Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 2010)
Oregon 6th in nation in unemployment ‘Not a good year,’ says state official 11 1 1 1 1 111 1 11 11 1 11 1 • I 11 I 11 By David Sykes ••1 Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene. OR 97403 • • • ■ The state of Or egon has the sixth highest unemployment rate in the country, an official with the Oregon Employment Department told the Hepp- ner Chamber of Commerce last week. Tony Wendel, a HEPPNER imes VOL. 129 NO. 38 8 Pages Wednesday, September 22,2010 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Martin begins job as counselor for Heppner schools in counseling. In 2007 she Kristine Martin be began working at MacLaren gan the 2010-2011 school Youth Correctional Facility year as the counsel in Woodbum while or at Heppner High completing her de School and Heppner gree. In 2009 Mar Elementary School. tin graduated with Born and her master’s degree raised in Salem, the in school counsel 30 year old Martin ing. received her under M a r tin ’s graduate degree in father has worked social science from Kristine for the past 37 years W estern Oregon Martin with the Oregon University. In 2003 Youth Authority, she took a state job with her mother is a real estate the Marion County Circuit agent, and her sister has Court but decided that the worked for 11 years with job was not really what she the Oregon Youth Author wanted to do. ity. In 2005 M artin In the m orning began attending George Martin works at Heppner Fox University part-time, High School. Her job there working toward her degree By Autumn Morgan includes various testing for the PSAT, SAT, and ACT; running the teaching as sistance and school to work programs; and scheduling colleges to come and visit the school. In the afternoon Martin works at Heppner Elementary School, meet ing with students individu ally, as well as going into classrooms each month to talk to students about specific character traits and how the students can best portray those traits. “ E v ery o n e has been so nice, so helpful,” said Martin of her move to Heppner. “People drive by and just wave. You don’t get that in Salem.” workforce Analyst with the State of Oregon, said Oregon lost 106,400 jobs, a 6.2 percent decline, be tween 2008 and ’09. “It isn’t very good. It was not a good year,” he said. He said Oregon has an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent, while the na tion as a whole has unem ployment of 9.3 percent. He says the unemployment is "flat” and has not seen any improvement over the past 10 months. Morrow County, however, is better than the rest of the state with a sea sonally adjusted unemploy ment rate of 8.6 percent. As of July 2010 Morrow C ounty’s total nonfarm employment was 60 jobs higher than in July 2009, with 80 more construction jobs and 30 fewer manufac turing jobs. As far as what kind of jobs there are in Mor row County, Wendel said that in the year 2009 19.9 percent of the jobs in the county were government, 25.3 percent were natural resources, 25.3 were in manufacturing like at the Port of Morrow, and 17.1 percent were in transporta tion and utilities. The rest were broken up into lei sure and hospitality, health services, professional and business services, financial activities and others. What is in store for the future? Wendel said re gion 12, of which Morrow County is a part, is expected to have the lowest growth of all 15 regions of the states over the next eight years. He said region 12 looks like it will have a 5 percent employment growth rate. Region twelve is ex pected to add mostly jobs in health services, government and retail trade. Also speaking at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon was Rebecca Flores, a business and em ployment specialist with the state employment depart ment from Hermiston. Tony Wendel, Workforce Analyst with Oregon Employment Department, gave a presentation to the Heppner Chamber of Commerce last Thursday. -Photo b\ DavidSvkes Flores said there is a $4,800 tax credit available to employers who hire from a special target group of, veterans, ex felons, youth and others. She said some work force training money has been cut but there is still some free com p u te r and resume writ- ing class es a v a il Rebecca able from Flores CA PECO o ffic e in Pendleton to help people find employment. “We want to make sure unemployed people are looking for work and accepting work,” Flores said. She said her office has been trying to “fast track” workers to keep them em- ployed rather than going on unemployment compensa tion. “We try and match workers with jobs. Maybe seasonal workers can get temporary work, before going on unemployment,” she said. Flores did say there was not a lot of unemploy ment in the Heppner area. She said when there are unemployed here her de partment does not try and “force” people to take jobs outside the Heppner area. “They can’t really com mute to a lot of these jobs as they do not pay