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VOL. 141
NO. 39 8 Pages
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
County debates doing work on public access roads
Privately owned West Glen sparks wider discussion
The West Glen neighborhood near Boardman is served by private roads that need repairs
Morrow County Commis-
sioners spent quite a bit of
time last week discussing
whether the county should
spend taxpayer money
making repairs and doing
maintenance work on pri-
vate roads.
The debate arose
after public works director
Eric Imes presented a peti-
tion bearing 10 signatures
asking the county to address
“the gravel roads in all of
the West Glen area in the
outskirts of Boardman.”
The roads are not in the city
limits, not owned by the
county and not maintained
by the residents.
“Over the past year
I have received many re-
quests to grade the roads in
the West Glen subdivision,”
Imes told the commission-
ers. He said there are just
under two miles of road
with 10 intersections and
more than 60 approaches
onto properties. He said
he was also approached by
emergency services about
improving the roads.
Imes said he found
sections of the private sub-
division roads to be in “pret-
ty bad shape” and needing
attention. He estimated
initial improvements to the
road would cost $37,571,
with annual maintenance
costing $14,139.
He said during his
inspection he also encoun-
tered 30 big trucks in the
neighborhood, all of them
owner operators. Imes said
there are quite a few sets of
truck trailers at the homes
and the big trucks are part
of the reason for the dete-
riorated road conditions.
The truck businesses are
also not compliant with the
zoning ordinances as the
area is not zoned for that
type of commercial activity.
Maintaining roads
in West Glen is not unprec-
edented for the county, with
commissioners remember-
ing several occasions when
past public works directors
have requested and sent
equipment there to do main-
tenance and repairs. Com-
missioners were concerned,
however, if doing the work
this time would open the
county up for other private
road residents wanting free
county road work done at
county expense.
Imes admitted if
the county decided to start
maintaining all private, or
public access, roads across
the whole county it would
be a big job and expensive.
“It’s a big cost and a there
are lots of public roads all
over the county from the
north to the south,” he told
commissioners.
One of the largest
private road systems is in
the mountains at Blakes
Ranch 14 miles east of
Heppner where proper-
ty owners pay for their
own road maintenance.
A Blakes Ranch property
owner attending the meet-
ing told commissioners
there were 119 parcels at
Blakes with 50-70 residenc-
es. “At Blakes we maintain
our roads. All these public
access roads in the county,
if you are going to do it for
one you are going to do it
for all and you will have
a mess on your hands,” he
said. “It can be done, but
the neighborhood needs
to pay for it,” he said of
private road maintenance.
The county does plow the
main road up to Blakes so
the school bus can get up
there. “We have a good
example of a neighborhood
that is working well and
that is Blakes Ranch,” Imes
added. “Each year people
put in money. They are
maintaining their roads. It
shows that it can be done.
I would like the same thing
done in West Glenn,” he
concluded.
County Planner
Tamra Mabbott said she
would like to see the county
take a
“holistic” approach to deal-
ing with West Glenn. She
suggested county officials
meet with the landowners
and say the county would
be willing to come in and
improve the roads, “but
they would have to comply
with all the code violations
that are out there.”
Mabbott said half
the properties have viola-
tions on their properties.
“A lot of those trucking
businesses are not permit-
ted,” she said. A lot of time
it’s an educational thing just
bringing it to their attention,
she said. “But that’s their
livelihood, trucks and truck
parts and people repairing
trucks,” she explained.
Mabbott said the
West Glen neighborhood
is not in good shape and
doesn’t have central sewer
or water. “At one time there
were a handful of wells
that did not function. Some
places did not have running
water. And many of them
still don’t have potable wa-
ter,” she said. With the ni-
trate testing going on there
“I would guess it’s really
high,” she speculated.
