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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 2020)
Big towers start with a big base HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 139 NO. 10 10 Pages Wednesday, March 4, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Mustangs wrestlers successful at state Three Heppner Mus- tangs traveled to Portland Thursday to compete in the state wrestling cham- pionships at the Memorial Coliseum. They were Roen Waite at 106 pounds, Jace Coe at 160 pounds and Conor Brosnan competing at 170 pounds. The tournament started at 9 a.m. on Friday morning with 12 mats of simultane- ous wrestling. Waite earned a bye in the first round so Coe was the first Mustang to walk out on the mats. His draw was daunting. He was wrestling the number one seed from Monroe, Brody Ballard. Brody was the returning state champion at 152 pounds. The match would be a hard-fought battle with Ballard leading most of the match by a few points. The third round saw Jace take the lead with a nice takedown and finish the match winning 8-7. Coe had started off with a bang and continued to ex- cel with a quick victory, by fall, over Ricky Cook from Rogue River. This victory put Jace into the champion- ship semifinals on Saturday. Roen was up in the second round of competi- tion. He would take on the number four seed, Agustin Cisneros. The bout was a tight match with multiple points scored by both wres- tlers. Unfortunately, Waite was caught and pinned with four seconds left on the clock. This loss dropped Roen into the consolation bracket where he would next wrestle Jack Roath of Crane. Once again, Waite had a tough match with no score through two and a half rounds. Late in the third round, Waite was able to escape Roath earning him one point and the match. Jace Coe wrestling in championship match vs Trenton Hutchinson. -Photo by Damon Brosnan. The third match was against Jose Martinez of Reedsport Charter. This proved to be the final match for Waite as he lost by pin in the first round, putting him out of the tournament. The third Mustang to compete on Friday was Conor Brosnan. Conor came into the tournament as the number two seed and had Malachi Hansen of Central Linn in his first match. Brosnan went on to win this match by pin early in the second round. The next match pitted him against Hunter Lewis of Toledo. This match was a vicious battle with Lewis coming out on top with a 4-2 victory. This loss dropped Conor into the consolation brackets. His next opponent was Leon Price, the number three seed from North Lake. The pair had wrestled earlier in the season with Brosnan prevailing and it would prove to be true again with Conor winning by fall early in the second round. The victory moved Conor into the consolation semifinals on Saturday. Saturday started off with Jace wrestling his semifinal match against German Munoz of Nestuc- ca. Munoz was the number four seed and the match went the full three rounds with Coe winning a hard- fought battle, 5-2. Jace then competed in the finals held later that night. Brosnan was up next against Joseph Moore from Colton, the number four seed. Conor controlled and led the match for 2 1/2 rounds be- fore Moore caught Brosnan out of position and pinned him with a minute left on the clock. This loss finished the tournament for Conor. Jace faced off against Trenton Hutchinson from Toledo in the championship match. This match went the full three rounds with deter- mination and guts exhibited on both sides of the mat. Trenton would lead going into the final round with Coe striving to score two points to tie it up. Unfor- tunately, time ran out and Jace ended up claiming the second-place spot on the podium. There is no doubt these wrestlers will be back to the championships. They repre- sented Heppner with pride, grace, determination and excellent sportsmanship. February warmer than normal According to prelim- inary data received by NOAA’s National Weath- er Service in Pendleton, temperatures at Heppner averaged warmer than nor- mal during the month of February. The average tempera- ture was 40.9 degrees which was 3.1 degrees above nor- mal. High temperatures av- Roen Waite wrestling Agustin Cisneros. -Photo by Damon eraged 51.2 degrees, which Brosnan. was 3.8 degrees above nor- mal. The highest was 65 degrees on the 29 th . Low temperatures averaged 30.7 degrees, which was 2.5 degrees above normal. The lowest was 21 degrees, on the 3 rd . There were 17 days with the low temperature below 32 degrees. Precipitation totaled 0.80 inches during Febru- ary, which was 0.32 inches below normal. Measurable precipitation, at least .01 Conor Brosnan wrestling in consolation semifinals vs Joseph inch, was received on six days with the heaviest, 0.41 Moore. -Photo by Damon Brosnan. inches reported on the 5 th . Precipitation this year has reached 2.00 inches, which is 0.59 inches below normal. Since October, the water year precipitation at Heppner has been 3.38 inches, which is 3.27 inches below normal. The outlook for March from NOAA’s Climate Pre- The new Wheatridge Wind Project is well underway in Morrow County and there will be many more of these large windmill bases constructed before the project is completed. By David Sykes Construction of the new Wheatridge Wind Energy Facility is well underway in South Morrow County with the first of up to 292 wind towers under construction. Pictured