Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2009)
Il l ^ I . . . . Bessie W etzel I \u.. ^ ¡v e r s if y of 0 nSpaPer Library Eugene, OR 97403 City gets $3 million for streets, sidewalks and new “Lovers Lane” foot bridge Money is state funds and not part o f Federal stimulus By David Sykes The city of Heppner will receive $3 million from the State of Oregon for seven projects ranging from side walks and streets to a new VOL. 128 NO. 31 10 Pages Wednesday, August 12,2009 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Barney Lindsay elected school board chair Irrigon High may become 3A school By April Sykes Barney L indsay was elected Morrow Coun ty School Board Chair at a meeting held Monday night at the district offices in Lexington. Lindsay and Thad Killingbeck were sworn in as newly elected mem bers and Dan Daltoso was elected vice-chair. M orrow C ounty School District Superin tendent Mark Burrows told the board that the Oregon School Athletic Associa tion will move Irrigon High School to 3A classification from 2 A, effective 2010. He said that the district is con cerned about the proposed move as the newly formed Irrigon High School, which is now in the same clas sification as Heppner High School., will have to com pete with much larger, es tablished schools, such as Riverside High School, Nyssa and John Day. “It would be really a tough thing competitively,” said Burrows. He added that economics is also a consid eration, saying that it could cost the district “a bundle of cash” for transportation and other costs. The criteria for classification placement is student enrollment with the bar set at 220 students for 3A. Burrows said that IHS currently has only 180 students and the district plans to petition OSAA to reconsider the proposed change. If IHS is reclassi fied it would be effective from 2010 to 2014. Burrows also told the board that Windy River Elem entary School has not met its Average Yearly Progress goals for the sec ond year in a row. He said that the school did not meet its goals in two subgroups, English Language Learn ers and Special Education. Since WRE did not meet its goals for the second year, the school will now have to undergo a comprehen sive improvement planning process and will have to notify parents of WRE stu dents that they can choose to send their children to a school that performs high er at the expense of the district. If WRE parents so choose, they could opt to have their children at tend another school in the district, such as Heppner Elementary or Irrigon El ementary and the district must pay for transportation. WRE is comprised of fifth and sixth-grade students. Because WRE did not meet its AYP, the district is now eligible for grant monies to assist the improvement process. At the same time, Burrows said that he is proud o f Morrow Coun ty Schools and expressed regret that two small ar eas prevented WRE from achieving its AYP goals. “It’s a shame with the fed eral government, if you mess up in one little area, it doesn’t give you credit for all the gains,” said Bur rows. H e p p n e r H ig h School P rincipal Daye Stone said he is looking forward to the new pro ficiency-based system at HHS this fall. In May, Stone said that the school will change from seven to eight periods per day and from a curriculum based on “seat time” to proficiency, where students will be tested to de termine their proficiency in a subject before they will be able to move on to a higher level. He said that while at first there were some “misnomers” about the new program, he had visited with “movers and shakers” in the community to help disseminate the information about the changes and the questions have died down. “It’s an exciting time pe riod,” said Stone. Also at the meet ing, the board approved the canvas of the Commu nity Education Committee election results. Burrows said that no one filed for the Com m unity Educa tion Committee positions in any community and the board is exploring elimi nating the committees. The board decided to seek legal counsel toward that process and directed Burrows to write letters to the write-in candidates to that effect. “The CECs are no longer useful,” said board member Bill Kuhn. Burrows said that there have not been active CECs for the last three years and noted that serving on a CEC is no lon ger relevant. He suggested that interested citizens par ticipate in booster clubs and site councils. He added that the election process is also expensive for the dis trict, amounting to around $1,000 per election. CEC write-in candidates who were approved, receiving at least two votes each, were Deanne Irving, Irrigon, Kent Hansen, Marcy Rodelo and Sheila Corpus, all Board- man, and Marcia Kemp, Heppner-Lexington. In other business, the board: -Continued on Page SIX Man drowns at Boardman Marina Park According to the Boardman Police Depart ment, on Sunday, August 9, at approximately 2:30 p.m., a 21 year old man drowned while swim m ing at the Boardman Marina Park. Witnesses reported the man had swum across the swim area and was swimming back to the op posite shore when he began struggling in the water. A friend on shore attempted to rescue the struggling man, but was unable to do so. A Boardman Police officer arrived on scene and, with the help of several citizens, dove into the water and was able to retrieve the man from about six or seven feet of water. A m bulance and fire crews from Boardman, along with the undersheriflf from the Morrow County S heriff’s Office, arrived on scene and attempted to revive the man. Their ef forts were unsuccessful due to the amount of time the man had been under water. The man was pronounced deceased at the scene. A relative o f the deceased reported the man had suffered from muscle cramping in the past while swimming and nothing in the water of the swim area was found to have contrib uted to the drowning. The man was iden tified as Juan Florez-Perea of Mexico. Florez-Perea had been staying with family in Boardman while working during the harvest. