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has now withdrawn.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
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information
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