Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 22, 2023 -- SEVEN
Heppner needs more buildable land,
Morrow County School District audit
from PAGE ONE er also gave the board an
dropped from the typical 92
but old mill site begins to show promise has -Continued
led his teams to multiple overview of the work she percent down to 80 percent
The site of the old Kinzua mill, now the South Morrow County Industrial Park, has been
left undeveloped because of being on the flood plan. Plans are underway to change that and
add around 60 acres to South Morrow’s buildable industrial land. -Photo by Andrea Di Salvo
By Andrea Di Salvo
Brian Points of Points
Consulting shared some
preliminary findings from
his buildable-lands anal-
ysis of Heppner at a town
hall Feb. 13. Points told
the small crowd of coun-
cil members and Heppner
residents that data so far
showed a limited amount
of buildable land within the
city limits or urban growth
boundary (UGB).
Points Consulting, a
firm based in Moscow, ID,
held town hall meetings
in all three South Morrow
County cities as part of a
Goal 9 assessment for the
Willow Creek Valley.
Goal 9 refers to an Or-
egon Statewide Planning
Goal. The Oregon State-
wide Planning Program
has 17 planning goals, 14
of which apply east of the
Cascades. Goal 9 is a goal
for economic development.
“Among other things,
it means that cities and
counties should have an
economic development
strategy,” Morrow County
Planner Tamra Mabbot told
the group. Among other
things, cities should have a
20-year supply of employ-
ment lands. Employment
lands are places people
work, either commercial or
industrial property.
Points said the assess-
ment is 60-75 percent done,
with the final version proba-
bly being finished in April.
If, after April, the numbers
show that the cities don’t
have enough buildable
lands, Mabbott said there
are planning steps the com-
munities can take.
“Urban growth bound-
ary expansion is one of
those steps,” said Mabbott.
“That’s just one option.
You could also look at your
code. You could look at a lot
of other things.
“You want to make sure
that you have enough places
for businesses to expand.”
Points presented three
maps that showed build-
able lands inventory. One
showed developed land,
one showed vacant or re-de-
velopable land, and one
showed the South Morrow
County Industrial Park.
“That’s actually some-
thing we would like your
input on, because you live
here, we live in Idaho,”
Points said of the maps.
“It’s important that we get
this right. It’s important that
we know what the actual
calculations are for what
land can actually be used.
That’s really the heart of
what this Goal 9 process is
all about.”
As far as the buildable
lands inventory, project se-
nior planner Ryan Hughes
of Nexus Planning said
they take their data for de-
veloped land from Morrow
County tax assessors as
well as zoning designations
from the Oregon Dept. of
Revenue.
Undeveloped means
vacant or such low-level
development as to be con-
sidered vacant. For re-de-
velopable, he said they took
guidance from an Oregon
Administrative Rule, which
defines it as a parcel that has
land value that exceeds the
value of the improvements.
“There may be some
changes since the data was
collected,” Hughes said.
“There may be particu-
lar lots that are improved
or have been developed
subsequently to our data
collection, so that’s where
we really need eyes on the
ground from some of you
folks that can help us out.”
“If you want your com-
munity to thrive, you need
certain things. You need
a place for people to live,
you need places for people
to work. There’s a limited
amount of land on which
those things can happen,”
Points said, adding that,
within the state, that amount
has gotten more limited
through the urban growth
boundary process. “You
can’t just build whatever
you want wherever you
want. Those days are over.”
“That takes more plan-
ning and it takes more fore-
thought if you’re actually
going to provide those re-
sources for your citizens,”
he added.
For residential lands,
it means looking at what
is available, whether the
area has the right types of
residential areas, and the
ideal population density for
the area.
For commercial lands,
the question is whether
there is space for commer-
cial or industrial develop-
ment. Looking at commer-
cial lands, Points said the
idea is to know whether a
community has enough of
those areas for the next 20
years.
“If you don’t, then it’s
going to be really difficult
for your city to grow, be-
cause then what are your
options?” he said. Options
he listed were out commut-
ing, working from home
or getting dense with the
employment available. “All
of those can happen organi-
cally, but they’re not ideal,”
he said.
