County awards new
sheriff building
contract to local
builder
Allstott Construction gets
$564,702 building contract
50¢
VOL. 139
NO. 43
8 Pages
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
County breaks ground on new Irrigon
office complex
Community leaders, officials and staff celebrate new facility
A large group of county and city leaders and staff gathered last week for the groundbreaking of the new county administra-
tive building in Irrigon. -Photo by David Sykes
By David Sykes
With big smiles and
glowing words, a group of
county and city officials,
community leaders and
county staff gathered last
Friday morning for the
groundbreaking ceremony
of the new 12,500 square
foot county office complex
in Irrigon.
“This has been a long
time in the planning to get
this done,” said Commis-
sioner Don Russell follow-
ing the traditional golden
shovel ceremony and photo
shoot. He said the $6.8 mil-
lion-dollar mixed-use office
space will house a multi-
tude of county offices and
departments including the
Justice Court, Planning De-
partment, Sheriff’s Office,
County Clerk, Surveyor,
and Parole and Probation.
The county seat is still in
Heppner and no offices
will be closed there; the
new Irrigon facility is just
an expansion to service the
ever-growing north end of
the county.
few businesses we have on
Main Street know there is
a lot of business generated
out of this building. I used
to be there, and I know,”
said Huwe who owned the
gas station and mini mart on
Main Street for many years.
“We are just over the top
that this is going to happen
for Morrow County, and we
are very proud of Irrigon,”
she said.
Former Commissioner
John Wenholz
Former Commissioner
John Wenholz was also
pleased with the decision
to locate the new facility
in Irrigon. “This has been
my vision ever since I was
a county commissioner. I
always felt that Heppner
had a county seat, and our
industry is in the Boardman
area. I feel that having this
building here will give
Irrigon some identity. I
have been a champion of
this since I was a county
commissioner and I am glad
to see it come to fruition
today. I think this is a great
thing for the city of Irrigon
and the citizens of Morrow
County,” Wenholz said.
Community supporter
Barbara Huwe
Community leaders
were also on hand including
longtime Irrigon resident
and former Main Street
businessperson Barbara
Huwe. “I am just absolutely
ecstatic that the county de-
cided to build this facility in
Irrigon,” Huwe said with a
large grin on her face. “We
have had our annex since
the mid-70s and here I felt
that we need to continue
that so that Irrigon has
some ownership in Morrow
County.” She said at first
there was talk of locating
the new facility in Board-
man, but “We got together
and proved to them that
Irrigon does need owner-
ship,” she said in support
of the county decision to
build in Irrigon. “Those
Irrigon City Manager
Aaron Palmquist
Irrigon City Manager
Aaron Palmquist praised
the addition of the office
complex to the city. “From
our perspective as the city
of Irrigon this is a great
boost. This is exciting.”
Palmquist said it was a
“good use of county re-
sources across the whole
county taking a dilapidated
old facility (current county
buildings) and bringing it
up to the 21 st century.”
Palmquist said city
planning is currently in the
process of doing the build-
ing’s plan review, saying,
“It is going to be a state-of-
the-art facility for everyone
across the whole county.”
He said the city council and
members of the community
“are very excited about it
and it will continue to add
livability and enhance-
ments to Irrigon as we make
it shine brighter.”
Commissioner
Jim Doherty
County Commissioner
Jim Doherty said he was
“really thrilled to be here
today” saying, “It has been
a long time coming for
Irrigon.” Doherty, who
lives in Boardman, related
his connection to Irrigon
telling how his son was in
the last combined Irrigon
and Boardman high school
class before Irrigon built
its own school. Doherty
recalled how his son was
on a combined basketball
team that went to the state
playoffs together with the
Irrigon students and won
third place. “Or as we like
to say they were public
school state champion,” he
laughs. “They played Regis
and lost,” he remembers
“But Irrigon wanted
their own wings and their
own future so when I was
campaigning four years
ago, I knocked on every
door and said for too long
Irrigon has been treated as
the red-headed step child
and nobody argued that
fact,” Doherty recalled.
“So as soon as I got elect-
ed commissioner Melissa
Lindsay and commissioner
Russell joined me in an
effort that was 30 years
in the offing to update the
county buildings. It’s got a
wonderful start for Irrigon.
They have really gathered
themselves around their
own school program and
their own future and I think
the sky is the limit for them.
I am really super excited to
be a part of this venture,”
he said.
Commissioner
Don Russell
Commissioner Don
Russell joined others say-
ing the new facility is over-
due. “This has been a long
time in the planning to get
this done. We are finally to
a spot where we are three
weeks from when crews
will come and start moving
and do a real groundbreak-
ing,” he said with a smile.
Russell said once crews
start it should take about 12
months before the county
is ready to move into the
building.
He said the building,
which was designed by
CIDA Architecture with
the main contractor being
Fortis Construction, is go-
ing to be 12,500 square feet
of mixed-use office space.
