St. Pat’s Celebration
March 17-19
50¢
VOL. 143
NO. 5 8 Pages
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
CREZ II disburses more than $12 million
throughout county
The Columbia River En-
terprise Zone (CREZ) II
board distributed more
than $12 million to Mor-
row County organizations
and tax districts last month.
The board reviewed the
enterprise zone finan-
cials at its Jan. 23 meet-
ing in Boardman and dis-
cussed distribution of the
$12,343,637 it received
from the businesses locat-
ed in the CREZ II boundar-
ies. In most cases, amounts
aligned with last year’s
figures.
One notable exception is
the funding for Willow
Creek Valley Economic
Development Group (WC-
VEDG). Ione Community
Agri-Business Organiza-
tion (ICABO) had request-
ed that it directly receive
funds that would normally
be distributed to the city
through WCVEDG, and
the CREZ II board ap-
proved that request. As a
result, WCVEDG received
19.5 percent less than it did
last year, $592,699 rather
than $736,273, while ICA-
BO received the difference
at $143,573.
In other disbursements,
Irrigon and each of the
Willow Creek Valley cities
each received $200,000 for
community infrastructure
development. The City of
2022 CREZ II Disbursement by Entity
Boardman Cemetery
Boardman Central Urban Renewal Agency
Irrigon Cemetery
CREZ II Zone Manager Expense
Irrigon Park
Umatilla Morrow Radio & Data District
Oregon Trail Library
North Morrow Vector Control
North Morrow Vector Control Local Option
Morrow County Unified Recreation
Intermountain ESD
Blue Mountain Community College
Boardman Park
City of Heppner
City of Ione
Town of Lexington
Morrow County Health District
Morrow County Health District Local Option
Boardman Fire & Rescue
Willow Creek Valley Economic Development Group
ICABO
Morrow Education Foundation
Boardman Community Development Association
City of Irrigon
Morrow County
Port of Morrow
City of Boardman
TOTAL
Boardman, as one of the
enterprise zone’s sponsor-
ing entities, received a total
of $2,332,944 in sponsor
allotments, bond payments
and other payments. The
other two sponsoring en-
tities, Morrow County and
the Port of Morrow, each
received $2,012,786 in al-
lotments.
A detailed list of dis-
bursements from the 2022
CREZ II accompanies this
article.
In other business, the
CREZ II board named
Boardman representative,
1,584.92
4,427.35
8,143.45
9,451.15
32,358.67
23,010.08
34,324.33
25,699.52
13,628.59
61,704.79
83,308.83
132,097.57
95,979.53
200,000.00
200,000.00
200,000.00
231,875.52
53,151.44
422,975.51
592,699.93
143,573.27
1,117,398.28
1,144,936.00
1,152,790.80
2,012,786.49
2,012,786.51
2,332,944.87
12,343,637.40
mayor Paul Keefer, as
chair and Morrow Coun-
ty representative, coun-
ty commissioner David
Sykes, as vice chair. The
CREZ II board is made up
of two representatives each
from Morrow County, the
Port of Morrow and the
City of Boardman.
Heppner teen
shares love of anime
through local club
Participants in the anime club gather in a corner of Flood
Town Books last Saturday. Sam Lamb (upper right) is joined
by (clockwise from bottom) Dylan Sherrer, Xavier Sauceda,
Julian Sauceda, Moira Di Salvo and Hannah Brannon. -Photo
by Andrea Di Salvo
By Andrea Di Salvo
Saturday morning
at Flood Town Books in
Heppner, a small group of
tweens and teens clustered
to discuss one of their fa-
health program in different vorite topics—Japanese
forms until 2007, when the anime. The anime club
commissioners authorized
the formation of a non-
profit, feeling that would
better serve the needs of
the county. Since then, CCS
has changed and grown,
The Morrow County
expanding from Morrow Board of Commissioners
County to contract with recently approved $150,000
Morrow, Wheeler, Gilliam, to aid Willow Creek Ter-
Grant and Umatilla coun- race (WCT) assisted living
facility.
Willow Creek Terrace
Board of Directors Secre-
tary/Treasurer Jeff Bailey
appeared before the board
as a follow-up to a discus-
sion in December, at which
he had told the commission-
ers-elect that Willow Creek
Terrace was struggling both
financially and with staff-
ing. The assisted living
facility’s difficulties stem
Kimberly Lindsay
from COVID-19 restric-
ties, with an 11-person tions but are also exacerbat-
board made up of repre- ed by current inflation and a
sentatives from the five difficult hiring market.
counties.
