Heppner gazette-times., February 15, 2023, Image 1

Garbage rate increase
in the future for
Boardman residents
50¢
VOL. 143
NO. 7 8 Pages
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Commissioner candidates make their
case before board
By Andrea Di Salvo
The two Morrow Coun-
ty Commissioners heard
from three finalists for the
vacant Commissioner Posi-
tion 1 seat last Wednesday,
Feb. 8, during a regular
meeting in Heppner. The
commissioners are set to
appoint someone to fill
the Position 1 vacancy left
upon the recall of former
commissioner Jim Doherty.
The commissioners did
not make a final selection
last week but said they
would make a decision at
the Feb. 15 meeting, after
which the new commission-
er would be sworn in and
seated in office on Feb. 22.
The three selected for
interviews were Gus Pe-
terson of Ione, Roy Drago
Jr. of Boardman and Mike
McNamee of Irrigon. Each
of the three candidates was
given five minutes in which
Gus Peterson
to present their qualifica-
tions to the board, and the
commissioners then asked
follow-up questions of the
candidates. All three point-
ed to their Morrow County
roots and expressed a desire
to bring unity to the county.
First to appear before
the commissioners was Gus
Peterson of Ione. He identi-
fied himself as a fifth-gen-
eration farmer with bach-
elor’s degrees in political
More megawatts
planned for
Wheatridge wind
facility
Roy Drago Jr.
science and agricultural
science.
“I live in the largest
community in Morrow
County—the unincor-
porated community,” he
said, adding that for the
approximately 4,000 coun-
ty residents who don’t live
within city limits, county
government is their local
government. “As such, their
needs are unique and can
only be represented on the
county level.”
Mike McNamee
He added that he saw
this as a unique and chal-
lenging time in the county
and that he thought he had
the skill set to be a good
commissioner.
“We, here and now,
can solve the problems that
affect our neighbors. We,
here and now, can act as a
uniting force between our
communities,” he told the
commissioners. “We can
be the change we wish to
and they become part of
the current SIP agreement,”
added Morrow County As-
sessor Mike Gorman. “We
just get more additional
money. Once the exemption
expires, then they’re on the
tax roll.”
The added megawatts
from the project provide
potential for up to $400,000
additional funding for the
county based on the $8,000
per megawatt agreement.
Gorman added that be-
cause they had already
started the SIP agreement
but were not fully built out
yet, it would only be ex-
empt for the remainder of
the original 15 years.
“They don’t get their
own set of 15 years,” he
explained.
This is the second
amendment to the SIP. The
first was to include the solar
portion of the project. The
amendment has no effect on
towers already built.
Also at the meeting,
the county commissioners
approved an ordinance re-
vising the meeting schedule
of the board of commission-
ers. They had first broached
the idea early in January.
The new ordinance
specifies that they will meet
to conduct business on
two Wednesdays a month
instead of four, with the
understanding that special
meetings may be called as
needed. The meeting time
will remain at 9 a.m.
The ordinance did not
spell out meeting locations,
but the unwritten agreement
is that meetings will rotate
between government offic-
es in Heppner and Irrigon
going forward. Morrow
County Counsel Justin Nel-
son said he did not put the
locations in the ordinance
in order to maintain flexi-
bility if the board wanted to
Port helps Lexington
dig deep for feasibility
study
Rep. Greg Smith
(R-Heppner) was recently
awarded the 2021 Legisla-
tor of the Year Award by the
Oregon Fairs Association
(OFA). He received the
award at the legislative din-
ner and showcases hosted
by the OFA at the Oregon
Lexington Maintenance Director Keith Hess (right)
looks on as Port of Morrow staff use a vacuum exca-
vator, or “potholer,” to locate water pipes on C Street.
Lexington is conducting a feasibility study to update
the town’s water pipes, and the Port of Morrow lent
the equipment and staff to help the process along. The
equipment and labor helped save time in locating the
old composite pipes for the report. -Contributed photo
Greater Idaho
moves forward in
Idaho legislature
The Idaho House
of Representatives State
Affairs Committee voted
Monday to send the “Great-
er Idaho” bill to a vote of
the full House. Eleven out
of 12 members of the com-
mittee voted to recommend
that the House pass the bill,
bill number HJM 1, which
authorizes Idaho to begin
talks with Oregon about
a proposal to relocate the
state line they share.
The committee
held a hearing on the bill
Monday morning. In ad-
dition to the bill sponsors,
Rep. Judy Boyle and Rep.
