County, Port lay
plans for new
Enterprise Zone
New rules to govern decisions on
potential millions in spending
50¢
VOL. 139
NO. 45
8 Pages
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Dale and Sheryll Bates looking forward
to retirement
By Bobbi Gordon
Dale and Sheryll Bates
have decided it is time to
retire while they are still
“semi-young.” Sheryll told
the Gazette that she is retir-
ing because it is time, and
she can. Dale reiterated her
statement, saying their local
financial planner said they
could. They plan to spend
their time relaxing on the
river, traveling together and
visiting with friends, fami-
ly, and grandchildren. Dale
officially retired in June and
Sheryll in October 2020.
Sheryll began her job
as executive director for
the Heppner Chamber in
January of 2008, spending
more than 12 years coor-
dinating events, programs,
assignments, and communi-
ty meetings. She organized
fundraisers and worked
with the local businesses
as well as being a project
manager for Willow Creek
Valley Economic Develop-
ment Group (WCVEDG)
during that time. For WC-
VEDG, she coordinated
the programs developed by
the board, worked with the
recipients of grants and was
responsible for distribution
of the funds. She served on
multiple boards that com-
plemented the Chamber and
WCVEDG.
Dale began his career
in 1997 when he was hired
by Pacific Telephone, Inc.
to repair and maintain the
central office, maintain and
troubleshoot anything elec-
tronic within the Heppner,
Lexington and Ione area
and do anything related to
the operation of land lines
and internet. The com-
pany was bought out and
changed names multiple
times, finally becoming
CenturyLink, during his
time working there and his
duties expanded as well.
His areas increased to in-
clude the maintenance in
Mitchell, Spray and Fossil
and eventually Maupin,
Tygh Valley, Pine Grove
and Government Camp
were added. After handling
all of it for a year, they
thankfully took away the
Spray and Mitchell areas,
Sheryll Bates
Dale Bates
leaving the rest for him to
handle.
Dale was born in Hep-
pner and raised in Condon,
attending Condon schools.
He also spent three years
at United Electronics Insti-
tute. He is the fifth child of
a family of five and has two
children of his own, David
and Kelli.
Sheryll was born in
Portland but her family
moved to Ashland when
she was three to be close
to other family. She is the
second of five children.
She moved back to Portland
to attend college, getting
married and having two
daughters, Tiffany and Ta-
mara. In 2006 she married
to Dale Bates and they
decided she should move
to Heppner rather than him
moving to Portland. Sheryll
told the Gazette, “It seemed
like every time I came to
visit, Dale was involved in
doing sound for an event,
wedding or funeral and at
the end, I couldn’t take him
away from what he loved
doing for others.”
She attended high
school in Ashland and
Grants Pass and college in
Portland at Warner Pacific
College, earning her AA
in Secretarial Science. She
worked as an executive
administrative assistant for
most of her career before
moving to Heppner and tak-
ing the job at the chamber.
When asked how it
feels to leave, Sheryll said,
“I am excited for the oppor-
tunity and what the ‘retire-
ment’ future holds. I feel
that I have helped to build
the Heppner Chamber to
be a stronger advocate,
partner and support for
Heppner and surrounding
communities and that I have
left it better than I found
it. I was taught to always
give more than what was
expected, and I worked
hard to meet my expecta-
tions (and hopefully the
community will agree with
me). I loved what I did, and
it helped me to get to know
the community members
and businesses better. I ap-
preciate how hard everyone
works to keep us thriving as
a community.” She contin-
ued, “I took on many tasks
and responsibilities during
my 12+ years in the posi-
tion. Whatever needed to be
done, I did my best to step
up and get it done.”
Dale told the Gazette
leaving his job feels re-
laxed, but pretty different.
After always needing to be
at work at 8 a.m. for the past
43 years, it feels strange.
Decision expected
Jan 5 on co-op’s
request for power
line property
condemnation
By David Sykes
The Oregon Pub-
lic Utility Commission
(PUC) says it will decide
by January 5 whether to
let Umatilla Electric Co-op
(UEC) move forward with
condemnation procedures
against two county prop-
erty owners whose land
is needed for construction
of a new power line in the
Boardman area. The co-op
had earlier filed with the
PUC to allow the condem-
nation and has since been
awaiting commission deci-
sion before moving forward
with the legal action. The
Kym Clift, the candi- the search to replace Houser condemnation is necessary
date the Morrow County who plans to retire by the for the co-op to build a new
Health District had select- end of the year.
power line between a Hwy
ed to replace Bob Houser
as MCHD CEO, told the
MCHD board that she re-
scinded her application.
The Heppner Gazette Times would like to see pictures of your trophy animals
MCHD Chief Financial from this hunting season. Please send a photo along with your name, age, town
Officer Nicole Mahoney you live in, location of the hunt and a description of the animal to editor@
told the Gazette-Times last rapidserve.net, upload to Heppner.net or text to 541-980-6674.
week that Clift said because
of a family situation, she
needed to stay in the Cor-
vallis area. She had been
slated to start with MCHD
in mid-December. She is
currently employed with
Good Samaritan as vice
president of operations at
their Corvallis campus.
This news puts the dis-
trict back to square one in
New MCHD CEO
rescinds application
~ G-T Trophy Corner ~
DEADLINE:
MONDAYS
AT 5PM
Natalie (Rauch) Luna got
this nice 4-point the second
weekend of buck season in the
Butter Creek area.
