Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 2009)
Long-time lone teacher, Dean Robinson, announces retirement lliliiliiililiillliiiiillilinll Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 128 NO. 16 10 Pages Wednesday, April 22,2009 By April Sykes L o n g - tim e lo n e teacher, coach and athletic d ire c to r D ean R obinson w ill retire at the end o f this school year, the lone School Board announced at their Monday night meeting. Prev iously, to ratch et down costs, the board had authorized Superintendent/ Principal Karl Ostheller to reduce the teaching staff by Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Little League season begins one position. Since Robin son has announced his intent to retire, the position will not be reinstated. Ostheller said. Also at the m eet ing the board discussed a letter to the district from Governor Ted Kulongoski concerning the impact o f the recession on the K-12 budget for 2009-11. Ku longoski told them that the state’s budget shortfall has tripled to more than $3.1 billion below “ E ssential B udget L ev el.” He also told them to prepare for an additional $2 billion in lost state revenue by February 2010, which will bring the total state loss to more than $5 billion. Consequently, Kulongoski asked the school districts to develop budgets according to a $5.4-$5.9 bil lion State School Fund for 2009-11. The lone School District indicated that they are planning for the $5.4 billion scenario and hoping that it won't be worse. “Edu cation is not taking as big a hit as other (state) agencies and they’re down there ask ing for more,” commented board Chair Joe McElligott. “ We don’t want to lose our credibility.” In other business: -O s th e lle r a n nounced that the district sold its voter approved bonds on April 7 and the interest rate was lower than originally projects. “The net effect,” said Ostheller, “would be a reduced tax rate (around $2.45 per $ 1,000 of assessed value instead of $2.82) and an additional $77,000 above the 2.8 million to be used for the capital projects.” -the g e o tech n ical site investigation has been completed for putting the elem en tary ad d itio n out for bid. Ostheller said that in the process o f digging test holes, it was discov ered that the old building’s foundation and basem ent were under the surface w ith the walls knocked in and backfilled. -the cafeteria, gym and stage lighting project has gone out for bid. O s theller said that an extra bid was added for retrofitting the shop lighting and recom mended by the energy audit. The bid project is being combined with Helix and Athena-Weston to attempt to get a low er bid price for the projects in all three districts. Eleven companies showed up for the initial walk-through. -th e first b u d g e t meeting was held April 13. Linda LaRue was voted in as chair and Marcus Col lier as vice chair. The next meeting will be held May 11 at 7 p.m. -the board approv ed a management contract with the Umatilla-Morrow ESD for $36,388. Funding for m aintenance was not in cluded in the contract. -the board accepted Dean Robinson's retirement “with regret.” -student enrollment is at 164 with 71 students in k in d erg arten through grade five, 29 in grades six through eight and 64 in grades nine-12. -according to Beth O ’Hanlon, chief financial officer, the district received $118,300 in basic school support in March; the gen eral fund collected $17,018 in property taxes; and the ex tra-cu rricu lar fund re ceived $36,334 from the M orrow C ounty U nified Recreation District. -O ’Hanlon reported that intfividual special rev enue funds continue to carry deficit fund balances, how ever, with the exception of the Pool Fund, all funds will be made w hole by approv ed grant dollars. -O'Hanlon reported larger or unusual payments for December for the fol lowing: Mid Columbia Bus for transportation; Morrow County Grain Growers for propane; Sysco for food pur chases; Umatilla-M orrow' ESD for a serv er and miscel laneous supplies; Vem’s and Sons for food purchases and W illamette ESD for bond project costs. -O 'H anlon rep o rt ed that the $5.4 b illio n state school funding esti mate would allocate “just $1,400,981 for the lone School D istrict which is $90,000 less than discussed during the budget committee meeting, “primarily due to the difference in local rev enue,” said O'Hanlon. She said that she had only in cluded current property tax collections as local revenue instead o f county school funds, in-lieu o f property taxes, etc. She aid that the initial estimates were pro vided by COSA. -mowing has been initiated as per contract with the city in consultation with athletic director and track coach Ryan Rudolf. -the board approved mov ing the June board meet ing and budget hearing to June 15. -th e n ex t b u d g et committee meeting will be held on Monday, May 11, at 7 p.m.; the next board meet ing will be held Monday, May 18. -the board held an executive session to discuss negotiations. Palmer receives $15,000 research grant Little League season opened in Heppner on Saturday. -Photo by Sandy Matthews Columbia River Community Health Services awarded grant from American Recovery & Reinvestment Act The U.S. D e p art m ent o f H ealth and H u man Services (H H S) has