Heppner retains interim
city manager
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VOL. 143
NO. 25 10 Pages
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
McElligott marks 50 years in coaching
Maureen McElligott
By Andrea Di Salvo
Maureen McElligott
has reached a milestone few
coaches ever see. In fact,
50 years is an impressive
record for just about any en-
deavor, but the Ione tennis
coach is still going strong
with no signs of slowing
down.
McElligott, 72, was
raised with her 10 siblings
on the McElligott home-
place out of Ione. Her fa-
ther, Don, raised wheat and
cattle, as well as serving as
Morrow County Judge for
several years. Her mother,
Eunice, was a nurse. McEl-
ligott attended school in
Ione, graduating with the
class of ’68.
She always liked sports,
and says her favorite sports
to play were basketball, ten-
nis and baseball. She recalls
her early years in basket-
ball, when there were six
girls to a team, only three
could cross the center line
and they could only dribble
three times before passing.
“They didn’t want us to
sweat,” she says dryly.
After high school, she
attended the University of
Portland, graduating with
her bachelor’s degree in
history in 1972. Right out
of college, she returned
to Morrow County, where
she spent a year substitute
teaching at both Riverside
and Ione high schools—
mostly at Riverside, due
to the loss of a teacher and
football coach that year.
McElligott left Morrow
County for Lake Coun-
ty when she was hired to
teach social studies at Pais-
ley High School. It was a
unique situation, since the
school averaged 90 students
from as much as 75 miles
away. While there, she was
also hired to coach girls’
volleyball, basketball and
track.
“I always liked sports,”
she says of this foray into
coaching. “I like kids. They
needed someone.”
In fact, McElligott says
coaching was simply part of
the deal for teachers back
then.
“They were looking for
someone to fill those within
the faculty,” she says. “You
were kind of expected to as
a teacher.”
She admits that she
dislikes volleyball—one
of the few sports she does
dislike—which is part of
what prompted her to start
a cross-country program at
Paisley, eventually getting
rid of volleyball. At the
same time, she took the
Paisley girls’ basketball
team to state and brought
home two second-place
state trophies during her six
years there.
After Paisley, she re-
turned to the University
of Portland and obtained
her master’s degree in ed-
ucation in 1979. That same
year, Riverside High School
Principal Dan Daltoso
called her and asked her to
return to Boardman to teach
social studies. Included in
the deal were coaching du-
ties for girls’ volleyball and
basketball, as well as girls’
and boys’ tennis.
It was a continuation of
what would become a 50-
year coaching career, and
the beginning of 44 years of
coaching tennis in Morrow
County.
She spent 24 years
teaching social studies in
Boardman, mostly to high
school seniors. She also
continued to coach at Riv-
erside that entire time, and
for one more year after she
retired from teaching.
A m o n g h e r f a v o r-
ite sports to coach were
cross-country and tennis. In
tennis, “All the coaching is
basically done in practice,”
she says, adding that she
might have a minute at most
to answer questions or give
tips when players switch
sides during a match.
She recalls one year in
Boardman when she had
42 teens turn out for tennis.
With so many players, she
says, they rotated practicing
in the tennis courts, gym
and back parking lot.
It was around the time
of her retirement from
teaching that McElligott
moved back to the family
home to take care of her
aging parents. It didn’t take
long for the Ione school to
come calling in search of a
tennis coach of its own. She
says she hesitated at first,
but then decided she needed
something to get her out of
the house.
“I’m really a person
who’s more on the go,” she
says.
Nineteen years later,
she’s living on her own
in one of several family
homes jokingly referred to
as “McElligottville,” but
tennis is still getting her out
of the house.
“I like kids. I like
sports. I like to see kids
succeed and have fun,”
she says of her continued
coaching.
McElligott says she
still likes to play tennis, or
“hit things with a racquet,”
but adds that she can no
longer run around the court
like she used to. That she
leaves to assistant coach
Susan Kendrick. Kendrick,
who played tennis compet-
Kraig Cutsforth
Thomas Wolff
Heppner Mayor Corey
Sweeney announced Tues-
day that the City of Heppner
has retained an interim city
manager to serve for the
next few months. Current
city manager Kraig Cuts-
forth is on an extended
medical leave.
Thomas Wolff, CPA
(retired) has been hired to
oversee the city’s business
and community affairs.
Wolff comes out of retire-
ment for this assignment,
having spent a large part of
his career with Columbia
Basin Electric Cooperative,
concluding as CEO and
general manager.
Wolff served seven
years as a Heppner City
Councilor during the mid-
2000s and so is familiar
with the city’s procedures
and processes.
