HEPPNER
G T
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azette
imes
VOL. 139
NO. 9 8 Pages
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Commissioner upset radio-
active waste hauled through
Boardman without notice
“How did you (railroad) allow this to happen?”
By David Sykes
Over the past three
years an Arlington waste
management company
brought train carloads of ra-
dioactive material through
Morrow County, but against
all previous protocol didn’t
bother to notify anyone.
And Morrow County Com-
missioner Jim Doherty isn’t
happy about it. “We need to
ask the rail people ‘how did
you allow this to happen?’”
Doherty said at a commis-
sion meeting last week.
News recently came
out that Waste Manage-
ment, which runs a large
chemical dump in Arling-
ton, had been in violation
of Oregon law over the past
three years by taking in over
2.5 million pounds of radio-
active waste. And unlike
other hazardous material,
it came through without
notifying any local officials.
The sheriff ‘s office is nor-
mally told about hazardous
materials, so in case of a
train accident, emergency
personnel will know for
their and the townsfolk’s
safety what they are up
against.
However, for the last
three years trains have been
going through Boardman
with no one locally even
aware of the potentially
dangerous radioactive car-
go. Doherty was upset be-
cause first responders and
others who would go to an
accident scene would have
no idea the banned material
was waiting for them. “How
can the rail folks be assured
what is going through this
town?” he asked at last
week’s county commission
meeting. “What do we do
if there is a radiation chal-
lenge (accident)?”
Normally the sheriff’s
office is given notice that
shipments of chlorine gas,
for instance, are coming
Mike Sweek files for county
commissioner position
By Bobbi Gordon
Mike Sweek, 65, of
Heppner, has thrown his
hat into the ring for Morrow
County Commissioner, po-
sition one. The number of
candidates for the position
is now up to four.
When asked why he
decided to run for the office,
Sweek told the Gazette, “I
have been talking about
running for an office for
years. I’m not getting any
younger and when this po-
sition came up, I decided
since I am now semi-re-
tired, it is the best time to
do it.” He said if elected he
plans to first find out what
the problems are as he can’t
fix anything until he is in
the position.
Sweek has been a res-
ident of Heppner for most
of his life, with his parents
moving to the area in 1959.
His father worked for the
Mike Sweek
Morrow County road de-
partment and his mother,
Evelyn, was a dietician at
the hospital.
He reported he attend-
ed Eastern Oregon State
College and was in the
US Army. He is a Viet-
nam veteran, 1973-76, Iraqi
Freedom veteran, 2004-05,
earning the Combat Medic
Badge and was a member
of the Oregon Guard 3-116
from 1998-2006.
Cardinals district champs
Radioactive material was transported on the rail line running
through Boardman.
through so the fire depart-
ment, sheriff and EMS can
all be prepared for an acci-
dent. Doherty was particu-
larly concerned since just
last week the commission
had met with two represen-
tatives of the Local Emer-
gency Planning Committee,
LEPC, to talk about acci-
dent preparedness and they
said nothing about it. At that
meeting Undersheriff John
Bowles said the railroad
normally informs them of
what is coming through.
He said last year they were
told 6,000 rail cars of crude
oil, 200 carloads of chlo-
rine gas and 139 loads of
anhydrous ammonia used
in fertilizer were coming
through Morrow County.
LEPC chairman Ken Kraus
and Scott Burn were at the
commission meeting and
neither mentioned knowing
anything about the radioac-
tive material.
When the undisclosed
shipments were discovered
by the Oregon Department
of Energy (ODOE) to be-
ing dumped at Arlington
against state law, they is-
sued a notice of violation
to Waste Management. But
even though it’s against
the law to dump radioac-
tive material in Oregon, it
doesn’t appear the company
is going to be fined. ODOE
has said the incident doesn’t
meet the criteria to qualify
for a fine.
The radioactive mate-
rial is a biproduct of frack-
ing from oil drilling in
North Dakota and ODOE
has determined there is no
current threat to landfill
workers, the public or the
environment from dump-
ing the waste in Arlington.
Commissioner Don Russell
said at the meeting that al-
though it’s illegal to dump
in Oregon and a danger, he
didn’t think it was quite as
dangerous as other chemi-
cals that come through by
rail. “Radioactive Radon
doesn’t scare me as much as
the chlorine gas that comes
through,” said Russell who
is a long-time board mem-
ber of the local rural fire
protection district who are
the ones having to deal with
a potential train accident
and chemical release.
