Farm worker housing plan withdrawn HEPPNER 50¢ drawing his request for re- telling the Morrow County zoning, which would have Court and others at the hear- moved the company closer ing that “We will come back with a better plan in to construction of the future.” the facility. The public hear- After hearing ing was held not to public testimony actually approve the Myers said, “Obvi- housing project, but ously this site has resistance from the T h r e e m i l e rather for the Coun- ty Court to approve community. I re- Farms rezoning of 66 acres spect their issues.” General Myers, however, M a n a g e r of City of Board- left open the pos- Marty Myers man-owned land on Tower Road, from sibility of moving forward with some type of Space Age Industrial to migrant housing facility, Farm Use zoning. If ap- proved the land was then Wednesday, August 3, 2016 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon to be sold to Threemile and the facility constructed. The Morrow County Planning Commission had earlier ap- proved the zone change 5-1. Farm worker housing is an approved use on farm ground, so if Threemile decided to construct the fa- cility on some of the 93,000 acres of farm ground they already own, no planning commission or county court approval is needed. Fol- lowing the hearing, Mor- row County Planner Carla McLane said that if the farm decides to move forward it would only need approval from the planning depart- ment to proceed. At last week’s hearing before withdrawal of the request, Myers said the housing is needed because Threemile plans on ex- panding its organic farm- ing operation by three to four thousand acres in the next three to four years. He said organic farming is very labor-intensive and the workers are just not avail- able locally to do the work. “With conventional crops, you tractor over the ground three times,” he explained. “With organic farming you go over the ground 12 times, mainly to This mountain lion was spotted last Thursday by Morrow County Road Department workers on Basey Canyon, about nine control weeds. We are chal- miles out of Heppner. The big cat was close enough to the road for the work crew to get several good pictures, as seen above. lenged to find labor.” G T azette imes VOL. 135 NO. 29 8 Pages Community resistance cited as reason By David Sykes Threemile Farms Man- ager Marty Myers surprised everyone last week when he announced at a public hearing that his company is now canceling plans for construction of an 800-per- son migrant farm worker housing facility planned on Tower Road near Board- man. Citing community ob- jections, Myers said he did not want to jeopardize the farm’s stature in the community and was with- Condon Cougar country teen killed in crash A Condon girl was killed in a car crash last Wednesday. On July 27 around 4:30 p.m. Oregon State Police troopers and emergency personnel responded to the report of a two-ve- hicle crash on Highway 206 at milepost 44 (east of Condon). Preliminary investigation indicated a 1995 Chevrolet Caprice was traveling eastbound when it collided with a 1995 -See FATAL CRASH/PAGE FIVE July cooler than normal despite blistering finish Despite the warm trend in June and a blistering end to last month, tempera- tures at Heppner averaged slightly colder than normal during the month of July according to preliminary data received by the Na- tional Weather Service in Pendleton. The average temper- ature was 68.9 degrees, which was 0.9 degrees be- low normal. High tempera- tures averaged 83.5 degrees, which was 2.2 degrees be- low normal. The highest was 99 degrees on the 30 th . Low temperatures averaged 54.2 degrees, which was 0.3 degrees above normal. The lowest was 48 degrees, on July 4. On seven days, the Cougar season is open all year, so hunters with cougar tags may be out in pursuit, but Steve Cherry of ODFW says no further -See FARM HOUSING/PAGE sightings have been reported, nor has anyone reported killing the animal. Most likely, says Cherry, the cougar has moved on FIVE or picked a less-populated spot to hunker down, and is out there, “doing what cougars do.” -Photo by Charlie Ferguson New equipment gives a helping Ione school hand to local emergency services welcomes new superintendent b y P i o n e e r M e m o r i a l Friends Helping Friends By Andrea Di Salvo Equipment purchased Hospital with funds from has already gone to work saving lives. The Friends Helping Friends Committee holds an annual Remembrance Walk in memory of local nurse Donna Schonbachler every year over St. Pat- rick’s Day weekend, and each year the committee selects a local organization -See JULY WEATHER/PAGE to receive the funds raised FOUR through the walk. Committee members say care is taken to select recipients that benefit many people of all ages through- Paramedic Tina Davidson holds the portable video laryngo- out the local communities. Two new building scope that will make it easier to keep patient airways open in -See HELPING HAND/PAGE parcels the ambulance. -Photo by Andrea Di Salvo FOUR approved by planning Enterprise Zone seeks boundary commission expansion Two new building par- cels were approved for development near Heppner by the Morrow County Planning Commission last week. Kyle Robinson, whose mother Merlyn Robinson owns ranch land on the east side of Heppner, applied for the land partition. The property is located south of Fairview Way across from the fairgrounds and east of Rock Street. It is located outside the city limits, but inside the urban growth boundary of Heppner. Robinson apparently already has a purchaser lined up for one of the par- Would accommodate new hotel in Boardman By David Sykes The Columbia River Enterprise Zone (CREZ) is prepared to seek an ex- pansion of its boundaries in order to accommodate a new hotel which plans to build in Boardman and wants to be included in the tax exempt zone. Rjiv Malhan and Na- kul Butta of RNB Hospi- tality from Richland said in a letter to CREZ they are planning on building a Choice Hotel (Comfort Inn & Suites) on Front St. in Boardman. They are asking that the boundary of the En- -See NEW PARCELS terprise Zone be expanded APPROVED/PAGE EIGHT to include the new hotel so they may take advantage of the three-year property tax exemption that would be offered inside the CREZ boundary. “This facility will have approximately 66-72 rooms. This hotel will pro- vide a much needed state of the art Lodging Facil- ity for Boardman and its surrounding area. We will be creating 20-25 new em- ployment opportunities and a steady flow of customers for the existing restaurants in the area,” their letter to the CREZ stated. The CREZ board was generally in favor of the expansion, which would change its area from the current approximately 11 acres to 15 acres; however, approval for the change would have to be passed by the City of Boardman, Port -See CREZ MAY EXPAND/ PAGE THREE New Ione School District Superintendent Jon Peterson with newly sworn-in Ione school board member Rob Crum. -Con- tributed photo During its meeting on July 26, the Ione school board welcomed Jon Pe- terson to his first meeting as the Ione School Dis- trict’s new superintendent. Peterson then swore in the newest member of the Ione School Board, Rob Crum. Peterson is replacing Phil Starkey, who served as Ione’s superintendent for the past two years. Crum will be serving the remainder of the term vacated by Ann Morter’s resignation in June. Morter had served on the board since the district’s forma- tion in 2003. Board mem- bers expressed appreciation for her 13 years of service to the district, saying her fi- nancial acumen and historic perspective will be missed, but that the board is excited -See IONE SCHOOL BOARD/PAGE FOUR Good Through September 30, 2016 UP TO 50% OFF TOOLS! Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For farm equipment, visit our web site at www.mcgg.net