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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2020)
School supplies donated 50¢ VOL. 139 NO. 38 8 Pages Wednesday, September 16, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon City awards $2.7 million street reconstruction contract Heppner Elementary students and staff recently received do- nations of school supplies from the Bank of Eastern Oregon’s school supply drive. This year’s drive was a special challenge to be able to provide supplies to students at home and in the classroom. Pictured: Dieter Waite, HES Principal, and Deb Campbell, Library Tech. Bids came in lower than expected By David Sykes The Heppner City Council Monday awarded a $2,719,894 contract to Pasco-based Premier Exca- vation, Inc for reconstruc- tion of several of the city’s badly deteriorated streets. Bids came in better than expected prompting City Manager Kraig Cutsforth to say all the work including sewer infrastructure would be completed. He added there would be $250,000 left over for other needed work within the city. “I think we are going get some extra out of this,” he told the council. Streets scheduled to be completely redone are: Gale, Willow, Church and May. Part of Center street will also have work. Cuts- forth said he should have a better idea when the proj- ect will start in about one month. The contractor has 12 months to complete the work. Cutsforth was especially pleased the city should have enough money to complete any needed sewer work that is discov- ered during excavation. Money for the project came from a grant from the State of Oregon. In other business at Monday’s council meet- ing Cutsforth showed the council new decorative streetlights the city will be installing. Two “sample” lights were displayed, and they, along with one other type, will be installed at the intersection of May and Main near city hall soon so people can see what they look like. Thirty of the decorative lights, and one pole, are scheduled to be replaced. The lights are all LED and will replace the current halogen. “They will be brighter and cost less to light,” Cutsforth said. One type of light has ballast and one does not. They are made out of light weight heavy-duty plastic. One of the lights has a “cap” on the top which forces the light down toward the ground for better lighting, Cutsforth pointed out. Citizens will have their chance to judge for themselves which light they like best when the “samples” go up. In other business, the council heard that the city had received $31,000 in COVID-19 payment mon- ey. The funds were used to purchase eight new picnic tables placed on the side- walks in front of businesses downtown for eating. Also a new larger TV screen was bought for Heppner city hall to hold better Zoom meetings, and $25,000 was given to the Heppner Chamber of Commerce to be used for distribution to local businesses hit hard financially by the virus shut Ballots to go out soon Morrow County Clerk Bobbi Childers reported ballots for the November 3 general election will be- gin to go out Wednesday, October 14 for Morrow County residents. Military and overseas ballots have already been sent. The last day to register to vote or change party affiliation in the upcoming election will be Tuesday, October 13. Remember, ballots are not forwarded. Voter registrations must be updated in the case of a name change, signature change, political party af- filiation change, residence or mailing address change or moving into Morrow County. Check or update voter registrations on the Oregon Secretary of State website (My Vote) at https://secure.sos.state. or.us/orestar/vr/showVot- erSearch.do?lang=eng&- source=SOS. Those who do not re- ceive ballots, but believe they should have, should contact the Morrow County Clerk’s office at 541-676- 5604. Voter’s Pamphlets will be mailed to all resi- dential households by the Oregon Secretary of State’s office October 7-10. All ballots are due by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tues- day, November 3. Ballots must be received, not sim- ply postmarked, on that day. Ballot return envelopes will include prepaid postage for business reply mail, which is not the same as first class. Mailed ballots should be mailed no later than Oc- tober 29 to allow enough time to arrive by November 3. After that date, ballots should be dropped in a drop box. 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. Drop boxes can be found in Heppner: Behind the Bartholomew Building, in the parking lot. Ballots may also be dropped at the Mor- row County Clerk’s office inside the courthouse from 8 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m., M-F and election day (Nov. 3) from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.; Lexington: 365 West Hwy 74 (Morrow County Public Works parking lot); Ione: Spring St. (in front of the turn to 3rd Street); Board- man: NW Boardman Ave.; Irrigon: 205 NE 3rd St. (Irrigon Annex). All drop boxes are open 24 hours, except on election day. Morrow County did not move into Phase Two, it was announced recently. Although the commission- Heppner City Manager Kraig Cutsforth shows the two different styles of decorative lights the ers feel the county has seen city is considering purchasing. Three of the “sample” lights will be installed downtown at the great improvement it was not enough to satisfy the Main and May intersection soon so people can see for themselves what they look like. partners at the State Health Authority. Morrow County Com- missioner Melissa Lindsay told the Gazette, “We spoke with Director Allen and discussed our numbers and the Phase Two improve- ment Umatilla County was granted. The Governor’s office is very unclear as to what monitoring tool they will hold Morrow Coun- ty accountable to, with several metrices currently on the state website and each county being granted differing phases based on various ranges of meet- ing the requirements. The A dump truck at the Morrow County Public Works shop in current guide appears to Lexington was a total loss after catching fire. -Contributed be the number of cases per 100,000 a week, at which we would need to be at 12 cases over a one-week time frame for improvement. We currently are not meeting this data point.” “It is very frustrating as the data for a small pop- ulation is skewed very eas- ily by small changes when based on a per 100,000 calculation. I requested a follow up conversation to look at the data that will drop through Saturday and continue to request a comprehensive look at the numbers with regards to population and demograph- ics of our specific county,” she continued. “We will remain in Phase One and continue to work with the situation the best we can. I do be- lieve a weekly conversation Red lines show the streets due to be renovated in Heppner’s upcoming construction project. down. In other business the council heard from city attorney Bill Kuhn who said the paperwork is done and almost signed for the city to purchase a lot from local businessman Jason Patterson on Chase Street. The city plans to use the lot to create parking for when the city has special events and parking is hard to find. The price is $18,500. Morrow County not moving to phase two Truck burns at county shop -See PHASE TWO/PAGE THREE photos. On September 8 at 11:45 p.m. Eric Imes, Assis- tant Roadmaster, received a call about an explosion and flames at the Morrow County Public Works shop in Lexington. When he arrived, he discovered one of the road department dump trucks fully engulfed in flames. It was deter- mined the explosion that was heard was the left front tire exploding. Pieces of smoldering tire were found as far as 100 feet away. Lexington, Heppner and Ione Fire Departments responded and extinguished the fire, which was most likely caused by a short in the electrical system. Imes reported the truck had been parked for at least six hours before the fire was reported. Fortunately no other trucks or equipment were parked near the burning truck. The closest truck only suffered some discol- oring of the door emblem. The window of that truck was so hot Imes decided not to move it, thinking the hot window might shatter. 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