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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 14, 2008)
TWO - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 14, 2008 The Official Newspaper o f the City o f Heppner and the County o f Morrow Heppner GAZETTE-TIMES U S P S. 240-420 M orrow County’s H om e-O w ned W eekly N ew spaper Published weekly and entered as periodical matter at the Post Office at Heppner, l )reeon under the Act of March 3 , 187V. Periodical postage paid at Heppner. Oregon Office at 188 W Willow Street. Telephone (541) 676-9228. Fax (541) 676-9211. I -mail editorii rapidserve.net or dav idler rapidserve net Web site: www heppner net Postmaster send address changes to the Heppner Gazette-Times, P.O. Box 337, Heppner, Oregon 97836 Subscriptions: $27 in Morrow County ; $21 senior rate (in Morrow County only; 62 years or older); $33 elsewhere, $27 student subscriptions. David Sykes ............................................................................................Publisher Autumn Morgan................................................................................................... Editor All News and Advertising Deadline is Monday at 5 pm For Advertising advertising deadline is Monday at 5 p m. Cost for a display ad is $4 90 per column inch Cost for classified ad is 50< per word Cost for Card of Thanks is $10 up to 100 words Cost for a classified display ad is $5 50 per column inch For Public/Legal Notices public; legal notices deadline is Monday at 5 p.m Dates for pub lication must be specified Affidavits must be required at the time of submission Affidavits require three weeks to process after last date of publication (a sooner return date must be specified if required) For Obituaries Obituanes are published in the Heppner GT at no charge and are edited to meet news guidelines Families wishing to include information not included in the guidelines or who wish to have the obituary wntten in a certain way must purchase advertising space for the obituary For Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor MUST be signed by the author The Heppner GT will not publish unsigned letters All letters MUST include the author s address and phone number for use by the GT office The GT reserves the right to edit letters The GT is not responsible for accuracy of statements made in letters Any letters expressing thanks will be placed in the classifieds under ‘Card of Thanks" at a cost of $10. On the HEPPNER WEBSITE: www.heppner.net • Start or C hange a Subscription • Place a C lassified A d • Subm it a N ew s Story • View Real Estate for S ale • City Council & Planning Minutes • Local Businesses • County Park • Willow Creek Park Reservations • Free Digital Postcards • Senior Housing • and more! Corps approves request for irrigation water from lake -Continued from page One fishery issues at the project. water-based recreation use. Sport fishing opportunities may be decreased as the population o f largemouth bass and crappie, two popular warm water game fish spe cies, are 1 i kely to be reduced by the proposed drawdown. However, the small-mouth bass and bluegill populations w ill likely increase with reduced competition from other similar species and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) w ill continue to stock catchable trout in the lake annually, which w ill continue to pro vide recreational fishing op portunities. “The proposed ac tion includes an earlier and lower drawdown of the lake which w i 11 impact the warm w ater fishery o f the reser voir by reducing successful spaw ning o f largem outh bass and pumpkinseed, and decreasing black crappie rearing success. Lar gemouth bass and pum p kinseed spawn in shallower water and as a result, their nests may be dewatered as the water level in the lake is drawn down during their spaw ning season. Black crappie spawn earlier, but the young fry tend to move to the pelagic zone which makes them more susceptible to stranding than the more dem ersal fry o f other warm water species. Consequently, the lake would likely become a predominantly smallmouth bass/bluegill Fishery since these species spawn deeper and/or earlier. This appears to be an unavoidable impact to these non-native warm water fish species, though the severity o f the adverse impact depends upon how much water is withdrawn prior to the end of the annual reproductive season for these species (on or about 10 July each year). Additionally the Corp said that “On March 21 the Corps. ODFW, Oregon Water Resources Department, and the irrigators met to discuss To minimize spawning im pacts to largemouth bass, the ODFW recommended holding the lake level steady from June 10 to Ju ly 10. It was also noted that other factors, such as the ongoing water quality concerns in the lake, may impact the overall health of the fishery. It was agreed that although irriga tion w ithdraw als w ill be required by some irrigators from June 10 through July 10, the irrigation district will work to minimize withdraw als during this period. It was also agreed that an advisory group will be formed to ad dress water quality, fishery, habitat enhancem ent, and recreational facilities at the project. ODFW will continue