Making way for
the new
50¢
VOL. 140
NO. 16
8 Pages
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Ray Papineau selected 2021 Lexington
May Day parade Grand Marshal
Ray Papineau has been
selected as the 2021 Lex-
ington May Day Parade
Grand Marshal. He has
been a citizen of the town
of Lexington for 80 years.
As a young man he attended
the Lexington School that
still stands on Main Street.
In high school Ray played
for the Lexington Jackrab-
bits in basketball, football,
track, and baseball. While
in school, Ray worked on a
ranch to earn money for his
first homestead. He traded
two cows and hand pitched
hay with his mother to earn
the remaining $100 for the
32-acre homestead.
At 19, Ray married
the love of his life, Gloria
Orwick, who he had met
when he was just six years
old. Together they built
their home in 1952 on this
ranch with lumber from the
Heppner sawmill where
Ray worked. They chose to
raise their family of seven
children in this home while
adding several other prop-
erties as the years went by.
Four of the seven children
also chose to make Lexing-
ton their home. At 90, Ray
says he feels very blessed
to have been able to be a
part of a community that
values family, friendship,
and happy memories.
Everyone is invited
to celebrate a “great man
Ray Papineau, long time Lexington resident has been selected as the grand marshal of the
May Day parade. -Contributed photos.
and long-time Lexington
community member” on
Saturday, May 1, beginning
at 11 a.m. on Arcade Street
in Lexington.
According to Lexing-
ton mayor Juli Kennedy,
lineup for the parade will
begin at 10:20 at the town
hall. The parade will go
down Arcade St and back
again. Signup sheets for pa-
rade entries are available at
Murray’s Drug in Heppner
and at the Sinclair station
and town hall in Lexington.
The old Monahan residence on Chase Street, now owned by
Jason and Amy Patterson, was burned on Saturday by the
Tacos Hometown will Heppner Firefighters to make way for a new home.
be on site to provide food.
Other activities include a
raffle for a kid’s bike, a pie
social, pictures with the fire
department, kids crafts and
the Hermiston Classic Car
Club showing their cars.
New MCSO patrol
deputy sworn in
Lexington looks at water system study
Anderson and Perry rep visits with council
By David Sykes
The Town of Lexing-
ton is considering having
a water system study done,
and find out what kind of
condition its infrastructure
is in. The council met with a
representative of Anderson
and Perry Engineers at last
week’s council meeting
who told them his firm
could do the study and help
find grant money to pay for
both the study and the work
that needs to be done.
Brad Baird, Presi-
dent/Senior Engineer with
Anderson Perry told the
council it is best to get a
complete water study done
so the town knows exactly
what condition and the
needs are for the town’s wa-
ter system as a whole. “It’s
a good idea to take a look
at the whole system,” Baird
said. He said the study is
needed before any grant
applications can be made
for upgrades or repairs to
the system. He said the last
study done was Lexington’s
water system plan which is
16 years old.
Baird said if the city
wants to move forward,
the first step would be for
Anderson and Perry to ap-
ply for a technical assis-
tance grant to have the
study done. He said a basic
water system study costs
in the range of $25-$30
thousand and will tell the
council what work needs
to be done. He said once
the study is completed, and
work identified, his firm
can help the town apply
for grants to get the actual
work done. “Do the study
and work with an engineer
if you want to replace the
pipes. We are familiar with
funding issues. Then we can
develop a package and if
you agree to move forward,
put together a package and
see what funding there is,”
Baird told the council in
laying out a plan. “We can
see what the best deal is
for you.”
In addition to possible
grants to pay for the study,
Lexington also received
$200,000 this year from the
Columbia River Enterprise
Zone II (CREZII) that can
be used for infrastructure
studies and work. When
making the grant to Lexing-
ton, as well as the other four
cities in the county, CREZ
II did not specifically ear-
mark the money for infra-
structure but had hoped the
cities would use this extra
funding to begin addressing
infrastructure work needed
in all the five cities through-
out the county.
In addition to a water
study, Baird and the council
also talked about sewers.
Lexington is currently on an
individual septic system for
each property and switching
to a central type of septic
system is both difficult and
expensive Baird said. “It’s
very hard to pull off a new
sewer system,” Baird said.
He said the last conversion
from septic to sewer his
firm was involved with was
when the city of Spray did it
in 2007. He said Spray was
able to do it because they
had low per capita income
for the town and were eligi-
ble for significant grants to
pay for it. Baird added that
both Lexington and Ione,
which is looking now at
converting to a sewer sys-
tem, have higher incomes
which makes grants less
available.
The problem Ione is
running into, and maybe
Lexington too, is there are
small lots in town that can-
not get approved for septic
drain fields and therefore
are unbuildable for homes.
“It’s hard to get these proj-
ects (sewer).” Baird said.
“It’s a lot of money to build
one of those projects from
scratch. You almost have
to have special funding.”
But he did say there may be
some special infrastructure
money coming up on the
federal level which may
make this a good time to
go for a new sewer system.
He said the town could do a
sewer system study in addi-
tion to the water if the town
wants to “find out what’s
out there.”
Baird said there many
different ways to build a
treatment system, some
expensive and some not
as much. “The standard
wastewater system collects
the waste, runs it downhill,
stores it in a lagoon and
then irrigates it on an alfal-
fa field,.” Baird says this
works pretty well when you
have a cooperative farmer
who wants the irrigation
and might even donate the
land for the lagoon but can
become more expensive if
the town has to buy land for
a lagoon. “Some farmers
will give you the ground if
they get the water,” he said.
Baird also added that a full-
blown treatment system,
such as Heppner’s, is “re-
ally expensive”. Heppner is
currently in the processes of
pulling away from a treat-
ment plant to a lagoon sys-
tem if it can find the land.
He said other solutions are
packaged treatment systems
that come in “pods” where
different sections of town
can be converted. “There
are all these different ways,
and a study looks at all
of these and tries to find
the best fit for your town
relative to what they cost,”
Baird said. He pointed out
that a new system will see
sewer rates likely in the $50
per month range. He said
a new system is good for
people looking at putting in
a new septic system, but not
so good for those who just
put in a system. “But the
study will look at all those
options and you can decide
which way you want to go,”
Baird said, adding that the
town would be able to get
-See LEXINGTON WATER/
PAGE EIGHT
Andrew Martin was sworn in as a patrol deputy with the
Morrow County Sheriff’s Office on April 13. “We are happy to
welcome Andrew and his family to the Sheriff’s Office family,”
said Undersheriff John A. Bowles. “Join us in congratulating
Deputy Martin and welcoming his family to Morrow County.
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