Mabbott said a
solution may be a collab-
orative effort with several
agencies. “Sit down with
the city and the landowners
and maybe the port and say
this is in your urban growth
boundary. What do we want
this area to be, and what
can we do collectively, the
county and port?” She said
annexing the property to the
city of Boardman, which
Cpl Clark and K9 Bali
would then be responsible
for the roads, sewer and
water, was probably not
an option. “There is not a
city in the state that wants
to say I want to take that,
annex it and provide water.
Cities don’t want to annex
an area and maintain a road
if it is a substandard road,”
she explained. “That is the
conundrum. I think we need
a dialogue to make those
fixes more permanent and
have a vision for the neigh-
borhood. And it doesn’t
have to be this way.”
Mabbott said may-
be it’s time for the county to
come up with new solutions
rather than going out every
several years and just doing
maintenance. “Maybe we
need to be thinking outside
the box,” she told commis-
sioners. “It doesn’t matter
that it’s not a county road.
Something needs to happen
out there. And we need to
figure out what the formula
is. What do you want this
neighborhood to look like
next year and five years
from now?”
Commissioner Don
Russell said there was an
example of another sub-
division on the west side
of Paul Smith Road that
earlier wanted the city of
Boardman to provide water
to, “But they didn’t want to
be annexed in. The city has
been approached by West
Glenn many times about
annexation, but the city
doesn’t want to “take on the
county’s problems and right
now it is the county’s prob-
lems,” Russell explained.
He said the city was more
likely to agree with an-
nexation if all the zoning
problems weren’t there.
“Look at google earth and
you can see everything,” he
suggested.
“I would like to
send a mailer to the home-
owners to explain the ORS
(Oregon law on local access
roads) and when we will be
working in the area,” Imes
said of a plan to begin. He
wants the homeowners and
trucking companies using
these public access roads
to come up with a plan to
pay for annual maintenance
and avoid costly road re-
pairs paid by the county
(in the future). “The road
department struggles to
maintain the miles of road
in our system, especially
with materials and services
costs continuing to rise,”
Imes pointed out. “If Mor-
row County can bring the
Shoulder carry entry on stairs
Morrow County Sheriff’s Office hosted a Po-
lice K9 and Decoy training seminar on September 9-11.
KnightWatch K9 brought Mark A. Hilger, a prominent
police K9 instructor from Nord Rhein Westphalen, Ger-
many to instruct local area K9s and Decoys. Morrow
County Sheriff’s Office, Pendleton PD, Union Coun-
ty Sheriff’s Office and USFWS took part. “We great-
ly appreciate KnightWatch K9 helping us bring such
a high-quality training seminar to our region,” said a
MCSO news release.
Several “excellent venues” were provided from
the old Irrigon Multicultural Arts Center (IMAC build-
ing), the Port of Morrow Maintenance yard and a small
farm property. During the three days of training at these
different locations, training focused on developing han-
dler and decoy skills as well as numerous challenging
scenarios and exercises specifically tailored to advance
the skills and abilities of each of the K9s present. “This
intensive and quality training will allow our area K9s to
hone skills and better serve our citizens,” said MCSO.
“These specialized teams of officers/deputies
and their dogs work in a wide variety of high-risk en-
vironments where skills refined in training like that re-
cently delivered are critical to safe and successful out-
comes for all involved. Co-workers, Deputies Killgore
and Brill with the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office and
Deputy Vora with the Union County Sheriff’s Office,
participated in the training as decoys for the dogs and
their handlers.
L to R: Lee Hersey KnightWatch K9, Cpl Colleen
Neubert and K9 Telly Morrow County SO, Mark A.
Hilger Pol. NRW, Dep. Nick Vora Union County SO,
Constance Baker KnightWatch K9, Dep. Dane Jen-
son and K9 Molly Union County SO, Deputy Col-
lin Brill Morrow County SO, Deputy Zack Killgore
Morrow County SO, Cpl Cass Clark and K9 Bali
Pendleton PD.
-Continued from PAGE SEVEN
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Cpl Neubert Prepares K9 Telly to search the upstairs