Morrow County
disburses $601,778
in coronavirus relief
grants
50¢
VOL. 140
NO. 3
8 Pages
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Pandemic and Justice Court
Judge sees faster speeding tickets: ‘Not uncommon to get 110 up to
124 mph on the freeway’
By David Sykes
Justice Court Judge
Glen Diehl says since the
COVID-19 pandemic his
court is seeing an increase
in school truancy and also
higher speeding tickets on
the I-84 freeway through
north Morrow County. “The
court is dealing with effects
of the pandemic. We have
seen a drastic increase in
truancy as well as speed-
ing violations,” he said
in a report to the county
commission at their Jan-
uary 13 meeting. “It’s not
uncommon to get 110 up to
124 miles per hour on the
freeway tickets coming in.”
Diehl attributed the higher
speeds and more tickets to a
public attitude that the pan-
demic has changed things.
“I think there are people
that feel due to COVID the
rules don’t apply. Unfortu-
nately, the laws of physics
do still apply when they
get into accidents. So that
is what we are trying to
prevent,” he said of the en-
forcement of speed limits.
Diehl also said just
managing the court’s busi-
ness is more difficult and
time consuming now with
the pandemic. He said the
court staff is working to
keep social distancing,
enforce other rules and
still keep people moving
through the system. “We
used to do what we called
“cattle call” where every-
one would show up at 9
a.m. in the morning and sit
in the back of the courtroom
and then we would call each
case one at a time,” he ex-
plained. “That speeds things
up for the court but we can’t
do that with COVID,” he
said. Diehl said the people
are now required to wait
outside and then they bring
them in one case at a time
to minimize contact with
staff and the public. He did
point out they did install
a number dispenser where
people take a number, then
wait outside until there
case is called. A display is
placed in the court window
so people can wait in their
car and then come in when
they see their number come
up. ‘We shaved off quite a
bit of time from the pro-
cess doing this,” he said,
calling it “thinking outside
the box” in the time of the
COVID pandemic. We are
trying to keep the process
moving and still keep ev-
eryone in the courtroom,
including staff and public,
safer,” he said.
Other methods being
looked at are installing new
equipment and infrastruc-
ture to do more “virtual”
court such as using the
Zoom or Webex confer-
encing software. Diehl said
he plans on sitting down
Justice Court Judge Glen
Diehl seeing more truancy.
with the county information
technology (IT) person
and County Administrator
Darrell Green to talk about
“what we are going to do in
the future.” The new county
offices opening next year
will include a new court-
room with the opportunity
to install new electronic
features to the court.
As part of his report to
the commissioners Diehl
presented financial reports
that showed the court took
in $129,031 in fines the last
three months of 2020. Of
that total, after court and
other expenses, the county
received $86,401 and the
State of Oregon $40,763.
Diehl was asked how
collections on unpaid fines
was proceeding. Commis-
sioner Jim Doherty said at
one point there was $1.5
million in uncollected fines.
Diehl said fines are turned
over to a collection agen-
cy which has been doing
relatively well collecting
unpaid fines. He did say
once a person moves out
of the area the county is
not able to collect the fines.
“We have quite a bit that
goes clear back to the 70s
and the 80s.”
Diehl also pointed out
that the state legislature last
year took away the ability to
suspend a person’s license
for unpaid fines. “We lost
one our biggest motivators
for collecting when we no
longer have ability to sus-
pend the driver’s license
or threaten to suspend the
license for failure to pay
fines,” he told the commis-
sioners. “Threatening was
a great motivator but at the
last special session (state
legislature) they took that
away from us so we lost a
huge incentive for people
to keep up with their fines
because we can no longer
suspend their driver’s li-
cense for it.” The legislature
passed the bill with propo-
nents saying suspending
licenses for nonpayment
of fines disproportionately
affected minorities. Accord-
ing to state police statistics
Black and Native American
drivers receive 26 percent
Morrow County has
completed disbursing
$601,778 CARES, (Coro-
navirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security) grants.
The money went to 49
different small businesses
in Morrow County that
suffered economic hardship
from the COVID-19 pan-
demic regulations.
