HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 134
NO. 27
10 Pages
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Demolition clears way for
future plans at old mill site
The Port of Morrow is demolishing some of the buildings at the old Kinzua Mill site, hope-
fully to make way for future development. -Photo by David Sykes
By Andrea Di Salvo
A pile of rubble is all
that remains of part of the
structure at the old Kinzua
Mill site outside of Hep-
pner, also known as the
South Morrow Industrial
Park.
The property has been
owned by the Port of Mor-
row since about 1999. Port
General Manager Gary
Neal says it has been a goal
of the Port to demolish cer-
tain buildings at the site that
would not be remodeled in
the future.
The structure being
torn down is part of the old
plywood warehouse.
“(It) needed to be de-
molished since prior to the
Port having ownership of
the site,” Neal says. “We
finally received a couple
of proposals to remove the
structure and went ahead
and authorized the contrac-
tor to do the work.”
The other building the
structure is attached to, ex-
plains Neal, is used by the
Morrow County Court for
storage. For example, the
building was used to house
the Morrow County Court-
house clock tower during its
-See MILL COMES DOWN/
PAGE FOUR
Recently mounted surveillance
camera has people questioning
purpose
Sheriff’s Dept. says not being used for traffic
violations
By David Sykes
A new sheriff ’s
camera, that looks straight
down Main St. in Heppner,
is not being used to catch
routine traffic violations,
the Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office said.
“I don’t know why this
is causing such a stir,” Un-
dersheriff Steve Myron told
the Heppner Gazette-Times
last week. “We have had
cameras in Morrow County
for years and no one ever
said anything.”
He said, however, that
since the department re-
cently mounted a camera
on a power pole next to
the Gilliam Bisbee build-
ing looking straight down
Heppner’s Main Street, the
department has been receiv-
ing calls from citizens won-
dering what the purpose is.
A blue light flashing on the
camera has also caught peo-
ple’s attention. In addition,
there is also a new camera
mounted in Lexington at the
intersection of Highways
74 and 207.
Myron, who applied for
a grant to buy the cameras
and is responsible for these,
and all the other cameras
operating in the county, said
many people suspect they
are being used to detect traf-
fic violations and then issue
tickets, which he said can’t
be farther from the truth.
He said the cameras
are not being monitored 24
hours a day by a person at
the sheriff’s office but will
be used mainly for tracking
vehicles in case of a crime
or emergency. He said if a
crime were reported with a
vehicle description some-
where in the county, then
the dispatch office in Hep-
pner could look at various
cameras and try to find
out where that suspect was
headed. With the size of the
county and deputies being
Recently mounted surveillance cameras in Heppner (pictured)
and Lexington have caused inquiries as to their purpose. –Photo
by David Sykes
in different parts of the
county, the cameras will be
an aid to law enforcement
in tracking down suspects
or vehicles involved in ac-
cidents. The cameras are
recording continuously 24
hours a day. After 30 days,
they record over them-
selves, so are not archived,
Myron said.
Citizens had also been
curious about the camera’s
purpose since the city of
Heppner announced last
month there would be a
“stop sign blitz” or con-
centrated effort by law en-
forcement to crack down
on people running stop
signs. “For the next two
weeks, the on-duty officer
will be patrolling in areas
where this problem is most
predominant,” the city said
in a June 24 news release.
Sheriff Ken Matlack
also said the cameras are
not being used for traffic
tickets, but rather to alert
deputies to a suspect ve-
hicle’s direction, or if there
is an emergency manage-
ment situation where the
department would have to
direct traffic or look for
other traffic hazards.
Matlack said that, even
though the cameras would
not be monitored, if a crime
Additional jail time for ranchers’ range fires?
Heppner
hosts
League of
Oregon
Cities
meeting
—Resentencing delayed to October
The following article
was originally published in
Western Livestock Journal,
July 10, 2015.
By Theodora John-
son, WLJ Correspondent
An eastern Oregon
family with a long history
in ranching is fighting to
keep its cow/calf operation
afloat against an onslaught
of blows from the federal
government. Two members
of the Hammond family
have been charged under
the Antiterrorism and Ef-
fective Death Penalty Act
of 1996 for starting two
range fires that ended up on
federal land.
One of the fires, set
in 2001, was a prescribed
burn on Hammond’s pri-
vate property; a routine
range improvement prac-
tice. The other fire, set on
Hammond’s private prop-
erty in 2006, was a back-
burn intended to protect
the ranch’s winter pasture
from a lightening fire on
adjacent federal land. Com-
bined, the two fires burned
about 140 acres of federal
land. Now, although two
Hammond family members
have already done time in
federal prison for setting
these fires, they are facing a
resentencing—now sched-
uled for late October—that
could land them back in
prison.
