Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2012)
Greg Walden named grand marshal for St. Patrick’s parade ...... ihrar. Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Librarv University ot Oregon Eugene. OR 97403 The Grand Marshal for this year’s Great Green Parade St. Patrick’s Day Celebration is U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.). “Greg Walden was selected as a grand marshal 5(K HEPPNER azette imes VOL. 131 N 0. 10 8 Pages Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Plans underway for lone School fitness center Bv April Sykes The lone F acili ties Task Force Committee met Feb. 28 following the regular school board meet ing to formulate a plan for establishing a weight room/ fitness facility for use by the school and perhaps eventu ally by the community. Following reports on various options from committee members, the group agreed, by a tally of votes, that using an existing classroom would be the best short-term solution, decid ing that using the Grange Hall in the interim was not an option. Their first choice for a long-term solution was determ ined to be a stick-built facility on-site and the second choice was a modular facility. The school is cur rently renting the old “Ri- etm ann B uilding” from current owner George Mur dock for a weight room and fitness center; however, the building has been de termined to be uninsurable and therefore unfit for use unless upgrades are made. Committee mem bers are now exploring funding, including possible grants, building issues and a long-term time line. Candidates set for county elections The filing period for county positions closed yesterday, sealing the list of candidates for open Morrow County positions. The 2012 primary elections in Mor row County will be held May 15. General elections will be held November 6. As a rem in d er, county positions open for the 2012 election and cur rent position holders are: M orrow County A sses sor, G reg Sweek; M or row County Clerk, Bobbi Childers; Morrow County Com m issioner 1, Leann Rea; Morrow County Sher iff, Kenneth Matlack; Mor row County Surveyor, Jud- son Coppock and Morrow County Treasurer, Gayle G utierrez. All positions carry four-year terms. The county commissioner posi tion is partisan; all other open positions are nonpar tisan. County clerk, trea surer and sheriff are elected at a general election. Asses sor, surveyor and Justice of the Peace can be elected at the May election depending on the number of candidates filed. C andidates filed for the open positions are: Bobbi A. Childers, county clerk Greg Sweek, coun ty assessor Gayle L. Gutierrez, county treasurer Kenneth W. Mat- lack, county sheriff Leann Rea, county for this year's festivities be cause he has been coming to Heppner and participating in our Irish traditions,” said a St. Patrick’s Committee spokesperson. “We chose him because he has become an ‘adopted Irishman,’ and we appreciate the dedica tion he gives every year to break away from his busy schedule and be a part of the St. Patrick’s weekend... Though not front Morrow County, Rep. Greg Walden (far and because he looks good left) has long been a fixture at Heppner’s St. Patrick's Cel ebration, attending whenever his duties—and the weather— in green!” W ald en r e p r e allow. -Contributedphoto sents the sprawling Second curveball thrown by Mother Heppner festivities.” Congressional District of Nature can deter Walden “ Not to b e .” he Oregon, an area from participating wrote. “The plane didn't o f nearly 70,000 in the festivities; last get in from Los Angeles the s q u a r e m i le s year a snow storm night before so the flight out that spans from got in the way. of Medford that morning his hometown of “ S u r e was canceled. That meant Hood River, south enough, M urphy’s no early flight and no way to Bend, Medford, Law is alive and to get to Heppner in time and Grants Pass, well!” Rep. Walden for the K IM A Coffee Hour and clear out to the Greg Walden wrote last year in his program, the community Idaho border. regular e-newsletter lunch, the parade, or any Despite represent after the travel disruption. thing else for that matter ing one of the largest dis “Every year, I make a regu in Morrow County. Big tricts in the entire country, lar visit to Heppner to join bummer. I hope the folks in which involves extensive the community for their Heppner understand; hope travel and time on the road fun St. Patrick's Day cel fully I'll have better travel (and visits to each o f the ebration. The plan was no luck next year.” 20 counties at least twice different this year. After a As a descendant every year), Walden says he full day o f public events of Oregon Trail pioneers, makes it a point to put the in Medford...I intended to Walden was raised on a Heppner St. Patrick’s Day catch the 5 a.m. flight out cherry orchard in The Dall Celebration on his calendar o f Medford for Portland es and spent most of his every year. and make the 