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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2020)
FOUR - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, January 29, 2020 Morrow County still taking recyclables China not buying has hurt the market By David Sykes Even though China no longer buys our waste, Morrow County is still collecting cardboard, glass and metal, Public Works Management Assistant San- di Pointer told the county commissioners last week. And even though the coun- ty is raising its garbage dumping fees (see new fee schedule published below in this week’s paper) it still takes a wide range of elec- tronics and household items for free at its two transfer stations. Pointer said the pipe- line to China for waste card- board and plastic has shut down and subsequently put a severe crimp in the US waste market, however, the county continues to have its recycle bins out and collect- ing. The county operates a collection bin on Riverside in Heppner, one at the south end transfer station between Heppner and Lexington and one on Frontage Lane in Boardman. These recycle bins are free to the public. The transfer stations also still take all electronics equipment like computers and televisions as well as large household items like furniture, beds and mat- tresses and appliances and bathroom fixtures. Pointer said the free disposal is an effort to keep these items from being dumped along the roadside. “We want to keep our county looking good,” she said. At last week’s meet- ing the commission voted to approve a rate increase in south county for Miller and Sons Disposal. The increase was approximately VOLUNTEER -Continued from PAGE ONE Edmundson was also in- strumental in getting the city restroom installed at the park. He says he wrote a one-page letter asking for $20,000, then the city kicked in an additional $20,000 and the restroom got built. Edmundson’s learning of community responsibil- ity and citizenship dates back to his youth in the town of Hood River. He was born in Pendleton but moved to Hood River when he was around nine years old. It was there that he got involved with a group called the Crag Rats. The Rats were a search and rescue group that would go up the mountain and around the community to help people in trouble. He also worked in the fruit or- chards thinning and picking with World War II veterans, who taught him the mean- ing of a good hard day’s work. His father was a med- ical doctor and his mother a social worker. Although he did not know her at that time, both Edmundson and his future wife Pat attend- ed the same elementary school in Hood River. He did get to know her in sev- enth grade math class, and then they went on to get married during his senior year at Willamette in 1956. From then on Pat has sup- ported and stood behind the volunteer work of her husband, knowing full well that sometimes he would be working in the community rather than being at home. From there Edmundson went on to get his math degree from Willamette University and started teaching in Salem. After more schooling and more jobs he eventually ended up as the principal at Ione. “I chose Ione because I thought it was a better place to raise our family,” he says. Edmundson remembers how he came to the Ione graduation ceremony and heard the speaker talking about conservative values, and the students and parents were nodding in agreement. He decided right then this is where he wanted to be. After that he went on to a be the assistant Morrow County Superintendent. Edmundson says another important influence in his life, teaching him the value and meaning of community service, was membership in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, which strongly emphasizes life- time community service through its Men of Prin- ciple and Beta Leadership programs. “Representative Bob Packwood was the chapter president my fresh- man year,” he recalls “and he was consistently encour- aging the us to strive to do our best.” Senator Mark Hatfield was the chapter advisor. Edmundson says he is still involved with the fraternity and will be attending a Beta luncheon in Portland at the end of this month, something which will still help reinforce his commitment of community service. Other endeavors he has been involved with during his lifetime shaping his sense of community service, include a summer project he went on with the American Friends Ser- vice Committee in Mexico between his freshman and sophomore years at Willa- mette, and being in the U.S. Army Reserve, 104 th Tim- berwolf Division, for 8 1/2 years. In other community endeavors, Edmundson has taught many classes in both golf and skiing and says he enjoys seeing people learn those skills and become better with his help. “You get immediate feedback and you are connecting with people,” he says of the instruction. In past years Edmund- son used to request to work with the juveniles who had gotten into trouble and were assigned community service work by the courts. “I would work with Judge (Louis) Carlson, Carolyn Holt and Judge (Terry) Tallman and they would as- sign the community service youth to me,” he recalls. He would pick up the kids and take them to the work, and he remembers one young person, a habitual offend- er, who he took to the golf course for his community service work. “I walked elbow to elbow with him and when I would see things that needed done, we would do them together,” he re- calls. They were painting railings and other things at the golf course that day before moving on to pulling puncture vine on a hot dusty day for about an hour and a half. He says the young man finally looked up at him and said: “I think I prefer paint- ing.” Edmundson says he has enjoyed working with many young people over the years doing these jobs around the community. One of the reasons Ed- mundson likes to work with youth is that he believes we can teach the next gen- eration community service by example. “We teach the children the three Rs in school, but I think we need to add a fourth. Re- sponsibility. That translates into citizenship,” he says. “And that is really the most important lesson we can teach.” 