Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2012)
Hardman site listed on national historic register A local Independent O rd er o f O dd Fellow s (l.O.O.F) hall is one of the latest listings in Oregon in the National Register of Historic Places. Oregon’s HEPPNER zette VOL. 131 N 0. 37 8 Pages Wednesday, September 19, 2012 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon County Court discusses wind farm valuations Dept, o f Revenue valuations leave counties in tough spot The Morrow County Court met in Boardman on Sept. 12 with Judge Tallman and Commissioner Grieb in attendance. The city and citizen comment period for Irrigon was opened, with no one present to comment. The court reviewed and approved the minutes of the Aug. 22 meeting, also review ed and approved the payroll payables, Life Flight payroll payables, August retirem ent taxes and account payables in the net total am ount o f $112,912.86. The court reviewed the projected cash balance activity for the week o f Sept. 10, 2012 through Sept. 16, 2012. Fair Board: The court requested a summarizing report regarding fair activi ties from Chair Rod Taylor. Doashea Qualls was ap pointed to the fair board. C on tracts: C ounty Counsel Ryan Swinbum- son rem inded the court that Judge Tallman had previously been given the authority to sign Non-Dis closure Agreements related to Enterprise Zone and Stra tegic Investment Program negotiations on behalf of the county. The court re viewed and signed a Com- mercial Lease Agreement between the county and Com m unity C ounseling Solutions for office space in the Gilliam and Bisbee Building at a rate of $695 per month through June 30, 2013. O regon S o lu tio n s Plan: B o ard m an C ity Manager Karen Pettigrew explained the Oregon So lutions Plan that they have been working on for sev eral years. Pettigrew stated that GEODC has written policies and procedures that clarify how the funds will be managed and tracked. Port o f Morrow General Manager Gary Neal stat ed that the Port will front the $100,000 for match money, with the Port to be reimbursed through the Enterprise Zone fees over the next few years. The court decided to support the creation of the Board- man Housing Development Fund (BHDF) and agreed to participate through the Enterprise Zone. The court approved the Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Boardman and Morrow County to carry out these housing activities. Com m issioners Re port: Judge Tallman report- ed that he went to Salem and met with the Dept, of Revenue (DOR) along with representatives from Gil liam and Sherman Coun ties. At the meeting, the valuation o f wind farms was discussed. DOR has already reduced some val ues by one to 56 percent with no explanation as to the wide range of change. DOR stated that in the origi nal valuation process they keep track of grant money, Production Tax Credits and Business Energy Tax Cred its and subtract that amount from the value basis. This creates a major problem for the county when the tax dollars are distributed to the various Tax Code Districts only to have the amount appealed to DOR, and then the county is in the position of needing to refund large sums to the company. V a r i o u s correspondences and upcoming meeting notices were reviewed and discussed. This information is provided by Commissioner Leann Rea. Anyone who would like to receive Morrow County Court minutes can contact Karen Wolff at 541-676-5620. Like the Gazette? Facebook page gives residents new way to ‘like’their paper Those looking to keep in touch with their home town newspaper now have a new way to do so. The H eppner G azette-Tim es has opened a page on the popular social networking site, Facebook. Though newspaper staff will post on the page from time to time, Gazette editor Andrea Di Salvo says the page is primarily another avenue those with news to share can use to connect with the newspaper. The paper will w el come postings o f news, events, photos and anything else that might be of interest to South Morrow County. And, o f course, those who follow the page will have the inside edge on stories posted there...a reason to go on Facebook and click that “Like” button. Di Salvo hastens to add that those who aren’t com fortable with technology like Facebook will still be able to reach the paper in all the usual ways, via phone, fax, email or by walking into the office on Willow Street in Heppner. “A lot of people are on Facebook,” says Di Salvo. “It’s a very popular site. We just thought it was time we made the Gazette-Times more accessible to people for whom that’s the most convenient form of com munication.” Visit the Gazette-Times Facebook page at http:// www.facebook.com/Hep- pnerGazetteTimes. State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation recommended the l.O.O.F. nomination in their Febru ary 2012 meeting. Constructed in 1900, the Hardman l.O.O.F. Hall/ Community Center still serves as a center for com munity activities in the town o f Hardman. Like many l.O.O.F. organiza tions across the state. Lone Balm Lodge #82, estab lished in 1886, served the cultural and social needs o f the small town of Hard man, playing a significant roll in the civic and social development of the town. In addition to fulfilling the I.O.O.F.’s mission to “Visit the Sick, Relieve the Distressed, Bury the Dead, and Educate the Orphan,” the building also served as a dance hall and music center. The two-story, wood, false-front building is no table for its architecture, The Hardman Community Center, which housed the l.O.O.F. Lone Balm Lodge #82, established 1886 in Hardman. -Photo by David Sykes which is a good example of a historic building type that is closely associated with historic western towns. To day, the Hardman l.O.O.F. Hall is the only active com mercial building left stand ing in Hardman, located south of Heppner on State Route 207. It is one of five historic properties in Mor MCSD includes online learning program