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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 2023)
SEVEN- Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 3, 2023 has hit some road bumps, but they are planning on a shared drive where all city documents will be stored rather than being stored on individual computers; and -discussed the appli- cation for the upcoming Willow Creek Valley Eco- nomic Development Group. Ferguson suggested apply- ing for the grant to update the FEMA park and make it more welcoming. Sheila Miller said she had been PUBLIC NOTICE on the council during the town’s previous work with the park, and FEMA had a lot of stipulations about what could and couldn’t be done on the property. Gor- don suggested, somewhat tongue in cheek, that they use the funds to paint a gi- ant rabbit in the street sim- ilar to Heppner’s shamrock. The next meeting of the Lexington Town Council will be Tuesday, May 9, at 6:30 p.m. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Morrow County Board of Commissioners Notice of Public Hearings To Update the County’s Ambulance Ser- vice Area Plan Published May 3, 2023 affid Lexington passes on town-wide security -Continued from PAGE ONE go off of,” agreed Imes, “to I believe,” said Kennedy. make sure there’s not others ities, such as cloud- based storage and li- cense-plate recognition. Because Verkada cam- eras do require internet connection, the issue was raised that PrineTime, now Blue Mountain Networks, had originally entered an agreement to install internet at various city properties in lieu of paying a town franchise fee, which had never been done. Lexington Mayor Juli Kennedy said that, rather than looking at a new security system, she thought the town should focus on making sure the town internet is in place and that the current secu- rity cameras are working. The council also discussed the need for an additional camera at the city well. “Those are our build- ings and our places that we need to focus on,” Kennedy said. “I think protecting the town’s assets is one thing, but having cameras around town just because is a whole different thing,” agreed Lexington Councilor Katie Imes. Ferguson also told the council she had been re- viewing water deposit his- tories. She said she thought the $50 deposit should be returned or credited after a year of successfully paid service. She said there were more than 40 accounts she believed were more than a year old but added that, because of previous re- cord keeping and switching software in 2021, it was difficult to tell if that had ever been done for any of the accounts. “I don’t know that any- body’s ever received a de- posit refund,” said Lexing- ton Councilor Bill Beard. Kennedy asked if the town had a policy regard- ing refunding the deposits, and Beard said he didn’t think so. “I think we need to have something written up,” said Kennedy. “It sounds like there’s no policy surrounding it, so we don’t have anything to say, ‘Yes, do this,’ or ‘Don’t do that.’” “It would make sense that it would be credited back when they close their account,” Imes added. The council directed Ferguson to create a draft policy and investigate fur- ther. The council also dis- cussed the new Sunstone solar project by Pinegate Renewables, also known as the Echo Solar project. It’s one of the largest solar proj- ects in Oregon and will be built on Hwy. 207 between Butter Creek and North Lex. The project expects to maintain between 500 and 700 workers on the project during the peak construc- tion years of 2027-2029. Imes said the informa- tion was helpful in order to plan for a possible in- flux of workers. She said she assumed many work- ers would commute from Boardman and Hermiston, but workers would come from all over the nation and would be staying for weeks at a time, and those workers would be looking for hous- ing or RV parks. Kennedy reported that she had submitted a pro- posal to Morrow County Health District to get two AED units for the town. “The district has been really good about com- munity involvement and making sure that places up at Blake Ranch have some and the schools have them,” said Kennedy. She added that one would be with the fire department so it could be taken on calls and the other would be mounted outside the town hall. Kennedy said she also requested training on how to use it for anyone who might be interested. MCHD approved not two, but three AEDs for the town at its April 24 board meeting. Kennedy also said she had a short conversation with Morrow County Com- missioner David Sykes. “He’s very committed to the county, and especially the south end of the county, “Even though he can’t at- tend the meetings, he still watches out for Lexington and is excited about the things that we’re doing.” Lexington resident Dianna Dougherty raised concerns about the speed of traffic through town. “I know that it’s some- thing that’s in the works as far as sidewalks and public safety,” she said but added that she would like to see something that reminded drivers, especially trucks, to slow down through town. Kennedy said they had the Morrow County Sher- iff’s Office bring down a speed sign several