City manager announces
retirement
• I li • h 11 h h • I ' • a 11111111,, I
B essie W etzell N ew sp ap er Library
University o f O regon
Eugene, O R 9 7 4 0 3
Bv David Sykes
HeppnerCity Man
ager David DeMayo turned
in his resignation to the city
council Monday night, and
the council voted unani
mously to accept it.
5<K
HEPPNER
azette
imes
VOL. 131
N 0. 7
10 Pages
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Boardman PD welcomes
new officer
As o f Jan. 9, the
Boardman Police Depart
ment has a full roster. Of
ficer Jeremy Fye joined
the Boardman Police De
partment, filling the last
open position and bringing
the departm ent to eight
full-time officers. Mayor
Phillips conducted a public
swearing-in ceremony at
the Feb. 7 City Council
meeting.
Fye worked as a
police officer in the City
o f Nyssa before coming
to Boardman. He had also
worked as an officer for
the cities of Umatilla and
Stanfield prior to
moving to Nyssa.
Fye is married and
has one child. He
said they are glad
to be back living in
the area.
In o th e r
city business, the J e r e m y
council appointed
the city’s finance direc
tor, Thomas Kligel. as the
city’s budget officer for the
2012-13 budget meetings
in April. The council also
approved the first reading
of an ordinance adopting an
Interchange Area
Management Plan
for the l-84/Port
o f Morrow inter
change. The second
reading and adop
tion are scheduled
for the Feb. 21
Fye
meeting.
The next
meeting of the Boardman
City Council will be Tues
day, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. at
Boardman City Hall.
NOAA issues monthly climate
summary for Heppner
According to pre
liminary data received by
NOAA’s National Weather
Service in Pendleton, tem
peratures’ in Heppner aver
aged warmer than normal
during the month of Janu
ary.
The average tem
perature was 37.5 degrees,
w hich was 2.3 degrees
above normal. High tem
peratures averaged 47.3
degrees, w hich was 3.7
degrees above normal. The
highest was 67 degrees
on the 5,h. Low tempera
tures averaged 27.7 de
grees, which was 0.9 de
grees above normal. The
lowest was 13 degrees, on
the 12th.
There were 24 days
with the low temperature
below 32 degrees.
Precipitation to
taled 1.46 inches during
January, which was 0.01
inches below normal. Mea-
surable precipitation of at
least .01 inch was received
on nine days with the heavi
est, 0.50 inches, reported on
the 18th.
Since October, the
w ater year precipitation
in Heppner has been 3.26
inches, which is 2.27 inches
below normal.
Snowfall totaled
3.5 inches with at least
one inch of snow reported
on one day. The h eav i
est snowfall was 3 inches,
reported on the 18lh. The
greatest depth of snow on
the ground was 3 inches on
the 18,h.
The outlook for
February from NOAA’s
Climate Prediction Cen
ter calls for near-normal
temperatures and near-nor
mal precipitation. Normal
highs for Heppner during
February are 47.4 degrees
and normal lows are 27.3
degrees. The 30-year nor
mal precipitation is 1.12
inches.
T he N a tio n a l
Weather Service is an office
of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administra
tion, an agency of the U.S.
Commerce Department.
Rea files for commissioner
Leann Rea, cur
rent Morrow County Com
missioner, Position 1, an
nounced this week that she
has filed to run as a Demo
cratic Party candidate for
the same office during the
upcoming election.
The dead
line to file for
county positions is
March 6 at 5 p.m.;
all appropriate pa
perwork must be
filed with the Mor-
L e a n n R ea
row County clerk’s
office at that time.
P rim a ry
elections will be
held May 16 with
general elections
November 5.
Special City Council meeting to.
discuss hiring new city manager
A special city coun
cil meeting will be held on
Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 at
6. p.m. for the purpose of
discussing and choosing
the method for hiring a
replacement for the current
city manager, who notified
the council of his intent to
retire.
The council has
agreed to honor his request
to retire on August 31,2012.
This special meeting is not
an executive session; the
public is invited to attend.
A L L N E W S A N D A D V E R T IS E M E N T DEADLINE:
M O N D A Y S A T 5 :0 0 P.M .
»
DeMayo will work
until August 31, which will
allow time for the council
to find a replacement, and
for DeMayo to line up his
retirement plans and finish
some projects he has been
working on.
DeMayo, who was
hired by the city in 2005,
said in his letter that health
issues played a part in his
decision.
“It has been about
nine years since 1 was di
agnosed with Parkinson's
disease,” DeMayo said in
his letter. “The disease has
progressed slowly, but the
time has come when it has
begun to affect my job per
formance and 1 need to step
down from my position.”
A special city coun
cil meeting will be held on
Monday, February 27 at
6 p.m. for the purpose of
discussing and choosing
the method for hiring De-
Mayo’s replacement, the
city announced in a news
release after the meeting.
The meeting will not be an
executive session and the
public is invited to attend.
L ater, D eM ayo
said that after retirement
he planned on going back
to school and working on
getting another degree.
In other action, the
council voted, after much
discussion, to reject all bids
it had received on several
surplus items it had for sale.
The council did not accept a
bid of $25 for a boat, motor
and trailer, or a bid from the
same individual for $400
for a 1962 fire truck.
