Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 2011)
1 Bessie W etzëll N ew sp aper Library University of O regon Eu gene, OR 97403 62 wind measuring towers now spread across county Met towers precursors to wind farms HEPPNER 5<K The above map shows the placement of 62 different meteorological towers, as shown by small triangles, spread across Morrow County to measure wind speed and other weather factors for the possible building of additional wind farms here. - Source Morrow County Planning Dept. VOL. 130 NO. 30 8 Pages Wednesday, August 3, 2011 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Western artist lives and loves her art Artist and rancher Denise Smith captures a moment to work on her latest acrylic painting during a recent farmers market. Smith says she works best without interruption, admitting she is easily distracted by her gift of gab. - Photo by Andrea Di Salvo “There is nothing that can compare to a good horse and the right rope, but the perfect image might come close!” That’s the philoso phy of local artist Denise Smith. If anyone knows about all three— horses, ropes and art—it’s Smith. The 50-something artist and rancher didn’t start out on a ranch in east ern Oregon. Rather, her journey started in 1953 in the small coastal town of North Bend, OR. Her love of both art and horses came early, though. “ I was a horse- crazy kid grow ing up,” says Smith. “I drew them, collected them, pretended in play, was a western TV nut.” Like many ch il dren, some of her earliest memories include coloring with crayons. Unlike many kids, both the art and horse obsessions stuck. After her gradua tion from North Bend High School in 1971, Sm ith went on to obtain an associate of arts degree from South western Oregon Commu nity College in 1973 and a bachelor of science degree in art education from the University o f Oregon in 1986. It was during col lege that Smith got her first horse. Her horse-craziness confirmed, she took any horse-related opportunity she could. She participated on the equestrian team in college, was an outrider for the Oregon racing commis sion in Salem and worked on the Oxbow Ranch in Prairie City. Ranching life seemed the next step. She and her hus band, C harles “ Sam bo” Smith, started their mar ried lives on Mann Lake Ranch in Harney County, OR, where she taught art full-tim e at Lincoln Ju nior High School in Bums from 1988 to 2003. She left teaching to pursue art and ranching full time when the couple moved to Heppner in the fall of 2003. In 2004, they moved their cattle and horses to Currin Ranches on Little Buttercreek, where they still work for the Cur rin family. In H eppner, the Smiths are far from fami ly... 28-year-old daughter Cory lives in Drewsey, OR with her family, and 29-year- old son Cliff resides in Wil- liston, ND. Smith says she misses them, as well as her four grandchildren, but that they’re a close family despite the miles. If distance from family is a downside o f life in Heppner, one of the best features of the Currin Ranch might be Sm ith’s basement apartment stu dio, a bright space where she is free to create in any medium that strikes her... pencil, pastels, oils, acrylics -See WESTERN ARTIST/ PAGE TWO Special fair section included in this week’s paper See inside for special Fair and Rodeo information A special 24-page Fair and Rodeo section is included in this week's Heppner Gazette-Times. The section contains articles, photos and other information about the upcoming Morrow County Fair and Rodeo. Green Dot sweepstakes scam Attorney General John Kroger is warning Or egonians to not respond to unsolicited “sweepstakes” phone calls. Both the Mar ion County Sheriff’s Of fice and the Department of Justice’s consumer hotline have received reports about suspicious callers who noti fy consumers that they have won a sweepstakes and then instruct them to purchase a prepaid credit card to cover “taxes” or “fees” associated with collecting their cash prize. One Oregon res ident was contacted on his cell phone earlier this week by a con artist who asked him to purchase three $ 1,000 Green Dot Money - Pak credit cards. In order to collect his sweepstakes prize, the man was told he must call an Idaho number and read the serial numbers off the back o f the cards. Fortunately, he smelled a rat and called the Marion County S heriff's Office instead. Bogus sweepstakes and lottery offers are among the most common types of scams run by crooks who seek to rip off Oregon con sumers. These operations are often run by perpetrators located outside the U.S., m aking it very difficult for law enforcement agen cies to track them down. In 2010, the department received 1,054 complaints about international money schemes, with $1,999,323 in reported losses...more -See SWEEPSTAKES SCAM/ PAGE FIVE By David Sykes M orrow