HEPPNER
50¢
G T
Ione FFA Greenhand Rituals
team takes first place
azette
imes
VOL. 136 NO. 40 8 Pages
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Mustang Booster Club to hold
fundraiser Oct. 14
The Ione FFA Greenhand Rituals team took first at the district career development event
over the weekend at the Blue Mountain District Leadership Camp. Rituals are the proper
opening and closing ceremonies of an FFA meeting. Pictured (L-R) Colt Parker, VP, Seren-
ity Rodriguez, Treas., Eva Martin, Pres, Stephine Wendler, Sent, Aundrea Pirtle, Rep. and
Grace Ogden, Sec. Eva Martin also earned 1st place over-all Greenhand president during
the event. -Contributed Photo
Three cities, three sewer
problems
Heppner, Lexington and Ione
wrestle with similar problems,
perhaps shared solution
By David Sykes
All three cities of south
Morrow County have the
same problem. What to do
with outdated sewer treat-
ment methods –how to fix
it, and how to pay for it.
Heppner needs a new
sewer treatment solution.
Since the Department of
Environmental Quality
(DEQ) put a deadline on
how much longer the city
can release treated efflu-
ent into Willow Creek, the
city has been working and
discussing what it should
do. The DEQ has set a new
limit on the amount of am-
monia the city can put in
the creek. It is currently
exceeding that limit. Ione
and Lexington need to get
out of their overused indi-
vidual septic systems and
build some kind of central
treatment facility. Similar
problems, maybe a com-
mon solution?
At Monday’s meeting
the Heppner council voted
unanimously to apply to
the DEQ for a revamp of
its effluent discharge permit
deadline, get a compli-
ance extension, and then
have time for an engineer’s
study looking at a shared
lagoon system for all three
municipalities. If feasible,
the shared system could
greatly reduce the costs to
all three cities. It cost the
city $4,968 to apply for the
permit revision.
The revision will give
the city time to work with
Ione and Lexington and
come up with a feasibil-
ity study on the shared
lagoon system for all three
towns. Both Ione and Lex-
ington have to agree to go
along, and they had council
meetings scheduled for
Tuesday night (Oct. 10).
Heppner city council mem-
bers agreed to attend the
meetings and talk about the
proposed shared lagoon op-
tion. Council members Co-
rey Sweeney and Theresa
Hughes said they would go
to the Ione meeting. Hep-
pner was going to ask for a
letter of support from both
councils in order to move
forward. Both meetings
are after the Gazette-Times
deadline, so no results were
available at press time.
City Manager Edie Ball
said she had received in-
formation from the state
Department of Land Con-
servation and Develop-
ment, that there is grant
money available to pay
engineering costs on the
shared lagoon system. The
deadline to apply for those
grants is Friday, Oct. 13,
so it was necessary to find
out Ione and Lexington’s
response soon.
In other business at
the meeting, the council
agreed to give Tareena
Healy another 30 days to
finish cleanup of proper-
ties on Water Street. At last
month’s meeting the coun-
cil had threatened to move
forward with legal enforce-
ment action if the properties
were not cleaned up. Jim
Healy attended the meeting
and asked for the extension,
saying he and others had
been working to clean up
the property. He told the
council he had money down
to purchase the properties.
Photos of the property were
passed around showing
there had been cleanup ef-
forts completed. “I live up
there. I drive by it every
day and they have been
working on it,” Council-
member Sweeney said. “If
they are continuing to work
on it I would rather see this
than strong arming them,”
Mayor Cody High said.
In other business, the
council held a public hear-
ing, and then voted to ac-
cept a $30,844 grant from
the Howard and Beth Bry-
ant Foundation, for pur-
By April Sykes
Morrow County School
Superintendent Dirk Dirk-
sen, at the regular school
board meeting at Sam
Boardman Elementary
Monday night, spoke about
the wraparound services the
district and other agencies
provide for district students
to enable them to succeed in
school and life.
The district and other
-See 21 ROAD/PAGE FIVE agencies provide counsel-
ing for students, both aca-
demic and personal, nursing
care and many other servic-
es, in addition to education.
Dirksen said that the district
has increased the number of
counselors working within
the schools. “We’re work-
ing to make school a more
positive experience,” said
Dirksen, who also credited
the school counselors, the
Morrow County Health
Department, Community
Counseling Solutions, the
Department of Human Ser-
vices, InterMountain ESD,
the Boardman Police De-
partment and other agen-
cies.
He said that that he
and other administrators
plan to meet at individual
school buildings to work
on student engagement
activities to “take it into the
classroom,” and will also
be concentrating on profes-
sional development.
Dirksen also spoke on
the continuing need for
bus drivers. “We’re still
short on bus drivers,” he
said. “We had one good
week during Round Up,”
Heppner High School technology students made a corn hole game, a fire pit and Heppner
Christmas ornaments for the Mustangs Booster Club dinner and auction that will be held
Oct. 14 at the Heppner Elks. Doors open at 5 p.m., with dinner at 6 p.m. and the auction
starting at 7 p.m. Computer Graphic students made new signs to advertise the auction.
Pictured (L-R) Aimee Turrell, Charles Cason and Zach Bredfield. -Contributed photo
County to assume 21 Rd Maint
16-mile section a ‘major
connector’, needs more attention
PENDL
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21
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This section of 21 Road between Tupper Lane and Thompson Corral will be turned over to
the county for maintenance.
By David Sykes
A well-used and impor-
tant 16-mile section of the
21 Road between Tupper
Lane and Thompson Cor-
ral in the Umatilla National
Forest, should be kept in
better condition soon, as the
Forest Service and Morrow
County have agreed to turn
its maintenance over to the
county road department.
Morrow County Pub-
lic Works Director Burke
O’Brien and Heppner
Ranger District Road En-
gineer Lori Seitz both came
to the Oct. 4 county com-
mission meeting and asked
that the transfer be made,
saying the road is important
and needs better mainte-
nance. Ironically, both Seitz
and O’Brien agree that the
county will be better able
to maintain the road than
its owner the federal gov-
ernment.
“We have lots of people
who graze cattle, hunt and
recreate in the area and that
section gets lots of use,”
O’Brien told the commis-
sioners. He said the road is
a main east-west connec-
tion on the Heppner Ranger
District. “In the summer
this road is used by recre-
ation traffic, range permit-
ted grazers, loggers, USFS
G-T Trophy Corner
employees, wildland fire
responders and emergency
service responders, both
county and forest,” O’Brien
said. “We get complaints
that people’s trailers are
getting beat up,” he added.
Seitz said the Forest
Service will only blade
the road once per year.
O’Brien said the county
tries to blade all of its roads
twice per year. He said the
wash-boarding and holes in
the 21 can get so bad it is a
safety hazard with people
losing control and swerving
all over the road to avoid
potholes.
-See SEWER/PAGE FOUR
Wraparound services help
students succeed
-See STUDENTS/PAGE
FIVE
SEND US
YOUR PICS!
Allen Osmin, 12, Hermiston, with
his dad and the deer he took from
the Heppner Unit. Grandparents
are Frank and Cara Osmin, Hep-
pner. -Contributed photo
Clare Osmin, 11, with deer
from the Heppner Unit.
Grandparents are Frank and
Cara Osmin. -Contributed
photo
The Heppner Gazette-
Times wants to see pic-
tures of your trophy an-
imals from this hunting
season. Stop
by to have
your pic-
ture taken,
drop off pho-
tos, mail them
to PO Box 337
in Heppner, email
them to editor@rap-
idserve.net or text cell
phone photos to 541-
980-6674.
MORROW COUNTY
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