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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2010)
School district to receives nearly $200,000 less in taxes than assessor originally estimates II.L L .I.U II... Il,I,..Il Bessie Wetzel I Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene. OR 97403 By April Sykes M orrow C ounty Assessor Greg Sweek ap peared before the M or row County School Board February 8 to explain the discrepancy between his es timate as to what the district might have received in local option taxes and the amount HEPPNER Veronica Cortez, a math teacher at Riverside High School, uses a promethean board to teach Algebra II. -ContributedPhoto im e s VOL. 129 NO. 7 10 Pages Wednesday, February 17,2010 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Economic development group holds annual meeting The Willow Creek nesses and services such as Valley Economic Develop the $750,000 investment ment Group (WCVEDG) at the hospital in its nurs held its annual meeting last ing home facilities, the Thursday and elected Da construction of the Willow vid Sykes as president for Creek Terrance Assisted 2010. Sykes was president Living Center, and now the in 2009 as well. The group Lakeview Heights Secure also elected board members Residential Treatment Fa including George Koffler, cility (SRTF). WCVEDG Ed Rollins of the Bank of hopes to study this trend Eastern O regon, Nancy and determine if there may Snider of Wheatland Insur be other types of compat ance, Dave DeMayo Hep ible or spin off businesses pner City manager, Mike that may provide related Blauer, Morrow County economic development for Health District administra the area. tor and Marcia Kemp of the As an example of US Forest Service. Sykes is the positive economic con the owner of the Heppner tribution to the community Gazette-Times Newspaper the SRTF will be employing and Sykes Real Estate in 21 people when it opens Heppner. next month, and the Mor The guest speaker row County Health District, at the meeting, which was Pioneer Memorial Hospital held in conjunction with and Nursing Home, and the the Heppner Chamber of clinic, are major employers Commerce weekly meet in the area. ing, was Matt Bergstrom, Sykes said WC administrator of the new VEDG has in the past spent Secure Residential Treat a lot of time and effort try ment Facility in Heppner. ing to attract businesses to The lunch meeting attracted the South Morrow Industri about 50 people and was al Park (former Kinzua Mill held at the St. Patrick’s site) without much luck. He Senior Center. said the group is not giving Sykes went over up trying to find manufac WCVEDG’s accomplish turing or other businesses ment the past year and to locate there, but perhaps we sh o u ld now also its goals for the look at the trend com ing year. Last developing in the year the .group se “care giver” type cured over $7,000 in of businesses and work force training serv ices in th is funds which it gave area, he said. “We to the medical dis want to do what trict to use in training we can to encour medical personnel. David Sykes age and help the WCVEDG has al elected existing care giver ready obtained over president businesses be suc $14,000 in w ork cessful, but also force training funds for the coming year, Sykes look for others that might said, but how the training complement them,” Sykes money will be allocated has told the gathered crowd. One of the achieve not yet been determined. Sykes praised WC ments o f WCVEDG last VEDG’s executive director year was to launch a web Sheryll Bates for her efforts site with information and in working with the work contacts about the industrial force training agency in se park for someone who may curing both last year’s and be looking for a place to the coming year’s funding. locate a manufacturing or In laying out the other type of business. A nother accom group’s goals, Sykes said over the past several years plishment of the group w as the Heppner area has seen the completion of strategic an increase in investment plans for all three commu in “care giver” type busi nities in the valley, Hep tz> pner, Lexington and lone. Bates again worked with CAPECO (a regional eco nomic development group out o f Pendleton) which met numerous times with member of each community to formulate the plans. “The plans help com munities crystallize where they want to go in the future,” Sykes said about the benefits of strategic plans. As a goal for the coming year WCVEDG hopes to do another plan linking the common inter ests of the three communi ties in the valley and how they may work together to accomplish positive things which benefit the whole Willow Creek Valley. A nother goal o f WCVEDG for the coming year will be to encourage construction of some rental housing in Heppner. Almost everyone acknowledges that there is a shortage of adequate rental housing, especially two and three bedrooms, in the Heppner area. George Koffler will be heading up a commit tee to continue looking for solutions to the problem, including a possible inves tors group that could build a duplex or tri-plex. WCVEDG is also looking into how it might help local people obtain some of the good paying jobs opening up in the w ind generation business devel oping in the lone area. There is a wind technician training program at Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles, and Blue Mountain Community College is in vestigating whether it might partner with the college and provide long distance training or other services to offer the training. The w ind technician certification is a two-year program with both classroom and hands on training taking care of windmills. There are sev eral large windmill opera tions either in construction or already operating in the lone area of south Morrow County. WCVEDG has at tended meetings about the training and will see what it can do to help. