East-West Shrine
game thrills fans
50¢
VOL. 141
NO. 32
8 Pages
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Street construction crews back to work
in Heppner
The East-West Shrine
game gave fans a thriller on
August 6 at Baker City. The
West team ended up with
the win 17-14 in the first
overtime game. A tied game
in previous years remained
a tie, without going into
overtime.
As the game hit half-
Fair receives
$1 million grant
State money earmarked for
infrastructure
Work crews were busy on Jones St this past week. -Photo by Chris Sykes
Corey Sweeney.
Council votes to send
Psilocybin ban to voters
In other business the
council voted to let voters
decide on whether to ban
psilocybin facilities in the
city. In 2020, Oregon be-
came the first state in the
nation to legalize the ther-
apeutic, supervised use of
psilocybin after 56 percent
of voters approved Ballot
Measure 109. Psilocybin is
the active hallucinogenic
ingredient in what are com-
monly referred to as magic
mushrooms.
What the council did
Monday will let voters
decide to place an outright
prohibition on psilocybin
related businesses withing
the city limits. The question
will be on the November
general election ballot and
will read: “Shall The City of
Heppner prohibit psilocy-
bin-related businesses and
manufacturing in The City
of Heppner?”
The council also heard
a report from Undersheriff
John Bowles, also a coun-
cilmember, who said there
was some activity that saw a
spike in Heppner during the
month of June. Bowles said
there were five threatened
suicidal incidents in June in
Heppner, an unusually high
number as there were only
two suicide incidents in the
preceding five months of
the year. Animal complaints
were up, especially dog
complaints from 10-12 the
preceding several months
to 18 in June. Bowles said
there were a total of six
arrests in Heppner up from
1-2 per month normally.
In other business the
council heard from Barb
Orwick of the Neighbor-
hood Center who said the
center had distributed 172
food boxes in the past
month to people in need,
with 58 of those boxes
were from clients needing
to come twice in July to the
food pantry for assistance.
She said the center also
delivered food boxes every
Wednesday to nine elderly
or disabled people though
the home delivery program.
DEADLINE:
MONDAYS
AT 5PM
She also related how the
center had assisted a mother
of four, with another baby
on the way, who was home-
less and needing help. The
center provided emergency
shelter at the local motel
and helped the family with
food that could be prepared
in the motel microwave.
They also provided cloth-
ing to the family and a gas
voucher for her vehicle.
Orwick invited every-
one to come by the center’s
information table that will
be at the fair Saturday af-
ternoon where they will be
selling fundraising raffle
tickets for a basket give
away. She said they will
also be open on August
20 between 8 a.m. and 12
noon for a special bag sale.
The first bag is $15, and the
second bag is only $5 she
said. Shoppers can fill the
bag with clothing, shoes,
movies, CDs and books.
Household items are also
50 percent off that day only.
Money raised will be used
to support the food pantry.
In other action at Mon-
day’s meeting the council
ratified appointments to the
city planning commission.
Appointed to four-year
terms were Dave Fowler,
Donald Matthews, David
Sykes, Jeff Bailey, Tripp
Finch, Don Stroeber and
Patti Allstott.
In other business the
council heard a report that
the last day to file for open
positions on the city council
for the November elec-
tion will be August 30.
Three council positions
are currently open and will
expire on January 1, 2023.
They are now held by Dale
Bates, David Gunderson
and Adam Doherty. The
mayor position is also open
and is held by Jim Kindle.
The Morrow County
Fairgrounds in Heppner has
received a $1 million state
grant to be used to upgrade
infrastructure, the county
commissioners recently
learned.
Details on how the
grant will be used to up-
grade the fairgrounds so
far are slim, however the
money can be used anytime
in the coming year. Repre-
sentative Greg Smith was
instrumental in helping to
obtain the grant for the fair.
