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.