Warm weather to continue
into April
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 135
NO. 15 8 Pages
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Suspect sought in
Irrigon home
invasion, robbery
Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Ofice is still inves-
tigating a home invasion
and robbery that frightened
an Irrigon woman and sent
schools into lockdown last
Wednesday.
The woman told depu-
ties that a man dressed in
a gray hoodie knocked on
her door just before 9 a.m.
March 30 and, when she
answered, he forced his way
inside at gunpoint.
The suspect stole a
purse and other belongings
from a bedroom and ran
away, according to Morrow
County Sheriff Kenneth
Matlack.
Deputies notified Ir-
rigon schools, which went
into lock-out until the area
was checked by law en-
forcement.
Boardman Police De-
partment assisted in the
searching for the suspect.
MCSO reports that, as of
Tuesday, the suspect re-
mained at large, but there
does not appear to be a
threat to the general public.
Heppner natives join
area police
departments
March’s warm weather
will continue into April,
according to information
from the National Weather
Service in Pendleton.
According to pre -
liminary data received by
NOAA’s National Weath-
er Service in Pendleton,
temperatures at Heppner
averaged slightly warmer
than normal during the
month of March. The aver-
age temperature was 45.6
degrees, which was 1.4
degrees above normal. High
temperatures averaged 55.3
degrees, which was 0.4
degrees above normal. The
highest was 64 degrees on
the March 2. Low tem-
peratures averaged 35.9
degrees, which was 2.4
degrees above normal. The
lowest was 26 degrees, on
the 18 th .
There were six days
with the low temperature
below 32 degrees.
Precipitation totaled
1.59 inches during March,
which was 0.07 inches
above normal. Measurable
precipitation of at least .01
inch was received on 15
days with the heaviest, 0.36
inches, reported on the 21 st .
Precipitation this year
has reached 3.18 inches,
0.93 inches below normal.
Since October, the water
year precipitation at Hep-
pner has been 7.02 inches,
1.15 inches below normal.
The highest wind gust
was 51 mph, which oc-
curred on the 13 th .
The outlook for April
from NOAA’s Climate Pre-
diction Center calls for
above-normal temperatures
and near- to below-normal
precipitation. Normal highs
for Heppner rise from 59
degrees at the start of April
to 64 degrees at the end.
Normal lows rise from 36
degrees to 40 degrees. The
30-year normal precipita-
tion is 1.51 inches.
Myren retires as Morrow County
Undersheriff
By Andrea Di Salvo
New Morrow County
Undersheriff John Bowles
will have some sizeable
shoes to ill when he takes
over for retiring undersher-
iff Steven Myren this week.
However, while Bowles
is working hard to protect
county residents, Myren
himself doesn’t exactly plan
on putting his feet up and
calling it quits.
Myren, 53, officially
retired last Friday, April
1, beginning life as a so-
called retired person this
week. However, he admits
that, after 36 years in pub-
lic safety—23 of those in
law enforcement—he’s not
quite sure what this retire-
ment thing is all about.
“I’m petriied.” Myren
says honestly. “I was 18
when I was first drafted
into the ire department and
I’ve been in uniform ever
since. So I’m a little bit ap-
prehensive.”
He was born in Silver-
ton, OR and grew up on a
60-acre farm near Scotts
Mills, OR, where he at-
tended elementary school
before attending Silverton
High School.
L-R: Morrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack, retiring undersheriff Steve Myren with a plaque rec-
ognizing his service to Morrow County, and new undersheriff John Bowles. -Contributed photo
He started at age 18
as a volunteer firefighter
with Silverton Fire District,
where he served until 1989.
Over the years, Myren
says he has taken college
classes here and there. More
important to him, he also
earned EMT (Emergency
Medical Technician) and
ireighter credentials.
“I’ve always been in-
volved in EMS ever since I
irst started as a ireighter,
and I’ve been a volun-
teer ireighter most of that
time,” he says, adding that
one of his plans for retire-
ment is to get back into
volunteer ireighting.
During his time in Sil-
verton, he also became
dispatcher for a couple
of years, starting with the
Mount Angel Police De-
partment in 1987 and work-
ing there until 1989.
In 1989, Myren began
the irst of two stints with
the Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Ofice. He worked as
a patrol deputy, taught the
DARE (Drug Abuse Resis-
tance Education) program
in schools for several years,
was a firearms instruc-
tor and spent time on the
-See MYREN RETIRES/
PAGE THREE
School district’s ‘Wellness Hub’ aims
to create success for students
Zachary McCarl (left) and Curtis Harper both graduated from
the Oregon Public Safety Academy last month. -Contributed
photo
Heppner natives Zach-
ary McCarl and Curtis
Harper graduated from the
16-week Oregon Public
Safety Academy in Salem,
OR on March 18.
