Fundraiser for Nelson,
Stutzman families a
big success
50¢
VOL. 143
NO. 4 8 Pages
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Engineering firm
requests additional
funds, Heppner
council says no
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Heppner City
Council held a hot debate
over a request for addi-
tional compensation from
engineering firm Fergu-
son Engineering at its last
meeting Jan. 9, eventually
denying the request with a
3-2 vote. Council president
John Bowles was absent
from the meeting.
Ferguson had requested
additional compensation in
the amount of $18,043.22
on its contract for work
on the city street project.
Heppner City Manager
Kraig Cutsforth told the
council that Ferguson En-
gineering signed a contract
with the city right after HB
2017 was appointed. At
that time, Cutsforth said,
they contracted a rate about
20 percent below their go-
ing rate. Cutsforth said he
doubted anyone could have
predicted the pandemic and
inflation that would occur in
the last few years it has tak-
en to complete the project.
“By the time we com-
pleted this, we were look-
ing at rates as much as 50
percent less than what you
see out there. We put them
in a pretty bad spot in that
sense,” he said, adding that
the same went for Premier
Excavation.
He said at the time Pre-
mier bid on the project,
they were the low bid at 2.2
million, but the city then
went on to add more to the
project. That also required
Ferguson to do more engi-
neering and surveying than
were in the original project
parameters.
“They (Ferguson)
asked at that time about
their rate, and I held them
to that rate,” he said. “I
told them if there’s money
left over at the end, we’ll
come to the council and
we’ll see.”
He said he also collect-
ed other bids at the time
to compare, and the bids
he received were 28 to 35
percent higher than what
Ferguson’s standard rates
are. He requested giving
them the additional com-
pensation, which averaged
out to about a seven percent
increase on what they had
been paid.
He said part of his rea-
soning stemmed from the
inability to get engineering
firms to come to Heppner
and, if they did, to get them
to come back.
“I would like to do
what’s right, at least in my
opinion,” he added. “So
that we can keep at least
that connection there. If
we don’t, I fear that we’re
going to have trouble in
the future for the City of
Heppner getting people to
come.”
He said that the city
was about $100,000 below
its state contract, and if
they paid the reimburse-
ment, they would be about
$80,000 below what they
were allowed to spend,
so the city would still be
within budget. The funds
would be reimbursed by the
State of Oregon and are an
allowable expense.
“It’s not coming from
our budget. It’s coming
from our project,” he told
the council.
He said the state was
aware of it and okay with
the extra money, because
“they’ve seen it in more
case than one.”
“Of course, we’ve nev-
er seen this COVID thing
and everything that has
happened in such great
numbers,” said councilor
Sharon Inskeep. “I under-
stand that the state’s going
to pay that, but they (Fer-
guson) were not on time,
they didn’t complete what
they said they were going
to complete last year.”
Cutsforth pointed out
that work like striping was
the responsibility of the
construction contractor,
Premier Excavation.
“But they did cost us
quite a bit on change or-
ders,” put in Sweeney.
“I will not say they are
by far the best I’ve ever
seen,” said Cutsforth. “I
will not do that. I’m just
saying if you have one
dentist in town, you don’t
want to make that one mad
at you.”
“But you don’t pay
them off, just because you
don’t want to make them
mad,” said councilor Adam
Doherty. “It just seems
weird to me. I’m maybe not
wrapping my head around
this after-the-fact additional
charge.”
“We can’t see the fu-
ture. We don’t know the
future. If we did, everybody
would go, ‘I’m going to
pencil out 17 additional
percent on that because in
the future it’s going to be
more,’” he added. “They
budgeted this out. They
timelined it. Why are we
getting dinged for them
not coming over and taking
care of their business?”
He added that they had
a hard time getting Fer-
guson to come over, and
when they did the city was
charged for change orders.
“Last time I checked,
we weren’t flush with funds
either,” he said.
Cutsforth reiterated that
the money wasn’t coming
from the city, and that the
additional charge still fell
within the state’s parame-
ter. Councilor Dale Bates
pointed back to Cutsforth’s
statement that any other en-
gineering firm would have
been much more, as much
as $200,000 more, Bates
guessed. Both Inskeep and
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Community action
group questions
county commission
on nitrate issue
By Andrea Di Salvo
Oregon Rural Action
(ORA), a community-based
organization out of La
Grande, brought sever-
al Boardman community
members to the table as they
placed county government
in the hot seat at the last
meeting of the Morrow
County Board of Commis-
sioners.
Zaira Sanchez, Director
of Community Organizing
with ORA, Zoomed in to
the meeting from a remote
location during the regular
board meeting Jan 18. She
first thanked Commission
Chair David Sykes for at-
tending Sen. Jeff Merkley’s
tour of Boardman’s West
Glen community Jan. 15
but said community mem-
bers had a lot of questions
about what was going to
happen next now that the
emergency declaration has
ended.
“There’s many people
who still don’t have safe
water, and people have been
depending on the water
delivery to have access to
safe water,” Sanchez told
the commissioners. “Many
people are not sure if they
have safe water yet, because
there’s a possibility that
some people still haven’t
Zaira Sanchez, Director
of Community Organiz-
ing with ORA- Contribut-
ed Photo
received testing.
