Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2010)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - SEVEN lone American Legion and Auxiliary to hold Taylor places in state annual Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournament corn yield contest The 2010 lo n e American Legion and Aux iliary Texas Hold ‘Em pok er tournament and bingo and bake sale fund-raising event will be held on Sat urday, March 2, at the lone American Legion Hall in lone. Doors will open at 5 p.m. Sign-ups will be held at 6 p.m. with play begin ning at 6:30 p.m. Cash prizes will be awarded to the four top players. A sandwich and salad bar will be available and drinks will be served by Taylor’s. Two raffles will be held throughout the eve ning, a rifle raffle and a beef raffle. The rifle is a Savage Model II .243 Winchester bolt action with a 3x9 Bush- nell scope. The beef raffle includes tw o halves of beef, cut and wrapped. Raffle tickets are $1 each or six for $5. This annual event Legion and Auxiliary sup ports and offers throughout the year. The Legion Post sends a high school junior to Boys’ State each year. They also award a college scholarship to one qualified recipient each year. The Auxiliary sends two high school junior girls to Girls’ State each year. They award an annual scholarship to a qualified senior girl. The American Le gion and Auxiliary also donates beef to the VA Kid ney & Liver Transplant Housing Facility in Van couver, WA each year. They also provide support to the Veterans Nursing Home facility in The Dalles. Both organizations support many small projects throughout the year including projects Willard French displays the gun he donated for the lone that support our overseas American Legion and Auxiliary annual fundraiser. -Contrib troops, Veterans programs uted Photo and community needs. helps raise money for up- the facility and the special keep and maintenance of program s the American Public meeting regarding Boardman interchange bridge deck repair to be held The Oregon De partment of Transportation (ODOT) will host a public open house meeting Febru ary 22 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. to present information on a deck repair project for the 1-84 Exit 164 inter change bridge in Boardman. The meeting will be held in the Riverfront Room at the Port of Morrow, located at 2 Marine Drive, Boardman. The project will re sult in a four-week closure during June, July, or August of the bridge that extends Main Street over the free way. Specific closure dates have not been defined at this time, but the bridge will be open during the July 4 holiday. Pedestrian access over the structure will be maintained and the freeway ramps will remain open during the construc tion activities. Local resi dents and business owners are encouraged to attend this meeting to hear details about the project. “The work is need ed to repair cracks and other damage to the bridge deck before it gets to the point where more exten sive repairs are needed,” said Project Leader Tim Rynearson. “If we wait too long, it could lead to more extensive impacts and lon- ger, more costly delays.” The p ro jec t in cludes grinding out dam aged sections of the bridge deck and resurfacing the entire deck with new micro silica concrete. The bridge closure is needed to ensure proper preparation and cur ing of the concrete surface and to expedite the comple tion of the repair work. “Closing the struc ture to vehicles during the repair work will allow us to get the project done faster and save Oregon taxpayers about $140,000 in traffic control costs,” Rynearson said. “We realize it will be a temporary inconvenience to the Boardman commu nity and will work to get the project completed as quickly as possible once it has started.” ODOT has been working with the City of Boardman to identify how to minimize impacts to local residents and businesses. The four-week bridge clo sure has been discussed and supported by the Boardman city administrative staff and council. Project inform a tion is available by contact ing Rynearson by phone at (541) 963-1364, or by email at Timothy.w.rynearson@ odot.state.or.us. Community Bank awarded four stars in Bankrate.com’s Safe & Sound Ratings Service Community Bank has been aw arded four stars in Bankrate.com’s Safe & Sound® Ratings Service for the quarter ended Sep tember 30, 2009. A 4 -s ta r ra tin g is defined as “Sound” in terms of relative financial strength and stability. For over 13 years, Bankrate. corn's Safe & Sound* ser vice has given consumers information on the relative financial strength and sta bility of U.S. commercial banks, savings institutions and credit unions. “Now more than ever, consumers need to know that their money is safe,” said Thomas R. Ev ans, President and CEO of Bankrate.com. “ H istori cally, when financial institu tions receive one of our