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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2022)
Lindsay files for county commissioner 50¢ VOL. 141 NO. 11 8 Pages Wednesday, March 16, 2022 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Wee Bit O’ Ireland returns after two year hiatus - deemed a great success Melissa Lindsay Melissa Lindsay, cur- rently Morrow County Commissioner Position 3, filed as a candidate for position 2 on March 8, the final day to file. Lindsay’s current term will end Jan- uary 3, 2023. If elected to position 2, she will take office in January 2023 as well. Lindsay was the third candidate to file for position 2, although one candidate has now withdrawn. Melissa Lindsay listed previous governmental ex- perience as Morrow County Judge, county commission- er for six years and chair for two years. She has also been chair of the Morrow County Cultural Coali- tion, commissioner for the Morrow County Planning Commission, treasurer of the Association of Oregon Counties, member of Local Officials Advisory Com- mittee to LCDC, Morrow County Local Public Safe- ty Coordination Council, CAPECO board and the Morrow County Broadband Action Team. The primary election will be held May 17, 2022, and the general election November 8, 2022. ’63 Chevy pickup new again Above: A large group gathered on the steps of the Methodist Church in Heppner Saturday morning prior to setting off on the Friends Helping Friends 5K Remembrance Walk/Run. Below: The Spark Cheer Club, who took first place in the Irish theme category, entertained a huge crowd during the Great Green Parade Saturday afternoon. See page eight of this issue for additional St. Patrick’s photos. -Photos by Tylynn Cimmiyotti. This 1963 Chevrolet pickup was purchased from Royce Fulle- ton in 1964 by Frank Osmin and has now been fully restored. Osmin had it repainted its original Glenwood green by Stacey Hunt in Fossil in 2018. The pickup took second place in the Great Green Parade on Saturday in the classic automobile class. Riding with Frank was his daughter, JJ, who had her first ride when she came home from the hospital in the pickup in 1970. County broadband gets $150,000 funding School board selects three candidates for superintendent position Matt Combe Jose Silva Chester Bradshaw education specialist degree from Idaho State Univer- sity. The district held public sessions with the super- intendent candidates on Tuesday, March 15, in Hep- pner and Boardman, and scheduled the last session on Wednesday, March 16, at Irrigon Elementary School. At the meeting, Dirk- sen spoke concerning the district’s response to the COVID 19 challenge and the projected end of the pandemic. “Helping kids through COVID is a great feeling,” he exclaimed, adding that he was “com- fortable in moving forward. It’s nice to be in this spot.” Dirksen said, “Masking is now optional, but 20 per- cent of parents still want their kids to wear masks.” Dirksen also report- ed that Morrow County Commissioner Don Russell contacted him concerning monies coming from Ama- zon. According to Dirksen, Amazon will be donating monies to the school district through Morrow County. Dirksen said the monies will go through the Educa- tion Foundation and will be put into capital projects. “It was a pretty pleasant call we received,” said Dirksen. At the meeting Dirksen detailed current enrollment figures compared to pro- jected enrollment, which, for the most part, fall slight- ly short of the projections. Concerning the upcom- ing bond issue, Dirksen reiterated that the district is currently operating without bond funds. “The levy went away,” he emphasized. However, a district bond issue will go before the voters on May 17. Ballots are scheduled to go out the end of April. In other business, the board received results of district employee prefer- ences concerning the 2022- 23 school year calendar, showing that 70 percent of district employees preferred the pre-Labor Day school start option, compared to 29 percent who preferred the post-Labor Day start option. Also at the meeting, the board: -approved the follow- ing licensed employment action for 2022-23 (Hep- pner listed only): Brook Baker, HES/HJSHS music, Tara Proudfoot, HES fifth grade; Mayme Jill Miller, HJSHS/HES counselor. -approved the follow- ing administrators recom- mended for extension for 2022-2023: Marie Shimer, -See SUPERINTENDENT CANDIDATES/PAGE SIX By David Sykes Federal COVID-19 pandemic relief dollars will be helping expand broadband high speed in- ternet access in rural parts of Morrow County, com- missioners affirmed last week. At their weekly meeting March 9 Coun- ty Commissioners voted unanimously to allocate $150,000 to the Morrow County Broadband Action Team’s effort to bring high- er internet speeds to those parts of the county without it. The money comes from the federal American Res- cue Plan Act of 2021 when congress passed a $1.9 trillion package to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of that money came to Oregon which was then funneled down to the county level. The money will not be used for actual inter- net infrastructure, but head of the county broad- band team Aaron Moss said the money would lay County broadband leader Aaron Moss the groundwork to attract more funds for the actu- al build out. “The biggest one is design,” Moss told the commissioners of the areas the money would be spent in. He said that once the county’s rural broad- band system is designed, he will then be able to use that plan to go out and seek additional funding to build the actual system. There will a large pool of funding available from the $1 tril- -See BROADBAND/PAGE SEVEN E L E VAT E YO U R A DV E N T U R E CALL 541-989-8221 ext 204 NEW 2022 FOR By April Hilton-Sykes The Morrow County School Board has selected three finalists for the MCSD superintendent position to replace current Superin- tendent Dirk Dirksen who is retiring at the end of the school year. The candidates are Matt Combe, Jose Silva and Chester Bradshaw. -Matt Combe, Hep- pner, is the current principal of Heppner Elementary and Heppner Jr./Sr. High School and current director of maintenance and facili- ties for the school district. Combe has a master’s de- gree from Eastern Oregon University at LaGrande. -Jose Silva, principal at the Kermit R. Booker Sr. Innovative Elementa- ry School with the Clark County Nevada school dis- trict in Las Vegas, has a master’s degree in educa- tion from Sierra Nevada College and a doctorate in education from Argosy University. -Chester Bradshaw, su- perintendent of the Sugar Salem School District in Sugar City, Idaho, has an COVID dollars to boost rural fast internet for more information CHECK OUT THE ALL-NEW 2 0 2 2 P O L A R I S L I N E U P. WE’LL HELP YOU LOCK I N W H AT Y O U W A N T. WARNING: Polaris ® off‑road vehicles can be hazardous to operate and are not intended for on‑road use. 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