Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2013)
Money accumulates for Enterprise Zone Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Li bran. Univ ersity of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 132 NO, 19 6 Pages Wednesday, May 8, 2013 Long term income topping $21 million By David Sykes Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Safe Heppner senior Tessa Gould slides into third base during a double-header with Irrigon. Heppner won the first game and Irrigon won the second. Photo by Sandy Matthews Ballots arrive later due to postal changes Election ballots were mailed from the county clerk’s May 3 have begun to in mailboxes throughout Morrow County. Because of the change in the postal system, and how it affects delivery, it is taking longer for ballots to arrive in some areas. According to the Mor row County Clerk’s office, voters need to be aware that it also takes longer for the ballots to get back to the courthouse by May 21. Drop boxes are available in several areas of the county including: Boardman: 101 NW Boardman Ave. at the morrow County Health Dept. lone: Spring St., by community paper boxes. Ir rigon: 205 NE 3ed St. at the Irrigon Annex. Lexington: 365 West Hwy. 74, Morrow County Public Works park ing lot. Heppner: Morrow County Courthouse park ing lot and in the county clerk’s office. This election includes board and district elec tions. 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 trict, three directors with 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 of Morrow, positions 1, 2 and 3 with four year terms; Heppner Cemetery Main 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 year terms; Irrigon Com munity Park & Recreation District, positions 1, 5, 3 and 4 with four year terms; Boardman Park & Recre ation District, two direc tors at large with four year terms; lone School District, positions 3, 4 and 5 with four year terms; Morrow County School District, positions 2, 6 and 7 with four year terms; Morrow County Health D istrict, positions 1, 2 and 3 with four year terms; Heppner Water Control District, two directors at large with four year terms. Terms o f Office start on June 30 and run for four years. If there’s been a vacan cy in the district, the term would be the remainder of the unexpired term, making it a two-year term. I The newly reorganized Columbia River Enterprise Zone in North Morrow County is turning into a major recipient o f funds in lieu of taxes, from busi ness locating at the Port of Morrow in North Morrow County. So far the zone has long-term funding coming in over the next 15 years in excess of $21,807,000, and board members say with more business looking to locate there, this money could be just the tip of the iceberg. So far the contributors are Rackspace, ConAgra Columbia River Technolo gies, Columbia Plywood and ZeaChem. The busi nesses are negotiating deals with the Enterprise Zone to pay “fees” instead of county taxes on new manufactur ing and service facilities. These fees are based on the amount of development the company does within the Enterprise Zone, a 12- square-mile area encom passing mainly the Port of Morrow Industrial park near Boardman. The companies locate in the zone to avoid pay ing higher property taxes directly to the county, thus giving the zone an eco nomic advantage in attract ing businesses to the area. The money, however will not go through the county to be divided up among county taxing districts as with “normally” collected property taxes. In fact the Enterprise Zone Board o f Directors has been meeting the past several months crafting an IGA, or intergovernmental agreement, governing how the funds will be spent. A draft IGA was passed by the board at its last meeting Monday in Boardman, and sent to the three member entities o f the Enterprise Zone, M orrow C ounty Court, City o f Boardman City Council, and Port of Morrow Board of Directors for their approval. The Enterprise Board is made up of two members from each entity, and they will be deciding, within Oregon State law, how to spend the collected mon ey. Concern was voiced at one meeting that two of entities might dominate the other entity when decid ing which special districts receive funding. O f the six members of the board, a simple majority of four is required to approve dis bursing money, however further negotiations among board members inserted a requirement into the IGA that one member of each entity must vote in favor of a requested project for its approval. At Monday’s meeting, the board received a letter from Cyde Estes chairman of the Morrow County Uni fied Recreation District, asking the Enterprise Board to “invite all taxing districts in the Columbia Enterprise Zone II boundary to an in formational meeting prior to ratification of the IGA”. The recreation district, as with several other districts