Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 2013)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, October 23,2013 - FIVE CREZ DISPERSES MONEY on to Asia. As part of that agreement Ambre would have paid the foundation 10 cents for every ton shipped. The money would then be disbursed to the schools through the foundation. The foundation members are Barb Huey of Irrigon, Sherri Smith of Heppner, Kathie Neal from Boardman, Ed Rollins o f lone and the en tire Port o f M orrow Board of Directors, which includes Don Russell of Boardman, Marv Padberg of lone, Larry Lindsay of Lexington, Joe Taylor of Boardman and Jerry Healy of Heppner. N eal said he had b een in c o n ta c t w ith Morrow County School S u p e r in te n d e n t D irk Dirksen, who said to let him know when the funds were available and that he would make a request to the foundation. The foundation is not limited to just the Morrow County School District, and also serves the lone School District. T he C R E Z b o a rd felt education was very important to be funded, but that housing also had an immediate need. “ Education is where we can make a difference. There are always current needs and I don’t want to punt it down the road,” Neil said in approving the educational funding now instead o f w aiting until N o v em b er 2014 w hen the CREZ is scheduled to receive the first of a yearly $950,000 paym ent from Con-Agra for current new construction going on at the Port. This money will be in Holiday Design Contest W inner addition to more VA Data Last Year: Trevor Doherty funds and smaller amounts o f loseph from o th e r b u sin e sse s such as $125,000 from Tillamook Cheese, which is also expanding at the Port. Tillamook and ConAgra payments might even be higher, depending on the O u r A n n u a l H o lid a y D esign C o n test Is O n! final cost o f the current c o n s tru c tio n p ro je c ts . Designs D ue A t Local Branches By 11/04/13. Payments to the Port are W inner Gets $125 dependent on the final costs Plus O ther Perks! o f constructing the new (ik llP C o m m u n ity Pick Up Entry Forms facilities. At Your Local Branch! N eal said he w ould Member FDIC www communitybanknet com like to see steady education funding over the years. “ I f y o u lo o k at education, 50 percent o f the money collected (from tax es) in the county is for education. 1 can see allocating every year 25 to 30 percent of our funds to education,” he proposed. Board members also discussed a concern that the State of Oregon may begin reducing state funds to schools that receive outside Attention Medicare Patients funding from sources such Open Enrollment is Now through as education foundations. “The state is requesting December 7, 2013 information from schools on how much money has I f you would like local service and want to see been d o n a te d ,” board the plans Murray ’.v participates in fo r 2014, member Leann Rea said. please stop by. “And that scares me.” You may also use the medicare.gov website. Some school districts in the Portland area have (Remember to enter 97836, our zip code, and ap p are n tly been using your medications to best see your plan options.) the foundation system to Or take advantage o f the Medicare Plan finder increase funding to their service offered by the Morrow County Health d is tric ts b ey o n d state funding, which has caught District, 541-676-9133. the eye of the state. Board It is AL WA YS a good idea to evaluate your Part m e m b ers a g re e d th a t D drug plan EVERY year. situation should be “kept an eye on.” Possible funding from CREZ to Blue Mountain 217 North Main St., Heppner • Phone 676-9158 • Floral 676-9426 Community College was Serving Morrow, Wheeler & Gilliam counties Since 1959 also discussed. Neal said if -Continuedfrom PAGE ONE to the M orrow County Education Foundation, and let the foundation decide what to the schools will spend the money on. “ We backed o ff o f this (requiring the schools buy Kindles) because the schools weren’t really set up to deal with it yet,” said board member Gary Neal. “ We don’t need to micro manage. I think we should let the schools go to the foundation and they can decide how money is going to be spent.” The Morrow County Education Foundation was set up last year to handle potential income from a deal that, if approved, would see Ambre Energy ship millions of tons of coal from Wyoming through the Port Attention Parents of K-4th Graders! BANK Lots of new Mustang gear! Headbands Beanies & more ^ Muiuuj'i D m . the BMCC’s current levy request passes, the board might see the community college coming to CREZ for possible help in operating its new training facility planned for construction in Boardman. If passed, BMCC plans to built a facility adjacent to the SAGE Center that offers two-year certificates in both food processing work and in server farm maintenance. Neal told the board not to be surprised if BMCC ask s fo r som e CREZ funding to pay for operation of the new facility. He added that M orrow C o u n ty ’s