announced the release o f a one-time grant o f nearly $6 million to expand services at 25 o f Oregon's commu nity health centers. The money was made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the federal economic stimulus package) and comes as more Oregonians join the ranks of the uninsured. A po rtio n o f this grant was awarded to Co lumbia River Community Health Services to continue to serve Boardman’s most vulnerable residents. The grant will be used over the next two years to expand services and outreach pro gram efforts. Some services already in the works are an increased presence in com munity events, childhood immunizations during well child visits, and setting up a digital x-ray program and tech. More one-time federal grants are expected from the stimulus plan to help health centers fund capital projects, including facility construc tion and rem odeling and the purchase o f electronic medical records equipment. Columbia River Community Health Services will keep a close eye on future federal grants, as they plan to con struct a new facility to house their ever growing patient population. Health centers serve one in every 15 Oregonians - more than 264,000 in 2007, about 48 percent o f whom had no health insurance. Centers provide physical, oral and mental health care, plus such support services as case management, trans lation and transportation. Columbia River Community Health Services delivered care to over 56% o f Board- m an's residents last year, not counting patients from _J0L Shindawa $ 199.99 on sale Home Pro 22-T String Trimmer L f awn Thatcher Rentals 1 M orrow C ounty Grain G rowers Green F eed & S eed 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner « 676 -94 22 « 989-8221 (MCGG main office) \ AXCP, exhibits novel re activity with the gas, nitric oxide. This unprecedent ed hem e chem istry may help AXCP protect bacteria against the toxicity o f nitric oxide in its environment, and may also be relevant to nitric-oxide-based signaling pathways in the cardiovas cular and central nervous systems. To understand how the molecular structure of AXCP controls its heme chemistry, the group will carry out a range o f experi ments using kinetic, spectro scopic, and chromatographic techniques. P alm er is h o ping to carry out research using equipment that could pos sibly be purchased for the classroom , specifically a spectroscopic. The proposed work will be carried out using state-of-the-art equip ment in the new science building at Eastern Oregon University. During the previous three-years, a total o f 18 students were involved in the project. Research was published in the internation al peer rev iewed journals, “Biochemistry, and Journal o f Biological Chemistry,” as well as in the “Eastern Oregon Science Journal.” Students traveled widely to present their research at National and International Conferences, including the 2006 “European Conference on B io lo g ical Inorganic C hem istry,” in Portugal. Palmer will be presenting at a national conference two different years about the findings in his research. around the area, such as Ir- rigon, Umatilla, Heppner, lone, and their surround ings. C o lu m b ia R iv e r Community Health Serv ices accepts Oregon Health Plan, Medicare, most insurance plans, and offers a slid ing scale fee program. The clinic is open from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Monday through Friday. Some o f the services they offer include: compre hensive exams, DOT physi cals, occupational services, school sports p h y sicals, chronic illness management, well child exams, as well as adult and childhood immu nizations. F o r m o re in f o r Umatilla Morrow Head Start is currently accepting applications for the 2009-2010 mation on services, or to school year. Children must be 3 years o f age on or before September 1, 2009. schedule an appointm ent In Heppner, families can obtain an application at Heppner Elementary school call 541/481-7212. For in or contact Candy Green at 676-5482. Ana Reynaud can be reached in the Boardman or form ation on the clin ic's Irrigon area by calling 481-3254. fundraising efforts, to build a new clinic facility, con tact Mindy Binder, also at Morrow County Clerk Bobbi Childers has announced that ballots for the May 541/481-7212. election will be mailed on May 1. At the MCGG GREEN FEED STORE in H eppner: ’Tiller t Jason Palmer, a sci ence teacher at Heppner High School, recently re ceived at $ 15,000 grant from the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust. The grant is a Part ners in Science grant in which Palmer will be doing research at Eastern Oregon University with Dr. Colin Andrew on the build-up of nitric oxide in the blood stream and how it’s trans ported. Palmer had applied for the grant three different times prior to receiv ing this year’s. The grant is a two year grant. This project will in vestigate the reactivity o f a heme-containing protein from the b acteriu m , Al- ealigenes xvlosoxidans. Re search has recently shown that this protein, term ed Umatilla Morrow Head Start accepting applications for 2009-10 school year Ballots to be mailed May 1 ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: rcT op. MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
