SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 1, 2023
BEO reports 2022
earnings
County commission discusses county
admin, nitrate updates
BEO Bancorp and its
subsidiary, Bank of East-
ern Oregon, last week
announced consolidated
year-end 2022 earnings
of $8,585,000 with aver-
age earnings per share of
$7.13. Total assets were
$890.3 million. Net loans
were $488.8 million, while
deposits ended the year at
$819.8 million.
“By all typical finan-
cial measures, 2022 was a
strong year. We ended 2021
in a very liquid and asset
sensitive position. As 2022
unfolded, the tightening of
fiscal policy and increasing
interest rates by the Federal
Reserve added significantly
to our interest income,”
said president and CEO Jeff
Bailey.
According to chief fi-
nancial officer Mark Lem-
mon, net income rose 24.1
percent year-over-year. Re-
turn on average assets is one
percent compared to 0.93
percent in 2021. Return on
average equity is at 17.54
percent, up from 15.42
percent in 2021.
“Our book value per
share is $41.51, up 4.3
percent from last year’s
$39.80, while shareholder
equity increased 4.3 per-
cent year-over-year,” said
Lemmon.
Chief operations of-
ficer Becky Kindle said,
“Deposits grew 8.8 percent
year over year. Along with
organic growth, we contin-
Online participants able to interact in many languages thanks
to Zoom translation program
ue to gain new relationships
in markets where bank
consolidations and branch
closures have occurred. Our
team of bankers have done
a fabulous job in navigating
another interesting year.”
“Loan volume in-
creased 4.8 percent year-
over-year. We have ex-
panded our lending teams
in strategic locations, and
those efforts are paying
off,” added chief lending
officer John Qualls.
Chief credit officer Ed
Rollins said, “Our loan
portfolio has performed
exceptionally well over the
past year. With improved
asset quality we did not add
to our provision for possible
loan losses during 2022,”
adding that this compared
to a provision of $840,000
in 2021.
“Given our rural foot-
print, it should come as no
surprise that as agriculture
goes, so goes our bank,”
Bailey said. “Timely rains
in the late winter and spring
turned what could have
been a poor crop into an
above-average crop in most
of our trade area. Higher
input costs were made up
for by strong production
and decent prices across the
various commodities.
“Renewal season has
revealed strong margins
as we head into 2023, but
as last year proved, timely
rains make all the difference
in the world,” he concluded.
Statewide graduation
rate rises, but Morrow
County still ahead of
the curve
Statewide rate second highest
in Oregon’s history
The statewide grad-
uation rate for the class
of 2022 is 81.3 percent,
marking gains for every
student group compared
to the previous year and
the second highest grad-
uation rate ever recorded
in Oregon, according to
data released last week by
the Oregon Department of
Education (ODE).
Meanwhile, Morrow
County was ahead of the
state average across the
board. The 2021-22 four-
year cohort graduation rate
was 95.08 percent for Mor-
row County, with a total of
174 graduates.
The graduation rate
was higher than 95 per-
cent for several groups,
including males, Career
and Technical Education
(CTE) students, Hispanic
and Latino students and
former or current English
learners. Females had a
94.94 percent graduation
rate, while white students
overall had a 90.67 gradua-
tion rate, economically dis-
advantaged students were
at 93.08 percent, students
with disabilities were at 92
percent and homeless stu-
dents had an 87.5 percent
graduation rate.
Within the county, the
ODE reported an 85 percent
graduation rate for Ione
School District/Ione Com-
munity Charter School.
Morrow County School
District had a 96.32 percent
graduation rate. Over the
past decade MCSD says it
has seen continual growth
in graduation rates, rising
from 76 percent in 2011-12.
The most recent rate is more
than 15 percentage points
higher than the statewide
rate of 81.3 percent. .Hep-
pner Jr. Sr. High School
came in at 96.97 percent,
Irrigon High School at 94
percent, Morrow Education
Center at 77.78 percent and
Riverside High School at a
whopping 100 percent.
Individual schools
were not all broken down
by demographic.
For the graduating
class of 2022 in particular,
MCSD Matt Combe said is
important to highlight that
these families were dealt
the tremendous challenge
of learning during COVID
restrictions for over half of
their high school career.
“We are very proud of
MCSD students and the
determination they continue
to display to ensure they
make it to graduation day,”
Combe said.
An ODE release stated
that after a slight drop due
to the impacts of the global
COVID-19 pandemic, the
2022 graduation rates are “a
positive sign that Oregon’s
students and school systems
are continuing to recover.”
Donation fund
established for
Kendrick family
Ione Community
Church has announced it
has established a fund to
help the family of Ione
man Andr’a Kendrick, who
passed away suddenly last
week.
