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