50¢
VOL. 140
NO. 11
8 Pages
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Lexington looks at May Day Parade
By David Sykes
The town of Lexington
is looking to do something
it might not have done
before: have a May Day
celebration and parade.
Mayor Juli Kennedy says
there is some interest by
local people to put on a May
1 st parade in town. “I don’t
know if Lexington has had
a parade before,” she said
at last week’s town council
meeting in announcing the
plans. She says some peo-
ple have offered to help put
it together and an organiza-
tional meeting is scheduled
for next Tuesday March 23
at 6:30 p.m. at the town hall.
“It will be fun, a fun time,”
Kennedy said. The town’s
Facebook page says there
has been great response and
Kennedy invited everyone
interested in helping to
come to the meeting.
In other business at
the March 9 meeting the
“new” town recorder was
introduced. Janette Eldrige
has come back to work for
the town, having held the
position previously.
In other action Mayor
Kennedy swore in coun-
cilmember Curtis Thomp-
son. Thompson was earlier
appointed to fill a vacant
position and then was elect-
ed to the position.
In other business the
council:
-Voted to raise base
Mayor Juli Kennedy swears in elected councilmember Curtis
Thompson to the town council.
Janette Eldrige, new town
recorder
water rates from $47 to $48
per month. There will be an
annual review until rates
reach $50. The raise is nec-
essary to pay for increased
expenses.
-Voted unanimously to
move forward with a zone
change application from
local businessman Sam
Bellamy. Bellamy owns
the former school build-
ing property and wants to
change one of the lots on
the back side from commer-
cial to residential.
-Approved a request
from Ray Papineau to for-
give all but the base water
rate of $47 on a $185 water
bill he received because of
an undetected leak. His son
Jay was at the meeting and
said he now has the leak
fixed but did not know it
was leaking previously and
does not know where the
water was going.
-Heard a report from
town maintenance man
Scott Lamb who said he has
planted some flowers in the
park in preparation for the
Easter Egg Hunt, was look-
ing at having some trees re-
moved in the city park and
will be working with the
county to get the rock swept
up from town streets now
that winter is over. Lamb
said he received a bid of
$2,500 from a company in
The Dalles to remove one of
the larger trees in the park
but is getting other price
quotes as that is quite high.
Lamb also told the council
he had passed his pesticide
application exam and was
now a licensed applicator.
-The council took no
action on a request by Mor-
row County Sheriff Ken
Matlack that the council
pass a resolution “to ad-
dress parking in the direc-
tion of traffic” along Main
Street. The council was un-
sure why he wanted the res-
olution and decided to take
no action. Councilmembers
were open to having the
sheriff come to a meeting
and explain why he needed
it. Lexington’s main street
is a state highway that runs
through the middle of town,
which should be covered by
state laws already.
-Community Devel-
opment Director Gregg
Zody from Morrow county
attended the meeting, intro-
duced himself and left some
applications for businesses
who might want to apply for
county business COVID-19
grants.
County creates two new positions
property use violations. The
planner will also assist the
county planner when not
doing code enforcement.
The major focus of the job,
however, will be trying
to get problem properties
around the county cleaned
up. Commissioners have,
for some time, expressed
frustration in getting junk
cars, old tires, wrecked RVs
and other junk cleaned up
off of properties. Commis-
sioner Don Russell has been
especially frustrated in his
efforts to get property own-
ers to clean up their land.
Presently the county
code enforcement, as it
is called, is handled by
the sheriff’s office. Often
times sheriff deputies are
assigned code enforcement
only when there are no oth-
er pressing or emergency
duties to perform, and code
enforcement, or property
clean up, is placed on the
back burner and does not
get done. Commissioners
hope the designation of a
full-time staff person to the
job will see better clean up
results.
Salary for the position
will be $47,556 with addi-
tional benefits of $40,984
to bring the total salary and
benefit package to $88,540
per year. Commissioners
will move some other sala-
ries and funding around to
make room for at least part
of the salary in the budget.
In other business at
recent meetings the com-
missioners voted to name
all three commissioners as
board members of the new-
ly formed Columbia River
Enterprise Zone III, (CREZ
III). The board makes deci-
sions not only on tax break
deals with new businesses
applying for the zone’s tax
exemptions, but also how
monies collected in lieu
of taxes will be spent. The
new CREZIII replaces the
expiring CREZII. Each
commissioner will also
pick their own alternate for
the board.
In other CREZIII busi-
ness the commissioners
recommended that Greg
Sweek be appointed man-
Residents line up for COVID
vaccines at fairgrounds
The Ione School Dis-
trict has narrowed its su-
perintendent search to four
finalists and is inviting dis-
trict staff and the communi-
ty to meet them Thursday,
March 18 from 5 to 6 p.m.
at the Ione High School
gym.
