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
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