Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2009)
W ilgers to retire from district attorney’s office 11 1 1 • 1 1 ••111 •*••• 11 • 1 11 1 1 1 11 1 111 Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene. OR 97403 By Autumn Morgan The office o f the dis trict attorney has officially changed hands six times over the last 23 years, and Vi Wilgers has been there for those changes. She has worked in the district attor ney’s office since 1985 and will retire on Friday, Febru ary 13, after almost 24 years o f service. From managing the office to taking care o f all Vi W ilgers will retire from the district attorney ’s office on Friday types o f legal papers, Wilg after 23 years of service. A public reception will he held in her ers’ know ledge o f the inner honor on Thursday at noon at the courthouse. -Photo by Autumn Morgan workings o f the district at torney’s office is extensive. She has worked w ith seven different district attorneys, six o f whom were consid ered official since one was deployed w ith the National Guard and a replacement had to be brought in, since her employment in 1985. She has also worked with four deputy district attor neys. "If I didn't love this job, I wouldn’t have stuck with it for 23 years,” said Wilgers. W ilgers has lived in Heppner for the past 33 years and has no plans to leave after her retirement is official. Her son Wayne lives in Hermiston and her daughter Annette lives in Pendleton. Once she gets used to not going to the court house for work e\ery day, Wilgers plans to do a little traveling and spend time with her siblings. “I'm ex cited about my retirement,” said Wilgers. She also plans on concentrating more on some o f her hobbies which include playing the v io lin, painting, and arranging flowers. "It has been a plea sure working for the DA’s o ffice ,” said W ilgers. “ I have made great friends throughout the state and the county has been great to me.” No replacement has yet been hired. A retirement recep tion for Wilgers w ill be held at noon on Thursday, Febru ary 12, at the courthouse. The community is invited to attend. City considers new restrooms for Hager Park VOL. 128 NO. 6 10 Pages Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon School district to seek three-year levy service contracts for 2009- 10 from Umatilla-Morrow ESD... -approved a coop erative sponsorship for RHS and Irrigon High School girls’ and boys’ tennis pro gram. -heard a brief report from principals concerning plans for students who have not yet met their bench marks. -heard a report con cerning a National Science Teachers convention. -approved the fol lowing employment action: resignations/retirements-G. Ann Thomas, RHS coun selor; Dave Pedro, RHS head tennis coach; Abel B u rn ett, Irrigon Ju n io r/ Senior High School head boys’ basketball coach, head football coach and assistant track coach; employment/ promotion-Martha Carmon, Sam Boardman Elementary assistant coach; Keli Bither, SBE special ed assistant; Danica Harjo, addition half tim e tem porary contract to cover SBE kindergarten class for the remainder o f the school year; extra duty contracts-Robin Graffi RHS head softball coach; Rhonda Boor, RHS assistant softball coach; Amy Tolar, IJH as sistant track coach. -received the fo l lowing attendance report: A.C. H oughton Elem en tary School. Irrigon-343 stu dents; Heppner Elementary School-187; HHS-224; Irri gon Elementary School-117; IHS-319; RHS-389; SBE- 310; Windy River Elemen tary School-230; Morrow Education Center-Morrow County School District-83; Morrow Education Center- Umatilla School District- 37; total-2239. -heard the follow ing announcements: President's Day holiday-February 16; next board meeting, March 9, ACH, 7 p.m. -held an executive Zech Hint/ and Ken Bailey coach (iaige Futter and Blaine M a honey as they wrestled each other during a Colt wrestling tourna meeting to discuss person ment held last Wednesday at Heppner High School. -Contributed nel, legal issues and nego Photo tiations. By April Sykes The Morrow County School Board, at their regu lar meeting in Boardman Monday, authorized Super intendent Mark B urrow s to proceed with plans for a three-year serial levy which will be presented to the dis trict’s voters this May. The local o p tio n levy, if passed, will offset losses the district expects to see from anticipated reduc tions in state school funding resulting from projected cuts to the state's education fund. The district expects to get firmer figures by February 20 when the state releases the newest fiscal outlook, said board m em ber Bill Kuhn. “ It's a waiting game,” commented Kuhn, who said that the state legislature is waiting to see if Congress will give them any stimulus money from the federal bail out package. “ Right now ,” said Burrows, “a loss o f $500,000 (to the district) is a conser vative estimate. This (the levy) will give patrons a chance to weigh in.” The district’s levy will ask for $l per $1,000 assessed valuation. If the levy is passed, a homeow ner with a $50,000 home could expect to pay around $40 per year; a homeowner with a $100,000 home would pay around $70 per year; and one with a $150,000 home would pay around $110 per year, said Burrows. The district did have some good news at the meet ing. The board learned that Business Week Magazine and Great Schools Organi zation gave Riverside High School the #1 Top Academ ic Performance in Oregon award for “schools