four or five star Safe & Sound* ratings, it has been a strong indicator of their financial health,” Mr. Evans added. “Given the current condition of the banking industry, we are pleased to receive this distinction from Bankrate.com,” said Tom M oran, P resid en t and CEO of Community Bank. “ C o m m u n i t y Bank’s commitment to our customers and communities, coupled with the hard work of our employees continue to contribute to the on going safety and soundness of our institution”. Bankrate’s Safe & Sound ratings are compari sons to both industry peer norms and standards. Indi vidual performance levels are determined from pub licly available regulatory filings and are compared to asset-size peer norms, industry standards and key absolute benchmarks. To learn more about Bank- rate’s Safe & Sound ratings methodology, go to: http:// www.bankrate.com/brm/ safesound/ ss.asp. erside High School special ed assistant. -approved the fol lowing extra duty contracts for Stefanie Sweeney, Hep pner Junior High School head track coach; and Janelle Healy, Heppner High School half-time head softball coach. -accepted and ap propriated unanticipated revenues in the amount of $50,000 in grants/donations from the Ford Foundation, the Heppner Booster Club, Morrow County and other sources to make improve ments to the Heppner High School football facilities at the Morrow County Fair grounds in Heppner. -approved a field trip request from the Hepp ner High School technology department for the technol ogy advisor, Dave Fowler, and two students to attend the National TSA confer ence in Baltim ore. The students’ airfare and meals will be paid by the students, who are raising funds for the trip. Estimated cost for the advisor’s airfare, regis tration, transportation and parking, lodging and meals is $2,948. -heard the follow ing announcement: next board meeting, March 8, A.C. Houghton Elementary School, 7 p.m. -viewed a demon stration of the Promethean Board by Betsy Shane. The board can be described as a sort of an interactive chalk board that is being used in some district classrooms. -held an executive session pertaining to per sonnel, legal issues and student records. SCHOOL DISTRICT -Continuedfrom Page ONE to absorb the losses,” he said. Burrows said he re gretted that the particular carrier would preclude rural pharmacies from providing prescriptions for district employees. “ 1 feel your apology isn’t necessary,” he told Michael. A possibility w ould be to change carriers, he said. -recognized Hep pner High School teacher John Flaherty who was named H eppner C ham ber o f Commerce/Centu- ryLink citizen educator of the year. -learned from Bur rows that he had been con cerned about school en rollment dipping, but was pleased to announce that the enrollment was up by 25 students. As of February 4, A.C. Houghton Elementary School (kindergarten-three) has 267 students; Heppner Elementary School (K-six)- 197; Heppner High School (seven-12)-228; Irrigon Elementary (four-six)-201 ; Irrigon High School (sev- en-12); R iverside High School (seven-12)-404; Sam Boardman Elementary ( K-three )-311 ; Windy River Elementary (four-six)-216; Morrow Education Center (Morrow County School District students)-68; Mor row E d u catio n C en ter (Umatilla School District students)-24; total-2236. -approved resigna tions and retirements for Brian Cook, Irrigon Junior High School, and Cynthia Skillings, Heppner High School two-hour assistant cook. -approved employ ment for Pat Klaviter, Riv- Eastern Oregon University to host writers’ workshop Writers in grades 3-12 are invited to register for the Oregon W riting Project’s annual Student Writers’ Workshop (SWW) set for Saturday, March 13, at Eastern Oregon Univer sity. At the end of the day, participant writing is celebrated in an open mic I session and w riters can revise and subm it their work for inclusion in an anthology. A $30 student reg istration fee includes the opening session, w ork shops, lunch in the EOU cafeteria and the anthology. Teachers and chaperones attend for free and teach ers can participate in a w orkshop presented by “basalt" editors Jodi Varon and David Axelrod. CPDUs and graduate credit are available. The Oregon Writ ing Project is affiliated with the National Writing Proj- t ect. Additional support for this event comes from EOU and the Soroptimist Interna tional of La Grande. For more in fo r mation or to register visit www.eou.edu/owp or con tact Nancy Knowles, OWP director, at 541-962-3795 or at nknowles@eou.edu. Rod Taylor of Bed rock Farms LLC, lone, recently won third place in the Irrigated division of the 2009 National Com Grow ers’ Association’s (NCGA) Com Yield Contest in Or egon. Taylor won with Pio neer* brand hybrid 34R65, which yielded 264 bushels per acre. Taylor earned one of the 346 state titles won by growers planting Pio neer hybrids. The NCGA