Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2011)
........ Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 Scholarships available _____ 5<K H eppner BPOE #358 will once again this year offer scholarships to students in honor o f the late Clarence Buchanan. The current schol arship is for any high school seniors with parents/grand- parents or step-parents/step- g ran d p a re n ts w hom are members-in-good-standing of the Heppner Lodge #358. The app licatio n w ill be available at Heppner and lone High Schools on their servers or from their advi sors. Anyone who needs a copy of the application can email scholarship chairman Tim Dickenson at dicken- sonchiro@centurytel.net or call/stop by his office (541- 676-8990). Applications are due by April 15. There will be other Buchanan Memorial Schol arships offered for second through fourth year college students, trade school stu dents, and graduate school students due by June 30. T hose ap p licatio n s w ill be released in the coming month. Contact chairman Dickenson to be placed on A couple of Leprechauns, Gracey and Shaylvn DeLoach. take a listto receive the applica in the St. Patrick's Celebration festivities this past weekend in Heppner. More photos page 8.-Contributed Photo tion when it is released. pzettte imes VOL. 130 NO. 12 8 Pages Wednesday, March 23,2011 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon City looks to increase sewer rates to meet expenses and pay for needed upgrades by David Sykes Heppner needs upgrades to its waste treatment sys tem, and sewer rates need to be raised to pay for it, an engineering firm told the city council recently. Anderson and Perry engi neering recently completed a study o f Heppner’s sewer system and concluded that an immediate $3 per month increase in sewer fees will be needed to m ake up a $29,000 per year deficit be tween expenses and money coming, and that will not even cover the cost of need ed system upgrades. The city currently has 742 businesses and household paying in $23.10 per month, which brings in a little over $205,000 to the city per year. Expenses to operate the sewer system are about $229,000 per year leaving a shortfall that has in the past been covered by cash carryover and a one- time incom e from processing Spray’s septic waste when that city went to a central sewer system. “You need a $3 rate in crease or people (city work ers) need to take a percent age cut in their wages and benefits to balance,” Brett Moore from Anderson and Perry told the city council at its monthly meeting March 14. He said there w ould need to be future increases to m ake up for inflation and build up a fund to pay for needed repairs and im provements. Moore said H eppner’s population is not expected to grow much in the next 20 years, and that Heppner’s treatment plant is in pretty good shape, but there is work that needs to be done on the rest o f the system. Moore said the main areas o f concern revealed in the Anderson Perry study are: 1. The pipeline be tween the fairgrounds and Elder Street plugs up be cause of straw being flushed into the system. 2. Several homes in Heppner share sewer lines, w hich needs to be c o r rected. 3. A b o v e g ro u n d sewer lines across the creek need to be insulated and updated. 4. M organ St to S. Court has root problems in the lines. 5. L ak ev iew C o u rt system needs to be replaced because the pipes are too small for DEQ rules. The pipes are six inch and need to be replaced with eight inch. 6. The treatment plant needs several lift pum ps replaced or modified. 7. Cleaning o f trick ling system at the tre a t ment plant, and fixing the prim ary clarifier to keep water from going into Wil low Creek. “Your treatment plant will serve up to 1700 peo ple,” Moore said. “You do not have a capacity prob lem. H ow ever the city is in a situation over the last five years where you are spending more money than you are taking in,” he told the council. In a letter in this week’s Gazette, City Manager Da vid DeMayo said the city utility commission is rec ommending to the council that sewer rates be raised $3 per month this year, and an additional $2 per month at the end o f the fiscal year. It is also recommending a small increase o f 25 cents per month for the water de partment. Anderson Perry said ad d itio n al increase would be needed over the years to account for a five percent inflation rate. The increases would not only al low the city to meets its im mediate operational needs, but also set some money aside in a repair fund to do the needed upgrades to the system. The council took no ac tion on the rate increase recommendations. Cat Control In other issues the city manager said there is an on going cat problem in Hep pner. D eM ayo proposed several solutions including a registration program that would require cat owners to have their cats picture taken and the animals registered. The registration would cost $5 per cat per year and would prevent the animal from being taken to Pet Rescue if caught. “We are now paying for cat control with dog money,” DeMayo said. Heppner resident Dick Parris urged the city to do som ething. “I have dogs and they are spayed and neutered,” Parris said he had 16 cats taken off his p roperty in a tw o w eek period. As another solution De Mayo said the city could set up a spay and neuter fund with seed money o f $1,000. Then people could make contributions to the fund to get stray cats fixed in Heppner. For poor people the city could pay for the procedure and then repay the cost over tim e when they pay their water bill. It is general consensus w ith city officials that a problem a rise s b ecau se people will feed stray cats,' but then not claim them as their own. “I took eleven (stray cats) in one