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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2010)
Bessie Wet/elI Newspaper University o f Oregon Eugene, O R 97403 Governor candidate Dudley says Oregon needs more taxpayers, not more taxes ibrarv Ex-Trail Blazer visits Heppner in run for governor By David Sykes Oregon governor candidate and ex Portland Trailblazer basketball play er Chris Dudley paid a visit to Heppner last week on his quest to become the Repub lican candidate for governor HEPPNER Oregon Governor Candidate Chris Dudley talks to a crowd at Heppner city hall last Friday. Dudley played 16 years in the NBA, including six years with the Portland Trail Blazers. “How tall are you?” someone asked. “Six foot ten and a half,” he said. Photo by David Sykes imes VOL. 129 NO. 13 8 Pages Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Blanket Hugs for Haiti’s Orphans By Autumn Morgan A fter the ea rth quake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, Union College in Lincoln, NB began send ing groups of students to help with the relief efforts. These students were part of the international rescue and relief degree program at the school. Mindy Wenberg, daughter of Ken and Bon nie Wenberg of Heppner, became one of the students who would be traveling to and from Haiti with the di saster relief teams. She be gan sending pictures of the devastation to her mother. After seeing the pictures, Bonnie knew she wanted to help but was not sure how. One day at her bank, Bonnie saw a poster listing items needed in Haiti. At the bottom of that list were blankets. B o n n ie b e g a n working on a plan to make blankets and send them with the groups from her daughter’s college travel ing to Haiti. She received some donations from the Heppner community but donated much of the fabric herself. Bonnie, along with a few others in the com munity, began working on the blankets. The first batch they sent contained 82 blan kets. The project was called Blanket Hugs for Haiti’s Orphans. The blankets were sent to the students who would then take the blankets to Haiti and pass them out in person. This pro cedure ensured that the blankets would reach the people in need. Pictures are taken of the recipi ents, along with their blankets, and sent to Bonnie, who, in turn, displays them at Artisan Village. “It is very rewarding (to see the pictures),” said Bonnie. “The look on their faces is enough to keep sewing. The need is .so great.” ______ W hile she Pictured is a young Haitian child continued to make who received one of the blankets blankets in Heppner, made in Heppner for the Blanket Bonnie put the Blan Hugs for Haiti's Orphans project. ket Hugs for Haiti’s -Contributed Photo Orphans information on the internet. Other quilt gree program are planning a ing shops have seen the six-week trip to the country information and have also this summerA begun making blankets to A total o f234 blan send. The shops that have kets have been made in responded are small shops Heppner and sent to the like Artisan Village. Haitian people. Blankets The blankets being are the fewest of all items made are lightweight with that have been donated. two pieces of flat cotton Anyone interested and no batting in the middle in making a blanket can because of the heat in the pick up a simple pattern at Haiti. “(1 am) making them Artisan Village. For more out of bright, colorful fab information or to donate rics because their lives are fabric or money for ship so drab right now.” ping, call 541-676-8282. Bonnie plans on If sewing is not your forte, continuing to send blankets, you can also donate to the at least through the summer. Red Cross or other relief Along with the internation organizations. More in al rescue and relief students formation about Blanket that are traveling to Haiti, Hugs for Haiti’s Orphans another group of students can be found at www.quil- not affiliated with the de- tersroundup.com. NOAA issues monthly climate summary for Heppner According to pre liminary data received by NOAA’s National Weather Service in Pendleton, tem peratures at Heppner aver aged slightly warmer than normal during the month of March. The average tem perature was 44.6 degrees w hich was 0.6 degrees above normal. High tem peratures averaged 56.8 degrees, which was 2.5 degrees above normal. The highest was 73 degrees on the 17th. Low temperatures averaged 32.4 degrees, which was 1.2 degrees be low normal. The lowest was 25 degrees, on the 18th. There were 16 days with the low temperature below 32 degrees. Precipitation to taled 0.89 inches during M arch, which was 0.71 inches below