Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
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Chaplain inspires hope, courage in soldiers Editor s Note: The follow ing story was submitted to the Heppner Gazette-Times by Staff Sgt. Pat Caldwell. 3rd Sustainm ent Brigade Public Affairs. JOI N T BASE BALAD, Iraq— Silhou etted against the shadows of a dozen Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, the chaplain prayed. 97403 Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 HEPPNER imes VOL. 130 NO. 7 10 Pages Wednesday, February 16,2011 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon City to continue with sheriff’s police service Approves $181,272 contract By David Sykes The city of Heppner will once again use the county sheriff’s department for its police services, the council ruled Monday night. After a lengthy discussion with Sheriff Ken Matlack, the council voted unanimously to move forward with the $181,272 contract for the coming year’s police services. The amount, and the services the sheriff will provide, remain almost the same as in past years. Before approval however, the council spent quite a bit of time going over details of the contract on how to improve the service they are receiving. “This is a lot of money and basically we want to know are we getting our money’s worth,” councilmember Judy Buschke said. “We have a lot of concerns,” Mayor Les Paustian told M atlack. Most council members said they had also heard comments from Heppner citizens wonder ing if the city was getting its money’s worth. “Are the peo ple getting what they pay for?” councilmember Keith Lewis asked. “We have two people (deputies) but we don’t know when they are working.” Under the contract the city gets 80 hours of police patrolling per week, which works out roughly to two deputies working 40 hours each per week in Heppner. Ques tions were raised if the city was getting those 80 hours of coverage. Matlack reas sured the council that the city was getting the hours they are paying for. “We have a sched ule. It is just not made public,” he said. He said that City Manager Dave DeMayo knows what the deputies’ patrol schedules are but the information is not made public so law breakers cannot use the information. Mayor Paustian said a lack of communica tion between the sheriff’s department and the city has sometimes been an is sue. “We have had police commission meetings and I don’t think our concerns are making it out the door,” he told Matlack. “We are pay ing some pretty good sized dollars and people don’t think they are getting their money’s worth,” he added Matlack said he would like to see deputies in the Heppner area get out of their vehicles more and meet people. “I know we have deputies who have benefited from getting out of their cars. I want depu ties to engage with people,” he said. Deputies are ro tated between the north and south ends of the county, and Matlack said he has to impress upon his deputies that policing in the north end is different than in Hep pner. “There is flexibility in Heppner,” Matlack said in how he wants deputies to interact with residents here. “You don’t have gang bangers here and we can be more user-friendly, so to speak,” he told the council. He said he likes to see depu ties give more warnings on the first minor offense and that seems to work better in the Heppner area. “But then we want them to know that if we catch them again they are going to get ham mered,” he said. Some council members said they would like to be kept more in formed on what is going on around town. They cited times in the past when dep uties would attend council meetings and pass out code infraction pictures (such as yard trash and abandoned vehicles), and also a police log to the council mem bers to keep them up on police activities. “We are not getting that anymore. We want to know what is going on,” council member Cindy Doherty said. She said that as an elected of ficial she wants to be able -See CITY/SHERIFF CONTRACT-Page SEVEN City moves forward with im provem ents to H ager Park By David Sykes The Heppner City Council Monday gave its okay for the city to spend $14,000 for purchase of a picnic pavilion and play ground set for Hager Park. The equipment was pur chased from a Baker com pany and will be kept in storage until 2012 when the Army National Guard will be in Heppner to put in the equipment. City Man ager Dave DeMayo also announced that he gave approval to develop the north end of the park into a soccer field. In other business the council learned that the Heppner Fire Depart ment has negotiated a new contract with the Rural Fire District that will give the department 70 percent of its annual gross income from taxes. City Fire Chief Rusty Estes said, “They came up with this and we are very happy with it.” Estes also said fire ? man Steve Rhea is applying for a $9,000 Wildhorse grant that would be used to purchase a new piece of rescue equipment that will help cut people out of car wrecks in conjunction with the Jaws of Life already used by the fire depart ment. Heard that the St. Patrick’s Senior Center has four vacancies. Hous ing Authority Chairman and city council member Judy Buschke said they have more applications but restrictions on the amount of income have kept some people from being able to move in. Some of the rooms require that a person have no more than $18,000 per year in income in order to live there. The council heard from Public Works Director Brian Harmon who said the crew had discovered a ma jor leak on the city’s main line between well one and two that had been cause a loss of “50 percent of the water. It was major,” Har mon told the council. He said the leak was fixed. Anderson and Per ry engineers will be at the next council meeting to talk about the upcoming city sewer upgrade project. The council voted to continue its auditing contract with Barnett and Moro to provide the city yearly financial audit for $9,800. Learned that the