Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2008)
Judge and mayor to debate tippage vote at chamber By Dave Sykes The Heppner Cham ber o f Commerce will host a debate between Morrow County Judge Terry Tallman and Boardman M ayor Ed Glenn on the upcoming vote on distribution o f tippage money in the county. The five cities in the county and the coun ty governm ent have been wrangling over who should control close to $1 m il lion in tippage money, or money received from dump- Bessie Weizell Newspaper Librare University o f Oregon y Eugene, OR 97403 ing fees at the large Finley Buttes Landfill in Morrow County. The c itie s in the county had banded together and placed a m easure on the March ballot that would eventually redistribute 75 percent o f the money from the county general fund to the cities. S ev eral m eetin g s and n egotiating sessions had been held but no com promise was reached. The cities had said they would take the issue to the vot ers if they were unable to reach an agreement w ith the county. Recently they fol lowed through on that threat, and, according to the county clerk, the ballots should be mailed out around February 22. Voters will have until March 11 to vote. The judge and the mayor will discuss the issue at the Thursday, January 31, chamber meeting to be held at John’s other place starting at noon. Wight digs out Heppner once again HEPPNER unes VOL. 127 NO. 5 8 Pages Wednesday, January 30, 2008 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Dickenson Chiropractic Clinic to open next week By Autumn Morgan Early next month a new medical office will open for the Heppner community and surrounding areas. Dicken son Chiropractic Clinic will open its doors on Monday, February 4. Owner Dr. Tim Dick enson is no stranger to the Heppner community. Raised in H e p p n er and a 1999 graduate o f Heppner High School, he has returned af ter obtaining his degree, to provide alternative health care to rural areas such as Heppner. Dickenson received his bachelor’s degree in science from Oregon State Univer sity in 2003. He then went on to pursue and receive his doctorate degree o f chi ropractic (D.C.) from West- em States Chiro practic College in 2007. He is current ly a mem ber o f the Tiin Dickenson A m erican Chiropractic Association. “ I am excited about opening my b u sin ess in Heppner,” said Dickenson. “ 1 believe this is so m e thing the community needs and can benefit from.” He eventually plans on serving surrounding com m unities such as the Condon, Fos sil and B oardm an areas. Dickenson says he can also provide in-home care if the need arises. D ick en so n plan s to primarily utilize diversified techniques as well as other specialty adjustments. He also plans on focusing on athletes in the community and helping out the sports team s as needed in their training. He will also be providing injury prevention seminars to coaches and is available to speak to groups about health care needs. The clinic will current ly be accepting insurances and is anticipating being able to accept Medicare in the future. The clinic, located at 133 May St., will be open M onday th ro u g h Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ap pointm ents can be made by calling 676-8990 begin ning February 1. Dicken son’s emergency number is 541-980-8201. Corps to host information meeting for Willow Creek Lake irrigation proposal The C orps o f En- gineers will hold a public inform ation m eeting for the Willow Creek irrigation proposal from 6 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, February 19, at the Morrow County fairgrounds in Heppner. The public is invited to drop by any tim e be- tween 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to meet with project staff Time to build a snowman X w s < yC x f K X XXX < X x x . X X x / v X X , A f V V x y ± X A. ■ 1 A «■-, Snowmen like this one decorated yards after Heppner's first good snow of the 2007-2008 winter season. -Photo by and ask questions. A short presentation related to the proposed project will begin at 6:30 p.m. Representatives from the local irrigators, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Oregon Water Resourc es D ep artm en t, M orrow County Parks, and the U.S. Department o f Agriculture will also be on hand. The m eeting is in the Dance Hall Pavilion at the Morrow County Fair grounds, located at 74473 Highway 74 in Heppner. In addition, the pub lic comment period on the draft Environm ental A s sessment for the long-term w ithdraw al of irrigation wa ter from the Willow' Creek Project has been extended through March 6. The draft Environ mental Assessment address ing the impacts associated with this activity and the complete public notice can be viewed online at https:// www.nwp.usace.army.mil/ pm/e/enj?lan assess.asp. The Corps will ac- Gary Wight spends hours volunteering to help the citizens be safe during the snow fall. -Photo by Sandy Matthews lone School Board