Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2012)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, December 5,2012 - FIVE Celebrate season Open house planned Local students with ‘Christmas Is’ to honor departing perform at state council members music festival Looking for an event to nourish your Christmas spirit and support music in our schools? Then “Christmas Is...” m ight be for you. This community music program will be held Dec. 9 with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. and an evening per formance at 7 p.m. at the Heppner United Methodist Church. Dessert and coffee will be served following each performance. Both performances will include the lone band and choir under the direction of Jordan Bemrose, as well as adult choirs, children singing, instrumental num bers and a puppet show. In the evening, Rick Drake’s students in the Heppner Junior High School choir will sing, and a brass group from Heppner High School will play. The winning tickets for the OSU and U of 0 fabric doll beds will be drawn after the 7 p.m. performance. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under, which in cludes the concert and dessert. A portion o f the proceeds will be given to Heppner and lone schools for music education. Over the last three years, this event has raised $2,421 for music education in Heppner and lone. Call Dorine Enz at 541676-9224 to reserve tickets, or buy tickets at the door. Christmas is the season for giving Neighborhood Center offers two ways to celebrate spirit o f the season The Heppner Neigh borhood center is inviting the community to celebrate Christmas through acts of kindness and generosity this year. The center is still look ing for donations for their Christm as baskets. Do nors are asked to drop off “anything that goes with Christmas dinner,” from a turkey to cranberry sauce, at the Neighborhood Center by next week so the baskets can be handed out in time for Christmas. The Giving Tree is also back; it has been set up at H eppner Family Foods. Anyone who would like to donate a gift is asked to pick a tag from the tree, buy the gift on the tag, wrap the present and attach the tag to it, and return it to the Neighborhood Center by Dec. 16. Any questions, call Jan at 541-676-5024. Chamber lunch meeting This week’s lunch meeting of the Heppner Chamber ofCommerce will be held on Thursday, Dec. 6, at noon in the St. Patrick’s Senior Center dining room. The meeting will be an all entities report. Cost of lunch is $9. Heppner Family Foods will cater. Lunch attendees are asked to RS VP no later than noon the Wednesday before to accommodate enough meals. Irrigon Chamber to hold award dinner The Irrigon Chamber of Commerce annual Citizen’s Award Dinner will be held on Dec. 8 at Stokes Landing Senior Center, 195 NW Opal PI., Irrigon. Tickets are on sale at Irrigon City Hall, 500 NE Main, Irrigon. For more information, contact Vickie Volk, 541- 561-8137. We have Poinsettias & Centerpieces Visit or call our floral department 5 4 1 -6 7 6 -9 4 2 6 ^ Mb jWe will be open 2 Sundays! in December: Dec. 16th 12pm M pm . r Dec. 23rd Dec. 24th- Closing at 5pmj Dec. 25 CLOSED Merry Christmas" Dec. 16 Open at 8:00 am ____ tfc-i 1 Espresso Specie „Hot Butter Rum Latte $ 3 .5 0 Egg Nog Frappe $ 3 .5 0 W edding Tables Sp encer Alan Palmer & Krystal Marie Wagf ner Decem ber 2 8 , 2 0 1 2 i t M umuj ' j DlU/} 217 North Main St., Heppner • Phone 676-9156 • Floral 676-9426 Serving Morrow, Wheeler & Gilliam counties Since 1959 An open house to honor Heppner's departing mayor, Les Paustian, and outgoing city councilors Keith Lewis, Cindi Doherty and Cody High will be held at Heppner City Hall on Monday, Dec. 10, from 5-6 p.m. The public is invited to attend; refreshments will be served. Conservation funding application deadline extended Farmers, ranchers and forestry owners have until Dec. 21 to apply for conservation assistance P rivate landow ners working on enhancing the sustainability of their farm, ranch or non-industrial pri vate forestland now have additional time to apply for technical and financial assistance through their local USDA Natural Re sources Conservation Ser vice (NRCS) office. The deadline for application has been extended to Dec. 21. NRCS works in part nership with private land- owners, conservation and agricultural groups to iden tify and prioritize natural resource concerns within com munities across O r egon. This local guidance ensures that NRCS works collaboratively with land managers and partners to address and improve re source issues on a land scape scale. “Landowners now have additional time to come in and talk to us about their natural resource goals and concerns,” said Kacee Lath rop, district conservationist in Morrow County. Based on input from the community arid avail able funding, the following natural resource problems will receive higher prior ity in the local application selection process. -Restoring forest health and protecting forests from the threat of Wildfire in the Blakes Ranch and Penland Lake areas. -Rangeland m anage ment and wildlife habitat im provem ents for mule deer and upland game birds in the Heppner Wildlife Management Unit, as well as aspen restoration. -Juniper rem oval in the Upper Rock Creek Wa tershed. -Russian olive control south of Boardman. -Increasing farm ef ficiency and reducing soil erosion by redesigning and rebuilding terraces in the Eightmile Watershed. The E nv ironm ental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a voluntary con servation program to help farmers, ranchers, and non industrial forestland owners improve and enhance the condition o f water, soil, and other natural resources on private working lands. These programs also of fer additional assistance for beginning, historically underserved and limited- resource farmers, ranchers and forestry owners. For landowner stories, visit the Oregon NRCS Conserva tion Showcase website at http://w w w .or.nrcs.usda. gov/news/showcase/index. html. NRCS encourages and invites interested agricul tural, forestry and