Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 2008)
DeMayo returns from year-long deployment to Iraq Public open house to be held By Autumn Morgan Heppner City Man ager Dave DeMayo returned to Heppner on November 26 following a year-long tour of duty in Iraq. W hile in Iraq D e Mayo serv ed as a liaison be tween the U.S. Army Corps o f Engineers and the Provin cial Reconstruction Team of the Maysan Province. The Provincial Reconstruction Team is run by the Depart ment o f State. Projects that HEPPNER were worked on were infra structure projects including water purifiers and small schools. DeM ayo says that troop morale in the Maysan Province is very high and that soldiers are treated very well by the Iraqis. “They have a good working rela tionship,” stated DeMayo. “The Iraqi people are no different than we are. They have families and love their kids.” D eM ay o say s he wants people that are upset because they think that the U.S. is Iraq solely for oil to understand that “our way of life cannot exist without a fuel supply. We depend on automobiles for transporta- Pictured is Dave DeMayo with a local Iraqi sheikh. -Contributed Photo tion.” T he ty p ic a l to u r length for troops serving in the Army is one year. De Mayo says that he will prob ably not be going again as he will soon be turning 62. The City o f Hepp ner will be hosting a public welcome back celebration for DeMayo on Thursday, December 11, from 3-5 p.m. at City Hall. Undercover narcotics team spends time in Heppner T he B lue M o u n tain Enforcement Narcotics Team (BENT) spent time in Heppner last month making drug buys, meeting with in formants and doing surveil lance on drug buys, it was unes VOL. 127 NO. 50 8 Pages Wednesday, December 10,2008 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Area pastors invited to submit Christmas messages All area pastors are invited to submit Christmas messages to be run in the De cember 24 edition o f the Heppner Gazette-Times. Messages can be dropped off at the GT office, faxed to 676-9211, or emailed to editor@rapidserve.net no later that Friday, December 19. New two-county communications taxing district proposed By David Sykes A communications system that links police, fire and ambulance departments together throughout most of Morrow and Umatilla Coun ties, could be dismantled in a few years if a new tax ing district is not approved to co ntinue funding the system, the Heppner City Council was told Monday night. The communications system, which allows many different emergency agen cies to talk directly with each other, was installed when the Umatilla Army Depot began destroying chemical weapons several years ago. The chemical destruction facility was completed in 2001, and the Army began weapons disposal in 2004. As part o f the disposal a new communications sys tem was installed by the Federal Government. The new 450 MHz radio system allowed all local emergency agencies in M orrow and Umatilla counties to talk to one another, so that in the Heppner population up (by 10) Heppner’s population is up by 10 people over the past year, preliminary census figures recently released show. From July 2007 to July o f 2008 the population jumped from 1,415 to 1,425, according to figures pro vided by Portland State University Population Research center and announced at the Heppner city council meeting Monday night. In 2000 the city's population was 1,395, the report said. Reed takes bighorn sheep Justin Reed of Condon killed his bighorn sheep on November 17. The sheep measured 162 inches. Justin is the nephew of Roscoe and Kayrene Qualls of Heppner. -Contributed Photo event o f an accident at the Depot, emergency services could be coordinated. Chem ical disposal is scheduled to end in sev eral years, at which time the federal government will d isco n tin u e funding the advanced system , which leaves emergency services with several options, says C h ie f M ike R oxbury o f Umatilla, chairman o f the 450 M Hz system board. Roxbury said one option would be to do nothing and revert back to the old VHF systems, which were a patch work o f different communi cations that did not function very well. “You are going to pay for a new system one way or another,” he told the council. “The federal gov ernment has been paying for it so far, but we are not going to get any more money from FEMA (Federal Emergen cy M anagement Agency). When that last munitions is destroyed that is the end o f FEMA's involvem ent,” Roxbury said. A n o th e r o p tio n would be to have each en tity that uses the system pay for its usage. He said this would have the possi bility o f overwhelming the small users, and he gave an example o f the Morrow County Sheriff Dept, having to spend $80,000 per year. "This option is what caused smaller agencies to declare that they would go back to VHF rather than pay fees that they could not afford,” Roxbury said in his report. The best option he said is to form a new dis trict to cover the cost o f -Continued on Page TWO ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. announced at Monday’s city council meeting. The exact num ber of buys or arrests made was not disclosed, but the Mor row County Sheriff’s De partment says BENT spent eight and one h a lf hours in Heppner in November. “ L ast w eek one su sp ect