annual trout stocking in the lake and in Willow Creek, downstream of the dam.” In an effort to mini mize the impact on recre ation at the lake that the drawdown will cause, the W illow Creek Econom ic Development Group (WC- VEDG) has undertaken an effort to have the C orps study raising the lake level by three feet, thus adding more water to the lake dur ing the summer months and offsetting the effects o f ad ditional water release. D a v id S y k e s o f WCVED has been appoint ed to head up that effort and says a request has been made to the Corp through congressman Walden’s of fice. “So far Greg has been very helpful in getting our request submitted,” Sykes said. A letter was sent to the Corps through Walden signed by Les P austian, Mayor o f Heppner, Nancy Snider, Pres. WCVEDCi, Skip M atth ew s, W illow Creek Park District Board President, Brian Thompson, Irrigation Board member. Willow Creek, Terry Tail- man, Morrow County Judge, Representative Greg Smith, R-Heppner District 57. School board cuts back north end elementary music/PE; state ups graduation requirements -Continued from page One change from the state level,” said that they are working requires only 22 credits, also with nine electives. By 2014, how ever, the state will also require 24 credits with only six electives, with some additions not already included in MCSD require ments. C u rre n tly M C$D requires four English/lan- guage arts credits, two math ematics, two science, three social studies, one PE, one health, one in a second lan- guage/arts/career or techni cal education, one in career education and nine electives for 24 credits. For the 2008 and 2009 graduating classes, the state requires three cred its in English/language arts, two mathematics, two sci ence, three social studies, one PE, one health, one in second language/arts/career or technical education, none in career education and nine electives for 22 credits. For the graduating classes o f 2010 and 2011 the state will up its English/ language arts required cred its to four and its mathemat ics required credits to three with nine electives. MCSD already requires four credits in English/language arts, but only two in mathematics. For the graduating classes o f 2012 and 2013, the state will add three “lab experiences/scientific in quiries” in the sciences and an additional two credits in a second language/arts/ca reer or technical education. Currently MCSD does not require the lab experiences and the state and MCSD each require one credit in the second language/arts/career category. Electives will be reduced to six. By 2014 the state will require that students com plete three classes in Algebra 1 and above. Cur rently MCSD and the state require two m athem atics credits with no specifica tions that those classes be Algebra 1 and above. “This is a massive said Dirksen. In a d d itio n , “ A ll students m ust be able to dem onstrate that they are proficient in essential skills w h ich are e m b ed d ed in existing content areas or infused throughout the cur ric u lu m .” T hey m ust be able to: -Read and interpret a variety o f texts and achieve a reading RIT score o f 236; -Write for a variety o f purposes and achieve a writing score o f 40; -Speak and present publicly with speech work samples; -Think critically and analytically with math and scientific work samples; -Demonstrate global literacy through a world his tory class; -Apply mathematics in a variety of settings with a math RIT score o f 236; -U se te c h n o lo g y through “rotation classes”/ senior project; -Demonstrate civic and community engagement through clubs, organizations or a senior project; and -Demonstrate career- related learning standards through a senior project. MCSD high school principals, depending on their particular school, say that currently 30-50 percent o f their students would not be able to satisfy the require ments to demonstrate these essential skills, specifically pass the reading, writing and math scores required. Students will, how ever, be able to earn credit for proficiency if they com plete state career education standards, senior project activities, senior portfolio, exit interview and advisor/ advisee activities. A senior project, for example, will al low one full credit in career education after a student provides evidence o f meet ing career-related learning standards. M CSD p rin c ip a ls on ways to satisfy these new requirements and added that each high school may offer slightly different opportuni ties to achieve that end “ T h e f r u s tr a tin g thing is that we really don’t know what the target is (for the essential skills),” com mented Stone. In other business, the board: -heard from Laura Aviles-Valdez who assists students at the Morrow Edu cation C enter alternative school and some o f the stu dents she has helped. The students spoke warmly o f Aviles-Valdez and teacher David M elville and cred ited the program with their success in achieving their goals towards completing high school and looking be yond to college and careers. Aviles-Valdez had worked with the program while she was employed with Morrow County Children’s Services and says she hopes to con tinue in her new job with M orrow -W heeler B ehav