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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2015)
EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, April 8, 2015 Area farmer directs funds to Morrow County 4-H Leaders Association Heppner FFA attends state convention Joe and Cheryl Taylor of Ione stand with a group of Morrow County 4-H members during the check presentation in Ione last week. The Taylors were selected as a winner of Monsanto’s America’s Farmers Grow Communities and chose to have the $2,500 donated to the local 4-H leaders association. –Photo by David Sykes Morrow County 4-H Leaders Association has received a $2,500 donation from Double T Farming and America’s Farmers Grow Communities, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund. According to 4-H Agent Ashely Jones, the organiza- tion will use the donation to cover the costs of travel to various events, including the Tri-County 4-H Camp, the Oregon State University Summer Conference and the Eastern Oregon Leader- ship Retreat. “The 4-H program does a great job of providing youth in our communi- ty with leadership skills as well as experience in careers that may interest them. We’re happy to have the opportunity to support them,” said winning farmer Joe Taylor of Double T Farming. Taylor and his wife, Cheryl Taylor, presented the $2,500 check to the county 4-H program at a ceremony on March 31 at Ione Community School. For five years, Amer- ica’s Farmers Grow Com- munities has collaborated with farmers to donate over $16.5 million to over 7,300 community organizations across rural America. This year winning farmers will direct another $3.3 million to nonprofits to help fight rural hunger, purchase life- saving fire and EMS equip- ment, support ag youth leadership programs, buy much needed classroom re- sources, and so much more. America’s Farmers Grow Communities is part of the America’s Farmers initiative. Since 2010, the America’s Farmers cam- paign and programs have advocated on behalf of farmers and their efforts to meet society’s needs through agriculture. To- day, consumers are more interested than ever in ag- riculture and how food is grown. Consider joining the conversation and helping to raise awareness about agriculture. Learn more at FoodDialogues.com. A sister program in the America’s Farmers effort, Grow Rural Education, is currently in its farmer nomination phase. Farm- ers interested in supporting math and science education in their communities should visit www.GrowRuralE- ducation.com from now through April 1 to learn how. Why Bother with Recycling? “Don’t Torch Your Trash!” says county public works The following article was submitted by Morrow County Public Works. You might ask “What’s all the fuss about recycling? Doesn’t it all end up in the garbage anyway?” Actual- ly, recycling not only saves the earth’s resources, but all those recyclables you collect, clean sort and take to your local depot end up being processed into new products. Also, you might not give a thought to what ends up in your burn barrel…but you should. Not just be- cause it might be illegal to burn it, but because it fouls up our air and contributes to pollution. Recycling isn’t just for our kids and grandkids; it’s for everyone. Did you know that Oregon’s recycling his- tory laws go back to 1983? Back then, it was widely believed that Oregon was going to run out of landfill space. This belief, in part, led to Oregon’s first “Op- portunity to Recycle” Act. This act created strategies for preventing waste, for reuse and recycling, and set up a hierarchy to manage solid waste: -First, Reduce the amount of waste generated; -Next, Reuse materials for their original intended use; -Next, Recycle what can’t be reused; -Compost (organic ma- terials) that can’t be reused or recycled -Recover Energy from what can’t be reused, re- cycled or composted -Finally, Dispose of residual material safely. This act also required wastesheds to establish recycling depots. (A wasteshed is the same as a county, except for the city of Milton-Freewater and Metro). It also required cit- ies in Oregon with popula- tions of more than 4,000 to provide curbside recycling collection to all garbage service customers. In 1991, the 1983 Or- egon Recycling Act broad- ened recycling require- ments. It set a statewide recovery goal of 50 percent by the year 2000 and short- term recovery goals for individual wastesheds by 1995. By the year 2000, Oregon had not met its re- covery goal of 50 percent; so in 2001 a bill was passed that set a statewide recovery goal of 45 percent for 2005 and 50 percent for 2009. In order to help meet this statewide recovery goal, each wasteshed set new voluntary recovery goals for 2005 and 2009. So let’s talk about Mor- row wasteshed. The Mor- row wasteshed is all of the area within Morrow County. The recovery rate for Morrow wasteshed was set at 18 percent for cal- endar years 2005 through 2008 and 20 percent for calendar year 2009 and subsequent years. And how have we done? Overall, we’ve done pretty well. We’ve achieved and surpassed our recovery goal of 20 percent since 2009 for almost every year. We fell just a little bit short in 2013. So what recy- cling services does Morrow wasteshed offer? And what happens when we don’t meet our goal? Let’s go with the sec- ond question first. The regu- lations stated the following: “If a wasteshed does not achieve its 2005 or 2009 waste recovery goal, the wasteshed shall conduct a technical review of exist- ing policies or programs and determine revisions to meet the recovery goal. The department shall, upon the request of the wasteshed, assist in the technical re- view. The wasteshed may request, and may assist the department in conducting, a technical review to deter- mine whether the wasteshed goal is valid.” So, in other words, if Morrow wasteshed doesn’t meet its goal, we (as in the local government) are sup- posed to conduct a review of our recycling programs and see what we need to do Above: Heppner FFA Chapter members who attend- ed a recent convention in Silverton, OR. Behind the tractor: Rian Wizner, Katlyn Harper, Erica Nelson, Tim Gould, Kenzi Hughes, CJ Kindle, Kolby Currin, Patrick Collins, Coby Dougherty and Keegan Gibbs. In front of tractor: Macy Gibbs, Josey Evans, Ethan Akers, Alex Lindsay and Gibson McCurry. Right: Patrick Collins receives the Superior Chapter Award and the 10+10% Award for increase in mem- bership on behalf of the Heppner FFA Chapter at a recent convention. –Contributed photos By Erica Nelson Over this past spring break, 18 Heppner