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)
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