contribution now through taxes to BMCC is ’pretty su b stan tial.” To further make that point CREZ board member Don Russell said that “if you take the amount we (Morrow County) give to BMCC and divide that by the number of students that actually go to Blue Mountain we could send all those kids to Harvard.” Russell encouraged more training for local jobs, however. “ T h e re is a la c k o f em ployees that have production skill set,” he said of the food processing business. “If we can train local kids they are more likely to stay and work here,” he said in support of BMCC efforts to expand into Boardman. On the housing side the board discussed the need to immediately fund a proposed new program with $150,000. It was pointed out that with all the new workers being hired at the Port (ConAgra’s expansion alone is expected generate 100 new jobs) there is an opportunity to attract more people to live in Morrow County. Currently about 80 percent of the employees at Port-located businesses do not live in M orrow County, with many residing in Hermiston and the Tri- Cities. The CREZ is currently working on an as yet not completed housing program, which would award cash grants toward purchase of a home for anyone moving into Morrow County. The program would be two-part and based on a recently- adopted plan by the City of Boardman, and also one now in place at Tillamook Cheese. In an effort to encourage its workers to live in the county Tillamook offers employees a one-time grant of $7,500 toward purchase o f a hom e to m ove to Morrow County. Currently it has been reported that only about 12 out o f the 125 em p lo y ees at the cheese plant actually live in Morrow County. G ap fin a n c in g for developers building rental housing will also be part o f the housing package, which CREZ has asked the G reater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation fro m P e n d l e t o n to administer. “If we don’t get them now, if they (new workers) set up h o u s e h o ld s in Hermiston, we aren’t going to get them to move here,” Rea said. South Morrow County has ev en w ith o u t the housing program been working on reaching out to the new em ployees, with Willow Creek Valley Economic D evelopm ent Group (WCVEDG) director Sheryll Bates attending a recent job fair put on in Hermiston by ConAgra. Bates along with Boardman Executive Director Diane Wolfe handed out packets of information about their communities to potential employees. CREZ board member Lisa Mittelsdorf suggested that maybe a future job fair could be held at the Port of Morrow. In other business at the Monday meeting the board voted to enter into an agreement for any needed legal services with Hood River attorney Will Carey. AUTO SHOP OWNER RETIRES -Continuedfrom PAGE ONE that time building the old Heppner swimming pool and remodeling what is now Heppner City Hall for First National Bank. A fte r M cC o rm ack Construction, he went to work for Heppner Lumber Company, where he stayed for three years. He then w orked for P etty jo h n ’s Farm and Builders Supply in Heppner for eight years, m aking d eliv erie s and working in the hardware and small engines departments. From there, he went to Columbia Basin Electric Co-Op, where he was a material supervisor for the next five years, making sure there was enough material for all the upcoming jobs. He and several others lost their jobs during layoffs in 1983, he says, and Adlard went looking for another way to make a living. He started out leasing the building strip on May Street in Heppner, where he opened a repair center. “I was running up and down streets seeing what (else) 1 could put in here,” he says. A d lard b ought the building a year later. He put in a muffler shop in 1986, and then “put the auto parts store together” in 1988. The barber shop opened in 1990, though under different management. “I don’t cut hair. Sorry,” Adlard says. A ldard’s wife o f 19 years, Marda, also operates the comer laundromat. With all that going on, Adlard says retirement is going to be an adjustment. “It’s gonna be different not coming to work every day,” he says, “but I can’t keep it up anymore.” That certainly doesn’t mean he and Marda will be twiddling their thumbs during retirement; Adlard says they have plenty of plans for the free time. “ We want to travel. 1 do a lot o f woodwork. Go on fishing trips. Just do things,” says Adlard, adding that they’re looking forward to the freedom of retirement. “We’ve only had two real vacations in the last two years. She (Marda) has already got brochures and ideas. Got a camp trailer sitting at home and ain’t ever hardly broke in yet.” Adlard says he has been looking for someone to take over his enterprises but has had no luck so far. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. r y BIG WINTER You don't want to miss { these great j TIRE S A IE deals! \ ¡ Hurry! Sale ends October 31st 6 I --------------------------------------------------- I 124 N. MAIN STREET - HEPPNER OR 9783« 541-<76-9481 l iESSCHjNABll 4 * I »