The Hammonds hold
grazing rights on Bureau of
Land Management (BLM)
land and own private graz-
ing acres intermingled with
BLM land in the Steens
Mountains. For 45 years,
the Hammonds have used
their BLM grazing rights
and private property to run
a successful operation. But
now, their operation is be-
ing threatened not only by
criminal and civil charges
brought by the federal gov-
ernment, but with the loss
of their grazing permits, as
well. The BLM has refused
to renew their grazing per-
mits for two years running.
Although the family
has refrained from making
a public splash, the story is
slowly getting out. Court
documents are beginning to
circulate. Those documents
paint a picture of a fam-
ily that serves on the local
school board, volunteers
‘Biker boys’ work in tandem to
fight cancer
A bicycle built for two
usually brings to mind vi-
sions vacation pastimes,
and maybe even the lyrics
of old-time songs, but two
young men have taken on
a two-seater with a much
more serious goal in mind.
Alex Kvanli and Mitch
Gillen, both 22, embarked
last month on a 70-day,
4,000-mile, cross-country
bicycle ride to help fight
cancer.
Kvanli, the nephew
of local FedEx delivery
driver Colene Baasch, says
the ride is deeply personal
for him.
“My four-year-old
Photo of a controlled burn taking place in Nevada. -Photo
courtesy of the Nevada BLM.
in community clubs and
counsels, and donates time,
money and meat each year
to local youth organizations
and senior groups. District
Court Judge Michael Ho-
gan, the federal judge who
first saw their case, went
on record calling the Ham-
monds “the salt of their
community.”
The fires
Why did Hammonds
start the fires? According to
court documents, the 2001
“Hardie-Hammond” fire
was set under a long-stand-
ing plan between Ham-
monds and their BLM range
conservationist to burn off
invasive species on that
section. They had called the
BLM at noon that day to see
were committed in view of
the cameras, the recordings
would be reviewed and
used as evidence.
In South County the
cameras are located on
Main in Heppner, on top of
the sheriff’s office and at
the Kinzua Mill site look-
ing toward the highway, as
well as one in Lexington.
In North County they are
located on the Boardman
water tower, the Boardman
rest area, exit 165 at the Port
of Morrow on I-84, and the
Irrigon skate park.
Myron said the system
is set up in such a way
that a deputy could log on
to the cameras with their
smart phone, but that the
bandwidth is so small the
pictures are “very slow.”
He also said although
some of the cameras can
“pan” or move around, this
feature has been disabled
so the cameras cannot look
at people’s yards or houses.
“I hope this puts people
at ease. We don’t want to
look in someone’s yard or
monitor people,” Myron
said.
Sheriff Matlack said
he hopes anyone with con-
cerns about the cameras
will contact him or his
office.
if burning was permitted.
After being told there was
no burn ban in effect, the
Hammonds told the BLM
that they would be setting
a fire on that section.
The fire later spread to
approximately 139 acres
of public land, land that
happened to be one of Ham-
mond’s grazing allotments.
The Hammonds presented
evidence that the spread
onto public land was not
intentional. However, back
in 1999, a similar scenario
had occurred (a prescribed
burn on their land spread to
public land), and the Ham-
monds had been warned
that they would face serious
-See JAIL TIME FOR FIRES/
PAGE FIVE
Heppner was host to
a League of Oregon Cit-
ies small cities support
network meeting this past
week. The meeting was
held at Heppner City Hall,
and officials from a dozen
cities and organizations
were on hand to discuss
legislation, issues and pro-
grams facing small cities in
Oregon.
Heppner City Manager
Kim Cutsforth along with
Sean O’Day, General Coun-
sel of the League, were
hosts of the meeting. Lunch
was served to the guests.
Each representative,
some mayors and some city
managers, gave an update
on events and issues facing
their small Eastern Oregon
cities, and O’Day presented
a wrap-up of legislation af-
fecting small cities from the
recently concluded Oregon
State Legislative session.
Alex Kvanli and Mitch Gillen.
cousin, Cooper, passed fought the disease for 13
away from a rare form of months, inspiring many
brainstem cancer in 2008,” people with his courage and
Kvanli wrote on the duo’s
-See BIKER BOYS/PAGE
GoFundMe page. “He
FOUR
Summer Sales Event
Ends July 27, 2015
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396
For farm equipment, visit our web site at www.mcgg.net