ioral Health. -adopted health edu cation textbooks. - a d o p te d a n ew broadened anti-cyberbul- lying policy, w ith som e changes in verbiage. -viewed a presenta tion “ Every 15 M inutes” which was implemented at Irrigon High School prior to prom night. The program was intended to discour age drinking and driving by using students, police, EMTs, school personnel, other agencies and the com munity to portray the dire aftermath o f students’ deci sions to drink and drive. -approved a request for Irrigon High School for a field trip to Spain during the 2009 spring break. -approved a screen ing committee to find a re placement for resigning IHS principal Chris Davis. -named the follow ing as board representatives Don’t ride ATVs in town, city warns -Continued from page One ner was not well attended to discuss the project. City Manager Steve Bogart said another public hearing might be held on the ODOT hearing. Heppner Fire C hief and EMT Rusty Estes said he was against closing Willow Street because it was used as a major access between the hospital and the rest o f the town. “The best solution is not going to be good for everyone. We need to think about this,” said Heppner Public Works Director Brian Harmon. Harmon also said that a proposal is being considered that would see an electri cal generator placed in a water line feeding the city from one o f its wells. The genera tor would produce electricity that would be sold to the local co-op and “might” be enough to pay the city’s electrical bill. The water line has pressure reducing devices that could be replaced with electrical gen erators. In other action the council: -Approved a new contract with the Morrow County Sheriff’s Department to provide police protection to the city of Heppner for the coming year. -Heard that the school kids “did a good job” during the Mustang Mop held last week. -Discussed removing two to three spruce trees at the city park. The trees are causing damage to the sidewalk and the lawn at the city park. -Approved a small increase in the city garbage collection fee. Miller and Sons handles collection under a city franchise, and requested the increase because o f higher ftiel costs. -A pproved a 3% cost o f living increase for city employees; okayed an increase in the w ater and w astew ater certification pay to $50 per certification; increased the bottom and base salary for the public works director position; in creased by $58.33 per month ($700/yr) supplemental increase to the merit pay for the city treasurer. for district graduation cer em onies: Morrow Educa tion Center-D an Daltoso; Irrigon High School-P at M cNamee; Heppner High School-Nancy Vander Does; R iv ersid e H igh S ch o o l- Berto Hernandez; -accepted the fo l lowing resignations/retire- ments: Shirley D onovan, Sam Boardman Elementary School cook; Chris Davis, IHS principal; Johanna Da vis, IHS counselor; M ari anne Smith, Heppner High School art and social studies teacher; Petra Payne from a position as Talented and Gifted program coordina to r at HHS; and Jessica Campbell, SBE elementary teacher. -approved rehiring classified and confidential staff for 2008-09. -approved tw o at ten d an ce v a rian ces, one from M CSD to U m atilla School D istrict and one from H erm isto n School District to MCSD. -learned that MCSD teacher Gary Hunt will re ceiv e the C ry stal A pple award. -receiv ed the fo l lowing attendance report: ACH-346; Heppner Elemen tary School-191; HHS-231; IES-123; IHS-313; RHS-393; SBE-322; WRE-226; total-2251. -heard the following announcements: town hall meeting, Heppner Elemen tary, Monday, May 19, 7 p.m.; Memorial Day holi day, Monday, May 26; MEC graduation, Thursday, May 29, MEC, Irrigon, 7 p.m.; Irrigon High School gradua tion, IHS, Friday, May 30, 7 p.m.; Heppner High School graduation, HHS, Saturday, May 31, 2 p.m.; Riverside H igh School graduation, RHS, Sunday, June 1, 2 p.m.; last day o f school for students Thursday, June 5; board meeting, district of fice, Monday, June 9, 7 p.m.; last day o f work for staff Tuesday, June 10. Luncheon to be held to honor Luke Murray The St. Patrick’s Al tar Society will be hosting a M exican luncheon fol lowing the 11 a.m. mass on Sunday, May 18, to honor Luke Murray who recent ly graduated from M ount Angel Sem inary College. Everyone is invited to stop by and visit with Luke who is the first student from St. Patrick’s Parish to graduate from Mt. Angel. Luke graduated with honors on Saturday, May 10, with a degree in philosophy and a GPA o f 3.96. He plans to continue his education at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO to study theology towards ordination to the Catholic priesthood. The luncheon will be served at approximately A “Coins for Cancer” drive was contest in which the winning class will noon in the Catholic Parish held at Heppner Elementary School on receive a free Mexican lunch on Monday, hall. Monday, May 12. Dr. Betsy Anderson May 19, prepared by Mary Ann Elguezabal. spoke to students in different classes about The winning class will be announced on healthy habits leading to a “cancer free” Thursday after the money is counted. life. The “Coins for C ancer” drive is a HES holding “Coins for Cancer” drive