By April Sykes The Morrow County School Board heard a pre sentation about online/dis- tance learning at its regular meeting at Irrigon Junior/ Senior High School on Sept. 10. Jerry Boomer, a rep resentative of Greenways Academy, a diploma-grant ing institution, told the board that the program is appropriate for a wide- range o f students, from those who have lost time because of illness, active ath lete s, ch ild ren who are bi-polar, are attention deficit/hyperactive, have Asperger’s Syndrome, have been expelled, those who need credit recovery, all the way to English-as-a- second-language children, home schooled students and disciplined, self-motivated students who excel in their studies. The program is cur rently in use by 10 stu dents within the district, who may never even come into a school building, said MCSD Superintendent Dirk Dirksen. Dirksen said that if there is already a class offered within the district in a bricks-and-mortar class room, they will place the student in the building be fore recommending the stu dent for an online class. He said that this may be the best option for some students, especially while the district is dealing with budget cuts and reduced staffing at the secondary level, and subse quent scheduling conflicts. He said that the district’s finances are currently fine, but funding is flat now and the district is anticipating a 7.2 percent increase in Public Employees Retire ment System costs during the next biennium. Educators stressed that their main goal is to edu cate kids, regardless of the format, while adhering to state standards. Boomer said that they were required to contact the students on a regular basis and added that Greenways teachers are bilingual. A workshop for board members concerning the Greenways program is in the planning stages. Dirksen said that while the population is really close to being flat from a year ago, the district is still in a good position with regard to offering college classes for high school stu dents through the Eastern Promise program. In other business, the board; -heard a report from Kim Mabry, food service director for the district, who coordinates and oversees lunch menus and district kitchens. She said that the new menus include a lot of whole wheat and whole grain foods. “You can eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want,” she added. -learned from Dirksen that the district is in the process of collecting infor mation on costs concerning the current district office in Lexington. The board had much earlier discussed the need for improvements at the district office building, the costs of such improve ments, the current costs of heating and cooling the ag ing building and the costs of putting the district office at another location. -heard a report on the Irrigon Junior/Senior High School positive action pro gram. -heard the following enrollment versus atten dance report as of Sept. 4: A.C. Houghton Elemen tary, Irrigon, (grades kin dergarten through third grade)-277 students en rolled, 267 in attendance; Irrigon High School (grades seven-12)-372/352; Hep pner Elementary (grades K-six)-177/166; Heppner High School (grades sev- en-12)-181/175; Irrigon Elementary (grades four- six )-2 1 1/203; Riverside High School, Boardman (grades seven-12)-397/397; Sam Boardman Elementary (grades K-three)-343/334; Windy River Elementary, Boardman (grades four- six >-204/198; Morrow Edu cation Center, Irrigon, Mor row County School District ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. i students-18/14 (no students from other districts en rolled); total 2,180 enrolled vs. 2,106 in attendance. -approved the follow ing em ployment action: resignations from Richard R ockw ell, RHS ed u ca tional assistant; Chad Do herty, Heppner Junior High School head football coach and Kristi Richmond, Ir rigon Junior High assistant volleyball coach. Employ- ment/promotions for Misty Bellamy, from RHS assis tant cook to head cook. Ex tra duty contracts for Javier Garcia, HJH head football coach; Chad Doherty, HJH assistant football coach and Carol Johnson. RHS assis tant volleyball coach. -approved a resolution accepting and appropriating $1,100 from the Depart ment of Education to Hep pner High School, Dave Fowler and Troy Morgan, for a technical math cur riculum research project, funds not anticipated during the regular budget process. -approved the second reading rescinding old policies and adopting new policies on a wide variety of topics as follows: in-service on accident prevention, pest management, health insurance, personal com m unication devices and social media, cyberbul- lying, domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, attendance, admission and inter-district transfer of resident students, reporting suspected child abuse, haz ing, harassment, bullying, intimidation, teen dating violence. -approved the appoint ment of Tom Wolff. Hep pner, to the district budget committee with the term ending June 30, 2015 -heard the following announcements: next board m eeting, Heppner High School, October 8, 7 p.m.; Oregon School Board As sociation fall regional meet ing, Blue Mountain Com munity College, Pendleton, October 10, 6 p.m.; OSBA convention, Portland, Oc tober 8-11. ALL OTHER NURSERY STOCK The Heppner Gazette-Times wants to see pictures o f your trophy animals from this fishing/hunting season. Stop by to have your picture taken, drop o ff photos, or email them to editor@rapidserve.net. row County listed in the National Register. The National Park Ser vice maintains the National Register under the authority o f the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. For more information about the National Register and recent Oregon lists, visit www.oregonheritage.org. THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 27TH 50% OFF MUST I t RKRED UR AT TIME OP SALE Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed A Seed 242 W. 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