BMCC breaks ground on
Boardman bond project
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 135
NO. 21 10 Pages
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
New farm worker housing
development planned on
Tower Road near Boardman
BMCC and county representatives gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony for BMCC’s
new Workforce Training Center at the Port of Morrow last week. Those who wielded a golden
shovel at the ceremony were (L-R) Dr. Tony Turner, BMCC Board of Education, Milton-
Freewater; Rob Dreier, BMCC Bond Project Manager, Frew Development Group; Ed Taber,
BMCC Board of Education Chair, Pendleton; Tyson Furstenberg, Vice President, McCormack
Construction; Chris Brown, BMCC Board of Education, Morrow County; Louis Carlson,
BMCC Bond Campaign Volunteer, Morrow County; Susan Plass, BMCC Board of Education,
Pendleton; Kim Puzey, BMCC Board of Education, Hermiston; Cam Preus, BMCC President;
Jerry Healy, Port of Morrow Commissioner; Gary Neal, Executive Director, Port of Morrow.
-Photo by David Sykes
-See the full story PAGE SIX
Hansell named to
Transient Lodging Tax
Work Group
Will accommodate 200-800 seasonal workers needed for
increased organic farming at Threemile Canyon Farms
By David Sykes
A new housing devel-
opment capable of han-
dling between 200 and 800
seasonal farm workers is
being planned for construc-
tion on Tower Road near
Boardman, according to an
application iled with the
Morrow County Planning
Department. The develop-
ment is to be built on 66
acres currently owned by
the City of Boardman but
being sold to nearby Three-
mile Farms.
“Threemile Farms is
looking to increase the use
of organic farming prac-
tices,” the application said
about the project. “Organic
farming is a much more
labor intensive process and
requires the use of a larger
workforce.” The documents
also stated that Threemile
plans to use the Farm Work-
er H-2A Visa Program to
employ the additional 200-
800 workers on a season
basis. Application for actual
construction of the hous-
ing project has not been
dealt with by the Morrow
County Planning Commis-
sion; however, a request to
rezone the city-owned land
from Space Age Industrial
to Exclusive Farm Use prior
to the sale was approved by
the Planning Commission
last Tuesday night.
The rezoning clears the
way for the project since
farm worker housing is an
Salem—Last week,
Oregon Sen. Bill Hansell
(R-Athena) was named to
the Transient Lodging Tax
Work Group, a work group
to study issues related to the
state transient lodging tax
and regional tourism.
HB 4146 increased the
transient lodging tax during
the 2016 short legislative
session. The bill increases
the state transient lodging
tax rate from the current
one percent to 1.8 percent
until the end of June 2020,
at which time it will be
reduced to 1.5 percent. The
bill also changes the distri-
bution of revenue from a
discretionary amount with
a ceiling of 15 percent to
two categories for regional
development, and creates
a study group led by the
Legislative Revenue Ofice
to study how these funds
should be administered.
Location of proposed new farm worker housing project. The new development would be located
on 66 acres on Tower Road. Tower Road turns off from Interstate 84 approximately nine miles
west of the city of Boardman. -Contributed
allowed use in an agricul-
tural zone. The planning
commission action will
also allow the new housing
project, which will consist
of 36 three-bedroom units,
to extend sewage lines from
a nearby Port of Morrow
sewage treatment lagoon
system across Tower Road,
to serve the new housing
project. Water for the hous-
ing development will also
come from a Port of Mor-
row water well. The city has
owned the land for about 20
years and it was purchased
then for proposed use in
waste water treatment.
The planning commis-
sion held a public hear-
ing prior to its action last
Tuesday night, and took
public testimony concern-
ing the project. Attorney
Michael Robinson of the
60-member Portland law
irm Perkins Coie testiied
HB 4146 was proposed
as a way to fund Track
Town, a program com-
ing to Eugene in 2020.
However, once the bill was
finally taken to the floor
for a vote, it was amended
so the financial increase
would be spread throughout
the state. Although the bill
passed on a strictly party-
line vote, Senate President
Peter Courtney asked if
Senator Hansell would join
the conversation.
