Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 2012)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 8,2012 RETIREMENT -Continuedfrom PAGE ONE role of father as he and wife Sandra, or Sandy, raised sons Matthew, Samuel and James. Van Liew said he disliked the fixed routine of the custodian job, but he loved getting to know the students and staff. Af ter being a fixture in the daily routine of a couple of generations of students and teachers, that’s a lot of lives touched by the quiet, laid-back custodian. Not everything has been constant, though. Van Liew said he has seen many changes over the years. “ There w ere no computers when 1 came here,” he said. “I remember when they got one com - FIVE lone defeats Echo at home puter and said, 'That’s all we're ever gonna need.’” Van Liew said he wants to use his extra retire ment time to visit his boys and, when the time comes, grandkids. Right now, Mat thew is a civil engineer in New Jersey, Samuel is an assistant manager for a fish hatchery near Sandpoint, ID and James is a mechanic near Denver, CO. T hat said , Van Liew—who already has one part-time job and hopes to sub for the school district— says he doesn’t see himself as retiring. “ I co n sid er it a change,” said Van Liew. “Basically, I want to slow down a little.” lone soundly de feated Echo at home games on Feb. 3, with middle school girls’A and B teams, junior varsity girls, and both varsity teams w inning their contests. lone is busy this week, playing Helix at home on Feb. 7, Central Christian at home on Feb. 9, Nixyaawii in Mission on Feb. 10, and South Wasco at home on the Feb. 11. This marks the last w eek of regular season play for lone, which must w in all games to hold their position in league standings. D istrict playoffs will be in Hermiston on Feb. 16-18. Mmmm...brownies Coach Shelly McCabe with the eighth-grade girls at their last Junior Kirk Haguewood during the varsity game against Echo. home game on Feb. 3. T he team won against Echo. -Photo by The exciting win put lone in third in the Big Sky League stand Paula Emmel ings. - Photo by Paula Emmel Colt wrestling takes BEO reports strong 2011 earnings it to the mats First-year 4-H cooking students, Payton Miller and Austin Carter, try their hand at one-bowl brownies. Austin and Payton are members of the Cardinal Express 4-H Club and are work ing toward learning basic cooking skills that w ill allow them to enter items in the Morrow County Fair. -Contributedphoto Mustangs compete in BEO invitational The Heppner Mus tang wrestlers competed in the thirteen-team Bank of Eastern Oregon Invitational wrestling tournament last weekend. The tournament included nine o f the 11 team s from 2A Special District 4. Heppner finished a close third of the teams in the district and sixth overall. G o in g in to the finals, 3A Riverside and four-tim e 2A cham pion Culver were separated by one point from the overall team championship. Riv erside came out on top in the end, with Culver second and 4A Mac Hi third. Seven M u stang wrestlers finished in the top six of their weight class. Jared L em m on, G arrett G ibbs and Tim Nelson each made it to the championship semifinals before suffering their first loss. Each won by fall in their next match to take home third-place medals. Andrew Bara won fourth place after also los ing in the championship semifinal. Treston Maben and Earl Propheter claimed fifth places on the podium, while John Propheter finished sixth. Members and coaches of the Colt Wrestling Program roll up mats after their practice last week. The program hosts their first meet this Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Heppner High School. Their second and final meet is next Monday, Feb. 13. Colt Wrestling is open to any child ages four to fifth grade. -Photo by Erin Hansell-Heideman Morrow County residents shed pounds Biggest W inner participants register for the county-wide event. -Photo by Sandy Matthews Jared Lemmon, in Mustang blue and gold, wrestles an op ponent during the Bank of Eastern Oregon Wrestling Invi tational last weekend. Jared was one of three team members who placed third for their weight classes. -Photo by Jeremy Lanthorn Mustangs are going to districts The Mustang boys are going to district finals next week, and the Gazette-Times wants to spread the news with a page of congratulations for the home team. Anyone who would like to be listed on the con gratulations page, either as a business, family or indi vidual, can contact the Gazette-Times office at 676-9228 or megan@rapidserve.net. Cost is $ 10 per name; deadline or submissions is Monday at 5 p.m. The Heppner |r/S r high school wrestling team is collecting batteries for an ongoing team fundraiser. Auto, tractor. RV. and four wheeler batteries will be accepted. Please bring your batteries to the South end Transfer station free of charge located at 57185 Hwy 74, Lexington, OR. For further information or if you need batteries picked up, call Mark Lemmon at (541)215-9248. > The Biggest Win ner weight loss challenge and healthy lifestyle pro gram is entering the sixth week and halfway mark. Three hundred and eighteen people in Morrow County have joined the program to modify health behaviors (nutrition, physical activity and tobacco use) that con