Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Grange to host
Wheat Walk/Run
On Saturday, May 14, the Lexington Grange will host
a 5k Wheat Walk/Run. The walk/run will begin and end
at the Grange building, 66296 Marquardt Rd., Lexington.
The cost for the run is $10, or $16 with an event shirt.
Pre-registration can be done online or registration
will start at 8:30 a.m. before the run. The run will start
at 9 a.m. Prizes will be awarded and a portion of the
proceeds from this event will go toward the Lexington
Grange scholarship fund.
Bingo at senior
center next week
Bingo is returning to St. Patrick’s Senior Center in
Heppner next Thursday, May 12, from 7-9 p.m. It will
be held in the senior center’s multipurpose room (aka the
dining room).
Cost will be 50 cents per card per game, and the black-
out prize of $150 will go to the winner. All proceeds will
be for the beneit of the senior center and the St. Patrick’s
apartment complex.
Chamber lunch
meeting
The next lunch meeting of the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce will be an all entities report on Thursday, May
5, at noon in Heppner City Hall conference room.
Cost of lunch is $10; Gateway Café will cater. Cham-
ber lunch attendees are asked to RSVP at 541-676-5536
no later than the Wednesday before to guarantee a lunch.
Community lunch
menu
Christian Life Center volunteers will serve lunch
on Wednesday, May 11, at St. Patrick’s Senior Center.
Lunch will include pulled-pork sandwiches, macaroni
and cheese, coleslaw, sliced tomatoes and strawberry
shortcake.
Milk is served at each meal. Suggested donation is
$3.50 per meal. Menu is subject to change.
- THREE
Weather service offers free weather
spotter training in Heppner
Weather spotter network will help track storms
Volunteers are being
sought to participate in the
latest weather spotter train-
ing on May 17 in Heppner.
Weather spotters trained by
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administra-
tion’s (NOAA) National
Weather Service (NWS)
are key volunteers who as-
sist the meteorologists by
providing up-to-date infor-
mation about storm activity.
The Skywarn Weather
Spotter training is free and
will be held at Heppner City
Hall at 111 N Main St. in
Heppner at 2 p.m.
Even though the Dop-
pler weather radar is scan-
ning the skies and the
NOAA Weather Radio is
broadcasting forecasts,
watches and warnings, fore-
casters depend upon getting
good ground truth informa-
tion from trained Skywarn
weather spotters.
“Skywarn volunteers
are not ‘storm chasers,’
although many Skywarn
members, both local and na-
tionwide, may chase storms
on their own time,” said
Dennis Hull, NWS Warning
Coordination Meteorolo-
gist at the forecast ofice in
Pendleton. “The National
Weather does not encourage
storm chasing because it is
very dangerous.”
“The safety of all Sky-
warn spotters is a high
priority,” Hull added. “Sky-
warn members are volun-
teers trained in weather
spotting and reporting those
indings in a timely manner
using the phone, amateur
radio, or internet.”
Skywarn spotters at-
tend a two-hour training
session where they learn
how to observe cloud for-
mations and other weather
in this area. The Weather
Service teaches how to
determine which storms
are potentially severe. Spot-
ters use a special toll free
number, amateur radio fre-
quency, or the internet ad-
dress to let the forecasters
at the National Weather
Service ofice in Pendleton
know what is happening in
their area. Meteorologists
use this data as they issue
severe weather warnings or
statements to the residents
of Morrow County.
Hull said the Skywarn
was a concept, developed
in the early 1970s, that
was intended to promote a
cooperative effort between
the National Weather Ser-
vice and communities. The
emphasis of the effort is
often focused on the storm
spotter, an individual who
takes a position near their
community and reports
wind gusts, hail size, rain-
fall, and cloud formations
that could signal a develop-
ing tornado.
In the winter, spotters
report heavy snow, icing,
high winds and blizzards.
Skywarn also works to
ensure National Weather
Service forecasts, watches,
and warnings are broadcast
Skywarn weather spotter training is being offered in Hep-
pner May 17 to help train citizens to provide meteorologists
up-to-date information about storm activity. -Photo courtesy
of National Weather Service
and received in a timely
manner.
The lead role in Sky-
warn may lie with the Na-
tional Weather Service or
with an emergency man-
agement agency within the
community. This agency
could be a police or fire
department, or often is an
emergency management/
service group. This varies
across the country, how-
ever, with local national
weather service ofices tak-
ing the lead in some loca-
tions, while emergency
management takes the lead
in other areas.
Interested residents
who would like to learn
more about local weather
or those who are interest ed
in helping their neighbors
obtain good weather warn-
ings are invited to attend
the training. Volunteers
are asked to fill out pre-
registration at weather.gov/
Pendleton and bring infor-
mation about their latitude,
longitude, and elevation so
their locations can be easily
mapped. Door prizes will
be given away.
More information
about the training is avail-
able by contacting the Na-
tional Weather Service at
541-969-7136. You can
also email Hull at dennis.
hull@noaa.gov. Additional
information is also avail-
able at the National Weather
Service website at weather.
gov/pendleton.
