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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 2019)
HEPPNER G T 50¢ Recall petitions filed on Lexington mayor and councilmember Turmoil continues as town clerk reportedly resign s By David Sykes Two recall petitions, one against the Lexington mayor and one against a councilmember have been sent to Morrow County Clerk Bobbi Childers for signature verification. Childers says the petitions have enough signatures and a recall election will be scheduled for a future date. The recalls are the latest in a series of turmoil VOL. 138 NO. 37 6 Pages Wednesday, September 11, 2019 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon for the small town, which earlier saw a shut down and a months long dispute over filling a vacant council seat. Will Lemmon of Lexing- ton started the recall peti- tion against Mayor Marcia Kemp saying among other things she has failed her oath of office, exceeded her authority as mayor and violated the town charter. The recall against council member Bill Beard, who has been at odds with Kemp on many issues, was initi- ated by Eddie Dickenson of Lexington and he said Beard has failed to come to a budget meeting caus- ing the town shutdown, and threatened employees if they argued with him. At total of 18 signatures were needed on each peti- tion and Childers said the If you came to last week’s First Friday you could have received a free root mayor recall petition got 48 beer float and a stamp for free admission into Heppner’s first home football signatures and Beard’s 20. game courtesy of the Heppner Outreach Committee. pictured left to right: Under the rules each office John Bowles, Stephanie Rill, Sharon Miller and Diana Healy holder has the option to resign or have an election. worried it would set a prec- By David Sykes nel Committee, Heppner he was in violation of the The City of Heppner threw Housing Authority and the edent. City Manager Kraig city debris and junk car its support behind the new St. Patrick’s Celebration Cutsforth said Maddern body ordinance, and that came before the council Heppner Outreach Com- Committee. he needed to clean up the mittee Monday night, when In other business at Mon- because it had earlier de- property or be subject to it named the group an of- day’s meeting, after a nied the request. He said fines. The city did not be- ficial city committee. The lengthy discussion the he denied a similar request gin levying fines, however, Outreach Committee is council gave its approv- from another person, so after Brannon came to the responsible for coming up al for Sally Maddern to wanted the council to make council last month promis- with, organizing and put- live in a recreational ve- the decision about where to ing to clean up the property. ting on the very success- hicle for one month while allow it. There were a large amount ful monthly First Friday she and her son look for After much discussion of old junk car parts and events. The group has other a permanent place to live. the council voted to ap- disabled autos parked there. events in mind for Heppner. It is against city ordinance prove, with several coun- On Monday Cutsforth In a resolution passed at to live in RVs but Maddern cilmembers saying they did showed the council pictures Monday’s meeting, the said after her husband’s not want to see Maddern of the property taken in Au- council said it “feels that death she lost her home homeless, but also did not gust and then on Sept. 6 one the City of Heppner would and now has no place else want the 30 days to stretch month apart. He said after benefit from creating a to go. She said she did into a longer time peri- an initial burst of clean- Committee to oversee and not want to move into the od. “I give you my word up activity he didn’t see advise the Council regard- RV park in town and did (it will not),” Son Jody much done the past month. ing the City’s community not think the senior center Maddern told the council. Cutsforth asked the council event needs. The commit- would allow for her son, The council also heard a what they wanted him to do. tee will “investigate and who is also her caretak- report from Cutsforth on The council took no action manage certain current er, to live there with her. the Brannon Auto Repair but seemed to think that community events to de- Councilmembers were re- property in Heppner. Bran- Brannon would continue termine what is adequate luctant to grant the request non had been sent a letter with the cleanup. Brannon for the City’s needs.” And to live in yhe RV as some several months ago that was not in attendance at the advise and assist the coun- meeting. cil managing community In other business the coun- advents and the costs as- cil passed a new ordinance sociated with those events. making it easier for prop- The city is not giving the erty owners to make lot committee any taxpayer line adjustments in the city. funds, but money raised City Attorney Bill Kuhn by the committee will be said the new ordinance will managed through the city’s make it less cumbersome budgeting process and ap- for residents to make small pear as a line item in the adjustments to property city’s budget. This process boundaries. He stressed that is similar to how the St. it was not meant for divid- Patrick’s Day commit- ing larger lots but mainly tee’s money is handled. for moving boundary lines Appointed to the new com- several feet. The process mittee were Darcie Chick, will still take a survey and Tayllor Brannon, Kathryn a deed to be accomplished Cutsforth, John Bowles he told the council. and Sharon Miller. They will serve until the end of the year and from then all appointments will be for a one-year term. In addition to the budgeting assistance the committee members will also be covered under the city’s workers com- pensation coverage while engaging in their volunteer The benefit dinner and auction held for Cindy Greenup activities. Other official Saturday in Heppner, was reportedly a “huge” success. committees recognized by The amount of money raised was not announced, how- the city with these benefits ever reports say it was much more than anticipated. A are the City Council, Plan- large single donation from one family helped immense- ning Commission, Budget ly, according to one person. Cindy, a former Morrow Committee, Beautification County Courthouse employee, is battling cancer. Committee, Fire Depart- Pictured are volunteers serving up the chicken and ment Advisory Committee, alfredo sauce dinner to the large crowd at the fair- Police Commission, Utili- grounds. Photo by David Sykes ties Commission, Person- azette imes City makes Outreach Committee ‘official’ First Friday group gets support from city Mayor Kemp not resigning Will Lemmon leads re- call effort against mayor Both Beard and Kemp have indicated they will not re- sign. To further add to the tur- moil City Clerk Dawn Greisen has apparently re- signed her position. The Lexington Town Council met on Tuesday night after publication of this week’s Gazette-Times so infor- mation about that meet- ing will be in the Sept. 18 issue of the paper. Calls to the town hall went un- answered on Tuesday. A full text of each recall petition is as follows: Coun- cilmember Bill Beard: “Mr. Beard failed to show up at a budget meeting and caused the town to shut down for 11 days. He has also caused a hostile workplace by threatening employees if they argue with him or if they don’t do what he wants. Legal or otherwise. We need councilmen that take their oath the way it should. And do their duty.” Mayor Marcia Kemp: Kemp has failed her oath of office regularly exceeding the au- thority of the Mayor. Kemp refuses to work with nor even communicatee with 3 of our 4 councilmembers circumventing the authority of the council in absolutely clear violation of the town charter. She has publicly slandered their character and by her own admission based solely on hearsay. She has created an us vs. them atmosphere. Kemp contin- ues to put her own personal feelings, issues and agenda above the whole electorate of the town of Lexing- ton. We deserve better!” New ‘deputy’ joins Sheriff’s Office Greenup benefit a big success A new K-9 ‘deputy’ has joined the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office. Two-year-old Telly a female Dutch Shepherd was on the streets last week meeting peo- ple in Heppner. Her handler Deputy Colleen Neu- bert was showing Telly around. Telly is not officially on duty yet as she still has to be certified before starting her duties. photo by David Sykes ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. 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. Examples of monthly payments required over a 36-month term at a 3.99% APR rate: $29.52 per $1,000 financed; and with a 60-month term at a 6.99% APR rate: $19.80 per $1,000 financed. 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