He said the still need
to assess other supply con-
straints, as well as do a
demand assessment.
“There’s two sides of
every economic equation,
right? How much do you
actually need?” Points
asked. “If there’s not unmet
demand, then you really
don’t need more supply.”
To determine that, he
said, they look at industry
and employment trends,
existing employers and how
much space they need, and
where they’re going to be
going in the future. Part of
that input they need locally.
“Only so much of that
stuff is reflected in the data.
The rest is more tacit or
subliminal,” said Points.
That said, Points did
present some promising
trends within Morrow
County.
Morrow County has
had strong employment
growth, increasing 44 per-
cent in an 11-year span. The
County’s total employment
increased 26 percent—
higher than the state, and
40 percent higher than the
national level.
However, despite em-
ployment increases, the
communities in the Willow
Creek Valley have strug-
gled, particularly at mo-
ments when the region was
struck by macroeconomic
forces.
“It’s a lot harder, I’ll tell
you that right off the bat, to
get this type of granularity,
this kind of data, for the city
of Heppner,” Points said.
“There’s no federal agency
that tracks that. The data
that we have is limited.”
Morrow County as a
whole has also experienced
significant growth in wages,
increasing 125 percent in
11 years. The county has
grown 45 percent more
than the state, 63 percent
more than the nation in that
span of time. Points said the
Columbia River Enterprise
Zone (CREZ) has helped
boost earnings in Morrow
County by a significant
degree.
“That policy and the
wage incentives that are
built into it has probably
really helped boost aver-
age wages within Morrow
County,” he said.
He also said that Mor-
row County has seen note-
worthy growth in manu-
facturing, information and
utilities; manufacturing has
increased 59 percent since
2010. The information sec-
tor was nonexistent in the
county in 2010, but now
employs 600-plus workers
and has a 2,400 percent
growth rate.
“You need to think
strategically about your
economy and how it’s go-
ing to develop. You don’t
have to have every form
of employment. You don’t
have to have every form of
industry within your town
for it to thrive,” Points said.
“Heppner may be too
small of a town to have a
yoga studio, a Starbucks,
a Target,” he added. “But
there is an advantage to
being in proximity to places
that do, because then you
can get the products and
services, people can live
in that area, and then you
can start to build some
kind of satellite economic
development opportunities
from that.
“Because at some point
people don’t want to drive
45 minutes to a restaurant.
You need to have that lo-
cally if they’re going to
live in that community, and
build as a satellite to places
like Boardman, Pendleton,”
Points said.
For Heppner, the bad
news was that total em-
ployment was falling in
the last 10 years. However,
employment increased in
2020 with new workers en-
tering the labor market, and
median household income
has increased except for the
2019-2020 pandemic.
“You can see that it
hasn’t been exploding in
-Continued from PAGE NINE
championships.
“It goes well beyond
just being successful on
the court, on the diamond,
on the football field,” said
Younger. “Also a big part of
the criteria is, they want to
look at community service.
They want to look at what
they do in their schools.
They want to look at the
organizations they belong
to. This is the best of the
best in our eyes.”
In addition to coach-
ing 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.
“He’s well respect-
ed throughout the state,”
Younger said. “When he
speaks, people listen.”
Younger presented
Grant with an award for
Section 8 Coach of the
Year. He did not have the
national award in hand,
but said there would be
an award banquet in May.
Grant expressed his appre-
ciation before the board and
audience.
“Thank you for your
support,” he said. “This is
a community award.”
The board also heard
from auditor Rob Tremper
of Dickey & Tremper. This
is the company’s fourth year
as the district’s auditor. He
noted that it was a challeng-
ing year for the school dis-
trict as it transitioned from
using the education service
district’s financial services
to in-house financial di-
rector Gabriel Hansen. He
also credited the district
with working through new
accounting standards estab-
lished by the state.
“Overall, I think it went
really well,” said Tremper.
