EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Lexington Fire Department grows to six volunteers
DEADLINE:
New volunteers a welcome and needed addition
MONDAYS
By David Sykes
Reversing a trend that
saw its volunteer fire de-
partment shrink to just two
people, the Town of Lex-
ington now has six firefight-
ers trained and ready for
response to emergencies.
“This is awesome,” coun-
cilmember Will Lemmon
said when the new and
bigger crew numbers were
announced at the January
12 meeting. One of the
new firefighters is Haley
Stuckmeier who joined the
department having recently
returned home to Lexing-
ton after serving in the Air
Force. As a bonus she is
also emergency medical
technician, EMT certified
and EVAC trained. There
are now two people on the
department who are EMS
certified it was announced.
At the meeting it was
also announced that the fire
department is continuing
to train with the Ione Fire
Department, and that since
the department has more
personnel now it will be
needing some additional
equipment and supplies.
In other business at
last week’s meeting town
recorder MacKia Tarvin
swore in the re-elected
councilmembers Will Lem-
mon and Bill Beard, as well
as Mayor Juli Kennedy.
The council also heard
a report from Tarvin on a
proposed new water bill-
ing system for the town.
She has been looking at a
system call UB Max that
is both better, cheaper and
more user friendly than the
current billing system she
told the council. Tarvin says
UB Max is a cloud-based
system that costs only $485
per year as opposed to the
current system with a cost
of over $5,000 a year. She
AT 5PM
Town Recorder MacKia Tarvin swears in (L-R) re-elected councilmember Will Lemmon, Mayor Juli Kennedy and coun-
cilmember Bill Beard. -Photo by David Sykes
added that there is a one-
time set up fee of $865
and a $50 charge to have
a technician come onsite
and shift all the data and
information over from the
old to the new. The new
system also would offer
online bill paying or paper
billing, whichever people
prefer. Councilmembers
said it sounded good and
instructed her to continue
looking into it.
In other business the
council talked about dis-
continuing the monthly
printed newsletter and shift
to just posting notices on
Facebook and the town
web site. There would also
be notices posted at the
minimart and at town hall.
Two councilmembers said
to make sure the news-
letter would be available
other than just Facebook.
“I have never been on Face-
book and never intend to be
on there,” said Lemmon.
Councilmember Beard said
he was going to drop Face-
book.
In other business the
council heard from town
maintenance man Scott
Lamb who said the new
shop building project is
completed. He also said
the well house continues
to leak. The council voted
to get bids from a roofing
company to have it fixed.
Lamb also reported that he
is looking into getting bet-
ter lighting for the town’s
three Welcome to Lex-
ington signs coming into
town. Her said the new ones
would be brighter and show
the signs better in the dark.
Lamb also reported an
ongoing stray cat problem
at the town park. He said
a nearby resident is ap-
parently feeding the cats
attracting them and making
the problem worse. He said
he talked to the sheriff’s
office and Pet Rescue in
Hermiston and for $10 per
cat they can be transported
there if the city wants him
to trap them. Lamb said
he has talked to the man
multiple times about stop-
ping the feeding, but it is
still happening. Mayor Juli
Kennedy wanted to know
what happens if someone’s
house cat accidently got
caught up in the trapping
project. “The only ones I
want to catch are the ones
that cr*p in the park,” Lamb
said. He suggested people
put a collar on their house
cats so he will know they
are not feral.
In other business the
council talked about what
to do with the $200,000
the town recently received
from the Columbia River
Enterprise Zone, CREZ,
for use on infrastructure.
CREZ gave each city in
the county $200,000 this
year to use especially for
sewer issues. The council
passed a motion to get a
price from an engineering
firm to do a water and sewer
study. “We need to do some
planning,” councilmember
Bobbi Gordon said. Lamb
said the engineering firm
of Anderson and Perry, who
does much of the infrastruc-
ture work in the area, would
be the ones to contact about
commissioning a study.
At the end of the meet-
ing, town resident John
Edwards, who had sub-
mitted a public comment
form for council consid-
eration, asked why there
was a “lack of emergency
warning device in town,”
and “what could be done
about it?” Edwards wanted
the town to put an old-style
fire siren back up to sound
when the fire department is
called out. Councilmem-
bers said the old siren is
obsolete and is not usable
or feasible anymore. Alerts
and alarms are now giv-
en to the firemen through
cell phones and pagers. “It
might be, but I don’t want
to spend the rest of my life
tied to electronic devices,”
Edwards said. “We may not
like it, I don’t like it, but
that is where the technology
is going now and there is
nothing we can do about it,”
Lemmon told him.
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