County currently has 62 meteoro logical (met) towers spread throughout the county, mea suring wind speed and other atmospheric conditions that may be favorable for the construction of additional wind farms here. As indicated by the map recently released by the Morrow County Plan ning Dept., the majority o f the towers are located across the mid section of the county; however, there are some located in the northeast. The tow ers can range in cost up to $65,000 apiece, not counting instal lation. They oftentim es will measure wind speed at various heights, as well as other atmospheric condi tions such as pressure. The data is gathered by poten tial wind-farm investors to determine where to place wind farms and towers that will produce steady enough wind to justify the cost of the wind farm project. On a related topic, Bruce Sorte, an economist with Oregon State U ni versity, recently spoke to the Morrow County Plan ning Commission about the economic impact o f wind-energy development on rural communities. Sorte was part of a group that did a 2006 study on wind energy and its economic impact on rural communities. He is cur rently working on a similar study, which will also look at the effect of wind farms on agricultural businesses such as the family farm. Many times it is assumed that income from -See WIND FARMS/PAGE THREE lone School Board discusses leaking boiler, new HVAC system By April Sykes The lone School Board, at their July 26 meet ing, heard from Principal Jerry Archer concerning the school’s boiler leak, which has contributed to some moisture detected in the newly installed gym floor. Archer said it is believed that the moisture is com ing from the wall by the leaking boiler. He said it was estimated recently that the gym floor near the leak had around 12-15 percent moisture, when the mois ture content should only be around nine percent. Archer added that a section that had been warped has already shown some improvement. The board had earlier dis cussed removing the boiler, and is scheduling a boiler review hearing on Thurs day, August 4 from 4-5 p.m. A new heating/ventilating/ air conditioning system is under consideration. “If we get rid of the boiler, that problem should be gone,” said Archer. Bids are to be awarded on Au gust 8 at 1 p.m. In addition to the proposed new HVAC sys tem—estimated at around $150,000—and boiler re moval, the board is con sidering a new fire alarm system, estimated around $30,000, and purchase of new Promethean Boards. Promethean Boards are interactive hand-held com puters that students would use in the class rooms. The devices enable anything that can be seen or done on a com puter to be projected onto an interactive whiteboard in front of the classroom. Su perintendent Mark Mulvi- hill advised the board to purchase the Promethean Boards now, so that they can be used by students right from the start of this school year. Board member Ann Morter said that the boards could be paid for out of the $25,000 that had already been budgeted for computer hardware. Also at the meet ing, Archer told the board that he expects to have recommendations for new hires for third- and fourth- grade teaching positions for this school year by August 15. He also recommended that the board hire an as sistant junior-high coach for volleyball as well as football. “I think they should be the same,” said Archer. M u lv ih ill echoed that thought, recom mending hiring two coaches each for junior high volleyball and football. In other business, the board: -heard from Archer rrmm concerning the charter up date. He said it is still not certain whether the lone district, as a charter school, will need to have two boards. He said that the Oregon De partment of Education says “Yes,” however, the Oregon School Board Association says, “Maybe not.” Mulvi hill also suggested that the board needs to start talking about whether or not they should put a cap on student population. -heard a brief up date from M ulvihill on the current situation with ESDs statewide, especially the ability of certain school districts to withdraw from ESDs. He said in the Inter- Mountain ESD, formerly Umatilla-Morrow ESD be fore consolidation with Union-Baker ESD to form IMESD, only three districts are allowed to withdraw: Burnt River, Pine Eagle and Baker. -heard a briefing from Mulvihill on his East ern Promise plan, which would emphasize a com prehensive education plan for students kindergarten through age 20, rather than the previous K -12 plan, and would coordinate education between area high schools. Blue Mountain Community College, Treasure Valley -See ¡ONE SCHOOL BOARD PAGE FOUR ;T reesa S hrúbs J ^ P e r e n n ia l s ALL ANNUALS <a*f Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed A Seed 242 W. Llntton Way, H e p p n f » 676-9422 » 989-8221 (MCOO main offlc«)
