Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 25, 2009)
Bergstrom named administrator of new treatment facility By Autumn Morgan 11 1 • 1 «•I• I •• 111 1 ■ 11 • I •■•11 1 1 1 11 1 Matt Bergstrom has been hired to be the administrator for Lakeview Heights, the secure resi dential treatment facility being built above the Wil low Creek Reservoir. The facility, which is expected to open in February, will provide services to indi viduals with severe mental Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Librars University of Oregon Eugene. OR 97403 HEPPNER imes VOL. 128 NO. 47 8 Pages Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Drama Club to perform “It’s a Wonderful Life” illnesses. Heights. When Bergstrom Currently, work was in college, he is still ongoing in didn’t picture him the building pro self as running a cess of Lakeview treatment facility. Heights. The facil In fact, he holds a ity is on schedule bachelor’s degree to be completed in in education and a January and Berg minor in psychol strom hopes it will ogy from Albertson be fully operational Matt College of Idaho. by the beginning He returned Bergst rum of February. The to Hermiston from facility w ill employ college in 2006 with plans 14-16 positions includ to be a teacher. But in ing residential associates stead, he spotted an ad in to help with cleaning and the newspaper and “one transportation, a registered thing led to another.” In nurse who will work with July 2006 Bergstrom began residents’ medications, working for Community mental health specialists, Counseling Solutions, pre and an assistant administra viously known as Morrow tor. Fifty-five applications County Mental Health. In have been receiv ed to so far. December of2007 he began Bergstrom said he plans to running Columbia River begin interviews next week Ranch, a mental health and hopes to have positions facility in Boardman. In filled by Christmas. Two August of 2009, Bergstrom weeks of staff training w ill was hired to run Lakeview be held in January. Berg Biorefinery facility planned in Boardman By David Sykes A Colorado based company plans to build a production facility in Boardman that w ill convert poplar trees into chemicals and fuels, a representative of the company told the Heppner Chamber of Com merce last week. C arrie A tiy eh , public affairs director of the ZeaChem Inc.of Lake- wood, CO, told the Heppner Chamber of Commerce last Thursday that the company is currently constructing the facility at the Port of Morrow in Boardman. She said, when completed, the plant will produce 250,000 gallons of ethanol per year using fast growing poplar trees harvested from the 35,000 acres of tree farms owned by GreenW ood Resources in the Pacific Northwest. Atiyeh said the plant is not a full produc tion facility, but is called a semi-works scale facility, used to test production for a large scale production plant to be built later. She did not say where the full scale facility will be built. “Financing is tough right now," Atiyeh said. “But this plant is the first step to prove the technology to go out and put in our first com mercial size facility.” She said ZeaChem, which was incorporated in 2002 and also operates a research and development Top Photo: Carrie Atiyeh told the Heppner Chamber of Com merce last week about a new bio facility going in at the Port of Morrow in Boardman. Bottom Photo: The new facility plans to use poplars from the tree farm near Boardman as raw material. It may also use other raw material such as wheat straw and forest waste, a representative said. -Photos by David Sykes laboratory facility in Menlo Park, CA, is putting $30 million into this facility, Jodessa Chapa and Zech Hintz perform the parts of Mary and George Bailey for the Hep but she declined to name pner High School Drama Club's upcoming production of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Three the full price. performances will be held in the HHS cafeteria on Monday, November 30, and Tuesday and Atiyeh did, how Wednesday, December I and 2, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5.50 each and can be purchased at Sweet ever, say Oregon’s favor Productions or by calling 676-8022. -Contributed Photo able renewable resource tax exemption law, which may be repealed by the state legislature in special The Heppner Gazette-Times will be closed on November 26 and 27 in obser session in February, was a vance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The office will re-open on Monday, November major reason the company 30, at 9 a.m. decided to locate here. She also said the company is looking for venture capital and federal stimulus money to move development and construction of full scale production forward. Some of the end products coming out of the plant will be chemicals for plastic products, car paint material and an additive that makes coffee decaf feinated. Atiyeh said the plant could, in the future, also use wheat straw or waste from the national forest in its production. “Com was the first genera tion of ethanol production," Atiyeh said. “But now we Left Photo: Ashley Wolff, 17, of Heppner took her first elk recently, a mature cow. The hunt was donated to the Booster Club are expanding into other Auction by Brian and Susan Thompson, and guided by Sid Kennedy. Right Photo: Micha Hintz of Heppner killed this spike areas. It’s not just ethanol elk at the OHV Youth Hunt on November 7. -Contributed Photos anymore,” she said of the ZeaChem process. The Heppner Gazette-Times wants to see pictures o f your trophy ani The test facility at Boardman take bio mals from this hunting season. Stop by to have your picture taken, mass (wood will or other mate rial), and ferment the mate- drop off photos, or email them to editor@rapidserve.net. Gazette-Times to close for Thanksgiving Wolff, Hintz fill elk tags ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: r0 strom is currently working with the state on licensing for the facility. Bergstrom, 26. is enjoying working in Hepp ner. Although he w as raised in Hermiston and currently lives there, he has family roots that tie him to Hep pner. His parents, Mike and Michele Bergstrom, both graduated from Hep pner High School. Also, his grandparents, Marlene and Randall Peterson, Bob Bergstrom, and Don and Margaret Evans, all live in Heppner. He is engaged to be married in July to Chel sea Gill of Hermiston, w ho is employed as a teacher. Bergstrom is look ing forward to the opening of the facility. ”1 think it’s awesome,” said Bergstrom. “I'm excited and every body has been so supportive.” An open house is being planned after completion of the facility. rial w ith a natural bacteria called acetogen. Acetogen is highly robust, but unlike yeast, produces no car bon dioxide (C02) during the fermentation process. According to a company news release ZeaChem's approach “ leapfrogs the yield and carbon dioxide (C 02) problems associ ated with traditional and cellulosic based biorefinery processes." The company went on to say that it has a sig nificant capital cost ad vantage compared to other cellulosic technologies. By efficiently extracting the most energy possible from biomass feedstocks, ZeaChem significantly in creases output while re ducing both production costs and environmental impacts. The plant in Board- man will employ 25 people when completed, and will employee 75 during con struction, which is expected to be completed b\ the end of 2010. Hazen Research of Golden Colorado will con struct the plant, which will actually be a series of indi vidual modular processing units constructed elsewhere and then connected together when they arrive on site in Boardman. We will be closed for Thanksgiving at all locations November 26,27, and 28 Have a happy holiday! M orrow County G rain G row ers M O N D A Y S A T 5 : 0 0 P .M . Lexington 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 * 1 -8 0 0 - 4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 f»r farm equipment »litt Mr nett itti at m men net