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: M O N D A Y S AT 5:00 P.M. of taxes they would actually receive. Sw eek to ld the board and Superintendent Mark Burrows that outdat ed software contributed to the difference in calculating monies lost to compression. He said that he estimated compression by code area which would have resulted in a gain of $540,000 for the district through the lo cal option tax. If he had been able to estimate the compression loss by “ac count extension”, it would have shown that the district would actually gamer only $365,000. If not for com pression, the school district would have received $1 million from the local op tion tax. Compression is a cap on the amount that taxpayers pay. Sweek said that it would probably take a minimum of $200,000 for the assessor’s office for purchase of the software equipment and conversion. He said the conversion would probably be the more expensive of the two. He said he has spoken w ith the Morrow County Court and is starting to look at systems and is planning site visits to look at other counties’ systems. He said he hopes to have an idea of the type of system he would like to purchase and the cost in volved by budget time. Also at the meet ing, Dr. Mark Mulvihill, Umatilla-Morrow Educa tion Service District su perintendent, presented the 2010-2011 local service plan to the board. UM- ESD provides programs for special needs children, technology support, school improvement services and adm inistrative and sup port services for “com ponent” school districts, which means those districts have contracts for services. UMESD shows budgeted expenditures of $5,307,280 for fiscal year 2010 with proposed expenditures of $5,825,074 for a $517,794 loss. Local property taxes comprise $2,807,991 of the budget and state school sup port makes up $3,088,987. For fiscal year 2009, UM ESD received $2,704,731 in local property taxes and $3,112,956 in state school support for $5,817,687 in income versus $5,682,694 in e x p e n d itu re s for a $446,775 loss. T he b o a rd a p proved the 2010-2011 local serv ice plans. Component school districts, besides Morrow County School District, include Athena-W eston, Echo, Helix, Hermiston, lone, M ilton-Freewater, Pendleton, Pilot Rock, Stan field, Ukiah and Umatilla. UMESD previous ly outlined with MCSD a proposed merger between UMESD and the Union Baker ESD. In other business, the board: -presented River side High School’s state Outstanding School Award to Dirk Dirksen. RHS prin cipal. -heard from Ray Michael, pharmacist and owner of Boardman Phar macy, who offered his apol ogy, but said he would not be able to continue to work with the district’s pharmacy insurance plan for employ ees. “I just can’t continue -See SCHOOL DISTRICT/ Page SEVEN ■ I The new Secure Residential Treatment Facility held the first of two open houses for the public Tuesday. The public was invited to walk around the facility and there were hors d'oeuvres and staff on hand to answer questions. Heppner basketball/wrestling teams to participate in district tournaments The Heppner boys' and girls’ basketball teams will both head to the Blue Mountain Conference district play offs scheduled in Pendleton Friday and Saturday, February 19 and 20. The wres tling team will participate in their district tournament on Friday, February 19, begin ning at 2 p.m. and Saturday, February 20, beginning at 10 a.m. in Union. The basketball district tournament information is as follows: Friday, February 19, games are as follows: *1 p.m., Girls' game #1-Team 2 vs. Team 3; ‘ approximately 2:45 p.m. Boys’ game #1-Team 2 vs. Team 3; * 6 p.m., Girls' game #2-Team 4 vs. Team 5; ‘ approximately 7:45 p.m. Team #1 is protected. Saturday, February, 20 games are as follows: *1 p.m.. Girls' game #3-winner of game #2 vs. loser of game #1; * *approximatelv 2:45 p.m.. Boy’s game #3-w inner of game #2 vs. loser of game #1; *6 p.m.. Girls' game #4-winner of game #1 vs. team #1; ‘ approximately 7:45 p.m.. Boys’ game #4-winner of game #1 vs. team # 1 . The w inner of Saturday's game #4 will be the number-one seed to the state tournament and will receive the first-place trophy. The BMC championship banner will be presented to the league champion. The loser of Saturday’s game #4 will be the number-two seed to the state tournament and will receive the second place trophy. The winner of Saturday’s game #3 will be the number-three seed to the state tournament. Ticket prices are as follows: Per session: adults-$6, students-$4; Day Pass (two sessions): adults-$10, students-$7; Tournament Pass: adults-$18, students- $ 12 . Insulated coveralls * •* * Stock Tank Deicers * * Coats * Electric Heaters * * Pack Boots * Winter Clearance Sale 30% OFF *Also, heated Pet Bowls, Buckets &. Pet Beds * Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office) \
