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.”