City officials said
the equipment was worth
more than what was bid
and recom m ended that a wall to the ceiling with
the council put it up for a a door to divide the one
straight sale. The
large room into two
council agreed, and
rooms.
decided to ask $800
T h e S t.
for the fire truck
P a tric k ’s S enior
and $150 for the
C en ter has said
10-foot Livingston
for some tim e it
boat with motor and
is facing a large
launch.
expense to fix its
In o th e r C it y M a n a g e r heating system, and
business, the coun D a v id
the council agreed
D eM ayo
cil decided to di
to give the money
vide up the remain
to help with that
ing $ 13,200 in HUD house project.
funds in the following man
Heppner Chamber
ner: $ 1,076 to the Heppner Executive Director Sheryll
Chamber of Commerce to Bates said the lights pur
purchase new decoration chased will be LED and
lights for trees on Main last longer than the current
St.; $849 to the chamber lights used to decorate the
to purchase a web camera trees downtown. She also
that will be hooked up and said that her husband Dale
broadcast a continuous im Bates has volunteered to
age of I leppner's downtown install the web cam and
onto the Internet; $7,000 to hook it up at no charge. Web
remodel city hall; $3,273 cams are popular and used
for the Saint Patrick’s Se to attract tourists to towns
nior Center to help put in a by showing them what the
new heating system; $ 1,000 town looks like. People
to Heppner Colt Football will be able to log unto
program for equipment and Heppner's web site and see
other expenses.
live video o f H eppner’s
City recorder Judy downtown area.
Healy asked the council for
The money from
the $7,000 in order to build all o f the projects came
a partition in the large front from the sale o f a Housing
room of city hall and sepa and Urban Development
rate the meeting area from House in Heppner. Under
the work area. Healy said the program when HUD
the city wants groups to use repossesses a house it puts
the city hall for meetings, it on the market for a set
but it is a distraction and amount of time. If the house
difficult for city employees does not sell during that
when the area in which the time, then the city can buy
meetings are held is one the home for $1 and resell
large room with the work it, providing that the funds
area.
are used for the betterment
Heppner contractor o f the com m unity. The
Jay Keithly was in atten city sold a house on Court
dance at the meeting and St. and netted $18,200. It
said it would cost between -See CITY MANAGERJPAGE
SEVEN
$6,000 and $7,000 to build
MCSD to send $450,000 serial
levy to the voters in May
By April Sykes
ITie Morrow Coun
ty School Board, at their
Monday night meeting in
Boardman, approved send
ing a $450,000 five-year
local option levy to the vot
ers in May. Morrow County
School District Superinten
dent Dirk Dirksen told the
board that the district needs
the monies to offset funding
reductions and expected
budget cuts. Dirksen said
that the levy was “just a
renewal of the present levy
we have.”
Voters approved a
three-year school levy in
2009 when the district was
facing a $500,000 budget
loss. The 2009 levy asked
for $ 1 per $ 1,000 assessed
valuation and Dirksen said
that this proposed levy will
be the same.
In 2009, a hom
eow ner with a $50,000
home paid around $40
per year to support the
levy; a homeowner with a
$ 100,000 home paid around
$70 per year; and one w ith a
$ 150,000 home paid around
$ 110 per year.
In seeking the new
levy, Dirksen cited the fol
lowing:
-a lower state edu
cation budget, based at
around $5.725 billion, down
from $6.2 billion in 2007;
-a lack of stimulus
money this time around,
as a $1.8 million one-time
payment was spent in order
to stay at the $6.2 billion
spending level;
-an in c re a se in
PERS, the public em
ployees’ retirement fund,
which is expected to see a
$500,000 increase for the
2011-13 biennium and a
$550,000 increase for the
2013-15 biennium;
-expiration of the
district’s 2009 local option
levy;
-an increase in pay
roll costs;
He said that if the
levy does not pass and there
are no reductions in payroll,
the district will have to
reduce around $2 million
from the budget. He said
the options are to tighten
up spending on the “20
percent.” which is basically
the percentage of the budget
the district spends on opera
tions— facilities, books, and
technology—and also to
tighten up the “80 percent,”
the percentage the district
spends on salaries and ben
efits, through staff reduc
tions in administration, the
district office, teachers and
classified positions.
As to the 20 per
cent, Dirksen said that in
order to save money, the
district:
-h as p u rc h a se d
economy cars, which will
save the district money on
gas. He said the district
should see a return on the
vehicle purchase in gas
savings in two to three and
a half years.
-has purchased new
copiers, trading out the
old copiers, which saves
$26,400 a year.
-would use grants
and donations to purchase
refu rb ish ed com puters
with a three-year warranty,
rather than purchasing new
computers.
-plans to buy half
o f the normal textbooks
and share; for example, stu
dents in one grade or school
would use the books one
year and students in another
grade or school would use
the books the next year.
Concerning the 80
percent spent on salaries
and benefits, Dirksen pro
poses the following first
scenario, which would re
sult in the reduction o f
around $1.35 million from
the budget for the 2012-13
school year and around
$665,000 for the 2013-14
school year for $2.01 mil
lion in total reductions:
-for the 2012-13
year— reduce one direc
tor position, a half-time
confidential position, 15.5
teacher positions and 10
classified positions=$1.35
million.
-for the 2013-14
school year— reduce one
administrator position, six
teachers, six classified posi-
tions=$665,000.
In the second sce
nario, the district would
schedule “furlough” days
whereby employees do not
come to work and are not
paid. Dirksen said that one
furlough day for all licensed
and confidential staff comes
to around $60,000. One
furlough day for all staff is
-See SCHOOL LEVY/PAGE
SIX
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