Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2014)
B « sle W e tre ll N ew spa per L ib ra ry U niversity o f O regon Eugene, O R 97403 50 HEPPNEFS Prediction o f warm Nov. didn’t come to pass ^ pzette imes VOL. 133 NO 42 8 Pages Wednesday. December 3, 2014 NWS predicts ‘normal 'temps during December Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon National Weather Ser vice predictions of a warm- er-than-usual November in Heppner were only partly true, as temperatures plum meted partway through the month, resulting in cold- er-than-norm al average weather for the month, ac cording to the NWS office in Pendleton. The average temper ature was 39.2 degrees, which was 2.1 degrees be low normal. High tem- p e ra tu re s a v e r a g e d 4 8 .3 degrees, which was 2.5 degrees below normal. The highest was 73 degrees on the Nov. 7. Low tempera tures averaged 30 degrees, which was 1.7 degrees be low normal. Die lowest was six degrees, on the 16,h There were 13 days with the low temperature below 32 degrees. There were eight days when the high temperature stayed below 32 degrees. Precipitation totaled 1.16 inches during Novem ber, which was 0.44 inches below normal. Measurable precipitation of at least .01 inch was received on nine days with the heaviest, 0.39 inches, reported on the 22nd. Precipitation this year has reached 10.53 inches, which is 2.15 inches below normal. Since October, the water-year precipitation at Heppner has been 1.92 inches, which is 0.82 inches below normal. Snowfall totaled six inches with at least one inch o f snow reported on two days. The heaviest snowfall in Heppner was five inches, reported on the 14th. The greatest depth o f snow on Group o f Heppner locals experience adventure o f a lifetim e in Peru Girl injured after By Andrea Di Salvo For most people, words like Cuzco and Machu Pic- chu are simply the names of far-off places, or maybe locations to have on their bucket lists. For several Heppner people, though, those names recently be came a reality when a group gathered to visit Peru. Janelle Healy Ellis of Heppner said the idea to visit Peru began to germi nate when her father Jerry Healy began talking about retiring from C olum bia Basin Electric. “Prior to his retirement, he had always wanted to go,” said Ellis. “When they started talking about his re tirement, we started talking about a family trip. When we knew the retirement date was set, that’s when Aunt Jean (Marie Healy) started researching.” Since the company they chose, Overseas Adventure Travel, took groups of 15 and only seven members and friends o f the Healy family wanted to go, they extended an invitation to other Heppner residents. In the end, the group was made up o f Jerry Healy, sons Joseph and Jonas -See WEATHER REPORT/ PAGE FIVE fall from third-story window Last Wednesday, Nov. 26, at 11:33 a.m. the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a female juve nile who fell from a third-story window in the 500 block of South Main St., Heppner. MCSO Undersheriff Steve Myren reported that Heppner Ambulance transported the female to Pioneer Memorial Hospital with minor injuries. Morrow County Sheriff s deputies are investigating the cause of the accident. ‘Lights of Hope ’ to shine in Heppner Thursday At a school visit in the countryside, the group got the chance to interact with local teachers and students. Pictured here are: (L-R) Janelle Ellis, Jon Ellis, Jerry Healy, Kvan Mooney, Dell Peterson, Chad Upham, Marilyn Peterson, the teacher. Bill Fatland, Dr. Lyn Conrad, Pat Lauritsen, Jonas Healy, Carl Lauritsen, Joseph Healy, and Jean Healy. In the front rows are fifth- and sixth-grade students dressed in their traditional attire after their poetry, song and dance performance. -Contributedphoto Healy, daughter Janelle and husband Jon Ellis, Jean Marie Healy and family friend Bill Fatland of Con don, as well as Carl and Pat Lauritsen of Heppner and Pat's son, Ryan Mooney. The group of adventurers arrived in Lima, Peru on Oct. 26, where they met the rest of their party— strang ers to them at the time—a couple from Minnesota, a doctor from Memphis and a young man from San Francisco. While having strangers as part o f their group hadn’t been in the original plan, Ellis said it worked out well. “None of us had ever been in a tour group, and it w asn’t som ething we would normally do, but we were trying to do the most we could in 10 days,” she said, adding that interaction with other group members was an added bonus. “You get to meet different people who have the same interests as you.” -See PERU TRIP/PAGE SIX P io n e e r M em o rial Home Health and Hospice will present its second an nual Lights of Hope cer emony this Thursday, Dec. 4, to give those whose loved ones have passed away in the past year a special way to remember them this Christmas season. Thursday at 6 p.m., shortly after H eppner’s tree-lighting ceremony on Main Street, the hospice will conduct a tree-lighting ceremony of its own at St. Patrick's Senior Center in Heppner. In addition to the lights and ornaments already on the tree in the senior center lobby, this year families can personalize ornaments with the name of a loved one or a message for those who have passed away. After a ceremony in which those names have been read in their memory, a special string of lights will be lit to keep their memories burn ing this holiday season. A nyone w ho has a loved one they would like rem em bered during the Lights of Hope ceremony Thursday can call Pioneer Memorial Home Health and Hospice at 541-676-2946 and speak with chaplain Carmelo Di Salvo, Health district sets goals to keep up A utomatic recount with growing needs in district MCHD also seeks to develop better marketing, online presence Bv April Sykes The Morrow County Health D istrict Monday night approved several im portant goals in order to im prove health care delivery for their patients. MCHD administration will begin recruiting a new physician for their Irrigon Medical Clinic to keep up with their growing needs. Along with that, the board approved hiring paramed ics for the north end o f the county and approved purchase of a portable ultra sound machine to be used in Irrigon and Boardman. Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Heppner already has an ultrasound machine, but it is stationary. In order to keep up with technology and become more social media savvy, the district plans to widen their presence by improving their website and devel oping other social media outlets such as Facebook. Along with that they plan to enhance their advertising, marketing and signage and develop a brand. The district is also plan ning to assess the condi tion of their physical plant, which is Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Heppner, to ward the goal of keeping the facilities up-to-date. The goal is to capture more primary-care patients. Prior to the meeting the board held a joint din ner meeting with providers invited to present their ideas and concerns. Also at the meeting the board approved purchase of three gurneys, one each to be placed in Boardman, Irrigon and Heppner, which will make transport of pa tients, especially heavier patients, easier and safer. The district has received a grant from Wildhorse to purchase one of the gurneys and will be seeking grants and donations, if possible, tow ard the purchase o f the other two. The board approved a bid from the company Stryker for the gurneys at $12,532 each, for a total of $37,597. The d is tric t saw a $ 139.622 loss for the month of October, mostly due to an increase in contractuals, ac cording to Chief Financial Officer Nicole Mahoney. For this month, the district has to pay the government back $ 193,503 in Medicaid payments. Last m onth’s contractuals were $86,810. For the month o f Oc tober, the district showed $628,530 in gross patient revenue, less $12,139 in bad debts and the $ 193,503 in contractuals. They re ceived $122,740 in tax revenue and $83,536 in other operating revenue for total operating rev enue of $629,164. On the debit side, the district had $774,852 in operating ex penses and a non-operating gain of $6,067 for the loss. from 5-7 p.m. there will be MCHD has a $42,946 aver a mini wine tasting. age monthly year-to-date Sweet Productions will loss. offer a dinner special. In other business, the Willow Creek Realty board: will have Petra Payne and -See HEALTH DISTRICT/ her Scentsy products set PAGE FIVE up for easy shopping from 4:30-7:30 p.m. ShopfJers will want to make sure they are at the tree outside the post office at 5:30 p.m. so they can watch the Heppner Day Care and Heppner Elemen tary School children hang their homemade Christmas ornaments, as well as par M o r r o w C o u n ty ticipate in some caroling. This Thursday, shop ''tilyou drop at customer appreciation event This Thursday, Dec. 4, local merchants will have special customer apprecia tion activities and will offer extended hours to kick off the Christmas holiday sea son and to thank customers for shopping local. Here are some o f the specials being planned: A rtisan Village will be open from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., so customers can stop by and have some refresh ments, and enter a drawing to win a prize. Bank of Eastern Ore gon will be serving refresh ments from 10 a.m .-4 p.m. Community Bank will also be serving some re freshments. Heppner Family Foods will offer free Home Town coffee for their custom ers all day and will have Santa set up in the store for pictures from 6-7 p.m., with hot chocolate and candy canes. Everyone is reminded to bring a camera to take pictures. Murray’s will be hav ing hourly door prizes, cookies and punch; the wish-list treasure hunt will start (with the winner being announced during the Dec. 18 Christmas event), and I announced for Measure 92 ‘No ' is ahead o f ‘Yes 'by 812 votes out o f 1,506,144 cast SALEM—Oregon Sec retary of State Kate Brown last week announced that the certified results of Mea sure 92, the GMO labeling measure, require an auto matic hand recount. Brown issued a direc tive to O regon’s county clerks to conduct a hand recount of the votes for and against Measure 92 some time between Tuesday, Dec. 2. and Friday. Dec. 12. A full recount of bal lots cast on any measure is required if the difference between votes cast for and against the measure is not more than one-fifth of one percent of the total votes cast concerning the mea sure. According to the certi fied results of Measure 92, “No” votes outnumbered “Yes” votes by 812 out of 1,506,144 votes cast, and falls within the margin. In order to conduct the recount, county clerks will appoint counting boards of four people who are elec tors qualified to vote in the county. The clerk shall appoint as many count ing boards as necessary to complete the recount by the Dec. 12 deadline. No mem ber of the counting boards shall have been a candidate for any office voted upon at the election. The members of a counting board shall not be members of the same political party. One elector advocat ing and one elector oppos ing Measure 92 shall be permitted to observe each counting board during the recount in each county. Counting is already un derway in Morrow County. The State Elections Di vision will pay for the cost of the recount. .arge Selection of Christmas Trees uy early fo r best selection G r a in G r o w e r s G r e e n F e e d <£ S e r t f
