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. City Manager Kraig Cutsforth says
in the front near the sidewalk will be an information booth, and behind that a single ADA
permanent bathroom. There will also be a new water fountain on the side and a community
bulletin board as part of the improvement project. Funds for the new facilities came from the
Willow Creek Valley Economic Development Group community enhancement grants.
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