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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 2021)
New program looks to bring enhanced broadband services to Morrow County Tillamook Creamery major sponsor 50¢ VOL. 140 NO. 36 8 Pages Wednesday, September 8, 2021 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon OHV restaurant back open for business Service Creek owners to operate ‘Off Road Trails & Treats’ (formerly The Landing) The restaurant at the Morrow County OHV Park is back open as Off Road Trails & Treats. By David Sykes The restaurant formerly known as The Landing, is open under new manage- ment at the OHV park in the mountains 33 miles south of Heppner. The county commissioners approved an operative agreement with the new operators at their Sept. 1 meeting. Running the restau- rant will be Linda Tagg and her husband Randy along with their daughter Kellie Frech. They are the owners and operators of Service Creek Outfitters, Inc out of Spray. The new operators opened up last Thursday for the big Labor Day weekend and will now be open Thursday through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Wednesdays 1 to 7 p.m. until the end of the season November 15, Linda told the Gazette-Times this week. In her application to the commissioners Linda said her family has extensive ex- perience in restaurants and business. “Kellie has six years owning and operating Service Creek Outfitters, Inc. We are both involved in the daily running of Service Creek. Kellie is in charge of the kitchen and dining room, ordering, scheduling staff, handling disputes, making all our baked goods and cooking,” the applica- tion said. “Linda handles all reservations for the lodge, campground and tent sites, all employee, state and fed- eral reporting, raft rentals, shuttle, scheduling drivers and delivery guys as well as keeping calendars for all rentals and shuttles, wait- ing tables and cooking as needed. I also have 20-years of experience managing a bank in Seaside, and Bend. My husband and fami- ly operated a fine dining restaurant in Rocky Point, Oregon for three years in the late 1990’s.” Service Creek offers a “rustic lodge featuring modest rooms, a restaurant and a conve- nience store plus raft and canoe rentals.” The Off Road Trails & Treats restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and din- ners with a variety of menu items for diners. “We are happy to be there and look forward to meeting people and seeing new faces,” Lin- da told the Gazette-Times. In other business at its Sept. 1 meeting, the commissioners approved a $78,300 Morrow equity loan to Jay Coil Fabrication to be used for upgrades on his newly purchased facil- ities at the former Kinzua Mill site. Coil recently pur- chased the building from the Port of Morrow in which to expand his fabrication shop from its former location on Riverside Ave. in Heppner. The interest rate on the 10-year loan is two percent and the money will be used to upgrade electrical and plumbing, and purchase equipment for the shop. The shop was formerly leased by the county for use as a sheriff storage facility. The building, which was recent- ly appraised for $400,000 was used as collateral for the equity loan and also a $90,000 loan from the Greater Eastern Oregon Development Corporation. The Morrow Equity Fund is money available by the county to be used for economic development. It loans at below market interest rates in an effort to stimulate economic growth in the county. In this agree- ment GEODC will be in first place on the collateral list and Morrow County in second place. In other business the commission approved a contract agreement with the Morrow County Road Department and Morrow County employees. The county and the unions had been negotiating since March of 2020. The agree- ment is good until June 30, 2024. The agreement calls for, among other things, a three percent cost of living adjustment. “Thanks for all your hard work on this. It took a long time,” Com- missioner Don Russell said to county human resource director Lindsay Grogan on conclusion of the agree- ment signing. Heppner slightly warmer in August According to prelim- inary data received by NOAA’s National Weather Service in Pendleton, tem- peratures at Heppner aver- aged slightly warmer than normal during the month of August. The average tempera- ture was 71.0 degrees which was 1.6 degrees above nor- mal. High temperatures averaged 85.4 degrees, which was 0.1 degrees be- low normal. The highest was 99 degrees on the 3 rd . Low temperatures averaged 56.7 degrees, which was 3.3 degrees above normal. The lowest was 42 degrees, on the 23 rd . On 13 days, the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. Precipitation totaled 0.09 inches during August, which was 0.30 inches be- low normal. Measurable precipitation, at least .01 inch, was received on one day. Precipitation this year has reached 4.37 inches, which is 5.01 inches below ATTENTION