EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Five archers from the Rural Rowdy Community Club qualified
for the state archery competition this past Monday. Pictured
are state competitors Keltie Rietmann, Novalee Campbell and
Kinasyn Rietmann (front). Not pictured are state qualifiers who
chose not to attend the state competition, Brayden McNeil and
Zion Ramos. -Photo by Ed Rietmann
Also qualifying for the state
archery competition was
KayleeJean Espinola. Es-
pinola is a member of Morrow
County Shooting Sports. -Pho-
to by Kirsten Espinola
Several Morrow Coun-
ty 4-H members in differ-
ent shooting disciplines
qualified for the 4-H state
shooting sports competition
earlier this week.
The state competition is
the culmination of months
of practice and scoring
rounds for the youth—ar-
chery begins scoring in
November, and all other
disciplines begin in Jan-
uary. Shooting sports are
coached by volunteers who
are certified in various dis-
ciplines such as archery,
rifle, shotgun and pistol.
Sixteen Morrow Coun-
ty youth qualified in three
different disciplines this
year.
Qualifying in shotgun
were Jonathan Ashbeck,
Preslie Bowles, Carter
Eynetich, Radley Griggs,
David Rietmann and Jace
Wilson.
Competing in NC
Smallbore Rifle were
Jonathan Ashbeck, Mary
Ashbeck, Callahan Baker,
Preslie Bowles, Madelyn
Campbell, Kinasyn Riet-
mann, Jace Wilson and Joel
Wilson.
Qualifying for the state
competition in compound
archery were Novalee
Campbell, KayleeJean Es-
pinola, Brayden McNeil,
Zion Ramos, Keltie Riet-
mann and Kinasyn Riet-
mann.
The state competition
was held Monday through
Wednesday at Albany Rifle
and Pistol Club (ARPC) in
Shedd, OR and the Albany
Gun Club in Albany, OR.
Heppner approves
new city budget
-Continued from PAGE ONE appropriated contingen-
cy fund. Councilor John
Doherty voted against
the change, and councilor
Adam Doherty was absent.
The council also ap-
proved a supplemental
budget for the 2022-23
fiscal year in the amount of
17,960.79. The supplemen-
tal budget was to appropri-
ate money to cover the costs
of expenses that weren’t
anticipated when the budget
was approved. For instance,
Cutsforth said, rising fuel
costs and some vehicle
repairs weren’t originally
accounted for.
In an update on city
projects, Cutsforth reported
that the telemetry was still
down on the city’s water
system.
“I think that should be
a priority of the city, to au-
tomate your system as soon
as possible,” he added.
Heppner Public Works
director Chad Doherty told
the council it would cost
$12,500 for The Automa-
tion Group (TAG) to do
the work. TAG is the city’s
integrator of record.
Cutsforth also reported
that he had been working to
wrap up the HB 2017 street
project, which was finally
completed. The only other
work on the city streets will
be some chip sealing, which
hasn’t been scheduled yet.
The work currently being
around the MCSO parking
lot and building due to
safety concerns for pedes-
trians. Sweeney suggested
it should be discussed in a
utility commission meeting.
The council passed a
resolution extending work-
ers’ compensation coverage
to volunteers for the City
of Heppner. The resolution
was a renewal of an exist-
ing practice. The coverage
applies to public safety vol-
unteers like firefighters, as
well as to volunteer boards,
elected officials volunteer-
ing their labor and other
volunteers.
The council passed
several other resolutions,
including:
-a resolution to accept
state revenue for the up-
coming fiscal year,
-a resolution authoriz-
ing the Morrow County
Treasurer to invest City of
Heppner funds, and
-a resolution adopting
bonded debt resources and
requirements for the next
fiscal year.
The City of Heppner
also voted to sign a letter of
agreement with accounting
firm Barnett and Moro to
conduct an audit of the city
for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 2023.
The next regular meet-
ing of the Heppner City
Council will be July 10 at
7 p.m. at Heppner City Hall.
WCCC Sunday
men’s play
Fourteen participated
on a cold, windy Sunday
on June 18 at Willow Creek
Country Club. The men’s
play results are as follows:
KP #4-13—Charlie
Ferguson 7’9”
Net—1 st , Tim Hedman,
56; 2 nd , Tom Shear, 58; and
3 rd , Rick Johnston, 60.
Gross—1 st , Scott Bur-
right, 66, and 2 nd /3 rd (tie),
Erin Mason and Dave
Pranger, 67.
There will be no men’s
play next weekend as the
annual men’s invitational
will be taking place. The
next organized play will be
on July 8th and 9th. This
is a two-day, two-person
tournament hosted by Char-
lie Ferguson and Duane
Disque. The cost is $150
per team.
It was sunny and warm
for the ladies play day at
Willow Creek Country
Club on Tuesday, June 6,
Low gross of the field
for the day went to Virginia
Grant. Low net of the field
went to Kris Lindner. Karen
Thompson had least putts of
the field.
For flight B, Pat Dough-
erty had low gross, Shirley
Martin low net and Pat Ed-
mundson least putts.
For flight C, Kim Carl-
son had low gross, Karen
Smith-Griffith took low
net, Jackie Allstott had least
putts and Kris Lindner had
the long drive.