city will mostly likely pur chase a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) repos sessed home in Heppner for $1. The house is located on Chase Street. HUD has a program where cities may purchase repossessed homes after they are on the market unsold for a certain length of time. Sheriffs Report for Janu ary 2011 -See CITY COUNCIL/ Page TWO He prayed for the men standing around him in a semi-circle; he prayed for their families back home in places like Oregon and Idaho. He prayed for their spouses and daughters and sons and brothers and most of all, he prayed that on this cold January night, the men in the MRAPs would be safe. Then the prayer ended. The soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Brigade (Expeditionary), slowly began to wander away, back to their MRAPS that would, in a few short hours,' carry them down a stretch of Iraqi highway that may or may not be safe. A soldier lingered. He chatted with lsl LtaJock Johnson, chaplain for 3rd Battalion, 116lhCav. Regt., 3rd Sus. Bde. Then, he too walked away; back to his MRAP. “ It was g o o d ,” Johnson said. “I think they appreciate that the chap lain showed up.” Johnson walked slowly down the line of MRAPs from Alpha Company, 3rd Bn., 116,h Cav. Regt., 3rd Sus. Bde., talking, laughing, point ing. He stood at the end of the line and surveyed the vehicles. For Johnson, the very act of meeting and praying with soldiers be fore they go outside the wire carries its own kind of significance, its own form of sanctity. There, down the line of MRAPs, the 3rd Battalion chaplain can recognize devotion and fellowship and, in a strange way, purity. “This is one of those things you can’t mea sure,” he said. He p r o b a b l y wouldn’t label his profile as a “beacon of light” to soldiers, but Johnson fills a role that is distinctive, at times challenging and more often than not, rewarding. Chaplains are wo ven into the very fabric of today’s Army. They exist at a rare intersection between counselor and religious mentor where they bal ance faith with the mission and nurture soldiers while First Lt. Johnson, chaplain for 3rd Battalion, lló"1 Cav. Regt., 3rd Sus. Bde. prays with soldiers in Iraq. -Contributed Photo furnishing a foundation of encouragement. “The chaplain’s role is kind of unique in that we provide religious support and, at the same time, we offer aspects of well-being life counseling,” Johnson said. More than 25,000 chaplains have served in Army ranks through its history, and more than 700 are now serving soldiers in places like Iraq and Af ghanistan. As a ch ap lain , Johnson must minister to a large group of men and women with diverse be liefs. Some are Catholic or Protestant or Baptist. Some place their convic tions in other faiths. All of them though, by virtue of their calling as soldiers, are members of Johnson’s ministry in Iraq. “I think my job is real critical,” Johnson said. “It isn’t [as] critical when things are going well. But it is when things are not going so well.” One key goal of chaplains in the Army is to help with the free exercise of religion, an aim Johnson takes seriously. “My job allows soldiers to express themselves and protect their religious practices,” he said. Johnson is well- versed in scripture and can discuss religious phi losophy easily, but his real focus is on the average sol dier. It is there, among the sSoldiers, where Johnson said he secures the most reward. “Me going out to a CET [Convy Escort Team] shows them I’m approach able. I’m someone they can confide in. The easiest thing (about my job) is going out and visiting troops. I enjoy praying with the troops,” Johnson said. -See CHAPLAIN/Page SEVEN Morrow County School Board officially hires Dirksen, Mendoza The Morrow Coun ty School Board Monday ni ght o f ficially ap proved hir in g Di r k Dirksen as district su- perinten- de n t and George M e n d o z a Dirk as assistant Dirksen superinten dent. Dirksen replaces current Superintendent Mark Burrows who will retire at the end of this school year and Mendo za replaces current As sistant Su perinten dent Phyllis Danielson who also retires at George the end of Mtendoza the school year. Dirksen is currently the Riverside High School principal and Mendoza the RHS assistant principal. The board opted to dispense with interviews of other candidates upon Burrows’ recommendation to hire the two from within the district based on their job performance. At the meeting, the board approved a 2011- 2012 service plan with the newly-formed Intermoun tain Education Service District. 1MESD resulted from a state recommended merger of the Umatilla- Morrow ESD and Union Baker ESD. Intermountain ESD provides services to Mor row County School District and lone School District, as well as the following districts: Athena, Echo, Helix, Hermiston, Milton- Freewater, Pendleton, Pilot Rock, Stanfield, Ukiah, Umatilla, Cove, Elgin, Imbler, LaGrande, North Pow der, Union, Baker City, Unity and Halfway. Intermountain ESD provides programs for chil dren with special needs, technology support, school improvement services and administrative and support services. According to infor mation supplied by Michael Lasher, Umatilla-Morrow ESD deputy superinten dent, UMESD will lose $223,260 for the 2010-11 fiscal year, based on budget expenditures. UBESD has $232,424 in unspent resolu tion funds. UME SD’s bud geted funds for 2010- 2011 include: $3,100,000 from local property tax es, $2,399,713 from state school support; $98,390 from federal stimulus mon ies for $5,598,103 in total state school support funds with 90 percent dedicated to resolution services for $5,038,293 in total resolu tion services funding. UMESD’s 2010- -See SCHOOL DISTRICT/ Page TEN GREEN FEED & SEED IN HEPPNER: Sud ofr scqsoh special W inter C lothing , H eated B uckets & T ank H eaters i • C0/A H C C r M orrow County Grain Growers Green F eed & S eed 242 W. Linden Way. Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCOQ main office) r