Checks can be made out
to Ione Community Church
with “Andr’a’ fund” in
the memo line and can be
taken to the Bank of East-
ern Oregon ICC business
savings account or sent to
Ione Community Church,
PO Box D, Ione, OR 97843.
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Morrow County
Board of Commissioners
discussed the hiring of a
new county administrator
and heard about the tran-
sition of the water nitrate
issue from emergency to
long-term recovery at its
last meeting in Heppner.
The meeting was trans-
lated into Spanish for online
participants thanks to a new
Zoom program implement-
ed by the county this week.
Morrow County Counsel
Justin Nelson said he had
tested the new translation
system with Oregon Ru-
ral Action, a communi-
ty-based organization that
had brought up the issue
of translation at a previ-
ous meeting. The system
offers several languages
and enables users to select
their spoken and heard/
read languages for two-way
translation.
“It works pretty well,”
said Nelson.
During the meeting,
the two commissioners
addressed the hiring of
an interim county admin-
istrator to replace Greg
Sweek, who resigned Jan.
13. Morrow County Human
Resources Director Lindsay
Grogan told the commis-
sioners there were three
applicants for the position,
which closed last Tuesday.
“All three do seem to
be qualified,” Grogan said.
Morrow County Com-
missioner David Sykes
asked Grogan what the
process usually is for hiring
in the county. She replied
that human resources typi-
cally scores the applications
according to criteria pulled
from the job description.
The candidates are then in-
terviewed, and those inter-
views are scored according
to the same criteria. The
two are then added together
for a final score.
The commissioners
agreed that Grogan should
score the applications and
forward qualified applicants
to the board of commission-
ers for interviews. Morrow
County Counsel Justin Nel-
son told the commissioners
it would be appropriate to
hold an executive session
for those interviews, since it
would be an employee type
of position.
The board of commis-
sioners also chose Proth-
man, a recruiting search
firm based in Issaquah, WA,
to help with the search for
a permanent county admin-
istrator.
Morrow County Com-
missioner Jeff Wenholz said
he had researched several
firms. While he found three
that he said looked prom-
ising, he recommended
Prothman based on its fee
structure and the fact that
the firm had worked with
Morrow County previous-
ly. Prothman is commonly
used for searches in the
state of Oregon and has
previously helped Morrow
County with searches for
a finance director, public
health nurse supervisor
and planning director. The
estimated base cost for this
search would be around
$17,500 plus expenses.
Wenholz asked if any
county staff had input based
on working with the firm
previously. Grogan said
she thought that was a good
choice. She also added that
the county could do its own
background checks, so they
could save on that cost with
the search firm.
The commissioners
also heard from Mor-
row County Clerk Bobbi
Childers regarding the va-
cancy for Position 1 on
Robin Canaday
- Contributed Photo
the county commission.
Childers said she currently
had four filed candidates
for the open commissioner
position.
Morrow County Public
Health Director Robin Can-
aday gave an update on the
transition from emergency
phase to recovery phase of
the nitrate emergency. The
emergency declaration offi-
cially ended two weeks ago.
The Oregon Department of
Human Services in taking
over water delivery to af-
fected residents. Canaday
said the DHS assured her
the delivery will continue
at least into June, not March
as had been discussed pre-
viously. Meanwhile, the
Oregon Health Authority
(OHA) is taking over the
funding of well testing,
research and filtration sys-
tem. The OHA is currently
planning strategic testing
of wells and is developing
a voucher system for well
owners.
“There are some kinks
to work out as far as how
people are going to access
these vouchers,” Canaday
added.
Public health will also
be working with the plan-
ning department and the
county’s new water systems
consultant on long-term
recovery. Other entities
form Umatilla County and
Oregon Rural Action are
assisting in the application
process for the 1.7 million
in Congressional spending,
and Canaday asked for the
board’s continued support
in their efforts.
“This effort is going to
be ongoing for quite some
time,” said Canaday.
Wenholz said he would
serve as commission liaison
to the recovery efforts.
Also at the meeting, the
board agreed to sign a letter
of support for a grant appli-
cation to the Oregon Dept.
of Transportation Commu-
nity Paths Program as a
follow-up to a discussion
held at a previous board
meeting. Morrow County
Planning Director Tamra
Mabbott is applying for the
grant, which would be for
the planning and design of
two sections of the Heritage
Trail, a bicycle-pedestrian
pathway between Irrigon
and Boardman. It is part of
a larger plan to rehabilitate
and improve the Colum-
bia River Heritage Trail,
which runs across the north
end of the county from the
Umatilla County to Gilliam
County lines.
