Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, January 12, 2022 -- THREE
Spiritually Speaking
Do whatever He tells
you (Jn 2:5)
Lindsay appointed as AOC legislative
committee treasurer
Morrow County Com-
missioner Melissa Lindsay
By Fr. Thankachan Joseph
has been appointed for the
In the last two Sundays’ celebrations we have reflect- second year in a row to the
ed on the manifestation of the Lord. This Sunday we will treasurer seat on Associ-
reflect on Jesus’s self-manifestation at the
ation of Oregon County’s
wedding feast in Cana. As we enter into
(AOC) legislative commit-
the ordinary season of liturgical celebra-
tee. Her work may include
tions, it begins with the gracious presence
testifying before state leg-
of our blessed Mother and Jesus in the
islative committees and
wedding house at Cana. The readings
advancing counties’ state
of Ordinary Time always bring us close Fr. Thankachan policy priorities at events
to the Lord in His humanitarian tasks. Joseph
and meetings. The AOC
Knowing Jesus in His humanity draws
Legislative Committee for-
us to His divinity.
mulates public policies
The Prophet Isaiah (62:1-5), though Jerusalem and
the temple are in ruin after the conquest, reminds the peo-
ple of God that when Jerusalem is filled with the glory of
the Lord, it has a different existence. The prophet is trying
to describe to us that God cannot be silent any longer. God -Continued from PAGE ONE
loves His bride, the Church, the people redeemed by His as advertised. “With the
Son. God wants to rejoice in His people and wants His current system they are on
people to rejoice in Him. The prophet describes the glory more than they are off. It’s
and beauty of Jerusalem when it is filled with God’s glory. a shame to see because they
The First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (12: have the system in place,”
4-11) describes the different kinds of spiritual gifts and said Seitz. “I don’t know
the diverse forms of services used to serve the Lord. St. what’s wrong with it,” he
Paul bluntly explains the multiple types of gifts present told the commissioners.
in each of us and how we should use these personal gifts
Commissioner, and
to please the Lord. Each of us has gifts and we are to use newly elected chairman,
them to build up the body of Christ, to benefit others. Jim Doherty said he has
Perhaps we think that our gifts are negligible. Perhaps had “a half dozen discus-
we think that others have better or more important gifts sions” with NextEra about
than ours. That does not matter, whatever we are given, the lighting system with no
it is given to us for others.
satisfactory answers from
The miracle of changing water into wine at the the company. “Every time
Wedding Feast at Cana is only marked in the Gospel of we talk to them, they give
John (2:1-11) alone; we have no reference to it in any of us some version of: ‘the
the synoptic gospels. The Gospel of John can be divided system is trying to figure
into two major parts: Chapters 1-12:50 as the Book of itself out. It will get up to
Signs, and chapters 13 to 20:29 as the Book of Glory. In speed and it will start to
the first part, John explains six major signs performed by work,’” Doherty relates. He
Jesus during His public ministry. The wedding at Cana suggested the company is
is the first sign He performed, the first of the signs that not holding to the letter of
reveal His glory. Changing water to wine shows that, the contract signed with the
if we pay attention, we shall see the divinity shining county, and perhaps their
through Christ’s humanity. This is another Epiphany, a tax abatement deal should
manifestation of the divine.
be revisited. “At what point
I have noted a slight difference in my reference Bible have they defaulted on that
and the missal that we follow in our worship.. The Bible because the system is not
I used to write this article begins with these words: “On functioning?” he asked.
the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.” It
In the agreement,
is very interesting to note that in this wedding celebration Wheatridge, which is
we don’t hear much about the bride or the groom – at the owned by NextEra and
end of the story the groom appears only briefly. It was Portland General Electric
Jewish customary practice that the marriage celebration received special property
went on for nearly seven days. The third day is open to tax breaks through the Stra-
several interpretations: It is the third day of Jesus’s public tegic Investment Program
ministry. Another explanation is that after leading the (SIP) from Morrow County.
Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, Moses brought them to Assessor Mike Gorman
Mount Sinai, where the Lord offered a covenant relation- said he was involved with
ship to Israel. We read in Exodus (19:16) that, “On the NextEra negotiating on the
morning of the third day the Lord appears on Mount Sinai tax breaks, and with the
in his awesome power and reveals his ‘glory’” (Deu5:24). lighting system not work-
Marriage is actually a covenant relationship. The ing correctly he would be
bride and the groom pledge to live a lifetime together in willing to contact the com-
their joy and happy moments as well as through difficul- pany. “I was involved with
ties. Similarly, to this miracle of changing water into wine, negotiations. The intent was
the bride and the groom are brought together by the Lord to have the lights off more
to live together forever, as a new wine, as a new family. than they were on unless an
I was impressed by the words of Mother Mary. She aircraft was coming by at
tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). night. I am more than happy
Families on the verge of dividing and breaking away need
to pay attention to these words. What must I do for my
family, my spouse and others to make them happy and
contented? Jesus is always willing to help, even when a
miracle is not required. Am I willing to help others when
The Morrow County
they need me? Am I willing to give my time and my
energy to reaching out to other members of the family School District (MCSD)
received an unmodified
when it has no benefit for me?
audit opinion for their an-
nual financial statements,
the 10 th consecutive year
the district has received a
“clean” report.
Independent firm Dick-
ey and Tremper, LLP per-
formed the audit for the
The Heppner Chamber of Commerce would like to thank the merchants and Individuals
2020-21 fiscal year. The
that donated to and assisted with the Celebrate Heppner Community Christmas Event.
Wheatland Insurance
school board reviewed the
Russell Ellsworth
audit report at its January
Allstott Construction
TREO Ranches
10 regular meeting.
Wilkinson Ranch
Among the financial
Blue Mountain Investments
Dickinson Chiropractic
highlights
in the report:
Browne House Coffee
-MCSD carried a sur-
Hansen Veterinary Services
Blondees Salon
plus of $475,343. This is
Peterson’s Jewelers
because of additional sup-
Murray’s Country Rose
Les Schwab
port from federal, state
BiMart
and local grants, includ-
East Oregonian
Alive & Well
ing COVID grants, the
Prodigal Son Brewery
State Student Investment
Blue Mountain Community College
Amazon AWS and the “Amazon Elves”
Account and the Morrow
Kim Cutsforth
Education Foundation.
Walmart Distribution Center
Sage Clothing Company
-Using increased fund-
Tacos Hometown
ing from these sources,
Seed & Trowel
Flood Town Books
MCSD added four instruc-
Mayor Jim Kindle
tional days to the school
Santa and Mrs Clause
The Heppner Elementary Parent-Teacher Club
calendar, hired eight staff,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
including three counselors,
And Sheryll Bates
and continued wraparound
services to provide men-
tal health services, CARE
coordinators and Safety
*Design *Print *Mail
Resource Officers.
Sykes Publishing
541-676-9228
-MCSD carried a PERS
Reserve Fund of $1,448,889
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: and did not spend any of the
fund. The auditor also noted
that MCSD carries liabili-
and legislative positions,
including policies and po-
sitions on state or federal
legislation, and directs the
legislative activities of the
executive director and AOC
legislative affairs team.
“I am pleased to be
elected to this position for
the second year in a row.
Serving on the Association
of Oregon Counties exec
team gives me the ability to
connect closely with fellow
commissioners and staff
from around
the state
and share
our Morrow
County mes-
sage. The
three current
c o m m i s - Melissa
sioners have Lindsay
been active
at AOC, seeing the bene-
fits, with Commissioner
Doherty serving as the Pres-
ident in 2020,” Lindsay told
the Gazette.
Legislative committee
membership consists of the
AOC Board of Directors,
one additional member
from each of the eight AOC
districts, the chair and vice
chair of each AOC steering
committee, one district
attorney designated by the
Oregon District Attorneys
Association, and any ad-
ditional members that the
board of directors choose
to appoint, such as a county
not otherwise represented.
concluded.
COVID and mandate up-
date
In other business at the
meeting commissioners dis-
cussed a proposed COVID
testing and vaccination
policy toward employees if
mandates are enacted from
either the federal or state
governments.
The county currently
has about 123 employees
with 56 indicating they are
vaccinated. If the mandates
come down, they will most
likely require all unvac-
cinated workers to take
a weekly test and prove
negative for COVID. Com-
missioners are still up in the
air about what the county
policy will be. First, they
are not sure which mandate
they will have to follow,
either state or federal, and
second, who will pay for
the testing if it is required.
