Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2007)
Heppner home burns Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library Unixersity of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 Heppner, Lexington and lone firefighters responded to a house fire at 545 S. E. Court in Heppner on Thursday, February 15. The house, owned by Rick Haga of Redmond, was vacant. The fire went unnoticed until neighbors heard the windows blow out and called in the fire at 7:17 p.m. The first two engines were on the scene at 7:22 p.m. but the house was already fully involved. Five firefighters from Lexington Aftermath of lire Heppner Fire Chief Rusty and two engines and seven responded to the scene. Estes. firefighters from lone also The fire is still under investigation, according to VOL. 126 NO. 8 10 Pages Wednesday. February 21,2007 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Portland company called in to work on city sewer treatment plant The city of Heppner has called in a Portland Company Pacific Power Vac to help clean out the digester at the city sewer plant. Sediment in the digester tank has been building up over the years so that it is now 8 ft deep and is making the sewer treatm ent plant run inefficiently. City Manger David DeMayo says the material in the tank is made up of human waste, paper towels, plastic, hair and grease and is the consistency of a type of brink. “You can take it in your hands and break it apart, but it’s hard to get out of there,” DeMayo said. Which is why the Portland company was called in. DeMayo said it would take about a week for the company to clean out the tank. Workers for the company said last week that they clean out all kinds of tanks, oil messes and hazardous materials. “That's what we do,” said Chuck Dollar after climbing out of the tank to clean up. “We have worked inside two million gallon tanks.” he said. The sewer plant needs updating to keep the sediment from building up again says DeMayo. He said a mixer should be installed to keep the material loosed up when it is settling, and also a broken grinder needs to be replaced to help the sewer plant operatve more efficiently. The Grinder would cost about $58,000, money the city doesn't have DeMayo told the Heppner city council at its regular monthly meeting last Monday night. In other business at the meeting Mayor Les Paustian gave out 2 plaques of appreciation. The council also voted to declare excess sewer and water material as surplus. Paul Yauger gives worker Chuck Dollar a hosing down after he gets out of the tank. Kilkenny named Oregon Athletic Director Editor's Note: The business,” said Lynn following article appeared in the February 76 edition of The Register-Guard. The article was written bx Greg Bolt. If college athletics is more about profit and loss than X’s and O’s, might soon find himself in familiar surroundings. But just how easy is it to take the skills that make someone a success in the private-sector business world and create success in the world of public-sector collegiate sports? That's the question that Pat Kilkenny’s moves over the coming months w ill start to answer. Kilkenny, 54, was named Wednesday as the surprise choice to become the University of Oregon's next athletic director. A self- made insurance mogul, he built a small company into a nationwide operation w riting almost $1 billion in premiums a year. Lfe sold the company l a s t summer and. with a nine- figure building bridges with faculty, donors and fans. To those in the sports management world, it's not an unimaginable leap. It's no more unusual than the CEO of a cereal company taking a job as. say. the head of an investment firm, something that would hardly raise an eyebrow in the corporate world. "If you know how to run a business, you should be able to learn the nuances of the new one as long as you surround yourself w ith the right people and have the resources," said Andy Fellingham of Inter- Collegiate Athletics Consulting in New York. “If he's a good manager, he should be a good manager in the athletic department.” That's a common view among those who watch college sports from the outside or from a business perspective. For them, athletics is a business - at most Division I schools, a big business - and hiring a businessman as athletics director is no more unusual than putting on a suit in the morning. And the skill sets aren't that different: A corporate CEO has to massage the egos of big investors, motivate employees and build consensus among competing personalities and departments, in addition to putting black ink on the bottom line. An athletic director deals with big donors, motivates staff and coaches, and builds consensus not only among competing programs but with the academic community, and at the UO is expected to put black ink on the bottom line. "Let's face it. it's a m ulti-m illion dollar Lashbrook, a former athletic director and now president of Portland-based Sports Management Worldwide. "And often in education we don't bring that acumen for business.” Lashbrook and others say that more athletic departments are seeking that expertise. At the news conference announcing Kilkenny's selection, UO President Dave Frohnmayer said the university looked for precedents and found that both the University of M ichigan and Purdue University had made similar choices. The University of W isconsin is another institution that tapped its booster base for an athletic director. Business sense is just one of the skills a pick such as Kilkenny brings to the table. In an arena ever more dependent on outside revenue, he also will be judged on his success at building the donor base and landing the big gifts, starting with the ones needed for a new basketball arena. In this. Kilkenny starts out w ith an advantage: He's rich. And if wealth attracts wealth, he might be the person the UO needs to preserve its status as one of the few big schools with a self-funded athletic department. “One of the problems you see with fundraisers at universities is they bring in people who have never had money, so they don't know how to talk to people who have money,” Fellingham said. “And people who have money talk different than people who don't have money. This guy has money; he can talk to people who have money.” tout in lied page 2 payout in the bank, agreed to Pat Kilkenny take the UO job pro bono. Kilkenny attended the UO in the 1970s but did not graduate, though he still Setiment built up in city's treatment tank bleeds Duck green and yellow. Now he'll have to show that his passion for Duck athletics and his business smarts give him what it takes to run an operation that demands both financial and athletic Heppner Mayor Les Paustian above right presents former success, as well as a mayor Tim VanC leave (left) and former councilmemher Tom statesmanlike skill at Wolff (right) with a plaque of appreciation for their time served in city goverment. executive session following the The council instructed the regular meeting. city manager to offer the The session concerned material to Lexington and litigation against the City by B L O W O U T S A L E NeVI g, used’ lone. It was of no use or Moore Construction, value to the City of Heppner. contractor on last year s big The council also went into city water upgrade project. ® P O L R R IS ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. M u st G o . ----The W ay Out. M orrow C o u n ty G ra in G row ers Lexington 989-8221 • 1 -800-452-7396 to r (arm equip m en t, Vint our w eb »ite at * » * megj; net
