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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 27, 2013)
I FOUR - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, November 27,2013 CREZ TALKS HOUSING -Continuedfrom PACE ONE program to aid developers building rental units, when a similar plan already in place by the city of Boardman has yet to have any takers. “No one has used it. It has been sitting there for one year,” said Nelson. She suggested there be a forum so developers’ lenders and others involve in housing could sit down and come up with ideas to alleviate the crunch. Nelson also asked CREZ what the goal of the housing program will be. “Eighty percent of the w orkers (at the Port o f Morrow) live somewhere else, mostly in Umatilla County and Washington. We want people who work here to live here,” said CREZ board chairman Don Russell. CREZ board member and Port of Morrow Manger Gary Neal said CREZ was founded on the theory that the loss o f taxes (from new businesses) would be mitigated by taxes on new housing, “But so far we are not getting the mitigating offset here in M orrow County,” he said. The CREZ was created to offer property tax breaks to new businesses moving into the enterprise zone, a 12-square-mile area around the Port of Morrow, as a way to entice industry and jobs to Morrow County. The Enterprise Zone collects fees in lieu of taxes from these businesses and then distributes this money in the county. So far the CREZ has been very su c c e ssfu l, having secured funding c o m m itm e n ts o f $22 million through the year 2030. The money so far is coming mainly from a large Con-Agra food processing expansion, construction of new data farms by VA Data, a division of Amazon, com, and expansion of the Tillamook Cheese facility at the Port. All of the new ex p an sio n is cre a tin g upwards o f 200 or more jobs, most of them paying above-average wages. “ W h en y o u a re creating jobs they need a place to live,” said Neal in discussing the need for more rentals instead of new housing. “They (workers) end up where the housing is and then they become part o f that community. They don’t always know if the job is going to work out and they aren’t always qualified for loans when they are new to a job.” he pointed out. T here seem s to be always government funds a r o u n d fo r “ in c o m e restricted” or low-income housing, “ but we need market rental housing,” he stressed. He said once people are established in rental housing then they will later move up and purchase a home. Also part of a proposed, but as yet not adopted, h o u sin g p la n , p eo p le moving into Morrow County would receive either a grant or forgivable loan, thus attracting people to move here. Tillamook Cheese currently has a program w h e re any e m p lo y e e moving to Morrow County and buying a home qualifies for a $7,500 grant toward its purchase. The company o f f e r s th e in c e n tiv e because only 10 percent of Tillamook’s employees who work in Boardman actually live there. B o a rd m e m b e rs also realized that each community in the county has different housing issues. “South county is never going to have significant issues (with employment like Boardman),” CREZ board member Greg Sweek said. H ow ever, he did acknowledge that Heppner and south county have a shortage of rentals. “People live in south county and commute to their jobs, but many of them lived there previously,” he pointed out. P h il N a c h b a r o f GEODC was also at the m eeting and suggested that Boardman work on increasing the amenities to entice people to live there. “ P e o p le lo o k a t quality of life, shopping, c o m m u n ity , n o t ju s t commuting distance, when they choose where to live,” he told the board, and suggested effort be put into other aspects o f the community and then “the people would choose to live in the community and not have to have financial incentives.” Representatives of the Heppner and Boardman cham bers o f com m erce have recently attended a job fair sponsored by Con-Agra and held in Herm iston, handing out materials to prospective hires touting the benefits o f living in Morrow County. “The Port will continue to create the new jobs,” said Neal. “And we have a better chance of capturing people who are new workers. We want people to eventually own their own homes,” he added. “Is there something we can do now to capture some o f these new employees coming in?” Sweek asked. “We don’t have four to five months to decide this.” N eal estim ated that there would be 150 to 200 w orkers com ing in the next year, including some longer-term construction workers at the new PGE gas-fired plant. Neil also said that many of the new jo b s are h ig h er-w ag e, management type, which will support purchase of new homes. “ Each of our communities are different and we are w orking to