FOUR - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, September 16, 2020
County seeks funding for new sheriff
storage building
Considers cutting police car purchases to pay for it
By David Sykes
In an effort to find mon-
ey to build a new sheriff’s
department storage building
in Heppner, the Morrow
County Commission last
week looked at cutting
funding for the purchase of
new police cars. The county
is facing a $300,000 short
fall between construction
estimates and budgeted
funds for the new facility
and is looking for places to
find the money.
Building a new Emer-
gency Management storage
building became necessary
this year when the county
lost its lease on its cur-
rent storage building at the
old mill site in Heppner.
Building owner, Port of
Morrow, sold the building
to local businessman Jay
Coil, who plans to move his
fabrication business there,
and the sheriff’s office has
been notified to move all
its things out by November.
The county did have a right
to purchase the building for
$100,000 but turned that
down to allow for a local
business expansion.
The county first con-
sidered building the new
storage facility on coun-
ty-owned property next to
the Sheriff’s Office in the
Lott’s Addition, however,
residents in that area ob-
jected, so commissioners
dropped the idea. The land
now being considered is
owned by the city of Hep-
pner but will be free as the
city has offered to donate
the property. The Soil and
Water Conservation District
has also been asked to pro-
vide access to the property
across their lot bordering
Highway 207.
The county hired En-
gineering Northwest from
Ontario to come up with
a price estimate for a new
building. The engineers
came back and said a new
60 X 80 ft wooden structure
would cost the county an es-
timated $549,000 to build.
When first confronted
with the $300,000 shortfall,
commissioners considered
using federal COVID-19
relief funds to make up the
difference, however at its
Sept. 9 meeting the com-
missioners seemed to shift
gears and began looking
for money instead within
the sheriff’s office’s own
budget and other sources.
An analysis by county staff
showed if the sheriff’s of-
fice held off purchasing
new vehicles as quickly
as customary it could save
$200,000. That along with
several other sources of
funds (see table) it could
come up with most of the
funds. The analysis looked
at using money the county
receives from the Strategic
Investment Program (SIP)
connected to wind and oth-
er energy projects around
the county ($50,000), and
also from payments in lieu
of taxes it receives from
the Portland General Elec-
tric gas generating plant
located near Boardman
($50,000). The analysis
showed even with using
these funds, there would
still be a $48,400 budget
shortfall.
County Sheriff Ken
Matlack and Undersheriff
John Bowles attended the
Sept. 9 meeting to discuss
the building specifications
and proposed vehicle bud-
get cuts with commission-
ers. Commissioner Don
Russell was in favor of
cutting back on the size
of the heating and cooling
system for the building to
save money, and also going
with a less expensive pole
building structure. “One
concern is the cost of the
building and how are we
going to pay for it?” Russell
asked. He pointed out that
he didn’t think an expensive
heating and cooling system
was needed for the entire
building since it would be
used mostly for storage “I
think the AC unit is over-
reach for a storage facility.
The engineer estimate is
for a $70-$80m heating and
AC system. I think that is
overreach for dry storage
for mostly vehicles. I am
wondering if a well-insu-
lated pole barn with better
insulated office and evi-
dence area would suffice?”
he asked. He said air condi-
tioning could be done in the
office areas and then in the
rest of the building where
the major equipment is held
a gas heater could be used
just to keep the building
from freezing in the winter.
Russell said he was
concerned with the half
million-dollar cost of the
building which he thought
could be built for less. “I
just think a pole barn can
be built for substantially
less than $550,000.” He
wanted the county to ex-
plore getting a building at a
cost closer to the $250,000
budget. Russell also did
not like the idea of taking
money from the sheriff’s
vehicle budget to pay for
the building.
Commission Chair
Melissa Lindsay said she
spent time walking the cur-
rent site and building with
Sheriff Matlack and feels
the county should build
something similar and not
be down grading. She said
the proposed building is not
an overbuild and it will be
housing county property,
not just the sheriff’s and
“all the stuff that is in there
needs to be taken care of,”
she said.
