Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2009)
Ballots to go out Friday, due May 19 M i I ii I im I i I m III......| | , | lll|| Bessie Wetzel I Newspaper Librar> I niversitN of Oregon Eugene. OR 97403 Morrow County bal lots will be sent out this Friday, May 1. Ballots are due baek at the courthouse by Tuesday, May 19. Bal lots must have been mailed or dropped off to reach the clerk’s office by 5 p.m. that day. Ballots that are post marked May 19, but have not reached the clerk’s of fice by that day will not be counted. Voters will decide the fate of a Morrow County School District serial levy intended to fill in a fund ing gap created by the state funding sh o rtfall. If the levy passes the district will impose a three-year levy o f S 1 per S 1,000 assessed value beginning in 2009-10 for school operations. The serial levy will generate approxim ately $560,000 per year for three years for classroom instruction “in an effort to maintain current level o f program s and/or class size to offset declining state revenue.” The to tal am ount o f tax es c o lle c te d from the three-year local option tax will be approximately $1,680,000. The levy will cost the owner of a $ 100,000 home approximately $70 per year for three years. N u m e ro u s b o ard member spots are also up for election as follows: Morrow C ou n ty School District: Position 2-William T. “Thad" Kill- ingbeck, B oardm an; Po sition 6-B arney Lindsay, Lexington; Position 7-Da- goberto “Berto” Hernandez, B oardm an; all to u r-y ear terms. lone School Dis trict: Position 3-W illiam R. Jepsen; Position 4-Anne Morter; Position 5-Lisa Ri- etmann, all lone, four-year terms. Morrow C o u n ty Health District: Position 1-John Gochnauer, Hepp ner; Position 2-John Murray, Heppner; Position 3-LeAnn Rea, Boardman, all four- year terms. Willow Creek Park District: two Directors at large, four-year terms-Betty Gray, lone. Morrow C ou n ty Unified Recreation Dis trict: Zone 1-Robert “Bob” Byrd, Irrigon. Zone 2-Terry Tallman, Boardman. both four-year terms. Oregon Trail Li brary District: Position 3-Allice Y. Ellis. Boardman; Position 4-Barbara Huwe, Irrigon; Position 5-Annetta Spicer, Heppner, all four- year terms. Port of Morrow: Position 1-Don R ussell, Boardman: Position 2-Joe Taylor, Boardman; Position 3-Jerry Healy, Heppner, all four-year terms. H ep p n er Rural Fire Protection District: three directors at large, four year terms-Lyle Peck and Mike Mahoney, both Hep pner. l o n e Rural Fire Protection District: three directors at large, four-year terms-Stephen Hill, Lexing ton; Wayne Vester Hams, lo n e; W ayne R ietm an n , lone. Boardman Rural Fire Protection District: three directors at large, three four-year terms, one two- year term-Randall Eugene Yates, Ricky Lane Sandlin, Don Russell, Jerry Johnson, all Boardman. Irrigon Rural Fire Protection District: Posi tion 3-Mark Calbick, Irri gon: Position 4-William H. Cooley; Position 5-Burrel Cooley, all four-year terms. Heppner C e m etery Maintenance Dis trict: tw o Directors at large, both four-year terms-Albert Riney, Heppner, Christopher George, Heppner. -Continued on Page SEVEN OSEA makes donation Yes for Kids campaign VOL. 128 NO. 17 10 Pages Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Retiring a lot easier said than done for Robinson Robinson was born and tau g h t in one-room and raised in Heppner. His school houses in Morrow father, C resto n , C ounty until they was raised on a were consolidated. ranch and in World She then taught at H eppner E lem en War II w as on the Pacific Front, later tary School where she was his fourth coming back and grade teacher. “She marrying Robin was my inspiration son’s mother, Kay for teaching,” said Kelly. His grand Robinson. m o th e r, L e n a , R o b in s o n taught at Madison School House in Eight-Mile g rad u ated in 1965 from Heppner High School. He then went on to Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario to play football, but ended up rodeoing in stead. During his time at Treasure Valley CC, Rob inson w anted to go into Ag business, but began to lean more and more toward education. He dropped out o f Treasure Valley before, making a decision. In 1967 he married Florene Kyger from Adrian. The couple moved to La G rande w here R obinson worked a rotating shift at a plywood mill in Elgin while attending Eastern Oregon University. In 1971 he re ceived an education degree. He went to work at Sherman County where he taught for four years before taking off 13 years to farm. “While at Sherman County the principal told me one day that I was star ing out the window more than the kids," said Rob inson. “He told me that if I wanted to be a good teacher I needed to take a couple of years off and ‘get it out of your system .’ I’m sure he didn't think it would be for 13 years.” D u rin g th o se 13 years he farmed with Frank Anderson in Heppner and Arlington before going back into the education field. In 1987 he began working at lone Commu nity School. Throughout his Top Photo: lone C ommunity School kim lercartners and preschool career he has taught mostly ers enjoyed a day spent w ith bahy chicks. The kindcrgartners middle school language arts, hatched the eggs and are enjoying watching them grow. reading. PE and careers. Bottom Photo: Hailey lleidcm an and T aylo r Rollins hold baby By Autumn Morgan D e a n R o b in s o n thought it would be easy to just turn in his retirement form and “head out.” But he is discovering, as the school year is quickly coming to an end, that it is a lot easier said than done. Robinson has been teaching for 26 years, 22 of those years at lone Com munity School and four at Sherman County. lone students count their chicks after they hatch chicks. -Contributed Photos -Continued on Page SE VEN ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Oregon School Employee's Association recently donated S2.500 to the Y es for Kids campaign. Picture left to right are Barney Lindsay and Bill Kuhn, M orrow County School D istrict board members; M a r k Burrows, M orrow County School District superintendent; Lisanne C u rrin , treasurer for the Yes for Kids campaign; and Kelly YV right and M ike Doherty, co-presidents of the O S E A . W rig h t is a special ed assistant at A .C . Houghton Elementary School and M ik e Doherty is the head custodian at Heppner High School. Photo by Andrew Sykes Strange to retire after 30 years in education is what brought Strange to A fter 30 years o f Morrow County. teaching art and PE in Mor Strange holds an A A row County, Jean Strange in arts degree from Roch w ill officially retire on June ester Community College 12 . in R ochester, MN, a BS Born and raised in degree from the University C h a tfie ld , MN, o f Wisconsin in La S tra n g e g r a d u crosse, and a mas ated from college ter's from Winona with the original State University in intent o f becoming Minnesota. a safety specialist Strange has for the Red Cross. taught 21 years at “ I took a job as a Heppner Elem en tary School, four secretary to get my Jean Strange years at Columbia foot in the door,” said Strange. “7 here was a Middle School, two years woman for whom I taught in Boardman at Sam Board- swim m ing lessons to her man Elementary and Windy kids who had a job bulle River Elementary, two years tin from Washington State just at Windy River, and this U niversity advertising an current year at HES and art and PE job at Heppner Heppner High School. She Elementary.” And that job taught PE and art for first By A u tu m n M o rg a n 14 years, just PE for the last seven years, and is currently teaching high school art and grade school PE. “ You can ’t have a b etter jo b than teaching grade school PE and teach ing kids art,” said Strange. “ I love teaching PE. My favorite age is third grade.” She likes teaching 3rJ-6lh grades the best. S tran g e 's favorite memory involves a special ed student she once had who was in a reclined wheelchair. The student could only com municate by blinking and laughing. W hen playing flag football, the last play every time would be to hand the football to the student, whose wheelchair was cov ered in flags, and she would -Continued on Page SEVEN State budget meeting to be held in lone with Rep. Greg Smith There will be an informative town hall style meeting in lone on Friday evening. May I, at 6 p.m. at the lone School cafeteria. State Representative Greg Smith from Ileppner w ill talk on the budgeting process in Salem. He w ill also give an update on the school funding situation. This presentation will be targeted to lone High School students, but the entire community is invited to attend. Come prepared to ask questions and learn more about what is going on in the state legislature. At th e MCGG GREEN FEED STORE in H e p p n e r : M others Day is May 10th! * * J mow in «lock Montana Silver 20% OFF / Hanging basket planters 10% O ff M orrow County Crain G rowers Green F eed & S eed 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)___ 4
