Enterprise Zone disburses
$5.84 million
HEPPNER
G T
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azette
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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
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What you need to know about
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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.