“Although I was a no
vote when this lodging tax
bill went to the loor, I feel
I have an opportunity to
help craft the program to be
beneicial to those of us in
rural Oregon, not just larger
Oregon cities. The last thing
we want is for rural and
Eastern Oregon to be left
out of the conversation,”
Hansell said. “I am very
-See HANSELL/PAGE TWO
KEVA planks arrive at
local public libraries
-See FARM WORKER
HOUSING/PAGE THREE
‘Church of the Dog’—Novel shows Heppner
through a different lens
By Andrea Di Salvo
“Children play in the
outdoor city swimming
pool. Old men sit outside
the feed store. The electric
company is a co-op. I pass
a park that sits in front of
the elementary school, a
library/historical museum,
and a grocery store. On
the other side of the street
is the senior citizens’ cen-
ter, a drugstore, a bank, a
fabric store, and another
bank. People look friendly.
On the left side there’s an
auto shop, Kate’s Pizza and
Video, the Elks Club, and
a Les Schwab tire store.
There’s a dentist’s office
and a chiropractor’s ofice,
a bowling al-
ley, and, up
on the hill,
a small hos-
pital. On my
way out of
town I pass
a graveyard,
a concrete
dam, and a
small lake.”
Reading
those words,
a n y o n e
from Mor-
row County
might assume they come
from a letter or diary of
some neighbor, or at least
a tourist passing through.
They’d be
wrong.
T h a t
paragraph
is from
the book
“Church of
the Dog”
by Kaya
McLaren.
McLar-
en is the au-
thor of three
novels—
“Church of
the Dog,”
“On the Divinity of Sec-
ond Chances,” and “How
I Came to Sparkle Again.”
Graduation time for Morrow
County students
high schools.
Ione baccalaureate will
take place tonight, June 1, at
7 p.m. at Ione Community
Church. Everyone is wel-
come to the service to bless
Ione’s graduating seniors.
Ione commencement
will take place Friday, June
It’s graduation time for 3, beginning at 7 p.m.
seniors at Heppner and Ione
Baccalaureate servic-
es for Heppner will take
place tonight at St. Patrick’s
Catholic Church beginning
at 6:30 p.m.
Heppner’s commence-
ment ceremony will take
place Saturday, June 4,
beginning at 2 p.m. in the
Heppner Jr./Sr. High School
gymnasium.
“The Road to Enchant-
ment” will be out in Janu-
ary 2017. She is currently
writing another, untitled at
this time.
But why was she writ-
ing about Heppner?
“I started writing
Church of the Dog on a
snow day when my TV was
broken,” McLaren states
in a Q&A at the end of the
book. “So, in the beginning,
it was just sort of a vacation
into a warmer, imaginary
place that was based on the
community where I was
living and who I was at the
time.
“The book was largely
my dream at the time, not so
much my reality,” she adds.
Her novel is somewhat
Chloe, Daniel and Nathan Sinnett, Boardman patrons, are busy
creating with the KEVA planks. -Contributed photos
KEVA Planks are now
available at all 12 public li-
braries in Umatilla County,
the Cook Memorial Library
in La Grande, Enterprise
Public Library and the Or-
egon Trail Library District.
LEO (Libraries of East-
ern Oregon) purchased the
planks for the libraries with
grant funds provided by
the Wildhorse Foundation.
Funds from the Commu-
nity Outreach Committee of
Cayuse Technologies were
also used to purchase the
planks for Umatilla County
and Oregon Trail libraries.
Each set of KEVA
(Knowledge,
Explora-
-See CHURCH OF THE
tion,
Visual,
Arts)
Planks
DOG/PAGE SIX
come in a wooden bin with
handles/wheels and 1,000
maple planks 5 inches by
1½ inches. The planks are
designed for stacking and
layering in endless forma-
tions—from simple play for
young children to complex
towering structures by stu-
dents and adults without us-
ing glue or connectors, just
gravity and imagination.
The KEVA Planks are
meant to transform libraries
into engaging, interactive,
community learning places.
The planks serve as a gate-
way to math, science and
physics, and can be used by
-See KEVA PLANKS/PAGE
SIX
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COOLING UNITS ONLY 2 IN STOCK
Lowers temperatures average of 15-25 degrees
Roto-molded housing- Wont Leak, Crack or Rust
Cost- Effective-Operates for pennies an hour
Environmentally friendly
36" or 48"
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396
For farm equipment, visit our web site at www.mcgg.net