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. t footbridge over Willow Creek, it was announced at Monday night’s council meeting. Council members learned of the unexpected money when City Manager Dave De Mayo explained how he had been contacted by state Representative Greg Smith in May about money that had become available for projects after another city had turned it down. De Mayo said Smith called him on May 11 late in the afternoon, and said the money was available if the city could come up w ith a list of projects within two and one half hours. De Mayo said he consulted with Heppner High School Principal Daye Stone and then came up with seven projects to spend the nearly $3 million in state funds. The list includes in pri oritized order: l.A rebuildofBarratt Blvd including a complete re construction from the sub grade up, including curbs, gutters, and a drainage sys tem and sidewalks ($1.48 million). 2. Completion of Riverside Ave. consist ing of installing curbs and gutters, installing sidewalk along the south east side and completing the instal lation of the storm drainage system (cost: $512,000). 3. Replacement and repair of “Lover’s Lane” pedestrian bridge crossing Willow Creek behind the Bowl ing Alley, including re placement of superstructure and sidewalk approaches (cost: $149,570). 4. Hep pner Elementary School sidewalk renovation in cluding repair and replace of existing retaining wall and replacement of the sidewalk and replacing 300 ft of safety rail ($119,220). 5. Install sidewalks to and from Heppner High School starting at the junction of Gale and Water Streets up Water Street to Willow View Drive at the High School and then to the Junc tion of Spruce and Morgan Streets, about 3,300 feet, and then on to the intersec- Some of the projects slated for Heppner include new sidewalks up to the High School on Water St. (top), replace foot bridge behind Bow ling Alley (inset), and new sidewalk on Elementary School lower field. tion of Morgan Street and nate we got this money,” Riverside, another 1,100 Mayor Les Paustian told feet ($477,760). 6. New the council. “A lot of other sidewalks on Hager, Cow cities did not get anything." ins and Gilmore streets, This is not local tax money, approximately 4,000 feet. he added. ($100,000). 7. Stabilize an The money came from alleyway hill slope failure HB2001 which is all state on Hill Street using drain money and not part of the age, geotextiles (permeable federal stimulus program. fabrics which, when used in “Heppner put in for federal association with soil, have stimulus dollars and was the ability to separate, filter, denied, De Mayo told the reinforce, protect, or drain) council. and gabions (cages, cylin In order to get the funds ders, or boxes filled with the city will have to provide soil or sand) ($100,000). the engineering for the “We feel we are fortu continued page 10 Temple snags Amateur Calf Roping saddle By Autumn Morgan After 21 years of com peting for the Mor row County Jackpot Ro deo Amateur Calf Roping saddle, Dick Temple has fi nally taken it home. Temple rode his daughter Kristal’s, horse, Sunny, who had only been out of the barrier two times in the last four years.. T e m p le b e g a n teaching himself calf roping when he was 19 and he still loves roping even though he doesn’t get a chance to do it much. Today he ropes calves with just reins at tached to the halter because the mare “really loves to rope calves, even though 1 had a little trouble w ith her at the rodeo.” This year, he had some extra help getting ready for the rodeo. Kyle, Devin and Garrett Robin son “helped me practice the five times I practiced this summer,” said Temple. In between the go-arounds Kyle helped him tie another rope in case he missed the first loop. They had to rig the second loop so Temple could throw the first on Dick Temple works on w restling his calf to the ground during the Amateur Calf Roping competition at the Morrow Counts Jackpot Rodeo on Sunday, August 9. More Morross Counts Fair and Rodeo pictures can he found on Page FIN E -Photo by Sandy Matthews Round-Up 13 years in a row. Temple has won a jackpot or two in his life but now "know s that saddle ex ists because 1 have touched it. I still don't know if elk and jackalope exist, but 1 think the jackalope do be cause I have seen the does." said Temple. “This is my 21” year competing for the saddle. 1 will miss compet ing for it next year. I figure every roper in the arena w as a better roper than 1 am but I got lucky this year.” the ground and pick up the second loop without being bucked off. Temple graduated from veterinary school in 1970 and moved to the area in 1986. “Karen and I came here looking for a place to raise a family and this has been a wonderful commu nity," he said. Temple also does some team roping w ith his brothers, Daryl and Brian, once or twice a year. 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