SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, December 21 , 2022
Lexington council wraps up year with busy meeting
By Andrea Di Salvo
Fire calls were down
but the number of stray cats
is up, the Lexington Town
Council learned at its De-
cember meeting last week.
Lexington Fire Depart-
ment Chief Charlie Sumner
and Assistant Fire Chief
Josie Miles were at the Dec.
13 public meeting to give
a report of the volunteer
fire department’s activities
and progress during recent
months. Miles reported a
reduced number of fire calls
in 2022 compared to 2021.
“We actually had a bet-
ter fire season than we had
anticipated compared to
2021,” she said. “We were
down about 30 percent fire
responses, so we didn’t
have to go out as much, but
we did have an increase in
EMS (emergency Medical
Services) calls. Especially
in the last quarter, we’ve
seen more of those in Lex-
ington.”
She added that a lot of
the EMS calls weren’t on
her fire report, because she
doesn’t get that informa-
tion unless they page out
Lexington fire specifically;
Lexington Quick Response
Team (QRT) and EMS calls
are funneled through Mor-
row County health District.
Miles also reported that
Lexington Fire is continu-
ing wildland training cours-
es with Adam McCabe at
the
Lexington Fire Hall
when schedules allow and
that they are anticipating a
HAZMAT (hazardous ma-
terial) course to be available
soon.
Sumner added that they
are working on getting three
of their firefighters through
an ambulance training pro-
cess with the health district
so they can be paged out on
ambulance calls.
“It’s going, but it’s not
going as fast as we’d like,”
he said.
Three of the town’s
firefighters are continuing
to work through the ambu-
lance driving crew process.
The council was also
presented with a record of
the fire departments train-
ing and call for the year,
along with requests for
reimbursements totaling
$3,435 for all firefight-
ing personnel. Aside from
Sumner and Miles, other
active fire volunteers are
Reid Miller, Trent Miles
and Shane Miles.
The council also
learned that the fire de-
partment was working on
a bid for the new fire hall
bay door that will face F
Street and that they hope to
have the project completed
before summer 2023.
Sumner also informed
the council members that
the Lexington department
had been offered some old
equipment free of charge
from other area fire depart-
ments that were updating
their equipment. On the
list were bottles from East
Umatilla Fire, as well as a
fill station for bottles and
some rescue equipment
such as a Jaws of Life from
Hermiston Fire. He said
he wasn’t sure if he would
accept the offers.
Miles added that part
of the debate was that Lex-
ington Fire is a town depart-
ment and wouldn’t have use
for the equipment unless
they needed it inside town
limits or they were called
out on mutual aid by anoth-
er department.
“However, if we have
the equipment,” she said,
“we can be trained and be
an available resource for it
to be called out for mutual
aid. The more that we are
called out and the more
records we have on our
books, the better chances
we have for continued grant
funding.
“So there’s some pros
and cons there as we con-
sider those options,” she
added.
Also present at the
meeting were Katie Si-
ri-Murray, Executive Direc-
tor of the Morrow County
Unified Recreation Dis-
trict (MCURD), and Cyde
Estes, recreation district
chairman, speaking to the
Lexington Town Council
about funding opportunities
for the annual May Day
celebration.
“Your May Day event
is very interesting to us,”
said Estes, “because we
fund events and entertain-
ment everywhere in the
county—except for in Lex-
ington. We would love very
much for you guys to put a
proposal to us for what you
would like us to fund.”
MCURD is a taxing
district that covers the en-
tire county. It has five board
members, one each from
Heppner, Ione, Irrigon and
Boardman, and one at-large.
The recreation district helps
fund events like Ione Fourth
of July and Heppner’s St.
Patrick’s celebration. Es-
tes said St. Patrick’s gets
around $20,000 and Ione
Fourth of July gets around
$18,000. “We have funds to
help you put on whatever
kind of event you’d like to
do,” she added.
The response from the
Lexington council was pos-
itive. Lexington Mayor Juli
Kennedy told the group that
the May Day committee
had met the night before to
start planning for the 2023
event and had been discuss-
ing their “wish list” and
the possibility of MCURD
funding.
