Health district continues
search for new CEO, doctor
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 134
NO. 18
10 Pages
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Local golf, track
teams head to state
championships
South Morrow County
Teams will be well repre-
sented at their respective
state championships this
week.
Both Mustang golf
teams will be playing at the
OSAA State Golf Cham-
pionships this week after
placing second and third at
the district championships
in Pendleton. The girls’
tournament is held at Eagle
Crest Golf Course outside
of Redmond, while the boys
will play at Quail Valley
Golf Course in Banks.
Track and field teams
representing both the blue
and gold and the red and
black will travel to Eugene
this Thursday and Friday to
compete at the University
of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
Ione will send three
athletes to the OSAA 1A
State Championship. Nine
athletes will represent Hep-
pner at the 2A State Cham-
pionship.
-See Mustang sports PAGE THREE,
Cardinal sports PAGE FOUR.
Wyden to hold town
hall in Heppner
Oregon’s U.S. Sena- Wyden pledged to hold
t o r R o n Wy d e n
at least one pub-
will hold a Mor-
lic town meeting in
row County town
each of Oregon’s 36
hall May 29 at 4:30
counties each year.
p.m. at Heppner
Since 1996,
City Hall.
Sen.Wyden has held
The public is Sen. Ron
more than 700 town
welcome to attend. Wyden
hall meetings across
When elected
the state.
to the U.S. Senate, Sen.
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Home care services welcomes new director
By April Sykes
The Morrow County
Health District Board re-
luctantly bade farewell to
CEO Dan Grigg at its May
18 meeting in Heppner.
Grigg, who has been with
the district two years, has
resigned as MCHD CEO
to take a position as CEO
of the Burns hospital.
The board informally
agreed to perhaps increase
the salary offering as they
seek a new CEO, but did not
disclose the specific amount
for negotiation purposes.
“It was our own fault
that we lost you,” said considering increasing the
board member Leann Rea CEO’s package to attract
concerning Grigg’s
the best candidates.
d e p a r t u r e . “ We
MCHD Chief
screwed up.”
Financial Officer
The board ear-
Nicole Mahoney
lier voted against in-
suggested to the
creasing the CEO’s
board that they
salary to the amount
present an actual
he had requested.
Robin Warren contract to a CEO
Grigg told the
candidate, rather
Gazette-Times that it may than just present a salary
have influenced his deci- and benefit package.
sion to leave the district
While the board said
if the board had agreed to farewell to Grigg, it said
the increase in his salary. hello to newly-hired Home
-See HEALTH DISTRICT/
He added that he was glad
PAGE TEN
to see that the district was
School district looks at options for
Heppner schools
Plans could include demolishing Heppner High School after
current bond expires
By April Sykes
The Morrow County
School District, in the pro-
cess of long-term facil-
ity planning, has hired the
DLR Group architectural
design firm, located in Se-
attle and other cities around
the U.S.
The DLR Group has
been holding a series of
workshops at various
schools throughout the
Morrow County School
District to invite input and
assess what each MCSD
community wants for its
schools. DLR representa-
tives stress the importance
of community input in mak-
ing the decisions about
facility planning.
At a meeting at Hep-
pner Elementary School
May 12, one option put
forth by DLR Group is
to build a kindergarten
through 12 th grade school
above the current Heppner
High School site.
This suggestion, Hep-
pner Option 1, would be
Future plans for the MCSD might include the demolition of
Heppner High School and construction of a new K-12 facility
above the current school site. –File photo
to “Offload Heppner El-
ementary School for private
business or community
amenity.” With this option,
the gymnasium located at
Heppner Elementary would
be retained for “shared use
by the school and commu-
nity,” Heppner High School
would be demolished and a
K-12 school would be built
above the demolished site.
Part of the reasoning
behind this proposal is that
the Heppner community
and student population
are not growing, while the
Boardman and Irrigon com-
munities have gained both
businesses and students,
therefore a K-12 building in
Heppner would make more
sense, at least cost-wise.
From enrollment data as of
2014, Heppner Elementary
School had 29 children in
kindergarten, 17 in first
grade, 23 in second grade,
20 in third, 31 in fourth,
34 in fifth and 33 in sixth.
For Heppner Junior/Senior
High School, there were 19
students in seventh grade,
37 in eighth, 28 in ninth,
26 in 10 th , 31 in 11 th and 27
in 12 th .
Enrollment data for
north end schools for 2014
is as follows:
-Boardman: Sam
Boardman Elementary,
K-third: kindergarten-86,
first grade-86, second
grade-105, third grade-81;
Windy River Elementa-
ry, fourth through sixth:
fourth grade-59, fifth
grade-71, sixth grade-72;
Riverside Junior/Senior
High School, seventh-12 th :
seventh grade-65, eighth
grade-62, ninth grade-68,
10 th grade-78, 11 th grade-59,
-See SCHOOL DISTRICT
LOOKS AT OPTIONS/PAGE
SEVEN
Veteran-owned business offers City adopts ‘virtually flat’
new event venue with 1920s glitz 2015-16 budget
that something is up inside
Sweet Productions.