FFA members and three chap- erones traveled west to the 87 th annual Oregon FFA State Convention. This year, the convention was conducted at Silverton High School in Silverton, OR, and included events such as the Career Expo and a complimentary Ben Rue concert. The group left on March 20 and stayed in the Silverton area for three days, returning home on March 23. This trip was not only filled with fun side trips, like to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, the Or- egon Garden and Silver Creek Falls State Park, but the local chapter was able to bring home some awards as well. T h e H e p p n e r F FA Chapter placed second in the Ag Youth Awareness competition, which is an award given for involvement in ag- ricultural literacy. The chapter was also recognized as one of the top 10 chapters in the state by receiving a rating of Gold for its National Chapter award application. Kenzi Hughes was se- lected as the Oregon FFA Star Farmer, which is the highest award a state as- sociation can give to its members. Erica Nelson and Caitlynn Bailey both won State Proficiency Awards for their Supervised Agri- cultural Experience (SAE) projects, Diversified Horti- culture and Ag Processing, respectively. All of these awards listed above will be competing at the national level later this year. Some of the officers also received recognition for the book competitions. The Secretary’s Book (Rylee Kollman), Treasur- er’s Book (Patrick Collins), to meet our goal. DEQ can help us with the review. What kinds of recy- cling services are available in Morrow wasteshed? Morrow County has mainly a rural population. Major commercial recy- cling is too far away from our citizens and business- es—so recycling services are limited. Most of the recycling efforts are fo- cused on providing recy- cling containers in various locations in the cities, at the transfer station in Lex- ington and near Boardman and at Finley Buttes Land- fill. Materials accepted for recycling are generally: flattened cardboard boxes, newspaper, glass, tin and aluminum. While the coun- ty does not have any dedi- cated personnel to develop and implement county-wide reuse, composting or recy- cling programs, we do have an informational brochure called “Recycle Today” that is available to citizens and businesses. A collection and com- posting program for com- mercial and institutional food waste, non-recyclable paper and other composta- ble waste is not yet avail- able but Morrow County is working on making this available. Morrow County tries to keep access to all ave- nues of recycling available. Other recycling opportuni- ties supported by Morrow County include: -Morrow County resi- dents are allowed to dump televisions, computers and monitors, and all electronic waste items free of charge. -Latex and oil based paints may be recycled free of charge to county residents. -Morrow County Trans- fer Stations will waive the fee for the disposal of large items such as furniture, home appliances, washers, dryers, refrigerators, water heaters and mattresses for residents of Morrow, so large items can be disposed Chapter Scrapbook (Erica Nelson) and the Chapter Digital Scrapbook (Macy Gibbs) all competed and won at the district level and were able to move on to state competition; each officer’s hard work earned them a bronze award. In addition to the ses- sions, award ceremonies and the trips, Heppner’s FFA chapter was also given the opportunity to package food for a state-wide com- munity service project. Stu- dents had the opportunity to host a meal with our Central Region National Vice Presi- dent Kristen Schmidt. The state convention trip was not only a suc- cessful one, but exciting, as well. Everyone said they enjoyed themselves, and many great memories were made. of free of charge. Morrow County also would like to remind ev- eryone of the County Or- dinance 5.010, Transpor- tation of Solid Waste. No person shall transport or self-haul, as defined in the Solid Waste Management Plan, solid waste on a pub- lic road unless such waste or solid waste is covered and secured. Be aware that Morrow County will attach a $10 fine to anyone not complying with this County Ordinance. You will be required to show proof of residence in the county with iden- tification. Containers for electronics waste and paint drop off are located at the North Transfer Station, 69900 Frontage Ln., Board- man and the South Transfer Station, 57185 Hwy 74, Lexington. Any questions or con- cerns, call Sandi Putman at Morrow County Public Works, 541-989-9500. Bank of EO announces new smart ATM in Boardman city council Said Rebecca Kindle, branches.” internet banking, visit the Dayville SVP Operations, “Custom- “This is the fourth website at beobank.com. changes meeting dates er adoption of our deposit- smart ATM we’ve installed Heppner—Bank of taking machines has been in small towns where bank- in April Eastern Oregon Monday excellent, and now our ing services are needed,” announced the opening of a new ATM at the Dayville Mercantile in Dayville, OR. The new machine will handle customer cash with- drawals, and can also accept cash and check deposits from BEO customers. The new machine is similar to smart ATMs the bank has installed in Monument, Lakeview and Ontario, and to another scheduled to open in Wasco, OR in June. Dayville customers will be able to reduce the number of times people have to travel each week to John Day or Fossil to do their banking, or the days they have to wait for their depos- its to arrive by mail. When combined with a custom- er using online or mobile banking, these ATMs pro- vide a tremendous amount of convenience to our cus- tomers who live between said Gary Propheter, the bank’s COO. “These smart machines give a community about 80 percent of what a branch can do and we have been very happy with their performance. We are look- ing at other locations where Bank of Eastern Oregon has concentrations of customers and hope to announce new locations soon.” For further information on the company or to access The Boardman City Council has changed its meeting schedule in April. The city council met on Tuesday, April 7, and will meet on Tuesday, April 21, for its regularly- scheduled meetings and will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, April 28. All three meetings begin at 7 p.m. at Boardman City Hall. The Bank of Eastern Oregon just installed this new "smart" ATM in Dayville as part of the bank's efforts to make banking accessible between branches. -Contributed photo Deadline for news and advertising: Monday at 5:00 p.m.