was arrested. We are get ting results,” Deputy Randy Rayburn told the council. State economy prompts school district to cut at least $180,000 from current budget By April Sykes M o rro w C o u n ty School District Superinten dent Mark Burrows outlined a plan Monday evening at the district’s regular meeting at Irrigon Elementary School to trim at least $180,000 from the current 2008-09 fiscal year budget. B ur rows said the district must cut the funds based on the latest numbers released by Governor Ted Kulongoski. “If we can get to $ 180,000 in savings, I anticipate w e’ll end the year okay,” said Burrows. He added that the district has budgeted “very conservatively.” He also said that state school funding figures look better for the 2009-10 fiscal year, with $6.55 bil lion in the governor’s budget for education funding. "The only question is, “will the economy support the gov ern o r’s budget?” ’ queried B urrow s. He said that a budget of $6.2 billion would sustain services, “although w e'd like to have more.” He added that district adminis trators have been looking at “what ifs” considering the district’s budget in light of the current economy To m ak e up fo r the shortfall in the current budget. Burrows asked the teachers union to cut one half day o f a non-student day at the end o f the 08-09 con tract year. Morrow County Education Association rep resentative M arilyn Post responded, saying, "Before anything can be bargained, I have to have more informa tion. How many staff would be giving up a day, giving up salaries? Who else is taking a pay cut besides us? I just need to know if w e’ve taken the gravy out o f the budget.” She added, “ I hate to say this, but is everyone taking a pay cut?” Burrows responded by saying the points she made were all “well tak en." He told the board that cut o f one half day in the teachers’ contract would save the d istric t around $23,000 if the te a c h e rs ’ union approves. B urrow s also rec ommended cutting: -$57,000 from the staffin g budget for four vacant classified positions. These positions, an aide at Sam Boardman Elementary, an aide at Riverside High School and two aides in Ir rigon, have not been filled. -$100,000 from the fuel budget. Burrows said that because o f the high fuel prices, the district had “bud geted aggressively” for fuel costs, however, if the fuel prices remain low, the addi tional budgeted amount will not be required. He stressed that the recommended fuel budget cuts were hinged on the current low fuel prices. -$15,000 from the maintenance budget. -$5,000 from the ad ministrator’s travel costs to attend the Confederation of Oregon School Administra tors annual meeting. -$5,000 in business software for the school dis trict office. -$10,000 from the field trip budget. Burrows said that after the cuts, fund ing for some field trips will still remain. In other business, the board: -heard from the Edu cation Service District repre sentative, who commended that ESD will be facing the same budget cutting issues as the school district. -com m ended Hep pner High School Principal Daye Stone for the Veteran's Day remembrance ceremo ny at the school. -recognized students who won the Morrow Soil and Water Conservation Dis trict poster contest. Board member Nancy Vander Does said that a child from each com m unity in the school district won first in the state competition. -approved appoint ment o f Greg Baron and Susie Frederickson to the budget committee. -ad o p ted the fo l low ing budget calendar: March 6-budgets due from buildings and departments; April 8-publication of notice o f budget m eeting; April 15-second notice o f budget meeting; April 20- distribute budget document to com mittee; May 4-first budget m eeting/budget m essage; May 11 -regular board meet ing, second budget m eet ing if needed (additional meeting dates to be set by committee if needed); May 18-deadline for budget ap proval; May 27-publication o f notice o f budget hearing; June 8-budget hearing/adopt budget and make appropria tions; June 8-regular board meeting; July 1-beginning of 2009-10 fiscal year; July 15-deadline to certify levy to assessor. -re sc in d e d b o ard member conflicts o f inter est policy and adopted board member ethics and conflicts of interest policy and board member ethics and nepotism policy. -heard the first read ing o f head lice policies. -rescinded policies on staff ethics and gifts and solicitations and heard the first readings o f new poli cies on ethics and gifts and solicitations. -heard a presentation from Irrigon High School FFA members for six to 12 students to attend the Na tional FFA convention in the fall of 2009. The board approved their request. Stu dents plan to raise monies themselves to be able to at tend the convention. -held an executive session prior to the meeting to discuss the superinten dent’s evaluation. -approved a reso lution for adoption o f a 403(b) plan. (The federal g o v ern m en t passed new rules concerning investment vehicles.) -approved an atten- -Continued on Page THREE ENTER FOR YOUR A CH AN CE TO WIN A N APA ^ C U STO M B M X BIKE! Q J Entries due by a Deer 15 2 0 0 0 8 ^ M o rro w C ounty G rain G ro w ers L e x in g t o n 9 8 9 - 8 2 2 1 * 1 - 8 0 0 - 4 5 2 - 7 3 9 6 For farm equipment. »1*U «or w»b stti i t *w w meet.net
