M oCo queen crowned
Bessie W e te ll Newspaper Library
University
of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
5(K
Morrow County Fair and Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo Queen Krysten Powell was crowned Sat
urday during a night of prime rib and hot-selling auction items. The queen says she is excited
for St Patrick’s celebration this month in Heppner. Pictured (L-R standing): Lindsay Soliz,
Jefferson County Fair and Rodeo Queen; Sara Marcus, Miss Northwest Professional Rodeo
Association; Lillian Sandford, Miss Oregon High School Rodeo; Desiree Robinson-Strange,
Grant County Fair and Rodeo Queen; CheyAnne Maley, Grant County Fair and Rodeo Prin
cess; and (seated front) Queen Krysten Powell. -Photo by David Sykes
VOL. 132
N O . 10
8 Pages
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
McElligott named BMC
coach of the year
By Andrea Di Salvo
lone g raduate Jake
McElligott has been named
2012-2013 Blue Mountain
C onference B oy’s Bas
ketball Coach o f the Year
for his role in leading the
Irrigon Knights boys’ bas
ketball team to the BMC
district championship.
M cElligott, 32, is in
his fourth year as head
coach for the Irrigon Junior/
Senior high School boys’
basketball team. He was
bom and raised in lone and
graduated from lone High
School in 1998. After that,
he attended Gonzaga Uni
versity in Spokane, WA,
obtaining his Bachelor of
Arts degree in history and
Jake McElligott (fourth from right) with the Irrigon Knights
basketball team. -Contributedphoto
elementary education in He transferred to the junior
2003.
high/high school a couple
In 2004, he moved to o f years later, where he
-See COACH OF YEAR/
Irrigon, where he started
PAGE FOUR
out as a sixth-grade teacher.
Mulvihill tells board
district ‘very healthy’
By April Sykes
lone School District
Superintendent Mark Mul
vihill told the board, at its
regular Feb. 26 meeting that
theirs was “a very healthy
district and that reflects the
quality of the classroom.”
Mulvihill told the board
to expect a very high level
o f rigor in state require
ments for reading and writ
ing in the near future. He
remarked that third grade
is the number one invest
ment area because reading
success in the third grade
is “a huge indicator” of a
child’s future academic suc
cess. He also stressed that
attendance is critical for
students' academic achieve
ment if they are to graduate
in four years.
In other business at the
meeting, the board:
-learned from Principal
Jerry Archer that the school
charter is in the process of
being updated and a final
Forest road closures
spark controversy
By Andrea Di Salvo
Many o f us feel an
noyed when a road closure
sends us on a detour away
from a planned route. Now,
many hunters in the Hep
pner Ranger District of the
Umatilla National Forest
(UNF) feel that forest road
closures may detour their
hunting plans, or even de
rail them altogether.
The roads in q u es
tion are FSR 2202, below
Sunflower Flat, and FSR
2120020 at Hog Creek
near Tupper. Both roads are
located in the Wall Creek
watershed, which, accord
ing to District Ranger Todd
Buchholz, is identified as
a priority watershed at the
national level.
Buchholz explained
that the Forest Service dis
tricts conduct environmen
tal analysis each year, tak
ing into account areas that
Road closures on the Umatilla National Forest have sparked
controversy as hunters express concern over the loss of forest
access.
higher-ups have designated
as environmental priorities.
Then, local rangers like
him self determ ine what
needs to be done to protect
priority areas.
“ We do analysis at
the local level to see what
needs to happen at the local
level,” he said, adding that
strategies could include tree
planting, fencing or intro
ducing fire to the terrain,
among other things. Part of
the environmental analysis,
he said, is a road analysis.
Roads, he said, are major
contributors to sediment in
the Wall Creek watershed.
One of the people up-
-See ROAD CLOSURES/
PAGE SIX
Filing deadline March
21 for May election
Interested in becoming
more involved in the area?
Several boards and districts
will hold elections on May
21 .
