Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2007)
Lexington and county talk about water ,,nll,l„,H Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Libra University o f Oregon ' ' Eugene, OR 97403 L ex in g to n and to the airport. The county Morrow County last week o p erates the L ex in g to n discussed how the town and Airport and is in the middle the County may cooFK™te on o f a large up-grade and the rehabilitation of a well at expansion project that will the Lexington airport. The be requiring more water, and rehab co u ld end up the Town of Lexington has had a continuing problem benefiting both. Burke O'Brien, head with shortages of water, and of the Morrow County Road the need for a backup water D ep artm en t, met w ith source. A 70 gpm well is L exington M ayor Val D oherty and the Town located at the airport but at C ouncil February 28, to this tim e is not usable. discuss how to get more O' Brien talked to the council water both to the town and about how to fix it. "The best-case scenario is if the city and the county partner to rehab the well and supply water to both the airport and the to the city,” he suggested to the council and mayor. O 'B rien said the county needs more w ater at the airport for operation of two ag statio n s w here spray planes fill up and get ready, and for water piped to new hangars that plane owners could use to wash down their planes and other uses. Mayor Val Doherty said the city has reached its maximums with the current w ell and needs to find another source. “We are not rationing our water, but we are g ettin g clo se to our limit,” she said of the tow n. She also said the town needs to find a back up w ater source by 2008. D oherty said the town would like to deal directly with the “end users” of the water at the airport instead o f going through a third party like the county. "If we supply water out of town to a separate com m ercial operation we need to be able to cut them off if we get in a problem of shortage," she told O'Brien and the council. At this tim e the water from the well is not potable, or drinkable, not because of the well, Doherty said, but because o f the storage tank. She said the 70,000 concrete reservoir the well pumps into cannot be sealed on the top and is not in condition to store drinking water. "If the reservoir can be rehabbed, then w ater pressure would be better (in town),” she said. O 'B rie n said the county may be willing to share in the ex p en se o f m aking the well usable again. "County could defray some of the costs to get that well working properly,” he said. "We have to have a back up to our w ater sy stem one w ay or another. Whether it is rehabbing the old well or drilling another," Doherty said. Hospice shows county what tippage buys VOL. 126 NO. 10 12 Pages Wednesday, March 7, 2007 Pioneer M em orial Hospice had potluck lunch with the M orrow County Court last week, and showed the com m issio n ers what tippage money awarded by the court had been spent on in their department. In 20 0 5 -0 6 the county awarded $16,500 in tippage fees that was used to purchase training material Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon and office equipm ent for Hospice which provides in- home care and counseling for terminally ill patients and their fam ilies in Morrow County. T ippage fees is money collected from the Finley Buttes landfill in Northern Morrow County and is distributed to various groups and agencies in the county. The money was used to buy a DVD and VCR player and TV for training; a Valby installs new pastor Members ctf Pioneer Memorial Hospice have lunch with county commissioners. Left to rij>ht former commissioner Ray Grace, Kathy Skinner and Kohanai Disque both with Home Health/Hospice, county Judge Terry Tollman, Molly Rhea director Home Health/ Hospice, Cyde Estes Hospice volunteer. Sherry Ewing Home Health/Hospice, and Donna Schonhachler with Home Health/ Hospice. digital camera and software; co m p u ter, so ftw are and printer; office equipment; training and bereavement supplies, training videos and staff and volunteer training. H ospice relies on both professionals and volunteers as staff to help people. Morrow County Court honors the late Donald C. McElligott Pictured left to right are Reverend Janis Johnson, Pastor Ann Schlossnagle, Pastor Wes Sackman, and Pastor Zane Wilson. Rev. Johnson serves All Saints Episcopal along with Hope Lutheran Church in Heppner. Pastor Wes Sackman is a retired pastor from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Hermiston. Pastor Zane Wilson is assistant to the Bishop. ELCA, from Portland. P astor Ann Schlossnagle was recently installed as pastor of Valby Lutheran Church. Valby