Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 22, 2013)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 22,2013 - FIVE E N TER PR ISE ZO NE -Continuedfrom PAGE ONE contribution recipients. The board stipulated that the list can include most non profits recognized by the IRS, but will not include those involved in politi cal activities. Anyone who like their organization in cluded on the list is urged to contact CREZ manager Carla McLane at cmclane@ co.morrow.or.us, or by call ing 541-922-4624. Marsha Richmond, ex ecutive director of the Or egon Trail Library District, who was in attendance at the board meeting, asked the board to look at her tax ing district as educational, and possibly receive fund ing under the charitable contribution “buy back” clause. In one already negoti ated agreement the Morrow County Education Founda tion received $ 15,000 from Rack Space; the money will be used for education in the Morrow County School District. Richmond said the Library District also has ed ucational aspects that need funding, and pointed out that libraries had changed over the years. “ They are not ju s t shelves o f dusty books anymore,” she said. In o th e r b u s in e s s , board member Gary Neal responded to a recent Op/ Ed article in the Heppner Gazette from soon retiring Irrigon City Manager Jerry Breazeale. Breazeale took issue with the CREZ’s re cently adopted Intergovern mental Agreement (IGA) because adjacent taxing districts were not included in formulating the IGA. Breazeale also said he felt the money lost from tax collection by the CREZ agreement was too high a price to pay for the number of jobs created. A s an e x a m p le , B reazeale used the re cently-announced Lamb Weston potato processing expansion, where he said the number of jobs created would be 35 and the amount of tax revenue “lost” under the CREZ agreement with Lamb Weston would be $1,164,000 per year, or $33,257 per job. Under the fees in lieu of taxes agreement negotiated with CREZ, Lamb Weston will pay $950,000 per year in fees in lieu of taxes each year; however, if the com pany did not have the CREZ agreement, and still built its $211 million expansion at the Port, the company would have had to pay ap proxim ately $2,114,000 per year in county property taxes. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available and that help Is FREE of charge. If Y O U h a v e a fa m ily m e m b e r w h o su ffers fro m g a m b lin g ad d ic tio n , Y O U ca n als o re c e iv e F R E E tre a t m e n t e v e n if th e g a m b le r is not re c e iv in g tre a tm e n t. If y o u a re a re s id e n t o f M o rro w C o u n ty a n d you w ish to ta k e a d v a n ta g e o f th e s e rv ic e s a b o v e o r d e s ire m o re in fo rm atio n , P le a s e call a n y o f th e follo w in g n u m b e rs to s e t up a L O C A L a p p o in tm e n t or ju s t to talk: B o b b y H a rris @ 5 4 1 - 6 7 6 - 9 9 2 5 o r 5 4 1 - 2 5 6 - 0 1 7 5 Community Counseling Solutions (C C S ) @ 541-676-9161 O R 1 - 8 7 7 - 6 9 5 - 4 6 4 8 ( 1 - 8 8 8 -M Y L IM IT ) Port of Morrow General Manager and CREZ board member Gary Neal not only disputed Breazeale’s jobs figures, but also pointed out that the Lamb Weston ex pansion was not even guar anteed to be built at the Port of Morrow, and could have ended up somewhere else, without Morrow County getting anything. “That letter to the edi tor was not as accurate as it could have been,” Neal told the board. He said the number of jobs created un der the expansion will be between 115 and 120, and that does not even count the jobs added in connec tion with the 9,000 acres of new potato fields that will be harvested to supply the expansion. He also pointed out the new jobs would pay 150 percent of average wages. “ Lam b W eston had many locations (to choose from) and could have gone som ew here e lse ,” Neal said. He said there are cur rently 63 enterprise zones in Oregon, and when negotiat ing with companies “if you don’t have an enterprise zone you don’t talk. This committee (CREZ) does the best they can to make opportunity,” he added. Neal said Morrow County now ranks “fifth or sixth” in the state for average county wages. He said the goal now is to get more people that are working in Morrow County to start living here. Other board members pointed out the benefits of new business locating in the zone, including increased economic activity with lo cal businesses, more fees paid to county agencies like the planning department, and increased ancillary activity the new businesses will create in the county. In response to adjacent taxing districts representa tion in the CREZ policy making, board members pointed out that various members also sit on the boards o f other taxing districts, such as Leann Rea, who is a member of the CREZ board and also sits on the medical district board of directors. A letter was also dis tributed from the Morrow County Court, a partici pating entity in the CREZ IGA, in answer to