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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 2020)
Lexington a Second Amendment Sanctuary HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 139 NO. 4 6 Pages Wednesday, January 22, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Ellis organizes St. Pat’s 5K walk/run again this year Janelle Ellis By Bobbi Gordon Janelle Ellis of Hep- pner is preparing for her 12 th year participating in the St. Patrick’s 5K walk/ run. She participated in the walk the inaugural year and then helped coordinate the event as a walk and 5K run starting the second year. Ellis told the Gazette she had never done anything like that before when she was asked to add the run component to the already successful walk event. Her first step to turn it into a 5K run was to map out different routes around town. She wanted to come up with a route where vis- itors could see the sites of Heppner while running and donating to the cause. She said, “I mapped out and ran different routes around town.” After finding a route she thought would work she crafted route signs and lam- inated them “as you never know what the weather will be like mid-March.” She said after a year or two of feedback, she changed the route. “Trying to map out a 5K (3.1 miles) route around the town of Heppner without a hill is difficult unless you head out one of the highways, which I did not want to do for safety reasons.” She ended up taking out the long hill that heads up to the high school and incorporated a loop below the dam to gain back some ground. “There’s been positive feedback ever since.” Ellis indicated she is not sure of the number of people who participate each year, but she thought they have had as many as 50 runners, alongside a lot of walkers. The group usually consists of out-of-town visitors and locals as well as the track and cross-country team runners. She reported, “It’s a nice little achievable run for those coming out of winter who are trying to get back in shape, an ice breaker event for the high school athletes participat- ing in spring sports or an active event for people to participate in before the rest of their busy day begins.” The Friends Helping Friends committee began the event at first as a tribute to Donna Schonbachler, a much-loved Heppner wom- an and home health nurse, who passed away from cancer, and each year the proceeds are donated to a different cause. Ellis re- ported there are not many changes made to the event each year as the committee has agreed to keep the event as simple as possible. The volunteers work hard to make the event happen but like to enjoy the event with their family and friends rather than feel like they are “working.” According to Friends Helping Friends commit- tee member, Susan Hisler, Janelle brings a willingness to keep the event going each year. “She understands the importance of the St. Patrick’s celebration as she has Irish Healy genes,” Hisler said. Hisler said Fr. Thankachan Joseph social media and peer pres- sures. “I like to help them with time management,” he says pointing out that young people often have only short-term memory and can daydream and not concentrate. “I help them learn to focus,” he says. Using a method called mind mapping, he helps students develop a blueprint to bet- ter studying for lessons and tests. “I want to help them improve,” he says. Fr. Joseph says over the years he has given training to be- tween 15 and 20 thousand young people in India. Fr. Joseph says one of the things he has learned over the years in counseling young people is they some- times do not feel appreci- ated. He says it is parents and teachers who ultimately help mold a young person to their goals in life, but Juli Kennedy is sworn in as Lexington’s new mayor by Town Recorder Denis Lien. -Photo by David Sykes. By David Sykes Concerned that state government may be moving to take away Oregonians’ Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms, the Lexington Council last week voted unanimously to designate the town a Second Amendment Sanc- tuary. “The state of Oregon is coming after your guns,” newly appointed Mayor Juli Kennedy said after reading the three-page ordinance in its entirety. While admitting that Lexington is just a small town, councilmembers said the people must start some- where to stand up for their constitutional rights. “We Leah Sommers (left) and Janelle Ellis wear their inaugural St. Pat’s Day “Donna Schonbachler Remembrance Walk” T-shirts. she coached Janelle in Jr. High track and running wasn’t everything to her back then. “In later years she developed a condition- ing program for herself and continues to be involved in runs in and out of town.” Ellis was born and raised in Heppner, attended MHCC and graduated from Portland State University. She said she loves to travel, meet new people and learn and experience different cultures. She noted she was fortunate enough to spend a couple of years in the Do- minican Republic learning New Catholic priest arrives By David Sykes Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Heppner and St. Williams in Ione have a new priest, Fr. Thankachan Joseph. Fr. Joseph, 47, comes here most recently from Hood River where he was a priest for the past five months. Fr. Joseph was born in India and had been a priest there for 17 years. He said he knew since he was nine years old and started attending church with his grandmother that being a priest was his life’s calling. This is his first time in the United States and our recent snow was the first time he had seen the white stuff in person. “It is very nice here and I like it very much,” he says. Fr. Joseph has three degrees, in education, psy- chology and world histo- ry, and his special areas of interest are counseling young people and visiting and talking with people. He says his training with teenagers has given him skills in helping young people deal with awareness, responsiveness, life’s con- fusions, and dealing with Council votes unanimously: ‘Right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’ sometimes they feel unap- preciated, like they are not doing good enough. Fr. Joseph has known since he was a small boy that he wanted to