Lutheran Church is located 17 miles south of lone on Valby Road. Pastor Ann is no stra n g er to rural communities. The parishes that she served were within a 125 mile radius on the plains of South Dakota, and that serving a single L utheran C hurch seem s much more relaxing than w hat she was used to. Schlossnagle originally came from Baltimore. MD where she received a degree in psychology. In 1994 she receiv ed a M asters of D ivinity at L utheran T heological Sem inary in Gettysburg. Another interesting talent that Reverend Ann brings to this area is the a b ility to have c o n v ersa tio n in the American Sign Language. She also had voice lessons during her college career. “My life and my training is to throw out the seeds of Christ's words to the best of my ability,” said Rev. Ann. Pastor Ann brings with her a daughter, Jenni, who is attending Heppner High School as a freshman. May election deadlines announced Don’t Forget! Daylight Savings Time Begins Sunday, March 11 . Set your clocks foreword one hour! April 24 is the last day register to voted for the May 15lh election. The filing deadline for the May 15lh election is March 15. Filed as of March 5 are: Joe M cElligott, lone Rural Fire District, at large; Joe M cE llig o tt, lo n e/ L exington C em etery District, at large; Cyde Marie E stes, zone #5, M orrow County Unified Recreation D istrict; M arcus Collier, lone Rural Fire District, at large; Marvin Padberg, Port of Morrow Commissioner #4; Linda LaRue. Morrow County Health District #4; D elton L aR ue, M orrow County Unified Recreation D istrict, zone #4; Lynn H obbs, lone R ural Fire D istrict #1; Larry M ills, M orrow C ounty H ealth District #5; Larry Lindsay, Port of Morrow #5; Marilyn C hilders. Ione/Lexington Cemetery District, at large; and Alice Y. Ellis, Oregon Trail Library District #3 Donald C. McElligott L eague, Farm B ureau, H eppner E lks, lone A m erican Legion. VFW, W illow s G ran g e, St. William's Catholic Church, and Holy Names Society. McElligott served as a Morrow County School Board member for a total of 10 years and served as Chair from 1967-1969. He was also a member of the lone School Board. He served as a Morrow County judge for seven years and as a county commissioner. McElligott also helped form and then served on the board for the lone Fire District. O ver the past 50 years, McElligott served his com m unity on num erous other boards, councils, and committees. The Morrow County Court extended its heartfelt appreciation and thanks on behalf o f the citizens o f Morrow County. Methane generator planned at Finley Buttes A Lake O sw ego com pany has announced plans to in stall two generators at Finley Buttes L an d fill that w ill use methane gas to generate 3.2 mega watts of power. The landfill produces m ethane gas from the garbage dumped there and the com pany plans to harness that gas and produce electric energy that will be sold to PacificCorp through the Umatilla Electric Co-op power grid. The landfill is now continuously producing 450 to 550 cubic feet per minute of methane gas from the 400,000 tons of municipal solid waste that is dumped at Finley each year. The gas is currently just burned off. The landfill has been in operation since 1991 and there is currently about 71 acres of waste to a depth of KM) feet. Finley BioEnergy, h ead q u artered in Lake Oswego, plans to drill more wells to tap the methane, and p o ssib le add m ore generators in the future to boost production to 10 mega watts. The generating plant w ill be located next to Cascade Specialties, Inc. an onion dehydrator that would like to purchase heat from the company. The heat will be used to dehydrate onions. The com pany estim ates the cost o f the project to be $6 million and construction is scheduled to begin A pril 2007. The generators will be delivered in July and it is estimated the project will be completed in September, 2(M)7 anil fully operational by the end of this year.___________________ BLOW OUT SALE New & Used'- S nowmobiles ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. I The Morrow County C ourt honored the late Donald C. McElligott for his many acco m p lish m en ts, years of service to the people of lone and Morrow County, and his notable achievements at their regularly scheduled m eeting on W ednesday, February 28, at the Morrow County Courthouse. M cE llig o tt was a ran ch er, h u sb an d , and parent. He served in the Army Air Force in Africa during World War II as a transport pilot. He was a m em ber of O regon Cattlemen. Oregon Wheat 1 Th« W a y O u t. M orrow C o u n ty G ra in G row ers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For farm equipm ent, vi»it our w«b »it» at WWW mt(5E n«t
