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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2019)
HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 138 NO. 33 6 Pages Wednesday, August 14, 2019 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon 2019 Morrow County Fair begins today Governor Brown announces Morrow County Justice Court vacancy Governor Kate Brown has announced that she is accepting applications for a judicial vacancy on the Morrow County Jus- tice Court created by the planned retirement of Judge Annetta Spicer. According a press release, “The Gov- ernor thanked Judge Spicer for her dedicated judicial service and announced that she will fill the position by appointment. Judge Spicer’s retirement takes effect December 31, 2019.” Interested applicants should mail or deliver their merit. She encourages ap- plications from individuals with a wide variety of back- grounds and experiences.” It says ORS 51.240 sets forth the qualifications for office. The ORS stipulates residency requirements as well as training and back- ground requirements. To receive answers to questions about the ap- pointment process, or to request an interest form, contact Shevaun Gutridge at 503-378-6246 or she- vaun.gutridge@oregon. gov. Several cleanup issues on way to resolution A small pile of debris is all that is left of the burned-out house on Linden Way. -Photo by David Sykes. By David Sykes Two property cleanups the city of Heppner has been wrestling with the past several months appear on the way to resolution, the Heppner City Council was told Monday night. A burned-out house on Lin- den Way and an auto repair business downtown are in the process of cleaning up. The house on Linden Way burned down April 2, however the burned-out shell was up until recently and not being removed by Above: Firefighter Terry Johnsen sets up the Umatilla Naitonal Forest display at the Mor- the property owner. The row County Fair. city had considered clean- Below: Exhibitors wait to check in their fair entries. -Photos by Giselle Moses. ing up the property and then placing a legal lien on the property for the cost of the cleanup. However, at an early council meeting, neighbor Jay Keithley, who had complained several times about the smell and danger of the next-door burned-out structure, of- fered to take care of the cleanup in exchange for ownership of the property. That deal between him and property owner Me- gan Futter was apparently made and Keithley imme- diately began cleaning up. By Tuesday it was nearly done. Monday night City Manager Kraig Cutsforth told the council that things worked out pretty well and the only cost to the city was some minimal attorney’s fees. He said an asbestos study that might have been required was waived by the Department of Envi- ronmental Quality, which helped reduce the cleanup cost. The city has also been contending with a cleanup The fire camp at the OHV Park includes tents and other facilities for the personnel fighting at a local auto repair busi- the HK Complex fire. ness. The city had notified Brannon Auto Repair that it needed to clean up its property on 126 E. May Firefighters make progress on HK Complex fire By Bobbi Gordon Firefighters are making progress on the HK Com- plex fire, 15 miles north of Monument on the Heppner Ranger District, due to rainfall and cooler tempera- tures over the weekend. The fire, started by lightning, is 2,707 acres in size and is about 78 percent contained. Nine fires in the complex are 100 percent contained. A fire camp has been set up at the Morrow County OHV Park and many agen- completed application forms to Misha Isaak, Gen- eral Counsel, Office of the Governor, 900 Court Street NE, Suite 254, Salem, OR 97301-4047. Forms must be received by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 28, 2019. Forms emailed by 5 p.m. on the closing date will be considered timely so long as original signed forms postmarked by the closing date are later re- ceived. The release says, “Gov- ernor Kate Brown fills ju- dicial vacancies based on cies are working together to get the fires contained. The press release for August 13 states approximately 200 personnel have been removed from the incident and Northwest Incident Management Team Six will be transferring command of the HK Complex to a local Type Four team August 14. There has been mini- mal fire behavior and tem- peratures are forecasted to be in the 70s to low 80s. Public use restrictions pertaining to recreational chainsaw use, smoking and off-road travel have been lifted on the Umatilla National Forest. A portion of the 21 Road remains closed to allow for fire traffic. With many resources leaving the fire camp, many vehicles and equipment are expected to be on the roads. Drivers are asked to use caution and obey posted speed limits. St. or would be subject to fines. The city had, how- ever, at the same time sent Brannon a letter saying the business was in violation of a city zoning ordinance. That violation could subject the business to an additional fine of $435 per day. Owner Marty Brannon said he knew the property needed to be cleaned up and he immediately started that effort, however he took exception the zoning viola- tion threat, pointing out that his business has been used for many years by various auto repair businesses and should therefore be grand- fathered in. Monday night Heppner resident Katherine Melby Turner told the council she had researched the forma- tion of what is called the “Downtown Zone” that prohibits auto repair busi- nesses. She read a three- page statement to the coun- cil which in part said she found in the minutes of an August 4, 2003 planning commission meeting when the stricter Downtown De- velopment code was adopt- ed, that all the current busi- nesses are grandfathered in and therefore allowed in the new zone. Across the street from Brannon’s business is a tire store which also does front end alignments and brake work. That business, however, was not sent a letter from the city for zone violations. Turner told the council the way the city handled the zoning violation and the threat of fines “got many of us pretty riled up.” Turner also asked some questions she said many in the com- munity were talking about: “It actually makes some of our citizens wonder about collusion between Kraig Cutsforth, city manager, and his sister Kim Cuts- forth, Chairperson of the Howard and Beth Bryant trust which is contributing to the renovation of the Gil- liam and Bisbee Building. I have heard the following questions come up in con- versation: 1. Are they trying to put Marty out of business because they need more parking or a truck delivery point for the new hotel? 2. Are they afraid it won’t look good to have an auto repair facility right outside the new hotel? 3. If they needed park- ing, they should have had a plan before they started development. 4. Do they want that land to expand the entrance or area of the new hotel? 5. Does the city man- ager go to the council to discuss potential code vio- lations or does he send the certified letters out without the Council knowing about anything this serious which could put people out of business? All this speculation and guessing hopefully would never have occurred if this situation had been handled in a more professional and unemotional way,” she told the council in her statement. Following the council meeting Kraig Cutsforth told the Gazette-Times the clean up enforcement had nothing to do with his sis- ter and the Howard Bryant Trust. He pointed out that the new hotel project next door to the auto repair busi- ness is owned by a separate entity, not the trust. A sep- arate legal entity has been set up to take ownership of -See CLEANUP/PAGE THREE MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS 350 MAIN ST LEXINGTON, OR 97839, CONTACT: JUSTIN BAILEY 541-989-8221 Offers vary by model. *Rebate offers valid on select 2015-2019 new and unregistered Polaris ® RZR ® , RANGER ® , Sportsman ® , GENERAL ® , and ACE ® models purchased between 7/24/19 and 9/30/19 and financing offers valid on select 2015-2020 new and unregistered models purchased between 7/24/2019 and 9/30/2019. **Rates as low as 3.99% APR for 36 months. 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