Heppner celebrates homecoming HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 134 NO. 37 8 Pages Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Heppner celebrated homecoming last week with plenty of festivities as well as victories on the volleyball court and the gridiron. Pictured back L-R are Junior Princess Emily Cecil with fa- Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon ther Raymond Cecil, Senior Princess Sydney Maben with father Jason Maben, Senior Queen Jessica Kempken with mother Donna Sherman, Senior Princess Riley Kollman with father Brian Kollman, and Junior Princess Riane Dompier with father Jon Dompier. In front (L-R) are Kolby Currin, first-grade pennant bearer Jett Stewart, Patrick Collins, first-grade pennant bearer Maya Payne, C.J. Kindle and Logan Grieb. –Photo by Sandra Putman Changes ahead for county government County judge position eliminated, county administrator to be hired By Andrea Di Salvo to not deal with day-to- has a budget of $40,000 needs to remain in the coun- Morrow County gov- day operations but to set for lawyers, but the state ty,” said Tallman. “Where ernment will undergo some policy and maybe pays for lawyers in the judge resides has a large drastic changes in the wake even go to Salem to circuit court cases. impact on services. It’s no of a decision by the Morrow lobby for things that “We’re already reflection on these judges. County Court recently. are important to the paying taxes to the They’re good solid judges. At its Sept. 16 meeting, county. state for the circuit They simply don’t live here the three-member court “Look at the court to do this,” in Morrow County. I do.” voted unanimously to three largest cities in said Russell. Tallman said another eliminate the long-standing our county—Hep- Leann Rea Another consid- concern of the commis- county judge position. The pner, Boardman and eration was reliev- sioners was the fact that the position will be terminated Irrigon—and they’re all run ing the county judge of the county judge isn’t a lawyer. at the retirement of cur- by paid administrators,” he time commitment involved “One of the contentions rent Morrow County Judge added. “The mayor and the in juvenile cases. The only is that I wasn’t trained as a Terry Tallman at the end of city council don’t deal with other three counties in the lawyer. They don’t think 2016. The commis- details of the day- state in which the county these skills are learnable; sion intends then to-day operations.” judge has jurisdiction over they think a lawyer should to have three part- While the vote juvenile cases are Wheel- do it,” said Tallman. “That’s time commissioners was unanimous, er, Gilliam and Sherman okay, but to suggest that a and hire a paid, full- judge Tallman said counties, all of which have citizen of Morrow County time county admin- h e s t i l l h a s h i s populations significantly wouldn’t want to learn istrator. The current Terry doubts that it was smaller than Mor- the skills it takes to structure has two Tallman the right move. row County, which conduct a juvenile part-time commis- “It was not an has a population court—I don’t be- sioners and one full-time easy decision for me to of approximately lieve this is thinking county judge, with no ad- make. I still have mixed 12,000. of all of Morrow ministrator. feelings about it. I think Russell said he County.” The two county com- there’s more than one way talked to multiple Roy Blaine, missioners said the heavy to address that issue,” he people from various Don Russell Trial Court Admin- workload on the county said, adding that he thought agencies during the istrator for the Sixth judge was a major factor in the problem could have decision process, including Judicial District, told the their decision to make the been solved by hiring an as- Morrow County District county court that the five change. sistant for the judge. “Give Attorney Justin Nelson, judges of the district would “Our county’s growing it a year and see how we current and former county pick up Morrow County’s to the point that the judge feel,” he added. sheriffs, district judges, caseload and make the can’t take care of judge Another decision re- previous county judges and change “as seamless as duties and administrative cently made by the county others. possible.” duties both,” said county court is to move the re- “I just talked to every- Tallman didn’t agree. commissioner Leann Rea, sponsibility of juvenile one I could think of who “They (circuit court who cited “windshield court cases from the county might have an opinion on judges) have trouble being time” spent on the way to judge to the Sixth Judicial it. And then I just tried to in Morrow County more meetings as one roadblock District, which serves both talk to a lot of people on than one day a week—and to productivity. Morrow and Umatilla coun- the street about it,” he said. that’s criminal cases,” said Commissioner Don ties. Unlike the other vote, Tallman cited several Tallman. “Judge Pahl is Russell agreed. this decision was not unani- objection to the removal overloaded and he’s the “I think the county’s mous, with county judge of juvenile duties from the only juvenile judge they’ve getting big enough that we Terry Tallman providing a county judge, including loss got. We’re going to ask can’t continue to elect a lay dissenting vote against the of local control, less time in him to spread himself even person,” said Russell. “Per- change. court, the need to develop a thinner.” sonally, I don’t think that “We’re taking the time Commissioners Russell legal infrastructure in Mor- some things were getting and Rea say they voted for row County, and even inac- to reach a decision involv- done that an administrator the change largely because curacies in Russell’s report. ing a family and doing it in would do. This allows three it will save the county mon- “My biggest concern -See COUNTY COURT CHANGES/PAGE FIVE part-time commissioners ey. The county currently is that I think the judgeship South Morrow schools see slight decline in enrollment Both Heppner and Ione schools have seen a