HEPPNER
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azette
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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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