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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 2018)
Local merchants schedule customer appreciation day HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 137 NO. 48 8 Pages Wednesday, November 28, 2018 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Mayor reminds residents ‘no pit bulls’ By David Sykes During a discussion about permitting animals at this month’s city council meeting, Heppner mayor Cody High made a point of reminding residents that pit bull dogs are “not allowed within the city limits. The city does not have a single pit bull permitted,” he said. High was responding to a report that there may be a pit bull being kept illegally at a home in Heppner. “You are not allowed to have a pit bull in the city limits. That is against the law. They are considered dangerous ani- mals,” he said. He asked the police department to keep an eye out for the animal. There are certain an- imals that are considered dangerous and not allowed in the city, and there are farm type animals like hogs, chickens and others that are only allowed with a permit. The city has been tightening up on the number of farm animals allowed in the city, mostly keeping those limited to kids with 4-H projects. In a related matter the council turned down a re- quest for a resident on Jones Street to have 10 chickens (no roosters). There had been reports of chicken problems in that area. High said the city would begin to check on unpermitted animals and have the own- ers remove them from the properties. In other discussion, councilmember John Bowles, who is county Un- dersheriff, said after initiat- ing a neighborhood watch program in Heppner the city has seen “a dramatic drop in juvenile complaints,” he told the council. The watch program was setup several months ago after a large community meeting expressing concern about vandalism, drugs and other problems in the community. Since then meetings were held to coordinate the watch program. Bowles said the last meeting held there was a good turnout. “There were a lot more people there than I expected. It is going very well,” he said. In a related matter Mayor High asked about the recently hired deputy serving as a school resource officer, SRO, at the high school. High wanted to know if the time the offi- cer spends at the school is counted against the total time the city of Heppner contracts with the sheriff’s department for police cov- erage. Bowles said Heppner has 320 hours of contracted police coverage per month and the resource officer’s time does not count against that. The Morrow County School District also pays for one-half the SRO’s sal- ary, and the county picks up the rest. “I think it’s a great idea to have the officer in the school,” he said. “I just didn’t want his hours counted against our time,” he said. In other discussions: Public works. Pub- lic works director Chad Doherty gave his monthly report, some of which in- cluded installing a new fire hydrant on Green St, did year end maintenance on the golf course irrigation system (the course uses treated city effluent for irrigation), cleaned and tv scoped a sewer main line on Cowins St., did routing maintenance on the sew- er plant, raised manholes on South Court St, which recently got new asphalt, swept the town with the street sweeper, mowed the park lawns for the last time of the season and took down the seasonal hanging bas- kets around town. City manager report. City manager Edie Ball reported among other ac- tivities she had met with the Department of Envi- ronmental Quality, DEQ, to review options for waste water lagoons and where they may be located. They toured the Port of Morrow property at the old mill Personal-use firewood cutting on the Umatilla National Forest will end Friday, Nov. 30. Firewood permits will not be avail- able again until May 2019. The public is asked to take additional precautions when cutting firewood late in the fall when road and soil conditions become slick, soggy and saturated. Firewood cutters should be prepared for winter weather conditions. Mountain travel will require extreme care to avoid getting stuck in the mud or snow and causing resource damage to the land and vegetation. Another concern for late season firewood cutting is the misidentification of live or dead western larch, a highly prized firewood also known as tamarack. Larch needles turn yellow and fall off at the end of the growing season, which can cause the tree to appear dead when in fact it is only dormant. Tips on identifying live larch site to see if that might be a suitable place for sewer treatment lagoons. The city has been ordered by DEQ to stop dumping its efflu- ent in Willow Creek. Even though it is treated from the city sewer plant, DEQ says the effluent contains too much ammonia and must be removed from creek dump- ing. The city has been wres- tling with options on what to do, including building a lagoon system to hold the treated effluent. Ball met with Cayuse Technologies and reviewed a hardware upgrade to the city’s com- puter system. She also met with Kyle Robinson who is considering a possible housing development proj- ect above Rock Street in Heppner. There are water pressure issues that high on the hill, which was also dis- cussed. Ball also attended a Portland State University housing forecast workshop and attended the monthly housing authority meeting. Heppner Housing Au- thority. The council heard from Board vice-president Teresa Hughes, who spoke about the new management company they have hired to manage the St. Patrick’s Se- nior Center. The company, Viridian Management, Inc, also manages properties in Enterprise and Hughes said the board liked what they’ve seen so far. She said the new company is bank- ing locally which should speed up payments and receipts. She mentioned that Representative Greg Smith was very helpful in the boards dealing with state agencies. New computer sys- tem. The city is in need of a new computer system to replace the outdated soft- ware it has now. A bid was received for $26,800 from Visson MS out of Spokane for the software. This will be paid over a period of time. A bid was received from Cayuse Technologies to purchase the needed hardware for $16,415. A float created by Murray’s Drug was a winner in last year’s Parade of Lights. – File photo. Heppner merchants