Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2013)
Bessie Wet/ell Newspaper l ibrary University of Oregon Eugene. OK 97403 5<K VOL. 132 NO. 15 8 Pages Wednesday. April 10, 2013 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Work began Monday on the Barrett Blvd project in Heppner. Here, workers are beginning the excavation necessary to put in a drain pipe. City to remove pedestals; shut down statue debate Council had enough o f hard feelings and division ' over Heritage Plaza statue plans By David Sykes Saying it has had enough of the hard feel ings and divisions caused in the community over what kind of statue to put in Heritage Plaza in Heppner. the city council Monday voted unanimously to “ta ble indefinitely discussion and remove the concrete pedestals” (on which any statue would have been placed) concerning any park statues. “There have been hard feelings and people are not cooperating,” Mayor Joe Perry told the council. “We should table it indefinitely. It has caused very strong feelings,” council mem Heppner city council voted Monday to remove these ber Skip Matthews added two cement pedestals at Heritage Plaza, and end in proposing the motion the debate over w hat kind of statue might be placed there. that would shut down the months-long debate, which has caused heated discus sion, letters to the editor and numerous meetings and proposals. The controversy origi nally start in July 2012 when then city manager Dave DeMayo told the city council he had contacted the Umatilla Tribes about placing an Indian themed statue in Heritage Plaza, a park in Heppner with some farm equipment already on display there. The statue idea generated some discussion at the time as to whether it should be In dian themed, or more Irish themed, matching the city’s Irish background, but at that time neither idea gained much traction. However, in Febru ary of 2013 DeMayo, who had since retired as city manager, resurrected the idea and went so far as to pledge $5,000 of his own money to pay for a statue, which under one proposal would have been a “digger” silhouette of Indians. The plan immediately drew fire and praise from both critics and proponents and caused strong emotional letters to the editor, and division and discussion within the com munity. Heppner resident Tom Wolff wrote a letter to the city council urging that an Irish themed statue would better suite llepp- ner’s Irish background and heritage. DeMayo coun tered that the display would not compete with Hep- pner’s Irish background, and would instead inform visitors of the diversity of the area. At a March 14 Parks committee meeting a long discussion was held about a display, and according to minutes of the meeting several different proposals were advanced, but consen sus was not reached. This lack of a consensus and no evident path to resolu tion, prompted the council Monday to put an end to the controversy. “Maybe a year or two from now, but not in the near future,” said Mayor -CONTINUED ON PAGE SIX Big changes on School board approves pre-Labor day, the horizon for but not extremely early school start area post offices By Patty Nance Big changes are com ing to the Heppner and lone Post Offices - well, maybe. At issue is the change in the time of day that mail is picked up from the local post offices or, in postal speak, “dispatched”. Lo cal postmasters are certain of one thing - it will be a lot earlier than it is now. According to Heppner Postmaster Dennis Lien, the changes are a result the shutdown of the Pend leton Processing facility. When that happens, he explained, all mail will be processed through Port land. “We don’t know all of the particulars yet,” he said. Lien has been Hepp ner postmaster since 2005 and has been an employee at the post office for the past 19 years. The lone post office is in the same boat, accord ing to Stephanie Hudson, spokesperson for the lone Post Office. “We have not been officially informed about any of it,” she said. Lien explained that starting sometime be tween May 1 and 5 an earlier dispatch time will be determined. There are currently fliers in the post office telling patrons that the dispatch times for mail are being changed from 5 p.m. daily to 1 p.m. “I am afraid it could be earlier when everything is said and done,” Lien said. Hudson said they are cur rently estimating an 11:30 a.m. dispatch time. “But that’s not set in stone,” she said. Jeremy Stewart, man ager of Hatt's Fuel Stop and assistant postmaster at Lexington, said the dispatch times are set to change from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The change could af fect rural route customers whose mail arrives back at the post office after the new deadline. “That mail would go out the next day,” Lien said. Hudson said with the changes, which will take place in early May, will mean that mail sent from lone to Heppner will take an additional 2-4 days to deliver. The change does not affect postmarks. Lien said. For instance, all mail -CONTINUED ON PAGE SIX By April Sykes The Morrow County School Board approved a pre-Labor Day school start date, but did not select the early start date recom mended by administration. MCSD Superintendent Dirk Dirksen and the board reported that after receiving input from staff and parents, the early start date was not recommended, largely be cause staff and families ad vised that many had already made vacation plans for this coming August and they be lieved it was too soon, right on the heels of the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo. Administrators recom mended the early start date. Option A, and, according to a poll, staff preferred it by only one vote, 65-64. Op tion A called for teachers to begin August 12 and stu dents to begin August 19, immediately after the fair, so that students would have more instructional time prior to the state OAKS (Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) tests in May and also so that the first semester would end prior to the two-week Christmas break. The last opportunity for schools to conduct the OAKS tests is May 22; however district schools generally have the tests completed by May I 16, according to Dirksen. 9; spring break from March Dirksen said that it has 24-28; students ending June been determined that it 4; teachers ending June 6. is too late to plan for an Option A called for early start this fall, for the teachers to begin August 12, 2013- 14 school year, but a week earlier than Option B suggested that the district and two weeks earlier than start early to make plans Option C; students to begin for next year. He told the August 19. the end of the board that changes could first semester December 19; include an earlier start for Christmas break the same 2014- 15, but could perhaps for all options, December also include school be 20-January 5; spring break ing held on some Fridays. from March 24-28, stu Morrow County Schools dents ending May 29 and have not had regular school teachers ending June 3. days on Fridays for about O ption C, which 20 years, initially because called for a post-Labor of budget constraints. Day start, received only Option B, which was 31 votes among staff and approved by the board, and was taken off the table received 64 votes among for further consideration. staff, calls for a pre-Labor In other business the Day start, with teachers be- board: ginningAugust 19; students -Approved a resolution beginning August 26; two to accept $5,000 in unan weeks’ vacation at Christ ticipated revenue from the mas, December 20-January Good Shepherd Commu 5; school starting back up nity Health Foundation for on January 6; the end of playground equipment for the first semester January Irrigon Elementary School. -Granted a request from Heppner and Irrigon FFA members to attend the na tional convention, w ith fund raisers planned to aid with student costs for the trip. -Approved the first reading of a policy laying out the qualifications and duties of the superintendent. -Approved the first reading of a policy called “Mother Friendly Work place", which deals with providing breast feeding mothers employed by the district a place to express milk, but eliminates word ing in the previous policy which allowed for breast feeding on site and which previously allowed a child to be brought to the site. Policy now states: “A rea sonable effort will be made to provide a flexible work schedule in consideration the requirements of the staff -CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO mm GREEN FEED & SEED IN HEPPNER: TIM E TO G A R D E N WEEKS Trees • Shrubs • Becking • Fertilizer^*. ON Soil Amendments • Plants • P o t t in g ^ o ils M j^ rOFF IN S T O C K Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way, Happnar • 676-9422 • 989-6221 (MCGG main ofTIca) 4
