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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 2022)
New sheriff speaks to Measure 114 50¢ VOL. 141 NO. 47 8 Pages Wednesday, November 23, 2022 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Mustangs end season with loss to Oakers Members of the Heppner Mustangs take to the field during the semifinal game versus the Oakland Oakers last Saturday. In the forefront (L-R): Junior Cade Cunningham (#51), Freshman Landon McMahon (#62), Sophomore Jaime Cavan (#50), Junior Landon Mitchell (#1), Senior Tucker Ashbeck (#75), Junior Cameron Proudfoot (#34) and Junior Caden George (#24). -Photo by Kirsti Cason Senior Saul Lopez (#27) leads the charge up the field with senior Jacob Lentz (#68) Right: Mustang player dives to stop Oaker player. -Photo by Kirsti Cason The Heppner Mustang football season came to an end last weekend with a 26-0 loss to the Oakland Oakers in the OSAA 2A State Championship Semi- finals. The game was played in a cool breeze at Hillsboro Stadium. The Mustangs strug- gled to get their game on track against the num- ber-one ranked team in the state. Heppner only trailed 6-0 at the end of the first quarter and 14-0 at half- time. Oakland got 12 points in the third quarter to put the game out of reach, and neither team scored in the fourth quarter. For the game, the Mus- tangs could only manage 142 total yards while giving up 358 to Oakland. Hep- pner rushed for 68 yards and the Oakers 300. The Mustangs had 74 passing yards and Oakland 58. The leading rusher for the Mustangs was Cameron Proudfoot with 27 yards on six carries. Saul Lopez rushed for 21 yards, and Caden George and Hayden McMahon each had eight yards on the ground. Landon Mitchell ran the ball for four yards. Mitchell was 6-12 pass- ing the ball for 74 yards. Proudfoot caught four balls for 53 yards and George had two receptions for 21 yards. The defense was led by George with 11 tackles, and Jake Lentz had 10. Finish- ing with nine tackles each were Lopez, David Cribbs and Cade Cunningham. Jaime Cavan had eight tackles, and Proudfoot and Mitchell finished the game with seven. Tucker Ash- beck had five tackles and Mason Orem had one for the Mustangs. Junior Landon Mitchell (#1) takes to the air to throw a pass. -Photo by Kirsti Cason Junior Cameron Proud- foot (#34) goes up for a catch. -Photo by Kirsti Heppner finished the season with a 9-3 record and another Blue Mountain Conference (Special Dis- trict 4) championship. The team finished as the fourth ranked team in the state when the playoffs started. They won first round and quarterfinal games at Les Payne Field in order to advance to the semifinal game. All-in-all, it was a fan- tastic season to be a Mus- tang and a Mustang football fan. Morrow County Sheriff John Bowles has released the following statement re- garding ballot measure 114: “While waiting to see if Ballot Measure 114 is going to be certified into law, I have received several inquiries regarding where I stand on the measure. I did not promote or advocate for the passing of Ballot Measure 114. I am an advocate for people’s rights, safety, security and livability. This measure will not help increase any of those objectives. This mea- sure will make it more dif- ficult and more expensive for law-abiding citizens to exercise their second amendment right. And here is a news flash: criminals do not follow the law. Law abiding citizens will work to comply with this law and criminals will not. So, what is this mea- sure going to accomplish? In Morrow County, measure 114 failed by a count of 20.14 percent Yes to a count of 79.86 percent No. Measure 114 will re- quire a permit from law enforcement for citizens to purchase a firearm. Ap- plicants will be required to complete safety train- ing, pass a criminal back- ground check and receive a permit from local law enforcement, city or coun- ty, then complete another background check by the Oregon State Police prior to the purchase of a firearm. This measure also pro- hibits the manufacturing, importing, purchasing, sell- ing, possessing, using or transferring ammunition magazines capable of hold- ing more than 10 rounds and makes violations a class A misdemeanor (punish- able by up to 364 days in jail, a fine of up to $6,250 or both). This portion of measure 114 will not be an enforcement priority and we will not be knocking on doors to see if law-abiding citizens have a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds. Measure 114 will be another unfunded mandate. Having to use current staff to comply with measure 114 requirements will neg- atively affect other public services. Yet local law en- forcement will be tasked with creating, implement- ing and staffing the required permitting process. This will be a strain on local budgets, staffing and re- sources. Moving