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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2021)
TWO - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 17, 2021 The Official Newspaper of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow Heppner GAZETTE-TIMES County and Port reach new enterprise zone rules agreement By David Sykes Concluding months of Morrow County’s Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper back-and-forth fine tun- SEARCH OLD COPIES OF THE HEPPNER GAZETTE-TIMES ON-LINE: ing, the Port of Morrow http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/ and Morrow County have finally reached agreement Published weekly by Sykes Publishing and entered as periodical matter at the Post Office at Heppner, Oregon under the Act of March 3, 1879. Periodical postage paid on the nuts and bolts set of at Heppner, Oregon. Office at 188 W. Willow Street. Telephone (541) 676-9228. Fax rules that will govern oper- (541) 676-9211. E-mail: editor@rapidserve.net or david@rapidserve.net. Web site: www.heppner.net. Postmaster send address changes to the Heppner Gazette-Times, ation of the new Columbia P.O. Box 337, Heppner, Oregon 97836. Subscriptions: $31 in Morrow County; $25 Enterprise Zone III (CREZ senior rate (in Morrow County only; 65 years or older); $37 elsewhere; $31 student III) for the next five years. subscriptions. David Sykes ..............................................................................................Publisher The new zone will replace Bobbi Gordon................................................................................................ Editor the extraordinarily suc- Giselle Moses.........................................................................................Advertising cessful but expired CREZ All News and Advertising Deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. II, and the IGA, or inter- For Advertising: advertising deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Cost for a display ad is $5.25 per column inch. Cost for classified ad is 50¢ per word. Cost for Card of Thanks is $10 up to governmental agreement, 100 words. Cost for a classified display ad is $6.05 per column inch. will guide the day-to-day For Public/Legal Notices: public/legal notices deadline is Monday at 5 p.m. Dates for publi- operations of what could cation must be specified. Affidavits must be requested at the time of submission. Affidavits require three weeks to process after last date of publication (a sooner return date must be be, if it is anything like its specified if required). predecessor, a very lucra- For Obituaries: Obituaries are published in the Heppner GT at no charge and are edited to meet news guidelines. Families wishing to include information not included in the guidelines tive organization. or who wish to have the obituary written in a certain way must purchase advertising space The new CREZ III for the obituary. faced several hurdles even For Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor MUST be signed by the author. The Heppner GT will not publish unsigned letters. All letters MUST include the author’s address and phone getting to this point, chief number for use by the GT office. The GT reserves the right to edit letters. The GT is not among them the conten- responsible for accuracy of statements made in letters. Any letters expressing thanks will tious negotiations between be placed in the classifieds under “Card of Thanks” at a cost of $10. the port and county creating the new zone. The two at first could not even agree Send birth announcements to editor@rapidserve.net or upload to Heppner.net. if Boardman should join the port and county and be a permanent member. The port wanted them perma- nent, as they had been for past 10 years during the life Braden and Amber Britt announce the birth of their of CREZ II, but at least two son, Montgomery of the county commission- Reed Britt. Mont- ers did not want Boardman gomery (Monte) included. The disagreement was born February at one point even looked to 8, 2021 at 7:09 a.m. be sinking the new enter- at Colville Hospi- prise zone, with the county tal in Colville, WA. even having to apply for an He weighed seven extension after negotiations pounds, two ounc- dragged on past the June es and measured 19 2020 application deadline. inches. He is Bra- Montgomery Reed Britt But the port and county den and Amber’s first finally worked things out child. and the new zone was born. Grandparents are Rick and Shelli Britt of Heppner and Dennis and Lorrie Baunach of Colville WA. Under the new deal Board- man will not be a permanent member of CREZ III but will join the board if a new business development has interest in locating within its newly defined “influence zone.” Each of the other four cities in the county also now have their own influence zones, and under the new rules they too will be at the table as a CREZ III board member if a new business seeks to develop close to their city. Under the new rules, when a project is within a city’s influence zone, CREZ III shall be governed by a board of directors com- prised of nine directors, three from the affected city, three from the county and three from the port. At least one of those three must be an elected official from that entity. If the business development does not fall within any of the five zones of influence then the coun- ty and port will alone be members of a six-member board, three from the port and three from the county. The IGAs between the five cities