“We have someone in
this room who, back in
August, tested at 22 and
recently did a water test
again, and the results went
up, so we know that peo-
ple’s nitrate levels can fluc-
tuate,” she added.
She also said the filters
weren’t “a hundred percent
functioning” for everyone,
depending on their nitrate
levels, so there is a need
for continued testing. San-
chez then have the floor to
several of the community
members gathered at the
ORA Zoom site.
Ray Akers, who iden-
tified himself as a 45-year
Boardman resident, told the
commissioners that he re-
lies on his well for drinking
water, but that it had tested
25.3 milligrams per liter
for nitrates, or 2.5 times
the federal safe drinking
water standard of 10 parts
per million. He then said he
understood that as of Jan.
13, the county would no
longer offer free well water
testing for nitrates.
“Is this true?” he asked.
Commissioner Sykes
referred the question to
Morrow County Emergen-
cy Manager Paul Gray, who
explained that the county
would no longer be test-
ing only because the state
would be taking it over
-Continued to PAGE SIX and doing a “more robust”
testing, which would in-
clude testing for more than
nitrates. He said once they
had a date on which the
state would take over, the
county would set a date to
stop testing so there would
be no lapse in service.
“Why have we stopped
the well-water testing cur-
rently?” asked Akers.
“The well-water testing
has not stopped. It is still
going, at least until Jan.
27,” said Gray. “Whoever
is spreading that it stopped
is not giving you the correct
information.”
Sanchez interjected
that a lot of people were
not aware that testing was
still happening and asked
how the county was alerting
people. Gray countered that
the county was partnering
with ORA in getting the
information out.
“Have we not?” he
asked.
Sanchez agreed that
was the case.
“Then part of the an-
swer is, we need you to
also assist us in getting that
message out,” replied Gray.
“But I’m not going to put
out a public release without
having all the facts in that
document.
“Do you want the cor-
rect information, or do you
want the partial information
to be released that will ac-
tually make people be more
worried that something’s
going to happen without
having a definite answer?”
he added.
“Things have already
happened to a lot of people
in the community health-
wise,” responded Akers.
“And there’s still a bunch
of people who haven’t been
notified, so I guess any kind
of knowledge that could get
to the folks who don’t know
would be huge.
“We know there’s a
problem,” he added. “In my
opinion there’s a lot of peo-
ple who don’t know about
the problem, so we’ve got
to do what it takes to get
the problem out in front of
the folks so they know that
they may or may not have a
problem with their drinking
water.”
Kelly Doherty of
Boardman also spoke to the
commission. Kelly Doherty
is the wife of former com-
missioner Jim Doherty, who
was recalled in a special
election certified Dec. 27.
He had been spearheading
the county nitrate response
until that time.
-Continued to PAGE SIX
The Morrow County Fairgrounds was crowded last
Sunday as community members gathered for a fund-
raiser to benefit the Nelson and Stutzman families.
-Photo by Chris Sykes
Savanna Greenup on Blueberry. Savanna had the
fourth fastest run out of 75 runners. -Contributed photo
Organizers of the bene-
fit for the Nelson and Stutz-
man families last Sunday
said the event was a huge
success, with $22,978
raised as of Monday and
more donations still com-
ing in.
The event at the fair-
grounds Jan. 22 included a
barrel race, soup feed, and
auction and raffle. Proceeds
went to the families of
Kellie Nelson and Ron and
Tami Stutzman, all three of
whom were killed in a fatal
crash Dec. 30.
Tiffanie Greenup said
the barrel race had 75 run-
ners and brought in $1,951.
(Runners who received
payouts are listed below.)
The soup feed, which
was organized by Jeanie
Collins, raised $4,200 to go
to the families.
The auction and raffle
had raised $16,827.15 as
of Monday. There were 126
items donated. Julie Baker
organized the auction and
-Continued to PAGE THREE
National association
names Grant Coach
of the Year
Grant speaks to the Mustang football team during the
semifinals game against Oakland last season. -Photo by Kirsti
Cason
Heppner Jr./Sr. High
School football coach Greg
Grant has been named Coach
of the Year for 11-player
football by the National Fed-
eration of State High School
Coaches Association,
Grant was selected in
large part because he has
compiled an outstanding
330-76 record in 41 years
of coaching. He has led
his teams to three Oregon
School Activities Association
(OSAA) state championships
(1992, 2015 and 2019) and
three runner-up finishes
(1989, 2007 and 2014).
Grant, who ranks No. 4
on the all-time Oregon foot-
ball coaching victories list,
has received numerous state
and conference Coach of the
Year awards. In addition to
coaching football at Heppner
High School since 1990,
Grant also has served as the
school’s athletic director
since 2001 and has been an
assistant coach for several
other sports.
Grant has served on the
Oregon Athletic Coaches
Association and the Oregon
Athletic Directors Associ-
ation Boards of Directors,
and he has served on several
OSAA committees.
Grant’s philosophy of
athletics is to “capitalize on
the lessons available in ath-
letics to enrich every player’s
life now and into the future.”
“It is my goal that
players leave our program
realizing that attendance,
timeliness, effort and ac-
countability are actions that
will set them up for success
in every facet of their lives,”
Grant says.