enough.” She said most of the jobs in the Heppner area were county or school related. “There is not a lot of private businesses looking for em ployees here,” she told the Chamber. Heppner rocks homecoming week Ashli Gould, Becky Kindle, Merry Chandler, and Dawna Dougherty, whose children attend Heppner High School, dressed as members of KISS for homecoming week. They lip synched a song during a pep rally held at the school. -Photo by April Sykes Bemrose joins lone Community School as music instructor G-T Trophy Corner By Autumn Morgan Twenty-three year old Jordan Bemrose has landed her first teaching job as the music teacher at lone Community School. But music is not something new for her. Born in Salem , Bemrose grew up in Dal las with a family deeply entrenched in music. “Ev eryone in my family plays a musical instrument of some kind,” said Bemrose. Her father, Jeff, is a drum mer. Her mother, Wendy, is a vocalist who has been a music teacher for over 25 years and is currently an elementary music teacher in Monmouth. Her brother, Nick, is a drummer and a saxophonist. Her grand mother plays the clarinet and her aunts play the flute through the athletic band, and piano. Bemrose’s par she sang as her main instru ents met at Western Oregon ment through the univer University where they were sity. Bemrose received her bachelor’s in music educa music students. Originally, Bem tion from the University of Oregon. rose thought she A t lo n e might go into some Bemrose is teach type o f physical ing one band and therapy work, but all two choir classes. of her scholarships She sees K-5lh grad were for music. And, ers every day for 30 since she had grown minutes, and high up teaching music school students for lessons and working with her mother, Be Jordan one hour every day. “I really do like it,” mrose knew that “it Bemrose (music) was what I said Bemrose. “At needed to do with all those first I was a little stressed out trying to get the pro scholarships.” In college at the gram ready. But now it is University of Oregon Be going really well. The choir mrose played the trumpet has nine people in it. The and sang. On scholarship first day only two students could sing in tune and now all can sing in tune. The band is also doing very well.” The choir will be performing for the first time this school year at the lone Education Foundation Din ner on Saturday, September 25. Bemrose stated that the music program is in need of donations of instruments, especially keyboards. She wants every student to have an instrument if they cannot afford to rent one. She is especially requesting dona tions of keyboards because she would like to be able to give piano lessons to the elementary school students once a week during their classes. Eighth annual lone Education Foundation dinner, auction to be held Pictured is Mark Wunderlich with a sturgeon he caught last week while on a fishing trip purchased at last year’s Heppner Booster Club Auction. The trip was donated and hosted by Mike Proctor and Gary Frederickson. Pictured with Wun derlich are Lance Brown and Gary Frederickson. This year's Booster Club Auction will be held on Saturday, October 9, at the Elks Lodge beginning with dinner at 6 p.m. -Contributed Photo The eighth annual lone Education Founda tion meeting, dinner, and auction will be Saturday, September 25, at the lone American Legion Hall. The annual meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. and will be ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:! MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. The Heppner Gazette-Times wants to see pictures o f your trophy animals from this hunting season. Stop by to have your picture taken, drop off photos, or email them to editor@rapidserve.net. followed by a social hour at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. The dinner menu will consist of prime rib, salmon, salad, baked po tato, bread, and dessert. The meal will also include two beverages of your choice. The cost is $25 for adults, $10 for children 7-12, and free for children six and un der. Tickets are available at Bank of Eastern Oregon in lone and are limited to 250 adults. Tickets may be re served by calling 541-422- 7435. They will also be sold at the door, if available. Following the din ner, the Foundation will be auctioning lone School memorabilia and items donated by community members and businesses. A Snake River jet boat fishing trip, donated and hosted by Bill Mullins, will also be up for auction. Raffle tickets will be available on various items. The success of the auction and raffle items is important to the foundation as they continue to support the lone Com munity School in funding a teaching position, most currently a music teacher for grades K-12. G R E E N F E E D & S E E D IN H E P P N E R : DANNER » 15% k»GEORGIA RO ms OFF H < M orrow County Grain Growers Green F eed A S eed 242 W. Linden Way, H eppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)
