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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2019)
TWO - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, August 21, 2019 The Official Newspaper of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow Heppner GAZETTE-TIMES U.S.P.S. 240-420 Morrow County’s Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper SEARCH OLD COPIES OF THE HEPPNER GAZETTE-TIMES ON-LINE: http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/ Published weekly by Sykes Publishing, LLC and entered as periodical matter at the Post Office at Heppner, Oregon under the Act of March 3, 1879. Periodical postage paid at Heppner, Oregon. Office at 188 W. Willow Street. Telephone (541) 676- 9228. Fax (541) 676-9211. E-mail: editor@rapidserve.net or david@rapidserve. net. Web site: www.heppner.net. Postmaster send address changes to the Heppner Gazette-Times, P.O. Box 337, Heppner, Oregon 97836. Subscriptions: $31 in Morrow County; $25 senior rate (in Morrow County only; 65 years or older); $37 elsewhere; $31 student subscriptions. David Sykes ..............................................................................................Publisher Bobbi Gordon................................................................................................ Editor All News and Advertising Deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. For Advertising: advertising deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Cost for a display ad is $5.25 per column inch. Cost for classified ad is 50¢ per word. Cost for Card of Thanks is $10 up to 100 words. Cost for a classified display ad is $6.05 per column inch. For Public/Legal Notices: public/legal notices deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Dates for pub- lication must be specified. Affidavits must be required at the time of submission. Affidavits require three weeks to process after last date of publication (a sooner return date must be specified if required). For Obituaries: Obituaries are published in the Heppner GT at no charge and are edited to meet news guidelines. Families wishing to include information not included in the guidelines or who wish to have the obituary written in a certain way must purchase advertising space for the obituary. For Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor MUST be signed by the author. The Heppner GT will not publish unsigned letters. All letters MUST include the author’s address and phone number for use by the GT office. The GT reserves the right to edit letters. The GT is not responsible for accuracy of statements made in letters. Any letters expressing thanks will be placed in the classifieds under “Card of Thanks” at a cost of $10. In Morrow County we eat our vegetables, live in mobile homes, have healthy babies, but not many college degrees New report ranks all Oregon counties by health, economic, social, and other factors By David Sykes If you’ve ever won- dered who we are, what we do, even what we eat here in Morrow County, a new re- port may give you answers. Called Oregon By the Numbers the report ranks Morrow against the other 35 counties in the state based on factors such as diet, education and income. And yes, we can pat our- selves on the back for a healthy diet. We’re ranked number one - by a long shot, with 48.8 percent of adults in the county eating the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables per day. Not only are we the highest in the state but the next highest is Grant county with a lowly 30.9 percent. Down in Curry County, well those folks don’t eat their veggies, and have only a 5.9 percent fruit and vegetables ranking. Another number one spot we claim, is the highest percentage (30.5) of people living in mobile homes. In case you are interested, Multnomah County has the lowest number at 1.9 percent. In education we have a mixed bag of num- bers. Ranked number 15 in high school graduation Public Use Restrictions move to Phase A on the Umatilla National Forest Due to increased dry weather conditions, Phase A of the Public Use Restric- tions (PURS) for smoking, off-road travel and chain- saw use went into effect on the Umatilla National Forest Wednesday, Aug. 21. Phase A is the first level of wildfire-prevention re- strictions, generally imple- mented when the fire danger is moderate to high. PURS are phased in collectively, as conditions warrant, and may differ from Forest to Forest. Restrictions under Phase A include: -Chainsaws may be operated only between the hours of 8 p.m. and 1 p.m. local time. A one-hour fire watch is required after saw operations cease. Saw oper- ators are required to have an axe (minimum two-pound head, 26” length), shovel (8” wide, 26” length) and fire extinguisher (minimum ABC 8 oz.) in their posses- sion. Chainsaw operation associated with commercial and personal use firewood permits are regulated under the conditions of the permit and are not impacted by this public use restriction. -Smoking is allowed only in enclosed vehicles, buildings or cleared areas. -No off-road/off-trail vehicle travel or travel on roads not cleared of stand- ing grass or other flamma- ble material; no vehicle travel on those FS roads where access has been im- peded or blocked by earthen berm, logs, boulders, barri- er, barricade or gate, or as otherwise identified in the Fire Order. The public is also en- couraged to practice safe campfire principles when recreating in dispersed and developed campsites. For- est officials recommend the following campfire safety precautions: -Campfires should be in fire pits surrounded by dirt, rock or commercial rings and in areas not conducive to rapid fire spread. All flammable material shall be cleared within a three-foot radius from the edge of the pit and free of overhanging material. Use existing pits wherever