address the differences in each of those communities,” Neal told the CAPECO officials about Morrow County; CAPECO agreed to study the issue further and help CREZ formulate a housing plan. In other business the board heard from their fiscal agent Thomas Kligel, who passed out spreads sheets detailing the CREZ’s finances. The board chose Kligel, who is also the city o f Boardman financial officer, to handle its finances. Morrow County 4-H holds Achievement Night Local FFA members awarded national FFA Degrees H ep p n er g rad u ates Devin Byron R o b i n s o n and Z e c h a r i a h D. H in tz, m em bers o f th e H ep p n er FFA c h a p t e r , were awarded the A m e r i c a n FFA Degree at the 2013 N a t i o n a l FFA Convention & Expo, Oct. 30-Nov. 2 in Louisville, KY. Each year, the National FFA Organization honors FFA members who show the utmost dedication to the organization through their desire to develop their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The A m erican FFA D egree is bestow ed up m e m b e r s mu s t h a v e on a select group earned and productively o f s t u d e n t s in invested $7,500 through recognition of their a supervised agricultural rears o f academic experience program in and p rofessional which they start, own or excellence. hold a professional position S p o n s o r e d in an existing agriculture by A D M enterprise. C rop Risk Recipients must Services, also com plete 50 Case 1H, DuPont hours community P ioneer, E lanco, service and Farm C redit and demonstrate S y r g e n t a as a outstanding Zechariah special project of Hintz l e ader s hi p the National FFA abilities and civic F oundation, the aw ard involvement. recognizes demonstrated Each o f the 3,573 ability and outstanding recipients of the American achievements in agricultural FFA Degree received a gold b u s in e s s , p ro d u c tio n , American FFA Degree key p ro c e s s in g or se rv ic e and a certificate after being programs. recognized on stage at that To be eligible, FFA national convention. Boardman adopts ordinance for west urban renewal agency At its last meeting, the Boardman City Council ad o p ted an or di nanc e f or mi ng a new ur ban renewal area in Boardman. The West Boardman Urban Renewal Area boundary encompasses approximately 170 acres in the area to the south of Interstate 84 to Wilson Lane and to the west of the Columbia Terrace Subdivision. Urban renewal allows for the use of tax increment financing paying for urban ren ew al p ro je c ts . Tax increment revenues, the amount of property taxes generated by the increase in total assessed values in the urban renewal area from the time it is first established, are used to fund investm ents in the urban renewal area. Urban renewal investments can include construction or improvement o f streets, utilities, parks and other public facilities. The main objective of the West Boardman Urban Renewal Area will be to p ro v id e in fra s tru c tu re improvements to facilitate development in the area. This new urban renewal area is the second urban renew al area formed in Boardman. Cub Scouts take field trip to newspaper office The Bears Cub Scout Troop visited the Heppner Gazette-Times on Thursday, Nov. 21. Scouts on the field trip were Felix Matthew, Roen Waite and Seth Grigg, all nine years old. Leaders are Andrea Grigg and Taomi Matthew. The Scouts learned about writing news stories for the Gazette, how people submi t sto rie s for the newspaper and how the newspaper is put together on the computer. They also got to see the big paper cutter in the back room. They told the Gazette staff that they had learned about the first newspaper writer in Oregon, who was Ashael Bush. The Bears Cub Scout Troop recently visited the Gazette-Times. Pictured are (L-R) in front, Cub Scouts Seth Grigg, Felix Matthew and Roen Waite, with leaders Taomi Matthew and Andrea Grigg. -Photo by April Sykes The boys all attend Elementary School and are s c h o o l at H e p p n e r in the fourth grade. Sheriff’s Report Award recipients from the 2013 4-H Achievement Night event. -Contributedphoto Morrow County 4-H celebrated the past year at their annual Achievement Night awards celebration on Sunday, Nov. 17, at Riverside High School in Irrigon. 4-H ers from across th e c o u n ty r e c e iv e d re c o g n itio n fo r th e ir outstanding achievements in their project areas, many p e rfe c t reco rd b o o k s, accomplishments from the centennial Morrow County Fair and for other special county awards. 4 -H le a d e r s a n d outstanding clubs were also recognized for all of their hard work to make the 4-H program possible. M o rro w C o u n ty 4-H Am bassadors Kane Sw eeney, Tim G o u ld , M organ O rem , E m ily Taylor, Miranda Taylor, Sydney Qualls and Macy Gibbs worked weeks in advance to practice and polish the event, and they reportedly did a “fantastic” job at announcing and operating the entire event. The B o a rd m a n Community Club assisted with the facilities, set up and clean up. A ch iev em en t night begins with a family potluck for all those in attendance, followed by the awards cerem ony. Each year a committee o f volunteers is formed who commits its time to purchase all of the fair awards. 