above is the base of one of the towers. The base is a gravel pad up to 80 feet wide which is needed to support the 291-foot towers planned across the 14,624- acre project. Locals will be seeing many of these large 204- foot blades and tower sec- tions being trucked in over the next several months for assembly and construction. The project is in two areas, part in Morrow County starting 16 miles northeast of Heppner, and into part of Umatilla County. The project also includes a solar farm and battery storage. Some of the other de- tails, to give an idea of the size of the wind project, include: Electrical collec- tion system of 88 miles of mostly underground col- lector lines; three collec- tor substations; thirty-two miles of up to two overhead transmission lines; twelve permanent meteorological (met) towers; two oper- ations and maintenance (O&M) buildings; 73 miles of new or improved access roads; and additional tem- porary construction areas including staging areas and one or more temporary concrete batch plant areas. While the hub height from the ground to the rotor hub will be 291 feet, the total height including the tower height plus the blade length will be just under 500 feet off the ground. From the ground to the tip of the blade when in the down position will be 70 feet. The wingspan or length from one blade tip to the other will be 416 feet. The facility will pro- duce up to 500 MW of elec- tricity and much of it will diction Center calls for near normal temperatures and near normal precipitation. Normal highs for Heppner rise from 51.0 degrees at the start of March to 58.0 degrees at the end of March. Normal lows rise from 30.0 degrees to 36.0 degrees. The 30-year normal precip- itation is 1.52 inches. be sold to Portland General Electric which is part owner of the project along with worldwide green energy giant NextEra Energy. The project will help Portland and PGE obtain over 52 percent of its electricity from renewable energy. Workers have been arriving in the county to construct the towers with a peak work force expected from mid-March through April with up to 300 people in the area. Blattner Energy is the construction company building the project. While the useful life of the Wheatridge Wind Project was not spelled out in the State of Oregon permit, (many experts put the life a wind tower to be 20-25 years), included in the Wheatland permit is a requirement that Nex- tEra do certain restorations of the property once the facility is no longer pro- ducing electricity. These restorations include: 1. Dis- mantle turbines, towers, pad mounted transformers, meteorological towers and related aboveground equip- ment, and remove concrete pads to a depth of at least three feet below the surface grade. 2. Remove under- ground collection and com- munication cables that are buried less than three feet in depth and are deemed by council to be a hazard or a source of interference with surface resource uses. 3. Remove gravel from areas surrounding turbine pads. 4. Remove and restore private access roads unless the landowners direct other- wise. 5. Following removal of facility components, grade disturbed areas as close as reasonably possible to the original contours and restore soils to a condition compatible with farm uses or other resource uses. 6. Revegetate disturbed areas in consultation with the landowner and in a manner consistent with the final Revegetation Plan. Also ongoing currently, is a project to replace the blades on the Shepherds Flat windfarms in north Morrow and Gilliam Coun- ties. That project is getting new longer blades, so mo- torists will be seeing many windmill parts on the road this spring. 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. Rebate and financing offers valid on select 2016-2020 new and unregistered Polaris ® RZR ® , RANGER ® , Sportsman ® , GENERAL ® , and ACE ® models purchased between 1/1/20-2/29/20. **Rates as low as 3.99% APR for 36 months. Examples of monthly payments required over a 36-month term at a 3.99% APR rate: $29.52 per $1,000 financed; and with a 60-month term at a 6.99% APR rate: $19.80 per $1,000 financed. An example of a monthly payment with $0 down, no rebate, an APR of 3.99% APR for 36 months at an MSRP of $12,699 is $374.87/mo. total cost of borrowing of $796.27 with a total obligation of $13,495.27. Down payment may be required. Other financing offers may be available. See your local dealer for details. Minimum Amount Financed $1,500; Maximum Amount Financed $50,000. Other qualifications and restrictions may apply. Financing promotions void where prohibited. Tax, title, license, and registration are separate and may not be financed. Promotion may be modified or discontinued without notice at any time in Polaris' sole discretion. WARNING: Polaris ® off-road vehicles can be hazardous to operate and are not intended for on-road use. Driver must be at least 16 years old with a valid driver's license to operate. Passengers, if permitted, must be at least 12 years old. All riders should always wear helmets, eye protection, and protective clothing. Always use seat belts and cab nets or doors (as equipped). Never engage in stunt driving, and avoid excessive speeds and sharp turns. Riding and alcohol/drugs don't mix. All riders should take a safety training course. Call 800-342-3764 for additional information. Check local laws before riding on trails. © 2020 Inc.