Lexington gets new
signs for town hall
and shop
50¢
VOL. 139
NO. 47
8 Pages
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
By David Sykes
The Town of Lexington
has ordered two new signs,
one for its shop building
and one for the town hall.
At its November 3 meeting
the council instructed main-
tenance man Scott Lamb
to purchase the new 2 X 4
tancy requires only one of
the firm’s partners to be a
licensed Municipal Audi-
tor for the firm to conduct
municipal audits, Solutions
currently has three Munici-
pal Auditors,” the firm said
about its qualifications.
In other business the
City gets Jones Street grant
$100,000 in state money for reconstruction
By David Sykes
The city of Heppner
has received a state grant of
$100,000 to be used toward
reconstruction of Jones
Street. Jones is located
between Church and Water
Streets behind the Catholic
Parish Hall.
The Small City Allot-
ment Funds are an annual
allocation of state funds
to be used for transpor-
tation projects. Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation, ODOT, sets aside
$5,000,000 each year (half
from city gas tax revenue
and half from the state
highway fund) for cities
with population of less than
5,000. Projects are selected
for funding per a competi-
tive process. The maximum
award is $100,000 and there
is no match requirement.
The city of Ione re-
ceived $94,478 this year
and the town of Lexington
was also awarded $100,000.
At its November 9 meeting
the Heppner City Council
voted to accept the funds.
In other business at the
meeting:
The council authorized
the transfer of property
at 911 Riverside Street to
Morrow County. The coun-
ty plans to build a new stor-
age facility there to house
sheriff’s office equipment
and supplies. The 100 X
100-foot lot will be donated
to the county at no cost.
The council reviewed
the recently completed an-
nual city audit by Herm-
iston accountants Barnett
& Moro, PC. The city re-
ceived good marks except
for its handling of cash
transactions. The audit said
Heppner lacks “segrega-
tion of accounting duties”
within city hall when re-
ceiving and recording cash
transactions. The city re-
ceives the warning each
year because there is a small
staff who handle multiple
duties. The audit did not
find any irregularities in
the finances of the city.
“The city has done its best
to rectify this situation,”
the mayor said in a letter to
the Secretary of State. “We
have assigned separate staff
members to open the mail,
review invoices and bank
statements.” The city also
pointed out all city checks
require two signatures, the
person that signs the checks
does not write them, all de-
posits are reviewed by two
staff members and all city
financial statements are re-
viewed by management and
the city council. “The City
of Heppner is a small com-
munity. We employ only
2.7 full time employees.
We do not plan to hire any
additional employees,” the
mayor’s letter concluded.
The council reviewed
minutes of a November 2
planning commission meet-
ing where the commission
approved a variance allow-
ing William Mahon of 430
Frank Gilliam Drive to put
in a 10 X 20 foot outbuild-
ing next to his home. The
commission also approved
a variance for Mike and
Kay Proctor to construct
either a 12 X 12 shed at-
tached to the side of their
house, or up to an 8 X 30 ft
attachment to the existing
carport on 475 Morgan St.
The planning commission
said the work needed to
comply with flood plain
requirement rules.
They heard a report
from City Manager Kraig
Cutsforth who said among
other things, he ordered a
new phone system for city
hall and public works. He
also said he emptied the
city hunter water fund box
twice. The city offers hunt-
ers free water fill-up at the
city park, and there is a do-
nation box there if hunters
The town of Lexington has two new signs. -Contributed photo.
signs for the town build-
ings so they will be better
identified to the public. The
council had first considered
only one sign for the shop
building, but then decided
to add one for the town hall
which currently doesn’t
have a good one. “It would
be nice to have a sign here,”
Mayor Juli Kennedy said
about town hall. Lamb said
there was enough money
left from the grant money
the town received for signs
to purchase both, so the
council moved forward.
In other business, the
council voted to retain Van-
Koten & Cleaveland, LLC
Attorneys at Law from
Hood River to use “as need-
ed” for city legal business.
