HEPPNER
G T
50¢
Murray’s Drug takes top
parade honors
azette
imes
VOL. 136 NO. 49 8 Pages
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Murray’s Drug float depicting “A Soldier’s Christmas” took top honors for Best Commercial
Float/Entry. – Contributed photo.
The city of Heppner has announced the winners of the 2017 Christmas parade of
lights that was held on Dec. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in downtown Heppner.
-Best Community Float/Entry: Yuki Ookami.
-Best Commercial Float/Entry: Murray’s Drug.
-Best Use of Lights Entry: Columbia Basin Electric.
Santa and Mrs. Claus take a break for a quick photo during
the parade. – Photo by David Sykes.
Morgan Cutsforth and
Makayla Fredricks got all
dressed up for the season. –
Photo by David Sykes.
Celebrate Heppner Christmas
Thursday, Dec. 14 at 6 p.m.
Rewards cards and
shopping local bring Christ-
mas to Heppner with the
Celebrate Heppner Christ-
mas event this Thursday,
Dec. 14, starting at 6 p.m.
at the Morrow County Fair-
grounds. Community mem-
bers are invited to bring
their rewards cards and
participate in this commu-
nity get-together.
The event will start with
a spaghetti dinner served by
the Heppner Track/Cross
Country parents for $7 per
person. Pictures with Santa,
Mrs. Santa and the elves
will be available from 6-7
p.m. for $5. Rewards cards,
with your name written
on them, will need to be
dropped into the appropri-
ate bags in the denomi-
nations required for that
particular prize. A rewards
card exchange table will be
available for trading up or
down. It has been reported
that there are 120 items
in the $10 category, 56 in
the $20 category and 31 in
the $50 category. Rewards
items include furniture,
toys, games, puzzles, jew-
elry, candles, cook books,
cutting boards, lotions,
tools, clothing and coffee
as well as gift certificates
for restaurants, pubs, stores,
hair salons and massages.
Penny board and raffle
items will be available and
drawing for rewards cards
items will begin at 7 p.m.
City steps in for problem
property cleanup
Council runs out of patience on Water Street
By David Sykes
After multiple citations,
warnings and extensions,
the Heppner City Council
ran out of patience Monday,
and finally ordered the city
crew to move onto a Water
Street property, clean it up
and bill the land owner for
the work. If the landowner
refuses to pay the bill, the
city has the right to put a
lien on the property, and
ultimately, if necessary,
foreclose to receive pay-
ment.
The landowner at 475
and 495 Water St. has over
the years been given mul-
tiple opportunities, and
time extensions, to clean up
junk, trash, old appliances,
and car bodies that litter
the grounds, but has failed
to complete the job. Neigh-
bors have attended multiple
council meetings complain-
ing of the trash, and now
the city has decided to take
matters into its own hands.
It is against city ordinance
to maintain what is called
“nuisance” properties, and
the city earlier passed a
new ordinance giving it
increased rights to do the
cleanup, and ultimately
foreclose if necessary.
The problem property
is owned by Tareena Healy.
Jim Healy has been work-
ing for the past several
months cleaning up the lots,
however not enough was
done to satisfy the city
ordinance. Jim Healy was
at Monday’s council meet-
ing and said he had hoped
to purchase the lots from
Tareena, but she had raised
the price to the point he
can no longer afford to.
He said since the council
first threatened legal action
several months ago he has
removed 14 or 15 disabled
vehicles, trash and other
debris from the property,
but admitted he had not
completed the cleanup.
Among other things there
were still reportedly two
unlicensed vehicles and an
RV on the property, piles of
scrap metal and other trash.
He thanked the council for
the extensions and patience
it has given on the property.
Some on the council
agreed that the property
was looking better, but was
still not cleaned up good
enough to meet the ordi-
nance requirements. “There
has been lots of progress,”
said council member John
Paisly Cutsforth, age 5, tells Santa and Mrs. Claus what she wants for Christmas. – Photo by
David Sykes.
Courthouse gets festive
County clerk, Bobbi
Childers, along with Kandy
Boyd and Theresa Craw-
ford from the clerk’s office
raided the basement of the
courthouse finding decora-
tions that were used years
ago by Kay Proctor, of
Heppner, when she did the
decorating. They thought it
would be nice to make the
courthouse more festive.
“Kay always did a
beautiful job, so we went
to the basement and found
some of her notes and tried
to do some of the same
things,” Childers said.
Kelsey Greenup-
Fennern and Gayle Gu-
tierez helped with the deco-
rations, Jaylene Papineau
made a beautiful bow and
Rose Jewett helped by mak-
ing a bow while she was
visiting the courthouse on
business.
They invite you to
stop by the courthouse and
check out the changes to the
first floor and the staircase.
County Commission backs
extension district vote
Avoids endorsement
-See CLEANUP/PAGE
THREE By David Sykes
Gazette-Times Trophy Corner
The Heppner Gazette-
Times wants to see pic-
tures of your trophy ani-
mals from this hunting
season. Stop by to have
your picture taken, drop
off photos, mail them to
PO Box 337
in Heppner,
email them
to editor@
rapidserve.
net or text
cell phone
photos to 541-980-6674.
Chace Jones, 12, of Heppner
bagged his first cow elk in the
Murders Creek unit. -Con-
tributed photo
Saying it approves
sending the formation of a
new extension taxing dis-
trict to voters for approval,
but does not come out and
endorse it, the Morrow
County Commission voted
yes last week to put the mat-
ter on the ballot, “and let the
voters decide.”
The commission held
a public hearing on the
proposed new district be-
fore making its decision,
and several commissioners
were wary of an outright
endorsement of the new
district. The new district
has been requested by the
extension agencies of Mor-
row and Umatilla Coun-
ties, and if approved would
encompass both counties.
The new district will help
stabilize funding for 4-H,
the agricultural research
center and other extension
services, and extension of-
ficials have been traveling
around receiving approval
of all city councils in both
counties. All cities gave
their okay, but some ex-
pressed the same sentiment
-See COUNTY/PAGE
THREE
20% OFF 50% OFF
Montana Silversmith Jewelry
now thru Christmas
ALL
CHRISTMAS
DECOR!
Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed
242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)