Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2007)
Cities demand more of Finley Buttes income l l i l i i l i i i l i l n l l l i i i i i l l i l i i i l l Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene, ÓR 97403 VOL. 126 NO. 4 8 Pages Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Cities in Morrow County want more of the hundreds o f thousands of dollars in fees generated each year by the big Finley Buttes Landfill located on Bombing Range Road in North Morrow County. Heppner, lone, Lexing ton, Irrigon and Boardman have joined together to de mand that the county turn over the m ajority o f the “tippage” fee money gener ated by the landfill. The funds, w hich come from fees levied on each ton of gar bage dumped at the landfill, average about $78,(XX) per month and currently go di rectly into the county gen eral fund. The cities say this is not what was originally promised when the landfill was co n stru cted back in 1992. At a special meeting Mon day night the Heppner city council became the first city in the county to officially demand more of the funds, and passed a resolution say ing the county originally promised the money to the cities when the landfill was opened, and that the cities “are more accessible to their citizens and that they are in a better position to assess the needs of their communities.” Each year the county not only uses the tippage money in its general fund, but also disburses a portion of the funds through a process of grants to various community groups and entities. This year the county disbursed approximately $135,000 to these groups. The county court also grants additional tippage money on a separate basis to other groups, clubs and government agencies in cluding the cities. However, in the cities' opinion, this is not enough, and, according to L exington M ayor Val Doherty, "It appears that the Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon amounts distributed (at least since 2002-03) average less than 10 percent of the total receipts." Although the Heppner City Council did not spell out how much of the tippage money the cities wanted, the resolution stated that “de mand shall be made upon the Morrow County Court for equitable disbursement of the Finley Buttes Sanitary Landfill license fees in keep lone Education Foundation presented with 40 acre land deed Finley Butte Landfill on Bombing Range Road ing with the representations made to the people of Mor row County prior to the pas sage of the ordinance w hich resulted in authorization for the landfill to be established and m anaged in M orrow County.” The county had originally passed an ordinance in Feb ruary of 1993 stating: "after reserving the costs of oper ating the transfer stations lo cated within or near the mu nicipal communities, the re maining revenues would be divided as follows: 50 per cent to be divided between the Cities/Towns in equal shares; 40 percent to be di vided between the Cities/ Towns based upon popula tion percentages; the remain ing 10 percent to be reserved to the county as a discretion ary fund." In July o f 1994 the C ounty Court suspended that disbursement formula and deemed all funds would go directly into the county general fund. According to council dis cussion Monday the cities will be asking for a 75 per cent cut of the money, and if that is not granted, a petition would be started in each community seeking to put a resolution on a county-wide ballot asking voters approval for 90 percent of the money. just as the original county agreement had authorized According to Doherty, city representatives met with County Judge Terry Tallman and the meeting was am i cable. “ It was not a hostile meeting," she said. She said Tallman was open to the idea of changing things. (Tallman was unavailable for com ment before Gazette-Times deadline Tuesday) Newly elected commissioner Ken Grieb has not met with the cities' representatives, and C o m m issio n e r John Wenholtz is reportedly in Washington DC. At Monday’s Heppner C ouncil m eeting not all co u n cil m em bers w ere present, but those that were, in clu d in g G lenn B aker. C indy D oherty, JoA nne Burleson and Kay Robinson, all voted in favor of the reso lu tio n . C o u n cilm em b er George Koffler. who is on vacation in Mexico, faxed a letter saying he was against the resolution as worded. “I don't support the m ayor's group position. I want to hear the county court’s ex planation. If we do not agree with that position I favor a multi-year phase in of chang ing the distribution. Giving the county court until April 1,2007. to find $900.000 is Continued on page two School district heating, ventilating, lighting u p grad es to result in en ergy sa v in g s, reduced costs Pictured left to right are granddaughters Kayla Reid and Brittany Waggoner and husband Tyler, daughter Kellie Reid and Matt Reid, Mary Kmert. grandson Levi Hammond, granddaughter Saige Hammond, son Karl Hammond and Alice Hammond, and son Kevin Kilkenny and fiancee Rebecka Baigrie. Photo by Your Creative Image M ary E m ert, president of Emert Ranches, Inc., with the support her board members and family, p re se n te d the lone Education Foundation