HEPPNER
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azette
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VOL. 134
NO. 2
8 Pages
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Chamber holds annual
meeting, officer installation
Gould named 2015 president
The Heppner Chamber of Commerce installed new officers at its annual meeting last week.
Tricia Rollins (far left out of photo), Branch Manager Bank of Eastern Oregon, swears in (left
to right) Heppner Schools Principal Matt Combe, Director; City Manager Kim Cutsforth,
First Vice President; Morrow County Health District CEO Dan Grigg, Second VP; Bank of
Eastern Oregon CEO Jeff Bailey, Director; Heppner Les Schwab Manager John Gould, Presi-
dent; Wheatland Insurance Heppner Owner Nancy Snider, Director; Morrow County Grain
Growers Human Resources Tawny Miles, Treasurer/Director; and Murray’s Drug Heppner
Owner Ann Murray, Director. -Photo by David Sykes
By David Sykes
The Heppner Chamber
of Commerce started its
new year off last week with
the installation of new offi-
cers. Heppner Les Schwab
Manager John Gould will
assume the president’s po-
sition, replacing outgoing
president Nancy Snider of
Wheatland Insurance.
Snider listed some of
the chamber’s work and
accomplishments the past
year, including the Town
and Country event, work
on Wee Bit O’ Ireland cel-
ebration, Christmas activi-
ties and working with the
Willow Creek Economic
Development Group on the
popular housing grant pro-
gram. She said the chamber
currently has 125 members.
After being named presi-
dent, Gould praised Snider
for her work the past year
and said he looks forward
to leading the chamber in
2015.
Also at the meeting
Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director Sheryll
Bates honored Barbara Pru-
cha of Wheatland Insurance
and Brianna Peterson of the
Bank of Eastern Oregon for
their exceptional volunteer
work during the past year.
“I don’t know how
many of you have met Bar-
bara but she has been such
an asset to me and a great
volunteer. She stepped up
Heppner Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sheryll
Bates (right) presents volunteer Brianna Peterson of the Bank
of Eastern Oregon with an award for outstanding volunteerism
during the past year. Not pictured is volunteer Barbara Prucha,
who was also recognized at the meeting. -Photo by David Sykes
and helped with the com-
munity Christmas and St.
Patrick’s events and had the
new, refreshed energy that
was so needed. When she
took something on, she was
great with follow-through
and the time commitment
for success. On behalf of
the Heppner Chamber, I
would like to recognize
Barbara for being such a
great volunteer and step-
ping out and getting in-
volved in our community,”
Bates said.
“Brianna Peterson is
also a relatively new vol-
unteer that has stepped
up and gotten involved in
several of the St. Patrick’s
activities. A couple of
years ago, I needed to find
a volunteer who would be
in charge of the road bowl-
ing event and she pulled in
friends and took the lead.
She also took over help-
ing with the organization
of the St. Patrick’s and
Morrow County Fair and
Rodeo parades. Heppner
Chamber is always look-
ing for volunteers, and I
certainly lucked out with
this one,” Bates said.
Anyone who would
like to be a member of
the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce should contact
Bates at 541-676-5536, or
stop by her office in the
back of Heppner City Hall.
Heppner welcomes new
mayor and councilmember
Will be taking applications for vacated
council seat
By David Sykes
The Heppner city coun-
cil welcomed a new mayor
and councilmember when
the newly-elected officials
were sworn into office at
the regular monthly council
meeting Monday night.
New to the council
is Adam Doherty, with
JoAnne Burleson being
reelected to her position,
and Skip Matthews moving
from the council into the
mayor’s position.
With Matthews’ move
comes a vacancy that will
be filled later this month
by council appointment.
The city will accept appli-
cations from citizens, and
then choose one later to
fill the empty council posi-
tion. Interested persons are
encouraged to apply.
Following are the rules
to apply for the position
as stated in a public notice
from the city:
“The City Council for
the City of Heppner has a
vacancy in Council Posi-
tion number one. The cur-
rent term for this position
expires on December 31,
2016. This position will
be filled by Council ap-
pointment. To be eligible
to serve in this office a
person must be a qualified
elector within the meaning
of the State Constitution
and must have resided in
the city limits of the City of
Heppner for one year prior
to appointment. Interested
parties must complete and
application for appoint-
ment to the City Council by
Thursday January 22, 2015
at 5:00 PM. Applications
are available At Heppner
City Hall, 111 N. Main St,
Heppner.”
