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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 2020)
Lexington has a full council HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 139 NO. 8 8 Pages Wednesday, February 19, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Compensation committee recommends no change to treasurer’s salary By David Sykes The Morrow County compensation committee voted to recommend no major changes to the coun- ty treasurer’s salary at a meeting last week. The committee was holding its annual meeting to discuss all the county’s elected official’s salaries, but par- ticular attention was being given to the treasurer since the county commissioners had requested a review with possible cuts up to 75 percent. Commissioners earlier said they asked for the salary review because the position may have been part-time and drawing a full-time salary for many years. Commissioners said twenty-five years ago tax collection was taken out of the treasurer’s office and done elsewhere, and at that time the position may have become only a part-time job. Commissioners also said they thought now was a good time to make any salary changes prior to the election, and that they had “heard” long-time treasurer Gayle Gutierrrez was going to retire and not run for reelection. The commis- sioners had first asked the budget committee to con- sider cutting the treasurer salary, but they voted not to make any changes and sent it on to the compensation committee for review. After the commission- er’s decided to start a re- view of her salary Gutierrez announced she was with- drawing from the upcom- ing race. She said after 23 years and six elections her disputes with the commis- sioners over the past three years have made her no longer want to be treasur- er. “I have really enjoyed working in the treasurer’s position until the last three years. In those three years, I feel I have been subjected to passive/aggressive behav- ior and bullying. My mental and physical health is more important than any job,” she said in a statement. Gutierrez did not know why the commission thought she was retiring, as she had never officially informed them she would not run for re-election. Also because of the proposed salary cut, a second person who had filed to run for treasurer also pulled out of the race, citing uncertainty about what the salary would be. Since then, Sabrina L Bailey Cave has filed to run. In other action at the meeting the compensation committee voted to rec- ommend a three percent cost of living increase to all elected officials except for the assessor, who they recommended receive a total 10 percent pay in- crease for the coming year. The committee thought the increased workload and complexity of taxing all the new businesses and indus- try coming into the county warranted a raise. The current annual sal- aries without any potential raises applied are commis- sioners $51,000, assessor $83,052, treasurer $72,648, clerk $72,648, justice of the peace $75,000 and sheriff $104,112. This does not include any benefits, which as an example in the case of the treasurer, brings that total compensation package to $127,152 for the current year. The compensation committee, which is made up of five citizens appoint- ed mostly from the private sector, does not set salaries for elected officials but only makes recommendations. Their recommendations then go on to the budget committee for consider- ation, and then finally on to the county commissioners who have final say over sal- aries and the entire budget. Lexington Mayor Juli Kennedy congratulates Will Lemmon after administering him the oath of office to fill the last remaining empty council seat. -Photo by David Sykes. By David Sykes The Town of Lexington now has a full council of four council members and a mayor. Will Lemmon was sworn in last Tuesday to fill the last remaining empty seat. It has been over a year since the council seats were all full. Mayor Juli Kenne- dy swore Lemmon in and he immediately took his seat for the night’s business. In other business it was announced that town recorder Denis Lien has resigned to take another job. The council has begun searching for his replace- ment. “He will be missed,” said Mayor Kennedy. The council heard a report from Kennedy who said among other things she has updated the town web site with current in- formation and also created a Facebook page for the town. She also said she talk- ed to Sheriff Ken Matlack about a police coverage contract for the town sim- ilar to what other cities in the county have. She said it was very expensive and probably not an option for Lexington. The town will continue to have coverage from the Sheriff’s Office just not on a contractual basis. Kennedy said she had been hearing good feedback on what is going on in the town. “I have had a lot of good positive feedback on Lexington and that we have a positive path to the future. People from Heppner and Ione have commented on what is happening in Lex- ington,” she told the council and the audience. Maintenance man Scott Lamb reported that the fire department had made a re- pair to the town fire truck, replacing a hose at a cost of $1,000. He also said he is still researching the feasibility of getting a new fire alarm for the town. He said the new chlorination system is installed and op- erating and he is