Barbara Ehardt, three east-
ern Oregonians spoke in
favor of the bill at the hear-
ing, as well as several Idaho
citizens, but none spoke
against it.
Both Oregonians
and Idahoans testified that
they want Idaho drug law
to have jurisdiction over
eastern Oregon. They also
cited an economic analysis
published last week for the
Claremont Institute which
shows that rural Oregon
-Continued to PAGE THREE counties would be a net
benefit to Idaho financially.
A press release on the
Greater Idaho movement’s
website said, “We are ask-
ing Oregon Senate Presi-
dent Rob Wagner to give
this proposal a hearing in
Oregon like the one we had
today in Idaho. It’s a win-
win for both states, and a
poll a year ago showed that
68 percent of northwestern
Oregonian voters want it to
have a hearing.”
council is currently nego-
tiating with a candidate
who interviewed last week.
Boardman City Manager
pro tem Rick Stokoe added
for the record that the city
had conducted a nationwide
search and had narrowed
the field to three applicants.
The mayor did not
specify which candidate
the council had selected,
but the city had previously
announced that the three
finalists were Aaron Palm-
quist of Irrigon, Elke Doom
of Huron Township, MI and
Sharon Jakubowski Wolz
of Kearny, AZ. Those three
were interviewed by the
city council and three other
interview panels, and also
participated in a meet and
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
Smith receives
Legislator of the
Year award
-Continued to PAGE SIX
Board of commissioners
changes meeting schedule
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Morrow County
Board of Commissioners
approved an amendment to
the Wheatridge East Wind
Strategic Investment Pro-
gram (SIP) agreement last
Wednesday. The amend-
ment allows the wind proj-
ect, owned by NextEra,
to increase capacity from
the 450 megawatts (MW)
currently allowed by the
SIP up to 500 MW. Five
hundred megawatts is the
total capacity allowed by
the wind site certificate
issued by the state.
NextEra has already
built out wind towers with
300 MW of production and
had planned another section
at 150 MW, but now wants
to increase the planned
construction up to 200 MW.
NextEra development
director David Lawlor said
the project was always
planned for 500 MW total
but the location of some
of the towers has moved
south.
“Some of that was go-
ing to be built in Umatilla
County, and all we’re say-
ing right now is that all 500
will be in Morrow,” Lawlor
told the board of commis-
sioners. “If we do build up
into Umatilla, we would
have to negotiate a new SIP.
This would maximize the
originally-approved SIP.”
“They build these out
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Boardman City
Council has entered into
negotiations with one of
the city manager finalists,
Boardman Mayor Paul
Keefer announced at the
council’s regular meet-
ing Feb.7 at Boardman
City Hall. The council also
heard of a proposed rate
increase from Waste Con-
nections. The new rates
would include $14.71 for a
90-gallon cart and $10.64
for a 35-gallon cart. Waste
Connections proposed that
the new rates take effect
March 1, the council asked
to push it back to July for
budgetary reasons.
Regarding the city
manager position, Keefer
announced that the city
State Fair & Exposition
Center. “Our county fairs
are vitally important to each
community within District
57,” said Smith upon re-
ceiving the award. “They
offer incredibly positive
outlets for our youth, space
to host countless commu-
nity events, and in dire mo-
ments are centers for crisis
response. I was honored
to receive this award and
humbly share it with each
County Fair in District 57.”
Smith is currently serv-
ing his 12 th term as an Or-
egon State Representative,
making him the longest
serving member in the Or-
egon Legislature.
Doherty retires from
forest service
Hires on as new ad person at G-T
Cindi Doherty
Cindi Doherty, 65,
of Heppner retired from the
USDA Forest Service after
23 years on Friday, Jan. 27.
The forest service’s loss is
the Heppner Gazette-Time’s
gain, though. On Monday,
Jan. 30, Doherty took on
the role as the G-T’s new
advertising coordinator.
Doherty was born
in Boone, IA, but her family
moved to Ione when she
was eight. Both her parents
were teachers at the Ione
school, where Doherty at-
tended until her graduation
from Ione High School in
1975. That same year, she
married Mike Doherty,
and the couple moved to
Heppner. They have made
their home there ever since,
raising their children Chad,
Adam and Kylie in Hep-
pner.
It was when she
was pregnant with Adam
that Doherty began a career
that would, in some ways
bring her full circle. She
started out working for the
Heppner Gazette-Times,
owned then by the Shel-
dons. While there, she took
in ads from locals and did
ad layouts. Back then, the
newspaper looked a lot
different. All the layout was
done by hand, for one thing.
-Continued to PAGE TWO
CALL
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ext 204
for more
information