concerns voiced earlier by Cyde Es tes, chairman of the Morrow County Unified Recreation District. Estes had voiced concerns over the lack of input from overlapping and adjacent tax districts such as hers, into formulating the IGA. The court said the IGA has already been signed by all three sponsor entities (the Port of Morrow, City of Boardman and Morrow County) and is now in ef fect. “The meetings of the Columbia River Enterprise Zone 11 Board of Directors are public meetings and we would encourage you or other Unified Recreation District members to at tend,” the county said in reply to Estes. W hen c o n s id e rin g which taxing districts will be considered in the future for funding, money for which will not start coming in until 2014, most board members agreed that fire and police services are the most obvious, with one board member saying they did not see, for instance, how 100 jobs in Boardman would affect, for instance, the library district. One reason is that not all 100 employees would live in Morrow County. In the recent Tillamook Cheese expansion project at the Port, out o f 129 jobs cre ated, despite economic in centives to do so, only 12 to 15 employees actually ended up living in Morrow County. The board agreed that it would, in the future, ask businesses looking to locate here what services they felt would be impacted the most. In other business, the board sharpened some of its guidelines, such as time lines and application fees, when considering CREZ applications and negotiat ing with companies over agreements. Wildhorse Foundation names grant recipients Pendleton, OR—Two Morrow County organi zations were among the recipients of the more than $200,000 in grant money given out by The Wildhorse Foundation in the first quar ter of 2013. Morrow County Public Works received $10,000 toward the rehabilitation of the Morrow County Court house clock tower. Irrigon Elementary School received $5,000 toward playground equipment and improve ments for the school. The Wildhorse Foun dation is a community ben efit fund established by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reserva tion (CTUIR) as a result of its gaming operation. More than 150 grant recipients from 2012 en joyed a specially prepared lunch at Wildhorse Resort & Casino earlier this month as Wildhorse Foundation V ice-C hairm an P hillip Houk presented details on funding for the last year. The Wildhorse Foundation aw ards grants to ap p li cants that cover the areas of public health and safety, education, the arts, historic preservation, gambling ad diction services, salmon restoration, environmental protection, and cultural activities. Following the lunch, the Foundation Board con sisting of Vice-Chairman Houk, Secretary/Treasure Kathleen Peterson, Patty Hall, Rosenda Shippentow- er and Bill Hansell, met to discuss the 2013 First Quar ter Grant Applicants. A total of $208,458 was awarded to 42 organizations, bringing the total since the Founda tion began in 2001 to over $6.9 million. The quarterly deadlines for requests are January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. For more information on Wildhorse Foundation guidelines or to receive an application, visit www. wildhorseresort.com or call Foundation Administrator Tiah DeGrofft at 541-966- 1628. GOOD LUCK MUSTANGS May 22, 2013 at 4:00 pm at the Heppner Softball Field If they advance to the quarterfinals, they will play again Friday, May 24th time & place TBA Heppner High School 2013 Softball team: Back row, (left to right): Jordan Jones, Rylee Kollman, Alyssa Wizner, Jessica Kempken, Baily Bennett, Lizzy Rill, Cidney Coster, Maggie Collins, Tessa Gould, Nicole Kempken; Front row (left to right): Rylee Wagner, Larissa Gray, Hanna Lovgren, Joslynn Troxell. Sydney Maben, Kenzie Correa, Caitlynn Bailey, Micha Hintz, Samm Lemmon. JOIN THESE BUSINESSES AND INDIVIDUALS AS THEY CHEER ON THE MUSTANGS AND WISH THEM GOOD LUCK AT STATE A & M's Kitchen Jeff & Chris Bailey Family Bank of Eastern Oregon, Member FDIC Mike & Misty Bennett Family Tim & Jeannie Collins Family Columbia Basin Electric Co-op Community Bank The Correa Family David Sykes Real Estate Sandi Day, Cody Ford, Zane, Whitney & Lucchese Ford, Chance Day, Cam Day & Cassi Day Devin Oil, Devin Mobile Jimmy Fichter The Futter Family Melanie Gates, Tarin and Kenneth Troxell Eddie Gunderson Travis & Kirsten Harrison Heppner Gazette-Times Heppner Family Foods John, Ashli, Tayllor, Tessa, Thomas and Timothy Gould Howe's About Pizza Les Schwab Tire Center Markel Manufacturing, Inc Skip and Sandy Mathews Miller and Sons Excavating and Disposal Service Morrow County Grain Growers Morrow County Public Works Murray’s Drug, Inc. John, Alita, Tim and Kellie Nelson Peterson's Jewelers Pettyjohn's Farm and Builders Supply Rapid Print, Chris Sykes & Andrew Sykes Greg & Sherri Smith & Family Store-4-U Sweeney Mortuary Sykes Real Estate Wheatland Insurance Center, Heppner & lone Rod, Janet, Terra, Kassey & Alana Wilson 1