forward, sheriffs, chiefs, Oregon State Sheriffs Association, Oregon Association Chiefs of Police and Oregon State Police will be collaborating to create an efficient permit- ting process. My priority is to pro- vide safety, security and liv- ability, while protecting the rights of all Morrow County citizens and visitors. I can see the possibility of mea- sure 114 being challenged in court and a stay being granted while it is worked out in our court system. If this measure is enacted into law, I will work diligently to put an efficient permit- ting process in place. As Morrow County Sheriff, I swore under oath to support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitu- tion and laws of the State of Oregon. I take this oath very seriously and will work within the law to protect the Constitutional rights of all people.” John A. Bowles, Morrow County Sheriff How MCSD decides about weather delays and closures City of Heppner receives land donation The Heppner City Council accepted the donation of a small parcel of land along Willow Creek from Kraig Cutsforth at its regular meeting Monday, Nov. 14. -Photo by Andrea Di Salvo By Andrea Di Salvo The City of Heppner accepted a donation of land from Heppner City Man- ager Kraig Cutsforth at its regular meeting Monday, Nov. 14, at Heppner City Hall. The parcel is located along Willow Creek near the Heppner Dam. It ex- tends downstream from the Alfalfa St. right of way. Also at the meeting, the council approved a resolu- tion to amend Cutsforth’s current city manager agree- ment to offer up to nine months additional health and life insurance premi- um coverage. Cutsforth’s current agreement dates from April of 2019. The resolution adopts a cost al- location to extend insurance coverage to July 1, 2023. In old business, Cuts- forth said the sewer project is still underway but mov- ing slowly at the moment. Doherty added that he had been working on submitting required management plans for recycled water, biosolid and solid waste to the DEQ for review. On the street projects, Cutsforth quipped that Fer- guson Engineering had been “eerily silent” about the Jones St. project the last couple of weeks, “right along with anybody who’s supposed to come finish all that stuff up,” he add- ed, saying he would try to track them down and see if they’re going to show up again before spring. He also said that, although he hadn’t seen crews from the con- tractors out working, he and Heppner City Maintenance Manager Chad Doherty had been working to make sure the city streets at least meet the minimum safety standards. When asked, he also re- ported that he had requested a bid from the county for chip sealing Riverside but hadn’t yet received one. “I need to follow up on that,” he said. In the city manager’s report, Cutsforth said that, with the passage of the psilocybin prohibition, he planned to look into wheth- er the city needed to take any further action, such as passing an ordinance. He congratulated the council members who had been re-elected and noted that they will need to fill council member Corey Sweeney’s position when he takes over as mayor. Cutsforth also report- ed having meetings with the Heppner Chamber of Commerce, Willow Creek Valley Economic Develop- ment Group, Oregon Dept. of Transportation and the Morrow County Planning Commission. He sent sever- al code compliance letters, worked on a December city planning commission meeting, updated the city’s Sam’s registration for the year, set a meeting with a company offering secu- rity camera solutions for the town, worked on a lot adjustment for a property, ordered five trees for Main Street and two for the park, had Zoom meetings with a group developing a natural hazards update study a housing inventory project group, reviewed the final draft of water management and conservation plan and looked for a street sweeper for public works. Fire chief Steve Rhea reported that the Hep- pner fire department had a “pretty busy October.” There were six lift assists, six secure landing zones, three search and rescue, one smoke filled house on Dee Cox, three false alarms at Heppner Elementary, one brush fire, one civil dispute on whether to light a debris fire on Linden Way, 36 fire chief calls and 164 calls for service to date. He also reported burn- ing of natural vegetation -Continued to PAGE SEVEN School bus travels up a snowy road. -Contributed photo With the onset of making “what often seems winter weather, there are like the most difficult deci- several things parents and sion administrators have to students should know about make.” Morrow County School Topping that list is stu- District weather policies. dent safety. Other factors According to the district are: website, multiple fac- -Weather forecast— tors come into play when when learning of potential MCSD considers when -Continued to PAGE SIX
