May 17, Mustang Mop Up day
HEPPNER
G T
azette
imes
VOL. 137 NO. 23 8 Pages
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Kids’ fishing derby held at
Cutsforth Park
The students at Hep-
pner Junior/Senior High
School were out and about
doing community service
projects on May 17. One-
hundred seventy partici-
pating students could be
seen around Heppner and
Lexington at the parks,
cemeteries, city offices, day
cares, schools, museums,
senior center, golf course
and assisted living to name
a few.
Projects included
working in kitchens, paint-
ing, weeding, gardening,
cleaning gutters, washing
windows, picking up trash
and general cleanup. They
even built a gazebo, painted
picnic tables and removed
trees.
John Edmundson pro-
vided the following list
of students participating
in projects: Ethan Akers,
Hayley Akers, Tiffany Ak-
Reiah Waite and Christian
Dubry doing cleanup at Wil-
low Creek Assisted Living
during the Mustang Mop Up.
ers, Mason Alleman, Harley
Anderson, Logan Angel,
Madison Ashbeck, Tucker
Ashbeck, Amelia Baker,
Kaytlin Bloom, Xavier
Bohanon, Kylie Boor, Zach
Bredfield, Carson Brosnan,
Conor Brosnan, Trinity
Bunce, Logan Burright,
Blake Carter, Tyler Carter,
Charles Cason, Suzy Ca-
son,
Julio Castellanos, Alex
Caven, Alison Cecil, Hai-
ley Cimmiyotti, Kassidy
Cimmiyotti, Drew Coe,
Bryan Collins, Roy Collins,
Madison Combe, Morgan
Correa, David Cribbs, Jacee
Currin, Alexis Cutsforth,
Coby Dougherty, Macken-
zie Dowell, Dillan Doyle,
Kameron Drury, Chris-
tian Dubry, Jocelyn Dubry,
Stephanie Dubry, Dakota
Durfey, Ed Ellsworth, Reno
Ferguson, Sage Ferguson,
Zach Ferguson,
Hanna Finch, Sam
Finch, Casey Fletcher,
Cody Fletcher, Stephanie
Fudala, Keegan Gibbs, Za-
-See MOP UP/PAGE ??
Wildfire exercise plans for
emergencies
Federal, State and Local agencies come together
for day-long hazards training and coordination
session
If a wildfire was burn-
It was a beautiful day at Cutsforth Park for the 13 th annual fishing derby. -Photo by Bobbi Gordon. ing out of control and
Wee Fisher winner Urijah
Wedding. -Contributed photo.
The 13 th annual youth
fishing derby, hosted by
Morrow County Parks, was
held June 2 at the Cutsforth
Park pond. It was a brisk
morning when people start-
ed arriving to grab their spot
around the pond in hopes
of landing a big one during
the derby.
Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife stocked
the pond for the special
event on June 1 and the
gate was closed soon after
to make sure the fish were
there for the youth the next
day. With a whistle at 8:30
a.m., the lines and bobbers
could be seen splashing
down in the water and it
was not long before you
could hear the squeals of
excitement as a fish was
being reeled in to shore.
A total of 48 partici-
pants ages 14 and under,
turned in a total of 74 fish Senior Fisher winner Halle
Gribskov. -Contributed photo.
Junior Fisher winner Brody
McDaniel. -Contributed photo.
between 8:30 and 11 a.m.,
with the average fish length
being about twelve inches.
Fish winners this year:
Wee Fisher (ages 0-5) was
Pee Wee Fish winner Liam Urijah Wedding with a fish
Rankin. -Contributed photo.
measuring 16 ¼ inches;
Junior Fisher (ages 6-10)
was Brody McDaniel with
a fish also measuring 16
¼ inches; Senior Fisher
(ages 11-14) went to Halle
Gribskov with a fish 16 ½
inches long and Pee Wee
Fish (smallest legal fish)
was Liam Rankin with his
8 ½ inch fish.
Water was provided to
make sure everyone stayed
hydrated on the warm day
and lunch of coffee, lemon-
ade, hot dogs and chili was
available for participants
and family members.
Local businesses and
individuals donated prizes
and awards for all of the
fishermen.
Colts Café opens in Heppner
“The cherry fudge cake is
very popular.” They make
cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls,
biscuits, cakes, pies and
cookies all from scratch.
At this time the maple bars
are the only thing they don’t
make from scratch, but they
will be doing that soon.
Amanda Wilson (center), pictured with Barbara Wilson (right)
and Amanda’s husband, Michael, is the new owner/operator
of Colts Café. -Photo by Bobbi Gordon.
Amanda Wilson is the
new owner and operator of
the Colts Café that opened
Apr. 16 in Heppner. She had
the opportunity to open the
restaurant after Sweet Pro-
ductions closed and man-
aged to get everything done
and open within seven days.