Lexington Town Coun-
cil Member Bobbi Gordon
added, “Last night when we
were meeting, everything
we were bringing up we
were like, ‘Well, we can’t
afford that.’”
“I think we’re in a bet-
ter spot this year,” Kennedy
said.
The council agreed to
prepare a proposal to pres-
ent to MCURD before its
next meeting in January.
The next May Day cele-
bration is May 6, 2023. The
committee will hold month-
ly meetings the Monday
before each town council
meeting.
In other new business,
Lexington Public Utilities
Director Keith Hess report-
ed that water testing results
have been steadily clean.
He had to make adjust-
ments to the well to get the
chlorine levels where they
needed to be, but finally got
that done.
“I’m finally seeing
those chlorine levels up
where we need them to
be down in town, so that’s
good,” he said.
Hess attended the coun-
cil meeting via Zoom from
an Oregon Association of
Water Utilities meeting
Tuesday, where he said he
was learning some good
things.
“They brought up a
really good point on asset
management software. I
think that’s something we
really need to look into ac-
quiring. It’ll just help us out
all the way around,” he said,
and suggested looking into
some different options and
pricing so he could present
it at a future meeting.
Gordon mentioned that
they would need to check
hardware requirements.
“We have some old stuff
here,” she said.
Hess said he had lis-
tened to a representative
from a company named
Aktivov with software that
was compatible with a lot
of different platforms and
that he would put together a
packet for the council.
He also spoke to the
council about an alert sys-
tem for the well. He said
FEMA wants some kind of
automated alert system, but
Lexington’s doesn’t work
because it operates on line
of sight.
“Whether we fix ours
or get another one, that’s
something I’m definitely
going to have to look into.”
He also said he checked
the town septic tanks and
the fire hall’s needs to be
pumped, and mentioned
that Windwave completed
their fiberoptic installation
and cut across F street. Now
that the asphalt patch they
put down has settled, he has
noticed a little bit of a dip.
“So I’m probably go-
ing to be speaking to them
about that to see if they can
add some more asphalt to
that to make it a little lev-
eler,” he said.
The council also dis-
cussed the recurring com-
plaints about stray cats
in Lexington. Lexington
Town Recorder Veronica
Hess said that previously
a resident of Lexington
apartments had been feed-
ing stray cats and that there
seems to be “an abundance
of stray cats” now.
“There is a resident that
is feeding them, there’s no
may about it, and there’s no
way that’s going to stop,”
said Kennedy.
In the past, stray cats
had been live trapped and
the sheriff’s office took
them to Humane Society at
a cost of $10 for every cat.
Town council member Bill
Beard pointed out that a
few residents’ cats had also
been caught in the previous
sweep, which they didn’t
want to happen. Council
member Katie Imes said
she saw the population
living mostly in the cars at
the towing yard, and she
thought it would be possible
to home in on the stray pop-
ulation and avoid getting
people’s pets. “But it would
definitely be strategic,” she
added.
“It’s going to take a lit-
tle bit of live trapping again
and talking to the people we
know are feeding the cats
outside,” said Keith Hess.
Also at the meeting,
Veronica Hess reported that
she had a “pink slip” for a
“new to us” fire truck that
needs to be signed so the
town can start the process
of getting it into the Town
of Lexington’s name. She
and Imes also had a meet-
ing with a natural hazard
mitigation planner in which
they went over the 2016 list
of action items and created
a draft list of 2023 action
items. The list of action
items is required for future
funding for FEMA grants,
etc. Imes strssed that all the
work is still in draft phase
and would be presented to
the council for input. The
next meeting of the Morrow
County Natural Hazard
Mitigation Plan committee
is in January, but Lexington
will be hosting the meeting
Feb. 21.
“It’s nice to have some
representation from Lex-
ington participating on that
committee, because other-
wise it’s just going to be
presented and done,” Imes
said.
Gordon brought up that
she thought the town need-
ed to look into IT (internet
technology) issues. She said
the town recorder’s desktop
computer should have been
rebuilt and updated once a
year, but that computer has
been in use for at least five
years and has had nothing
done to it. She also said
that she talked to a busi-
ness in Bend that does IT
remotely. She wanted to
look into individual emails
for all employees and coun-
cil members, as well as
backing up the town’s files
remotely.
