Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 9, 2007)
City Treasurer Rene Devin to retire June 30 Hi full n |||, l| | | l( |||| | | | | | | f| Bessie Wetzeil Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene. OR 97403 VOL. 126 NO. 19 12 Pages Wednesday, May 9,2007 After working nearly 20 years for the city o f Heppner. Treasurer Rene Devin, has set a date for a little R& R -and a ton of volunteer work and hobby activities. Her last day as city treasurer is planned for June 30. Judy Eckm an, who started training March 5. will take over those duties as of July 1. D evin started w orking for the city in October of 1987 as a part- Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Sheriff, school superintendent say no cover-up of accidental school shooting at Irrigon School An anonymous e- mail sent to H eppner Gazette-Times in the wake of a shooting at Irrigon Junior/Senior High School, alleged p referen tial treatm en t o f a M orrow C ounty School District a d m in is tra to r's child, favoritism, abuse of power by school d istrict ad m in istra tio n and discrimination against school district employees who are not deemed “team players.” M orrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack. who is also a m em ber o f the M orrow C ounty School Board, said the e-mail was “ full of e rro rs ” . “This information is totally false, co m p letely w ro n g ,” co n cu rred M CSD S u p erin ten d en t Mark Burrows. “The incident was fully in v estig ated , the student expelled, the sheriff was aware and it was sent to the DA who is investigating, said B urrow s.” Burrows went on to say that both sets of parents were cooperative and “wonderful" in working with the district and law enforcement officials and were ultimately “pleased with the results.” “I don’t think we could have done it any differently,” he added. According to Sheriff Matlack. a student at Irrigon Junior/Senior High School shot an o th er student accidentally with a “replica p is to l” which had been brought to school as a prop for a school play. Matlack said that the incident, which occurred several weeks ago. involved a pistol replica that shoots bbs. Morrow County School S u p erin ten d en t M ark B urrow s added that the pistol was spring-loaded and shoots a plastic pellet. M atlack said that the magazine to the pistol had been rem oved, but a bb remained in the chamber. He said that one high school student was playing with the pistol in the school parking lot when it disch arg ed , hitting another high school student in the eye. The student was injured, but the injury involved no permanent damage to the eye, said Matlack. He said that the students knew each other, having grow n up together, and had no anim osity tow ards each other. “It seems to be a case of foolishness,” he said. Matlack said that while there may have been lack o f protocol at the school, he b elieved the school dealt appropriately with a teacher involved and dealt “pretty significantly” with the student involved. “There was no cover-up because of privilege,” he added. * He said the sheriff’s d ep artm en t made their report and sent the case to the Morrow County Juvenile D epartm ent. Juvenile Director Carolyn Holt was not available for comment at press-time. Morrow County District Attorney Elizabeth Ballard was also unavailable as she is out of town until next week. While the e-mail was sent anonymously, officials believe they know who sent it and suspect it may have been politically motivated. Several school board positions are up for a vote in the upcoming May 15 electio n . For d irecto r Position No. 1, incumbent Craig Miles, Heppner, is being challenged by Darrell Gale, Irrigon, and Kerry Muniz, Irrigon. Incumbent Bill Kuhn. Heppner. will face Ken Hackett, Irrigon. for Position No.#3. Matlack has elected not to rerun for Position No. 4. Three people. Kent Hansen. Boardman, Neila Coffman. Irrigon. and Daniel Daltoso. Boardman. will vie for that spot. Incum bent Pat McNamee. Irrigon. will vie for Position #5 against E lizabeth M elendez. Boardman.. time librarian. In January 1990 she began training as city treasurer to replace Mary Jean McCabe. At that time, the tre a su rer was ap p o in ted by the city council. Her stint as tre a su re r even included serving as interim city manager for six months prior to the city hiring city manager Jerry Breazeale. Devin took over the payroll system when former city m an ag er M arshall Lovgren. When she first started doing payroll, she said they had a Burrows posting m achine, which required sending off tapes for h o le -p u n c h in g to a Portland business. Finally, when the tapes wore out and she was having to tape them together, it was finally time to buy a c o m p u te r and programs for a utility billing system. During Gary Marks stint as city manager, the city got the second com puter system for accounting. Prior to that they used a pegboard system. Devin, 60. was bom in Pendleton but her parents, Clayton and Rita Robinson Wright lived in Heppner at the time. The family moved to Prairie City w hen she was five and she attended school there, except for the third grade, which she spent at Heppner. She visited H eppner alm ost every sum m er to see her g ra n d p a ren ts and o th er relatives. After high school she enrolled at Blue Mountain Community College where she took nursing courses. From there she moved to Portland where she