4-H is a year-round program , w hich begins Oct. 1 o f each year and concludes on September 3 0 . A s lid e s h o w o f highlights from the past year is available on our website, http://extension. oregonstate.edu/morrow/. For more information on the 4-H program or how to sign up, call the OSU Extension Service, Morrow County office at 541-676- 9642, check out the website or follow them on Facebook under “Morrow County 4-H Oregon.” C o m p le te a w a rd s from achievem ent night are as follows; results not p ublished here w ill be published in future editions of the Gazette: Gracey DeLoach Will Keefer Jaiden Mahoney Kylee McClure Matt Orem Ashley Price Olivia Schmidt Intermediates: Kolby Currin Rileigh McClure Morgan Orem Riley Gorham Skylar Wightman Seniors Lilly Sandford Paige Bither Tyanna Billings Junior Leaders: Brittany Lesperance, Lilly Sandford, Sydney Qualls, Taylor Hamby, Tyanna Billings. 2013 Camp Counselors: Tom Gould, Tim Gould, Brittany Lesperance, Morgan H a s e lb u s c h , M adisen Haselbusch, Alaxandria Dunn, Bryan Fowler, Amanda Rea. Sydney Qualls, Lexi Bray, Macy Gibbs and Ian Meakins. County Medals: Junior Division: Achievement: Serenity Rodriguez Beef: Jacee Currin Cavy: Emma Hermanns Clothing & Textiles: Gracey Outstanding Record Book DeLoach Community Service: Hayden Awards: Qualls Juniors: Cooking: Jaiden Mahoney O c to b e r 2 (c o n t.): -MCSO, Boardman Ambulance received report o f a 54 -y ear-old m ale subject in a semi with a bulk trailer being dizzy with his neck stiff and his arms going numb on 1-84 Boardman. -MCSO received report from an Irrigon woman that she found a bike in her mom’s storage shed that was left there by a previous tenant and the previous tenant’s son had been caught stealing. -MCSO received report from a subject in Irrigon that she thinks another female stole her driver’s license. -MCSO received report from a man who lives on Kunze Lane that vehicles drive by his residence at a high rate of speed. He requested extra patrol. -MCSO received report from a woman in Heppner that she found a brownish/ tan purse by the Cornerstone Gallery. MCSO returned the purse to its owner. -MCSO received report of a female who had become unconscious in a vehicle on 1-84 Boardman. The caller advised that she had a root beer float right before and then when she woke up she was clutching her abdominal area. Caller said that she had not had any intoxicants. They requested that dispatch call to the ER and advise they would be arriving. -MCSO received report of several tractors in the road, completely blocking one side of Bombing Range and a pickup in the ditch with a tractor hooked up to it. A deputy responded, but the vehicles were no longer there. -MCSO received re p o rt th a t H erm iston Police Department arrested Rebecca Ann Mayes, 21, on a Morrow County warrant for P a ro le Vi ol a t i on/ Unauthorized Use of Motor Vehicle, Failure to Appear, Eluding and Unauthorized Use o f a Motor Vehicle. She was lodged at Umatilla County Jail with no bail. O c to b e r 3: Irrigon Ambulance, Irrigon Fire D epartm ent received a request for an ambulance for a 53-year-old male in a wheel chair who had fallen off the ramp and received an injury to his hand. -Morrow County Sheriff’s Office reported a s s is tin g a n o t h e r law enforcement agency with suspicious circumstances. -MCSO reported transporting a prisoner, J a v i e r R o q u e z , Jr . , from E a s te rn O reg o n Correctional Institution to Umatilla County Jail. -MCSO received report of a black SUV abandoned in the parking lot on Main in Irrigon. -MCSO received report of a horse running at large that had been cornered on Second and Wyoming streets in Irrigon. -MCSO received request for a welfare check on a little girl who was playing at a park in Irrigon. The caller said the little g ir l’s g ran d fath er was traveling in a large newer RV and he had walked away and left the girl. The caller said his attitude seemed suspicious. -MCSO received report of a small red Toyota pickup all over the road last seen headed up to Blake Ranch. The owner was identified and MCSO responded, but he was unable to locate the pickup. -MCSO received report from an Irrigon subject who said that her brother had hit his girlfriend and kicked her in the face. The caller requested deputy contact. -MCSO received report from an Irrigon male that his girlfriend said she was going to watch a football game in Pilot Rock at 10 a.m. and he had not heard from her. It was 11:18 p.m. I