be a priest. He started attending church with his grandmother when he was nine. “I felt drawn to it,” he says. He is from a large family of eight chil- dren and his father was a farmer in the southern state of Kerala city of Kottayam. Fr. Joseph also has a calling to visit people who may be lonely, especially the elderly. “I want to bring to them God’s experience of being together with other people through care and comforting. ‘I will be with you to the end of time’,” he says quoting Matthew 28:20. He says elderly peo- ple sometimes just “want to be heard,” saying they want to talk to someone. Fr. Joseph adds that anyone, regardless of religion, is welcome to contact him and come by for a visit. He says he likes being in the US and Heppner but does miss his family. How- ever, he does contact them by video conference, so that helps. Fr. Joseph has also Spanish between schools. After multiple jobs, she has now started a career at Columbia Basin Electric. She coaches high school softball and volleyball as well as spending time with her firefighter husband and one-year-old son. “I try to get some miles in when I can. As my co-workers hear me say constantly, ‘motion is the lotion’.” This year’s St. Pat- rick’s celebration will be held March 13-15, with the walk/run taking place on the 14 th . Registration and social hour will begin at 8:30 a.m. with the run/walk starting at 9:30. jumped right into meeting people and volunteering in the area, having visited the Lakeview Heights Se- cure Residential Treatment Facility and offered his visitation services. He also likes to play chess and has been volunteering with the school chess club. “I’ve been meeting people and getting to know everyone and like it very much here,” he says. But adds the area he came from in the south of India is warm and that he is going to have to get some different clothes for the colder weather here. would hope other towns would pick this up and do this,” Councilmember Bill Beard said. “We have all been watching the news with what is going on in our government,” Kennedy ex- plained. “They are against our Second Amendment rights. We are a small town but to have an ordinance if the state comes in, it’s a start. Yes, we are small but more and more towns are going toward this and there is power in numbers,” she said in explaining the need for the new law. Others in the audience said the Oregon Legisla- ture, which is controlled by liberal Democrats from the Portland metro area, will probably begin passing anti-firearms laws in the up- coming legislative session, and they were glad Lex- ington was preparing. Oth- ers thought the ordinance would do no good and the state would just come in and take firearms anyway. Others pointed to what is going on in Virginia, and that state government’s ef- forts to restrict its citizen’s gun rights. The three-page ordi- nance respects existing federal firearms laws but pushes back against any new laws that, among other things, would tax firearms or accessories, register or track firearms or their owners, forbid the use of firearms or confiscate and prohibit the ownership or use of firearms. The new ordinance des- ignates violations to be a civil offense and a Class A violation with a max- imum fine of $2,000 for an individual and $4,000 for a corporation. It also states that any of these new state or federal laws “shall be considered null, void and of no effect in the Town of Lexington.” The ordinance exempts persons who have been convicted of felony crimes or who are prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law. The ordinance also does not permit or allow the posses- sion of firearms in a federal building. Neither does the ordinance prohibit indi- viduals from voluntarily participating in permitting, licensing, registration or other processing of appli- cations for concealed carry permits. According to a web- site run by an organization called Oregon Firearms Federation, there are cur- rently 24 out of the 36 coun- ty governments in Oregon that have created either ordinances, resolutions or letters defending Second Amendment gun rights. They include Baker, Clack- amas, Coos, Crook, Curry, Douglas, Grant, Jackson, Josephine, Jefferson, Klam- ath, Lake, Lane, Linn, Mal- heur, Marion, Polk, Sher- man, Tillamook, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, Wheeler and Yamhill. There are also six cities, including Canby, Molalla, Myrtle Point, Myr- tle Creek, Port Orford and Turner that have moved to protect Second Amendment rights. Lexington can now be added to the list. In other business at last Tuesday’s meeting newly appointed mayor Juli Ken- nedy was sworn into office and presided over her first meeting. The council also appointed Will Lemmon to the council filling a vacant position. Lemmon will be sworn in next month. The council heard a report from Fire Chief Charlie Sumner who said he was going to approach new Heppner Fire Chief Steve Rhea about asking if Lexington might be able to join the rural fire district. Lexington’s fire department is all volunteer and has been severely short of people for quite some time. There are currently only two volun- teer firefighters on the force and the town is concerned about its ability to respond to fires. In other business the council reviewed a pro- Scott Lamb has been hired for the maintenance position in Lexington. -Photo by David Sykes. posed budget calendar for the budget committee to begin the budgeting process for the upcoming year. The council recently had Coun- ty Assessor Mike Gorman at a meeting to talk over the budgeting process. Gorman let the council know that if they needed help in the process to contact him. There are five members on a typical budget committee, and the council talked about finding people, including those who have served in the past, to be on the com- mittee for the coming year. The council heard a re- port from new city recorder Denis Lien who gave a positive report and said he is getting a feel for the job and getting a handle on the city’s financial systems and bookkeeping. In other business Coun- cilmember Bobbi Gordon introduced the new town maintenance man, Scott Lamb of Heppner, who recently moved to the area from Irrigon.