livestock producers to visit their local USDA service center and apply for and complete their program eligibility before the Dec. 21 deadline. Any one who has not partici pated in USDA programs in the past should contact their local NRCS field of fice as soon as possible to ensure they have the time needed to make informed decisions and complete the application process. Local field office con tact inform ation can be found below. Contact Kacee Lathrop at 541-676-5021 xl 13 or Jennifer Wilson at 541-676-5021 xl07. In addition to EQIP, other Farm Bill programs may be available. For ex ample, organic farmers can take advantage o f a spe cial EQIP program for use only with certified organic growers and those want ing to transition to organic production. To find out more, con tact the local NRCS office or visit the NRCS website at www.or.nrcs.usda.gov. Some local students recently had the opportunity to perform at the Oregon Music Teachers Association (OMTA) State Ensemble Festival. The event was held at the Russell Trip Per formance ('enter at Linn-Benton Community College (Albany campus) last weekend. Hannah and Madison Palmer of Hep pner performed on Dec. 1, and Sophie and kellen Grant, also of Heppner, performed on Dec. 2. Pictured (L-R) are Hannah Palmer, Madison Palmer and piano teacher Alaina Lemmon. Hannah and Madison have been receiving lessons from Lem mon for the past four years. -Contributedphoto NEW VET -('ontinued from PA GE ONE cases,” he says. Kansas farms, as well as one summer spent working at a veterinary clinic. While a love of animals is certainly a factor in vet erinary medicine, Gibson says there was more to his lifelong desire to be a vet. What drives him? “The desire to help peo ple overseas,” he explains. “It was something God led me into since about (age) five.” Gibson says he plans to spend two or three years working with and learning from Dick Temple, but hopes to eventually go to China to work as a veteri narian there. And why a small vet clinic in Lexington? “ Dr. Temple seemed like a great person to learn a lot from, and we got along great when we were talking about me moving here. I’ll get some good experience with him.” Gibson says he hopes to use his time here to become more familiar with a variety of clinical medicine. “(1 hope to gain) clini cal experience with a vari ety of animals both large and small; being more fa miliar with clinical medi cine. having seen more So far, the experience is working out for both Gibson and the Temples. Karen Temple says they’ve been taking Gibson out on a lot of country calls so he can get experience with large animals as well as the smaller patients in the clinic. “Our biggest problem is that we’re having so much fun (working together), we can’t make up our minds to split up to be more effi cient,” Dick Temple says. “He’s a blessing,” adds Karen. Gibson says he’s en joying life here quite a bit, not only working with the animals and getting to meet area ranchers, but also getting out and interacting with the community. He says he'll be showing up at sporting events and other community gatherings to get to know his new neigh bors better. “I lived in a rural com munity in Kansas while in school, and there’s a lot of similarities. I’m definitely feeling at home,” Gibson says. “I'm looking forward to working with Dick and Karen and getting to know people in the community here.” Community lunch menu Hope and Valby Lutheran and All Saints Episcopal church members serve lunch on Wednesday, Dec. 12, at St. Patrick's Senior Center. The meal will include ham, potatoes au gratin, car rots, sliced tomatoes, hot rolls and pineapple upside-down cake. Milk is served at each meal. Suggested donation is $3.50 per meal. Menu is subject to change. Oregon volunteers needed to gather precipitation data A statewide network that uses Oregon citizens to collect local data on rain, snow and even hail is seeking a new wave of volunteers. Coordinated by the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University, the program is part of the national Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, or CoCoRaHS. Kathie Dello, deputy director of the Oregon Climate Service at OSU, works with about 300 Oregon volunteers. She would like to greatly expand that number. “The national organization was begun in 1997 in Fort Collins. Colo., after they had a major localized storm there, but other areas in the city only received modest amounts o f rain,” Dello said. “People thought, ‘how can that happen?’ It illustrates how fickle weather data can be. It can rain an inch in one location, and be completely dry a couple of miles away. “That’s why we need more volunteers to report on local events,” Dello pointed out. “It will provide us much more accurate data, which leads to better precipitation maps and over the long haul, more accurate forecasting.” CoCoRaHS volunteers must buy a rain gauge for about $27 plus shipping, w atch a short training video, and report as frequently as possible the amount of rainfall and snowfall in their area. Interested persons should go to the CoCoRaHS website at Heppner City Hall Open House P le a se join u s in th a n k in g H ep p n er's d e p a r tin g M ayor an d C ouncil M em b ers Monday December 10 ,th 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Refreshments ) http://www.cocorahs.org/ to sign up. Dello said Oregon needs more volunteers throughout the state, but especially in eastern and southern Oregon, along the Oregon coast, in the foothills of the Coast Range and Cascades, and in areas just outside of cities that have a bit o f elevation change. “Elevation change is important because that can be a factor in how much precipitation falls," Dello said. Dello said the work is easy, and it can be a good family activity. “I think it would be a great activity for middle school or high school kids, with a bit o f supervision from parents,” Dello said. “We’d also love to have retirees, or anyone who cares about the weather. The data will really be useful in better understanding Oregon weather.”