Both men have taken
jobs with area law enforce-
ment in Umatilla County.
McCarl is an oficer with
Umatilla Police Depart-
ment, while Harper is an of-
icer with Pendleton Police
Department.
Both men graduated
from Heppner High School
in 2010. Both were also
members of the Boy Scout
Pack and Troop #661.
After graduation, Mc-
Carl joined the U.S. Marine
Corps and served a tour in
Afghanistan. Harper gradu-
ated from Western Oregon
University with a degree in
criminal justice.
Heppner grad lives life
in the fast lane
“Ladies and gentlemen,
start your engines!”
Those words are the
new norm for Heppner
graduate Thomas Gould.
After graduating from
Heppner High School in
2015, Gould made his way
to South Carolina to live
with family friends Terry
and Stacey Premo. He was
then accepted into NAS-
CAR Technical Institute in
Mooresville, NC, a school
that offers NASCAR tech-
nician training.
Not satisied with going
to school full time, Gould
got a job at GoPro Motor-
plex, a motorplex frequent-
ed by NASCAR drivers and
amateurs alike. During his
irst term at school, thanks
to the Premos, he celebrated
four times in the winner’s
circle through NASCAR
sponsor, Freightliner.
Gould also recently
accepted an internship with
the NASCAR Camping
World Truck Series Bolen
Motorsports team, with
Jordan Anderson driving
the No. 66 Chevrolet Sil-
verado. His irst real race as
a co-mechanic was during
The Morrow County
School District (MCSD)
says it’s on a mission—a
mission to improve stu-
dent attendance, to provide
medical and dental care for
students, to support fami-
lies of their students and to
increase student safety at
all of its buildings. Thanks
to the new Wellness Hub,
the district believes it is
succeeding.
The Wellness Hub is a
“braiding” of resources that
already exist in Morrow
County—from dental and
healthcare professionals
to CARE coordinators and
safety resource officers
who coordinate with lo-
cal law enforcement. The
Wellness Hubs are an initia-
tive of the InterMountain
Education Service District
(IMESD), which is plan-
ning to implement more
hubs in its school districts
in the region.
Although Morrow
County has wanted to bring
this concept to fruition for
the last three years, it took
much coordination to secure
partnerships and funding.
Services now include two
safety resource oficers, one
family support coordinator,
two CARE coordinators,
three community counsel-
ing counselors, one early
learning care coordinator,
a school nurse and dental
services through Advantage
Dental, all of which are
services students can access
through their schools. The
goal is to provide immedi-
ate, eficient services so that
students don’t have to miss
school or can get back to
school sooner.
Dirk Dirksen, super-
intendent of the Morrow
County School District,
said the school district is
realizing about $700,000
worth of employees and
services, but because of
partnerships with partici-
pating agencies, the district
pays only $185,000.
“The school district is
getting so much support
for our students, resourc-
es that reach beyond the
eight hours students are in
school—that’s priceless.
Now the care is so immedi-
ate—kids can get vaccines
or glasses or dental screen-
ings in a day or two when it
took much longer before,”
Dirksen said.
Mark Mulvihill,
IMESD superintendent,
said although the concept
of providing services such
as these is not new, Morrow
County School District has
implemented the Wellness
Hub admirably.
“Few districts have
successfully embraced the
Wellness Hub as quickly as
MCSD—what the district
is doing and the degree of
their implementation is
really transformational for
their students,” Mulvihill
said.
Depredations lead to lethal control for
wolves in Wallowa County
Four wolves of the Im-
naha pack associated with
recent depredations were
shot and killed last Thurs-
day by Oregon Dept. of
Fish and Wildlife (ODFW)
staff on private land in Wal-
lowa County.
Last week ODFW
confirmed five livestock
depredation incidents on
private land within the
past three weeks by some
wolves in the Imnaha pack,
despite continued efforts by
-See GOULD IN FAST ODFW, Wallowa County
LANE/PAGE TWO oficials and area livestock
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
producers to deter wolf-
livestock conlict with non-
lethal measures. With the
pack involved in chronic
livestock depredation and
as part of implementation of
Oregon Wolf Conservation
and Management Plan pro-
visions, ODFW lethally re-
moved depredating wolves
to reduce the likelihood of
further losses.
Information from two
collared wolves—OR4, the
alpha male and OR39, the
alpha female—indicated
that they and two younger
wolves had regularly used
an area of private land on
the westernmost portion of
their known home range.
While infrequent visits
were historically made to
the area by this pack, the
near continual use of the
-See WOLVES KILLED/
PAGE THREE
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