Orem receives scholarship
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
azette
imes
VOL. 137 NO. 19 8 Pages
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Morgan Orem, a senior
at Ione Community School
was one of ten of the recipi-
ents of $1,000 scholarships
awarded to high school se-
niors by the Oregon Wheat
Foundation.
Morgan is the daughter
of Eric and Brandi Orem of
Heppner. After graduating,
Orem plans to study animal
science and agricultural
business at Oregon State
University. Her long term
goal after earning her Doc-
torate of Veterinary Medi-
cine is to become a large
animal veterinarian, hope-
fully opening her own clinic
in her hometown of Ione.
She competed in school
sports including, volleyball,
basketball and softball. As
a senior, Orem served as
Last year’s operators back at OHV Park
The Landing
Barb Harris and Jacob Richmond sign contract with county
By David Sykes
Last year ’s popular
operators of The Landing
Lodge restaurant at the
OHV park are back and
ready to begin serving cus-
tomers during the upcom-
ing recreational season, it
was recently announced.
After a somewhat con-
tentious parting of the ways
last year, restaurant op-
erators Barb Harris and
her son Jacob Richmond
came back, patched up their
differences with Morrow
County and are now back
in business. “We are happy
to announce that we have
come to an agreement with
Morrow County allow-
ing us to once again oper-
ate their Landing Lodge
kitchen,” Harris posted on
the Facebook page. The
first day of operation is
Thursday, May 10.
Harris and Richmond
had some contractual dis-
agreements with Morrow
County, which is owner of
The Landing that is located
at the Off Highway Vehicle
park located in the moun-
tains south of Heppner.
The county contracts with
operators of the restaurant,
who pay the county a per-
centage of gross revenues
as a franchise agreement.
There are also other rules
about how to operate the
business.
Last year both parties
were unable to reach a con-
tract extension agreement
enabling Harris and Rich-
mond to keep operating the
popular restaurant, so the
county decided to put the
operating agreement out for
“proposals” from interested
parties.
Harris and Richmond
indicated interest in com-
ing back as operators and
submitted a proposal. After
several “sit down” meet-
ings with county staff and
commissioner Don Russell,
everyone came to an agree-
ment and a new contract
was okayed and signed
by commissioners at last
Wednesday’s commission
meeting. After the signing,
the commissioners seemed
glad to have the issue set-
tled and an operator back
in place. “Maybe we should
have a commission meet-
ing up there,” Russell said.
Commissioner Jim Doherty
John and Barb Harris will be back at The Landing this
year. -Contributed photo.
agreed, however, saying he
did think the process of put-
ting out for proposals was a
good idea, as it stimulated
a conversation with the op-
erators, got issues out on the
table to talk about and also
showed the public that the
franchise awarding process
was transparent and open to
everyone.
Barb Harris was also
glad to be back on the job.
“Myself and my son are
working together as a uni-
fied unit to make the park a
better place to be. We had
a sit-down meeting and we
are in agreement (with the
county). We can put this
OHV park on the map and
make people happy while
they are there,” she told the
Gazette-Times Tuesday.
Heppner weather slightly colder than
normal in April
According to prelimi-
nary data received by NO-
AA’s National Weather
Service in Pendleton, tem-
peratures at Heppner aver-
aged slightly colder than
normal during the month
of April.
The average tempera-
ture was 48.6 degrees which
was 0.4 degrees below nor-
mal. High temperatures
averaged 59.7 degrees,
which was 1.2 degrees be-
low normal. The highest
was 76 degrees on the 27 th .
Low temperatures averaged
37.5 degrees, which was
0.3 degrees above normal.
The lowest was 27 degrees
on the 3 rd .
There were three days
with the low temperature
below 32 degrees.
Precipitation totaled
1.85 inches during April,
which was 0.34 inches
above normal. Measurable
precipitation of at least .01
inch, was received on 10
days with the heaviest, 0.65
inches reported on the 12 th .
Precipitation this year
has reached 5.43 inches,
which is 0.19 inches below
normal. Since October, the
water year precipitation
at Heppner has been 9.19
inches, which is 0.49 inches
below normal.
The highest wind gust
was 40 mph which occurred
on the 1 st .
The outlook for May
from NOAA’s Climate
Prediction center calls for
above normal tempera-
tures and below normal
precipitation. Normal highs
for Heppner rise from 64
degrees at the start of May
to 73 degrees at the end of
May. Normal lows rise from
40 degrees to 47 degrees.
The 30 year normal precipi-
tation is 1.66 inches.
