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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 2007)
Cities file signatures for tippage money vote II.I..I...I.I..III.... II.I...II Bessie W et/ell Newspaper Librarv l Diversity o f Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 126 NO. 50 12 Pages Unable to reach an agree ment with the county court over redistribution o f close to $1 million in tippage fee money, five cities followed through on a promise Tues day and filed signatures with the county clerk that would force a county-wide vote on the issue. A last minute attempt at a December 4 meeting to reach a compromise and avoid a vote was not successful and the cities followed through on their promise to take the Wednesday, December 12, 2007 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon City gears up for Sr. Center work The H eppner H ousing Authority is gearing up to spend the $861,509 in grants and $290,000 in low interest refinancing recently award ed for renovation of the St. Patrick Senior Center, it was announced at Monday’s City Council meeting. Architects were recently in Heppner going through the center, and six m em bers o f the community are preparing to go to Salem for special training in adminis trating the grant. The grants were good news for the center, which has 19 senior citizens apart m ents and a dining and meeting area on the ground floor. In the past the center has wrestled with increased expenses and not wanting to raise rents too high. The funding will al low the center to upgrade the living quarters with weath- eriz atio n , new cab in ets, appliances, windows and other im provem ents. The refinancing will reduce the city’s debt interest on loans on the St. Center to about 2 percent for 20 years. T enants in the b u ild in g w ill be rotated among rooms to accommo date the upcoming renova tions. In o th er business at the council meeting an update was given on the current upgrade at the city sewer plant. Public Works Director Brian Harmon said parts are on order to start repairs including a $66,000 auger m onster and a 100 KW Cat Diesel generator at $33,650. The city also announced that it had been fined $3,500 for high bacte ria counts in effluent waste- water on May 22 and August 22, 2007. The city is work ing with DEQ to try and get the fine reduced. The council also heard from Ryan M iller o f M iller & Sons which recently purchased the Hep pner Garbage service. M iller announced there would be some chang es in the garbage collection service, including slight ad justments in billing amounts and frequency o f billing. Home owners are also being asked to move cans to the curb on collection day, or they can leave cans where they are and pay an extra fee each month. City em ployees have reported fewer complaints since Miller took over the collection service. Miller is considering placing a couple o f payment boxes around town where people can pay their garbage col lection bills. The council heard an audit report from Rick Stoddard CPA from Barnett & M oro, P.C. Stoddard said continued page 10 New city manager on the job Interim city m an ager Steve Bogart attended his first council m eeting M onday night, replacing Dave D eM ayo w ho was called to active duty with the U.S. Army. Bogart, 56, has quite a bit of government experi ence including 12 years as a Baker County Com m is sioner, two years as Vale city manager, and three years as Madras city manager. He was Baker city manager for 14 months, Baker county judge and also served on other state-wide boards. Bogart’s wife's name is Connie and she works for a law firm in Baker City. They have three grown chil dren. DeMayo was called Steve Bogart up to active duty with the Army and is currently in Fort Benning undergoing a two week training to prepare him for a tour in Iraq. He will reportedly be stationed in Bagdad as an analyst fore the A rm y C orps o f Engineers. He is expected to be off the job for at least one year. lone School Dist personnel allegations unsubstantiated, says investigator Michael Lasher, chief operations officer and human resources director with the Umatilla-Morrow Educations Service District, told the lone School Board following a school board executive session December 4 that allegations against lone district person nel are “unsubstantiated.” Lasher said that ESD hired Jim Reger, a “respected administrator" to conduct a third-party investigation. The lone School District did not reveal the specifics o f the investigation. With regard to another issue involving an assistant coach. Lasher issued the fol lowing statement, “Brandi Heideman is no longer the (lone) assistant girls' basketball coach. The board would like to thank her for her service. The decision to relieve her of her duties is not based on her performance.”_______________________ ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. I i il i h it ML l P L , Ì Mayors and city managers gather at the Morrow County Clerks office Tuesday morning to turn in signature petitions placing an ordinance on the ballot that, if passed, would redistribute tippage money from the Morrow County general fund to individual cities in the county. Left to right are Irrigon Mayor Charles Neumann, lone city recorder Gayle Eynetich, Heppner Mayor Les Paustian, Boardman Mayor Ed Glenn, Irrigon City Manager Gerald Breazeale and County Clerk Bohhi Childers. If the signatures are validated, the ordinance would be on a county-wide ballot in March. they should get the majority the funds divided equally o f the funds. among the cities, and the issue to the voters. In February the Mor other half divided according County Clerk Bobbie row C ounty court again to population. Childers