15 percent and increases rural residential from $20 a bin to $25, Heppner and Lexington in town garbage bins from $20 to $22.50, rural dumpsters from $70 to $80, and local business dumpsters from $70 to $80 per month. Miller will also increase the cost of haul- ing the big county transfer station containers to the Finley Buttes Landfill from $160 to $170 per container. Hauling a large container to Hermiston will go from $240 to $260. “Fifteen percent sounds like a big increase,” said County Commissioner Don Russell, “but it’s been nine years since they had an increase.” Miller and Sons owner Ryan Miller said in a letter to the commis- sion that over the past nine years they have increased their customers from 444 to 647 which has increased the mileage on the trucks, affecting both the road tax and fuel usage. Miller said his company needed the rate increased to meet costs which he expected to in- crease an average of 15 percent over the next three years and in future years. Miller also said he plans on replacing two of his trucks and adding “upwards of six roll-off containers to ac- commodate the community growth and projects coming into Morrow County.” While at the meeting Commissioner Jim Doherty discussed the current state of recycling in the county. Pointer said it now costs $60 a ton to bale and ship cardboard that can only be sold for $50. Since China quit buying, much of it is being stockpiled at Herm- iston Sanitary storage yard waiting for the market to improve. “Hopefully it will get better,” she said. Pointer also told the commissioners she is look- ing for a solution to the plastic waste in the county. She said the plastic used to go to the Finley Buttes Landfill where it was sorted and then sold to China, but since that market is gone it is just going into the ground. “We have all these milk jugs, plastic containers and other things that I hope to find a way to recycle,” she told the Gazette-Times. She thought maybe a shred- der or chipper might work to find a use for the plastic. “I hate to see it just going into the landfill,” she said. “If anybody has an idea please contact me,” she added. She said the county found it necessary to in- crease its dumping fees because it hasn’t had a rate increase in seven years and costs have gone up. The county is now going to a cubic yard fee at the transfer stations (see fee schedule below). In other business at its Jan 22 meeting the com- mission heard a report from Morrow County Clerk Bob- bi Childers. Childers report- ed on who has filed so far for public office: Commis- sioner Position 1 – Joseph Armato and Jim Doherty, Clerk Bobbi Childers, Jus- tice of the Peace Theresa Crawford and Glen Diehl, Sheriff Kenneth Matlack and Mark Pratt and Treasur- er Gayle Gutierrez. Childers also reported on the current number of registered voters in the county. Boardman has the most with 1,943, Irrigon is second with 1,753, then comes Heppner at 1,335, Ione with 443 and Lexing- ton having 431 voters for a total of 6,561 registered voters in the county. In other business Childers and the commis- sioners discussed the recent move to consider cutting the treasurer’s salary pos- sibly in half. The treasurer is an elected position which has been held by Gayle Gutierrez for the past 23 years since 1997. “I have been here for 20 years and this is the first time I have ever seen this done,” Childers told commissioners Doherty and Don Russell (Com- missioner Melissa Lindsay was not in attendance at the meeting). “This is so off track to what the county has done in the past.” She said the county held a special budget committee meet- ing to consider the salary reduction and that when reviewing the minutes she saw no reason given why they were doing it. Childers pointed out that one candidate with- drew from the race after learning the county may cut the salary. “People apply for a job and then find out you changed it?” she said. Russell said one reason the county budget commit- tee and the commissioners were looking at the trea- surer’s salary was because years ago tax collection duties were moved out of the treasurer’s office and given to the assessor’s office, thus reducing the workload for the treasur- er. He said no salary ad- justment was made at that time. “Twenty-five years ago when they took tax collection away, the trea- surer’s position remained full-time. The appropriate time to look at doing this (salary reduction) is during an election cycle and not after an election,” Russell added. He said now was the time to look and see if the position warranted full time pay. Recycle bins can be found on Riverside in Heppner. -Photo by David Sykes. Saying uncertainty over the salary made her “nervous”, treasurer candi- date Amanda Rea recently dropped out of the election race leaving only Guitierrez on the ballot. “May not be a full-time job which makes me nervous to give up my normal full-time job,” she wrote in her withdrawal statement. “It has been over a month since the conversa- tion began and I needed to choose for the sake of my normal job,” she said. At its meeting con- sidering the treasurer sal- ary the budget committee looked at three different options for the treasurer starting next year. Leave everything the same for a $127,152 per year salary and benefit package, 25 percent cut to $101,609, a 50 percent reduction to $76,066 and a 75 percent reduction to $50,524 yearly pay and benefit package. “To be fair, compen- sation comes up for re- view for everybody every year,” commissioner Jim Doherty said. He said the compensation committee, budget committee and the commission all review sal- aries then. “Everybody running, the salaries are up for review for everybody,” he said. The committee meets again on Wednesday, Jan- uary 29 to consider the salary issue. However, the meeting is after the Ga- zette-Times deadline and will be reported next week. 4-H Club meets Grow ‘Em and Show ‘Em 4-H club held their first meeting of the year on January 26 at the USDA Service Center in Hep- pner. Officers were elected with Hunter Houck elected president, Aden Lathrop, vice-president, Natalie Piper, secretary/treasurer, Avree Lathrop, sentinel and Reese Houck, reporter. The club members cre- ated a schedule of events for the next 4-H year and discussed fundraisers. The club also spoke about pos- sible field trips and commu- nity service ideas. The next meeting will be held February 23 at 4:30 p.m. at the same location. Buttons for sale Buttons for this year’s St. Patrick’s celebration will be available for sale beginning February 7. The buttons will sell for $3 each and gets the purchaser two entries for a drawing to win $100. The design for this year’s button was created by Julie Baker and features the road bowling event. Buttons may be purchased at the Heppner Chamber, Heppner City Hall and Murray’s. Also at the city hall and chamber offices, St. Patrick’s koozies will be available for $3. NEW TRANSFER STATION DUMPING FEES