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