Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 17, 2023 -- NINE
Heppner City Council, loose dogs, vandalism, property
-Continued from PAGE ONE the last several months.
the city in exchange for
the city vacating part of an
alley on the other side of
the landowner’s property in
order to straighten out those
property lines. He said the
alley had been longer but
other pieces had been va-
cated decades ago.
City attorney Bill Kuhn
said there was a process
the city had to go through
to officially vacate the al-
ley, including public hear-
ings, and, if vacated, statute
stated it would then be
divided fifty-fifty between
adjoining landowners. The
council voted unanimously
to begin the process of va-
cating the alley.
Cutsforth addressed his
upcoming extended leave
and said he had been trying
to get recruiters to come
talk to the council about
replacing him, but had not
gotten anything lined up
yet.
“Because you’re look-
ing at maybe another month
or two for me,” he told the
council.
Sweeney said he
thought the city personnel
committee needed to meet
again, because the hiring
timeline might not fit with
Cutsforth’s timeline, and
they might need to appoint
someone in the interim.
The council voted to
move forward with trying
to engage a recruiting firm.
“The only issue I have
with this is that it is a long
process going this route,”
said Sweeney. He suggest-
ed beginning to advertise
immediately to speed up
the process.
Cutsforth did add that,
even though he will be on
extended leave, he will not
disappear “off the face of
the earth,” but would be
available to help with issues
he had been handling over
In his report, the city
manager said that engineer-
ing firm Anderson Perry is
83 percent done with the
solid waste control plan and
32 percent done with sur-
veying and mapping, with
other sewer work around
96 percent complete.
“We’re getting done
with it. We’re basically
waiting for the state of Or-
egon to respond,” he said.
“At which point it will go
into the design phase.”
At that point, the city
will also start working on
its water master plan. He
said he thought they were
just a month or two away
from switching gears so An-
derson Perry could work on
the water plan. That process
will take about six months
to a year to finish the water
master plan.
Heppner Fire Chief
Steve Rhea reported that the
fire department conducted
six lift assists, secured the
landing zone three times,
responded to one controlled
burn not called in, one out-
of-control burn on Hale
Ridge, one CPR assist with
EMS and two motor vehicle
accidents with injuries.
Rhea said both injuries
involved Life Flights in
which Life Flight landed
at the accident and shipped
patients from the scene.
He also said the fire
department received an
Oregon State Fire Marshal
grant for a tactical tender,
with possible delivery De-
cember of 2023. They had
a captain and lieutenant
complete a three-weekend
training and receive Fire
Fighter 2 accreditation.
The fire department is
also waiting on two grants
for community wildfire risk
reduction, one for city pro-
tection and one for Wild-
land Urban Interface at
Blake Ranch. Rhea said
one of the grants had been
confirmed at $27,000.
He also said the fire
department hosted an
S-212 Sawyer training
over the weekend and
then took participants to
the Morrow-Grant Coun-
ty Off-Highway Vehicle
(OHV) Park to practice on
trees there.
“Everyone that attend-
ed said it was a blast be-
cause they got to cut big
trees,” said Rhea.
Cutsforth added that,
because deputy fire chief
Eric Chick had received
his new pickup, it might be
appropriate to surplus his
old pickup. Rhea said the
current Blue Book on it is
around $9,000. The council
voted to surplus the pickup
and put it out to bid for a
minimum bid of $4,000.
Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office reported 320
deputy hours in Heppner
for April. Driving com-
plaints were up for April,
along with a slight rise in
juvenile and suspicious
activity complaints. Traffic
stops were down after a
large jump in March, but
there was one report of a
stolen vehicle. MCSO also
reported two felony arrests
for April.
High said he noticed a
reoccurrence on Gale Street
that seemed to get progres-
sively more “agitated and
dangerous” as the month
wore on. “Is there any prog-
ress made for that?” he
asked.
Lt. Braun responded
that MCSO couldn’t nec-
essarily act on behavioral
health issues unless there
was a crime committed.
“There’s a process to
have somebody evaluated
when they don’t want to be
evaluated,” he said. “That’s
why you’ll always see that
CCS (Community Counsel-
ing Solutions) was called.”
Chad Doherty reported
that the city hired Aleea
Strouse as a summer main-
tenance worker.
“She’s doing a won-
derful job. The parks look
fabulous,” said Doherty.
Sweeney asked if pub-
lic works intended to again
provide a trash receptacle
for town residents to throw
away debris. Doherty said
he preferred not to because
people had taken advantage
of it last time and left a mess
around the Dumpster. He
suggested working with
the county to give people
vouchers for the transfer
station or dump.
Both High and coun-
cil member John Doherty
said they like that idea.
Sweeney suggested trying
to have it coincide with
Mustang Mop-up May 18,
and the council voted to
issue garbage vouchers for
the weekend of May 20-21.
In other business:
-Barb Orwick reorted
that the Neighborhood Cen-
ter remains open with short-
ened hours at least through
May, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They
are accepting donations, but
only on Wednesdays and
Fridays. She said they have
had a couple of people drop
things off over the weekend,
which is a problem, since
there is a law against dump-
ing and the bags sat out in
the rain for a day or two.
-Cutsforth that the city
finally got a 2014 Freight-
liner street sweeper figured
out and would hopefully
be getting that before too
long. Cutsforth also said
that the city website is up
and going, and the city now
has monthly maintenance
on it by a company out of
Pendleton. “So hopefully
we’ll be able to keep it up
and going,” he said.
-The council learned
that the street project is
complete. Cutsforth said the
only thing he is missing is
the bill from the flaggers the
city used when they did the
torch-down striping.
-Councilors approved
a resolution increasing the
carryover of vacation hours
for Heppner personnel from
200 to 240 hours per year,
which aligns more closely
with industry standards.
-Sweeney said he had
met with Morrow County
Health District CEO Emily
Roberts and had phone dis-
cussions with county com-
missioners Jeff Wenholz
and Roy Drago, Jr. about
ambulance services and
the possibility of jobs being
lost. He encouraged people
to attend county commis-
sioner meetings and ambu-
lance service hearings.
“It may or may not af-
fect Heppner, but if it does
affect Heppner, it could be
in a negative way,” said
Sweeney.
The next regular meet-
ing of the Heppner City
Council will be Monday,
June 12, at 7 p.m.
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