Park vandalism concerns
city council
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 136
NO. 15
8 Pages
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
By David Sykes
The city of Heppner is
concerned about vandalism
at the parks, and Hager Park
has been hard hit lately.
Both basketball rims at
the Bob Kilkenny memo-
rial basketball court have
been damaged and the city
recently removed them for
repairs.
The city council spend
quite of bit of time Mon-
day night discussing the
vandalism and how to stop
it. Several councilmembers
suggested getting a trail
camera and placing it at the
park. A camera was placed
at the Main Street park by
New city manager Edie Ball (right) gives report to council at
her first meeting. -Photo by David Sykes
the library and seems to several youth were caught
have cut down on acts of on camera doing damage.
vandalism, especially after
One councilmember
who lives near Hager Park
says she has been trying to
keep an eye on the park and
what is going on there, but
has not been able catch the
vandals. She suggested an
increase in police patrols
around the area.
Public Works Direc-
conservation efforts. The
purpose of this venture is tor Chad Doherty said the
to educate, cooperate, and hoops were broken because
incentivize best practices older kids are actually get-
to maintain a positive con- ting up and standing on the
servation method, reduce rims as well as swinging
costs to producers and slow from the rims. The rims
or stop the development of are lower than a regular
herbicide resistant variet- 10-foot basket, which gives
the older and heavier kids
ies,” he said.
The county commis- more access to doing dam-
sioners were generally in age to them. There are also
favor of project, realizing it reports of high school kids
would increase the road de- and adults on the teeter tot-
partment’s spraying budget. ters and also riding bikes
“Before we sign on we on top of the picnic tables.
need to know the dollar Doherty urged people to
amount,” said commission- keep their eyes open and
er Jim Doherty. “Looks like report suspicious activity
a fantastic project, but we to the police.
There was no estimate
need to know how much.
If we are going to make this when the hoops were to be
project work the county’s repaired; however, it was
current contribution isn’t noted that the Howard and
going to be enough,” he Beth Bryant Foundation
was paying to have them
said.
“If this comes through -See CITY COUNCIL/PAGE
this is an opportunity of
FOUR
a lifetime to make a real
change in this county’s
farming practices,” Doherty
said.
In other business the
commission agreed to pro-
vide $250 for this year’s
youth fishing derby at
Cutsforth Park. Kirsti Ca-
son of the Public Works
Department said the derby
has become more popular
over the years. This will be
the derby’s 12 th year and
Portland, OR—U.S.
Cason said it has grown
Senator Ron Wyden will
from the original 20-30
hold a town hall in Morrow
youth when they started to
County next Saturday, April
last year’s 120.
22. The town hall meeting
Cason said the event
is planned for 10 a.m. in the
has become not just a youth
Riverside Jr/Sr High School
activity but a “family ac-
auditorium, 210 Boardman
tivity,” with people of all
Ave NE, Boardman.
ages enjoying coming to
Wy d e n ’s M o r r o w
the park. She said they try
County stop is one of 11
to make sure every partici-
town halls scheduled for
pant receives some sort of
Eastern and Central Oregon
award. She also praised the
the week of April 17-23.
fish and game department
The meetings in Deschutes,
for making sure the pond at
Harney, Grant, Baker, Mal-
the park was well stocked.
heur, Wasco, Sherman,
“Last year we had a
Morrow, Union, Wallowa
three-pound, 19-inch large
and Umatilla counties will
trout caught,” she said.
increase to 815 the number
-See COUNTY COURT/ of town halls Wyden has
PAGE EIGHT held to fulfill his commit-
ment of annual town halls
in each of Oregon’s 36
counties.
“It’s clear from the
strong turnouts so far at
ty precautions have been this year’s town halls that
taken to ensure the tests participatory democracy
pose no threat to people or is alive and well through-
property, but residents are out Oregon,” Wyden said.
warned that dust clouds, “I am looking forward to
smoke, airborne flares and hearing directly from resi-
ground vibrations may oc- dents of central and eastern
Oregon about solutions we
cur during that time.
Questions, contact Na- can work on together to
val Air Station Whidbey preserve and protect the
Oregon way of finding
Island, 360-257-2286.
common ground.”
McEwen Group seeks Russian Thistle eradication
sentenced within 100,000 acres
in health Producers and others band together for aggressive effort
care fraud
case
Robert John “Bobby”
McEwen, 51, of Heppner
was sentenced on several
counts of health care fraud
and theft after a settlement
conference last month.
McEwen’s sentence in-
cluded probation time, 150
days of jail time, and a hefty
amount of restitution to the
State of Oregon.
Morrow County Circuit
Court Judge Lynn Hampton
presided over the proceed-
ings. Because the State of
Oregon was the plaintiff,
the Morrow County District
Attorney was not involved
in the case, and Oregon
Dept. of Justice attorney
Elizabeth Ballard prose-
cuted on behalf of the state.
McEwen originally
faced 31 counts each of
Making a False Claim for
Health Care Payment and
Theft I, both considered
Class C felonies. He was
convicted of only five
counts of each, a total of 10
felony counts, after plead-
ing guilty to those charges.