worked in the drafting department for an electronic company. It was there she met her former husband. Oliver Devin (now deceased), and they lived in Portland for three years before moving to Irrigon in 1970, the year her oldest son. Jeff, was born. He and his wife now live in Mesa. AZ, where he works with software for an insurance company In Irrigon they started a retail milk delivery business and in 1974 they moved to Hermiston, taking over the Mayflower Farms wholesale milk business, and then running both the w h o lesale and retail business. They also took over R en ee’s d a d ’s milk business with routes in P endleton, S tan field . H erm iston, B oardm an. Irrigon. Heppner, Lexington, lone, Spray, Condon and Fossil. "I # learned to drive truck and did all the b o o k w o rk ,” said Renee. “ T h a t’s w hen I learned double entry bookkeeping." They then sold a portion of the milk business and in 1980 bought a piece o f property from Archie Munkers which was located betw een H ep p n er and Lexington and moved to the area. Their son. Miff was bom in Heppner in 1981, one of the last babies born at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Heppner. says Devin. He w orks for the Port o f Morrow as a tech n ical assistant for the port’s public works department effluent plant. While farming Devin drove wheat truck and raised b u m m er lam bs before starting at the library. She also worked as a volunteer and as an em p lo y e e at Heppner Elementary school for a time. Besides the long list of job accom plishm ents, Devin has an equally long list o f activ ities. B esides volunteering at the school, she volunteered with the Morrow Soil and Water Conservation Office and at the Heppner Library. She has a “ton of hobbies” including spinning and weaving sheep and llama wool (she raised llamas for a while), basket weaving, quilting and m aking miniature furniture for doll houses with her sister. Teri Carnes. Perhaps her most Rene Devin demanding hobby involves m o n ito rin g M o u n tain B lu eb ird s. W estern Bluebirds, tree swallows, mountain chickadees and occasionally house wrens for Cornell Labs in New York. She d isco v e re d the monitoring program online through her sister, whose n e ig h b o rs were archaeologists. The intensive m onitoring program includes traveling 120 miles round trip and riding 30 miles on a four-wheeler once a week from April to July. She monitors approximately 100 bird boxes and records her findings and twice a year cleans out all the boxes. She said her father is involved in the program also, and has made around 247 birdhouses for the program. Devin said she counted 433 fledglings last year. She says that 12 boxes were recently put at the OHV Park. As if that w a s n ’t enough, after retirement, Devin plans to extend her bird monitoring time, spend more time at the Willow C reek Valley A ssisted Living, of which she was one o f the original board members and still serves on the board, spend more time with her dad. C layton W right, who lives in Hermisron. work on quilting projects, check out all her storage boxes that have gone unopened from years ago. exercise more and travel with her partner, Tony Doherty. "I might have a clea n e r h o u s e .” l aughs Devin. “In the winter I might find some place warmer than Heppner. Mustang Mop Up held Don’t forget Election Day D on’t forget that Tuesday, May 15, is Election Day in Morrow County. Voters have the choice of mailing in the ballot or returning it to any designated drop site in thé state. All ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Postmarks do not count! ♦ A list of drop sites are as follows: -New Boardm an City Hall. Monday - Friday April 27 to May 14. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; May 15, Election Day, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. -Irrigon Annex. April 27 to May 14. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; May 15. Election Day, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. -Bank o f Eastern Oregon in lone, April 27 to May 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; May 15. Election Day, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. -M orrow C ounty Road Office in Lexington. April 27 to May 14, from 8 a.m. to 5p.m.; May 15. Election Day, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. -Morrow County C ourthouse. April 27 to May 14. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; May 15, Election Day. 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information call 676- 5604. 92 2 -4 1 0 3 , or 481-2112. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. This past Thursday, May 3, students and staff from Heppner High School spread out throughout the community to do some cleanup for what they called the Mustang Mop I p. More pictures of their work around the community can he found on page three. Photo In Miilttilev Huddleston Garbage disposal to run behind schedule The Heppner Garbage Disposal w ill not be operating on Tuesday. May 15. Please expect garbage service to be approximately one day behind schedule for the remainder ot the week. At th e MCGG GREEN FEED STORE in H e p p n e r: * W & tA vi J / We have Montana Silver, ’ Candles is . Sunday, ,U y & Hanging Flower Baskets M ay n th Morrow County Crain drawers Creen Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way. Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)
