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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 2015)
School district still considering K-12 school for Heppner HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 134 NO. 39 8 Pages Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon New fire hall depends on voter approval Both city and rural district need voter approval for $975,000 facility By David Sykes The planning is com- pleted, the land obtained, permits approved and now all that’s standing in the way of construction of a new $975,000 fire hall is voter approval. And voters in both the city of Heppner and the Heppner Rural Fire Protection District need to pass their respective bond measures in order for it to begin. City voters will be asked to fund 60 percent, or $585,000 of the facility, and the rural district the other 40 percent at $390,000. Voters should be receiving their ballots in the mail this week. Deadline to return the Fireman Andrew Johnson explains details of the proposed new fire hall to (L-R) Vern Keithley, Ginger Keithley and Deanna Koerner. Ballots will be mailed out soon to both the city and rural fire district voters for approval. –Photo by David Sykes Hwy. 74 and Riverside Growers. It would feature Street at Fuller Canyon Rd. administration offices, ap- An artist’s sketch of the proposed new fire hall. ballots is Nov. 2. right at the edge of the city paratus bays, training room The proposed new hall limits on land donated by and space to park multiple would be built between the Morrow County Grain fire trucks and vehicles. The new hall is needed, city officials say, because the current building on Willow Street in downtown Heppner is outdated and too small, hampering safety and response times. There is also no room for training, says Fire Chief Rusty Estes. Some people have questioned the need for such a large new building, to which the city responds by saying space is needed because of the increased size of today’s fire trucks. They also say the cur- rent fire hall does not leave room for firefighters to safely get in and out, and they do not have room for maintenance and repairs of equipment. The bond levy would be for 21 years and in the city is estimated to result in a tax of $0.88 per $1,000 of assessed value per year, or approximately $132 per year on a home assessed at $150,000. In the rural this mea- sure is estimated to result in a tax of $0.41 per $1,000 of assessed value per year, or approximately $62 per year on a home assessed at $150,000. The Heppner Gazette- Times wants to see pic- tures of your trophy ani- mals from this hunting season. Stop by to have your picture taken, drop off photos, mail them to PO Box 337 in Heppner, email them Top: Aaron Smythe took this 3x4 buck on the opening weekend to editor@ of rifle season. Aaron is the son of Scott and Claudia Smythe of rapidserve. Hardman. Bottom: Casey Fletcher, 13, shot his 4x4 buck Oct. net or text 10 on the Columbia Basin Unit using a .300 Savage. Casey is the son of Andy and Andrea Fletcher of Lexington. –Contrib- cell phone photos to 541-980-6674. uted photos G-T Trophy Corner An artist’s concept of what the layout of the K-12 school being considered for Heppner would look like. –Courtesy of DLR Group By April Sykes If the Morrow County School District is reading the Heppner populace cor- rectly, citizens of Heppner are in favor of a new kin- dergarten through 12 th grade school located at the present high school site on Morgan Street, according to Scott Rose, representing the DLR Group, an architectural firm hired by the district to come up with solutions to the dis- trict’s facility issues. Board member Barney Lindsay voiced concern as to what the Heppner com- munity really wants for its schools. “This is what we thought you wanted,” re- plied Rose, adding, “We want to make sure this is what the community really wants.” He said that each com- munity has to have some benefit in order to make the plan work and that the ultimate goal is to enable the students to become equally prepared for college or careers. MCSD Superin- tendent Dirk Dirksen added that the information DLR used was taken from input at several meetings held in each community. According to DLR’s long-range facility plan, “Heppner schools host the smallest student population in the district with no indi- cation from the community of potential growth. There is more education space than the students need and at the same time, a signifi- cant amount of recreation space that the community would like to share, specifi- cally, the new gymnasium and cafeteria facility built across the street from Hep- pner Elementary School. “Both of Heppner’s schools have the highest fa- cility conditions index. This indicates that the cost to renovate the overall facili- ties to meet modern stan- dards would cost close to the amount it would take to build brand new facilities. “A new consolidated K-12 building on the sloped site above Heppner High School is the community committee’s preferred op- tion.” DLR recommendations aim to work toward fix- ing the district’s problems concerning aging buildings, maintenance and heating and cooling costs, student population and, most im- portantly, educating stu- dents of the future. Recommendations for Heppner schools would include “offloading” the Heppner Elementary class- room building; retaining the Heppner Elementary gym for shared use by the school and the community; demol- ishing the Heppner High School and shop buildings; and building a K-12 school above the demolished site. Another option for Heppner schools would entail offloading Heppner Elementary, retaining the Heppner Elementary gym for shared use by the school and community and reno- vating the high school to become a new K-12 school. Rose said that the plans were community driven and said that his compa- ny compiled information from a series of meetings that sought input from each community. He also stressed the importance of creating smaller schools within schools, creating an elementary or middle school separate from a high school, for example, al- though the schools would actually be in the same building. The thinking of MCSD administrators is that the time to start addressing fa- cility issues is now. MCSD Superintendent Dirk Dirk- sen said that for the last 10 years, the district’s response -See SCHOOL BUILDINGS/ PAGE FIVE Police investigating death of infant in Irrigon Morrow County police are investigating the sudden death of an infant in Irrigon. According to informa- tion from Morrow County Sheriff Kenneth Matlack, the infant’s parents, Sheri Leigh May and Andrew Cody O’Neil of Garibaldi, OR, were visiting friends in Irrigon when their baby boy stopped breathing Monday morning. Monday morning at 10:58, Morrow County Sheriff’s Office 911 Dis- patch Center reported that they received a call from a hysterical female who told the dispatcher that her six- week-old baby boy was not breathing. The dispatcher relayed the information to the nearest deputies in Ir- rigon and then tried to give emergency instructions to the woman. She remained hysterical and was appar- ently unable to follow the initial instructions. The dis- patcher briefly lost phone contact but immediately called back. A second fe- male answered and the dispatcher began to give her emergency information. MCSO deputies were on the scene almost im- mediately; within three minutes of the initial call, at 11:01 a.m., deputies arrived and deputy Oscar Madrigal began administering CPR to the infant. Eight minutes later, Irrigon ambulance arrived and transported the -See INFANT DIES IN IRRIGON/PAGE THREE Boardman has first reading of marijuana ban ordinance At their Oct. 6 council meeting, Boardman City Councilors held a hearing to consider a ban on recre- ational marijuana within the city limits. One person attended the hearing and spoke against the ban, saying they felt the city would benefit from the tax revenue generated by recreational marijuana businesses. City Manager Karen Pettigrew said Morrow County voted about 63 percent against Measure 91, which directs the Oregon Liquor Control Commis- sion to license the produc- tion, processing, wholesale and retail sale of recre- ational marijuana. House Bill 3400 pro- -See BOARDMAN MARI- JUANA BAN/PAGE THREE BE READY FOR COLD WEATHER 20% OFF All Electric Heaters Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)