with a deed to a 40 acre parcel of land on Jan. 19. Like an earlier gift by her father. Delbert (Slim) Emert, this gift is to be used for the d ev elo p m en t o f residential building sites. This future development is located immediately north of the existing Emert Addition where more than 20 families presently reside. E m ert and her family, along with the lone E du catio n F o u n d atio n , u n d e rstan d that to successfully complete this new developm ent, it will take the support of the local people. Emert stated. “It is a good feeling to be able to gift this land to a community that has proven over and over again they could work hard and devote the time necessary to get a job done." Heppner Chamber officers elected The 2007 Chamber officers were elected at a luncheon on IXiesday, January 9. Standing left to right are Alvin Liu, new hoard member and second vice president: Jack Thompson, new board member: JefT Bailey, new hoard member and first vice president: Nancy Snider, president: Dave DeMayo. new hoard member: Tom Mathura, new board member: and Lisanne Curtin, new hoard member and treasurer. Oyster Feed offers $500 grant for manpower Organizations have th ro u g h the m onth o f February to apply for a $500 grant from the H ardm an C om m unity C en ter in e x ch an g e for som e m anpow er at the annual Hardman Oyster Feed this fall. Last fall, members of the Hardman Community Center decided to sponsor a feed this fall, with some changes. Back to the original b lu e p rin t fo r the feed, members of the Center will take responsibility for the sev eral asp e c ts of preparation and head up the com m ittees that work the night o f the event. A d d itio n ally , the organization decided to offer a $500 grant aw ard to a gro u p in te re sted in volunteering an “in-kind" match of manpower. Approximately Continued on page two P ro p o sed h eatin g and lighting upgrades for M orrow C ounty School District facilities should pay for th em selv es through energy savings, according to W ade S m ith, d istric t assistant superintendent. At a m eeting rescheduled for M onday night. January 22, in Irrigon. due to w eath er considerations, Smith told the board that the district paid $435,820 for heating fuel and e le c tric ity ($307.891 for electricity and $127.929 for heating fuel) for the 2005-06 school year. The w ide-spread district heats and lights two schools in Heppner, three each in Boardman and Irrigon, the Morrow Education Center alternative school in Irrigon and the district office in Lexington. He said that an assessm en t su rp risin g ly rev ealed that the new ly constructed buildings in the north end o f the county, Irrigon E lem en tary and Windy River Elementary in Boardman. were not energy efficient and would benefit from upgrades. He added that during the cold spell. one o f the sch o o ls was discovered to have brought in 80 percent of outside air. He said that the heating and cooling systems in those two schools are computerized and w ill “ take care o f themselves" when they are properly programmed and m onito red . Part o f the problem, he said, was that the district built the schools they went with the lowest bidder, which is not always cost-efficient and did not include funding for continued monitoring. He said that these computerized system s are com plex engineering systems "way above" the capabilities of local h eatin g /co o lin g companies. The board accepted a $52.800 competitive grant from the O regon Department of Energy to provide funding and tech su p p o rt for testin g , balancing and retrofitting of Irrigon E lem en tary and Windy River systems. The district is in the process of auditing every light fixture in north county schools. Smith said that in som e cases, an e n e rg y saving solution could be as simple as taking out bulbs. w hile still m ain tain in g lighting requirements. The district is also planning a lighting upgrade for the poorly lit Heppner Elementary School library, formerly the school gym. Sm ith said that lighting upgrades could save around $22.(XX) per year and expected a return on the district's investments in 1.35 years, including rebates and discounts. Also at the meeting, the board ap p ro v ed a resolution which will inhibit requests for public records. The board voted to establish fees to reimburse the district for copies of public records. According to the resolution, the district will now require that requests for copies or inspection of public records shall be in writing and on a form which would include the re q u e s te r's nam e, address, phone number, a “reasonable description” of the records desired and a signed statem ent that the requester will he responsible for all fees resulting from the request, whether or not the search is successful, and that the district will be in charge Continued on page two A t th e N C G G GREEN FEED STORE in H e p p n e r: MUCK BOOTS $10 OFF each pair Fieldmaster MUCK SHOES $5 OFF each pair The Muckster M o r ro w C ou n ty G ra in (»row ers G reen Feed & S eed 2 4 2 W . L in d e n W ay. H e p p n e r • 6 7 6 -9 4 2 2 • 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 (MCGG main office)
