Recall election this week 50¢ VOL. 141 NO. 48 8 Pages Wednesday, November 30, 2022 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon County commission still debating over Boardman ambulance service An ambulance belonging to Boardman Fire Rescue sits unused at the fire hall in Boardman. -Contributed photo By Andrea Di Salvo months ago they’d (Board- in Boardman which are During the Morrow man Fire Rescue) have had licensed and regularly an- County Board of Commis- a transport license,” he swer calls there. The entire sioners meeting Nov. 23 added. county is included in the in Irrigon, Commissioner Russell pointed out that health district’s boundaries. Don Russell revisited the the county had hired a me- A further kink was Boardman ambulance con- diator and that one party thrown into the process troversy when he brought had backed out of negotia- when the health district last up a weather event that he tions “for whatever reason.” month asked to “pause” understood had resulted “Because you bullied mediation talks and a new in 12 ambulance calls in a them out of the room, just mediator be found. In an 90-minute period in Board- like you bullied me to shut Oct. 7 letter to the coun- man, which overwhelmed up,” said Commission Vice- ty commissioners, health the system. Chair Melissa Lindsay. district board chair Marie “If for nothing else, Russell responded that he Shimer said while the dis- that’s a reason we should had not been aware of any trict endorses engaging a support Boardman Fire’s bullying. mediator to help settle the application for an ambu- Lindsay also added as dispute, an atmosphere of lance license, so when we part of her commissioner verbal harassment has taken have these events—and I report that she had attend- over the talks. know that they’re rare, but ed a fire panel at the AOC Doherty had said Heck- they’re not unheard of— conference, which includ- athorn would be on the people can get help.” ed the state fire marshal agenda with her mediation The dispute over am- and representatives of the report Nov. 2, and then the bulance services has been Oregon Health Authority following week he would ongoing between Morrow and Oregon Emergency schedule an agenda discus- County Health District and Management. She had the sion about licensing. How- Boardman Fire Rescue. chance to speak to them ever, after Heckathorn’s The conflict has produced about the ambulance issue, cancellation there was no accusations, caustic state- and said they told her it was ambulance business on the ments and both sides hiring a complicated issue. Nov. 9 meeting agenda. attorneys. The county gov- “I asked them to please, At the Nov. 9 meeting, ernment is involved since please lean in and, frankly, representatives of the fire commissioners will be the take over, because someone district once again showed ones approving any license needs to bring some level up at the commission meet- for Boardman Fire Rescue’s of realistic conversation to ing. ambulances to transport the table.” She said she also “We are requesting to patients. spoke to commissioners be on the agenda,” Board- Undersheriff Brian from several other counties man Fire Chief Mike Snyder, who was in the who experienced similar Hughes told the commis- audience, added that MCSO issues, including Baker sioners. “We have been had responded and, in one County. vigilant carrying thru the instance, had two people “They have a really process.” entrapped and had to wait good story about how this In old business, the an hour for medical. “When is a huge and complicated commissioners heard from we have resources we can’t issue, even though some Public Works Director Eric use, when we run into situ- would like to simplify it,” Imes regarding an aban- ations like that, it makes it she said. doned cistern in Heppner. hard,” he said. Mediator Elizabeth The cistern, which is owned Commission Chair Jim H e c k a t h o r n h a d b e e n by the county, is on prop- Doherty responded that it scheduled to brief the com- erty surrounded by and wasn’t that simple. “Eigh- missioners early in Novem- owned currently by Willow teen months ago, some of ber on progress made from Creek Valley Economic those folks that we’re trying two sessions already held Development Group (WC- to work through the process between the two battling VEDG). Imes visited the with had the opportunity districts. However, accord- site and said he estimated to sign an IGA (Intergov- ing to Doherty, who sets $20,917.60 to demolish and ernmental Agreement) un- the meeting agendas, she remove the cistern, which der the ASA (Ambulance pulled out. The action came would require a job fore- Service Area) and have following objections from man, shear and operator, the ability to be operating the health district that any excavator and operator, both,” he said, “so we want public mediation reports and two trucks and drivers to bear that in mind as we would violate Oregon’s to move the approximately have these discussions. confidentiality laws. 100 cubic yards of con- “I think 18 months ago Over the past months crete. The cost was based if they’d worked with the Boardman Fire Rescue rep- on hiring the equipment partners on the IGA un- resentatives have made re- and having the county road der the ASA, probably 18 peated commission meeting crew do the work. appearances and requests to “I would probably pre- be issued a license or be