“After retiring, there were
a few times when I woke
up in a small panic think-
ing I’m going to be late
for work,” he said. Then
he thought, “Oh … guess
we will just go to coffee
and watch the CenturyLink
trucks drive by.”
He says he plans on
working on the house, get-
ting the AWANA program
up and running again and
now that he has the time,
plans to get busy setting up
and providing sound sys-
tems for events once again.
Both agreed that Hep-
pner has a lot to offer. Dale
ended by saying, “Moving
to Heppner has been the
most positive thing I have
done in my career because
of the people and the job.”
Sheryll added, “I will get
to participate as a commu-
nity member rather than the
coordinator of events and
activities and will have the
opportunity to get involved
in some local clubs.” She
continued, “I am not leav-
ing … just transitioning to
the ‘senior life’ and hope
to spend many more happy
years in Heppner. This has
been a great experience and
I am glad that I moved to
Heppner instead of remain-
ing in Portland. Thank you,
Heppner for welcoming me
into the community.”
Eli Bates, 10, the grand-
daughter of Dale and Sheryll
Bates and Tim and Kathy
Rankin, killed her first buck
while hunting with her dad
this season.
730 electric switchyard
near the I-84 freeway, 4.3
miles east to Olson Rd in
Boardman. The co-op says
the new line is necessary to
service increasing customer
electrical needs in the area.
So far power line ease-
ment deals have been struck
with all affected landowners
except two, former county
judge Terry Tallman and
his wife Cheryl, who own a
10-acrea organic farm in the
path of the power line, and
Fletcher Hobbs, who owns
a business, Custom Feed
Services, in the path of the
proposed project.
In other recent legal
action surrounding the case
it was discovered Morrow
By David Sykes
Morrow County and
the Port of Morrow have
begun negotiations on rules
governing how decisions on
millions of dollars in tax
money, likely to be gener-
ated from a new enterprise
zone, will be made and
spent in the coming years.
The port and county, earli-
er this year went through
a contentious negotiation
process just on agreeing to
form a new enterprise zone,
and now they are back at
the table hammering out the
rules for how that zone will
function.
The previous zone, Co-
lumbia River Enterprise
Zone II (CREZII), expired
in June after a 10-year run.
During that time, it gen-
erated millions of dollars
in revenue in lieu of tax-
es, and it will continue to
generate millions into the
future. Enterprise zones
are an especially important
recruitment tool used by the
Port of Morrow to offer tax
breaks and attract new busi-
nesses into the area. The tax
breaks have also been used
by existing businesses for
expansion at the port.
How the CREZII mil-
lions have, and will con-
tinue to be spent around
the county, is decided by
a six-member board made
up of two representatives
each from the port, county
and city of Boardman. The
members have a wide lat-
itude on how to spend the
funds, and in the past have
used four broad categories
of education, housing, com-
munity enhancement and
public safety on where to
allocate the money.
There are few restric-
tions on how the money is
spent and not only is the en-
terprise board unelected per
se (it does, however, have
elected officials serving on
it) it also has no budgeting
rules such as budget com-
mittees, public hearings or
publication requirements
common to all other public
entities such as counties,
ports and cities. The board’s
actions and conduct are
instead governed by an in-
tergovernmental agreement
(IGA), agreed to by the port
and county, which the two
are presently hammering
out for the new CREZIII at
this time. The new CREZ,
however, will operate only
until 2025 when the whole
state-wide enterprise zone
program is set to expire,
unless it is renewed by the
state legislature.
Right off the top, the
difference between CREZ
two and three is Boardman
is no longer a permeant
member of the board, and
therefore not part of the
new IGA negotiations. That
is not to say Boardman will
no longer be involved with
decision making on both
business negotiations and
spending the millions of
dollars expected to be gen-
erated by the new CREZ.
It will, but only if a new
business locates within a
designated “influence zone”
around the city. All other
cities in the county also
have their influence zones,
and they too will have rep-
resentation on the board if
a business locates inside
their zone.
If included on the
board, individual cities
will not only be involved
with negotiations with pro-
spective businesses for the
terms of their tax breaks,
but also how the money will
be spent. If a new business
wants to locate in an area of
the county not within any of
the cities’ influence zones,
then the CREZIII board
will be made up of only
members from the county
and the port.
County, which had earlier
asked to become a party
in the case, had download-
ed from the PUC website
“highly confidential” ma-
terials including the co-op’s
long range plans, that the
county was not supposed
to have. The documents
were apparently incorrect-
ly uploaded by UEC into
an unsecure area, giving
the county access to the
documents. A PUC hearing
information and that these
materials remain confiden-
tial. We find, based on the
facts and circumstances
surrounding the disclosure
of UEC’s confidential and
highly confidential material
to Morrow County, that the
disclosure was inadvertent.
Finally, we recommend that
counsel for Morrow County
work with UEC to attempt
to resolve this issue infor-
mally,” the PUC said.
ATTENTION HUNTERS!!
The Heppner Gazette-Times
wants pictures of your trophy
animals from this hunting
season.
Stop by to have your
picture taken, drop off
photos at 188 W Willow in
Heppner,
email them to
editor@rapidser ve.net
upload them at heppner.net
or text cell phone photos to
541-980-6674.
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839
CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT.
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