Each candidate will
speak briefly to the en-
tire audience and then be
available to meet and an-
swer questions with small
groups. Mask wearing and
social distancing will be
enforced during the event.
Information about each
of the four candidates fol-
lows:
Kevin Dinning has a
master’s in educational
leadership from Concordia
University and a Bachelor
of Science from Univer-
sity of Idaho. His present
position is middle school
principal at Bonner County
Middle School in Idaho.
Previous Positions include
being the high school prin-
cipal at Bonners Ferry High
School in Idaho and a teach-
er for Abu Dhabi Education
Council UAE.
Daniel (Dan) Koopman
has his doctorate in educa-
tion from the University of
South Dakota, educational
specialist school admin-
istration and Master of
Education school adminis-
tration from the University
of Idaho. His present posi-
tion is instructional dean
at Southwestern Oregon
Community College. Pre-
vious positions were center
director at Blue Mountain
Community College and el-
ementary principal in Boise
Public Schools.
Tracey Johnson has a
Master of Education and a
Bachelor of Arts-education
from Concordia Univer-
sity. Her present position
is elementary principal at
Ione Community Schools.
Previous positions include
principal in the Morrow
County School District and
a teacher in Oregon Trail
School District.
Spencer Byrd has an
educational specialist de-
gree from Western Illinois
University, a master’s de-
gree-education leadership
from Northeastern Illinois
University and a bachelor’s
degree from Olivet Col-
lege. His present position
is superintendent in Serena
Schools, Illinois. His previ-
ous positions were superin-
tendent in Meridian School
District, Illinois and high
school principal in East
Aurora Schools, Illinois
For more information
about the Meet the Candi-
dates gathering, please call
the Ione School District at
541-422-7131.
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
Emergency Manager and Compliance Planner added to staff
By David Sykes
Morrow County com-
missioners have added two
new positions to the county
staff. One is an emergency
manager whose main re-
sponsibility will be to co-
ordinate disaster and crisis
response within the county.
“The focus of the Emergen-
cy manager is preparation,
response, recovery and
mitigation for any major
emergency that might af-
fect Morrow County,” the
official job description says.
Salary for the job will be
$57,804 a year with another
$45,934 added in benefits
for a total yearly cost of
$103,738. Commissioners
say at least half of the cost
will be recovered through
federal grants to the county.
The position will be under
the supervision of the coun-
ty administrator.
The other newly creat-
ed position is one of com-
pliance planner working out
of the planning department
enforcing compliance with
county codes, mainly prop-
erty clean up and illegal
Ione community
invited to meet
superintendent
candidates
ager of the new zone.
Sweek is currently man-
ager of CREZII. Sweek
has extensive background
and knowledge of not only
enterprise zones, but also
property taxes. He is the re-
tired long-time tax assessor
for Morrow County and has
worked on enterprise zone
issues for many years. “He
is one of the more knowl-
edgeable people around
the state when it comes to
enterprise zones,” Russell
said when recommending
Sweek for the job. Russell
said the Port of Morrow,
who is partner with the
county on the new zone,
is also favorable to having
Sweek as the manager of
the new zone. There are
reportedly businesses in-
teresting in locating in the
enterprise zone and begin-
ning tax break negotiations
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
in several months so the
new zone members will be
planning an organizational
meeting in the future in
preparation.
In other business the
commissioners voted to
give all elected officials
except the sheriff and the
treasurer a three percent
cost of living increase. This
is an increase over last year
when they authorized only a
2.5 percent salary increase.
The commission was fol-
lowing the recommendation
of the county compensa-
tion committee which met
earlier. At the same time
the commissioners voted
to give the non-union rep-
resented employees of the
county a 2.5 percent cost
of living increase in the
coming fiscal year. It was
pointed out that the non-
union employees also get
step increases which com-
missioners say effectively
together gives them a five
percent increase.
In other business the
commissioners authorized
public works to dispose of
two old trucks that have
been replaced with new
ones this year. The com-
missioners also authorized
finalizing the deal taking
ownership of property on
Riverside Ave. in Heppner
belonging to the city of
Heppner. The property is
being donated by Heppner
for use in constructing the
county’s new sheriff storage
facility. Morrow Soil and
Water Conservation District
also donated land to the
county for the new facility.
Going On Now!
20% off all In Stock Apparel
30% off Select UTV/ATV Winches
Contact Lexington Parts Department
350 Main Street
Lexington, Oregon 97839
541-989-8221
mcgg.net
The Morrow County Health Department set up a tent at the fairgrounds and administered
COVID vaccines while people stayed in their vehicles. Vaccines are administered by appointment
only and are now open for those who are 65+ as well as ages 45-64 with underlying conditions.
Anyone interested in making an appointment to receive their vaccine are required to complete
an interest form that can be found on the Morrow County Health Department Facebook page.
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.