In other business at
their July 27 meeting, com-
missioners learned of staff
changes in the county. The
Juvenile Department hired
Samantha Ramirez as the
probation counselor and
George Nairns transferred
from the Planning Depart-
ment to office support spe-
cialist. The District Attor-
ney has filled the deputy
position with Zach Wil-
liams, who will also serve
as county council.
Human Resource Di-
rector Lindsay Grogan also
reported the county is seek-
ing the following positions:
911 dispatcher, patrol depu-
ty, planning office manager,
transfer station attendant,
senior maintenance special-
ist, CARE RN, CARE Co-
ordinator, county surveyor,
public health director and
demand response driver.
Osmin takes first in
trapshooting
competition
Allen Osmin, 17, son
of Derek and Lora Osmin
of Hermiston, and grandson
of Frank and Cara Osmin of
Heppner, recently came in
first in his class at the Pacif-
ic International Trapshoot-
ing Association (PITA)
shotgun competition.
The competition took
place at the Evergreen Gun
Club at Little Rock, WA
July 28-30, 2022. Allen
scored 193 out of 200 to Allen Osmin
win first place in Class D.
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188 W Willow, Heppner • 541-676-9228
Sidewalks were never put in on the east side of Chase Street
Changes coming for
Heppner Chamber
To address some of the
rumors that are out there
regarding Heppner Cham-
ber of Commerce, there
will be changes coming
to the Heppner Chamber,
however, the chamber will
not be closing or getting
away from their mission of
serving the members and
holding events. There will
most likely be some new
faces.
The chamber will also
look at communicating with
our members to see what
we can do to better serve
them. The chamber board
is planning to communicate
a much more detailed plan
by next week.
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
Construction crews
were back in town this week
finishing up the last several
streets needing work as part
of Heppner’s big road reha-
bilitation project.
Streets receiving work
that weren’t finished last
summer are Jones Street,
downtown behind the Cath-
olic Church, and Willow
View, up on the hill in the
Lott addition, reports City
Manager Kraig Cutsforth.
He said the crews had com-
pleted replacing sewer lines
on Jones and were working
on the sidewalk framing in
anticipation of the concrete
workers being in town to
work on the sidewalks Au-
gust 22. When done with
Jones they will be moving
to Willow View to begin
ripping up the base for
street replacement. Cuts-
forth wasn’t sure when the
entire project would be
completed.
In other street issues,
a group of residents from
Chase Street came to Mon-
day’s council meeting ask-
ing if there is something
that can be done about
unfinished and shoddy side-
walk and finish work on
their street leftover from
last year’s street construc-
tion project. About seven
people came to the meeting
to speak to the council and
their complaints ranged all
the way from no sidewalks,
just gravel, on the east side
of the street to poorly done
grading and lack of plan-
ning and engineering for
water runoff.
A lot of work was done
in Heppner last year on
streets and sidewalks, how-
ever, work on Chase was
never part of the budgeted
project, the residents were
told by the city. Although
the west side of Chase did
receive new sidewalks,
curbs and gutters, the east
side was left as gravel be-
cause there was no money
to finish the project.
Councilmembers have
been sympathetic to the
residents’ concerns and
complaints about the un-
completed work and said
they are working on finding
funding and a way to fix
things on Chase Street now
that the construction crews
are back in town. “It’s our
turn now to make it right,”
said councilmember and
Heppner mayoral candidate
Brock Hisler played for the
East team in the Shrine game
last Saturday.
time, the score was 7-7,
then 14-14 in the third quar-
ter. The score remained
14-14 to the end of the
fourth quarter when over-
time began. In overtime, the
win went to the West team,
17-14, with an uncontested
field goal.
Heppner’s Brock Hisler
played for the East team
as a starting linebacker
and shared running back.
Hisler had the opportunity
to team up with the players
from around the state who
had once been his oppo-
nents during the Mustang
football season. The game
was well supported with
players coming from all
over Oregon.
The Heppner Masonic
Lodge #69, Tri-County
Shrine Club and Devin
Oil were sponsors for this
year ’s Shrine selection
players, coaches and Shri-
ner’s Hospital for Children.
for more
information
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