General Election
ballots go out this
week
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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.
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