Lexington man not silent about political beliefs
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Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library
University o f Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
VOL. 127
NO. 25
10 Pages
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
By David Sykes
After a few minutes
with Jim Nelson one knows
he is not a man who sub
scribes to the theory “never
talk about politics or reli
gion.” Nelson likes to talk
about both, and is not afraid
to say what he thinks. He’s
the guy with the big sign
on the side o f the road in
Lexington: “If you like com
munism, Socialist, Fascist
Then Vote Republican or
Democrat”.
A retired truck driv- Jim Nelson of Lexington lets his political beliefs be known with
a large sign on his pickup. -Photo by David Sykes
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Vial takes on CED job at Farm Service Agency
By Autumn Morgan
At the end o f May
D arcy Vial stepped into
the job o f county executive
director for the USDA Mor
row County Farm Service
Agency in Heppner.
Vial, who graduated
in 2006 from Oregon State
University, holds degrees
in animal science and gen
eral agriculture. Her parents,
w ho have a background
in production agriculture,
moved the family to the Wil
lamette Valley from Iowa in
1985. Being raised around
agriculture, Vial has a spe-
cific background o f dairy
and beef cattle.
The FSA
handles o f pro
grams including
c o n s e r v a tio n ,
farm p ro g ra m
p a y m e n ts and
h a n d le s so m e
crop insurance,
as w ell as a d
ministers USDA
farm p ro g ram s
out of the office.
Vial w an ts to re
mind the community that
the Farm Bill just came out
on May 22. County meeting
schedules will soon be an
nounced so that discussions
can be held about the
Farm Bill and its pro
grams.
Vial is enjoy
ing settling into Hep
pner. “ 1 am excited
to live and work in
M orrow C o u n ty ,"
said Vial. “My door
is always open. 1 look
forward to meeting
people.”
Vial can be reached
at the USDA Farm Service
Agency office in Heppner at
676-9011.
Boardman speedway moving forward
By David Sykes
T he B o ard m an
Speedw ay (officially the
Pacific Northwest Motor-
sports Park) is moving along
at break neck speed. Direc
tor o f Marketing Billie Jean
M orris told the H eppner
Chamber o f Commerce last
week.
M o rris s a id th e
speedway’s big project right
now is getting the waste
treatment plant constructed
and operating so that other
construction w orkers can
begin moving in, which is
when construction will re
ally take off. She expected
500 to 1,000 construction
w orkers to be on the job
when the project gets go
ing later this year. There is
expected to be about 250
full time service type jobs
when the speedway is up
and running.
The park is sched
uled to open in the summer
of 2009. The six-plus mile
road course m ade up o f
three individual courses ap
proximating two miles each,
will handle all types o f rac
ing, including formula cars,
sports racers, production
racers, vintage cars, stock
cars, street cars and motor
“Best” man wins hot-
dog eating contest
Matt Best from California wax crowned the hot dog eating
champion during the contest that was held on Friday, June
13. The contest was part of the Celebrate Heppner events
that were scheduled for the weekend. -Photo by Sandy Mat
thews
cycles. Morris said she has
even been contacted by a
law nm ow er racing group
that is interested in holding
races there.
Two o f the courses
and the facilities will be
available to rent for cor
porate team -building ac
tivities, and to car clubs or
individuals.
Although the speed
way does not as yet have a
NASCAR event, developers
say the current construc
tion is the first phase o f
the master planned motor-
sports destination complex
to be built over the next
10 years. When complete
it will also include a one-
plus mile kart track, quarter
m ile drag strip, plus o ff
road course and ultimately
a 1.2 mile high-banked oval
super speedway designed
to accommodate NASCAR
events. “NASCAR is not out
o f the picture,” Morris said.
“ But we have not presented
(a proposal) yet. We will be
approaching NASCAR and
our track will be NASCAR
ready,” she said.
M orris said since
they will have bleacher at
the speedway there was a
requirement for seismic test,
“which we passed with fly
ing colors.”
M o rris s a id th e
speedway has already been
-Continued on Page three
er, ex-A rm y R anger and
real estate investor. Nelson
has strong feelings on the
way the United States is
headed. “The government is
taking away our freedoms,”
he says. “We are becoming
a socialist nation,” and he
doesn't see either the Demo
crat or Republican parties as
changing anything. “They
are both the same to me,”
he says.
Born and raised in
V ancouver, WA, N elson
tells o f several instances in
the 1970s that showed him
the over reaching power of
government, and how it can
adversely effect people’s
lives.
In 1972 a political
problem between his father
and Clark County resulted
in threats, jail and, he says,
lessons learned. Nelson says
Clark County paved over a
portion o f his father's land
illegally. He and his brother
went to the property “and
w ith pick axes tore up the
blacktop, stacked it off our
land, and fenced our prop
erty.” He said threats were
exchanged with the sheriff
deputies and “at one time
or another me, my brother
and my father were all hand
cuffed and taken to ja il.”