Pat Dougherty had a
chip-in on #17.
It was sunny but not
quite so warm for the 10
ladies who showed up to
play on June 13, as the wind
came up and tried to inter-
fere with the game.
Virginia Grant had
low gross of the field. Eva
Kilkenny too low net, and
Pat Dougherty had least
putts of the day.
For flight A, Karen
Thompson had low gross
and Virginia Grant had KP
2 nd shot and the long drive.
For flight B, Sarah
Rucker had low gross, KP
2 nd shot and the long drive,
while Sharon Harrison had
low net and Pat Edmundson
lest putts.
For flight C, Kris Lind-
ner had low gross, Jackie
Allstott had low net, and
Karen Smith-Griffith had
least putts and the long
drive.
Over the Tee Cup
Lexington begins
burn ban next week
Lexington Fire Chief Char-
lie Sumner has advised a
burn ban will go into effect
for the Town of Lexing-
ton on Monday, June 26.
This ban includes all burn
barrels. The burn ban is in
effect until further notice.
Anyone with questions
can contact Sumner at
541-403-2917.
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Lexington broadband
-Continued from PAGE ONE council adopted the budget
councilor Katie Imes.
She then asked if
CBEC had a routing map
and construction plan ready.
Fletcher said he didn’t have
one with him, but it would
basically go where there are
already transformers.
“There’s going to be a
backbone in three different
streets, and then it will lat-
eral off each one of those to
provide the distribution,”
he said.
Imes also asked Fletch-
er to clarify that the fiber
was for internet, not phone,
since the franchise fee was
based off phone service.
He responded that custom-
ers could get only internet
or bundle internet with
voice-over-internet (VOIP)
phone service. The fran-
chise fee would come from
the phone service only.
Also as part of the
agreement, Lexington Town
Hall will get free internet.
Fletcher said he thought
they could also provide free
internet at the town well and
the maintenance building
and agreed to draft a new
franchise agreement with
those additions.
When asked about pro-
jected start and completion
dates, Fletcher said he had
been told they could have
fiber up in three weeks.
Also at the meeting, the
for fiscal year 2023-2024 in
the amount of $2,147,402.
Of that, $519,468 is for
the general fund, $366,264
for the fire department
fund, $99,290 for the fire
department reserve/bond,
$149,508 for the street
fund, $141,814 for the wa-
ter fund and $871,058 for
the special water reserve.
Property taxes within
the Town of Lexington for
tax year 2023-2024 will be
levied at the rate of $0.7289
per $1000 of assessed value
for the permanent rate tax,
as well as two local option
taxes at one dollar each
per $1,000 assessed value.
General obligation bond
debt service is $14,000.
During discussion re-
garding delinquent water
bills, Imes also brought up
the need for a set procedure
to address late water bills.
Ferguson said she felt the
entire water billing system
needed to be addressed.
She also said that, while the
water base rate was being
raised to $50, the charge
beyond the base rate was
85 cents per 1,000 gallons.
“That’s been like that
for I don’t know how many
years,” said Ferguson. “But
it may be time to increase
that. That’s real cheap.”
The council will revisit
that issue in the future.
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“So, yeah, they should
be separate,” agreed Hep-
pner Mayor Corey Swee-
ney. “I’m not against that,”
he added. “My only issue is
we’ve already had a budget,
budget hearing, and it’s
here getting ready to be
voted on.”
Sweeney asked Hep-
pner Budget Commit-
tee Chair Tom Wolff his
thoughts. Wolff said it was
up to the council if they
wanted to make changes
or additions to the budget
before approving it.
“The budget committee
members talked about this
issue to some degree and
the difficulty the city has
had in recruiting viable
workers for these posi-
tions,” said Wolff. “It was
my interpretation from the
budget committee in gen-
eral that the city is under-
paying their rank-and-file
employees and we needed
to bring them up some to
the current marketplace.
“If the council decides
that another two and a half
percent is worthwhile,” he
added, “I believe the budget
committee would have con-
curred with that request.”
The council voted 5-1
to increase the COLA from
2.5 percent to five percent.
The increase across all
salaries will be $9,526.35,
to be taken out of the un-
done in town is not a city
project but is being done by
the Oregon Dept. of Trans-
portation as part of a state-
wide curb ramp revision.
Custsforth also said
he had been working with
FEMA and had an upcom-
ing meeting with them to
open up a flood plain review
for the City of Heppner.
“At least we got an au-
dience, and we’re looking
at a possible review of our
flood plain,” he told the
council. “So that’s a huge
step forward.”
Fire Chief Steve Rhea
said some spraying needed
to be done around town for
kochia and puncturevine.
He said he had been doing
some spraying on his own
dime but asked if the city
had any kind of spraying
program. Sweeny said the
city and Morrow County
had signed an intergovern-
mental agreement (IGA) for
spraying.
“It needs to be done
sooner versus later,” said
Rhea.
“I really don’t think
that’s my role as a fire
chief, to be out spraying the
grounds that the city owns.
I’ve got better things to do,”
Rhea added.
The council also dis-
cussed a letter from Mor-
row County Sheriff’s Of-
fice requesting sidewalks
CITY OF
Local 4-H members
qualify for state shooting
competition
1887