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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2018)
Shooting team competes in Texas HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 137 NO. 17 8 Pages Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon WCVEDG gives out community enhancement $60,972 in 14 grants to South grants County By David Sykes The Willow Creek Val- ley Economic Develop- ment Group, WCVEDG, awarded $60,972 in grants to local cities and groups in south Morrow County last week. The grants ranged all the way from $6,000 for a new RV dump station in Ione to $8,618 for work at the little league field in Heppner. WCVEDG made the grants after receiving the funds from the Colum- bia River Enterprise Zone, CREZ, earlier this year. WCVEDG advertised that the funds were available and local groups and mu- nicipalities submitted re- quests and proposals for the money. WCVEDG was able to fund all the requests it received. One particular program funded is a backpack pro- gram developed by the Heppner High School Fu- ture Farmers of America, FFA. Teacher Beth Dick- enson handles the program through her FFA classes to provide students with school supplies and if needed, food. Dickenson said the backpack program started when the FFA had one hog left over at fair last year, which they sold at the auction for $12,000. They then used the money to start providing the packs. The packs originally started out with just school sup- plies. “If a student doesn’t have the supplies they need, how can they learn?” Dick- enson said. She added that her FFA students had been raising chickens and hogs and donating the eggs and meat (after proper USDA processing) to the neighbor- hood center for distribution to those in need in the com- munity. “This was a great learning experience for our kids,” she said. “Showing them that they can make Pictured (L-R): Stanley Cutsforth, Heppner, Bill Poor, Texas, Kasey Jones, Heppner and Casey Knorr, Utah. -Contributed photo. Last week Stanley Cutsforth and Kasey Jones, along with two other mem- bers of their ELR (Ex- treme long range) shooting team named Team West ELR, competed in their first World’s Longest Shot chal- lenge held at the Valdina Ranch outside of San Anto- nio, TX. The shoot brought together some of the top ELR shooters in the nation to compete at distances starting at 1,760 yards (one mile) and moved out to 4,900 yards. Each shooter was allowed five shots at each target and their fel- low team members were spotting and calling wind to help the shooter get on target. The first day of the com- petition, Stanley Cutsforth set a new match and Texas state record by shooting 5-5 at the one-mile target, in- cluding the first shot which was cold bore. Kasey Jones went 4-5 at the one-mile, just missing the cold bore shot. At the completion of the shoot Stanley had 2/5 at 2,000 yards, 2/5 at 2,400 yards and Kasey had 2/5 at 2,400 yards. The shooters battled with 18-mph winds and mirages that made for very poor shooting conditions. Only three of the 30 shoot- ers that competed in the match hit the 2,680-yard target and moved on to try their hand at the two-mile shot. With the poor condi- tions, none of the shooters were able to make contact at that distance and the competition ended. According to a spokes- person, Team West did some amazing shooting and walked away with Stan- ley Cutsforth in 4 th place, Kasey Jones in 5 th place and other team member out of Utah, Casey Knorr, taking 7 th place in the category for above .338 caliber non- factory rifles. You can find the team on Facebook to follow their future matches @TeamWestELR. Judge and commission candidates speak to Chamber of Commerce Sheryll Bates (right) with WCVED presents $5,000 check to FFA Advisor Beth Dickenson for use in a “backpack” program at county schools. The program provides school supplies and lunches for local students. -Photo by David Sykes a difference in their com- munity.” With the $12,000 they started the backpack pro- gram with the school sup- plies, which are available not just at Heppner schools but all the schools in the county, Ione, Boardman and Irrigon. Dickenson said that in talking to teachers she then learned that some students were not getting a lot to eat on the weekends, when they weren’t able to get free and reduced lunch- es at school, so the FFA is expanding into sending home food with those chil- dren in their backpacks over the weekend. “Children can’t learn when they are hungry,” she emphasized. “And that’s not okay.” She said they are not just giving the supplies and food out to anyone, but just to those who really need it. “This is a great program and this money will help a lot,” she said when accepting the $5,000 grant check from WCVEDG. WCVEDG is able to give these grants because the money first comes to CREZ by way of payments in lieu of taxes by busi- nesses located in the enter- prise zone near Boardman. The zone is set up to offer tax reduction incentives to have new businesses locate there and existing busi- nesses expand there. The enterprise zone has been very successful over the years, allowing the CREZ to grant