Sheriff Matlack said
he did not want the county
to down grade the new
building too much with
the sheriff’s office ending
up with a less suitable fa-
cility than present. “I’m
looking at the building we
have had for these years
and it has served a really
good purpose. It’s not just
a storage building. We are
able to do work there. I
get concerned when you
talk about a heating system
where it says just above
freezing. I am concerned it
will be less similar to what
we have now,” he told the
commissioners. “I want to
make sure the cooling sys-
tem is workable so we can
use it when we do projects
there. It doesn’t make sense
to build a building that is
inadequate,” he added.
In cutting his vehicle
budget Matlack said if the
vehicle purchase budget is
cut $200,000 thus length-
ening the time between ve-
hicle purchases, the county
will end up spending more
money on maintenance
and repairs and that would
not save anything. “We
(currently) had no repairs
because the cars are rotat-
ed before everything starts
going wrong with them. We
have to be able to drive fast-
er than the public drives.
When you are putting more
miles in a rotation like that
with high speed pursuits,
that’s not the way to go,”
he told the commissioners.
Lindsay said the build-
ing engineer cost ($549,000)
is just an estimate and they
are still working through
the details. “This is just an
estimate. It is not the bid. I
think we need to wait until
we get the bid and then fig-
ure out where we are going
to get the money,” she said.
Lindsay said she had not ex-
pected the budget shortfall
to have such a big impact
on the sheriff’s office with
the proposed delayed ve-
hicle purchase. “We need
to spend more time talking
about where the dollars are
coming from. Until we have
a bid, we don’t know what
we are going out for. When
I saw how you wanted to
pay for this (out of vehicle
purchases), I thought the
sheriff is taking it on the
chin and he shouldn’t have
to,” Lindsay said. She also
wanted to know where Rus-
sell and the sheriff came up
with the proposed $200,000
cut to vehicle purchases.
“Where did you see how
we were going to pay for
it? Did someone tell you,”
she asked, unaware that
the analysis had been done
by the county adminis-
trator and included in the
commissioner’s weekly
information packet (see
table). “I did not realize
that, I thought we were still
working through it (finding
funding),” she said.
Matlack was also con-
cerned that his office would
have to move all of their
equipment out of the build-
ing by November and a new
facility would not be ready
soon. He said his office
will have to store things at
various locations around
Heppner and that will cause
quite a bit of inconvenience
before the new facility is
ready. He said they would
be storing some things at
the fairgrounds and other
locations. “If we have stuff
stored at the fairgrounds,
there are high school kids
you might usually have
inside for their (baseball)
batting practice. Now we
have taken that away from
them,” he said. “I see it
(construction of the new
building) dragging on and
it is going to impact other
people besides us.” Matlack
did say he was in favor of
the county trying to get
the price of the building
down, he just did not want
the sheriff’s office to have
to settle for a less usable
space.
Lindsay said the com-
mission could talk more
about where the money
was coming from once
the actual contractor bids
came in, and they had a firm
construction figure. “This
is not a budget (engineers
estimate), this is just a plan.
I think this is a worst-case
scenario. I jumped into this
(new building project) as
a pet project and I am not
trying to shove a building
down anyone’s throat. This
is not my building. The
sheriff’s office made the
statement, ‘it is your stuff
find a way to store it.’ And
I heard that pretty loud and
clear. We have to find a
place to store our stuff. I’m
not trying to push a building
if nobody wants it. I think
we need it and I think it’s
perfect. I’m just trying to
piece this together,” she
said. “I’ve spent a lot of
time on it, but I’m not at-
tached to it,” she added, “I
think we need it.”
After discussion, the
commission voted unani-
mously to put the project
out for bids with the re-
duced heating and cooling
system requirements as
suggested by commissioner
Russell and discuss where
funding would come from
once a firm contractor’s
construction figure came in
from the bidding process.