NOAA Weather Ra-
dio broadcasts to Mor-
row County from a trans-
mitter near Heppner on
a frequency of 162.425
MHz. Find additional in-
formation about Skywarn
at http://www.skywarn.org.
Firewood permits available now for Umatilla National Forest
Pendleton—Personal-
use firewood permits for
the Umatilla National For-
est went on sale this week
at local vendors and Forest
Service offices. Locally,
permits are available at
Heppner Shell or the Hep-
pner Ranger District ofice.
Firewood permits can be
purchased for $5 per cord
with a minimum purchase
of four cords for $20. The
maximum limit for per-
sonal-use irewood on the
Umatilla National Forest
is 12 cords per household
per year.
Local vendors will sell
irewood permits in four-
cord packets. An additional
vendor fee, up to $2, will be
charged for each four-cord,
$20 firewood permit you
purchase at a local vendor.
“Our vendors provide a
great service to the wood-
cutter by selling irewood
CITY OF IRRIGON
-Continued from PAGE ONE
able to be leveraged with
assistance from the Dept.
of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) through the lower-
ing of the interest rate on
an existing loan.
The plan is one of many
that cities must have cur-
rent in order to request and
move projects forward. The
city’s engineers, J-U-B, will
Wedding Tables
Derek Gunderson &
Meghan McCabe
May, 21, 2016
permits at times more con-
venient to the public,” said
Genevieve Masters, Forest
Supervisor.
Most vendors are open
early mornings, late eve-
nings and on the weekends.
An additional fee is not
charged if you purchase a
permit at a Forest Service
ofice.
Firewood cutters are
required to carry an axe,
a shovel, an eight-ounce
capacity or larger ire ex-
tinguisher, and have their
chainsaw equipped with
an approved spark arrester
when cutting wood.
As we move into the
hot, dry summer months,
Public Use Restrictions
(PURs) may be imple-
mented. Restrictions will
be announced by 6 p.m.
on the day prior to the
restriction(s) going into ef-
fect. Weekend restrictions
will be announced by 6
p.m. on Friday. An updated
recording at 1-877-958-
9663 will let you know if
irewood cutting is: allowed
all day; restricted to speciic
hours (i.e. 1 p.m. chainsaw
shutdown); restricted to
speciic areas of the Forest;
or closed completely due
to wildire danger. Restric-
tions will also be posted
on the forest’s website at:
be performing the work on
the plan development and
writing. Infrastructure Fi-
nance Authority will assist
the city on behalf of Busi-
ness Oregon.
The City of Irrigon also
is in the process of develop-
ing an incentive program to
eliminate nuisance proper-
ties. The policy is two-
fold to assist in nuisance
compliance and property
improvement.
Applications should be
available in early summer,
with further details to be
provided once the program
policy is established. Initial
funds of $50,000 have been
provided by the Colum-
bia River Enterprise Zone
board.
The city council says
it wants to see properties
cleaned up and improved,
whether businesses or pri-
vate residences.
WARM WEATHER
MILES &
MILES OF SMILES
Emma Osmin &
Jordan Wright
May 7, 2016
Rick Worden &
Kelsie Fox
May 28, 2016
Lane Bailey &
Jessica Hughes
June 25, 2016
217 North Main St., Heppner • Phone 676-9158 • Floral 676-9426
Serving Morrow, Wheeler & Gilliam counties Since 1959
www.fs.usda.gov/umatilla.
It is the public’s responsi-
bility to check if irewood
cutting is allowed.
For more information
on irewood cutting, con-
tact the Supervisor’s ofice
at 541-278-3716 or the
Heppner Ranger District at
541-676-9187.
Firewood season will
end November 30 on the
Umatilla National Forest.
-Continued from PAGE ONE water-year precipitation
temperatures for this April
averaged 67.7 degrees,
which was 6.8 degrees
above normal.
The highest was 81
degrees on the 20 th . Low
temperatures averaged 41.2
degrees, which was four
degrees above normal. The
lowest was 33 degrees, on
the 25 th .
Precipitation totaled
0.53 inches during April,
which was 0.98 inches be-
low normal.
Measurable precipita-
tion of at least .01 inch was
received on seven days with
the heaviest, 0.23 inches,
reported on the 15 th .
Precipitation this year
has reached 3.71 inches,
which is 1.91 inches below
normal. Since October, the
at Heppner has been 7.55
inches, which is 2.13 inches
below normal.
The highest wind gust
was 39 mph, which oc-
curred on the 14 th .
The outlook for May
calls for above-normal tem-
peratures and near-normal
precipitation.
Normal highs for Hep-
pner rise from 64 degrees
at the start of May to 73
degrees at the end of May.
Normal lows rise from 40
degrees to 47 degrees.
The 30-year normal
precipitation is 1.66 inches.
The National Weather
Service is an ofice of the
National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration,
an agency of the U.S. Com-
merce Department.
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MORROW COUNTY
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