normal. Mea surable precipitation -at least .01 inch-was received on 6 days with the heaviest, 0.48 inches reported on the 13th. Precipitation this year has reached 3.31 inch es, which is 0.98 inches be low normal. Since October, the water year precipitation at Heppner has been 6.45 inches, which is 1.63 inches below normal. The outlook for April from NOAA’s Cli mate Prediction Center calls for below normal tem peratures and near normal precipitation. Normal highs for Heppner during April are 61.3 degrees and normal lows are 37.1 degrees. The 30 year normal precipita tion is 1.40 inches. The Nat i onal Weather Service is an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra tion, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department. ALL NEW S AND ADVERTISEM ENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. ■1 in next November’s general election. Dudley gave a talk to the gathered crowd at Heppner city hall last Fri day and then took questions from the audience. He focused mainly on economic issues and the loss of jobs and business opportunity in Oregon. “I am frustrated with the di rection our state is going,” he said. “We are not living up to our potential. We have to change our direction.” He said Oregon is blessed with great natural resources, hard working people and many other assets, but we are not using them to cre ate jobs for the citizens of the state. He likened it to a card game where the state has four aces and throws two away. Dudley says in the last year the state has lost about 120,000 jobs, and our elected officials are making the situation worse. “There are fewer private sector jobs in Oregon than there were 10 years ago. We need to promote and protect our businesses. We need to ap point people to government positions that have some business sense.” He said especially since the pas sage of measures 66 & 67 (both tax increases which he opposed) businesses are talking about moving out of Oregon. He said the state is in a “death spiral”. The less money Salem re ceives the more they tax the businesses. The more businesses are taxed the less they produce and hire workers, causing even less tax money going to Salem, he says. “We don’t need more taxes, we need more taxpayers,” he said. Dudley says state government is not being starved as some would have you believe, and in his printed material he showed that in the past 10 years state spending has gone from around $29 billion a biennium, to close to $56 billion, a 48 percent in crease in real dollar terms. Dudley says that in his travels around the state he is finding that people do not trust their government. “They feel their voices are not being heard," he says. As an exam ple he says during the last regular ses sion of the legislature the Democrat Governor would -See GOVERNOR/Page SIX Candidates to talk issues at Sunday’s forum Governor, R epresentative, DA, C ounty Judge an d Justice o f P e a c e candidates to participate The public is in vited to a candidates’ forum Sunday, April 11, starting at 2 p.m. at the Heppner High School cafeteria. C andidates ru n ning for Governor, State Representative, District At torney, Justice of the Peace, Morrow County Judge and County Commissioner will be on hand to answer ques tions from the public. As of Tuesday the following candidates had indicated they would be there: Governor candidate Rex Watkins and a repre sentative for Allen Alley, #57 Rep. Coleen McLeod, County Judge Terry Tail- man and Dean Kegler, DA candidates Justin Nelson and Tom Cutsforth, and Justice of the Peace Terry Felda, Ann Spicer and Earl Wood. County Commis sioner Ken Grieb will also be there, however, he is running unopposed. The forum will be moderated by local attorney Bill Kuhn, and is sponsored by the Willow Creek Tea Party Patriots. Members of the audience will be able to submit questions to the can didates to be answered. Easter Rabbit arrives by limo Top Photo: The E aster Bunny showed up in style Saturday at the annual Elks Easter Egg Hunt. A limou sine delivered Mr. Rabbit to the city park where he visited with children before the hunt. Bottom Photo: The Easter Bunny spends some time with Hailee Peck, IVi years old, Saturday at the Elks Easter Egg Hunt. -Photos by David Sykes GREEN FEED & SEED IN HEPPNER: Your Choice! $4.99 Meguiar's Hot Shine Tire Coating (24 oz. Trigger Spray or 16 oz. Aerosol) April Super Car Care Specials! Meguiar's Hot Rims All- Wheel Cleaner (24oz.) Meguiar’s Deep Crystal Car Wash (64oz.) Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way. Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCOG main office) )