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Spiritually Speaking
It’s not fair
By Fr. Thankachan Joseph SDB, St. Patrick Church
“It’s not fair” is often a catch phrase that we repeat-
edly hear from people of all
walks of lives. Though we
live in a world that believes
in a sense of fairness and
equal rights - “equal pay for
equal work,” “equal oppor-
tunities for everyone” - quite
often one’s sense of justice
comes to the forefront only
when one’s own well-being
is concerned, never mind if
others’ rights are trampled.
Does generosity to others Fr. Thankachan Joseph
beyond “justice” have any
place in our vision of fair play? Scripture readings may
challenge our sense of fairness and generosity towards
our fellow beings.
Isaiah (Chapter 55:6-9) initiates with an exigent call
to come back to the Lord, even though it is a relatively
calm time during the exile of the Israelites in Babylon.
He reminds us that it is easy to forget the Lord in times
of peace and tranquility and only call on him in moments
of threats and situations we cannot manage. We need to
look frequently towards God to discover how we should
live. And Isaiah places before the readers the true nature
of God in verse 8 when he says, “For my thoughts are
not your thoughts nor are your ways, says the Lord.”
God’s ways and plans are beyond human calculations and
imaginations. Secondly, Isaiah reminds the Israelites that
God’s ways and thoughts do not emulate our own: “Yes,
the heavens are high above the earth as my ways are above
your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.” Isaiah is
calling our attention to the difference between God and
humanity by signifying the distance of earth from heaven.
The Gospel of Matthew (20:1-16) speaks of the
generosity of God through the parable of the laborers in
the vineyard. The vineyard owner goes out at daybreak,
finding workers for the vineyard and offering them about
a denarius as a wage. At different hours later, he continues
to find persons who are idle and sends them to his vineyard
to work. The Palestine customary practice could have
been that at the beginning of the day, laborers are lined up
in the street corners waiting for work, most likely as the
harvest season draws to a close. The landowner contracts
them for the usual daily wage and happily they go off to
work. He goes out again throughout the day and hires
more workers. More surprisingly he goes out again near
the end of the workday, finds trailing would-be workers
and hires them, not mentioning to them about their wages.
The issue in this parable comes at the end when the
landowner calls the laborers for their payment at the end
of the day. Those who had come at the last hour receive
a whole day’s wage and are delighted, while those who
came at the first hour are expecting that they will get more
than they had contracted for. Yet they receive the same
daily wage. Their anticipated joy turns to grumbling: “It’s
not fair! These last ones worked only one hour, and you
have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden
and heat.” The grumblers’ complaint is that “you have
made them equal to us.” They are angered not by what
happened to themselves but are envious about the good
fortune of the latecomers. They thought they would re-
ceive more. When we compare ourselves to others, we
easily fall into envy and resentment.
In this allegory the landowner is God himself. This
parable of the workers is an instance of how the thoughts
of God are so very different from ours; they are on a higher
scale than ours. Our earthly minds respect fair play and
hard work. We set a just reward for hard work. So does
the landowner in this story, who pays the contracted sum,
a just wage to all. God rewards our endeavors, but His
generosity goes beyond justice and He gives more than
what we deserve, chooses to give more than what some
earned. The focus of the parable is the surprisingly gen-
erous landowner. Jesus’s listeners might think of a mag-
nanimous God who always likes to share His goodness.
From author John R. Donahue, SJ: “The attitude of the
grumbling servants distorts their view of the world. The
parable summons us to believe that God’s justice played
out in the world is not limited by human conceptions of
strict mathematical judgment, where reward is propor-
tionate to effort or merit. The mercy and goodness of God
challenge us even though they do not exist at the expense
of justice. Categories of worth and value by which humans
separate themselves from others are reversed in God’s
eyes. Not to rejoice in the benefits given to others is to
cut ourselves off from those benefits we have received.”
God is beyond our expectations. He is more generous
than we expect and deserve.
Happy 60th Birthday
Bobbi Ann Childers
Love, Your Family