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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 2021)
Intern writer joins Gazette-Times staff The Heppner Ga- chapter, as well as the se- zette-Times is excited to nior class president. Blake announce a plans to attend the Universi- new intern ty of Texas at joining its staff Austin after for the 2021- high school. 22 school year. He dreams of His name is becoming a Blake Carter, sports broad- and he will be caster for a writing sports. mainstream Blake is the VOL. 140 NO. 37 8 Pages Wednesday, September 15, 2021 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon media compa- son of Kim, ny. Blake says and Scott Car- Blake Carter he is extremely ter, and is a senior at Heppner High excited to have the oppor- School. Blake participates tunity to work with the Ga- in three sports including, zette and hopes to “learn council accepted a bid from football, basketball, and and grow from this experi- Premier Construction, the baseball. He also is an ac- ence to help him with his contractor doing the main tive member in the FFA future endeavors.” work on the current city street and sidewalk proj- ect, of $265,000 for recon- struct Jones Street. Jones is the street behind the Cath- olic Church. The council also approved a bid from Premier reconstruction for $146,000 to do work on Willow View Drive and a bid from Granite Con- Butch Knowles, But- struction for $98,829 for tercreek, was inducted into work on Fairview Way and the Pendleton Round-Up Horizon Lane. Horizon is Hall of Fame in a ceremo- located up by the cemetery ny Saturday. in Heppner. Knowles, a long-time In other action the rodeo cowboy, now an- council: nouncer, has an extensive - Voted to accept list of rodeo wins. He was City provides place for hunters to dump trash on the way through Heppner $282,000 in COVID funds the winner of the Nation- from the state of Oregon. By David Sykes own household garbage in cost of the service. “That’s The money is to be used to al High School Rodeo A service offering free the bins. City crews said a lot of garbage coming “help cover known and un- All-Around title in 1973; trash dumping for hunt- they even found a load of out of the forest. They known expenses of the city a four-time National Fi- ers coming through town, used carpet from some- should be helping us out,” and the community,” from nals Rodeo saddle bronc Butch Knowles is proving quite popular one’s house placed in the he said. Cutsforth said he the pandemic. The city qualifier in 1981, 1983, once again this year as dumpsters. So far this year would approach the local recently received it 2021 1986 and 1987; Round- National Finals Rodeo hunters stream through public works employees ranger and ask about them year payment of $140,519 Up champion saddle bronc telecasts from 1989 to town on their way home told the council it seems contributing. rider in 1986 and again in 2019 and also a part of the of these allotted funds. Currently the city has - from the mountains. How- there isn’t as much of that Heard from Coun- 1991; and winner of the Round-Up live broadcasts $3,000 allotted this year cilmember John Bowles NFR average title in 1987. for the past 34 years. ever, as the city council going on. was told Monday the ser- Councilmembers have to pay Miller and Sons who said with the sidewalk He also competed for Wal- Knowles and his wife, vice is proving so popu- always supported paying Disposal Service to empty and gutter concrete crews la Walla Community Col- Mary (Healy), have two lar the city is running out for the trash collection be- the two bins when needed, back in town now and go- lege, winning Northwest grown sons, Brian and of money to handle the cause it supports one of the and the Oregon Depart- ing to work, to make sure Regional titles in bare- Blake. Brian and his wife, increased dumping fees, major economic engines of ment of Fish and Wildlife the street closed signs are back, saddle bronc, bull Genessa, have two chil- and City Manager Kraig the area. The many hunters kicks in another $400. move to the middle of the riding and all-around. dren, Kathryn and Maron. Cutsforth told the council coming through each fall The money isn’t going to street to let locals know After he retired from Blake and his wife, Whit- it would have to come up spend thousands of dollars be enough to continue the the streets are closed off. full time rodeo, Knowles ney, also have two chil- with more money if they at the local businesses on service through the hunt- Bowles also said with the became a rodeo commen- dren, Lydia and Trell. wanted to continue having their way to the mountains ing season. The council stops signs down at some tator, including for the the service available. and surrounding areas to authorized Cutsforth to intersections during con- Councilmembers are gen- hunt deer, elk and birds. use money from a miscel- struction, some people are erally in favor of providing The service also keeps the laneous city budget fund not coming to a stop when the free service, especially trash out of the forest and to continue the free hunt- they should. after learning there seems off the roadways. “If we er dump service, and then - Learned public to be less instances of lo- don’t have it put here, it next year looks at other works employee Robert cals sneaking their trash ends up elsewhere,” coun- ways to fund it. . Last year Whalen was resigning. He into the two bins located cilmember Adam Doherty $4,800 was spent on the has worked for the city the in front of the city park said in support of contin- garbage pickup. past 14 years. In other business the - on Main Street. Last year ued funding. Councilmem- Approved a permit some local people were ber John Bowles agreed council approved sever- for six chicken hens for taking advantage of the but added that maybe the al resolutions brought by Shannon Wicklund of 135 free dumping by breaking Forest Service would con- Cutsforth for construction Quaid Street. the rules and putting their sider contributing to the projects around town. The 50¢ Free dumping popular with hunters Keeps garbage where it should be, but collection costs money Butch Knowles inducted into Pendleton Round- Up Hall of Fame 9/11 Memorial Stairclimb Teacher asks board to ‘stand up for me’ Mask mandate brings emotional plea Heppner High School teacher Jeannie Collins spoke to the Morrow County School Board Monday night at the Mor- row Education Center in Irrigon pleading them to push back on the state- wide mask mandates ordered once again by Oregon Governor Kate Brown. The board was fully masked up. Collins stated that she simply could not teach with a mask on and re- quested in an emotional plea to the board to “Stand up for me and be my voice at a time when I feel my voice has been silenced.” Collins had a speech pre- pared, but time constraints prevented her from deliv- ering it in its entirety. Collins said that she has “been a union mem- ber for over 21 years and have never felt so betrayed or discriminated against in my life.” According to Collins the district required that “employees who are granted a medical or reli- gious exception from vac- cination will be required to wear a district provid- ed KN-95 face mask and any other mutually agreed upon accommodation that does not put an undue bur- den on the district.” This is a little better option,” she said, however, “it is still discriminatory in that my status of being vacci- nated or not is supposed to be confidential. With that being said, as was dis- cussed previously at the September 7th board ses- Getting ready for a new surface -Photo by David Sykes Workers level the ground at Thomson Court in Heppner in preparation for a new layer of concrete in the front and asphalt in the back. The court has become a favorite spot for several food trailers to locate for the public. The court is located next to the Post Office on Main Street. An information booth, re- strooms and a drinking fountain have already been added by the city at the front of the court area. sion, requiring me to wear a different mask than the vaccinated staff still dis- criminates against me. Can we all as a staff wear the same type of mask? If both Members of Heppner, Ione and Lexington Fire Departmenst on Saturday for the 9/11 memorial stair climb. See vaccinated and unvacci- gathered more photos on PAGE 8. -photos by Tylynn Cimmiyotti nated can spread the virus than all staff should have to wear the N95 masks.” She further stated that “The work place that I have always referred to as a sec- ond home and the staff as family is slowly changing into ‘just a workplace’ and -SeeTEACHER/PAGE 7