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VOL. 139
NO. 46
8 Pages
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Morrow County still Trump country
President gets 70 percent, nearly same as 2016
Jim Doherty wins with 61
percent
By David Sykes
President Donald
Trump’s popularity did not
waiver in Morrow County
over the past four years,
as the president garnered
70 percent of the vote in
the Nov. 3 election, nearly
the same as he got in 2016.
There were more votes cast
in this election however,
with 5,060 votes cast for
presidential candidates this
time, and only 3,738 in
2016. Every precinct in the
county voted in favor of
Trump.
On the local front, there
were four hotly contested
races where voters decided
on a County Commissioner,
Justice of Peace, Sheriff
and Treasurer. Incumbents
did very well with all three
being elected. Commis-
sioner Jim Doherty won
all but the Ione precinct,
his opponent’s hometown,
with a county-wide 61 per-
cent vote margin. Sheriff
Matlack won reelection
by beating his opponent
in every precinct except
Boardman, with a total of
60 percent of the vote. Glen
Ken Matlack reelected with
60 percent
Bobbi Childers runs and
wins unopposed
Jaylene Papineau garners 62
percent
Glen Diehl prevails at 52
percent
Diehl had the closest race at
52 percent of the vote, but
still managed to prevail and
remain Justice of the Peace,
a position he has not run for
but was earlier appointed
to. His opponent Theresa
Crawford won Lexington,
Heppner and Ione precincts,
but by not enough margin
to win. Jaylene Papineau is
a newcomer to politics and
won the Treasurer race by
a 62 percent margin. She
beat her opponent in every
precinct in the county. Bob-
bi Childers won re-election
as county clerk, running
unopposed. Childers got
99.54 percent of the vote
with 4,296 against only 20
write-ins.
On the state-wide mea-
sures, Morrow County said
yes to campaign finance
reform by a 67 percent
yes margin, no to higher
tobacco tax by a slim 51
percent no vote; a big no to
legalized psilocybin by 66
percent and a smaller per-
centage of no, 60 percent to
decriminalizing hard drugs.
In other races Morrow
County voters turned out
well for native son State
Representative Greg Smith
giving him 80 percent of
their votes to give him his
tenth consecutive term in
the Oregon Legislature.
Smith has held the District
57 seat since 2001 making
him Dean of the Oregon
Legislature.
But the conservative
Morrow County did not
give many votes to liberal
Democrats like US Sena-
tor Jeff Merkley, who got
only 31 percent of their
vote against his Republican
opponent. The county went
big for Republican House
Representative candidate
Cliff Bentz, however, vot-
ing 73 percent for him over
his Democratic opponent.
Bentz is replacing long-
time congressman Greg
Walden who decided not to
run again. Voters also gave
thumbs up to Republican
State Senator Bill Hansel,
voting in favor of the in-
cumbent by a 79 percent
margin.
On the whole the coun-
ty had a good turn out with
5,209 people casting bal-
lots out of a total 6,753
registered voters for a 77
percent participation rate.
The county trailed the state-
wide turnout however, with
all of Oregon voting at 81
percent. We did beat neigh-
boring Umatilla County,
which registered only a
72 percent voter turnout.
Trump garnered a lower
percent, 65, in Umatilla
County, however.
Other mostly unop-
posed races around the
county were: City of Board-
man councilmembers elect-
ed Brenda Profitt, Paul
Winners of the deco-
rating contests held in the
communities of Lexington
and Heppner have been an-
nounced. Cash prizes were
awarded to the winners.
The first-place winner
in Lexington, earning the
$250 prize donated by the
Morrow County Unified
Recreation District, went to
Steve Lankford’s house on
C Street. Ashli Gould took
home the $100 second place
prize donated by Trent and
Bria Wright for her decorat-
ed house on Arcade Street.
Kraig Cutsforth took
the $200 first place prize in
Heppner. Dean Hanbury got
second with the $100 prize
and Robert Whalen took
third winning $50.
The organizers from
both communities appreci-
ate all those who entered the
contest with their creative
ideas.
Steve Lankford’s house on C St. in Lexington took first place.
Ashli Gould’s house on Arcade St. in Lexington took second
place.
Robert Whalen took third in Heppner.
-See MORROW COUNTY
RESULTS/PAGE THREE
County approves $379,000 grants to cities
Holds wider discussion on where increased county tax revenues are going
By David Sykes
The Morrow Coun-
ty Commission approved
$379,000 in grants to cities
recently, and the action
sparked a wider discussion
on how increasing tax funds
coming into the county
coffers, through business
expansion and energy proj-
ects, should be distributed
throughout the county. The
discussion asked whether
the county should look
more at need, or city popu-
lation when allocating this
new money.
The grants to cities
program have become an
annual allocation of funds
from county government
down to the five cities in the
county. Commissioners had
earlier delayed the decision
on the funds, wondering if
more money was needed in
the Health Department this
year to fight COVID-19. At
its Oct. 21 meeting com-
missioners decided to move
forward with the popular
annual cities grants, and to
allocate the available funds
based on 62.5 percent an
even split and the rest 37.5
percent based on popula-
tion of each city (see table
below).
Morrow County is now
seeing large amounts of tax
money coming into both the
county coffers and the En-
terprise Zone mainly from
Amazon’s new data farms,
the expansion of food pro-
cessing plants at the Port of
Morrow, and the large scale
wind, solar and gas generat-
ing facilities locating here.
How that money will be
spent is a decision both the
county and the enterprise
board will be making in the
coming years.
At its Oct. 21 meet-
ing, Commissioner Melissa
Lindsay laid out her vision
of how money should go
to those areas of the county
most in need, and not just
the cities with the highest
populations. She used Ione,
and its current need of a
new sewer system, as an
example. All of Ione is on
individual septic systems
and that method of waste
disposal is just not working
anymore. The city needs
to upgrade to a central
sewer system, but that is
an expensive project city
members are working on
at this time.
“The city proper will
be decimated without a
sewer system,” she told
the other commissioners
at the meeting. “Homes
have been abandoned be-
cause they cannot replace
their septic systems. It’s
growing pretty dire,” she
emphasized. Lindsay said
some people talk of re-
placing systems “in the
dark of night” because they
(Department of Environ-
mental Quality, DEQ) will
not allow septic system
replacements when they
fail. “We need to keep our
small towns alive. We can’t
just end up with Hardmans
or we don’t have anything,”
she said.
Lindsay pointed out
when there are conver-
sations of needs in the
towns and cities of south
Morrow County, “We don’t
talk about who is putting
public money toward golf Kraig Cutsforth took first in Heppner.
courses (in reference to the
Port of Morrow recently
buying and operating the
Boardman golf course). In
Lexington we talk about
the water. We have to look
not only at population but
on need. I have to talk not
only about helping our
-See GRANTS TO CITIES/
PAGE FOUR Dean Handbury won second in Heppner.
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839
CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT.
204
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