such as the medical district and the school district, over lap the Enterprise Zone. Estes emphasized that the recreation district is not opposed to enterprise agreements with business es, but said “one o f our primary concerns is that the agreement does not appear to ensure representation for us and other districts within the zone. As elected officials we would like you to address our questions regarding budget, financial process and audit proce dures for those who will be managing the potentially m illions o f dollars that will come to the Board of Directors (Enterprise Zone board) each year. The draft agreem ent seem s to be silent on these issues and silent on a process of ac countability to the taxing districts and to the public,” her letter said. “It is our sin- cerest hope that you will al low us an opportunity to be heard, to contribute to the process and to understand your vision for this inter governmental agreement,” she concluded. The IGA agreement, as approved by the Enterprise Board, Monday does not spell out exactly which districts will be eligible to receive funding, but does say that “recommendations and requests from affected Special Districts of poten tial impacts involving the service provided by said Districts, including but not limited to fire protection and public safety, may be considered.” During discus sion some board members said funds would probably go only to taxing districts that are geographically ad jacent to the Enterprise Zone. This would exclude such taxing districts as the cities of Irrigon, Heppner, Lexington and lone from applying for projects and funding from the Enterprise Zone. The IGA agreement in fact does not spell out the process districts will use to apply for funds. The Enter prise Zone board is appar ently going to work later on policies that will flesh out the eight-page agreement passed Monday. The six board members are appointed by their re spective entities. Currently they are: Morrow County-Leann Rea, commissioner, Greg Sweek, assessor; City o f Boardm an-Sandy Toms, mayor, Karen Pettigrew, manager; Port of Morrow- Don R u ssell, co m m is sioner, Gary Neal, general manager. The following section was approved by the board governing the distribution of money: “Company paid fees will be distributed by the Board with the following considerations: • Distribution will be consistent with company agreem ents when appli cable. • Distribution will be done at least semi-annu ally. • Distribution in future years does not have to re flect distribution patterns set in previous years. • Distribution will be carried out by the fiscal agent based on Order(s) passed and approved. Distribution of funds is only done during a meet ing that the full board is represented. In addition to the above requirement, at least one affirmative vote from each entity shall be required to pass a motion regarding distribution of funds. If at least one affir mative vote is not cast from each entity and the motion CONTINUED Page 2 Precipitation now almost four inches below normal for year According to preliminary data received by N a tio n a l O c e a n ic and At mo s p h e r i c Adm inistration (NOAA) National Weather Service in Pendleton, temperatures at Heppner averaged near normal during the month of April. The average te m p e ra tu re w as 49.0 degrees w hich was 0.0 degrees below normal. High T em peratures averaged 61.4 degrees, which was 0.5 degrees above normal. The highest was 79 degrees on April 27. Low temperatures averaged 36.7 degrees, w hich was 0.5 degrees below normal. The lowest The highest wind gust was 43 mph which occurred on April 7. The outlook for May from NOAA’s C lim ate Prediction Center calls for above normal temperatures and be l ow n o r ma l p re c ip ita tio n . N orm al highs for Heppner rise from 64.0 degrees at the start of May to 73.0 degrees at the end of May. Normal lows rise from 40.0 degrees to 47.0 degrees. The 30 year normal precipitation is 1.66 inches. The National W eather S ervice is an o ffice o f the N ational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. was 23 degrees, on April 17. There were 9 days with the low temperature below 32 degrees. Precipitation totaled 0.75 inches during April, w hich was 0.76 inches below normal. Measurable precipitation, at least .01 inch, was received on 9 days w ith the heaviest, 0.28 inches reported on April 19. Precipitation this year has reached 1.68 inches, which is 3.94 inches below normal. Since October, the water y ear precipitation at Heppner has been 5.75 inches, which is 3.93 inches below normal. H anging B askets I n s t o c k NOW FOB olor B owls M o t h e q ' s P lanters D ay M O N T A N A SILVER. 20% OFF Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed A Seed 242 W. Linden Way, Happnar • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (INCOG main office) )