Morrow County Assis-
tant Roadmaster Mike Hau-
gen reported that the road
department had several road
emergencies in January,
mostly due to heavy rain
and high winds. They in-
cluded water running down
Halvorsen Ln., washouts on
Kincade and McElligott,
multiple trees down with
one entirely blocking Lit-
tle Butter Creek, a broken
plank on a Dry Fork bridge,
lots of mud on Depot Ln.
and a sink hole on Clark’s
Canyon. He said county
road crews have also been
working to build up the
shoulders at the top of the
grade on Ione-Gooseberry.
In her report, Childers
said the county clerk’s of-
fice is currently setting up
for a May 16 election for
taxing boards. Filing will
be Feb. 4 through March
16. The last day to register
to vote is April 25, with
ballots mailed on April 26.
Childers said the county
currently has 7,027 voters.
Childers said the cost
of paper and envelopes has
risen, and those supplies
are more difficult to get.
Postage costs have also
gone up. Cost of the May
2022 primary election was
$12,221, but she said that
election is more expensive
because of colored paper
used for different ballots.
Cost per eligible voter was
$1.73, with $4.41 per vote
cast for the 39.1 percent
turnout. For the Nov. 8
general election, cost per
eligible voter was $1.61, or
$2.73 per vote cast with the
58.9 percent voter turnout.
Cost for the November re-
call election was $1.35 per
eligible voter and $3.68 per
vote cast with 36.55 percent
turnout.
She also told the board
she has the opportunity to
get a $5,000 grant for mod-
ernization. If received, she
said she would most likely
use the money for cameras
to improve security at ballot
drop boxes.
Grogan told the board
that 12 active positions are
keeping human resources
busy on the recruitment
side, and that in the last
three months they have
hired a senior maintenance
specialist, a payroll and
benefits administrator, a
transit manager and a sher-
iff’s deputy.
Grogan told the board
that in 2019 there were nine
positions filled. There were
24 job offers made in 2020,
38 in 2021 and 47 in 2022.
“It’s getting a lot busier
as the county grows,” she
said.
She said the safety
committee had formed a
subcommittee for wellness,
and they are planning a
year-long wellness program
for employees.
“We’re pretty excited
about that,” she said.
Sykes asked if Grogan
has seen any improvement
in finding qualified appli-
cants. “Are you seeing any-
thing loosen up?” he asked.
“Nothing has been
improving. It’s still very
challenging to get qualified
applicants to apply,” she re-
sponded, adding that some
public health positions have
been open for years. “We’re
struggling just like all the
county governments I’ve
talked to.”
Morrow County Sur-
veyor Matt Kenny reported
that they surveyor’s office
produced 16 survey maps
in the final quarter of 2022.
The yearly total for survey
recordings was 45 and con-
sisted of eight subdivisions/
replats, 19 partition plats
and 18 standard survey
filings.
In her report, Canaday
said that the health de-
partment received a new
vaccine refrigerator, and it
is plugged in and holding
temperature. She said ex-
clusion day for schools is
coming up Feb. 15, so they
have been collaborating
with schools and will be
going to each school to try
to get students up to date on
vaccines prior to that date.
Canaday also informed
the board that the health de-
partment has four staff start-
ing the classes this month to
become certified Spanish
translators. She also said
they still have two open
positions for nurses and
have created a new position
to fulfill requirements of PE
75 (Lower Umatilla Basin
Groundwater Management
Area Services), but have no
applicants as of yet.
During public com-
ment, Linda Skendzel,
Morrow County Veterans
Services Officer, informed
the commissioners of an
upcoming funding oppor-
tunity from Oregon Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs
for suicide awareness. She
said she had applied for the
grant and would keep the
board posted. The grant,
if received, would have to
be used before the end of
the fiscal year. She said she
had already been speaking
with Community Counsel-
ing Solutions (CCS) about
partnering on the project.
CCS already has a Zero
Suicide program that Mor-
row County Counsel Justin
Nelson said would be a
good tie-in to the veterans
services aspect.
Sykes ended the meet-
ing by reporting that he had
talked with Judge Daniel
Hill regarding a new circuit
court building and asking
for staff input.
“Circuit court needs a
new building, badly,” Sykes
said, adding that Morrow
County has a high possi-
bility of getting funding
through a 50 percent match
during this legislative ses-
sion. He said former com-
missioner Melissa Lindsay
had been working on it ex-
tensively, and he had been
trying to get up to speed on
the project.
“I really want us to be
on top of this,” he said.
The Morrow Coun-
ty Board of Commission-
ers also held an executive
session after the regular
meeting. The stated pur-
pose of the session was to
consult with legal counsel
regarding current or possi-
ble litigation the county is
involved in.
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