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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2018)
Sheriff objects to governor’s $4 million to sue Trump and defend illegal immigrants HEPPNER G T 50¢ Matlack says money could be better spent on home- less and other social programs azette imes VOL. 137 NO. 51 8 Pages Wednesday, December 19, 2018 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Taking stock of Heppner’s strengths and weaknesses Lack of housing, limited growth and no industry seen as negatives. Good health care, senior center and recreation are pluses Judy Moore from Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation goes over Heppner’s pluses and minuses at a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting. -Photo by David Sykes. By David Sykes Heppner has a lot going for it, and some things not so much, a discussion at a Chamber of Commerce meeting revealed recently. The Greater Eastern Oregon Development Cor- poration, GEODC, came to the Chamber luncheon Dec. 6, where Community Development Officer Judy Moore led an interactive discussion with those pres- ent about the community. Revealed were peo- ple’s thoughts on some of Heppner’s pluses: They included presence of county government offices, good health care facilities, as- sisted living center, senior center, lots of recreation, mental health facility, off highway vehicle park, Ore- gon State Extension office, fee hunting businesses, a newspaper, swimming pool, child care and head- quarters of a strong regional bank. Weaknesses came out as lack of transportation and housing, limited growth, flood plain issues, no major industries, no radio station, isolation from state and federal agencies, distance from freeway, lack of build- able lots, delay in police response times, not enough restaurants and not enough motel/hotel accommoda- tions. Moore also asked the group to come up with what they would like to see in a five-year plan of improve- ment for the city. People mentioned restoration of the Gilliam-Bisbee build- Morrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack appeared with Peter Doocy on last Tuesday’s “Fox and Friends” arguing against Governor Kate Brown’s plans to spend millions suing President Donald Trump and defending illegals. By David Sykes Oregon Governor Kate Brown recently rolled out her 2019 budget and in- cluded is a plan for Oregon to spend $4 million suing President Donald Trump and defending illegal im- migrants. Morrow County Sher- iff Ken Matlack took ex- ception to the plan, and last week on the national cable news show “Fox and Friends” told host Peter Doocy the money could be better spent on social programs, especially in the Portland area. “The thing that is difficult is the dollars are tight and it just seems like an awful lot of mon- ey that could be used for other projects in Oregon, especially on that side of the state as it relates to the homeless population. We have a great drug problem, a great mental health prob- lem. There are just a lot of things those dollars could be used for,” Matlack said. Doocy said the state was going to work in part- nership with an organiza- tion called the Innovation Law Lab to identify who would get the legal help money from the Oregon ing, development at the old mill site, development of a small business incubator, sewer, street and pedestrian walkway improvements, increased residential broad- band Internet service, new businesses locating here, more available housing, continued improvements to the health care facilities and growth of existing busi- nesses. Moore came to Hep- pner as part of a tour she is taking to many cities in GEODC’s service area assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the towns. She said in order to help move communities forward they must first address what they have in assets and By David Sykes liabilities and formulate a Both Santa and Scrooge vision for the future. made their appearances last Thursday night, as the town of Heppner turned out to enjoy a spaghetti dinner and then receive the lots of gifts donate by businesses for the popular event. For those who collect- ed their rewards cards at local businesses the past few weeks, many were re- warded when the drawings were held and the many, many gifts were given out. From a big screen TV to complimentary dinners, lucky people won sacks full of prizes. Prior to the draw- ing people walked around, looked at the available prizes and then deposited their rewards cards in the appropriate sack next to the prizes. Later Jeff Bailey and budget, but the state did not do an independent analysis to determine the funding. The Law Lab is a Port- land organization that ac- cording to its web site “… is a nonprofit organization dedicated to upholding the rights of immigrants and refugees. ….the Innovation Law Lab empowers advo- cates to scale their impact and provide effective rep- resentation to immigrants in detention and in hostile judicial jurisdictions across the country.” The lab also is working on a project called “The Big Immigration Project,” which is intended to “create a paradigm shift in im- migration representation, immigration litigation and immigration advocacy.” The web site has links to training materials on how to do such things as fund a refugee rights program, shut down an immigrant detention center and links to other “sites of resistance.” Matlack said during the interview that immigration laws turning Oregon into a sanctuary state make it more difficult for local agencies to partner with and receive funds from the fed- eral government. “I know immigration continues to be a big deal in Oregon. We are an evenly divided state as it relates to immigration. We have had partnerships with the federal government for a long time,” he told Doocy. “Drug task forces, major crime teams, we work well together and have for years and years. Laws that Kate brown has implemented have made those partner- ships more difficult,” Mat- lack said. Matlack also related how he and other Oregon sheriffs and chiefs of police, had a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions a year or year-and-half ago, and Sessions was talking about the federal money Oregon wasn’t getting at that time. Matlack says Oregon law enforcement is caught in the middle. He said the officers asked Sessions to just “be kind” and let the grants go through, but Sessions told them “no way, there has to be more cooperation.” “The state wants the grants, but they are not going to help the federal government in any way dealing with the immigration problem,” Matlack added. Scrooge and Santa show up at Celebrate Christmas Lots of gifts distributed during annual event Knowles finishes third in average at NFR Townspeople look over the prizes and deposit their tickets for the ones they hope to win. Matt Coombe rounded up a crew of helper elves, drew the lucky winners names and distributed the gifts. Earlier, Mr. and Mrs. Santa took requests and sat for pictures with the children. Later, Scrooge showed up in a black outfit and top hat. He was a nice Scrooge, however, handing out reward cards to many people there. There was a penny drawing for the biggest prize of the night, a 55-inch big screen TV and other drawings for various prizes. Blake Knowles takes down the steer at the National Finals Rodeo. Heppner cowboy Blake Knowles ended up in third in the average in the steer wrestling event at the National Finals Rodeo held last week in Las Vegas. His total earnings for the week topped $34,000 and his total time was 68.2. Knowles finished the week ninth in the 2018 PRCA/RAM world standings for his event, with earnings of $162,699.26. G-T available Thursday next week Due to the Christmas holiday, the Gazette-Times will be distributed on Dec. 27 instead of the 26 th . The deadline for that issue will be Friday, Dec. 21 at 5 p.m. Morrow County MORROW COUNTY GRAI Grain Growers GROWE Lexington 541-989-8221 350 MAIN STRE LEXINGTON, ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: FRIDAY, DEC 21 AT 5:00 P.M. Offers vary by model. Offers valid on select new 2016 – 2019 Polaris snowmobiles. On approved Polaris purchases. Minimum Payments required. Offer may not be combined with certain other offers, is subject to change and may be extended or terminated without further notice. All rebates are paid to the dealer. The Promotional Limited Warranty consists of the standard 12-month factory warranty months of additional promotional limited warranty coverage for a total of 24 or 36 months of warranty coverage. 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