Doherty chastised the
ODOE for saying there
was no danger. “What’s
rolling through this town on
any given day? When that
material came through this
town it was not covered by
10-feet of material,” he said
as it would be once buried
at the waste dump in Ar-
lington. He asked Bowles
to reach out to the railroad
and find out what is coming
through Boardman. Bowles
said he would try to find
out why the sheriff’s office
wasn’t notified. “I think the
public works should bring
their grader down, park it
on the tracks until we can be
assured of what’s coming
through here,” Doherty said
tongue-in-cheek.
The Ione Cardinals varsity boys’ basketball team has been named district champs after the
tournament held in Madras last week. Hunter Padberg was named to the Big Sky first team,
Jace Troutman and Wesley Goad to second team. Wesley Goad also received the Jason Hal-
vorson Memorial award and the Big Sky scholarship award. (Names of people pictured was not
available. The editor apologizes for the lack of information.)
Ione students donate to area
districts
The Ione School Dis-
trict is reaching out to a
couple of area schools re-
cently affected by catastro-
phes.
Ione students recently
held a fundraiser entitled
“Help the Joseph Eagles
Fly Again.” The gym of
Joseph Charter School in
Joseph, OR, was destroyed
by fire in January. At a re-
cent basketball game, the
Ione School district donat-
ed funds from admission
tickets, the “gate,” plus
students supplied a num-
ber of auction items that
were auctioned between
the games.
All told, the efforts
raised $2,077.37 for Jo-
seph School. Ione Principal
Rollie Marshall presented
the check to Joseph School
District Superintendent
Lance Homan, who was
humbled by the donation,
Joseph School Superintendent Lance Homan (left) receives the
donation check from Ione Principal Rollie Marshall.
Marshall said.
Ione High School stu-
dents are not finished with
their desire to help. After
hearing about the damage
to the Umatilla High School
Sports-Complex from re-
cent area flooding, Ione stu-
dents will be volunteering
their time, effort, shovels,
power washers and more to
help clean up the mud and
debris left after the flood
waters recede.
“I am so proud of how
our students have stepped
up to reach out to area
schools. This just reinforces
the values and empathy our
kids have been raised with,”
Marshall said.
will be on the general elec-
tion ballot in November,
with the exception of the
commissioner race. Ac-
cording to County Clerk,
Bobbi Childers, the com-
missioners will be on the
May ballot and a winner
will be selected by majority
vote.
Filing deadline nears for county candidates
Candidates wishing to
be considered for positions
in Morrow County must
file by March 5. Positions
available are county clerk,
county commissioner, jus-
Sweek feels his expe-
rience working with the
public as a former Heppner
police officer, firefighter
and EMT in Hermiston
and security guard at the
Umatilla Chemical Depot
will help him in his job as
commissioner if he is elect-
ed. He has also worked as a
CNA at Pioneer Memorial
Hospital in Heppner and
currently works for Gar
Aviation in Lexington.
If he wins the elec-
tion, he says he plans to
do a good job and keep
working for the people of
Morrow County. He said, “I
know a lot of people, have
worked community-orient-
ed jobs and have common
sense.” All are traits he
feels are necessary for the
job. “Sometimes you need
to get new people in the
positions to get new ideas,”
he continued.
tice of the peace, sheriff and
treasurer.
The following people
have already filed: Morrow
County Clerk, Bobbi A.
Childers; Morrow County
Commissioner, Position
1, Joseph B Armato, Jim
Doherty, Michael H Sweek
and Joel R Peterson; Mor-
row County Justice of the
Peace, Theresa Crawford
Mustangs named to All Stars
and Glen G. Diehl; Morrow
County Sheriff, Kenneth W
Matlack and Mark Pratt and
Morrow County Treasurer,
Sabrina L Bailey Cave.
Most of the candidates
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN STREET, LEXINGTON, OR 97839
CONTACT: JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT
204
At the end of the Blue Mountain Conference season five Mustang athletes were named to the
All-Stars. Sydney Wilson and Mason Lehman were selected for first team. Madelyn Nichols,
Jayden Wilson and Jackson Lehman received honorable mention.
Pictured (L-R): Sydney Wilson, Madelyn Nichols, Jayden Wilson, Jackson Lehman, and Mason
Lehman. -Photo by Susan Hisler.
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