and the permanent en- terprise zone members, the port and county, still must go before the city councils for approval before they will be fully implemented. One wrinkle in the vot- ing procedure in the new IGA requires that instead of a simple majority of five votes to approve an action, six votes are needed. Additionally, at least two ‘21 GOALS The compromise that the city crew seems to so far have created be- tween drivers’ safety and homeowners’ access and snow-sledders’ fun is good news. The giggles, shouts, and screams as young and older sledders race down some of our hills are ex- hilarating. And unless a particular street is closed to vehicles, drivers are watch- ing carefully for people and sledders are being super cautious. Good news for recip- ients, “Neither rain nor snow…” could keep the St. Patrick’s Altar Society volunteers from delivering the so-important beautiful Valentines’ Day orders for Country Rose. Extra Mur- ray’s staff Hannah Palmer, Shelby Dixon, Stephanie Rill and Latosha Hedman created the floral arrange- ments, and Stefanie and Mack Sweeney, Kay Proc- tor and Janet Greenup de- livered on Friday and Satur- day to Heppner, Lexington and Ione. For this effort and again on Mother’s Day, the church receives floral arrangements for its altar. Good to hear that Merry Chandler was also able to help Murray’s crew with arrangements. Good news for Morrow County Chronicles readers is that Jeanne Creswick is going to take a walk into the past, when the circus came to town. She will be rely- ing on research, her 1955 memories and the stories U.S.P.S. 240-420 Births Montgomery Reed Britt -Continued from PAGE ONE for City Hall maintenance items, windows, complete the painting. (short term). 6. Bid out and complete work on end of Fairview Way to city limits and Jones Street. (short term). 7. Look for grants to reduce/ improve water us- age and sewage treatment volumes. (long term). 8. Add sewer/water/ power and pave property at Chase and May street. (long term.) 9. Cameras in parks, update internet at City Hall, PW. (short term). 10. Meter at well #1 and reservoir #1 (short term). 11.Crack seal Court Street In other business the city received notice that Business Oregon had ap- proved a no-repayment grant of $20,000 for a feasi- bility study on building the new waste system. The council heard a report from Public Works Director Chad Doherty who said among other things the crew last month picked up new downtown trees in Canby, removed the stumps and replaced trees in front of Heppner Family Foods and Peterson Jewelry on Main Street. Doherty re- ported there were four more trees left to be planted. The crew also took down the town Christmas decorations and received 21 new gar- bage cans which the crew placed around downtown and in the parks. The council also vot- ed to renew a lease with Dickenson Chiropractic for office space owned by the city in the back of city hall on May Street. The renewal is for one year and the rent is $450 per month. Heard a report from Fire Chief Steve Rhea who said his department for the month of January had one motor vehicle accident, secured the helicopter land- ing zone four times, had one electrical fire, three lift assists with ambulance and provided mutual aid to Boardman. Rhea also released year-end figures for all of 2020 which showed in the Rural Fire District area there were among other things, 25 motor vehicle accidents last year, secured the Life Flight landing zone in Heppner 71 times, an- swered 10 wildland fires, three structure fires in the city. He also reported 25 ambulance assists, three flood alarms, two calls of power lines arcing, two electrical fires, four vehicle fires, five illegal burns, nine mutual aids to Ione and one to Lexington. There were 204 total incidents the de- partment handled last year. NEW SIGN ON BONUS $4000 - $6500 $15.50/hour restrictions and taxes do apply Safely drive Morrow County students to success with MidCo Bus. APPLY NOW (541) 481-7551 MidCoBus.com 230 Boardman Ave. NE Boardman, OR 97818 By Doris Brosnan Good to see that good news continues. Good news for Main Street and several neighbor- hoods had some volunteers come with snowplows, shovels and brooms to try to keep sidewalks walkable. Obviously, that has contin- ued to be a challenge as the persistent snow has yet to stop. An inclusive “Thank You” goes out from appre- ciative individuals able to leave their homes. Neva DeMayo may speak for many Heppner residents, “After hearing the weather forecast last week I want- ed to get downtown for one last time to empty my mailbox before the storms descended upon Heppner. By mid-day Thursday there was already too much snow for me to get out of my hill- side driveway, so the only alternative was to walk. But I gave one last look out my window and discovered that someone had shoveled my driveway. I didn’t have to walk and risk taking a fall, after all. The following day I looked out my window and discovered that some- one had shoveled the steps and sidewalk that led to my front door. I have no idea who was so thoughtful, but it was much appreciated. An excellent reason for me to continue to live in Hep- pner now that David’s gone. It’s still a community that looks out for one another. Such a great feeling to be living here.” Heppner (541) 676-9158 Condon (541) 256-1200 Boardman (541) 481-9474 www.MurraysDrug.com zones are authorized by the state legislature. All monies negotiated by the previous CREZ II are still being collected by that organization and the board convenes