Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 2012)
Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 OSU economist says rural America ‘built big government’ Bv David Sykes Ueppner needs a more diversified popula tion in order to grow and be successful, an Oregon State economist told the Ueppner C ham ber o f Com m erce ette s VOL. 131 N 0. 6 8 Pages Wednesday, February 8, 2012 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon School custodian retires after 31 years By Andrea Di Salvo At a school-wide assembly last week, Hep pner Elementary School celebrated the retirement o f m uch-loved M orrow County School D istrict head custodian Dan Van Liew. “1 received about 170 hugs, high-fives and handshakes,” said Van Liew of the assembly. Though still seen in the halls of the school, head custodian Van Liew celebrated his official re tirement on January 31, 31 years after starting as a school groundsman in Janu ary of 1981. Fifty-nine-year-old Van Liew was born and raised in Medford, OR. He graduated from Medford High School in 1971 before going on to study business at Southern Oregon State College in Ashland and Oregon State University in Corvallis. He then spent time working for the forest recently. Bruce Sorte, who teaches microeconomics and other courses for Or egon State University said Ueppner could learn from Boardman and should be come more diversified in its population in order to move forward into the future. “If you look at all o f you here,” he told the gathered chamber mem bers, “you pretty much look all the same. You will not be creative until you have diversity here.” Sorte pointed to Boardman and said that city’s diversity could ben efit Heppner. Sorte also said, in response to a question about the large amount of government in south Mor row County supporting the economy here, that rural people want big govern ment. “Rural folks built big governm ent,” Sorte said. To illustrate this point, he said in the 1800s OSU economist Bruce Sorte told the Chamber of Commerce last week that, in order to grow, Heppner needs to become more diversified and to “distinguish itself.” Photo by David Sykes America had bad weather, from which the govern ment rescued farmers. The government also drove the Indians off the land, he said, making it available to farmers. He then pointed out that the government is continuing to subsidize farmers with price supports and other direct payments. As an illustration of rural Oregon’s approval of bigger government, Sorte pointed to Measure Five, which was approved by voters in 1990 and estab lished limits on Oregon’s property taxes. Measure Five was voted down by all -See EC 'ONOMIST/PA GE SIX Health district approves stroke assistance program Providence Hospital specialists can assess patients at PMH through web cams By April Sykes The Morrow Coun ty Health District’s Board, at their regular meeting in lone on Jan. 30, ap proved an agreement be tween Providence Hospital in Portland and Pioneer Me morial Hospital in Heppner for a web cam program to assist with stroke patients, called the Telestroke Net work Care Services. When a patient with stroke symp Matt Combe (L) reads the candy-bar hoard made by Jannie toms arrives at Pioneer Me Allen and Kathy Cutsforth for Dan Van Liew at his school morial, an on-call specialist wide retirement assembly at HES on January 31. -Contributed at Providence Hospital can assess the patient through the web cam. Providence will provide the web cam unit and the assessments as a free service to MCHD and will bill out their charges to the patient. Providence will have already credentialed the n e u ro lo g is ts , and MCHD w ill use P rovi dence’s credentialing by proxy. The MCHD Board approved the process; by law changes have already been proposed to MCHD providers to allow tele medicine at Pioneer Memo rial Hospital. Staff will still have to complete training to operate the equipment. MCHD administra tion was very excited about the project, which would, in effect, provide on-site neurologists at Pioneer Me morial Hospital. “That’s a pretty big deal,” commented Nicole Mahoney, MCHD chief financial officer. “ Stroke neurolo- -See STROKE WEB CAMS/ PAGE SIX photo sen ice, the city of Ashland and the Ashland school district before moving to Heppner in 1981. Van Liew married his wife, Sandra, shortly before moving to the area. In a way, that was what set the whole move in motion; it was while visiting in Heppner over Christmas that Van Liew saw an adver tisement for a groundsman position at the school. He sent in an application, went through a phone interview and received the job. During his career with the school district, Van Liew’s title changed several times, from groundsman to assistant custodian to facil ity coordinator to head cus By David Sykes todian. He also took on the February 15, the -See RETIREMENT/ PAGE Morrow County Court will FIVE hear an appeal on the siting of a 52-turbine wind farm in the Ella Butte area north of lone. The Morrow County Planning Commission ap proved the permit for the 9,247 acre facility at its Dec. 6 meeting, but that decision has been appealed to the county court. Citing noise, po tential medical problems and loss of business if the wind farm is built, James Jepsen, owner of Dobyns Pest Control of lone, filed the appeal. Jepsen, whose home and business are near the proposed wind farm, said, in part, that the “in stallation of the windmills, transm ission lines will lower our property value, The above tracks were seen Friday at Willow Creek Lake. They make our home, property were determined by the Fish and Wildlife to be large domestic and business unsalable. dog tracks. The inset tracks are of a wolf taken off the internet Also ruining our view of to show the similarity . The person w ho took the photo said the tracks were as large as a man's hand, but ODFW says they are sunsets, dark starry nights, not wolf tracks. Other canine tracks have been reported at the skies and having to look east end of Willow Creek Lake and they too have been deter at the visual pollution of mined to be from a large domestic dog. -Contributedphoto the windmills, wind sen ing younger lama has not wolf kill. sor noise and the noise Cherry also said generated by the windmills been found, or examined by ODFW, but may also be tracks around Willow Creek and impact on wildlife and dead. After the savaging of Lake have been determined endangered species in the the elk calf was confirmed to be a large canine. He said to be a w olf Cherry said that when reports o f the he went back with Russ tracks came in. he thought Morgan, wolf expert with he knew which dog from ODFW, and county tracker town made the tracks; when Buster Gibson. They all he took that dog out. the concurred neither was a tracks matched. County court to hear appeal on lone wind farm permit Nearby property owner says 52-turbine farm will cause noise, “ visual pollution, loss o f value ” Calf elk at Tupper ‘eaten on’ not killed by wolf, says ODFW By David Sykes Reports that a calf elk was killed by a wolf last week turned out to be only partly true, accord ing to Steve Cherry of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department. Cherry said he received a report of the dead calf elk in the Tupper area on Tuesday last week and, when he investigated, found that the marks on the carcass showed that it had been scavenged on by a wolf but not killed by one. Cherry said there were no bite marks on the hind legs or the neck that would have been an indication of a wolf attack. He said they put a trail camera on the carcass but no wolf came back to feed again. Cherry said he thinks it is a lone wolf in the area that did the savaging. In other reports, Cherry said three lamas in the Parker Mill area were dead or missing and after investigation two o f the deaths were the result of either domestic dogs or coyotes. Cherry said a miss ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Í A recently approved wind farm at lone is being appealed to the Morrow County Court. area.” . 2Morrow Energy, LLC. which already op- erates wind farms in the area, is the developer o f the project, which will be constructed on land owned by Ruby Rohde of Kenne- wick, Reitmann Trust and Betty Reitmann o f lone, and Crum Enterprises Lim- ited Partnership o f lone, -See WIND FARMS/PAGE THREE V alentine ' s D ay S pecial A MONTANA .j|n SILVERSMITHS M ontana S ilver J ewelry 2 0 % Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed _242JIVJJnd«nyjteyLHeppn«r » 676-9422 • 989-6221 (MCQO main office) \ off