County officials are also
concerned about a rush on
testing kit purchases and
not enough available to give
their employees. “We have
a couple of decisions: one is
who pays? Is testing going
to be issue? Availability of
testing. They will have to
provide proof of a negative
test every week. If you can’t
provide that proof, then you
can’t come to work. That
is the way I read it,” said
Russell. He said he was in
favor of the county paying
for the tests.
The federal mandate
right now is tied up at the
Supreme Court which so far
has not given a ruling, and
the state policy is supposed
to be coming out on Janu-
ary 24, so the county does
have some time to make
decisions. Commissioner
Lindsay said if the county
does pay for testing, then
it should give the same
amount of money it spends
there to vaccinated workers
as compensation for a bene-
fit of paying for the unvac-
cinated tests. Undersheriff
John Bowles also pointed
out that it may become a
union issue if the county
requires workers to pay for
tests, and he feels the coun-
ty should pay for the tests.
County Emergency
Manager Paul Gray said
the last he checked test
prices ran around $6.99
each for an individual test
and $13.98 for two tests and
a kit. Russell said with his
calculations it would cost
the county about $280 per
week to test all the unvac-
cinated workers, and with
today’s tight labor market
that might be a good idea
to keep their employees.
He also said from his expe-
riences, vaccination is not
proving to be much of a de-
terrent to catching the virus.
“My personal knowledge is
that vaccinated people are
getting the new mutated
virus as often as unvacci-
nated people. May be lesser
severity of the disease, but
personally I know a ton
of people who have been
fully vaccinated that have
contracted COVID. Even
boosted people,” he related.
In other business, the
commissioners appointed
Eric Imes interim public
works director. Imes has
been the assistant road mas-
ter for the county for almost
four years and he replaces
Matt Scrivner who recently
resigned.
WIND TURBINES
drafting a letter to NextEra
explaining the intent (of the
agreement) and explaining
the problem,” he told the
commissioners. “And I
could suggest their SIP ex-
emption may be in jeopardy
if they don’t address this
problem,” he added.
Russell said he has
talked to lighting system
manufactures and believes
occasionally there was go-
ing to be a pilot that flies
into Lexington at night
and trips the lights on the
towers on, or there is going
to be a military jet from the
bombing range that trips
the lights. “But most of the
time the lights would be off.
At night nobody should be
flying that low. There are
certain standards if you
are a pilot, and you should
not be flying that low. You
should never fly less than
1,000 feet above the ground
out there unless there was
an emergency landing. I
personally think they are
in violation (of their agree-
ment),” Russell said. Seitz
said there are two sensors
that detect aircraft, one up
north closer to the Bombing
Range and one closer to
south county.
After discussion, the
county agreed to have Gor-
man draft a letter to Nex-
tEra telling them once more
of the lighting problem
and suggesting they could
be in violation of their tax
abatement agreement if it is
not fixed. “If the technology
just doesn’t work that is
one thing, but if it works
and they are not using best
efforts to make it work, that
is something else,” Russell
Morrow County schools receive
clean audit
Print & Mailing Services
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
ties for PERS ($25.3 mil-
lion) and health insurance
($2.6 million), common for
government agencies across
the state.
-Investment on MCSD
property included two
driveways/parking lots to
accommodate increased
traffic, roofing and masonry
repairs, air-conditioning
units, security cameras and
water heaters.
-MCSD completed
on-time repayment of the
voter-approved general ob-
ligation bond for capital
improvement from 2001.
-Though the COVID-19
pandemic forced students
to begin the school year
with limited in-person in-
struction, MCSD pivoted
to full-day instruction by
the end of September for
non-quarantined students
and used federal funding
to purchase technology
needed for online learning.
“It’s a credit to our
entire staff, our partners at
the IMESD and the school
board that the Morrow
County school consistently
receives high marks for
financial accountability,”
said Dirk Dirksen, Super-
intendent of the Morrow
County School District.
“Our mission is to invest
in the education and devel-
opment of every student,
every day, and we know
that Morrow County com-
munities expect us to do
that responsibly.”
The complete audit
is available on the Mor-
row County School Dis-
trict website at https://5il.
co/1454y.
Morrow County School
District is located in rural
north central Oregon. The
county encompasses more
than 2,000 square miles
with a growing popula-
tion of over 12,000 in the
four main communities
of Boardman and Irrigon,
along the Columbia River,
and Heppner and Lexing-
ton, in the foothills of the
Blue Mountains.
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