took the petitions turned down a demand by At a final December 4 and said 187 verified sig the cities that the money meeting the cities presented natures are required to put allocation be changed. The the county court with an the measure on the ballot. cities had threatened at that intergovernm ental ag ree The cities said they turned time to take the issue to the ment and letter seeking a in about 268 signatures. If voters if the county declined compromise to avoid a bal verified a measure eventu their demands. They fol lot measure and vote. The ally giving cities up to 75 lowed through on that threat county opted at that time to percent o f the $1 million Tuesday morning by filing “ leave things as they are.” tippage money would be on signatures to put a measure “ I'm forwarding this draft the March ballot. on the ballot titled “An or at this time so that you may Heppner, lone, Lexington, dinance requiring distribu have an opportunity to study Irrigon and Boardman joined tion of landfill fees to cities/ it and prepare such coun together in January, 2007 to towns”. terp ro p o sals as you may demand that the county turn If approved by vot desire prior to our meeting over the majority of the tip- ers beginning in fiscal year on December 4,” wrote Ed page money generated by 2008- 2009 the ordinance Glenn Mayor o f Boardman the Finley Buttes landfill. would require the county and spokesman for the cities The funds, which come from to give up 25 percent o f group. “May I reiterate that fees levied on each ton of the tippage fees to cities. In the Mayors and Managers garbage dumped average 2009- 2010 that would jump would very much prefer an about $80,000 per month to 50 percent and 2010- agreeable Intergovernmen and currently go directly 2011 it would top out at 75 tal Agreement to a divisive into the county general fund. percent. initiative election. We intend The cities say it isn't fair, The ordinance stipulates to re- they could do a better job of that the cities portion will be spending the money and that divided in half, w ith one half continued page 10 School superintendent upset over Oregonian story M o rro w C o u n ty School D istrict S uperin tendent Mark Burrows told the board and assem bled audience at the d istrict's regular meeting at Irrigon Elementary School Monday night, that a story in the Or egonian was incorrect and the reporters didn’t bother to check their facts. B urrow s said that the article implied that the school district rejected fed eral monies in order to skirt the federal No Child Left Behind requirem ents and “escape consequences for low achievement,” accord ing to the article. H ow ever, said Burrows, Morrow County School District is still receiving federal Title I monies, but directs the funds to elementary level programs. Columbia Middle School in Irrigon, for ex ample, had received federal funding because it included sixth graders, but when it was transformed into Irrigon Junior-Senior High School, the school educated ninth through 12,h graders. Burrows said that the Irrigon school rated “strong" on the state school report card but did not achieve the average yearly progress standards. In other business, the board: -heard from Burrows concerning the large finan cial impact on the district o f students' absence of more than 10 days. Burrows said that after 10 days’ absence, according to requirements, students must be dropped from the rolls. Burrows said that for each day lost, the district loses $40 per day in state reimbursement. Forex- ample, if a student is absent for 20 days, as often occurs when some families spend extended time in Mexico for the holidays, the district loses $800 per student. In some previous years the district has tried to lessen the impact by extending the holiday break. Board mem ber Bill Kuhn suggested that the problem could be resolved at the legislative level. -ap p ro v ed an e x panded options program for juniors and seniors to earn “co ncurrent high school and college credits and to gain early entry into post secondary education.” -heard a presentation from Irrigon High School and Riverside High School FFA students concerning their trip to the National FFA convention. -approved an atten dance v ariance for a student from the Hermiston School District to attend school in the MCSD. • -adopted a 2008-09 budget calendar with bud gets due from b u ildings and departments March 7; publication o f notice of bud get meeting April 9; second notice o f budget meeting April 16; d istribution o f budget document to com mittee April 23; first budget meeting and budget m es sage May 5; second budget meeting if needed May 12 w ith ad d itio n al m eeting dates to be set by commit tee, if needed; d ead lin e for budget approval May 19; publication o f notice of budget hearing May 28; budget hearing, adoption of budget and appropriations made June 9; beginning of 2008-09 fiscal year July 1, deadline to certify levy to assessor July 15. -accepted the fo l lowing resignations: Kim Marlow, Irrigon Elementary School special ed one-on- one assistant; Erin Iveson, A.C. Houghton Elementary School special ed one-on- one assistan t; A drienne Lorraine, A.C. Houghton E lem entary School h a lf time music teacher, effective December 20; Mary Gress- ley-Grow, retirement from Sam Boardman Elementary -Continued on Page two 1 0 % O FF P A R TS AM D LA B O R through February, 2008 We also have special financing: six months no interest, no payments on $1,500 or more of Case IH parts and service from Sept. 1, 2007 through Dec. 31, 2007 Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 * 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 For form «qulpment. »lilt «nr w*b site at www mc(( oet