Heppner student qualifies for college
rodeo finals in Wyoming
The Blue Mountain
Community College men’s
and women’s rodeo teams
may have ended the season
in third place in the North-
west Region standings of
the National Intercollegiate
Rodeo Association, but
five Timberwolf student-
athletes will head to Casper,
WY in June for the College
National Finals Rodeo.
Kolby Currin, a fresh-
man from Heppner, leads
the nation and the North-
west region standings in
steer wrestling as he heads
to CNFR. Other students
that qualified are Clay Hall,
a freshman from Toowoom-
ba, Australia, Preston Ped-
erson, a sophomore from
Hermiston, Cole White, a
third-year student-athlete
from Hermiston and Kaylee
Aldrich, a sophomore from
Terrebonne, OR.
The women’s team
ended the year ranked
fourth in the national stand-
ings, while the men’s team
landed in 17 th . CNFR takes
place June 10-16 at the
Casper Events Center in
Casper, WY.
Morgan Orem was awarded a $1,0000 scholarship by the
Oregon Wheat Foundation.
student body president and
Chapter FFA president. She
was District FFA secretary
in both her junior and senior
years. She is active in the
National Honor Society
as president, active within
her FFA chapter and has
entered various projects
and animals at county fairs.
She also volunteers on sev-
eral school and community
projects.
Students were judged
on their community in-
volvement, academic
achievement and an essay
on a wheat industry topic.
Oregon Wheat Founda-
tion scholarships are open to
high school seniors whose
parents are members of the
Oregon Wheat Growers
League or whose parents
are employed by grower
members of the organiza-
tion. The scholarship is also
open to students employed
by grower members.
Scholarship informa-
tion can be found in the
Oregon Wheat Foundation
section of the Oregon wheat
website at www.owgl.org.
Applications are accepted
beginning in October.
Painted rocks found
in Heppner
By Bobbi Gordon
According to area resi-
dents, painted rocks are
finding their way into Hep-
pner. What is it all about?
Have you been so lucky
to find any painted rocks
hidden in town? Have you
wondered what the craze is
all about? Or maybe you’ve
never heard of this creative
trend towards kindness.
In short, the painted
rocks are a creative project
that has taken the nation
by force, with the number
one goal to make someone
smile and brighten their
day. When someone finds
a rock, they can be sure it’s
been painted with love from
anyone ranging from little
bitty kiddos to skilled artists
and everyone in-between.
Participating is some-
thing any one of any age
can do, all you have to do
is find one. The rocks will
usually have a hashtag or
Facebook page written on
the back. This shows where
the rock came from and
often with directions to
post a picture to that area’s
painted rock Facebook page
or hashtag. You can either
keep the rock or re-hide it.
The general rule is that
if you find and keep a rock,
you create another one to
re-hide somewhere else
in your community. The
idea really is as simple as
inspiring someone through
a random act of kindness.
According to infor-
mation on Facebook, the
original idea came from
The Kindness Rocks proj-
ect, although there have
been many others that have
been inspired and have be-
gun their own rock sharing
groups in their communi-
ties.
There are a few rules
of thumb for participating
This rock was placed on the
windowsill at the Gazette to
spread some sunshine.
This rock was found near
the door of the Century Link
building. The finder says it
is just something really nice
and would like to thank the
mystery folks for their little
bit of cheer to the community.
in the painted rocks across
America craze:
-You should always
paint on clean rocks. If you
find rocks outside to paint,
a quick soap and water bath,
scrub, and thorough drying
should be fine.
-You should always
seal your rocks when you’re
finished painting them. One
sealer suggested was Rus-
toleum Clear Enamel from
a spray can, but others use
Mod Podge.
-Never hide your
painted rocks where they’ll
cause property damage or
on private property without
permission.
-Don’t trespass to hide
rocks.
-Don’t hide them in tall
grass where lawn equip-
ment could be damaged.
-Be aware of your sur-
roundings when hiding and
also searching for rocks.
Painted rocks groups
can be found by searching
Facebook or hashtags. Sev-
eral have been formed in
other cities in Oregon, but
the groups can be found all
across the nation.
Area experiences power outage MOTHER'S DAY SPECIALS
Columbia Basin Elec-
tric Co-op reported that it
experienced a system wide
outage on the eastern half
of the service territory last
night.
According to Tommy
Wolff, CBEC’s power
source from Bonneville
Power Administration was
interrupted. CBEC employ-
ees conferred with BPA to
determine the cause and
power was restored in a
little more than one hour.
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
-Hanging Baskets Planters
-Color Bowls
-Montana Silver Jewelry
20%
OFF
Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed
242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)