Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, October 21, 2020 -- THREE
IRRIGON OFFICE
~ Letters to the Editor ~
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at a cost of $10. Email to editor@rapidserve.net or upload to Heppner.net.
Diehl very thorough
Vote for Thatcher
To the editor:
I am writing this letter
in support of Judge Diehl.
I have known Glen Die-
hl Since the early 2000’s
when I worked as commu-
nity relations official for the
city of Boardman. It was in
that capacity that I worked
with Glen Diehl when he
worked for UCSO on the
BENT team or Narcotics
Task Force. I assisted as an
interpreter to the Narcotics
Task Force. Glen Diehl
was very good at what he
did along with the rest of
the team and it was a great
experience for me to work
alongside the team.
Since then I have
worked with Glen when
he was working for MCSO
as supervisor for the court
mandated community ser-
vice workers and probation
officer. I currently work
as an interpreter for Judge
To the editor,
I write this letter in
support of Kim Thatcher
for Secretary of State. Al-
though I am a registered
Libertarian, I am crossing
party lines and will vote
for Kim Thatcher enthusi-
astically.
Throughout her politi-
cal career, I have seen Kim
Thatcher cross party lines
to listen to different ideas,
work with the people who
hold them, and frequently
accommodate their prior-
ities (even when she does
not share them) in the in-
terests of good civics. These
qualities are hallmarks of a
great Secretary of State and
are especially important
now because of the divisive
nature of today’s politics.
Diehl and have enjoyed
working with him in all
capacities. I feel that Judge
Diehl, in both capacities,
as community service crew
supervisor and as judge,
has done a great job and
is sensitive to the needs
of the non-English-speak-
ing population in Morrow
County as well as the En-
glish-speaking population.
I see how thorough he is
and how he takes the time
to make sure the defendants
understand every part of
their court process.
In my opinion Glen
Diehl has always been dil-
igent and attentive to detail
when he is doing his job
and would continue doing a
good job if he is elected to
continue to serve as judge
for the Morrow County
Justice Court.
Sincerely,
Martin Montes de Oca
Doherty has worked
hard
To the editor,
I support Jim Doherty’s
reelection as Morrow
County Commissioner. As
a commissioner, Jim has
worked hard to represent
all of the people and com-
munities in the county. He
never seems to favor one
community over another
as he sees the county not as
north or south but as one
entity.
I believe that Jim is one
of the most honest people I
know and is working hard
to do the best job possible
for the citizens of Morrow
County. I urge you to vote
Jim Doherty for Morrow
County Commissioner.
Jerome McElligott,
Ione
Stand for God and
country
To the editor:
The national press, na-
tional media, Facebook,
Google, Twitter, Demo-
cratic party and traitors
in government and the
Republican party at the
top, are all controlled by
anti-American, anti-God
radical leftists/Marxists that
are committed to turning
America into a partner in
the coming globalist one
world government. These
same traitors continue to
use their positions of power
and influence to orchestrate
treasonous plots to remove
a duly elected president
from office. The plot using
the CIA, FBI, NSA and
traitors embedded in every
American institution came
from President Barack
Obama immediately once
Donald Trump was elected
President.
For four years Amer-
ica has been forced to en-
dure the fraudulent Mueller
Russian fiasco, the phony
impeachment soapbox, the
Covid 19 conspiracy and
now an election that the
press and media promise
and promote to bring a
corrupt 47-year career pol-
itician to the White House.
If they succeed, they will
end the American Republic
as we know it. They will
change every Constitutional
safeguard beginning with
the Second Amendment.
They know they cannot im-
plement their coup unless
they remove every firearm
from every American pa-
triot.
Understand what will
happen to America if these
Democrat/Marxists are
successful in deceiving,
cheating and manipulating
the vote to elect their man
Joe Biden as President of
the United States. Cast
your vote wisely my fellow
Americans. Stand without
compromise for God and
country.
Stuart Dick, Irrigon
Endorsing Matlack
To the editor:
I’m writing this en-
dorsement letter for Sheriff
Kenneth W. Matlack as I’m
a former police officer and
a retired armed security
officer. I started in 1973
as a police officer for the
city of Madras, OR until
1986. During that 13 years
I resigned and went with the
Jefferson County Sheriff’s
department as a deputy for a
year and half then I returned
to the Madras City Police
department.
During that time I was
also a volunteer ambulance
driver and medical aid as
well as a volunteer fire
fighter for several years. In
1986 I resigned from the
Madras Police Department
to take a position with the
Boeing company as an
armed top-secret security
officer stationed at a Boe-
ing classified test site in
Boardman. Later on I, and
the public, had the honor
of having Kenneth Matlack
serve as our Morrow Coun-
ty Sheriff.
Sheriff Matlack has
shown me, as well as all
the general population of
Morrow County, the hon-
esty and integrity that it
takes to be a great working
sheriff. Sheriff Matlack has
provided all that plus he is
very proud and honored to
“fill in the extra mile” as he
has done and will continue
to do as he serves as sheriff
of Morrow County.
I’m very honored to
endorse Sheriff Kenneth
W. Matlack for another full
term for Morrow County
Sheriff. Kenneth has the
experience it takes to fulfill
this position and will again
serve Morrow County with
the utmost integrity.
