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