He detailed the offices and
departments that will be in
the building. “The Justice
Court will be in the new
building along with the
planning department. There
will be room for the county
commissioners to meet here
on the north end,” Russell
says. He says the sheriff’s
office north end offices will
all be consolidated in the
new building. “Right now
the sheriff works out of an
office in the Irrigon build-
ing and we have a leased
space in Boardman. Those
will all be consolidated and
they will all be in Irrigon,”
he says. “The county clerk
who leases an office across
the street will be in this
building and offer services
to the public,” Russell says.
“Right now she comes up
here (from Heppner) once
per week so people can get
passports, marriage licens-
es and register to vote.”
Russell says in addition
the county surveyor will
be here “and his docu-
ments will be stored here
instead of a conex box out
in the weather.” Also the
Sheriff will have storage
for their marine boat for
emergencies on this part
of the river. He says the
only other county office in
the north end will be the
health department with an
office in Boardman and
they will stay there. “But
the rest of the county ser-
vices will be consolidated
in this building. These will
just be modern offices with
better places to work for our
employees,” Russell says of
the new facility.
By David Sykes
Local builder Allstott
Construction was low bid-
der on a new sheriff’s office
storage building in Hep-
pner, the county commis-
sion announced last week.
Allstott’s bid was $564,702
for the 60 X 80 ft wooden
structure. The county is
planning on building the
new storage facility near
the Heppner fire station on
the highway near Riverside
Ave. The building will be
used to mainly store sher-
iff’s office vehicles and
equipment such as the mo-
bile emergency command
center vehicle.
The county currently
leases a building at the
former mill site for its emer-
gency building, however
the current owner, the Port
of Morrow, has sold the
building for $100,000 to
local businessman Jay Coil
who plans on moving his
fabrication business there
from its current location on
Riverside Ave. The county
had the right to match the
offer and buy the building
but opted instead to find a
location and build its own
new emergency building.
Subsequently the city of
Heppner offered to donate
a lot next to the current
firehall located between
Riverside and Hwy 74 be-
hind the Devin Oil facility
for free. The Soil and Wa-
ter Conservation District
has also been approached
about donating an easement
across its property so there
is access onto the highway
from the new building.
There were two bids
submitted on the project
with Allstott $102,397 low-
er than second place Silver
Creek Contracting LLC at
$667,099. However the low
bid was still $15,702 higher
than an estimated cost from
an engineering firm.
County commissioners
have been wrestling with
where they were going to
come up with that much
money, since they only had
$250,000 budgeted for the
project. With the more than
$300,000 shortfall commis-
sioners decided last week
to take $250,000 out of the
sheriff’s office new vehicle
fund to make up the short-
fall. Taking the money out
-See IRRIGON OFFICE/
PAGE THREE
~ G-T Trophy Corner ~
The Heppner Gazette Times would like to see pictures of your trophy animals
from this hunting season. Please send a photo along with your name, age, town
you live in, location of the hunt and a description of the animal to editor@
rapidserve.net, upload to Heppner.net or text to 541-980-6674.
Lennie Hanna, 71, of Heppner
killed this bull elk in the Red
Desert of Wyoming on Octo-
ber 10.
DEADLINE:
MONDAYS
AT 5PM
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839
CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT.
204
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
of new vehicles will mean
the sheriff’s office will not
replace aging vehicles as
often as it has in the past.
In other business at
the Oct. 14 meeting the
commission announced the
winners of the annual spe-
cial youth elk spike hunt at
the Morrow-Grant County
OHV park in the mountains
south of Heppner. Each
year the county gives away
six hunts to youth. This
year the winners were five
Morrow County applicants,
one Grant County and one
Morrow County alternate.
There were two applicants
from Clackamas, howev-
er it was decided to keep
the hunt eligible just for
Morrow and Grant County
youth. The hunt will be held
during the regularly sched-
uled second season elk hunt
Nov. 7 – 15. The youth
were: David Rietmann and
Katie Spivey of Ione, Lane
Rowe, Zackariah Jones and
Kassadie Griffin of Irrigon,
Riley Pearcy of Boardman
and Fallan Griffin from
John Day.
In other action the
county authorized the road
department to purchase
two 2021 Workman three
axle dumping pup trailers
at a cost of $154,000. The
trailers are necessary to
continue making the road
department more efficient
by doubling the payload
while moving road rock,
excavating materials, chip
rock, paving asphalt and
other material, public works
said. The purchase was
planned and allotted for in
this year’s budget.
The commission-
ers also voted for pub-
lic works to purchase two
2021 Kenworth hook trucks
and components at a cost
of $570,857. The added
components adaptable to
the trucks are a 2000-gal-
lon water tank, two snow
plows, one sander for sand
application on snow and
ice, one flatbed for moving
material, two dump bodies
and one liquid asphalt dis-
tributor. This purchase was
also budgeted for this year.
In other business the
commissioners heard a re-
port from Finance Director
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