at least once a year deciding how to spend it. The millions of dollars coming into the CREZ II, and county leaders hope also into the CREZ III, are generated by giving new and existing businesses, mainly at the Port of Mor- row, tax breaks for locating or expanding there. Some of the major payers into the CREZ II are Lamb Weston, Tillamook Cheese and the big one, Amazon Web Services. With its mul- tiple server farms located in north county for example, Amazon pays the CREZ II $1 million per year per server farm (and there are four) in lieu of, or instead of, regular full taxes. Proponents of the en- terprise zones, especially directors at the Port of Mor- row, are adamant a zone is a needed tool for attracting new businesses to Mor- row County, and without the zone they could locate somewhere else. Umatilla County, for instance, also gives tax breaks in its en- terprise zone. The Port is in competition with ports and industrial sites for new businesses all around the state and has been very successful attracting and expanding business within the zone. Good News Only New Drug Take Back Kiosks at All Locations Safe, Convenient Prescription Medicine Disposal members of each of the three entities must vote in favor of the action for it to pass. If a spending motion is not approved by at least two members of each enti- ty, the board will be at an impasse on the spending action. The board members representing each of the entities will be appointed by their governing body. For instance, the city council will appoint three members and an alternate to serve on the CREZ III board if needed. Likewise, if the port and county are also on the board, two votes from each entity will be required to pass any action of the board. The new nine-mem- ber, or six-member board will then be responsible, not only for negotiating tax break deals with the new businesses, but also deciding how the money paid in lieu of taxes into the zone will be spent. If the new CREZ III is any- where near as successful as CREZ II, that income could reach into the millions. This year the CREZ II board made decisions on how to spend over $9.5 million in tax money throughout the county, and that level of income and spending will likely increase over the next 15 years. The new CREZ III has a shorter life span than the previous CREZ II and ex- pires in five years instead of the previous 10. The others also have of that big top. To share your stories with Jeanne, contact her via PO Box 923, Lexington, 541-989-8121 or jeancres- wick@earthlink.net. Yes, the Sage Garden Preschool is opening in Heppner on March 1. Ob- viously, good news for the parents of the first thirty stu- dents registered, making a full class (state regulations because of space and num- ber of teachers) within just a half-hour after registrations were opened. Tayllor Bran- non and Darcie Chick will be teaching the four-hour morning course, located in a back-area facility of the Sage Clothing building. Good to see little peo- ple at Heppner Elementary outside, enjoying hopping like a bunny, as instructed by their teacher. Fresh air and exercise. Dieter Waite, principal, reports that HES benefitted from a window of opportunity last October that allowed the school to open for half-day in- struction on site, with each class isolating with their co-horts and following the other safety instructions. While HES has been able to continue this method, many schools throughout the state continue to be working with distance-learning only. For school athletes it was a long wait for good news from OSAA, with the final decisions/recommen- dations sent to Governor Brown, who has announced that high school sports sea- sons can go forward (within certain circumstances), and HHS and Ione Community School plan to participate. As of now, the football, volleyball and cross-coun- try season is scheduled for 2/22-4/11; baseball, softball, track, golf and tennis 4/5-5/23; basketball and wrestling 5/10-6/27. Scheduled games are to begin in March. Prior to the start, parents and other fans expect to learn the fi- nal mandates dealing with spectators – allowed or not Roger Henry of Heppner shovels snow at the corner of Chase and May streets in Heppner. He said he had a couple more places to shovel out that day. allowed, limited or unlim- ited? Ray Grace’s good news is that he came through surgery at OHSU last week feeling optimistic, and he expects to soon be moving to a rehabilitation facility. In February 2020, Jim- my Fichter received a co- chlear implant at OHSU. Just before last Thanksgiv- ing, he received a second implant. Such good news for Jimmy, our man-about- town, and for everyone he enjoys visiting with, for he can now hear nor- mal-ranged voices for the first time since damage resulted from being hit by a car when he was 24 years old. Trent Smith, Navy GSE, is home on leave until March 4. Trent, son of Sarah Baker/Smith, grand- son of Glorene Lesperance, was among the only 10 percent of original recruits who graduated from Naval boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois on May 15. Trent has been looking forward to an assignment since waiting for Covid-19 restrictions to allow that. As a gas turbine engine electrician and me- chanic, he will report for a four-year duty on the USS Benfold, a destroyer sta- tioned at Yokosuka, Japan. Readers are encour- aged to share their good news. Anyone who has a tidbit is invited to email it to dbrosnan123@gmail.com or to call 541-676-5382. Hoping some good news comes to everyone reading this.
