Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2011)
Plane crash kills one, sends one to hospital 5(K It doesn’t look like anyone should have walked away from the wreckage of this Cessna 182R Skylane that crashed near the Lexington airport around 11 p.m. on October 26. One survivor, 37-year-old Jeffrey Smock of San Francisco, did survive the crash, crawling to the home of Bill and Cindy Greenup for help. Smock was airlifted to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend and remained in serious condition at last notice. The pilot, Smock’s father-in-law, 65-year-old Stephen Lunceford of Driggs, ID, was killed in the crash. Lunceford was a partner in the Fly ing Buffalo Ranch on Upper Rhea Creek along with his close friend Jim Martin. He was flying from Pasco to Lexington and was on his final approach to the airport when the plan went down just a couple miles east of the runway. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, but have not announced a cause. -Contributedphoto VOL. 130 NO. 43 8 Pages Wednesday, November 2, 2011 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Irrigon man gets 19 years for sex abuse Seventy-year-old Lonnie Lepper of Irrigon was sentenced October 27 to nearly 19 years in prison for sexually molesting two girls. Lepper appeared in circuit court in Hepp ner and pled guilty to four counts of first-degree sexual abuse, according to Morrow County District Attorney Justin Nelson. The charges involved two separate acts with two separate minor victims. The state dismissed 64 additional counts of sex crimes in exchange for Lep- per’s guilty plea. The trial wraps up a case that began on April 6, when an Irrigon woman called the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office and report- ed that her two daughters tences, which would have had been inappropriately amounted to 12 '/j years. touched by her mother’s fi Circuit Court Judge Eva Temple reached a ance. Sgt. Mark Pratt compromise when questioned Lepper she decided to run and arrested him on th re e se n te n c e s 60 counts of sexual consecutively and abuse; the DA sub the fourth concur sequently charged rent, for a total of 18 the man with a total Lonnie years, three months of 68 counts of sex Lepper in state prison. Lep crimes. per will also get credit for Under Ballot Mea sure 11, the minimum man the time he spent in the datory sentence on each of U m atilla County Jail in the remaining four charges Pendleton. According to Nel is six years, three months. While the Morrow County son, investigators found DA wanted to give Lepper that relatives had concerns the maximum sentence, run about Lepper’s behavior for consecutively—a total of 25 years. The man also had a years—Lepper’s attorney 1989 sex-crime conviction asked for concurrent sen- in Washington State. Special Election Nov. 8 M orrow C ounty will hold a special election November 8. Questions will be on the ballot for both Lexington and lone. Lexington will be voting on Measure 25-29, the Town of Lexington Fire Station General Obligation Bond Authorization. Ques tion: Shall the Town of Lex ington issue $200,000 in general obligation bonds to provide a new fire station? If approved, the measure would help finance a new fire station and pay costs of issuing bonds. lone will vote on several positions for the lone Library District. The positions and candidates are as follows: Director at large, two year term (vote for three): Betty Gray Nancy Lee Ander son Margo Sherer Director a large, four year term (vote for two): Anne C. Morter Lisa Rietmann Ballots are due No vember 8 by 8 p.m. Ballot drop locations are available in Heppner, Lexington and lone. Heppner drops lo cations are at the county clerk’s office in the court house or in the outside drop box in the courthouse parking lot. The Lexington out door drop box is in the Lex ington public works parking lot on Highway 74. lone drop locations are the outdoor box on Spring Street or at the Bank o f Eastern Oregon lone branch. Voters are asked to note that the bank closes at 4 p.m., so ballots returned after that time will have to use the outdoor drop. HHS volleyball, football teams head to state The Heppner High School volleyball team won the district championship by beating Elgin and Weston- McEwen and now will go on to state competition. The Mustang girls will host a home game this Saturday, Nov. 5. The time and opponent were not available at press time Tuesday, but should be posted later on the high school website. If the girls win that game they will play in For est Grove the following week. If they do not win, their season will come to an end. The Heppner High School football team will play in the first round of the state playoffs on Sat urday, November 12, with the time, date and place to be announced. The boys will go into the playoffs in second or third place. The boys will play a home game against Irri gon this Friday night. m i ■r. The Heppner Gazette-Times wants to see pictures o f your trophy animals from this hunting season. Stop by to ha\’e your picture taken, drop o ff photos, or email them to editor@rapidserve. net. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Morrow County DA opens Boardman office M orrow C ounty D istrict A ttorney Justin Nelson has announced the opening of a north Morrow County satellite office. The satellite office will be used part-time by the district attorney, deputy district attorney and vic tim’s advocate. The office is located at 101 Boardman Avenue in Boardman. The office will be used as needed, and the public is encouraged to call 541-676-5626 to make an appointment to meet with a representative from the district attorney office at the Boardman location. “I believe it is im portant to have a strong presence in north end of the county. With the addition of the satellite office, we will be able to provide an eas ily accessible location for residents of Boardman and Irrigon to meet with a repre sentative from the Morrow County district attorney office,” says Nelson. “The addition of this office will also make it easier to work closely with the Boardman Police Department and the Oregon State Police on criminal investigations. I appreciate the assistance of the Morrow County com missioners in making this possible.” Health district ends September in the black By A p ril Sykes The Morrow Coun ty Health District ended September $24,600 in the black, according to figures released in Septem ber’s profit/loss statement. The board did not hold a regular meeting on October 31, since they had held an all-day work ses sion earlier in the month. According to the profit/loss statement, the district showed $577,822 in gross patient revenue for September, $80,036 in revenue deductions, includ ing $11,397 in bad debts and $68,639 in contrac tual and other adjustments (Medicare and Medicaid reductions). M CHD took in $94,291 in taxes and $4,984 in other operating revenue for total operating revenue of $597,061. The district had $596,817 in total oper ating expenses and a non operating gain of $24,355 for the $24,600 profit. The district showed a $112,506 loss for the year, for a $37,502 average monthly year-to-date loss. In other business, the board: -received the fol low ing report: Pioneer Memorial Clinic had 431 patient visits in September, with 30 new patients, 43 seen by a nurse and 14 no-shows; Irrigon Medical Clinic had 172 patient vis its, with 31 new patients, 59 seen by a nurse and 13 no- shows; Heppner Ambulance had 20 total page-outs with 16 transports for $ 18,871 in revenue; Boardman Ambu- lance had 27 page-outs with 14 transports for $18,511 in revenue; Irrigon Ambu lance had 19 page-outs with nine transports for $10,701 in revenue; Pioneer Me morial Hospital had three admissions, one swing bed admission, seven admitted for observation, 411 outpa tients, 73 total emergency room encounters, 1445 lab tests, 91 x-ray procedures, 27 CT scans, 16 EK.G tests, one treadmill procedure, six colonoscopy procedures, two endoscopy procedures, one colon/endoscopy pro cedure, three respiratory therapy procedures; Home Health had 104 patient vis its; Hospice had two admis sions and 181 patient days; and pharmacy had 892 drug doses for $62,191 in drug revenue. Cardinal volleyball team in playoff match Saturday The lone Cardinal volleyball team, Big Sky District Champions, will host the winner of the Old Oregon League (Imbler) vs. the High Desert League (Jordan Valley) this Sat urday, Nov. 5. Imbler and Jordan valley play each other mid-week. The Saturday game is an official state playoff match. lone was one o f only three undefeated teams in the state in all classifica tions with a 28-0 record. The state tourna ment is set for Nov. 11-12 at Pacific University at Forest Grove. Fall Back Nov. 6 The Gazette-Times would like to remind every one to set their clocks back for the end of Daylight Savings Time this Sunday, November 6. 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