He did note some find-
ings, such as PERS num-
bers not getting recorded
correctly right away or a
lack of supporting docu-
ments for some bills, but
said the issues had either
been corrected before the
audit or were fixable. None
of them affected the clean
opinion of the audit.
“With just a few find-
ings, I don’t think it gives
enough credit that there
were a lot of things that
were done right,” he said.
He did suggest extra
review in some areas, since
MCSD was no longer us-
ing InterMountain ESD’s
services. “A second set of
eyes is always helpful,” he
added.
“We do plan to have
some ESD oversight,”
MCSD Superintendent
Matt Combe responded.
Heppner Jr./Sr. High
School Counselor Jill Mill-
has been doing over the
school year. Miller divides
her time between the high
school and elementary
school.
“It’s amazing to see
what we’ve accomplished
with a part-time position,”
said Miller.
She updated the board
on a Social Emotional
Learning (SEL) curriculum
called Sown to Grow that
the district has been using
at Heppner Elementary
School. The curriculum
includes periodic in-class-
room guidance lessons by
school counselors, with
real-time “emotional check-
ins” via computer in be-
tween.
“We had one instance
where it flagged a student
that it was something we
should attend to, so it was
interesting to see what that
looked like,” Miller said.
Students also engage
in self-reflection, which
Miller says will later lead to
academic goal setting.
At the high school lev-
el, Miller reported on an ac-
ademic monitoring system
the school is using.
“It flags kids who aren’t
being as successful as we
would want them to be,”
Miller said.
The system then auto-
matically sends personal-
ized messages to parents
letting them know, for ex-
ample, that their child may
be failing a class.
Miller also has con-
ducted campus visits with
students and keeps an eye
on student transcripts to
make sure they’re on track
to graduate.
“Because that’s kind
of why we’re here,” she
quipped.
Miller said goals for
the future include a career
exploration unit, especially
for seventh through ninth
grades, past graduate pan-
els, futures night and a club
startup to support post-sec-
ondary plans.
Human Resources
Executive Director Erin
Stocker also showed the
board two calendar options
the district will be present-
ing to staff.
“Talking to staff at all
levels, there’s been a lot of
interest in an option that
could address student and
staff attendance on Fridays
when Monday is a holiday,”
Stocker said.
She told the board av-
erage student attendance
on Fridays “if we’re lucky,”
and that staff attendance
was also lower on Fridays.
“That isn’t just that our
staff doesn’t want to work
on Fridays,” she added.
“There’s also a lot of other
things that come into peo-
ple’s lives that impact them
on Fridays.” For instance,
she said, the district needs
teachers to coach, but that
can create a conflict with
sports schedules on Fri-
days.
Both calendar options
include 150 student days for
the year with four STEAM
Fridays. One option would
be a pre-Labor Day start
on Aug. 28 and would go
to June 13, though Stocker
said that is not later than
most other area school dis-
tricts. There would be no
school on any Friday after
a Monday holiday, but there
would be one early-release
Friday the week before
winter break, Dec. 15.
The second option
would have a pre-Labor
Day start on Aug. 28 and
would include student
school days on Fridays
when that Monday is a
holiday.
The board also ap-
proved a math adoption
plan for grades seven
through 12.
MCSD board member
Marie Shrimer said she had
met with secondary school
staff to discuss curriculum
for the coming year, and
they had a math adoption
recommendation she would
like the board to approve so
she could start the ordering
process. Due to ongoing
paper shortage, she said,
the earlier the books could
be ordered, the better.
Seventh and eighth
grades and algebra select-
ed a program called Ed
Gems by Shannon McCaw.
Geometry selected a title
called Big Ideas from Cen-
gage. College level courses
will remain aligned with
materials from BMCC.
The staff’s next step will
be to focus on building
out plus-one math cours-
es, which focus on either
college readiness or work-
force readiness skills. The
first plus-one will focus on
technical math and personal
finance, she told the board.
The next MCSD meet-
ing will be March 13 at
6 p.m. at A.C. Houghton
Elementary in Irrigon. The
meeting will also be acces-
sible via Zoom.
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