times, and it worked for a while. “But we need to try and do something different and see if can’t even finagle them into writing tickets,” she added. Imes mentioned she had just heard that the town’s pre-application for a Transportation and Growth Management (TGM) plan had been accepted and that the program director seemed excited about it. “But it takes time,” she said. “Government moves very slow, so to see any- thing substantial downtown is going to take a few years for us.” “Which is unfortunate for us, but I think there are short-term solutions to these problems that we’re all aware of,” she added. Lexington Town Main- tenance Director Keith Hess reported that he wanted to put valves on two dead-end pipes so the town could flush them. He had con- sulted with Blue Mountain Plumbing, and they don’t do that kind of work, but he thought the town could do the work in-house. Beard asked about the fire hydrant on Arcade that isn’t working, and Lex- ington Fire Chief Charlie Sumner said it had been out of service for a long time. “We even had it cov- ered, a number of times, in plastic so nobody would use it,” Sumner added. “I think we need to get quotes,” said Gordon. “And that need to be replaced, too.” Hess said there was another one on F Street, as well as at least one other. Ferguson said she had also met with Lexington Assistant Fire Chief Josie Miles to discuss fire de- partment business. The fire department typically meets once a week on Wednes- days. Ferguson said she thought it would be bene- ficial if she attended one of the meetings each month, especially since 10 percent of her wage is from the fire department. Lexington Council- or Bobbi Gordon told the council the people who own the Madras drag strip were looking for a fire truck. She said the town’s American LaFrance fire truck was just sitting there and couldn’t be used by the fire department, so she suggested giving the truck to them. The town purchased the truck from Crooked River for a dol- lar several years ago. The council agreed to sell the truck to the drag strip as is for two dollars. In other business, the council: -heard citizen com- plaints about trucks com- ing through town using their jake brakes, especially early in the morning, and about chickens free ranging through town; -learned from Imes that the education and outreach portion of the town’s TGM would be starting soon, and that she had been handing out parade flyers for May Day; -heard from Kennedy that there has been pos- itive feedback from the community regarding the book library and discussed placing a second library box somewhere else in town; -received a $1,000 Morrow County tourism grant and discussed and discussed using the funds to create a brochure for the town with contact infor- mation, events and town highlights; -learned from Gordon that the town hall IT project The Morrow County Board of Commis- sioners will hold a series of Public Hearings to consult with and seek advice from each person, city entity or rural fire protection district within the County that provides or desires to provide ambulance services and has notified the county of its desire to be consulted prior to the adoption of the update of the Ambulance Service Area Plan and the boundaries of any ambulance service areas to be established under the plan. In addition, the County will hear testimony from interest- ed public citizens. Oral and written comments will be ac- cepted. Written comments must be received by Wednesday, May 10, 2023 and can be submitted either via email to rvanderwall@ co.morrow.or.us or by mail to Morrow Coun- ty, P.O. Box 788, Heppner, OR 97836. The Board will consider the comments received to draft and adopt a new Ambulance Service Area Plan and designation of the boundaries of any ambulance service areas at a future meeting. The County is currently operating under the 1998 Ambulance Service Area Plan and Ordinance MC-C-4-98. The Public Hearing details are as follows: 1. 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 3 rd – Bar- tholomew Building Upper Conference Room, 110 N. Court St., Heppner 2. 6:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 3 rd – Bar- tholomew Building Upper Conference Room, 110 N. Court St., Heppner 3. 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 10 th – Port of Morrow Riverfront Center, Riverfront Room, 2 East Marine Drive, Boardman 4. 6:00 p.m., Wednesday, May 10 th – Mor- row County Government Center, Court- room, 215 N.E. Main Avenue, Irrigon Oral comments from a person, city enti- ty or rural fire protection district within the County that provides or desires to provide ambulance services will be limited to 10 min- utes, and comments from the public will be limited to three minutes. Direct inquiries to: Roberta Vanderwall, Interim Administrator rvanderwall@co.morrow.or.us 541-676-5613 $449,000 NEW LISTING! This 2,471 sqft home and two lots totaling 13.12 acres could be the perfect property to keep your horses and livestock. Pasture and dry land. Tax ID 5378 and 8939. Selling as-is. MLS#: 23292049 62886 HIGHWAY 74 - Ione 177 N. Main P.O. Box 337 Heppner, OR 97836 Chris@sykesrealestate.net Broker Chris Sykes 541-215-2274