“I get really concerned
about, if we lose our Quick-
Books file, we are in a
world of hurt,” she said.
She said a backup serv-
er with two terabytes of hard
drive and automated daily
backup to the cloud would
cost $949.11 installed and
set up. The company also
quoted wiping and organi-
zation a computer at $89
per hour and networking at
$129 an hour, “but we don’t
have any networking,” she
added.
She said a contract
could also include a month-
ly fee for monitoring ev-
erything, which would be
between $100-$200 per
month.
She also said the town
needs to make sure all town
computers have hardware
requirements for Windows
11 or above, since Micro-
soft will stop supporting
Windows 10 next year.
Gordon said she is sure
-Continued to PAGE TEN
WE WISH ALL OF YOU A
Joyous Holiday Season
and a
Merry Christmas!
Together, let’s make 2023 a
year of Plentiful Harvests and
Thriving Community Growth.
From All of Us in
HEPPNER
279 N. Main Street
541-676-9125
IONE
280 Main Street
541-422-7466
Member FDIC
Spiritually Speaking
Father Thankachan Joseph
St. Patrick Catholic Church Heppner
Christmas: Time to sing
glory to God
Advent has been an intense preparation for the birth-
day of Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, which means
“the house of bread,” to become bread for all of us. He
was a beautiful example to everyone. At the threshold of
Christmas, are we ready to welcome Him into our homes
and into our personal lives? As for yourself, “What else
do I need to do to welcome Him into my individual life?”
The reading from Isaiah 9:1-6 begins like this: “The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has
shone.” On the first Sunday of Advent, we were reminded
to “let us then throw off the works of darkness and put
on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly
as in the day…” (Rom. 13:12). From the time Abraham,
our father in faith, was called by the Lord to set out, to go
forth from his homeland to an unknown region that God
would show him, our identity as believers has been that
of a people making its pilgrim way towards the promised
land. He accompanies us all through this life-journey. He
is ever faithful to His covenant, though we are not. He
accompanies our journey as “God is light, and in him there
is no darkness at all” (1 Jn. 1:5). Yet people experience
times of both light and darkness, fidelity and infidelity,
obedience and rebellion; times of being a pilgrim people
and times of being a people adrift.
If we love God and our brothers and sisters, we walk
in the light; in contrast. if we keep our hearts closed, if
we are dominated by pride, deceit, self-seeking, lust,
drunkenness, rivalry, jealousy and envy, darkness falls
within and around us. “Whoever hates his brother,”
writes the Apostle John, “is in the darkness; he walks in
the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because
the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 Jn. 2:11). The Babe
of Bethlehem comes as the source of grace and rays of
love from the Heavenly Father, to take us to His abode.
The Gospel reading from Luke (2:1-14), speaks of
the deeper meaning and purpose of Christ’s birth. God
became a baby, not a superman or an emperor, because
Christmas is all about love. God gave Himself totally
out of love for humanity. God sacrifices His own nature
to become one like us, to make us understand the true
meaning of love and that loving, giving, and sharing is not
limited it to the season of Christmas. All that is opposed
to these and simplicity—namely selfishness, greed, anger,
jealousy and pride—are the root causes for disharmony,
conflict, hatred, violence and absence of peace (at the
personal, social and global levels). Where there is genuine
love and simplicity there is peace.
Christmas is a reminder for each of us that we are
all the innkeepers who decide if there is some room for
Jesus or not. The real meaning of Christmas is when we
spiritually prepare ourselves to receive the Babe of Beth-
lehem in our hearts through the acts of sacrifices, morti-
fications and kindness. Christmas is not only putting up
decorations in front of our houses, preparing a Christmas
tree, and packing Christmas gifts under the Christmas
tree. We need to make time for reaching out to others in
their great need, to spend time with our aging parents and
grandparents, to examine the real meaning of Christmas.
Jesus was born in manger, but he became all things to all
people and quenched their hunger for the divine. We can
prepare a fabulous manger in our personal lives through
works of kindness and sacrifices, and become all things to
all people around us. That is the real meaning of Christmas
I feel. So, we, too, join the angels of God to sing glories
to God in the highest.