Stan T. Toms,
Boardman
Hopeful Saints will
host their Halloween party
a little differently this year.
They are planning a trunk or
treat in the parking lot from
5:30 to 8 p.m. on Halloween
night. Kids and parents are
asked to stay in their car and
drive through by entering
on Gale Street and exiting
on Church Street. Walkers
are welcome also.
This year’s Halloween
celebration will include
community Halloween dec-
orating contests in Lexing-
ton and Heppner. To regis-
ter for the Heppner contest,
email Hopeful Saints Min-
istry at hepsaints@centu-
rytel.net or call the church
office at 541-676-9970. All
entries must be submitted
to the church office by
October 28 and be inside
the Heppner city limits.
Judging will take place the
evening of October 29.
To register for the Lex-
ington contest contact Bria
Wright on Facebook. These
community activities are
funded by Morrow County
Unified Recreation district.
Additional details will
be available on Facebook
and future issues of the
Heppner Gazette-Times.
Trick or Treat drive
through planned
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As the late Dennis
Richardson proved, a Re-
publican can serve con-
structively in a Democrat-
ic state like Oregon for
the good of us all. Party
labels notwithstanding,
Kim Thatcher’s brand of
non-partisan governance is
what will bring Oregonians
closer together, making it
possible to resume building
on the best of what we are.
For these reasons, I urge
everyone across all party
lines to vote Kim Thatcher
for Secretary of State.
Respectfully,
Richard P. Burke,
Tigard
Former Commissioner
and Chair,
Oregon Government
Ethics Commission
-Continued from PAGE ONE
Kate Knop who said the
county’s retirement plan
lost ground in the year
2018-19. The loss was due
to a lower than expected
return from the $26 million
funds’ investments. There
are currently 250 people
drawing from the retire-
ment fund and the county
recently switched from a
defined benefit plan to a
defined contribution plan
in an effort to save money
and keep the fund solvent.
It is showing about an $11
million unfunded shortfall
in what is owed and what
is available to pay out,
requiring the county to add
money to the retirement
fund each year.
Commissioner Don
Russell, who earlier en-
gineered the switch to the
defined contribution plan
system, asked if maybe
the county was being too
conservative in its invest-
ments. “Our investments
look like it underperforms
the markets substantially,”
he said pointing out that
all the major indexes such
as the Dow and the S&P
500 were doing better than
the county retirement fund.
“Who sets the risk toleranc-
es for the investments we
do?” he asked Knop. Knop
said the board of commis-
sioners set the risk. “We
are underperforming the
markets by quite a bit and I
would guess that is because
our risk tolerance is low,”
Russell said. The commis-
sioners planned on having
the fund managers attend
a meeting in November to
talk about the county’s re-
tirement fund investments.
Commissioner Mellissa
Lindsay said the informa-
tion the commission had
was “old information be-
fore the upturn so we need
to get updated information.
Our year to date is 9.6
percent so that puts us in a
much better light,” she said
of the current year.
In other discussion
Lindsay and new county
planner Tamra Mabbott
talked about the future of
wind projects in the county.
Lindsay said she held Nex-
tEra and Wheatridge, the
current owner and builder
of the latest windfarm in the
county, “up high” because
they worked with wind
tower neighbors to mitigate
the loss of what she called
“viewshed” from new tow-
ers going up. “When Jer-
ry Rietmann came with
Andrew McConnell with
Wheatridge they started
to roll it out and some of
the land owners were not
that excited,” said Lindsay,
who does not have wind
towers on her farm. “Some
of us liked our viewshed.
We didn’t want this in our
neighborhood. He came to
our table and he said what
could we do?” Lindsay said
while the wind developers
do not pay for loss of view,
they will compensate adja-
cent landowners for noise.
Lindsay said what was
done in Morrow County
could be a model for how
windfarms should be de-
veloped. “The homeowners
that were not involved in
the project got to have that
conversation and I think
most of them are probably
getting a compensation,”
she said. She said many
adjacent landowners are
getting compensated for
what they feel is “a loss in
their living space,” because
of what is happening to the
benefit of their neighbor
who is getting money from
wind towers on their land.
Umatilla County in-
stituted a certain mile set
back on wind towers from
residents which Lindsay
says may have given that
county a “not open for
business” signal for wind
development, which she
wanted to avoid in Morrow
County. She said she was
not against wind power
and did not want others in
the county to be put a posi-
tion of not benefiting from
wind. “If I’m an implement
seller on Main Street and
don’t want my home to be
impeded upon like this I
can’t go through the pub-
lic process because I will
lose my customers,” she
hypothesized. “I will lose
my business. I will tick off
the farmers who want this to
come. But If they come to
me and say let’s talk about
it then I can become part of
the process and feel good
about it. I would like to see
that process where there is
public comment and pub-
lic process for setbacks,”
she told Mabbott about
future wind projects in the
county. “With the ability to
buy out of them and pay to
get closer or have a noise
payment, whatever that
might be. Then it would
be palatable for the per-
son who has to live in the
middle of it but not run off
the project,” Lindsay said.
She also wanted to make
sure any wind projects in
the county were properly
bonded so that when it came
time to remove the towers
the money was there.
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