The town previously did
not have an attorney. Ruben
Cleaveland of VanKoten &
Cleaveland said in a letter
to Lexington that he is cur-
rently the city attorney for
Cascade Locks, Arlington,
Moro, Wasco, Vernonia,
Gaston and Spray. Cleave-
land will bill the town $175
per hour for legal services
on an “as needed” basis.
“I represent a wide variety
of local governments in
Oregon and I would be
very pleased to serve your
city,” Cleaveland said in a
letter to the town. “I have
a hands-on experience in a
wide variety of law topics,
including but not limited
to, contract law, Oregon
Public Employees labor
laws, Oregon land use laws
and Oregon law governing
governmental agencies,”
he added.
In other action the
council voted to retain the
accounting firm of Solu-
tions, CPAs from John Day
to do the town audit. “While
the State Board of Accoun-
town learned that it had
received $100,000 from
the State of Oregon for use
on streets. The Small City
Allotment Funds are an
annual allocation of state
funds to be used for trans-
portation projects. Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation, ODOT, sets aside
$5,000,000 each year (half
from city gas tax revenue
and half from the state
highway fund) for cities
with population of less than
5,000. Projects are selected
for funding per a competi-
tive process. The maximum
award is $100,000 and there
is no match requirement.
The city of Ione received
$94,478 this year and the
city of Heppner was also
awarded $100,000. Lex-
ington plans on using the
money to repave Arcade
St., part of C St. and part of
Water St..
Morrow County has
lowest rental rate in
Oregon
Rental rate averages $524 per
month for one bed/one bath
The 2020 edition of
“Oregon by the Numbers”
recently published, is full
of fascinating statistics on
Oregon’s counties.
Rent Costs (One bed-
room, one bath): Morrow
County ranks last of all
counties with a rate of $524
per month. Clackamas,
Columbia, Multnomah,
Washington and Yamhill
are all tied for first at $1,132
per month.
Population: Accord-
ing to the publication, Or-
egon has a population of
4,081,943, of that, Mor-
row County’s population
is 29 th out of 36 counties at
11,215. Umatilla County is
14 th with 76,898; Gilliam is
34 th with 1,907, Sherman is
35 th with 1,605 and Wheeler
th
The state of Oregon has given money to the city to reconstruct Jones Street. Jones runs between is 36 and last with 1,426.
Rural: Morrow Coun-
Water and Church Street behind the Catholic Parish Hall.
ty
is
12 th in the percentage
want to put money in for the
water. “The bird and bow
hunters are the best (mon-
The Heppner Gazette Times would like to see pictures of your trophy animals ey donators),” Cutsforth
from this hunting season. Please send a photo along with your name, age, town said. “Elk hunters don’t pay
you live in, location of the hunt and a description of the animal to editor@ much for water. And they
rapidserve.net, upload to Heppner.net or text to 541-980-6674.
leave the most garbage,”
T h e H e p p n e r G a - he added. The city also
zette-Times wants to see puts out garbage cans for
pictures of your trophy hunters to dump their trash
animals from this hunting in on the way out of town.
The water and garbage are
season. Stop
done as a service because
by to have
of the large positive eco-
your picture
nomic impact out-of-town
taken, drop
hunters have on the city’s
off photos,
economy. Cutsforth said
mail them to
they must remind some
PO Box 337
in Heppner, email them to local people trying to dump
editor@rapidserve.net or their garbage in the hunter
Scott Lamb, Heppner, took text cell phone photos to
bins located at the city park,
this spike elk in the Heppner 541-980-6674.
that the service is only for
unit.
hunters’ use.
~ G-T Trophy Corner ~
of people living in rural
areas, with Gilliam, Grant,
Sherman, Wallowa and
Wheeler all ranking first
with 100 percent of their
population rural. Mult-
nomah County is last in
that category with only 1.3
percent living in rural areas.
Migration: In terms
of net migration (change in
population due to people
moving in or out of an area
over a specific time period),
Morrow County is 34 th out
of 36 counties with a 1.6
rating. First is Deschutes
County with a 162.9 rating;
last is Malheur with a -12.4
rating.
Largest Communi-
ties: Clackamas, Mult-
nomah and Washington
counties rank highest in
the “largest communities”
-See COUNTY STATS/PAGE
FOUR
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839
CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT.
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