tribute to the development of chronic diseases. Shelley Wight, co coordinator of the Heppner Biggest Winner reflects. “This is much larger than we ex p ected ...th ere are four times the number of participants we hoped for when we began planning. This type of turn-out dem onstrates the need and de sire our community has for developing opportunities to improve nutritional habits and physical activity in Morrow County.” It is not too late to participate in the Morrow County movement toward w ellness. One does not have to register or partici pate in the weight loss chal lenge to attend any of the free weekly sessions and receive general health in formation, or to participate in group physical activity such as stretching, walking, ballroom dancing, yoga or cardio fitness. Each community group meets 6-7 p.m. in lone (Mondays, lone School), Heppner (Mondays, Hep pner Elementary School), Boardman (Mondays, Sam Boardman Elementary ) and Irrigon (Tuesdays, Irrigon Jr./Sr. High School). Each site has tailored the pro gram to reflect the interest of the community. See the Community Health Improvement Part nership of Morrow County website for information and resources at http://www. ohsu.edu/MCCHIP. BEO Bancorp and tells us our customers are its subsidiary. Bank of East happy with Bank of Eastern ern Oregon, announced Oregon’s style of banking, consolidated year end 2011 our flexible products, and earnings of $2,011,567, an the excellent, professional increase o f 21.5% when service provided by our compared to $1,656,016 in banking teams.” 2010. Earnings per share According to EVP were $2.18, up from $1.80 and Chief Credit Officer E. in 2010. Total assets in George Koffler, during peak creased 3.5% from borrowing season $25 1.7 million to their loans were at $260.4 million. Net an all-time high, loans ended 2011 but w ith a great at $199.9 million, harvest and high up 4.2% year over cattle prices, as ex year. Deposits in pected. the bank creased 3.0% from experienced pay $223.5 million to Jeff Bailey downs a bit sooner $230.3 million. in the cycle than “ We a re normal. very' pleased with the 2011 “This is good news results, especially when but translates to more mod you consider the sluggish est loan growth when you economic recovery that our look at year over year num nation is experiencing. On bers. We continue to see a regional basis, the farm good lending opportunities and ranch economy per within our market and are formed quite well. We had ready to loan money to a fabulous wheat harvest qualified borrowers,” said across the region and cattle Koffler. “When we look at prices are very strong. The provision for loan losses strength in the agriculture and write downs on other sector is helping to sup real estate, the 2011 num port our rural communities bers were very similar to in spite of unemployment 2010. Over the last three numbers higher than we years, we have taken pru would like to see,” said dent steps in aggressively president and CEO Jeff addressing problem loans. Bailey. Other real estate owned is Chief Financial Of down 49.6% from 2010. ficer Mark Lemmon said the We see this as a very posi bank's Tier 1 capital ratio of tive sign but will cautiously 10.63% matches up favor watch developments associ ably to peer banks across ated with the slow national the nation, continuing to and global economic re make Bank of Eastern Or covery.” egon the highest-capitalized “2011 was a very bank in eastern Oregon. good year for Bank of East “Total sharehold ern Oregon. The past three ers' equity increased 12.3% years have been challeng year over year to $17.55 ing for all banks, but thanks m illion,” said Lemmon. to the loyalty of our share “Return on Average Assets holders, custom ers and is 0.79% and Return on employees. Bank of Eastern Average Equity is 12.12%, Oregon has weathered the compared to 0.67% and storm. Our capital ratios are 11.0%, respectively, year strong, our troubled assets over year.” are manageable, and we C hief Operations continue to fund our loan O fficer Gary Propheter loss reserve to buffet the said, “Year-over-year de possibility o f a prolonged posit growth has slowed, economic downturn. Even but we still see growth though there are still a few in spite o f the continued challenges to be m et, I low-rate environment. The remain confident the worst overall support from our lo is behind us and that there cal communities is impres are brighter days ahead,” sive. The continued trend concluded Bailey. of growth in core deposits Chamber lunch Get ready to rumble meeting on St. Pat’s The next meeting o f the Heppner Chamber of Heppner Chamber of Commerce is getting “ready to rumble” at their fifth annual St. Patrick’s Boxing Smoker on Friday, March 16 at Heppner High School. The chamber is still looking for boxers who would like to participate. Anyone who is interested should contact the Heppner Chamber of Commerce at 541-676-5536 for more information. Commerce will be Thursday, February 9 at noon at All Saints Episcopal Church. The guest speaker will be John Turner, president of BMCC. He will speak on what is new on the com munity college front. Cost o f lunch is $9; The Stable of Youth will cater the lunch. Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP by Wednesday of each week. \
