due
to a pum p m alfunction.
Overall, the response and
solution to the situation was
d eem ed
speedy
and
a p p ro p ria te
and
to w n sp eo p le
were
commended for rising to the
occasion, limiting their water
use and “pitching in" to help.
The council plans to discuss
in stallatio n o f an alarm
system to alert town officials
of such an emergency and
also plans to d iscuss
developing a back up well.
In other business, the
council:
-voted to implement
a $37 deposit for basic water
service to avoid problems in
collecting overdue water
bills from renters.
-decided to put off
plans for a harvest festival
until next year.
-plans to review
various employee policies at
the next council meeting and
adapt a policy for the town.
-plans to d iscuss
amending the town’s charter
at the next meeting and
determine which charter is
currently in effect.
-rev iew ed a cost
estimate for paving C Street/
Black Horse Canyon, with a
total project cost of $63,271,
of which $29,370 would be
city’s portion, which they
hope to fund through a
grant.
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
The Morrow County
School Board approved the
first reading o f revised
alcohol, drug and tobacco
and drug testing procedures
policies at its regular board
meeting in Irrigon Monday
night.
The change comes
on the heels of a Morrow
C ounty
S h e r if f ’s
D epartm ent
drug
in v estig atio n involving
numerous Heppner High
School students and recent
graduates and adults in the
com m unity.
MCSD
Assistant Superintendent
Wade Smith stressed that "to
our knowledge, these things
are not happening on school
grounds.”
D r u g s /a lc o h o l:
According to the new district
policy, if a student
voluntarily admits the use of
alcohol or drugs he will be
given the option of a short
suspension (10 days or one
contest/event. whichever is
greater from the date of
admission) and “good faith"
p artic ip a tio n in a state
certified drug and alcohol
assistance program at the
student’s/parent’s expense.
*lf the student elects
to participate in the drug/
alcohol assistance program
he w ill continue to practice
or participate with the team
or group, hut will not
participate in any game or
event during the suspension.
The suspension will carry
over into the next season if
the schedule ends before the
time has elapsed. If the first
session of the drug
assistance program has not
occurred hy the end of the
pu n ish m en t period, the
student will be suspended
from practice or involvement
and participation in games or
events until he has attended
at least one session.
Continued participation will
be contingent on the student
missing no sessions of the
drug or alcohol program.
*lf the student elects
not to participate in the
program , he will be
suspended from the team or
non-athletic program for the
remainder of the current
season and the next sport
season/academic quarter the
student participates in.
*For the second
voluntary
a d m issio n ,
discipline will be handled
according to the first offense.
*For
the
first
o ffen se,
a
stu d en t
determined to be in violation
o f the policy by use,
p o ssessio n
or
active
involvement with unlawful
drugs or alco h o l, as
d eterm in ed
by
s e lf
ad m issio n .
c ita tio n /
conviction, schcxil personnel
affidavit or positive drug
test, will be subject to an
immediate suspension of at
least three weeks and or two
contest days or e v en ts,
whichever is greater. The
suspension will begin as soon
as the school becomes aware
of the violation.
*From there, the
student has two choices He
can choose option A, which
...continued on page 3
HAC K TO O I K R E G U L A R H O U R S
> lon«lay - F r i d a y 7 a .in . lo .» |>.m.
S a t u r d a y • 7 a .in . to 12 n o o n
WE WILL BE CLOSED THIS SATURDAY
Join us at the Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo!
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396
F w farm equipm ent, visit our w eb
t it e
at
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