Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2012)
Smith says coal shipping now needs additional permitting 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 )■ 1 11 Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 Scope o f environmental review also delaying project By David Sykes The A m bre Energy c o a l-s h ip p in g p ro je c t through the Port o f Mor row now needs an air per VOL. 131 N 0. 39 8 Pages Wednesday, October 3, 2012 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Heppner native begins medical career By Andrea Di Salvo Heppner High School graduate Trisha Eckman, 30, launched into her medi cal career this week when she began work Monday at St. Luke’s Eastern Oregon Medical Associates Clinic in Baker City, OR. Eck- man’s specialty is family practice, which she says will include pediatrics and obstetrics. Eckman is the daughter of Mike and Tonia Adams of Heppner. She was bom in Pendleton when the family lived in Spray, OR. but they moved to Heppner when she was four years old. She has a long history of wanting tq be, and train ing to be, a doctor. “I have wanted to be a doctor since I was about eight years old, when my family and I spent a lot o f time interacting with the health care com m u nity while my aunt battled leukemia, and I just never changed my m ind,” she says. In fact, Eckman’s first job was at Pioneer Memo abled children. rial Hospital while she was Eckman says she took still in high school. a “year o ff’ before She w orked as a launching into med nursing assistant, ical school, instead mostly in the nurs living in Bend, OR ing home. Her work and working as a experience wasn’t caregiver and med limited to medicine, ication aid at Bend though. Like many Trisha Adams Villa Retirement in local kids, during Eckman the assisted living high school and her departm ent. She first two years of then entered medi college, she worked sum cal school at Oregon Health mers driving wheat truck and Science University in and combine during har Portland; she earned her vest, as well as other odd medical doctorate in 2009. i jobs. Eckman says she strug She attended school in gled with her choice o f Heppner through her gradu specialty at first. ation in 2000, then went on “I originally wanted to to college at Albertson Col be a pediatrician, then an lege of Idaho in Caldwell, obstetrician/gynecologist,” ID (now called The Col says Eckman. “Then I re lege of Idaho), majoring in alized I liked all of those biology with a chemistry fields equally and could do minor. During her last two them all as a family practice college summers and part- doctor.” time during the school year, Deciding on a special she worked at Gem State ty w asn’t the end of her Developmental Center in medical training, though. Nampa, ID at their summer She m arried Jared Eck- and after-school program -See ECKMAN STARTS MED CAREER/PAGE SIX for developmentally dis- Local woman arrested on theft charges A local woman was arrested by the Morrow County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, Sept. 19, on charges of Theft I. Virginia Lynne Patton, known as Ginger, was the manager at the Shell gas station in Lexington. The 43-year-old was arrested after her employer termi nated her for theft and then called the sheriff’s office to advise them of that. She was lodged at U m atilla County Jail after her arrest but was released after a court appearance the next day, Sept. 20. Under Oregon law, a Theft I charge is a Class C felony that may be com mitted in a variety of ways, including stealing prop erty valued at more than 1 000 . $ , A c c o r d in g to th e MCSO and the Morrow County District Attorney’s office, Patton is still under investigation for charges of Theft I; no charges have been filed against Patton through the DA’s office. Local man air-lifted in critical condition A local man was trans ported by Life Flight to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, WA last week after being pinned between two vehicles. Andre L. Kendrick, 54, of lone was working Friday afternoon with a vehicle that was on a trailer towed behind a second vehicle. The vehicle that was on the trailer apparently rolled for ward and pinned Kendrick against the tow unit. A neighbor called 911 and units from the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office, lone Fire Department, Hep pner Fire Department and M orrow County Health District responded to the scene. Kendrick was extri cated 10 minutes later by the first responders. CPR was started on scene, and Kendrick was transported to Pioneer Memorial Hospi tal before being transferred to Kadlec hospital by Life Flight with “life-threaten ing injuries.” He was listed in critical condition later that night. Some sources say Kendrick is now doing “better than expected” but the Gazette- Times was unable to con firm his exact condition before press time. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. mit from the Department o f Environmental Quality (DEQ), Greg Smith told the Heppner Chamber of Commerce Sept. 20. Smith was giving an update on the project at the chamber’s regular meeting. “When we started this project, we were told we would not need an air per mit. The DEQ now says we do need an air permit, and there will probably be litigation,” Smith said. The coal shipping proj ect will see millions of tons o f coal shipped by rail from the Powder River area o f Wyoming to the Port of Morrow at Board- man, down the Columbia by barge and then on to South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Smith is an Oregon legislator but is working on this project as head of his economic development company, Greg Smith & Company, LLC. The scope of the envi ronmental impact required on the project is also an Greg Smith gives update on the Ambre Energy coal shipping project to Heppner Chamber of Commerce. - Photo by David Sykes issue at this time. Smith said. “Some people want an environmental assessment from Wyoming all the way to Asia,” Smith says. “We feel it should only be on the dock area at Boardman. “They will be covered barges and absolutely no dust will escape” during shipping, he said. Smith said the scope of the envi ronmental review is in the public comment period at this time, and he urged peo ple who support the project to comment in favor of the limited assessment. “We are trying to do this project co rrectly ,” Smith said. He added that there would most likely be litigation either way over the Corps o f Engineers’ decision on the scope of the environmental review required for the project. He -See COAL DEPOT UP- DATE/PAGE FIVE Obama blocks Chinese- owned wind farm Company says action is unconstitutional By David Sykes C iting n atio n al se curity, President Barack Obama has barred a Chi nese-owned wind-turbine company from constructing a 20-tower facility in North Morrow County near the Navy Bombing Range. It is the first time in 22 years a president has blocked a transaction as a national security risk. Obama has told the Ralls Corp. to remove all of its property and installa tions from the site, located on property owned by Kent Madison, within two weeks and divest all of its interests in the wind farm within 90 days. The Chinese company Sany is a subsidiary of Ralls and actually makes the turbines. Both Sany and Ralls had said they were not af filiated with the Chinese government, and concerns of possible espionage from the wind-farm site were “ not credible.” At least one string of five towers on the 20-tower wind farm is located about five miles from the restricted air space of the bombing range. The Navy tests electronic war fare planes and equipment at the range. After the presidential ruling, Ralls said it was planning a lawsuit against the federal government, charging Obama’s action was unconstitutional. The company is seeking to have the order overturned or be paid compensation for its losses. Earlier, the company had said if it did not get the wind farm operational by Dec.31 it would lose out on approximately $25 million in federal production tax credits. M.C. schools announce enrollment figures By Andrea Di Salvo With the school year in full swing, current en rollment figures are in for South Morrow County. The Morrow County School District reports that Heppner High School has a current enrollment o f 178, compared to 184 date-to- date last year. The concern for the school district is Heppner Elementary School, which has a current enrollment of 171, compared to 190 last year, a decrease of 19 students. Morrow County School Superintendent Dirk Dirk- sen said the decline was due to a couple of factors. One is simply that if families with small children move away, as happened this year, HES enrollment takes a hit. Another, larger prob lem is an ongoing pattern the district is observing of transferring about 30 stu dents from the elementary school to the high school every year but receiving fewer than that— usually around 20— into kindergar ten. This year, he said, the high school has 37 seniors, while only 21 students start ed kindergarten. Djrksen said that, if the decrease continues at this rate, Hep pner High also will see an eventual decline in its enrollment figures. On a brighter note, the lone School District reports 185 students enrolled in grades K-12, down only three from 188 at the end of last year. School staff mem bers say that, considering last year's large graduating class, that small drop in enrollment is “pretty good.” lone Community School Principal Jerry Archer, at a meeting of the lone School District, said the school had good new-student figures, including incoming stu dents from Lexington and outside the county. Lexington man killed in crash near Ukiah Lexington man Loren Woodside, 82, was killed Saturday when his pickup rolled on Highway 244 about four miles east of Ukiah. On Sept. 29, about 2:40 p.m ., W oodside’s 1993 Dodge pickup was west bound on Highway 244 near milepost 5 when, for what Oregon State Police say was an “unknown rea son,” it traveled toward the shoulder. Woodside appar ently over-corrected and lost control. OSP report that the pickup rolled more than once before coming to rest on its top. W oodside was pro nounced dead at the scene. He was wearing his seat- belt. OSP was assisted at the scene by Ukiah Quick Response and Pendleton Ambulance. OSP is con tinuing the investigation. Sergeant Seth Cooney is the lead investigator. ON SALE 34 ." Ratchet & Wrench S e t 65.00 REGULAR # 9421 P M ctric »9420p SAE M o r r o w C o u n t y G r a in G r o w e r s r tr f M n tq y liw w iittW tiw ir w tr tM if w w m ta J w t X