HUNTERS!! The Heppner Gazette-Times wants pictures of your trophy animals from this hunting season. Stop by to have your picture taken, drop off photos at 188 W Willow in Heppner, email them to editor@rapidser ve.net upload them at heppner.net or text cell phone photos to 541-980-6674. normal. Since October, the water year precipitation at Heppner has been 7.85 inches, which is 5.59 inches below normal. The outlook for Sep- tember from NOAA’s Cli- mate Prediction Center calls for above normal tem- peratures and below nor- mal precipitation. Normal highs for Heppner fall from 82.0 degrees at the start of September to 71.0 degrees at the end of September. Normal lows fall from 50.0 degrees to 43.0 degrees. The 30-year normal precip- itation is 0.56 inches. By David Sykes A new program spon- sored by Tillamook Cream- ery and Land O’ Lakes will be aiming over the next couple of years to bring enhanced internet access to all of Morrow County, es- pecially in rural areas now lacking the higher speed service. Heading up that effort is Aaron Moss who came here with a goal of first bringing broadband, or higher internet speeds to those without it, make ac- cess more affordable and perhaps later educating people on how to better use the internet. “While the in- ternet’s impact on the world is not perfect, we believe that high speed broadband is an important tool for edu- cation, work, medicine and leisure,” Moss says. Broadband is the term for the infrastructure of the internet such as the under- lying wires and cables that allow people to be hooked up, he explained last week in an interview with the Ga- zette-Times. “Broadband is increasingly important, especially over the past two years as we have seen with the pandemic.” And it’s be- coming more important for many things important in our lives such as accessing medical services online and going to school, he points out. “Even though it’s not a great option to go to school, if the pandemic does come back worse where students have to quarantine from school it is an important tool for people to have access to learning and for economic development for people finding jobs and people doing ecommerce,” he explains about his work here in the county. “I spoke to school dis- trict representatives last week,” Moss says. “And the problem is not the de- vices (given to students to access the internet during at-home schooling), but when kids are trying to upload projects from home during the pandemic the internet connection would not support that.” He said students were given “hot spots” or little routers “but there was nothing to con- nect to, because there was no infrastructure out there,” he says of the importance of broadband and the new pro- gram in these rural areas. “Our goal, if it’s needed, is for kids to video in from home, or work on their own projects at home, and do that without a lot of inter- ference,” he explains. “So, they could hear everything going on, and things can be smooth. Have that kind of service available.” While many areas of the county, mainly in the cities, have or are getting Aaron Moss to head up effort high speed broadband, there are many other areas more rural that are not served well at all. That is where Moss and his program will concentrate. He says the program’s efforts will be doing what it can to build out the infrastructure and make it available and af- fordable. He says he wants to see broadband in all of Morrow County. “There are places that already have reliable connectivity and we have less work to do in those areas; the city and town proper. But there is work to be done all around. We will focus on the build- ing out of the infrastructure into those areas that don’t have it; outskirts of the cit- ies and more rural areas,” said Moss, who plans on being here one to two years working on the project. To fund the infrastruc- ture needed to bring broad- band here, Moss says there are several sources. “There are a couple of places we can get funding,” he ex- plains. In the first Ameri- can Recovery Plan relief package, a federal program, there was $200 billion set aside for broadband, he explains, saying of that there is still $100 billion not spent. He says requirements on how those dollars will be spent are still coming down to the state broad- band office. “Those funds will be available once they (the state) understand the requirements and figure out how to deal it out with the grant process,” Moss says. He adds that in the next federal infrastructure bill there is an additional $65 billion coming down as well. “It really looks like funding is going to be there for these (Morrow County) projects and it is a matter of me working and getting the plan ready, because there are a lot of requirements that need to be met and when that money comes down there is going to be a lot of requirements and my job is to have it ready to go so the county doesn’t miss out on those opportunities -See BROADBAND/PAGE TWO
