EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Lexington airport work sees setback due to new cultural study requirements
-Continued from PAGE ONE for both.
the county are not well de-
fined as we’ve kind of seen
over the last few months,”
said Ince. “As we refine and
implement new processes
along with the implementa-
tion of this system, the risk
and procurement manager
position is going to be in-
tegral in helping us stand
that up.
“The timeliness of
hopefully having that per-
son on board at the begin-
ning of this process is going
to be very valuable; it will
allow someone to focus on
just that element of it,” he
added.
Commissioner Roy
Drago asked whether the
software would improve
IT (internet technology)
security for the county.
Ince replied that the
county is also working
with BerryDunn on a sep-
arate project for business
continuity and disaster re-
covery for its technical in-
frastructure. The two teams
are working in tandem to
provide the best solutions
“They’re going to be
collaborating to make sure
that as we negotiate the
statement of work in the
contract that we’re incor-
porating some of those
best practice security rec-
ommendations from the
disaster recovery business
continuity team into this,”
Ince said.
“I can tell you that in-
ternally, security and roles
and permissions within a
system, our processes, will
definitely be more secure
and allow us to kind of seg-
regate some of the functions
that need to be separated
more than what we have
today,” he added.
“I would say that the
ERP doesn’t directly tie
in with our IT security
infrastructure, but it will
assist with any type of fraud
risk,” added Morrow Coun-
ty Administrator Matthew
Jensen.
Also at the meeting, the
BOC held a public hearing
and approved a supplemen-
tal budget for fiscal year
2025 for the establishment
of a behavioral health de-
flection grant program fund.
It also adopted a supple-
ment budget to allow for
transfer of opioid abate-
ment funds.
Ince told the BOC that
the county had originally
thought it would be the
fiscal agent for the grant
funds, which are to be used
by Community Counseling
Solutions in its opioid de-
flection program.
However, Ince said fur-
ther review of the funds
showed that the county is
the grant recipient, which
created the need for the
special fund.
“These are import-
ant dollars for the county.
They’re going to help us,
hopefully, try to lighten
some of the addiction is-
sues we have,” Morrow
County district Attorney
Justin Nelson said in favor
of the proposed budget ad-
justments. “I can’t say for
sure it’s going to work, but
I think we’re going to give
it every shot we have.”
In other business, the
commissioners authorized
payment of a claim rejected
by the finance department.
The claim was for work on
a side-by-side owned by
Morrow County Parks. The
work had been time-sen-
sitive, since it happened
during fire season, and
the UTV was equipped to
respond to dry lightning
strikes and fires on the park.
The repairs needed had
ended up being more signif-
icant than expected, and the
department had neglected
to get prior approval.
Ince said the purchase
didn’t meet process require-
ments and therefore could
not be approved by statute.
However, he said he didn’t
feel there was wanton dis-
regard for the process, but
merely an oversight. All
the employees involved
had reviewed the correct
procedure.
The BOC also ap-
proved three fiscal year
2025 resolution budget
transfers and adjustments,
two for transfers of appro-
priations and one for an
increase of appropriations.
One transfer was from
general operating contin-
gency in the general fund
into the weed department
for costs related to the
building lease, utilities and
expenditures for fixtures
and equipment for the new
weed office location. The
other was a transfer of ap-
propriations from general
operating contingency to
the finance department for
the creation of a new risk
and procurement manager
position.
The increase of ap-
propriations was for funds
from a Homeland Security
emergency management
grant program for the audio/
visual upgrades in the coun-
ty’s primary emergency
operations center, which is
the upper meeting room in
the Bartholomew Building
in Heppner.
In other business, the
board:
-ratified the 2024-2027
Collective Bargaining
Agreement for Morrow
County Road Department,
Local 2479 American Fed-
eration of State, County,
and Municipal Employees;
-heard that South Mor-
row County Seniors Matter
received the 2024 Oregon
Rural Quality Excellence
Award for a Community
Based Organization earlier
this month; and
-canceled the Nov. 20
BOC meeting due to sched-
ule conflicts with the Asso-
ciation of Oregon Counties
annual conference, which
BOC members and some
staff will attend.
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