The funding was avail-
able to all small businesses
with less than 25 employees
that demonstrated they were
prohibited from operations
because of government reg-
ulations, or they had a one-
month decline in sales of
25 percent or more, caused
by COVID-19 pandemic
regulations between March
1, 2020 and November 30,
2020, as compared to the
same time period in 2019.
Below is a list of the
businesses that received
the money:
Oregon State Police are seeing faster speeds on the freeway.
of all driving while sus-
pended charges in Oregon,
even though they make up
a combined four percent of
the population. Lawmakers
said that disparity creates
a significant disadvantage
for people of color who are
disproportionately stopped
and cited by law enforce-
ment. If a driver is unable to
pay a fine, a judge can sus-
pend their license, setting
off a compounding cycle
of debt that could ensnare
a driver for decades, propo-
nents of the law said when
it was proposed and passed
in Salem last year.
In other business at
the January 13 meeting
the commissioners made
appointments to various
committees and boards, in-
cluding the Columbia River
Enterprise Zone number
two, CREZII. Although the
CREZII has expired that
board will still be making
decisions spending millions
of dollars in tax income
per year for the next 15
years. The CREZII board is
made up of two representa-
tives each from the City of
Boardman, Port of Morrow
and Morrow County. Those
individuals will decide how
the money will be spent.
The commissioners voted
unanimously to appoint
Commissioner Doherty
to a two-year term on the
CREZII board. He replac-
es Commissioner Melissa
Lindsay whose term has
expired. Commissioner
Don Russell also is on the
board and his term expires
end of this year.
The commissioners put
off appointing members to
the new CREZIII board
which is in the process of
now being formed. The Port
of Morrow and the county
are in the final stages of ne-
gotiating the rules, or Inter-
governmental Agreement
(IGA), which will decide
how the new enterprise
zone operates, so commis-
sioners wanted to wait until
a final agreement before
making the appointment.
In other business the
county appointed Russell
Ellsworth of Lexington as
an alternate to the Airport
Committee Economic De-
velopment position. “With
Russ’ experience in op-
erational finance I feel he
would be an excellent pick
for the airport committee,”
Public Works Management
Assistant Sandi Pointer
told the commissioners.
Ellsworth has a BS in con-
struction management from
BYU, a master’s degree
in finance from Harvard
and in addition to his job
as director of operational
finance for a food proces-
sor, he also manages a real
estate investment fund.
The commissioners
also reappointed three
members to the county road
committee. Representing
the Heppner area is Cam
Sweeney, Irrigon is Grego-
ry Barron and north county
at large is Aaron Palmquist.
In other business the
county acknowledged the
retirement, after 20 years
of county service, of Buz
Wainwright from the Public
Works Department. Wain-
wright is senior mechanic
who started in September
of 2000 as a heavy equip-
ment mechanic at public
works. He is “knowledge-
able, trustworthy and an
expert in his job, and “he
shows good judgement
and has a lot of common
sense,” Commissioner Rus-
sell said. “On behalf of
myself and (Public Works
Director) Matt Scrivner I
would like to thank Buz
for his years of service in
the road department for
keeping out fleets in safe
working order day in and
day out. He has good work
ethic and dedication,” said
Assistant Road Master Eric
Imes. “He has cattle now to
take care of and has built a
new shop,” Russell said of
Wainwright’s retirement.
“But now he can walk to
work and has a wood stove
Buz Wainwright retires after 20 years at Public Works.
to keep him warm.” The
crew treated him to donuts
and refreshments on his last
day of work at the shop last
Thursday.
In other business the
county officially appointed
Matt Kenny as the county
surveyor. He will take the
place of what has always
been an elected position.
The commission opted to
turn the position into a hired
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staff position last year so
Kenny was appointed and
took over this year. “This
is our first time to appoint
a surveyor in the history of
Morrow County,” Russell
said. “When interviewing
him I said this is the right
guy for the job.” Russell
also commended Stephen
Haddock the prior elected
surveyor as having done a
“yeoman’s job.”
MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS
350 MAIN STREET LEXINGTON OR 97839
CONTACT JUSTIN BAILEY 541-256-0229, 541-989-8221 EXT.
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