Morrow County Fi-
Lindsay said the core nance Director Kevin Ince
service of a community said he was comfortable
mental health program is a with giving funding to WCT
and suggested the mon-
Community Counseling Solutions discusses
successes, struggles with commissioners
meets weekly in Heppner
to talk about old favorites,
new finds, interesting plots
and anime-style art.
It may seem like a
strange topic to find in a
small town in the middle of
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
County awards assisted
living facility $150K
The Community Counseling Solutions office in Heppner. -Contributed photo
By Andrea Di Salvo
Community Counsel-
ing Solutions Executive
Director Kimberly Lindsay
shared the program’s suc-
cesses and struggles with
the Morrow County Board
of Commissioners during a
report to that board earlier
this month. At the top of the
list of struggles is the inabil-
ity to find enough clinicians
in today’s hiring climate.
“There is a lot of work
that we do. COVID has re-
ally impacted our ability to
hire clinicians, I think,” said
Lindsay. “Behavioral health
was one of the hardest hit.”
She told the commis-
sioners that a lot of CCS’s
work is required to be in
person, but when COVID
restrictions were lifted,
clinicians didn’t necessarily
want to go back to in-person
work.
Heppner’s St. Patrick’s Celebration will return
March 17-19 this year. -File photo
The 2023 St. Patrick’s included in the printed pro-
Wee Bit O’ Ireland Celebra- gram. Deadline to submit
tion is scheduled for Friday, your events and activities
March 17, through Sunday, is Friday, Feb. 10.
March 19.
This year’s St. Patrick’s
Any business, nonprofit Day Celebration will in-
or church group that is clude most of its traditional
planning an event or activ- activities, along with some
ity during the St. Patrick’s new, and some older, revi-
weekend is asked to contact talized events. All enter-
Shelby Matthews at the tainment will be free, with
Heppner Chamber of Com- sponsorship from Morrow
merce office at 541-676- County Unified Recreation
5536 or heppnerchamber@ District.
gmail.com so they can be
“There is a lot of clini-
cal work, community men-
tal health program work,
that is entirely online now.
You can have a visit with
your counselor on your
phone, and a lot of counsel-
ors like to do that,” she said.
“I think CCS was fortunate
that we didn’t have the
same exodus as some other
community mental health
programs.”
However, she added
that they were able to cre-
ate additional positions
due to new funding, but
that CCS had not been
able to fill those positions
because they are largely
in-person based services.
“So we’re really struggling
right now in filling those
clinician-level positions.”
Because of that, she
said, the access for Morrow
County has become more
concerning. Everyone, she
said, is seen immediately, or
triaged, to assess their need.
Before COVID, patients
who were not in critical
need were able to get in
for assessment in Heppner
in a week or a week and a
half, and in Boardman in
two to three weeks. Now,
it averages three weeks
in Heppner and up to two
months in Boardman.
She said some clini-
cians have 60 or 70 people
on their caseloads, which
doesn’t equal great care.
She said the clinicians want
to do a good job, so if they
continue to pile on new
patients as some programs
have done, those clinicians
will leave.
“So we’re choosing to
put a cap on the upper end
of the number of people.
We’re choosing to provide
good care to those we are
seeing. We are creating
space for the people who
are high acuity,” she said,
“but the end result is that
people are having to wait
longer to be seen.”
“If you know anybody
who has a master’s degree
in behavioral health, send
them our way,” she added.
Lindsay also provided
an overview of the role of
CCS and its relationship
with the county. In the
1963, the Kennedy Com-
munity Mental Health Act
moved responsibility for
mental health authority
to the states. The State of
Oregon moved that respon-
sibility to the counties and
said each county is a local
mental health authority. The
county can either operate a
county mental health pro-
gram or contract it out to a
nonprofit.
Morrow County creat-
ed and operated a mental
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
ey come from American
Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
dollars, since those funds
were originally intended to
help with COVID-related
impacts.
“This is well aligned
with the original intent,”
Ince said.
Bailey informed the
board that, as of December,
this is the first time all of the
rooms in the assisted living
facility have been rented
sine before COVID.
“It’s been a long haul,”
Bailey said. “Two years
of not being able to even
interview tenants.”
He also told the com-
missioners that WCT had
recently hired a new ad-
ministrator, who would
be starting soon. Ince rec-
ommended awarding the
$150,000 through a grant
agreement.