put fer if it went to contract, on the county agenda to dis- but if it’s going to save the cuss gaining an ambulance county a whole lot of mon- license so they could begin ey, I think it makes sense transport patients, all to no for us to do it,” Imes said. avail. He said it would probably The fire district has take a week with the shear, three ambulances stationed as there is a lot of rebar at the fire house in Board- in it, and they would haul man along with trained probably 20 truckloads. personnel. The Morrow The commissioners County Health District voted unanimously to try also has ambulances and to have public works work trained personnel stationed it into their schedule over the winter but to have it put out for bid if they can’t. In his November road department report, Imes said they had been grading roads around the county. “We’ve got almost every single blade we’ve got out and about,” he said. He also said the road department had to repair a guard rail out at Ione/Gooseberry. “The vehicle is gone, and we have no way to find out who did it, so at county cost I sent two guys out there and got it repaired,” he said. He also reported setting up sand sheds in various loca- tions to be able to respond better in bad weather. Russell brought up need to put up a dead end or no trucks sign on Toms Camp Road in Boardman to prevent trucks from go- ing down there and doing damage when they have to turn around. Imes said he ordered the signs. “They’re just way behind,” he said. “Stuff we ordered in April just showed up.” In other business, Mor- row County Sheriff John Bowles approached the board asking that Morrow County Sheriff ’s Office be allowed to establish a full-time patrol lieutenant position, which would re- place the operations lieu- tenant. The patrol lieutenant Interested citizens can view ballot processing on this monitor in the Morrow County Courthouse lobby in Heppner, which shows the ballot processing in real time. -Photo by Andrea Di Salvo Assistant clerk Theresa Crawford (left) and Rach- ell Hughes open recall ballots Monday in Heppner. -Photo by Andrea Di Salvo By Andrea Di Salvo The Morrow County Clerk’s office was a flurry of activity this week as staff worked to count ballots for the Nov. 29 recall election and wrap up the Nov. 8 election. At the top of Morrow County voters’ minds is the recall election concerning county commissioners Jim Doherty and Melissa Lind- say. Results of the votes received by the election deadline were not available at press time but were post- ed to the county website after 8 p.m. election day. According to the coun- ty clerk’s office, only 30.53 percent of recall ballots had been received as of Monday morning. With little space in the clerk’s office for observers, the county set up a real-time monitor in the courthouse lobby for the public to view ballot processing. The live feed shows the process- -Continued to PAGE SIX ing of local ballots from the verifying of signatures through to the actual count. The feed began Tuesday, Nov. 22, and will contin- ue until Dec. 21, or until all qualified ballots are counted. All ballots had to be received or postmarked by Tuesday. By Dec. 20, the county clerk’s office expects to have informa- tion identifying any chal- lenged ballots—those with missing or non-matching signatures—available for public inspection, with cer- tification after 5 p.m. that evening. Meanwhile, Tuesday was also the last day to re- solve ballots for the Nov. 8 General Election. Childers told the Gazette that the clerk’s office had to run two ballot counting machines during this process, since the state would not let them count ballots by hand or run the general and recall elec- tions on the same machine. County revisits nitrate issues Wells located within the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (LUBGWMA) By Andrea Di Salvo Water nitrate issues, the funding for solutions and homeowner privacy were at the top of the Morrow County Board of Commis- sioners agenda on Nov. 23. Interim Public Health Director Robin Canaday spoke to the commissioners about Program Element 75. PE 75 would provide funds to help with the county’s high nitrate water issues; it allows outreach and educa- tion, conducting well-water screening events, support- ing sample collection, and supporting water treatment and maintenance. “I wanted to bring this before the board to give us a chance to accept these PE 75 funds and move forward here,” Canaday said. Doherty added that the work plan from the state was put together before the county declared a state of emergency. It was unknown what the county would ul- timately receive, but Board Chair Jim Doherty said right now the state has committed $120,000 to- ward an FTE (full-time equivalent) through the end of July. Doherty said he and Rep. Greg Smith met with Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen re- cently, and Allen implied PE 75 is unique in that it is just Umatilla and Morrow counties. “They want to im- plement part of their plan through a more local source,” he said, adding that the funds don’t expire. “Right now, the state has got those dollars queued up and ready to go.” The commissioners voted unanimously for Can- aday to work with Morrow County Human Resources to implement PE 75. Morrow County Plan- ner Tamra Mabbott reported that the county had issued a request for proposal (RFP) -Continued to PAGE SEVEN