“I am excited and eager
to serve the city, taking care
of day-to-day issues and
concerns, and meeting the
needs of the city council,”
says Wolff.
Citizens are encour-
aged to stop by city hall and
say hello.
Heppner approves
new city budget
Water, sewer rates to go up
five percent
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Heppner City
Council approved the bud-
get for the upcoming fiscal
year with some changes
at its meeting June 12 at
Heppner City Hall. The city
budget for fiscal year 2023-
2024 is $6,481,231, with
a tax rate of $10.6209 per
$1,000 of assessed value for
property inside city limits.
The $10.6209 per
$1,000 tax rate is the same
as it has been in previous
years. While the rate is
higher than the five percent
allowed for most munici-
palities, Heppner City Man-
ager Kraig Cutsforth told
the council that the Heppner
-Continued to PAGE SEVEN tax rate has not changed for
several decades.
Meanwhile, the city
is raising water and sewer
rates by five percent to
keep pace with the current
West region consumer price
index.
During budget dis-
cussions, Heppner City
Lexington considers broadband franchise
agreement with CBEC
Councilor Cody High sug-
gested the cost-of-living
adjustment (COLA) for
city employees be raised
by another 2.5 percent to
better reflect current infla-
tion. That would bring the
COLA to five percent for
city employees.
Cutsforth cautioned
against it, saying another
increase would be on top
of an automatic step in-
crease and would bring the
actual wage increase to 7.5
percent.
“You are going against
the grain. You do not have
a sustainable product,” said
Cutsforth.
“The way I see it is, the
step increase is a reward
for years of service,” said
High. “The cost of living is
tied to the cost of living, or
inflation increase. So if we
combine reward and cost
of living to just match the
cost of living…there are no
actual advances.”
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
Sweek investigated
for ethics violation
Map of the proposed broadband fiber CBEC will install in Lexington. Red lines are the “backbone” cables, while the orange
and aqua lines are the laterals that will carry internet throughout the town and out to some rural areas. -Courtesy of CBEC
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Lexington Town
Council tentatively ap-
proved a proposed franchise
agreement with Columbia
Basin Electric Cooperative
for fiber internet service
pending some changes at
its June 13 meeting in Lex-
ington.
The proposed 10-year
franchise agreement will
allow CBEC to construct
and maintain the cables
and other technical facil-
ities needed to provide
fiber optic data transport
services—i.e., high speed
internet—in the area.
The franchise agree-
ment would not be exclu-
sive, so the town could
grant the same right to an-
other provider at any time.
At the meeting, Co-
lumbia Basin CEO Andy
Fletcher told the town coun-
cil that Columbia Basin
will hang the fiber strand
throughout the community,
basically following existing
power lines. CBEC will be
partnering with internet
service provider (ISP) Blue
Mountain Networks, who
will actually provide the
internet service.
“So basically, what go-
“I think that this is a
ing to end up happening, good thing. I think this
is it’s going to be a pass- is a very important thing
through on their side of it,” for Lexington,” said town
said Fletcher. “There’s not
going to be a charge for -Continued to PAGE EIGHT
hookup right now. If people
want it, we’re going to hook
everybody up.”
The covered area will
include Lexington, Clark’s
Canyon, Blackhorse and
Meadowbrook. Fletcher
said he thought it was im-
portant to understand that
it wasn’t a money-making
project for anyone.
“The city’s not going
to make any money off it,
(nor) Columbia Basin,” he
said, adding that they would
probably end up with about
a five-dollar charge on it,
which would be used for
maintenance rather than
revenue.
By Andrea Di Salvo
Former Morrow Coun-
ty Planning Commissioner
Greg Sweek has agreed to
settle without an investiga-
tion regarding claims that
he committed an ethics
violation during his time in
the planning department.
The conflict arose
because Sweek’s time as
planning commissioner
overlapped with his time
as manager for the Colum-
bia River Enterprise Zone
(CREZ). Sweek currently
serves as the manager for
both CREZ II and CREZ
III.
During Sweek’s time as
planning commissioner, he
was required to file a State-
ment of Economic Interest
(SEI) annually. Included
on the SEI is a place to list
sources of income received
during a year if the income
makes up 10 percent or
more of the annual house-
hold income. While Sweek
did file those SEIs in 2019-
2022, he never listed any
CREZ income—which was
true for three of those years.
However, a preliminary
investigation by the Oregon
Government Ethics Com-
mission (OGEC) found
that Sweek was required to
disclose his CREZ income
for 2020 on his 2021 SEI.
While Sweek amended his
2021 SEI on April 10 of
-Continued to PAGE NINE
CALL
541-989-8221
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information