day,” said council m em ber and county sheriff deputy John Bowles. “As fast as I could set the trap I would catch them,” he said to illustrate the problem . “ It is hard to regulate cats, because people will not claim own ership o f them ,” Bow les emphasized. New fire truck loan The city approved a loan o f up to $190,000 to purchase a new fire truck. The term s are seven an nual payments of $30,000 at 4.75 percent interest. The loan was sent to the city’s auditors who said it complied with Oregon law concerning city’s borrow ing money. In other business DeMayo said he would further in vestigate the purchase o f a Housing and Urban Devel opment, HUD, house at 160 S. Court St. HUD policy allows the city to purchase the re possessed house for $1. Alvin Liu o f Heppner has proposed trading the city an old apartment complex on Chase St for the house. The city wants to acquire the property, tear dow n the apartments and put in a parking lot on the site. DeMayo was instructed to pursue the issue further. Police Business In police business the council reviewed a revised sh e riff deputy resp o n si bility document. The city contracts with the Morrow County Sheriff Department for city police services, and the council recently renewed the agreement for another year after m uch discussion with the county sheriff about deputy perfor mance and responsibility. The revised responsibilities are listed below: Deputy Responsibilities A ssigned to the City o f Heppner 1. At the beginning o f the day shift check in at City Hall to ask for any updates or new cases that you might not be aware of. Make sure the City staff enters this into the daily log. 2. Each shift shall be respon sible for driving/canvassing the entire City at least once per shift. This includes the City parks. A walk through o f the park grounds would be appreciated. Homeless transients have been known to encamp along the creek near the parks. Drunks fall asleep in the public rest rooms, bicycles get thrown into creeks etc. 3. Dog/animal issues. We have a kennel at the Waste- water (Sewer) plant. If you need it, please coordinate this with the PW crew. 4. If an assigned deputy has to perform an assigned duty that will take him or her out o f our area for more than two hours please make sure that Dispatch informs the City so that they will be aware o f the change. 5. At least once per day, if possible, the deputy on duty will walk the length of Main s tre e t, visiting the various businesses and interacting with the citizens as they “walk the beat.” 6. At night, after the busi nesses shut down, the depu ty will check the businesses in town to make sure the doors are locked. Dispatch will notify any business owner, whose door(s) are found unlocked. The busi ness owner will be respon sib le for c o rre c tin g the situation. 7. The deputy on duty dur ing the day will be pro vided a list of frequent code -violations.. He/she. will., using this list as a guide, and systematically inspect a portion of the City each day so that in a month and a half the entire City will be inspected for violations. Please coordinate with the CM and keep him informed o f your progress, as you go- 8. At the end o f your shift, if possible debrief the City staff on the day’s activities (incident num bers etc.). Use your discretion as to whether you merely warn or cite an egregious code violation. These responsibilities are secondary to enforcement o f the crim inal code and incidents requiring your assistance with other LE m em bers or m em bers o f the public. M onthly police activity report for February Traffic- There were nineteen traffic stops, one resulted in six citations. Two juveniles were warned about not having lights on their bicycles. Code Enforcement- 8 animal complaints were reported, resulting in one dog being transported to Pet Rescue. A citizen called MCSO to report a beaver was dam aging their property. They were contacted by a trap per. Eleven code enforcement c o n ta c ts w ere in itiated , mostly for debris/trash and abandoned vehicles. Two vehicles were tagged for tow. Three lost dogs were re ported to MCSO. One noise complaint was received. The occupants o f the residence turned the music off when the Deputy asked them to. Theft Complaints- A person reported item s stolen from the back o f a parked vehicle. All Other- MCSO Deputies assisted Heppner Fire Department at a house fire. A c itiz e n c o n ta c te d the S heriff requesting assis tance in retrieving clothing for some juvenile from a residence. MCSO Deputy contacted a person regarding a civil complaint. MCSO Deputy was contact ed by a person complaining o f harassing phone calls coming from a residence in Heppner. The Deputy made contact with the suspect and advised that person to stop. A person called MCSO to report possible fireworks being discharged. It was determined to be a person doing construction. Deputies found three ve hicles with open doors/ trunks. A business door was found unsecured. The responsible person for the business responded and secured the door. Two people called MCSO and reported they lost per sonal property somewhere downtown. A person heard someone outside o f their residence d u r i n g t he n i ght t i me hours. A person called MCSO to report they were receiving computer generated calls in an attempt to recover a debt owed by the pervious resident. A person called and re ported two vehicles parked in front o f CBE. Deputy made contact w ith the par ties. Nothing wrong. Selected Nope Need Tools up to 40% off T h r u M a r c h 3 I Morrow County Grain Growers L e x i n g t o n 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 ♦ 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 fw l u » n iin m t, »Mi w w i> iiu > i n » k k m