money throughout the county for schools, public safety, housing and community enhancements. Since 2015 the group has awarded over $170,000 in just community enhance- ment grants in south Mor- By David Sykes Two Circuit Court judge candidates and one of the county commissioner candidates came to the Heppner Chamber of Com- merce Candidate’s Forum and lunch last Thursday to speak to a packed room and answer questions from the public. Judge candidates Mi- chael Breiling and Robert Collins, both running for Circuit Court Sixth Dis- trict position one, mostly gave a rundown of their biographies and why they felt most qualified to earn the public’s vote. Collins is a long- time Pend- leton native, having grad- Judge uated from c a n d i d a t e P e n d l e t o n Robert Collins High School and then going on to college before entering law practice with his father and brother, forming Collins and Collins law firm. He said he has a broad background in law in private practice which would make him a good judge. He also cited his extensive volunteer work with numerous charitable and civic organizations. Breiling graduated from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark Col- lege and then went on to serve a s a t r i a l Judge lawyer with candidate “thousands Michael of hours in Breiling hundreds of trials” for everything from “barking dogs to murder cases” he told the chamber crowd. He said this experi- ence would make him a better judicial candidate than his opponent. Neither was able to an- swer many questions from the audience at the Cham- ber luncheon, as moderator local attorney Bill Kuhn explained that because they may be presiding over cer- tain cases, they do not let their political beliefs be known. As such they did not answer questions about abortion or their stand on sanctuary cities. Commissioner Don Russell is running for re- election and gave a brief talk on his qualifications for the job, includ- ing serving many years on the coun- ty planning commis- sion, Port of Commission Morrow and candidate Don the Board- Russell man Rural Fire Protection District. Russell told the crowd he feels he has done a good job in his first term and would continue to do his best to listen and serve the people of Morrow County if re-elected. His opponent, Raymond Akers, was not in attendance, however, his wife Tanya was there and passed out campaign bro- chures on his behalf. Episcopal Bishop makes visit -See WCVEDG GRANTS/ PAGE FOUR Perry retires from BEO By Bobbi Gordon Joe Perry, 67, will be retiring from Bank of East- ern Oregon on Apr. 30 after serving seven and a half years there. A retirement open house will be held at the bank on Apr. 27 from 1:30 to 4:30. Perry has worked in the banking business for more than 35 years, stating, “I can honestly say the Bank of Eastern Oregon (BEO) is the best bank I have ever worked for. It has the best management and the best co-workers.” He is a com- mercial loan officer at BEO, processing loans for busi- nesses and farmers. During his years at other banks, he has been a manager but said he has always made loans. Although he was born in Portland, he only lived there one month and was raised in Pasco, WA. He attended WSU and has his undergraduate degree in eco- nomics and a masters in ag- ricultural eco- nomics. P e r r y ’s wife has been deceased for 11 years, but h e h a s f o u r Joe Perry children; a son in New York City, a daugh- ter in Wisconsin, a son in Salt Lake City and a daugh- ter in Camas, WA. He also has 20 grandchildren. When asked how he feels about retiring, he ad- mitted to having mixed emotions about leaving. He said, “I always felt that peo- ple work past their health. I have my health, so should be able to enjoy my retire- ment.” His retirement plans in- clude visiting family, seeing the country and maybe the world traveling with some of his brothers who live in Pasco, Yakima and Virginia. Perry indi- cated one of his retirement goals would be to go on a mission for the LDS church. He stated that the church will send missionaries anywhere in the world if the host country allows it. Younger missionaries are on their missions for a minimum of two years, but older people can go on a mission for six months to two years. He said that missionaries for the LDS church do not get compensated for going on missions, in fact they are re- quired to pay a monthly fee. He said he plans to continue living in the local area while traveling. The Rt. Rev. Patrick Bell, Bishop of the Diocese of Eastern Oregon made his annual visit to Heppner Sunday, where he gave the sermon and then met with parishioners at a potluck afterwards. Pictured above is Rev. Bell with Rev. Katy Anderson, Pastor of All Saints and Hope Lutheran Churches in Heppner. MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWER 350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON, OR *Offers vary by model. Rebate and finance offers valid on select 2014–2018 new and unregistered models purchased between 3/1/18–4/30/18. See your authorized dealer for complete details. **Rates as low as 2.99% APR for 36 months. 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