Also at the council
meeting, outgoing Mayor
Joe Perry was presented
with the prestigious Golden
Shamrock Award, given to
those who donate their time
and effort in community
service to the city.
In other business, the
council appointed the fol-
lowing people to various
positions within the city:
Planning Commission
Dave Fowler, John An-
derson, Nancy Gochnauer,
Jeff Bailey, Vi Wilgers, Don
Stroeber and Patti Allstott.
Budget Committee
Al Scott, Gail Gutier-
rez, Steve Rhea, Tawny
Miles, Tom Wolff, Joe Per-
ry and Ralph Walker.
Beautification
Committee
Vi Wilgers, JoAnne
Burleson, and Merle
Cowett. One position va-
cant.
Fire Dept. Advisory
Committee
Mike Jones, Dean Rob-
inson, Jay Keithley, Steve
Rhea, Hal Bergstrom and
Corey Sweeney.
St. Patrick’s Celebration
Chairperson
JoAnne Burleson
Christmas Parade of
Top: Newly installed Mayor Skip Matthews (left) gives the
oath of office to new Heppner City councilmembers Adam
Doherty and JoAnne Burleson. Middle: New Heppner
Mayor Skip Matthews (right) gives the Golden Shamrock
Award to outgoing Mayor Joe Perry. The award is given for
volunteer service to the City of Heppner. Bottom: Outgoing
Mayor Joe Perry gives the oath of office to incoming Mayor
Skip Matthews. - Photos by David Sykes
Lights Chairperson
Sheryll Bates
Police Commission
John Bowles, Chad
Doherty and Merle Cowett.
Utilities Commission
Dale Bates, Tom Wolff
and Jay Keithley.
Personnel Committee
Skip Matthews, Dale
Bates, John Bowles and
Keith Lewis.
Council Commission
Appointments
Police commissioner
John Bowles, Fire Dept.
Commissioner Corey
Sweeney, Beautification/
Parks and Lands Commis-
sioner JoAnne Burleson,
Utility Commissioner Dale
Bates, and Personnel Com-
missioner John Bowles.
Heppner Housing
Authority Board
Les Paustian, Judy
Buschke, Kim Cutsforth,
JoyceKay Hollomon and
Peggy Fishburn.
In other business the
council heard from Fire
Chief Rusty Estes, who
gave the following 2014
totals report for the fire
department:
Responded to 26 motor
vehicle accidents in 2014;
secured helicopter landing
zone 36 times; wildland
fires, 29; flue fires, three;
structure fires, nine; ambu-
lance assistance, 20; false
alarms, 10; smoke smell
reports, seven; gas smells,
one; and chief calls, 367.
The fire department
also assisted the Ione fire
department five times in
2014, Gilliam County three
times and Hermiston, Lex-
ington and ODF one time
each.
Estes said 2014 showed
quite an increase, with calls
and activities “double” the
normal yearly amount.
There’s a new office
at the courthouse
IMESD staff quickly resolved regional
network disruption
PENDLETON – Re-
gional Internet networks
and devices were disrupted
Tuesday during a Distrib-
uted Denial of Service
(DDoS) attack, but thanks
to the swift response from
staff in the InterMountain
Education Service District’s
(IMESD) technology de-
partment, the interruption
in service was resolved in
just 30 minutes.
Among the agencies
served by the IMESD tech-
nology services network
were Morrow County of-
fices, including those at
the Morrow County Court-
house. Morrow County
Personnel Director/Execu-
tive Secretary Karen Wolff
says the county offices did
experience a brief outage
Tuesday morning but that
the IMESD does “an excel-
lent job” maintaining the
services.
The DDoS attack,
which has been reported
to authorities, used such a
large amount of bandwidth
that users throughout the re-
gion weren’t able to access
the Internet. The disruption
The Morrow County Courthouse in Heppner has added one
first impacted the Uma- when legitimate callers more office to its roster. The clockworks connected to the
tilla School District before try to get through, they’re renovated tower clock were given their own sturdy enclosure
this past weekend. The works are still visible through large
spreading throughout the denied access.
region.
- See IMESD INTERNET panes of glass to anyone entering the courthouse foyer. –Photo
by Andrea Di Salvo
IMESD states that
OUTAGE/PAGE THREE
DDoS attacks are fairly
common and are targeted
at disabling networks and
devices through a disrup-
Formula
tion of service. They are
not designed to access data,
so no data was breached
in the incident. A DDoS
attack can be likened to
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