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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2020)
Enterprise Zone disburses $5.84 million HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 139 NO. 5 8 Pages Wednesday, January 29, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Local man’s volunteer work leaves positive imprint on community By David Sykes If you drive around south Morrow County much it won’t be long be- fore you see the handiwork of one of our community’s longest serving volunteers, John Edmundson. A long- time resident, Edmundson is not only a man who be- lieves in the intrinsic value of giving to the community through service, but also of doing so many times with- out any public recognition. Chances are if you’ve been to a public meeting or belonged to a community service group you have bumped into Edmundson, who has at one time or another been a member of both the Heppner and Ione Lions Clubs, the Arbuck- le Nordic Club, Morrow County Historical Society, president of the Chamber of Commerce and one of his favorites, member of the Willow Creek Country Club. Over the years he has worked on transportation system plans, urban growth boundary projects, Blue Mountain Scenic Byways and probably his most visi- ble work, multiple highway signs around the county. Those signs include Wel- come to Heppner, Heppner service clubs, veterans and Heppner flood recogni- tion signs and the Blue Mountain Scenic Byway information kiosk down on Interstate 84 He doesn’t do all this community work alone, but Edmundson always seems to be around when a help- ing hand is needed. He has painted the shamrock many times (before the city crew took over the job), handed out 40 trash bags and vests when organizing multiple community litter pick days, and gathered his friends to do maintenance on neglect- ed signs around the area. And of course, there are the Willow Creek Economic Dev. gets $628,399 By David Sykes The Columbia River Enterprise Zone (CREZ) on Jan. 17 disbursed $5,842,089 to various enti- ties around the county. The money comes from year- ly collections the CREZ makes from businesses and industry located around the Boardman area, and the funds are paid instead of property taxes mostly by Amazon, Lamb Weston, Tillamook Cheese and oth- ers. The companies are giv- en tax breaks for locating in the Enterprise Zone, mainly at the Port of Morrow. The tax breaks are given to attract new businesses or entice existing business to expand and provide more employment in the county. CREZ disburses the money to 18 different enti- ties in the county including the Willow Creek Valley Economic Development Group (WCVEDG), which serves Heppner, Lexington and Ione in south county. In the past WCVEDG, which received approximately the same amount this year as in 2019, has given grants with the money for community and business enhancement, housing rehabilitation and housing purchase grants. Last year in an effort to alleviate a severe short- age of rental units in the area, WCVEDG purchased ground and built two new duplexes which are sched- uled to begin renting soon. WCVEDG will be holding its annual meeting at a later date and the public is welcome to attend and hear what the groups plans for the money in the coming year. The CREZ board is made up from two represen- tatives each from the Port of Morrow, City of Boardman and Morrow County. The six board members nego- tiate agreements with the various businesses seeking tax reductions, as well as decide on how the money is to be distributed around the county. Population of the various areas of the county is part of the formula used to decide how to distribute the funds. Below is a list of all the entities that received money from the CREZ so far this year. Volunteer John Edmundson makes sure welcome signs look good coming into town. countless hours, along with many others, spent at the local golf course keeping that community asset in good shape. One of the more visible projects he helped with, and the one we drive on all the time, is the Blue Mountain Scenic Byway. It runs from I-84 just east of Arlington at the Highway 74 junction, for 145 miles to the Grande Ronde River. If you stop at the kiosk at the beginning of the byway you can read a description which Edmundson helped write. And when the sign got shot up by hunters, he organized a crew, including Earl Fishburn and Al Scott, to restore it. He also worked on the interpretive sign far- ther up Highway 74 for the Oregon Trail at Cecil, and he helped plan, write grants for and develop the illumi- nated town map sign at the Heritage Plaza in Heppner. He got that sign idea after visiting Fossil and seeing theirs. He said when the Kinzua mill closed down and they donated money for community projects, he wrote the draft application for the city to put in the spe- cial turnout and sidewalk in front of the town sign at that park. And even though he’s 84 years old Edmundson shows no sign of slowing down. He is currently wrap- ping up work on a volunteer project to do an inventory of all the streetlights and pole numbers in Heppner. In ad- dition to checking on those Putting up the “correct” service club sign. that aren’t working, he is counting and recording the pole numbers. “I have vis- ited every single streetlight in the city,” Edmundson will tell you with a satisfied smile. He recently turned in his report on that project. Not all his projects have worked out however, as Edmundson recalls his efforts to get Heppner a sister city in Ireland. He contacted the city of Carn- donagh, population 2,400, in County Donegal. He remembers how he and Father Jerry Condon tried to make that happen. “But they weren’t much interest- ed,” he said of his contact with city officials there. He also remembers a time when he was working on the service club sign montage at the entrance to town. It listed all the clubs in town and one of them was the Willow Creek Valley Service Club. But, as soon as he got the signs made and installed, the club changed its name to Wil- low Valley Service Club. “Being one who values accuracy we had to make a new one,” he says. “And then, one year later, they disbanded,” Edmundson recalls with an ironic grin. He has also helped rehabil- itate that same service sign twice when it needed a fresh coat of paint. Pointing out that he will often times get friends together to help with need- ed community projects, Edmundson says when it came time to do work on the flood memorial sign at the Heritage plaza it was done in cooperation with the late Bob Despain, Mayor Bob Jepsen and Marsha Sweek, all longtime community volunteers. “When I have asked people for help, I have always gotten help,” he says pointing out that he has learned over the years who the volunteers are in town. “I like to see projects get done,” he says. Often, he would ask community leaders to become involved in projects like litter pick up to help show the com- munity that everyone can get involved and help to in making the town cleaner and a better place to live. -See VOLUNTEER/PAGE FOUR ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. What you need to know about Real ID in Oregon Something big is hap- pening October 1 of this year. If you aren’t paying attention, it might mean missing your flight out of PDX or any other airport across the U.S. On that date the Trans- portation Security Admin- istration, or TSA, begins requiring a new type of identification to board a commercial aircraft. The new ID must be compliant with something called the Real ID Act. It’s designed to keep us safer in the air, but if you try to board an air- craft using your current Or- egon driver license starting in October – it won’t work. That’s because the current Oregon driver license is not Real ID compliant. Oregon DMV will be- gin offering a Real ID op- tion on July 6, 2020. To fulfill the demand of nearly one million Oregonians who will want the Real ID option, DMV would have to issue 32 licenses a second every business day from July to October. That’s just not possible. If you don’t have a Real ID compliant form of ID at the airport, TSA will put you through an alternate identity verification process that could take an hour or more, and you could miss your flight. There is an answer for Oregonians: obtain and use a passport or passport card. The cost of getting a new passport card is roughly equal to that of getting a replacement license with the Real ID option, and you can apply now at one of over 76 acceptance sites across Oregon. Free tax assistance available The AARP Founda- tion’s Tax-Aide program will provide free tax as- sistance and preparation in Lexington for a special three-day limited service this year. The tax service will be available at the Lexington town hall from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Fridays, Feb. 21, Mar. 6 and Mar. 20. There are no scheduled appointments and people are encouraged to arrive early to get on the list. For those unable to visit on those dates in Lexington, assistance is also offered in Pendleton on Mondays, Hermiston on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Boardman on Wednesdays from Feb- ruary through early April. The assistance, pro- vided through Tax-Aide, is available to those with low or moderate incomes, not just adults over 50. AARP membership is not required. Volunteers are trained and IRS-certified each year to ensure they are aware of the latest changes to the U.S. Tax Code. People are encouraged to check the website for current infor- mation and a list of what to bring when going to a Tax-Aide site. For additional informa- tion, visit www.aarpfounda- tion.org/taxhelp.