will be hosting a customer appreciation day, along with extended hours, on Thursday, Nov. 29 to kick off the holiday season. The Parade of Lights, organized by the city of Heppner, will begin at 5:30 p.m. Mer- chants participating in the event are: -Angell’s Kitchen will be holding a soup feed, ba- zaar and kid’s games from 6-8 p.m. -Bank of Eastern Ore- gon will serve refreshments from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. -Breaking Grounds Coffee will be serving chur- ros and Mexican hot choco- late from 5-7 p.m. -City of Heppner will serve refreshments from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. -Community Bank will be serving refreshments from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. -Heppner Auto Parts will serve refreshments from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will have men’s stocking stuffer specials available. -Heppner Market Fresh Foods will be offering free coffee, hot chocolate and candy canes. Pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus will be available from 6-7 p.m. (please bring your own camera). -Murray’s Drug will be holding hourly door prize drawings, Murray’s Christ- mas wish list from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and a mini wine tasting, cookies and punch from 5-7 p.m. -Peterson’s Jewelers will be open late until 7 p.m. Customers are encour- aged to shop local this hol- iday season. For additional information, contact the Heppner Chamber of Com- merce at 541-676-5536 or by email to heppnercham- ber@centurytel.net. Lexington reschedules December meeting By Bobbi Gordon At the Nov. 13 town council meeting, the Lex- ington council voted to postpone the December meeting from Dec. 11 to Dec. 18 due to a schedul- ing conflict. Carla McLane from the county planning department will also at- tend the meeting to discuss zoning. Water meters and bill- ing software were topics of discussion in the meeting. The current billing software is scheduled to be upgraded at the end of the year, but is not compatible with the new meters that are being installed. The council de- cided to ask the company providing the meters to schedule a demo of the soft- ware used for those meters to determine whether or not it is feasible to purchase a new system instead of upgrading. Ed Dickenson, mainte- nance, reported that since several water samples have reported positive for co- liform the town will be required to install a chlori- nation system by Apr. 10, 2019. Additional research will be done by the town to determine if another option might be available. He also reported the new fire siren is installed and he is work- ing on getting the correct frequencies input into the software to allow it to be turned on and off remotely. Charlie Sumner report- ed the difficulty he is having recruiting volunteers for the fire department. Training is an issue as well as the time commitment involved. A suggestion was made that maybe training could be shared with other towns in the county to allow more participation. Councilor Bobbi Gor- don reported that the results of the write-in votes would not be available until Nov. 21. At that time the per- son with the most write-in votes for a position will be notified and has the option to accept or decline the position. Those people will have until Dec. 17 to respond, with their term to begin on Jan. 7, 2019 if they choose to accept. A total of 119 of the 174 registered voters voted in the election. There were 50 write-in votes for mayor, 54 for position two and 39 for position three. Bobbi Gordon, the only candidate filing, was elected to posi- tion four. Current council member Bill Beard’s term for position one does not expire until 2021. After Jan. 7, the newly elected and sit- ting council will be allowed to appoint someone to any vacant positions. The next council meet- ing is scheduled for Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. at the Lexington town hall. The public is always welcome and en- couraged to attend. Power outage planned in Ione substation area Columbia Basin Elec- substation. Columbia Basin Rd., Lower Rhea Creek, tric Cooperative, Inc. has Electric would like to apol- Brenner Canyon, Ione announced Bonneville ogize to its affected mem- Gooseberry Rd., Dry Fork, Power Administration will bers for any inconvenience Lower Willow Creek, North have a power outage at the this outage may cause, but Lex and the surrounding Ione substation on Friday, every measure was taken areas. The communities Dec. 7, beginning at 6:30 to schedule this outage at of Heppner and Lexington a.m. Re-energization is the least disruptive time will not be affected by this outage. scheduled for noon that possible. For those unsure The outage will affect same day. BPA personnel will be only the CBEC members whether or not they will are located in the firewood replacing damaged equip- served by the Ione BPA be affected by this outage, guide that accompanies ment that aids in the pro- substation. Those areas please call Columbia Basin tection of CBEC’s distri- include: town of Ione, Ella Electric at 541-676-9146. each firewood permit. Firewood permits can bution lines outside of the be purchased at any Umatil- la National Forest office or at several local businesses in the community. Permits Lexington Grange will be hosting a holiday craft market at the grange hall on Dec. cost $5 per cord with a 1 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Vendors will be offering a variety of handmade, artisan and minimum purchase of four vintage items. Admission is free. cords for $20. A maximum Breaking Grounds Coffee will be onsite serving drinks and lunch. Tickets will purchase of 12 cords total, be available for a raffle basket filled with items donated by the vendors for $5 each. per household, is allowed from National Forest lands during the calendar year. Firewood season ends Correction In last week’s Gazette-Times in a story about Billy Gentry and Columbia Basin Electric Co-op it was stated that the first pole placed by CBEC in 1948 is located on the Qualls Ranch. This is incorrect. The pole is located on the Proudfoot property. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Holiday market scheduled PURINA HOME GROWN LAYER 50 LB BAG PELLETS & CRUMBLES ONLY $9.99 Christmas Trees in Stock! Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)