slight drop in enrollment for the 2015-16 school year. While Morrow County School District Superin- tendent Dirk Dirksen re- ports that enrollment is up district-wide, enrollment in Heppner schools has dropped slightly. Heppner Elementary reported 188 students en- rolled last year but only 173 this year. That was due in part to last year’s un- usually large kindergarten class—the 29 students that enrolled in 2014 made it the largest kindergarten class in several years. Enrollment is down only slightly this year, with 22 kindergartners enrolled at HES. High school enrollment is also down, though not by much. Last year’s high school enrollment was 167 compared to this year’s student body of 161. At Ione Community School, enrollment num- bers are down slightly school-wide, with total en- rollment of 204 compared to 213 last year. Lower numbers can be seen in the entering kinder- garten class, which con- tains 11 students compared with 17 last year. Overall elementary numbers have dropped, from 102 last year to 75 this year, while middle school is up from 31 to 48. High school enrollment is holding steady, officials report, down only one from last year’s 80 students. Ballots go out soon for November election Ballots go out Wednes- day, Oct. 14, for the Nov. 3 general election. The last day for voters to register for the election is Oct. 13. The issues on the bal- lot for Morrow County this year are strictly local in nature, affecting only the Heppner and Lexington areas. Heppner and other resi- dents of the Heppner Rural Fire Protection District will vote on a bond for a new fire hall in Heppner, while Lexington residents will be presented with the renewal of a five-year local option tax for the Lexington Fire Department. All ballots are due by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, and must be received, not simply postmarked, on that day. For voter convenience, 24-hour drop boxes will be available in Heppner and Lexington. Locations are as follows: Heppner: Courthouse parking lot (24 hours) or the Morrow County Clerk’s Office, Room 102 inside the courthouse. Open 8 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m., M-F and Election Day (Nov. 3) from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Lexington: 365 West Hwy 74 (Public Works Parking lot). Turn off Hwy. 74 onto Tom Street and left into the public works park- ing lot. Open 24 hours. Health district hires interim administrator District passes audit with flying colors By April Sykes Bob Houser, retired John Day hospital adminis- trator, has accepted an offer from the Morrow County Health District Board for an interim position as district administrator at a salary of $180,000 a year, plus the use of the district house and other benefits. The board has filled the CEO position temporarily until a perma- nent administrator is hired. The district has been oper- ating without a permanent CEO since the resignation of Dan Grigg in June. Chief Financial Officer Nicole Mahoney has been acting as CEO, in addition to her other responsibilities, since Grigg left to take a position in Burns. If hired, the interim CEO would begin Nov. 1 and would be employed for at least three months. Also at the meeting, Eric Volk, CPA, senior man- ager with WIPFLI CPAs and Consultants, presented the district’s 2015 audit, which showed no deficien- cies. Volk praised Mahoney and her staff for presenting the financial data for the audit. The audit showed the district had a net increase of $294,247 for the fiscal year ending in June 2015, compared to $319,127 for 2014, and $905,928 for 2013. Gross patient revenue increased by $954,864 in 2015, compared to a de- crease of $234,958 last year. Net patient accounts receiv- able increased $1,436,949 for 2015, compared to $1,123,481 last year and $984,375 in 2013. Net non- patient revenue, which in- cludes property taxes, in- creased by $192,833 this year, compared to $146,288 in 2014. Total operating expenses increased by $565,277 this year, and $687,936 last year. The district’s total assets for 2015 were $6,999,761, with $2,939,714 in liabili- ties; in 2014, total assets were $6,734,458, com- pared to total liabilities of $2,968,658; total assets in 2013 were $6,686,424, compared to $3,239,751 in total liabilities. Total operating revenue for 2015 was $8,041,299; with operating expenses of $6,430,235 in salaries and benefits, $572,493 in depreciation and amortiza- tion, $891,726 for supplies and $1,463,853 for other operating expenses, for total operating expenses of ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. $9,358,307; with non-oper- ating revenue of $1,476,290 in property tax revenue, $10,945 in interest earnings, minus $84,076 in interest expense, plus $30,527 in donations and non-capital grants and $177,569 in “other” for $1,611,255 in total non-operating rev- enue; net position at the beginning of 2015 was $3,765,800, compared to $4,060,047 at the end of the year. For 2014, the district had $7,612,460 in total op- erating revenue, $8,793,030 in total operating expenses, $1,499,697 in total non- operating revenue, net, with a net position of $3,446,673 at the beginning of the year, and $3,765,800 at the end of the year. The board also accept- ed the low bid of $48,825 from Cougar Excavation, Wamic, OR, for re-routing and replacing four four-inch sewer lines which exit the hospital and connect to the six-inch main line going into the city’s sewer main. Specifications also include cutting and removing the retaining wall, asphalt and concrete patio, trenching and replacing all sewer lines specified in the request, backfilling all trenching, installing new cleanouts with new cast-iron covers and concrete retaining rings flush with surface, includ- ing applying for necessary permits and replacing ex- isting retaining wall using the 6x16 concrete garden wall blocks and replacing the concrete patio with sod. Cougar Excavation’s bid for the reduced project op- tion two, which did not in- clude replacing the existing -See HEALTH DISTRICT/ PAGE SEVEN SaleS event! 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