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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 2020)
General Election ballots go out this week 50¢ VOL. 139 NO. 41 10 Pages Wednesday, October 14, 2020 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Sheree Smith honored for her service Retiring County Health Department Director Sher- ee Smith, RN, was hon- ored at the Morrow County Commissioner meeting last week. She was given a bou- quet of flowers and heard many kind words of praise from those in attendance. Cupcakes were also served to those in attendance. Smith’s nursing career has spanned a total of 39 years, during which she handled a variety of jobs. She first became a Regis- tered Nurse at the age of 21 in 1981. Her first job was as a charge nurse at Pioneer Memorial Hospital from 1981 to 1991 when she became a home visit nurse at the Health Depart- ment, providing the Babies First program. This was a brand-new program, and the Health Department was unsure if they would be able sustain this service, so she was contracted for the first two years before becoming a permanent employee in 1993. Although home visit- ing was her primary focus, she served in many other programs as well over the next several years. It was in 2002 that she took on the position of Morrow County Health Department Director where she remained until her retirement this year. Retiring County Health Nurse Sheree Smith, RN (center) was honored at a meeting of the county commissioners last week. Left to right front row are Kristy Beauchamp, State Liaison Preparedness, Mindy Smith, Sheree Smith, Erin Anderson. Second Row: Commissioner Don Russell, Vickie Turrell, Carlita Bloodsworth, Betty Marquardt, Pam Piper, Commissioner Melissa Lindsay. Back Row: Commissioner Jim Doherty, Shelley Wight and Diane Kilkenny. -Photo by David Sykes “I just wanted to tell each of you how much it meant to acknowledge my 29 years of service within the Morrow County Health Department. I particularly appreciated your thought- fulness in doing the cele- bration at the beginning of the meeting. I especially loved the kind words, the beautiful bouquet, the cup- cakes, and the break so we had an opportunity to take a few photos and some brief conversation,” Smith said. Bentz makes campaign swing through county Oregon Republican 2 nd Congressional Dist. Candidate Cliff Bentz made a swing through Morrow County last week. Here he meets with community members and county commission- ers above Rock Street to discuss a planned new subdivision. Left to right is: Morrow County Commission Chair Melissa Lindsay, Willow Creek Valley Economic Development Group president Kim Cutsforth, Heppner City Manager Kraig Cutsforth (behind), Commissioner Jim Doherty, Cliff Bentz, Commissioner Don Russell and Oregon Republican Senator Dist. 29 Bill Hansell. By David Sykes Oregon Republican Second Congressional Dis- trict Candidate Cliff Bentz made a campaign swing through Morrow County last week ahead of the No- vember 3 election that will determine who replaces long-time Congressman Greg Walden, who decided not to run again for the seat. Bentz started his visit to the county last Wednesday with a visit to the Morrow County courthouse to meet with commissioners. Then he had lunch with Dis- trict Forest Service Ranger Brandon Houck and com- missioners to talk about forest uses and relation- ships in Morrow County. From there he toured the proposed Willow Creek Valley Economic Devel- opment Group subdivision above Rock Street, the Gil- liam-Bisbee building to see that refurbished older building project, the old mill site industrial park, the Lexington Airport, a meeting with the NextEra and solar project contractor building the Wheatridge windfarm, and wrapped up his visit with a fundraising dinner hosted at the Skye and Penny Krebs home in Ione. The next day, on Thurs- day, after staying at the River Lodge in Boardman, Bentz had breakfast with Port of Morrow Manager Ryan Neal, then toured the Port of Morrow industrial park followed by a visit to Three-Mile Canyon Farms, before heading on to Burns for further campaigning. While at the commis- sioners meeting there was a lengthy discussion on a variety of issues affecting Morrow County including housing, forest manage- ment, city infrastructure needs, broadband internet access in rural communities and turnover of the Umatil- la Army depot property. Morrow County Clerk Bobbi Childers reported that the ballots for the No- vember 3 general elec- tion will begin to go out Wednesday, Oct. 14 and should start to arrive in mailboxes soon after. Remember, ballots are not forwarded. Those who didn’t receive a ballot, but believe they should have, should contact the Morrow County Clerk’s office at 541-676-5604. 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 takes longer to be deliv- ered than first class mail. October 29 is the last day to safely return your ballot by mail. After that date, voters must use an official drop site. 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 sites are available at: Heppner: Behind the Bartholomew Building, in the parking lot. Open 24 Official drop boxes are located throughout the county. hours. Ballots may also be dropped at the Morrow County Clerk’s office inside the courthouse. The clerk’s office will be open 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 3 rd Street). Boardman: NW Boardman Ave. Irrigon: 205 NE 3 rd St. (Irrigon Annex). Umatilla Electric court case moves county closer to power line permit approval By David Sykes It took circuit court action, but it appears Uma- tilla Electric Co-op (UEC) may be moving closer to getting a county permit for construction of a controver- sial new power line project near Boardman. The court action by UEC against the Morrow County Commis- sioners, asked the court to compel final approval of a permit, already issued by the county planner, for