Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 2010)
An inside look at Haiti , . , , in ll„,U.linH Hi » " '" 1 ' 11 ^ Newspaper LibraD Bessie . ^ O r e g o n U niversity Eugene. By Regi Seitz Going into Haiti I Was prepared for the worst conditions. I had done my research and seen enough pictures that I knew things Were going to be precari ous. It was worse than I expected. As we drove from the airport to the compound where w e’d be staying, I was sure that the area we were in had to have been where the earthquake hit the hardest. Makeshift shacks and immeasurable amounts of garbage were everywhere. Turns out this area hadn’t even felt so much as a tremor from the quake. This was w hat Haiti had looked like before. The first night in Haiti there was a mesmer izing rain storm. Pure water poured off the roof and lightning streaked the sky. But then the fascination w ith the storm morphed into the heavy ache of know ing. Knowing that the rickety old tents we passed on the way in were the only shelter from the storm for thou sands of people. It brought me back to the reality that these people really need help. Growing up in a small town community so committed to achievement and success I’ve always believed that anything is possible. Going to Haiti distorted that ideal a little. Many of the kids we passed on the street didn’t have an ounce of fat on their body. We passed a mother cleaning herself and her baby using water from a mud puddle. It’s hard to believe that these people will ever have a chance to truly thrive. But the spirit and determination of the Haitian people surprised me. They didn’t seem to pity themselves; in fact they had an effervescent vibrant and lively air about them S e e HAITl/Page FIVE Wind farm has six months to lower noise levels VOL. 129 NO. 44 8 Pages Wednesday, November 3, 2010 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Spicer wins Justice o f the Peace Local people gather at the St. Patrick’s Senior Center to watch election returns on the television. Tuesday night’s vote watching gathering was sponsored by the ■Willow Creek Tea Party Patriots. While Nation and State wide the Nov. 2 election was a big deal, in Morrow County the only contested county-wide position, Justice of the Peace, was won by Annetta Spicer over Earl Woods by a 1,716 to 972 vote margin. Write in votes for various city council positions had not be tabulated by press time. Unofficial county vote counts can be found on the internet at morrowcountyoregon.com/clerk. Big trench digger brought in for tough CBEC digging job By David Sykes C olum bia Basin Electric has years o f ex perience digging in tough ground and rock, but noth ing like the difficulties crew s faced when they started digging trench for a new 4.5 mile underground pow er line project near Condon. That is until they brought in a big trench dig ger from Idaho. “This digger was designed for difficult types o f digging,” said Brian Kollman, project manager for Columbia Basin Elec tric. He said crews had spent some time using com pany equipment on the job and not making good head way in the thick basalt rock located around Condon. So he and General Manager Jerry Healy went looking for a better way^to do the job. “ We looked around and found this trencher in Idaho,” Kollman said. He tells how the machine owner was con tacted, the equipment was brought in and it went right to work. “They brought it in on a low boy, unloaded it and I had them start digging in the rock right away,” he said the machine worked as advertised and dug a 30 inch deep trench right through the rock. He said they had the trencher do the whole 4.5 mile project. “It was pretty impressive,” he said. The project near Condon is to bury electric lines underground to feed a new sub station in the area. The above graphic shows the position of wind towers and the location of three land owners complaining of adverse effects from excess noise from some of the towers. The Morrow Coun ty Planning Commission last week gave a wind farm company with 48 towers near lone six months to bring noise levels into com pliance with state rules. The com mission has been dealing with ex cessive noise levels from the wind towers after four nearby residents brought complaints against the com pany saying noise from some of the towers is dis turbing their sleep and dis rupting their lives. Chicago based In- venergy, which owns the wind towers, has contended that the planning commis sion has had “a fundamental misreading of the standard under which Oregon law regulates noise emissions.” A conditional use permit was issued to Invenergy in 2005 stating their wind op eration must remain within state standards for noise. In June o f 2010 four separate landowners David Mingo, Dan Wil liams, Mike and Sherry Eaton and Dennis and Lor- rie Wade, all living near the towers, filed for an appeal of the conditional use per mit, saying the noise levels exceeded the allow able levels. The planning com mission made a ruling May 2010 that Invenergy was indeed out of compliance, and gave the company six months to fix the problem. All planning commission decisions go to the Mor row County Court for final approval, and both Inve nergy and the complain ants appealed the planning com mission decision to the county court. Subse quently the county court sent the decision back to the planning commission -See NOISE LEV ELS/Page FIVE Heppner High School to honor veterans Ten years ago ju nior high math teacher, Karen Beck, decided to in crease student involvement in celebrating Veterans Day. With the help of students she organized Heppner High S chool’s Veterans Day program. When Mrs. Beck retired at the end of that year, responsibility for the program passed to Kyle Huddleston who organized and ran it for three years until he graduated. The Top Photo: The buxine** end of big trenching machine brought in by Columbia Basin Electric for tough job near Condon. Middle Photo: Columbia Basin Linemen Jim Schlaich (right) and Shaun Ifisler splice wire in a junction box. part of 4.5 mile underground power line project. Bottom Photo: Solid rock initially provided problems for underground power line project. -Photos by Bill McDowell Burying the line under- accumulates on overhead ground also alleviates much lines in the winter time, of the problems when ice i reins were then passed to Ginger Bowman who still runs this event with the help of Jeannie Collins, Martha Munkers, Terri Gentry, and Darcy Robinson. This year marks the 10lh anniversary of this event. All veterans and m ilitary personnel, past and present, are invited to attend a ceremony in their honor at H eppner High School’s gymnasium on November 12 at 10:30 a.m. Lunch for veterans and their spouses will follow. If you are a veteran or are pres ently serving in the military, and you have not received an invitation, please call Heppner High School at 676-9138. You do not need an invitation to attend; all veterans and servicemen are welcome. The public is also encouraged to attend this program to honor our local heroes.