Wilson, along with her
mother-in-law, Barbara
Wilson, operate the café
from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven
days a week. Amanda Wil-
son stated, “We do it all
ourselves with some friends
volunteering to help out
here and there.”
Amanda said she grew
up in Hermiston, but has
lived in Heppner for about
four years. She has always
wanted to open her own res-
taurant as she has worked
in restaurants for 20 years,
cooking for 16 of those
years. She said she opens
and closes every day as well
as taking time out to drive
a school bus and do home
health care.
The restaurant menu
features American food
serving breakfast, lunch
and dinner. Breakfast items
include omelets, biscuits
and gravy, French toast and
hot cakes. Lunch has burg-
ers, salads and sandwiches.
Dinner adds chicken fried
steak and hamburger steak
dinners. Fish and chips
and chicken strips are also
available.
Colts serves homemade
baked goods. Amanda said,
threating Blakes Ranch
east of Heppner, multiple
agencies and emergency
groups would be involved,
and those groups would
need to work together dur-
ing the fire. Their job per-
formance just got a little
better recently following a
day-long “Wildfire Table-
top Exercise” held May 10
in Heppner.
A room full of personnel
from such diverse groups as
the US Forest Service to the
County Health Department
sat down and went through
what each would do if
an out of control wildfire
threatened Blakes Ranch.
Although the simulation
used a wildfire and the
Blakes location, the skills
learned during the simula-
tion could be used in many
different types of hazards
and emergency situations.
In the simulated exer-
cise, the fire started with a
pre-dawn lighting strike in
the Fossil area on state of
Oregon land. The condi-
tions were described as 83
degrees with 21 percent
relative humidity and 3-10
mph winds. It is August and
there is a high fire danger
with low moisture in the
woods. There are other fires
reported in the area and
agencies are getting lots of
calls from the public.
With the “table set” for
the simulated fire, the room
then broke up into groups
with each agency discuss-
ing their role and reaction to
the blaze. From the Oregon
Department of Forestry, US
Forest Service and local
departments coordinating
firefighting resources to
Suspicious death
occurs in Heppner
The Gazette-Times has
learned of a suspicious
death that occurred in Hep-
pner the morning of June
5. According to a source,
the Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office received a 911
call concerning the death
around 7:23 a.m. Tuesday.
According to reports,
Frederick Baxter Tortolani,
21, Heppner, was discov-
ered deceased at a residence
on Water St. in Heppner. No
cause of death has yet been
established.
The death is under in-
vestigation and the next of
kin has been notified.
Local Fireman Steve Rhea
gives the opening welcome at
a Wildfire Tabletop Exercise
held recently in Heppner. The
exercise was a training session
for local agencies and groups
to plan for what to do in case
of an emergency. -Photo by
David Sykes
the Sheriff’s Office arrang-
ing for traffic control and
evacuation, each group then
came back into session and
went over one by one what
their duties and plans of
action would be.
As an example, a com-
mand center would be es-
tablished and resources
allocated to fight the fire.
The Sheriff and emergency
personnel would begin a
mandatory evacuation of
the Blakes Ranch area.
People with special medical
needs such as wheel chairs
are identified by the health
department and given extra
help during the evacuation.
There would even be ar-
Local students com-
pete in math contest
Nathan Ellsworth, John Lindsay, Delilah Sauceda and Claire
Lindsay placed in the top three at the district math contest.
-Contributed photo.
Students from Heppner,
Irrigon and Boardman com-
peted in the district math
contest at Riverside Jr/Sr
High School in Boardman
on Apr. 19.
Four Heppner students
placed in the top three for
their grade levels in the
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ROSES
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Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396
rangements made to place
evacuated livestock at the
fairgrounds.
Other groups and agen-
cies would also be involved
during the fire and after-
wards in various roles from
disconnection and restora-
tion of electrical services,
to health and safety issues
for the population. All these
groups were at the meeting
and gave reports on their
roles and responsibilities.
The planning is detailed
with much coordination
needed among agencies,
which is the main reason
these types of “Table Top”
simulations are so impor-
tant, says Morrow County
Planner Carla McLane.
The planning department
organized the simulation
and McLane says a Na-
tional Hazardous Mitiga-
tion plan was adopted in
2006, and recently updated
as required. “The intent is to
make sure we are prepared
to meet a hazard like a wild-
fire.” McLane also points
out that the interaction,
cooperation and networking
done by all the agencies is
important, and can be used
for other types of emergen-
cies that may come up, not
just wildfires.
For farm equipment, visit our web site at www.mcgg.net
contest. Third grader Claire
Lindsay placed third, fourth
grader Delilah Sauceda
placed second, fifth grader
John Lindsay tied for third
place and sixth grader Na-
than Ellsworth took first
place.
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