construction of a new 4.3- mile powerline from a Hwy 730 switchyard to Olson Rd near Boardman. The new power line has been the subject of extended controversy since its proposal earlier this year, including appeals of planning decisions and a request to the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) to allow condem- nation of private property. Time literally ran out on the permit, however, when the county failed to act within the state-mandated 150-day time limit. Circuit Judge Daniel Hill, October 2, ordered Morrow County to issue the permit or explain why it has not. The county has until October 19 to answer the court order or it will become final. How the county and UEC ended up in court can be traced back to when interim County Planner Stephanie Case approved a construction permit for the powerline on March 23. Subsequently, a farm owner in the area appealed her decision to the planning commission, and on Sept. 4 the commission upheld her decision. That decision was also appealed, this time to the Morrow County Commissioners, who have final say over all planning commission decisions. But the legal clock had already run out by that time, as the county was required by state law to have made a decision on the permit by August 20. After the second appeal to the county com- mission it appears UEC lost patience and filed the law- suit on Sept 23. The lawsuit says since the county failed to act on the permit within the legal timeline, the pow- er line construction permit should now be automatical- ly approved. In legal terms the action is called a Writ of Mandamus. Current County Planner Tamara Mabbott told the Gazette-Times Monday the county did not meet the deadline because “There were some delays in processing the application last spring and therefore the county did not meet the 150-day timeline.” The lawsuit is just one more step in a long line of controversies that have surrounded UEC’s effort to build the power line. The co-op says it needs the new line to supply electricity to current and future custom- ers in the area. To construct the line in the UEC desired route some private lands need to be crossed requiring legal easements from the owners. Several landown- ers have refused to sign the agreements prompting the co-op to take action that could lead to condemnation proceedings against these reluctant property owners. The UEC filed pa- perwork March 19 with the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC), that if approved, would allow the co-op to move forward with condemnation proceedings against private land parcels needed for construction. The PUC has already held hearings on the condem- nation request, but so far has not issued a ruling on whether the condemnation will be allowed. Alternate routes were explored to build the powerline, but all were deemed unworkable by the co-op’s engineers. UEC says ongoing ease- ment negotiations with the affected landowners have been unsuccessful. In an effort to alleviate the need for condemnation the county commissioners at one point even stepped in and offered to donate a parcel of county-owned land for use as an alter- nate power line route. In response to the offer, UEC co-op CEO Robert Echen- rode said at a commission meeting, “While the coun- ty’s offer to grant UEC a power line easement across county land is generous, it would not stop condemna- tion proceedings against other property owners in the area.” Echenrode explained that even using the alternate route across county land there would still be a need to cross private property, on which so far, the co- op did not have easement agreements. Adjoining land owners who filed appeals against both the planner and plan- ning commission decisions, are Gary and Casey Freder- ickson. The Fredericksons have hired attorney Nick Blanc of Pendleton to rep- resent them, and he argued that the planner’s decision to issue the original permit was not valid since another powerline route that did not use farm zoned land should have been consid- ered. Blanc also said the proposed transmission line does not qualify as an “as- sociated transmission line,” or power service line, as described in UEC’s appli- cation. At the Sept. 4 appeal hearing the planning com- mission upheld the plan- ner’s decision, but only after county legal counsel Justin Nelson said the “150- day limit for a decision having already passed.” Nelson said the remedy was a writ to the circuit court compelling the county to issue the powerline permit, which UEC later did. “Lawyers for UEC exercised their right to file a Writ of Mandamus with the circuit court since the county did not process the application within the le- gally required 150-day time period,” Mabbott told the Gazette. She cited Oregon law that “requires a local government to resolve all local appeals within 150 days. That includes all ap- peals at the local level.” The county commis- sioners had scheduled a public hearing October 14 for the second appeal filed by Frederickson to over- turn the planning commis- sion decision upholding the original permit approval. All planning commission decisions go to the county commission for final ap- proval. That appeal hearing was subsequently canceled last week once the commis- sioners learned the circuit court had ruled in UEC favor and demanded the permit be issued. MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS 350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839 CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT. 204 POLARIS.COM/SNOWMOBILES R E B AT E S U P T O $2000 ON SELECT MODELS Offers valid on select new 2018-2021 Polaris snowmobiles purchased between August 1st, 2020 – August 31st, 2020. Minimum payments required. Offer may not be combined with certain other offers, is subject to change and may be extended or terminated without further notice. 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