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
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N eal said he w ould
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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
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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.
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