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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 13, 2020)
HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 139 NO. 20 8 Pages Wednesday, May 13, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon County rejects port’s enterprise zone offer Drop your completed ballots in a drop box, not the mailbox According to Mor- row County Clerk Bob- bi Childers, ballots not yet completed and mailed should be dropped in a drop box this week rather than mailing them. All ballots are due by 8 p.m. on Elec- tion Day, Tuesday, May 19. Ballots must be received, not simply postmarked, on that day. Oregon Legislature ap- proved a bill to include paid postage for ballots but the return envelopes prepaid postage is for business reply mail. Ballots sent using the business reply mail take longer than first class mail, so mailed ballots should have been mailed no lat- er than May 12 to allow enough time to arrive by May 19. For voter convenience, 24-hour drop boxes are lo- cated throughout the coun- ty. All drop boxes close at 8 p.m. on election day. Locations are as follows: Heppner: Behind the Bartholomew Building, in the parking lot. Open 24 hours. Ballots may also be dropped at the Mor- row County Clerk’s office inside the courthouse by calling 541-676-5604 for an appointment due to the courthouse being closed to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic. The clerk’s office will be avail- able for appointments from 8 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m., M-F and election day (May 19) from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Lexington: 365 West Hwy 74 (Public Works parking lot). Open 24 hours. Ione: Spring St. (in front of the turn to 3 rd Street). Open 24 hours. Boardman: NW Boardman Ave. Open 24 hours. Irrigon: 205 NE 3 rd St. (Irrigon Annex). Open 24 hours. Windmill blades go through Lexington Two disagree on Boardman’s map of influence By David Sykes After weeks of back and forth and multiple pro- posals from both sides, the Port of Morrow and county government seem unable to reach an agreement on a new enterprise zone for Morrow County. The cur- rent zone (CREZII) will expire at the end of June and the two groups have been going back and forth not able to reach agreement on structure of a new one. Their inability to agree may mean no new enterprise zone for the county. The ongoing negotia- tions appear to have come to an end last week when county commissioners, Melissa Lindsay and Jim Doherty, voted no on the latest zone proposal from the port. The final sticking point ended up being how much influence the city of Boardman would have on property located near Tower Road near the Boardman Airport. The port wanted Boardman to be included in all zone decisions about the property, and Lindsay and Doherty didn’t want them at the table. Commissioner Don Russell was in favor of Boardman’s inclusion. How the two entities ended up without an agree- ment goes back to the struc- ture of the current enterprise zone board. For the past 10 years Boardman has been a full-fledged partner along with the port and county, with all three making zone decisions together. Also during the past 10 years the current zone has been successful in attracting businesses, generating over $20 million in revenue in lieu of taxes. In the coming 15 years it is expected, with current contracts in place, to take in well over $100 mil- lion, much of this coming from the new Amazon data centers being constructed around Boardman and at the Port of Morrow (see related story). Regardless of the current negotiations and zone applications, the current enterprise board will still get together in the coming years and decide how the $100 plus million is going to be spent. Lindsay has said for some time she wanted Boardman out as a perma- nent enterprise zone part- ner, and just have the coun- ty and port as the decision makers. She is not against a third partner on the zone board making decisions, she just wants all five cities in the county to have that opportunity. Lindsay says the new enterprise rules should include stipulations that when a business ex- presses interest in one of the “influence areas” surround- ing a particular city, then that city should become a decision-making partner on the enterprise board. She said the change would make the new enterprise zone more equitable for all the cities in the county. So far in the past 10 years there has been no enterprise zone Huge blades for the windmill project near Lexington are being transported through town this week. The trucks hauling the blades are turning the corner from Hwy 207 to Hwy 74 and then from Hwy 74 onto Black Horse. Flaggers are in place to stop traffic for a short time. -Photos by Wayne Gordon. activity at any of the other four cities in the county. The port was first com- pletely opposed to dropping Boardman as a permanent partner in any future enter- prise zone, but eventually agreed, setting up what ap- peared to be an agreement between the two. However, at last week’s commission meeting, Lindsay said the map of influence areas sub- mitted as part of the port’s offer were unacceptable. She said the map included an area near Tower Road she says should not be part of Boardman’s influence area. One parcel is on the west side of Tower be- longing to the Port, and the other on the east side Sheriff will not close businesses for COVID-19 violations Matlack says they will ‘warn and educate’ Morrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack has advised that the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office is follow- ing the safety recommen- dations of the Governor’s Executive Orders but are not taking law enforcement action against businesses. “The Sheriff’s Office may warn and educate but we should not be the agency that is primarily responsible for closing businesses.” Governor Brown has issued several executive orders since the COVID-19 pandemic started in Or- egon. A broad range of business have been forced to close down. Businesses that fail to comply may be subject to potential criminal charges, license revocations or other violations. The Sheriff’s Office role has been one of edu- cation, with businesses and the public in general. The goal is to educate people for social distancing, wearing protective masks when nec- essary, and to continually wash your hands. Morrow County Emergency Man- agement, as well as the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office, has utilized sever- al methods of getting the safety messages out to our citizens, including social media. Sheriff Matlack said, “If some businesses are not following directives as suggested or ordered by the Governor’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office may contact, remind or educate businesses etc., but our role is not to arrest or cite businesses.” Early on in this process, it was determined that if enforcement action was necessary, the best plan was to have the licensing agencies that regulate the businesses be the ones re- sponsible for dealing with the owners/managers of the businesses. The licensing agency would determine if their business license would be subject to suspension or other enforcement type action would be necessary. Morrow County Emer- gency Management, along with Morrow County Board of Commissioners and the Morrow County Public Health Department, have submitted a plan to Gov- ernor Brown to open Mor- row County with restric- tions, known as the Phase 1 Re-opening Plan. Sheriff Matlack wants to thank the citizens of Morrow County for their cooperation and willingness to work with each other. “If we all continue to work to- gether, we will get through this very difficult and con- fusing time.” belonging to the city of Boardman. The Port main- tained those parcels were within Boardman’s impact area and therefore the city should be included in any future zone decisions on development there. After lengthy discus- sion, the county commis- sioners did not agree, and with Doherty and Lind- say voting no and Russell voting yes, the motion to accept the deal failed. Fol- lowing the vote Lindsay said she did not see why the port and county needed to fight over the “third vote” (Boardman) at the table. “That doesn’t seem like something to fight about,” she said. Russell said the port had made conces- sions toward reaching an agreement and the county should have honored their map request. After the no vote Russell sounded pes- simistic, however. “I don’t believe we will have an enterprise zone,” he told the commission. In a related matter at an April 24 meeting, the port passed a motion to co-spon- sor an enterprise zone with just the city of Boardman, but only if the county and the port were not able to agree on a new zone. Under state enter- prise zone law the city of Boardman can apply for and have its own zone but must have the sponsorship of the port and the zone can only be located within its city limits. The port is only allowed an enterprise zone in the county at large with approval from the county commission. Two more positive COVID-19 cases reported, still zero deaths Morrow County Pub- lic Health confirmed two more positive cases of COVID-19 on May 7 and 8, bringing the county total to 12, with zero fatalities. Both cases were identified as being contacts from pre- viously reported cases. The counts include 10 cases in Boardman, one in Irrigon and one in Heppner/ Lexington/Ione. Current patient status show five have recovered, seven are in home isolation and zero are hospitalized. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough and short- ness of breath. If symptoms persist or worsen, contact your medical provider. Oth- er symptoms may include chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat or new loss of taste or smell. Anyone experiencing two or more of the symptoms should contact their med- ical provider to be tested. 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