Knowles inducted into Hall of
Fame for Pendleton Round-Up
HEPPNER
G T
50¢
Heppner resident Butch
Knowles has been inducted
into the Pendleton Round-
Up and Happy Canyon
Hall of Fame, along with
two other people and a
horse. The inductees will
be honored during the 2021
Pendleton Round-Up and
Happy Canyon.
Knowles was the sad-
dle bronc champion in 1986
and 1991 at the Round-Up.
He qualified for the saddle
bronc event at the National
Finals Rodeo four times
and won the average at the
NFR in 1987. After winning
the National High-School
All-Around title in 1973,
Knowles went on to com-
pete at Walla Walla Com-
munity College, where he
won Northwest Regional
titles in bareback, saddle
bronc, bull riding and all-
around.
After retiring from ro-
deo, he became a rodeo
commentator and has also
been part of the live broad-
cast team for the Round-Up
for the past 34 years. He is
best known for being the
commentator for the NFR
telecasts from 1989-2019.
Knowles was inducted
into the hall of fame along
with long-time volunteers
Mary Hines and Jack Shaw
as well as Badger, a quarter
horse with an extensive
Round-Up background.
azette
imes
VOL. 139
NO. 30 6 Pages
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
County eyes COVID-19 budget
adjustments
Butch Knowles, Heppner, inducted into hall of fame.
‘Our health department needs help,’ says Lindsay
By David Sykes
County Health De-
partment staff are becom-
ing overwhelmed with
COVID-19 pandemic
work and will be needing
more money in their bud-
get, County Commission
Chair Melissa Lindsay said
last week. She said funds
will probably have to be
shifted from other county
departments to cover the
increased costs to the health
department of dealing with
the virus.
Morrow County has the
second highest per capita
rate of infection in the state,
and the strain of dealing
with testing, contact tracing
and now lost time with staff
actually contracting the
virus (see related story), is
stretching a health depart-
ment budget not prepared
for this pandemic. When
the budget committee drew
up the county budget no
one knew the extent of the
virus infections or how it
would affect the county.
“Everyone is overwhelmed.
They have been working
consistently over 40 hours
a week and weekends. They
just cannot keep up. We
are going to have to make
a decision pretty quick,”
County Administrator Dar-
rell Green told the commis-
sioners several weeks ago
about hiring more health
department staff.
“This fall could be
a huge increase (in virus
infections),” Lindsay said
at their meeting last week.
She said watching the news
she thinks “much, much
more” is coming. “We need
to do a real budget. I think
that if we are going to need
this kind of work out of the
health department then we
are going to have to pull
back from other depart-
ments,” she speculated.
Lindsay even suggested
that the budget committee
may be called back into
session to make needed
adjustments to adequately
fund the health department.
Specifically, how much will
have to be shifted into the
health department was not
yet laid out, but Finance
Director Kate Knop did say
the commission could make
up to 10 percent disburse-
ments changes to other
departments without budget
committee approval. It was
also brought out that the
county will probably not
receive as much lottery or
other state money as was
anticipated at budget time.
Whatever the amount,
because of the uncertainty
and fast changing charac-
teristics of the virus, there is
little time to waste, Lindsay
said. “The conversation
is going to have to start
The county will not purchase the emergency services building it has been leasing from the Port of Morrow at the mill site. A
business has plans for locating there. -Photo by David Sykes.
happening. What kind of
resources are we prepared
to put on this? We are going
to have to focus dollars on
the health department that
are focused somewhere
else,” she told the other
commissioners.
At a July first meeting
Green had said the depart-
ment especially needs more
contact tracers, who locate
and talk with patients, as-
sist in arranging for isola-
tion and work to identify
people who the patients
have been in close contact
with. Staff was short then
he said, even before at
least one health department
member became infect-
ed with the virus. Three
health department staff
members have symptoms of
COVID-19, and one tested
positive for COVID-19 and
had close contact with the
other two staff members
who are ill. The two close
contacts are presumed to
have COVID-19 and are
included in the county’s
overall case count. All three
staff members are home in
isolation, as recommended
by Oregon Health Authority
(OHA) guidance.
Morrow County was
recently put on a list of the
top eight infected counties
in the state, and Commis-
sioner Don Russell said
unlike some other county
such as Lake, we deserve to
be there. “Morrow County’s
numbers are bad, and we
deserved what we got,” he
said of the designation. “I
don’t see how we can com-
plain about being on the
list. We are second worst
in the state per capita. We
are managing it the best we
can, and we know where the
majority of the outbreaks
are coming from,” he said.