awarded 525 state titles in this year’s contest. Growers planting Pioneer hybrids dominated the contest and won 66% percent o f all state awards presented. In addition, growers planting Pioneer products took 17 o f the 24 national yield categories. The NCGA Corn Yield Contest is an an nual competition among corn producers with the goal of producing the high est yields. In the contest, growers compete within a broad range of corn pro duction classes, including non-irrigated, no-till/strip- till non-irrigated, no-till/ strip-till irrigated, ridge-till non-irrigated, ridge-till irri gated and irrigated classes. “Each year, we con tinue to see growers plant ing Pioneer corn hybrids succeed in the NCGA Com Yield contest, and we’re thrilled that these growers choose Pioneer products for these winning yields,” says Pioneer President Paul E. Schickler. “We’re especial ly impressed with the high yields our customers have with Pioneer com products this year in a very challeng ing growing season. “We excited about the diversity o f hybrids represented in this year’s contest by growers planting Pioneer products,” he says. “It shows that Pioneer is advancing hybrids locally to deliver the right product on the right acre to help grow ers’ succeed across diverse environments.” Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, is the world’s leading source of customized solutions for farmers, livestock produc ers and grain and oilseed processors. With headquar ters in Des Moines, Iowa, Pioneer provides access to advanced plant genetics in nearly 70 countries. DuPont is a sci ence-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts sci ence to work by creating sustainable solutions es sential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets includ ing agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and trans portation. Co-Op directors attend energy symposium “ Strengt hening Rural Economies in the Northwest Through Clean Energy Development" was the theme for a three day conference attended by sev eral directors of Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative recently. The conference, coordinated by Washington State University, was held in K ennew ick, and had three main attributes: 1) New technologies and de signs in renewable energy projects including winds, small hydro, and photo voltaic, 2) governmental and venture capital financ ing, loans, and tax credit techniques, and 3) BPA and RUS program s for energy and water conserva tion practices and improve ments, concentrating on irrigated agriculture. Board President Lori Anderson attended several sessions on current and proposed federal and state energy legislation and policies. “We need to keep up to speed on what is coming down the pike to protect our consumers from unnecessary mandates and regulations,” she said. “Lectures on car bon cap-and-trade issues, carbon exchange auction schemes, and carbon se questration opportunities, if and when the government mandates carbon issues, indicate real concerns,” said Loyal Bums, a director from the lone area. “If and when the government mandates carbon issues, our consum ers need to know just how these potential mandates will affect power costs and rates” he continued. “Small hydro and photo-voltaic (PV) genera tion seems to be an emerg ing thrust,” commented Gary Wilde. “We saw a lot of prototype PV projects and innovative designs for distribution-grade small hydro ex h ib its” . These types of installations may benefit our consumers with needs beyond the current distribution grid”. “The conference also had several sessions on energy opportunities for ru ral landowners and on how to finance them ,” stated Mark Wunderlich. “Large wind projects can bring financial opportunities to our rural consumers, but can also bring challenges to our co-op’s operations” he continued. “Working side- by-side, within, and across wind farm leases present additional issues for the co-op”. “It’s important to learn just what restrictions go into v arious w ind project leases.” CBEC D irectors attending the symposium included Lori Anderson, Loyal Bums, Gary Wilde, and Mark Wunderlich. Justice Court Report Judge Charlotte Gray, Heppner Justice Court, has released the following report: -Victoria M. Rice, 29, lone. Maintaining a Dog as a Public Nuisance, $189 fine. -Cynthia Shular, 56, Irrigon, Negotiating a Bad Check, $983 fine, 180 days in jail, and one year probation. DA’s Report Morrow County District Attorney Elizabeth Bal lard has released the following report: -Guadlupe Castillo Gonzales, 56, was convicted of DUII, a Class A misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 180 days incarceration with 178 days suspended, one year driver’s license suspension, two year bench probation, complete 40 hours of community service, other condi tions, and pay $943 in fines, fees, and assessments.