He says his brother was
even beaten in an elevator
by deputies. “The incident
was on three TV channels in
Portland and even got as far
back as Chicago,” Nelson
says of the incident.
It all ended up in
court and the county lost,
Nelson says. “ The court
room was packed w ith peo
ple, all on our side.” He
adds that as a consequence
a county commissioner was
not reelected and a deputy
that had threatened to “pistol
whip my brother” was
re-assigned to the
county road crew over the
incident. In throwing out
the case “the judge said the
whole thing should never
have h ap p en ed ,” Nelson
said. “These kinds o f things
have happened to many,
many people,” Nelson adds,
“and most o f them just lie
down and take it.
A n o th e r in stan ce
which added to N elson's
experience o f abusive gov
ernment power, was when
OSH A (Occupational Safety
and Health Administration)
shut down the trucking and
distribution company he had
purchased. OSHA ordered
him to put in a new ware
house freight elevator, and
he could not afford to. “A
company that was founded
in 1918 ju st went out o f
business.” he says.
Although he did not
graduate. Nelson attended
college for two years and
is also a voracious reader.
“ Lots on history and eco
nomics,” he says pointing
to the stacks o f books on his
dining room table.
He is also a member
o f the H eritage fo u n d a
tion and supports Ron Paul
in the current presidential
race. “As far as I know he
has never taken a raise in
congress and did not vote
to raise taxes on A m eri
cans. He wants to get rid of
our rip-off income tax, and
-Continued on Page two
Eight juveniles suspected of being
involved in multiple crimes
The break-in at the
H eppner sw im m ing pool
last week was just another
o ccu rren ce in the string
o f crimes alleged to have
been committed by multiple
ju v en iles in the Heppner
area over the past year and
a half.
D e te c tiv e K aren
Carter and Sgt. Randy Ray-
bum spent several days per
forming multiple interviews
in and around Heppner. In a
press release, the Morrow
County Sheriff’s Office an
nounced that eight separate
ju v en iles ranging in age
from 13-17 years old arc be-
lieved to have been involved
in the crimes. The press re
lease further went on to state
that some o f these juveniles
are believed to have broken
into several snack shacks at
various ball fields as well as
the Red Apple Market and
the Heppner Shell Station.
Four o f the juveniles
have been lodged at NOR-
COR in The Dalles. Accord
ing to the sheriff's office,
these juveniles may face
charges of burglary, criminal
mischief, theft, possession
o f stolen property, as well
as other charges.
The investigation is
still ongoing.
School district adopts $29 million budget
By April Sykes
M o rro w C o u n ty
S chool D istric t D eputy
Clerk Rhonda Lorenz re
ported at the June 9 meet
ing at the district office in
Lexington that the district
will require $100,000 less
in resources for the next
fiscal year. Lorenz said that
the reduction was a result
o f a change in debt ser
vice. The board adopted the
2008-09 amended budget
at $29,193,569 and passed
re so lu tio n s to a p p ro p ri
ate the budget and impose
taxes at the rate o f $4.0342
per $1,000 assessed value
for operations and in the
amount o f $1,493,721 for
bonds.
Also at the meeting
Superintendent Mark Bur
rows reported that the 2007
legislature mandated that all
school employees be given
the option to join the state
wide insurance pool. He said
that plans were somewhat
New principal/superinten-
dent named at lone School
lone School Board tendent, has spent the past
has announced that they have two years as principal and
appointed Karl Ostheller, as superintendent-intern in the
Oaksdale School
the new p rin c ip a l/
superintendent of the
District in Wash
ington. He holds
lone School District.
a B.A. in busi
He will replace Bryn
ness administra
B row ning who has
tion from West
accepted a position
ern Washington
with the Hermiston
U n iv e r s ity , a
school district as as
c e r
sistant su p erin ten
tificate from St.
dent for educational
Karl Ostheller
Martin's college
services.
in Lacey, WA,
Os t h e l l e r ,
who finished his course- and a masters in education
work at Washington State leadership at WSU.
University to be a superin
mm*
lAit
« I« _ 1
cheaper than the district’s
current plans.
Burrows announced
that Craig Benson has been
named new principal at Irri-
gon High School, replacing
Chris Davis, and the new
1HS assistant principal is
Matthew Matz.
Also in his report
Burrows:
-re c o g n iz e d Sam
Boardman Elementary Prin
cipal Jacque Johnson, one
year after the Sam Board-
man Elementary School fire,
for her work in the wake o f
the fire. She was new to her
positions at the time o f the
fire.
-said that he joined
other su p erin ten d en ts in
p etitioning OSAA to re
duce the number o f athletic
competitions from 24-22 for
basketball and from nine to
eight for football. He said
the reasoning is to allow stu
dents a break between sports
and allow them less time
away from the classroom.
He said the change would
also save time and money
for the district.
-said that d istrict
wide graduations went very
well w ith over 180 students
-Continued on Page three
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