3.5 hour drive -See GRAND MARSHAL/ PAGE FIVE Only the occasional to Heppner in time for the Citizens make Salem trip to become more involved in state government Group makes 2-day bus excursion emphasizing rural issues By David Sykes A recent bus trip by local citizens to Salem during the legislative ses sion was set up to discuss important rural issues with politicians, and also become more involved in state-wide issues. The trip was spon sored by the Willow Creek Tea Party Patriots. About eight people left Heppner at 7 a.m. on Feb. 21. The bus stopped in Madison Farms and picked up K ent M adison and also stopped at the Space Age near Hermiston and picked up several others from Pendleton, Irrigon and Hermiston. Later, Andrew O ’C onnell o f 2M orrow Energy boarded the bus in Hood River and rode with the group to Portland, which gave them time to discuss wind economics and other issues. O ’Connell’s com- commissioner, position 1 (Democrat) Kandy Boyd, coun ty commissioner, position 1 (Democrat) Judson L. C o p pock, county surveyor Stephen K. Had dock, county surveyor Voters are also re minded that they will re ceive partisan (Democrat or Republican) primary ballots only for their registered party. Unaffiliated and other party voters will receive only nonpartisan primary ballots unless otherwise designated by the party in question. All general elec By April Sykes tion candidates will appear M orrow County on N ovem ber’s general School Superintendent Dirk election ballots. Dirksen, at a special meet ing at the district office in Lexington Monday night, broached the idea of mov ing the district office in as a cost-saving measure in preparation for state cuts in school funding. Dirksen said he es timated the district could save in the neighborhood of $10,000 year if the district office was moved to Hep pany is developing wind farms in the South Morrow County area. In c r e a s in g the amount of water that Or egon farmers receive from the Columbia River was one of the objectives of the group, which was told by local farmer Kent Madison that currently Oregon only receives one third of one percent o f the Columbia River water, while Idaho receives seven percent and Washington four percent. To illu strate the point, Madison gave the group a sandwich bag containing 300 Cheerios. “This bag of Chee rios represents the average -See CAPITOL TRIP/PAGE FIVE School district supt. proposes moving office; plans staff cuts Area farmers attend growers marketing workshop lone farmers Loren and Della Heideman and H erm iston farm er Luke Hansell were the only ‘east siders' present at the recent Growers Marketing Work shop held at the Wheat Marketing Center (WMC) in Portland, OR. The WMC is dedi cated to improving the com petitive edge of U.S. wheat through education and re search. The February 2012 workshop was sponsored by the WMC in collabora tion with the Oregon Wheat Commission and held in the Albers Mill Building in downtown Portland. In addition to learn ing more about marketing wheat internationally, the workshop offered a tour o f their in-house wheat research laboratory, wheat testing demonstrations on Citizens from Heppner and several other counties took a bus trip to Salem, and one part of the trip was a tour of the Capitol building. Here a tour guide shows them the State Seal. -Contributed photo pner Elementary School. “The district office is always a target,” said board member Bill Kuhn. “We don't have anyone we don’t need (at the district office).” B arney Lindsay com m ented that MCSD has always tried to maintain a presence in each commu nity in the county, which would not be so if the of fices were relocated. “If the roof collaps es, it would be a good time to move, but I don’t recom mend it.” said Lindsay. Dirksen also ex pressed concern that the district’s computer network servers, which are located in the district office, are at risk, especially since a water pipe runs directly over the servers. He said it would be very expensive to replace the servers if a water pipe burst and they were destroyed. -See SCHOOL DISTRICT/ PAGE FOUR Daylight Savings begins Sunday Daylight Savings Time will begin Sunday, March 11. Remember to spring forward and turn your clocks for ward one hour. Loren and Della Heideman check out a new batch of Asian noodles being tested at the Wheat Marketing Center in Port land. -Contributed photos : h Hurry! FINAL DAYS i such things as wneat qual ity. gluten strength and falling numbers testing, and hands-on activities with lab staff and visiting scientists and scholars. The participants snacked and tasted their way through a variety of activities researching reci pes for products that use soft white wheat (SWW) including flat breads, crack ers. snack wraps, noodles -See MARKETING WORK- SHOP/PAGE THREE * 1 2012 N apa G old F ilter S ale March 4th 11th, 2012 - M o r r o w C o u n ty G ra in G r o w e rs Laxington 989-4221 • 1-800-462-73Î6 in nr •«*•)«• u m acni«