Russell said Morrow Coun-
ty is unique in the virus and
are handling it differently.
He pointed out that the
county has had success-
es handling the infections
within the Boardman food
processing plants. He did
not feel the county should
be punished by having our
restaurants closed down
because the restaurants are
not the problem.
In other COVID-19 re-
lated issues Lindsay gave a
report about a grant program
that may become available
through the state and Til-
lamook Cheese. Lindsay
said she had become aware
Tillamook is attempting to
set up a program to make
funds available for main
street businesses in Morrow
County. The Boardman
cheese processor would put
up $100,000 to be matched
by the state and wanted to
know if Morrow County
wished to become involved
by adding to and increasing
the grant money. Tilla-
mook also needs a govern-
ment entity to sponsor the
program. Lindsay said it
looked like a good oppor-
tunity to help COVID-19
impacted local businesses
and she had verbally com-
mitted to adding $50,000 of
county development fund
money which would make
$150,000 available for
matching from the state for
a total of $300,000 avail-
able to county businesses.
“I feel good about this,”
Lindsay said. “Tillamook
will write the grant and we
will be the fiscal agent.”
She said this could be a
really good thing to help
local businesses. The other
commissioners agreed and
even suggested increasing
the county’s participation
to $100,000.
In other business the
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
county continued to discuss
the possibility of putting
videos of the commission
meetings online for pub-
lic viewing. The meeting
is accessible in real time
through the Zoom platform,
but recordings may be made
available through YouTube
or on the county web site.
Legal issues of whether the
recordings would replace
written minutes, and how
long the videos would have
to stored have to be worked
out before the county com-
mits to posting recordings.
In other business, the
commissioners received
notice that the Port of Mor-
row has received an offer
from a business to pur-
chase the Sheriff’s Station
2 building located at the
Old Mill site in Heppner
for $100,000. The property
is approximately one acre
on which the current Emer-
gency Services building is
now located. The county
currently leases the build-
ing and property from the
Port for $5,500 per year and
as part of the lease had a
First Right of Refusal. The
First Right gave the county
the option to purchase the
property for the same price
as the sale agreement. The
county voted not to exercise
its option to purchase. “The
county has been leasing this
for quite a few years now,”
said Commissioner Don
Russell who was also previ-
ously a Port board member.
“The Port has received an
offer to purchase. We have
30 days to invoke our First
Right of Refusal (FRR),”
he said. Russell said if the
county were to take the
FRR then he understood the
Port would redraw the pur-
chase offer and terminate
the counties lease, which
under the terms it had the
right to do. “The Port wants
to do some economic devel-
opment in South Morrow
County, and this is their
opportunity,” Russell said.
He and all commissioners
were in agreement and the
motion not to evoke the
FRR passed unanimously.
Details about the business
moving into the Port will
be announced later.
In other business, the
commission heard from
The Loop coordinator Katie
Imes that she received a
grant to help purchase new
cameras for the transpor-
tation vehicles. The Loop
serves Morrow County
veterans, seniors, person
with disabilities, with lim-
ited, or no transportation
and the 12 cameras will
be placed in vans used by
the service. “This will give
added safety to our vans for
the public. Another layer of
protection for the dept and
the county,” Imes told the
commissioners. Total cost
of the cameras including in-
stallation and software was
$27,000, half of which was
paid by the federal grant.
In other Loop busi-
ness Imes reported that the
Loop is continuing to op-
erate with “Essential Rides
Only.” She said drivers and
riders are required to wear
masks and maintain a social
distance of six feet. “In or-
der to maintain the six feet,
riders are required to sit in
the back seat. For some of
our riders this requirement
has shown difficulty with
safely boarding and exit-
ing the vehicle. In seeing
the difficulties with this
requirement, I have set up
a clear plastic barrier in the
vans to allow for the middle
row seats to be used for
our riders. Our drivers are
continuing to be diligent
with sanitizing The Loop
vehicles,” Imes reported to
the commissioners
Imes also reported on
the current driver status:
“Heppner has zero drivers
with the exception of Jack
Lytton who transports one
Heppner resident when
needed and will drive bus
when we are able to have
senior gatherings again.
Boardman has one driver
and Irrigon has two drivers
with one driver on break. I
would like to announce our
newest driver, Dixie Earle
in Irrigon. She and her hus-
band are retired business
owners.”
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 6/1/20–6/30/20. **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 Polaris Inc.