still to determine construction and weight room plans By April Sykes Lindy Ramos o f the lone Booster Club addressed the lone School Board con cerning the proposed build ing o f a weight room at the b o a rd ’s reg u lar m eeting January 22. Ramos asked the board the status of the district’s construction plans and told them that the Boost er Club is still on board to aid with costs. “We need to get moving,” said Ramos. “The Booster Club needs to know what the board wants to do.” Ramos said that she had spoken with contractor Jerry Gentry who told her that, as far as he could dis cern, proposed construction would require elev ation. She said that Gentry suggested they consult an engineer. She said that if the district needs to pay for engineering costs, the club has agreed to spend funds for that pur pose. She said the club had earlier received a donation o f $2,500 from the Mor row County Grain Growers which is earmarked for the weight room. The board told Ra mos that a weight room is still under consideration, but they have not yet learned w hat c o n stru ctio n plans could be included in a pro posed bond issue. “ Our problem is that it will be a while,” said board Chair Joel Peterson. “ At best, w e’re looking at the Novem ber ballot.” “We’re needing to know what fits into the bond issue,” added board member John Rietmann. The board also dis cussed p o ssib le heating solutions for the form er Rietmann Hardware build ing on Main Street in lone which could be used as a tem porary w eight room / w o rk o u t facility . Board member Anne Morter sug gested that a large portable propane heater, w hich could be pulled out and installed at another location at a later date, could make the build ing usable. Purchase and installation was estimated at around $ 1,000. In other business, the board: -approv ed funds for a cooking stove and a hot water heater for the teacher- age. Neither appliance had been working properly. -learned that enroll ment as of January 14 was 162 students: 67 in kinder garten through fifth grade; 40 in grades six through eight; and 55 in grades nine through 12. Three students had withdrawn and three had enrolled since the last board meeting. Superinten dent Bryn Browning said that she an ticip ates that four exchange students w ill enroll soon. -le a rn e d th a t the school will open a position for music, technology and/ or foreign language and w ill -Continued on Page fo u r Health district board may put up additional tax levy; current levy is set to expire Bv April Sykes A fter deliberating over an hour at their regular m eeting in lone Monday night, the Morrow County Health District Board came to the preliminary conclu sion that the district may have to go out for a tax levy if it is going to continue offering quality health ser vices to district patrons. The district hopes to expand the Irrigon Clinic, which has seen dram atic growth; continue making its $70,000 yearly donation to the B oardm an clin ic, which is not operated by the district; remodel Pio neer M em orial H ospital in Heppner to once again allow long-term care; fund emergency services for all o f Morrow County, includ- ing the Boardman. Irrigon. H eppner, lone and Lex ington areas; and provide Home Health and Hospice care for all communities in the district. A lthough the d is trict ended the year with a $219,571 gain, board Chair Larry Mills and Chief Finan cial Officer Nicole Mahoney reminded board members that the optimistic bottom line included monies from the previous tax levy, which expires soon, and a one-time $500,000 reim bursem ent that will not be repeated. Mahoney’s project ed statement o f cash flows indicates that by June o f 2011 without a new levy, the d is tric t w ould have only $56.000 cash on hand. Mahoney said that ideally the district should have 90 days c ^ h _ tb r ^ i|> c m ^ especially in the event o f unplanned expenses. And, once the district gets to that point, the threat o f cutting serv ices is possible. “Once you have to cut services, it’s a hard road to get them back,” com m ented board member Leann Rea. M a h o n e y 's c ash flow projections through 2011 include $250,000 for the Irrigon Medical Clinic expansion, paid over a num ber o f years, and the annual Boardman clinic $70,000 pledge. She also provided information on a .39 cent levy and a .29 cent levy. A ,39-cent levy, if approved by v oters, would cost the ow ner o f a $100,000 home $39 in taxes per year and, accord ing to M ahoney's projec- -Continued on Page fo u r M C G G O P E INI H O U S E Friday, February 8th from lO a.m. - E p.m. Barbecue Lunch • Dour Prizes -Continued on Page two Factory Representatives will be present ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Morrow County Grain Growers L e x in g to n 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 * 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 *7 3 9 6 For form equipment, visit our web site at www meg* net