They include: H ep
pner Rural Fire Protection
D istrict, three directors
with four year terms, lone
Rural Fire Protection Dis
trict, three directors with
four year terms; Boardman
Rural Fire Protection Dis
-See lONE SCHOOL trict, three directors with
BOARD/PAGE EIGHT four years terms and one
director with two year term;
Irrigon Rural Fire Protec
tion District, positions 3, 4
and 5 with four year terms;
Morrow County Unified
Recreation District, Zone 1
and 2, with four year terms;
lone Library District, three
directors with four year
terms; Oregon Trail Library
District, positions 3, 4 and
5 with four year terms; Port
o f Morrow, positions 1, 2
and 3 with four year terms;
Heppner Cemetery Main-
product will be presented
at the March meeting.
-heard from Archer that
three seniors currently have
a four-point GPA. All three
students have taken upper
level and college classes.
Archer said that all three
students will achieve vale
dictorian status. The board
is considering options for
standardizing Latin honors.
He said it was too late and
tenance District, two direc
tors with four year terms;
lone Lexington Cemetery
District one director at large
with four year term; Board-
man Cemetery District, two
directors at large with four
year terms; Irrigon Cem
etery Maintenance District.
One director at large with
four year term ; Willow
Creek Park District, two
directors at large with four
-See ELECTION/PAGE FIVE
Committee will
Nance fills in at G-T Relay for Life to
hold rally March 16 talk statue, options
Visitors to the Hep- and husband, Jerry, bought
pner Gazette office over that paper and then pur-
chased two more.
the next couple of
They owned the
months will see a
three newspapers
new face at the edi
for many years, as
to r’s desk. Editor
well as ranching
A ndrea Di Salvo
n ear S h o sh o n e,
will be gone for a
ID, w here Jerry
couple o f months
was county com
to welcome a new Patty Nance
m issioner for 25
addition to the Di
Salvo family. Patty Nance, years. The couple moved
56, a relative newcomer to to the H eppner area in
Morrow County, will fill in 2011 and bought a ranch
for Di Salvo until her re on Rhea Creek. They have
four grown children, 14
turn, scheduled for May.
Born in Ohio, Nance grandchildren and are ex
began her journalism career pecting their second great
at age 25 in Chicago. She grandchild.
Nance says she is look
then relocated to Idaho in
1986. She began working ing forward to getting to
for a small-town newspaper know more members of the
in south-central Idaho. She community.
On Saturday, March 16,
in Heppner, the American
Cancer Society Relay For
Life o f Morrow County
will officially get under
way as event volunteers
and participants gather at
Farmer’s Insurance Office,
133 N Main, Heppner, for
a kickoff rally to launch
their fundraising efforts for
the year.
The rally will feature
speakers from the area. This
will also be the first op
portunity to register a team
or sign up as a corporate
sponsor for the overnight
event. Teams signing up
during kickoff will pay $35.
Daylight Savings Time begins
Daylight Savings Time 10. The Gazette-Times re- forw ard” and turn your
will begin Sunday, March minds everyone to “spring clocks forward one hour.
I
For teams that wait until the
Relay event, the sign-up fee
will be $150.
Morrow County Relay
For Life will take place June
The Heppner Beautification Committee will n meet
Thursday, March 14, at Heppner City Hall. A discussion
will be held about the proposed Heritage Park statue and
other options concerning the space. The meeting begins
at 8 a.m. and is open to the public.
MS awareness week
at 9 a.m. at the Morrow
County Fairgrounds, 74473
Heppner Mayor Joe Perry has issued a proclamation
designating the week of March 11 through 17. 2013, as
Highway 74, Heppner.
To join the local Relay Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week.
For Life, call Becky Sparks
This proclamation kicks off the annual WALK MS
541-626-1415 or Laurie fundraiser, which will be held in Heppner on April 20.
-See RELAY FOR LIFE/ For questions and additional information, contact Dana
PAGE SIX Voelker, 503-445-8538, or dana.voelker@nmss.org.
GRFFN FFFD & SFED IN IIFPPNFR:
ALL WINTER CLOTHING IN STOCK MUST GO
Insulated Coveralls • Coats • Pac Boots & M ore
nr\07
ff
Duraflame Quartz Heaters
¡0 Oil
plus all other electric heaters in
ir stock
Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed
242 W. Llndan Way, H appnar • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCOO main offica)
>