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VOL. 143
NO. 26 10 Pages
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Rietmanns named Fourth of July grand marshals
Brian and Sharon Rietmann are this year’s grand marshals
for the Ione Fourth of July parade. -Photo by Andrea Di Salvo
By Andrea Di Salvo
Brian and Sharon Ri-
etmann of Ione have been
named the 2023 grand mar-
shals of the Ione Fourth of
July parade.
Brian and Sharon grew
up in Ione, literally next
door to each other. Brian
was the son of Bill and
Marilyn Rietmann, and
Sharon was the daughter of
Howard and June Crowell.
“I married the girl next
door,” says Brian Riet-
mann.
They attended school
in Ione and graduated from
Ione High School, Brian in
1978 and Sharon in 1983.
After high school, Brian
attended Blue Mountain
Community College for a
couple of years, graduat-
ing with an Associate of
Science degree in police
science. Two weeks after
Sharon graduated from high
school, they were married.
By that time, Brian
was a couple of years into
his six-year career with
the U.S. Army. He was
stationed at Fort Henry
Liggett in Jolon, CA. The
newlyweds lived there un-
til October of 1983, when
Brian was deployed to Hei-
delberg, Germany. It was
there that the Rietmanns’
first son, Andrew, was born
in 1984.
Brian served a four-year
tour in Germany, returning
home in May of 1988. Sha-
ron returned slightly ahead
of him, coming home early
for the birth of their sec-
ond child, Alyssa. After
a short stay at Fort Lewis
near Tacoma, WA, Brian
received his discharge from
the Army, and they moved
home to Ione.
Brian did odd jobs for
a while, before going to
truck driving school. He
worked at Kinzua Mill until
it closed, was a long-haul
trucker for a while, and
even worked as a 9-1-1
dispatcher.
In 2003 he went to
work at the Umatilla Army
Depot, working in security
for two years before switch-
ing to air monitoring.
When the Depot closed
in 2011, he was transferred
to Kentucky for a while. He
was there for three years
before being let go because
of disability. He then drove
truck again until 2017,
when he was diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis.
Now, Brian is the offi-
cial babysitter for the cou-
ple’s grandchildren—those
within reach, anyway. They
now have 10 grandchildren
across the country, some as
far away as Iowa, where
their son-in-law is stationed
with the U.S. Air Force.
Meanwhile, Sharon
spent several years as a
stay-at-home mom to their
five children—Andrew and
Alyssa were later joined by
Alan, Alex and Anthony.
She worked for a time as
city recorder for the City of
Ione, as well as at Bristow’s
Market as a clerk.
She went to work for
the Bank of Eastern Oregon
26 years ago, working her
way from teller to branch
manager in Ione. Brian says
she was following in her
mother’s footsteps, since
June Crowell had also man-
aged the Ione branch in her
time. When Beverly Crum
retired in 2021, Sharon also
took on the management of
the Heppner BEO branch.
Their lives weren’t all
work, though. They’ve al-
ways been involved in the
Ione community in a lot of
different ways.
“I did a lot of volun-
teering when the kids were
in school, and I’ve helped
out when I can since then,”
Sharon says, adding that
Brian also did a lot of vol-
unteer work related to their
kids. “Just those typical
parent things.”
The couple also took
over the Ione Easter egg
hunt for a while.
Sue Gibbs
By Andrea Di Salvo
Students at Heppner
Elementary School said
goodbye to their teacher
for the summer this month,
but some of them had to
say a more permanent kind
of farewell to one teach-
er. Fourth-grade teacher
Sue Gibbs is retiring from
teaching after 25 years with
Morrow County School
District.
Gibbs’s life may not
have seemed set up to be-
come a teacher in Heppner.
She was born in Yosemite
National Park, where her
father was a park ranger.
They moved from place to
place during her growing up
years, though she says they
spent a lot of time in Colo-
rado, where her grandfather
had a ranch near Grand
Junction.
Even in high school,
her love for the land took
her to far-flung places. She
spent a year in Australia
through an FFA exchange
program, working with
merino sheep, cattle, sor-
ghum and sunflowers on a
ranch of more than a million
acres.
The ranch was so large,
After the couple moved
to Condon, Gibbs took a
job as a buckaroo—another
job she had to leave behind
when she became preg-
nant with their first child,
Garrett. She looked for a
part-time job and found
one as a preschool teacher.
She stayed with that job for
around two years.
“After about the first
year I thought, ‘Wow, I
really like this,’” she says.
She also realized that
with one child and more
children possible in her
future, it would be good to
have a job that she could
structure around their
schedules.
“It seemed to me that
getting my teaching certifi-
cate might be a good thing,”
she adds.
She took most of the
Eastern Oregon University
classes off campus but had
to finish her degree with
two terms on campus. She
left Garrett with his father
in Condon and took baby
daughter Macy with her to
La Grande for the winter.
It was a sacrifice for
the family, but one that paid
off when Morrow County
School District hired her
as the fifth- and sixth-grade
science teacher at Heppner
Elementary. It was the be-
ginning of a 25-year career
that, she says, has “never
been boring.”
“I stuck with it and
developed my programs
and I came out all right,”
she says.
She says the school
bounced her around from
grade to grade a few times,
but after six or seven years,
she moved to fourth grade,
where she remained until
her retirement this year.
“That grade just seemed
to suit me,” she says, adding
that the students weren’t
small enough to be too
needy, and had their own
personalities, but hadn’t yet
developed the attitude and
“sass” of later grades.