possible. -Campfires must be attended at all times and completely extinguished prior to leaving. -Persons with camp- fires should carry a tool that can serve as a shovel and one gallon of water in their possession. The intent of this recommendation is to ensure individuals with a campfire to have the tools necessary to completely with almost 80 percent of our kids getting their diplomas, we then move on to a number 20 ranking with only 8.7 percent of our residents having two- year college degrees. And a four-year college education is pretty sparse, as we’re ranked in last place with only 9.8 percent of adults age 25 or older having a diploma. If you’re interest- ed, Benton county has the highest college rate at 53.8 percent. Another interesting ranking, and one where we are last in the state, is in kindergarten readiness. We only have a 4.6 percent of our pre-school kids identi- fying certain letter sounds in the English alphabet. Morrow County ranks average to pretty good in the economics. The unem- ployment rate is 4.4 percent for number 22 in the state. Grant is the highest at 6.8 percent and Benton is the lowest with 3.3. The labor force participation rate, or people in the labor force is number 10 at 59.3 per- cent. Highest is Washing- ton County with 68.9. In job growth we’re ranked number three, and house- hold income has us ranked tenth. The big employers in the county are animal and food production, and food manufacturing. On crime we’re ranked number 12. Multnomah highest and Wheeler lowest with 0 major crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, assault and theft. We don’t vote in elec- tions very well, ranking number 33 in the state with only 63.1 percent of reg- istered voters who partic- ipated in the last general election. We’re high in property taxes at number three. The per-capita prop- erty tax imposed is calcu- lated by dividing the total taxes levied in the county by the population of the county, which comes out to $2,735 per person. Gil- liam is highest per-capita in the state at $4,342, and the lowest is Josephine at $761. But we do have the cheapest housing costs in the state versus the rest of the 35 counties. Other numbers of in- terest: we are number 23 in smoking at 15.7 percent of the adult population puffing. Hood River is the lowest at 8.8 percent and Lincoln County highest at 31.5 percent. We have healthy babies though, with only three per- cent having low birth rates. Lake County is the highest with 16.1 percent of their babies born with low birth rates. We’re ranked number 14 for the percentage of two-year-olds who have received their required im- munizations at 71 percent of the kids. How about the internet. We have 59.9 per- cent of our population hav- ing broadband. On driving miles we are ranked number 27 by the number of miles traveled. Other random facts about the county: our pop- ulation is 11,153, and we are 60.7 percent white and 35.1 percent Latino. Our highest age group is 10-14 years old. This is the second year Oregon by the Numbers has been published. It is a proj- ect of the Ford Foundation and Oregon State Universi- ty Extension and is meant to give leaders important information and statistics about their communities. extinguish their campfire. The public’s awareness of the increasing fire danger and cooperation is essen- tial to a safe fire season. Recreationists, firewood cutters, hunters and other forest users can all help by closely adhering to restric- tions, operating safely and cautiously and keeping up to date on the latest orders and regulations. Please check with your local Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) office for public use restrictions on lands protected by ODF. Visit the Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch web- page at: www.bmidc.org or contact a local Oregon De- partment of Forestry office for more complete infor- mation. Similar restrictions may be in effect on State and private lands protected by the Washington Depart- ment of Natural Resources (WA-DNR). More infor- mation can be found on the WA-DNR website at: http:// www.dnr.wa.gov/. For more information about the Umatilla National Forest’s Public Use Restric- tions, please contact our Pendleton, Oregon office at 541-278-3716, call our The Church of the Nazarene will host special speak- Forest Information Hotline ers, Jeff and Kelsey, Wednesday, August 21 at 6:30 p.m. at 1-877-958-9663, or visit Everyone is invited to attend to hear about the exciting our website at www.fs.usda. things God is doing to reach His people in other lands. gov/umatilla/. Church to host special speakers “It’s not what we do, it’s who we choose to be.” Read About How We are Working Together to be a Healthier Community Today and HealthyMC.org Maximize the value of our relationships with community and regional partners through initiatives that promote health and bring valuable health services to Morrow County residents. Advance the quality of care provided in each patient care area while enhancing your patient and customer service experience. Ensure that our facilities, technol- ogy and infrastructure, as well as our workforce of employees and volunteers will continue to meet the needs of our communities to- day, and for generations to come. Strive to be your First Choice for quality, compassionate, local care and lead the way in promoting wellness and improving health in Morrow County. Where healthier is happening... Boardman | Heppner | Ione | Irrigon | Lexington 541-676-9133 Fun with salsa at cooking class This month at the vegetarian cooking class, students will be having fun with salsa. A summer go to or a yummy snack of salsa and chips will be featured with different styles of salsa demonstrated at the class. The class will be held August 27 at 7 p.m. at the Heppner Seventh-Day Adven- tist Church gym.