testing it every day. The council also dis- cussed that they were ap- plying to Oregon Depart- ment of Transportation for a small city allotment grant for road maintenance this year. The town applied last year but did not get one. It was also mentioned that an earlier request from Blattner Energy to rehab and use the old town well located at the Lexington Airport had been dropped. Blattner needed the water during construction on the new windmill project in Morrow County but the well was not able to be reha- bilitated. Blattner is instead reportedly purchasing water from several area farmers. It was discussed that the town should probably look at filling it with concrete to decommission it. In other business the council set the date for the first budget committee meeting to be March 9 at 6:30 p.m. Jay Papineau, Sheila Miller and Myrna Sieler were appointed as the public representatives on the committee. Three members of the council, Juli Kennedy, Bill Beard and Curtis Thompson, will also serve on the budget committee. In other business, the council voted to combine two tax lots owned by Shei- la and Reid Miller into one. They plan on putting a manufactured home on the property. Hay truck burns near Lexington Navy says no to predator control, grazing Bombing range is prime habitat for coyotes By David Sykes The United States Navy says it will not allow pred- ator control or livestock grazing on its 47,000-acre bombing range property located in northern Mor- row County, the county commission announced at its February 12 meet- ing. The Commissioners had earlier met with Navy representatives Sept. 17 to discuss several long-sim- mering issues concerning the Navy’s management of its large track of land inside the county. “They listened to us, but said no to our requests,” Commissioner Don Russell said. Three main areas of concern were discussed including coyote control and weed and fire control. About the coyotes, the bombing range is prime habitat and they have been crossing over onto private ranches and killing and harassing livestock. It is a large unoccupied tract of land and predators use the land to escape humans. It is also used as a denning area for coyotes raising pups. The pups will disperse to adjacent properties once they come of age and then travel long distances to hunt and cross over to ad- jacent properties. Wildlife Services said last winter on properties close to the Bombing Range there were 13 calves killed by coyotes on four different ranches. Most of the losses were re- ported north of the range on the outskirts of Boardman. Wildlife Services says it took out 32 coyotes at that time. The county has a con- tract with Wildlife Ser- vices for predator control at $60,000 per year and last year in a letter to the Navy had asked to let hunters onto the Bombing Range to reduce the coyote popu- lation. The commissioners asked again at the Sept. 17 meeting with the Navy in Boardman. The response was no. “…we will not provide access at this time to personnel for mitigation measures,” the Navy wrote in a letter to the Commis- sioners. “We do not see a way at this time to provide access for predator control on NWSTF Boardman (the bombing range) given the uncertainty of the effects of predator management activities on the range. On weed control the Navy says it spends be- tween ten and fifty thousand dollars a year on weed man- agement, but Russell says they don’t have anything in this year’s budget. The county wanted to have Mor- row County Weed Control man Dave Pranger kept in the loop on any efforts at the range, but that wasn’t even possible. The commissioners also asked if the Navy would allow grazing on the range to reduce vegeta- tion and fire risk. The Navy said no to that also saying it would “adversely affect the Washington Ground Squirrel populations and habitat”, and “likely lead to the Endangered Species Act listing of the ground squirrel which would se- verely affect the Navy’s mission.” They also said that while grazing “can be an effective tool for short- term fuels management, it would promote increased frequency and intensity of fires over the long-term. Long-term grazing converts rangelands from bunch grass vegetation communi- ties, with low-intensity fires and relatively infrequent return intervals, to annual grasslands that promote in- creased frequency of higher -See NAVY/PAGE FOUR A truck hauling hay caught on fire and burned on Highway 207 last week. -Contributed photos. A truck and trailer load- ed with hay was reported to be on fire near milepost 6B on Highway 207 near Lexington last Thursday, February 13 at approxi- mately 2 p.m. The highway was closed for several hours while the hay burned and crews waited to remove the truck and trailer. Heppner Fire Depart- ment, Ione Fire Depart- ment, Fire Station 7, Ore- gon Department of Trans- portation, Oregon State Police and Morrow County Sheriff’s Office responded to the fire. The crews were also assisted by several lo- cal citizens who responded with equipment. The fire department remained on the scene until 6:30 p.m. and ODOT con- tinued to stay on the scene throughout the night. MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS 350 MAIN STREET, LEXINGTON, OR 97839 CONTACT: JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT 204 *Offers vary by model. 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