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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 2015)
HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 134 NO. 32 8 Pages Fall sports are just around the corner Wednesday, August 26, 2015 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Lightning sparks multiple blazes across county By Andrea Di Salvo A lightning storm that moved through the area Monday night sparked sev- eral grass fires through- out the area, including at least eight separate fires to which volunteer firefighters and civilians responded in South Morrow County. Calls started coming in to the Morrow County emergency dispatch as the lightning storm moved across the region around 9 p.m. Monday. While some This fire caused by a lightning strike on Kenny Jones’ property locations reported rain, west of Lexington was one of several fires caused by a storm that moved through the area Monday night. –Photo by Andrea -See LIGHTNING FIRES/ Di Salvo PAGE TWO Kickin’ back at the fair Columbia Basin Electric warns consumers of scam With the hint of fall in the air comes a reminder that school is about to begin and fall sports season is almost upon us. School will begin in both Heppner and Ione schools next Monday, Aug. 31. Heppner High School has posted a start time of 7:50 a.m. Monday, while Ione’s start time 8 a.m. Friday night lights will begin for Heppner High School on Friday, Sept. 4, Carson Eynetich of Ione takes a break from tending to his fair pigs last week during the at 7 p.m. with a non-league Morrow County Fair. See more fair and rodeo photos PAGE EIGHT -Photo by Mallorie Jones game versus Imbler at East- ern Oregon University. Ione High School’s football kickoff will take place Saturday, Sept. 5, at 4 p.m. when they take on Triad at the non-league Dufur Classic. Before football, though, volleyball action approximately seven miles will already be underway, northwest of Heppner. It as volleyball players from is bisected by Hwy. 207. Heppner take on Umatilla at Wheatridge East is located the Umatilla Jamboree this approximately 16 miles Friday, Aug. 28, at noon. northeast of Heppner and Ione girls will travel to encompasses land in both Irrigon on Sept. 3 for their Morrow and Umatilla coun- first game; game time is 5 ties. p.m. The maximum generat- Look for full sports ing capacity of the facility schedules on PAGE FOUR will be up to 500 megawatts in this issue of the Gazette- of power. Although an exact Times. timeline for construction Columbia Basin Elec- tric Co-op has issued a scam alert to its members, warning consumers of a telephone scam that has been going through its ser- vice territory. CBEC issued a release stating that some electric utility members recently received telephone calls from an 888 number. The callers identified themselves as someone from Columbia Basin Elec- tric and claimed that the member’s electric bill was past due and that if they didn’t go to the local Safe- way or 7-Eleven and de- posit funds, a local service technician would be by to turn off the power. The scam artists even went into detail, providing seemingly legitimate details like cut- off order numbers. Anyone who receives a phone call like this and has questions is asked to give Columbia Basin’s office a call at 541-676-9146 in Heppner or 541-384-2023 in Condon. No one who receives one of these calls should ever give out any personal information over the phone. Public gets look at proposed 292-tower wind farm Private plane crashes Wheatridge Wind Facility spans Morrow and Umatilla counties G-T closed for Labor Day The Heppner Gazette- Times will be closed for the Labor Day holiday on Mon- day, Sept. 7. The deadline for all news and advertising for the Sept. 9 issue will be Friday, Sept. 4, at 5 p.m. The G-T wishes every- one a happy and safe Labor Day weekend. Wheatridge Wind Energy LLC President Andrew O’Connell speaks with Cindy Greenup about the project at an informa- tional meeting held in Boardman August 11. –Photo by David Sykes By David Sykes A new Morrow County wind farm moved one step closer to reality recently, when the Oregon Depart- ment of Energy held an informational meeting in Boardman Aug. 11. The Wheatridge Wind Facility will have up to 292 towers and be located both in Morrow and Umatilla counties, with a corridor containing overhead trans- mission lines connecting the two. Andrew O’Connell along with Jerry Rietmann of Ione are two of the ma- jor owners of the project, which has been in develop- ment since 2008. Wheatridge West is the portion located in Morrow County, with the edge of the facility located five miles northeast of Lexington and near Jepsen ranch This private plane crashed near the Jepsen property Aug. 16, but the pilot walked away with only minor injuries. –Contrib- has not been set, the compa- uted photo ny does have up to six years to complete the project and the informational meeting was one more step required for construction. The informational meeting was not a public hearing, and Department of Energy officials in atten- dance were not taking testi- mony, saying that a public hearing for public input on the project will be held at a later date. Members of the public did ask questions, A pilot walked away with only minor injuries af- ter his private plane flipped over while landing near the Jepsen ranch in South Mor- row County last week, Mor- row County Undersheriff Steven Myren reported in a news release. Myren said the crash occurred Aug. 16 next to Liberty School Road. After MCSO was advised of the crash on Tuesday, prelimi- nary investigation revealed -See WIND FARM/PAGE that the plane landed on a FOUR small, private runway be- tween 3 and 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon. The pilot, Steven Huggins of Beavercreek, OR, apparently lost control of the Cessna 180H during the landing, and the plane flipped onto its top. Huggins received mi- nor injuries but walked away from the hard land- ing, Myren reported. Hug- gins notified the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) right after the incident. Local banker beefs up his fitness to support Ag awareness By Andrea Di Salvo A local banker is put- ting his money where his mouth is, so to speak, by going the distance in the cause of beef awareness. Ed Rollins of Ione, who works at Bank of Eastern Oregon in Heppner as Se- nior Vice President of Cred- it Administration, donned a red jersey and cowboy hat last month to join the Montana Running Ranchers relay team that took part in the Ragnar Relay Series Northwest Passage race. The overnight event, which took place July 17 and 18, began in Blaine, WA and covered about 200 miles, wrapping up in Langley, WA. Because it was an overnight relay, team members were run- ning around the clock. “You’re running clear through,” says Rollins. Rollins ran three legs of the relay—the first, at 9:25 a.m., ran from Blaine, WA six miles south. His second leg, the race’s 13 th , began at 6:02 p.m. and went from Burlington, WA four and a half miles south. His final leg, the 25 th leg of the race, went 3.1 miles from Oak Harbor High School to the Oak Harbor beach park. That leg began at 4:13 a.m. Rollins, who turns 40 next month, wouldn’t bill himself as a running fanat- ic; far from it. When asked if he’d ever done anything like this relay, “Not even close,” was the immediate response. He says he’s only been running since 2012, and mostly keeps to local races. “I run a few 5Ks. What- ever run happens in Hep- pner, whatever run happens in Ione,” he says, adding that he has also branched out to a few short races in the larger Eastern Oregon area. He says the experi- ence of the larger relay race was “phenomenal.” “The couple of days leading up to it, I was think- -See RUNNING FOR BEEF/ PAGE THREE END OF SUMMER CLEARANCE SALE 20% Off all garden seeds 50% off all nursery stock NOW IS THE TIME TO SAVE! Ed Rollins (back right) and the rest of the Montana Running Ranchers drew a lot of attention for beef awareness with their red shirts and cowboy hats. -Contributed photo Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For farm equipment, visit our web site at www.mcgg.net