in low socio-economic areas” and also named the school the # 1 Most Improved School in Oregon “for all schools”. Burrows commend ed RHS Principal Dirk Dirk- sen and school employees in RHS in recognition of their achievement and Dirksen presented employees with plaques. Burrows said that five schools in each state received awards from Busi ness Week, except in Oregon where four schools received honors, since Riverside gar nered two awards. Also at the meeting, the board: -viewed a presenta tion from H eppner High School students who trav eled to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration. -approved a request from HHS Vo-Ag students for an educational field trip to attend the vo-ag con vention in October, which includes visiting ag-related industries in Tennessee and Kentucky and participating in a volunteer community service program. -a p p ro v e d p u b lic Colt wrestling tournament held By David Sykes The Heppner City Council on Monday opened bids for construction o f a new restroom building at Hager Park, but may end up approving a modular type restroom , the same used in Forest Service C am p grounds, as an alternative. The city is not di rectly paying for the rest room facility as a group of citizens has been raising funds for the project. They re p o rte d ly have $7,5 0 0 more to raise. The restroom would be located at the end o f Hager Park near the Little League field. Two bids from local contractors, one for $45,549 and the other for $51,113, were received by the city for “stick” type construction; however the council opted instead to look closely at the modular type restroom made by CTX Company, which supplies restrooms for For est Service campgrounds. The model favored by the council is called the Cortez and cost about $34,000 delivered. Accord ing to the company’s adver tising “The Cortez’s stan dard features include sink, toilet bowl, electric hand dryer and interior and exte rior entry lights. The Cortez is ideal for both urban and rural areas that experience extreme vandalism.” The city estimated it would cost about $2,500 to put utilities to the restrooms and a parking lot would cost an additional $7,500, which backers hope will be paid for with a grant from the Ford Foundation. The council did not make a decision, and in stead agreed to have the city Beautification Committee take a look at the restroom proposal. Water rates going up In o th er bu sin ess the council heard a report from City M anager Dave DeMayo, who said the city will most likely raise water rates in the coming months. He said later that rates could The city is considering this type of modular restroom for Hager Park. The model is called the Cortez. -Contributed Photo go up by $4 per month, and then six months later be raised another $4. The util ity commission will discuss the raise at its February meeting. The increase is nec essary to begin paying off the loan the city received to put in the new w ater system completed several years ago. Repayment o f the bonds was delayed while the city resolved a lawsuit with the contractor on the project. The city needs to raise $130,000 per year in water fees to pay o ff the note, DeMayo said, and it reportedly now only col lects between $74,000 and $78,000 per year in water fees. In other action the council heard a report that the St. Patrick Senior Center remodeling project should be done by February 20, and there are currently three va cancies and four on the w ait ing list. When remodeling is completed, operation of the center will be shifted from the city to a management company to be paid $798 per month. “It will be a benefit to the city to be out from under this (the management responsibility)," Mayor Les Paustian said. “ It will give the city manager time to do other things.” Seat belt “blitz” sched uled The Morrow County Sheriff's Department, which handles patrol duty for I lep- pner, announced Monday that it will be holding a seat belt blitz from Feb. 9 until Feb. 22. There will be sev eral overtime shifts added to look for no seat belts buck led violations in Heppner, Lexington and lone. The fine for no seat belt is $99 or $128 in a school zone. It w as a ls o a n nounced that deputies Ivan Dike and Jon Lehman have been rotated in to work the Heppner area. They will be working Heppner until May. City sets 2009 goals The Heppner City Council adopted its goals for 2009 at its meeting Monday night. The council had held a goal setting session last week. Goals included the following: 1. Ensure that the in frastructure of Heppner is pre pared to support the expansion of residential housing in areas that are prime candidates for development (i.e. Heppner Valley Heights, the area south o f Lakeview Heights and the vicinity o f the Rasmussen Lott Addition). 2. C o n t i n u a t i o n and completion o f the fol lowing 2008 PW projects: a) Install a flow meter in the incoming sewer main at the Wastewater treatment plant. b) Continue to fence water wells and reservoirs to pre vent tampering. e) Continue to cleanup the public works yard. -Continued on Page TEN OPEN HOUSE “Lots of In-store specials *BBQ Lunch 11:30 FTill BY, fphrnarv U U B j N APA T00L & * D o o r P r ix e $ filter SA LE B GUM 13 February 9th -20th ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: M orrow County Grain Growers MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For farm equipment, visit our web site at www mcgK net 1
