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withdrawn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
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