In fact, Sweet Produc-
tions owner Jodi Segraves,
a 10-year Army veteran, has
expanded her full-service
restaurant and ice-cream
shop to include a new con-
cept—the Silver Fox Ban-
quet Room.
The expansion hap-
pened when Segraves’s
mother, Marti Luther, re-
tired and closed the Victo-
rian Rose, which had shared
the building’s space with
Sweet Productions since
Silver Fox owner Jodi Segraves stands on the stage in the new 2007. Segraves said the
event venue. Styled in the fashion of a 1920s to 1940s nightclub,
idea of the Silver Fox had
the Silver Fox is available for a range of local activities. –Photo
been a long-time dream.
by Andrea Di Salvo
So, rather than selling or
-See SILVER FOX/PAGE
Heppner’s Main Street may
By Andrea Di Salvo
SEVEN
Anyone who walks have seen some indications
By David Sykes
The City of Heppner
has approved a 2015-16
budget of $2,984,190, only
slightly higher than last
year’s. Although the budget
remained virtually flat, City
Manager Kim Cutsforth
said the city looked for sav-
ings in an effort to set aside
more reserve and contin-
gency funds for next year.
“We have attempted
to establish or increase
reserves and contingen-
cy funds via administra-
tive cuts and another fru-
gal planning methods,”
Cutsforth said in her budget
message.
Cutsforth said one way
the city saved money for
next year was the supervi-
sory staff agreeing not to
take a merit pay increase,
and take only a 2.45 per-
cent cost of living increase.
This put the city manager’s
salary at $62,647, up from
$60,916 in the current year,
treasurer at $54,398, up
from $52,728, and Public
Works Director to $54,836
from $53,613 this year. The
merit pay increase would
have added an additional
one percent to those three
salaries, a savings of about
$1,672. City employees
also receive a medical ben-
efits package averaging an
additional $13,500 (ap-
prox.) per year, per em-
ployee. Total payroll and
benefit expenses for the city
are up 6.5 percent next year
to $473,029.
In other savings the
city was able to negotiate a
contract for police service
from the county sheriff
with no increase next year.
Cutsforth also said the pub-
lic works department will
be cutting uniform costs
and overtime to save costs.
She pointed out that making
ends meet this coming year
was not easy, considering
some cost increases such
as insurance, medical rates
and electricity are all out of
their control.
On the revenue side
Cutsforth said a recently-
enacted water and sewer
rate increase will raise an
-See HEPPNER CITY
BUDGET/PAGE FOUR
CREZ replenishes Boardman housing fund
South County also received funding for similar program
By David Sykes
The Columbia River
Enterprise Zone voted Mon-
day to give an additional
$100,000 to the Boardman
Community Development
Association to replenish its
popular housing grant pro-
gram. The same amount of
funds was given in Decem-
ber of last year and, since
then, all of the money has
been given out to people
purchasing homes in the
Boardman area.
South Morrow County,
represented by the Willow
Creek Economic Devel-
opment Group, has had a
similar program and has
received a total of $195,000
in funding from the CREZ.
WCVEDG has been giving
out grants in the Heppner,
Lexington and Ione area
since October of 2014. Ir-
rigon has received $50,000
under the plan.
Jill Parker, housing
program manager for the
Boardman association, was
at the meeting and gave a
letter to the CREZ board
outlining the program’s
success.
“We use the funds to
gift $5,000 to those pur-
chasing their primary resi-
dences in the Boardman
zip code,” Parker said. She
said the money is reserved
for one year for people
who complete a homebuyer
education class or 90 days
for those who have a signed
real estate sale agreement.
“Our goal is to attract
new families to Boardman
and provide housing op-
portunities. We are happy
to report great success,”
G-T closed Memorial Day
The Heppner Gazette- the holiday. All news and The newspaper office will
Times office will be closed ad deadlines will be this reopen on Tuesday, May 26.
Memorial Day, May 25, for Friday, May 22, by 5 p.m.
she wrote.
Parker also said she
had a backlog of $30,000
for people eligible for the
grants. She said the group
tracks the grant money
and has found people from
Hermiston, Tri-Cities and
Stanfield moving to Board-
man.
Although the Port of
Morrow at Boardman has
created many jobs over the
past several years, com-
munity leaders have seen
that only about 25 percent
of those workers live in
Morrow County. One of the
housing grant’s objectives
is an attempt to have more
people live here.
Heppner has also re-
ceived money from the
CREZ for a similar pro-
gram, and it too has proven
very popular, with more
than $100,000 given out
so far in $2,500 to $5,000
individual grants to home
buyers. The only stipula-
tion on the South County
-See CREZ HELPS HOUS-
ING FUNDS/PAGE THREE
Rebates up to
$ 1400 pLus financing
as Low as 1.99%
apR w/
oac
additionaL in-stoRe
discount avaiLabLe
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396
For farm equipment, visit our web site at www.mcgg.net