The additional 26 counts
of each charge were dis-
missed.
McEwen also original-
ly faced two charges each of
Unlawfully Obtain Public
Assistance or Attempt/Aid/
Abet, as well as Obtain/At-
tempt/Aid or Abet/Dispose
Food Stamp Benefit; all
four of those charges were
dismissed.
While the Morrow
County DA’s office was
not directly involved in
the case, DA Justin Nelson
told the Gazette the main
issue in the case seemed to
be McEwen’s sentence, or
rather, his physical ability
to serve a sentence.
“The State requested a
prison sentence, while the
defendant was asking for
probation based upon his
medical issues,” Nelson
said. “During the settlement
conference it was becom-
ing clear that the court was
going to impose the proba-
tion sentence based upon
the medical needs of Mr.
About 100,000 acres in Morrow County will be targeted in the thistle reduction program.
By David Sykes
A group of eight direct-
seed wheat farmers, along
with several researchers,
have come together with
an ambitious goal to com-
pletely eradicate the Rus-
sian Thistle weed from a
100,000-acre section of
Morrow County. The thistle
competes with crops and is
especially tough to control
on conservation-friendly
direct seeded farm ground.
Some of the group attended
last week’s county commis-
sioner meeting, and asked
for help in the five-year
project.
Ione farmer John Riet-
mann was head spokesman
for the group, and said at
this time they are putting
together a proposal for the
United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) for
funding of the thistle eradi-
cation and control program.
Rietmann said signing up
participants was crucial to
apply for the USDA grant
to show that people and
organizations were behind
the effort. So far the eight
farmers of the group are
John Rietmann, Bill Jepsen,
Mark McElligott, Dick
Snider, Joe McElligott, Joel
Peterson, Keith Morter and
Clint Carlson. If the project
moves forward, assisting
them will be Larry Lutch-
er of OSU Extension and
Stewart Wuest of the Ag-
-See MCEWEN ricultural Research Service
SENTENCED/PAGE FOUR of USDA. Dave Pranger of
the weed district would also
be heavily involved.
At the meeting Riet-
mann said they were asking
the county to commit to an
aggressive weed control
on the 175 acres of county
roads and rights of way
within the project bound-
aries.
“We need 100 per-
cent participation inside
the zone,” Rietmann said,
and he asked if the coun-
ty would commit to total
eradication on its roadways
within the 100,000-acre
area. He said the USDA
grant would be $7 million
but the local group has to
come up with a “dollar to
dollar” match in money and
in-kind donations.
In emphasizing the im-
portance of the program, Ri-
etmann said success could
mean the continuation of
direct seed farming or even-
tual abandonment and back
to tillage. The thistle is par-
ticularly tough to kill in di-
rect seeded ground because
the conservation-friendly
method is meant to disturb
as little soil as possible, thus
minimizing erosion. These
methods apparently provide
a better environment for the
thistle. He added that direct
seed farmers have invested
time and money into the
method, which is good for
the environment.
“If we are to continue
to have direct seeding, we
have to control Russian
Sunrise service planned for Easter morning
Wyden
plans
County
town hall
next week
Demolition training in
Boardman next week
The Oregon Air Na-
tional Guard’s 142 nd Ex-
plosive Ordnance Disposal
Flight will conduct routine
demolition and pyrotechnic
training April 20-22 at the
Naval Weapons System
Training Facility in Board-
man.
in Ione City Park. Children
Training will take place
up to the fourth grade are during the day and in the
invited.
center of the facility. Safe-
On Easter morning,
April 16, a community
Sunrise Service will be held
at the football stands at the
fairgrounds at 7 a.m.
For other local servic-
egg hunt will be held Sat- es, see PAGE THREE.
urday, April 15, at 10 a.m.
Local Easter egg hunts April 15
The Heppner Easter
egg hunt, sponsored by the
Heppner Elks Club, will be
held on Saturday, April 15,
beginning at 10 a.m. at the
Heppner City Park next to
the Heppner library.
The Easter Bunny will
make his appearance at
9:30 a.m.
Ione’s annual Easter
Thistle,” he said.
Also on hand at the
meeting was Wuest, a
USDA soil scientist and
Russian Thistle expert.
Wuest said the weed is
particularly hard to con-
trol because, among other
things, it doesn’t re-seed
until after harvest and “will
grow where nothing else
grows.” He said roadsides
and fence rows are particu-
larly susceptible to growing
the weed, and that when
the weed starts to tumble
it will spread to neighbor-
ing ground. He said there
is also concern the weed is
becoming resistant to some
herbicides.
Rietmann said they are
turning in their proposal
soon, and should know by
November if their project
gets funded. If over the
five-year span the project
is successful more farmers
will be approached about
expanding the project area,
and the program could actu-
ally be replicated all across
the country.
“This is a big program.
A concerted effort to re-
duce the seedbank will
clear our area of a weed
that is hindering our best
4-H and FFA
members 10% off
all feed and supplies
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
(now thru fair)
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed
242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)