“Fourth grade was the
Facility to be located in Heppner
Morrow County was re-
cently awarded $12,745,000
toward construction of a
new courthouse in Hep-
pner, Representative Greg
Smith’s (R-Heppner) office
has announced.
The money is the state’s
share of the cost to construct
the new facility, which will
house the Morrow County
Circuit Court and other
offices.
The circuit court cur-
rently operates out of the
historic courthouse build-
ing in Heppner. However,
because of security, privacy
and other deficiencies, the
building has been deemed
inadequate for court pro-
ceedings. The state au-
thorized the money in the
just-concluded legislative
session in order to provide
time when you took the
basics and started adding
detail,” she adds. “It’s a
good grade.”
And Gibbs loved going
beyond the basics.
“A lot of the science
I did, I developed pretty
much on my own,” she
says. Not that the school
didn’t have science curricu-
lum, says Gibbs, but she felt
the need to go beyond what
the curriculum offered.
“I’ve always believed if a
teacher’s passionate about
it, that shows through to
the kids.
“I loved designing
things,” she adds. “I didn’t
like the approach of, ‘Here’s
a book, read this.’ I liked to
put a twist on it.”
Gibbs says she also
liked to teach through sto-
ries, feeling that stories
were a good way to connect
children back to the curric-
ulum. She recalls a certain
dog, Nugget, that sparked a
lot of stories.
“He’s famous here in
Heppner,” she laughs.
Along the way, she
received honors such as
the Crystal Apple Award
and the Town and County
Citizen-Educator of the
Year Award. She says those
were really special, but her
fondest memories remain
watching the kids enjoy
-Continued to PAGE SIX
its share of funding for a
new, up-to-date facility.
The circuit court system is
run by the State of Oregon.
“We are very pleased
this funding has been ap-
proved and we look forward
to bringing forward to the
public soon our plans for
both the new building and
usage of the current histor-
ical Heppner courthouse,”
said Morrow County Com-
mission Chair David Sykes.
He said the county has
been working for some time
on details of how and where
to locate the new facility in
Heppner.
“This is great news
for Morrow County,” said
Smith on announcing the
approval of the grant.
“Working together, we can
accomplish great things.”
Boardman appoints new
public works director
-Continued to PAGE TEN
Gibbs retires from teaching after 25 years
she says, that when they
worked cattle, they used
helicopters. Gibbs, howev-
er, was part of the ground
crew working the cows on
horseback.
“A lot of ground, a lot
of danger,” she recalls.
The family eventually
ended up in Washington
State, in a small town at the
foot of Mt. Rainier. That
was where they were living
when Gibbs graduated from
Eatonville High School in
1985.
From there, she attend-
ed Washington State Uni-
versity, where she obtained
her bachelor’s degree in
animal science and agricul-
ture in 1989. She then went
back to school, getting a
second Bachelor of Science
in rangeland management
from Oregon State Univer-
sity in 1991 with the goal
of working for the federal
government.
Plans change some-
times though. While at
OSU, she met Helix grad-
uate Jay Gibbs. She took a
job on a ranch in southern
Oregon after graduation,
but her path veered toward
Pendleton when Jay Gibbs
proposed.
She moved to Pend-
leton to be closer to her
fiancé. She worked for a
while at Pendleton Grain
Growers, selling livestock
equipment. She then got
what might have been her
dream job, working with a
wheat geneticist at an agri-
cultural research station in
Pendleton. She had to leave
that job behind when the
couple married and moved
to Condon.
“That was my hard-
est job to leave. I really
enjoyed research,” says
Gibbs.
“In my teaching, I was
most known for my science,
for my earth science and
trips to the fossil beds,”
she adds, saying that she
feels her passion for science
stemmed from that research
job.
County awarded
state funding for
new courthouse
Rolf Prag
The City of Boardman
has announced the appoint-
ment of Rolf Prag to lead
the city’s public works de-
partment. The department
has six full-time employees
and serves the city’s essen-
tial needs in the areas of
roads, bridges, and water
and sewer utilities for its
residents, as well as for
those who work and do
business within the city.
Prag will be replacing
former public works direc-
tor Kevin Kennedy, who
retired at the end of May
after 26 years with the city’s
public works department.
Prag has been working
at the city in the position of
special projects coordinator
since March of 2022. In
that position, he worked
very closely with the public
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
Ione council adopts
budget, hears sewer
update
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Ione City Council
adopted the budget for the
upcoming year at its regular
meeting June 20 in Ione.
The council also heard
concerns about the library
rental rate and listened to
updates regarding the on-
going sewer project and the
new security cameras being
installed in the city.
After a short budget
committee meeting and un-
eventful public hearing, the
city council unanimously
adopted the city’s budget in
the amount of $6,474,826
for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The meeting took a
slightly contentious turn
when representatives from
the Ione Library District
addressed the council re-
garding the rent increase
on the building space the
library leases from the city.
The current lease expires
June 30, and the council
voted unanimously at its
May 9 meeting to increase
the monthly rent from $175
to $325 for the 2023-2025
biennium.
Head librarian Becky
Doherty and board member
Anne Morter said they were
concerned not only because
the rent had gone up, but
because it had gone up by
so much without warning.
They said they had already
created their budget for the
coming year, and the in-
crease was a severe impact
to that budget.
“I could take you back
to a time in history when
the city gave us money to
be there,” said Doherty.
Ione City Administra-
tor Elizabeth Peterson re-
sponded that the previous
rent hadn’t been covering
the operational costs for
-Continued to PAGE NINE
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