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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2020)
Local man visits Seattle CHOP ‘Not what it’s portrayed in the media’ HEPPNER G T 50¢ azette imes VOL. 139 NO. 25 8 Pages Wednesday, June 17, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Lexington gets three new welcome signs By David Sykes In a nod to the days of the Lexington Jackrabbits, the town council recently approved the purchase of three new welcome to town signs. Back in the day the Lexington school’s nick- name was the Jackrabbit so it was included on the new signs. The design was re- cently approved at the June 9 council meeting. Two of the signs will be placed at the east and west entrances of the town on Highway 74 and the other near Airport Road on Highway 207. Two signs will be 4 X 8 feet at a cost of $525 each and the other smaller sign is 3 X 6 at a cost of $405. Town maintenance man Scott Lamb suggested lighting would be good idea so he said he would investigate what solar power lights would cost. The signs are being purchased with the help of a community en- hancement grant from the Willow Creek Valley Eco- nomic Development Group. In other business the council welcomed new town recorder MacKia Tarvin. At the meeting the council gave her authori- zation to sign certain town documents. Tarvin takes the place of former recorder Denis Lien, who recent- ly resigned the position. Council person Bobbi Gor- don is helping Tarvin learn the ropes of her new job. In other action the council adopted a new code of conduct covering meet- ings. The code lays out the proper way for audience and councilmembers to behave during the meetings, and the procedures for how audience members will speak and make statements. The council also au- A new welcome to town sign has been approved by the Lexington Town Council The three new signs give a nod to the former school mascot the Jackrabbits. The above photo came from the Nov 13, 1958 Heppner Gazette-Times archives Local man John Kilkenny walks his dog Erin through the CHOP in Seattle last Friday. -Contributed photo. By David Sykes Local man John Kilkenny says he was in Seattle last week and cu- rious about what was go- ing on at the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, CHOP, formally known as CHAZ, so he went there to find out. Kilkenny was visiting his son Rory when he decided to pay a visit to the occu- pied protest area for some firsthand knowledge of the situation. For those who have not been following the news, the CHOP is a six-block area of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood cur- rently being occupied by protesters who say it is a movement for police re- form and racial equity. The protest zone surrounds the now abandoned and occu- pied Seattle Police Depart- ment’s East Precinct build- ing, which was taken over by protestors following the death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Kilkenny said he was staying in the Ballard area of Seattle and had taken his car in to be serviced not far from the CHOP. He saw it as a good opportunity to investigate what was going on. Before going into the CHOP Kilkenny wanted slide out ramps which will make it possible to move equipment around the town. Total cost is $6,500 and there is a six-week delivery period. Lamb also report- ed that he can get a 2005 Silverado surplus pickup truck from the state for a good price. The council heard a report from fireman Reid Miller who said the town is ready to purchase a tanker truck from Ione, and that it is ready to offer a schol- arship to a local student to get the training to be able to join the department and Sabrina Bailey Cave go on calls. to make sure it was safe to be there, so he walked around the perimeter and checked things out. He did not see anything danger- ous. “There weren’t any fences, but there were large plastic barricades in the streets that kept cars out of the area,” he told the Ga- zette-Times. “There wasn’t anyone checking IDs,” he says, and he did not see any guns, one of several misrep- resentations in the media that were later retracted. He did not feel any real danger while there, but would not have gone there at night, he says. Kilkenny said the area reminded him of The Haight Ashbury section of San Francisco, which he visited as a child. “There were a lot of Hippie type people around,” he says of the atmosphere, adding his son described it as festive at nighttime, and a lot like a block party. Kilkenny said as he strolled through the CHOP there was free food being given out and a lot of Black Lives Matter and other graf- fiti and murals painted all over. He said he did not see any burned-out buildings or much damage, and that the people in CHOP were actu- ally “going to great lengths” to protect the abandoned police station from being destroyed. He pointed out that the Capitol Hill area of Seattle is an upper income area with expensive homes and “artsy” type people living there. “The Capitol Hill area is a lot like NW 23 rd in Portland,” he says. “I never got the feeling people were looking at me thinking ‘what are you doing here?’, Kilkenny says of the expe- rience. He said there were people picking up garbage and some organization peo- ple standing at all the street barricades leading into the area. He said there were also a lot of homeless peo- ple living in a small park within the CHOP. After his experience there, and talking to peo- ple who live in the area, Kilkenny says he doesn’t think it would be a good idea to send in the national guard to “take it back,” saying he thinks that would cause bigger problems and worsen the upheaval. He does think there will prob- ably be changes in policing that come out of this whole experience. He feels in the future the police will prob- ably be taught more tech- niques on deescalating sit- uations, rather than relying so much on confrontation. Morrow County Treasurer candidates decided New Town Recorder MacKia Tarvin thorized Lamb to move forward with purchase of a new utility trailer. The 6 X 10 9,000 lb. double-axle trailer has a dump bed and Improvements underway at Heppner food court By Bobbi Gordon Candidates who will face off in the general election in November for Morrow County Treasurer have been decided by a very close margin. Sabrina Bailey Cave was the clear first place winner but the second-place winner was too close to call on elec- tion night. After all votes were verified and counted, Jaylene Papineau secured her place as the candidate to be on the ballot in No- vember. Final results showed Bailey Cave with 30.69 percent and 870 of the votes as the front-runner in the primary election. Papineau garnered 685 votes, 24.16 percent, while Erik Patton came in close behind her with 669 votes and 23.6 percent. As previously reported, Jim Doherty and Joel Pe- terson will face off in the general election for county Jaylene Papineau commissioner. Glen Diehl and Theresa Crawford will be on the ballot for justice of the peace in November. MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS 350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839 CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT. 204 City workers Mickey Martin (left) and Caleb McDaniel on the backhoe get busy on improve- ments to the food court next to the post office in Heppner. 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