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VOL. 145
NO. 4 8 Pages
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
St. Pat’s button
contest now open
Heppner council solidifies water system priorities
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Heppner City
Council began its Jan. 13
meeting by swearing in
newly elected members.
Mayor Corey Sweeney and
council members Ralph
Klock and Ian Murray are
continuing in their posi-
tions, while councilor Joe
Armato is a new face on the
city’s governing body.
The Heppner City
Council also started the new
year with a focus on goals,
especially the city’s water
and related priorities. The
council voted unanimously
last week to move forward
with engineering firm An-
derson Perry’s recommen-
dations for the city’s water
system master plan.
Prior to its regular
meeting, the council contin-
ued a Jan. 10 work session
with Anderson Perry. The
work session had been con-
tinued to last week when
the council asked the firm
to trim the proposed work
scope for high-priority proj-
ects to a smaller budget.
The work had originally
been projected at more than
$14 million.
Project engineer Dane
Maben was back at the Jan.
13 meeting to discuss the
council’s priorities and their
price tags.
Those priorities includ-
ed new flow meters at wells
two and three, a new well
(well six) and new water
storage reservoir, well one
pump building replace-
ment, recoating the interior
of well three, rehabbing the
pressure-reducing valve
station on all five existing
wells, and four areas of
distribution piping.
The design phase of
the project will take 12-15
months, Maben said, with
another 18 to 24 months on
construction. The total proj-
ect cost in 2027 dollars is
projected at $10.4 million.
Included in that was
a new reservoir of welded
steel at $1.3 million. An
equivalent concrete res-
ervoir would cost about
$1.9 million, Maben said,
adding that cost was for
the “Cadilac version” of
concrete tanks.
“I could talk to other
companies to see if we can
get that down to kind of a
middle-of-the-road con-
crete tank,” he said.
However, he said the
high-end tank would re-
quire no recoating, only ba-
sic cleaning. Welded-steel
reservoirs require coating,
which will have to be re-
done every 30 to 40 years,
though Maben said coatings
are getting better and last-
ing longer.
The recoating for well
three in this project will cost
about $180,000. This is the
first recoating of reservoir
three in about 50 years.
Reservoir three is about half
the size of the reservoir at
the proposed new well.
The council had orig-
inally considered a trailer
mounted generator and
manual transfer switches
at the various well pumps.
However, the city ended
up going with permanent
generators at well one and
the planned well six.
Maben said his under-
standing of Oregon law was
that backup power was only
required at one location,
but he recommended also
installing it on the new well.
“So if something hap-
pens up here with your
transmission line or some-
thing, you have a well with
backup power at the other
end of the system as well,”
Maben said.
He also said the well
pump station at the new
well would be more ex-
pensive because the state
requires chlorination. The
existing wells are already
chlorinated.
Maben said the coun-
cil’s selection of project pri-
orities didn’t lock the city
into completing an of the
projects, but that it helped
in creating the city’s water
system master plan. After
that, the city could pursue
funding for the project.
“And if the funding
package isn’t right to do
that big of a project, we
can go through your list and
start scratching things off
the bottom,” said Maben,
“and work our way up to
a project you guys can do
and feel comfortable about
doing.”
At the same time, he
said, that didn’t remove
any projects from the mas-
ter plan. While the $10.4
million is for high priority
projects, the cost for the
entire master plan would
climb to about $30 million.
“Everything we’ve
talked about since we start-
ed doing this is in the master
plan,” Maben said. “Seven
years down the road, you
can pull this master plan off
the shelf and say, ‘Oh, hey,
we talked about doing this,
but it wasn’t a high priority
at the time.’”
Then, he said, the plan
could be amended with
updated costs and the city
could pursue funding for
that project.
On the matter of fund-
ing, Maben had some sug-
gestions. Safe Drinking
Water is a program funded
through Business Oregon.
The city would have until
Feb. 15 to submit a letter
of interest.
The Heppner St. Pat-
rick’s Day button con-
test is open for entries,
the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce announced last
week. A $100 prize awaits
the winning artist.
Artwork must fit in-
side the button circle and
include the following in-
formation: Heppner 1887,
42nd Annual Wee Bit O’
Ireland Celebration, March
13-16, 2025. Button design
pages can be obtained from
the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce office.
The contest is open to
local entrants only. Button
designs are due Feb. 8.
For more informa-
tion, contact the Heppner
Chamber of Commerce at
541-676-5536.
Ione fire department
receives donation
Ione Rural Fire Protection District (IRFPD) received a sizable
donation from Brookfield Renewable recently. Steve Dumler,
Site Facility Manager of Shepherd Flats for Brookfield Renew-
able, applied for and was granted the award in the amount of
$5,000. Steve presented the award at the regular meeting of
-Continued to PAGE SIX the IRFPD Board on Jan. 13. Pictured are Steve Dumler (left)
and Ione Fire Chief Virgil Morgan (right). -Contributed photo
Heppner team assigned Elks receives donation in Smith pushes for more
honor of long-time member Port commissioners
to Palisades Fire
Greg Smith
An Oregon fire truck sits side-by-side with a truck from Los
Angeles County during the response to the wildfires raging in
Southern California. -Photo courtesy of OSFM
Morrow County fire-
fighters are on the front
lines of the California fires,
with firefighters from Hep-
pner and Boardman an-
swering the call.
According to John Hen-
dricks of the Oregon State
Fire Marshal’s Office, the
Heppner Fire Department
is with Oregon Strike Team
21, which is assigned to the
Palisades Fire. Umatilla Co.
Fire District #1 is also with
Strike Team 21.
Meanwhile, Board-
man Fire Rescue District
(BFRD) personnel and
equipment are part of Strike
Team 19, currently assigned
to the Eaton Fire.
The Morrow County
fire teams are part of six
water tender strike teams
mobilized to California on
Jan. 11. A water tender is a
standard response tool to
wildfires and is a special-
ized truck designed to carry
and deliver large amounts
of water.
Some of the water ten-
ders mobilizing to Cali-
fornia, like the truck from
Heppner, are Oregon’s new
tactical tenders that were
delivered to local fire agen-
cies through the OSFM
Engine Program in 2024.
Over the weekend, Or-
egon State Fire Marshal
Mariana Ruiz-Temple was
in Southern California,
where she met with CAL
FIRE officials, toured the
fire-affected areas, and
spoke with Oregon fire-
fighters to learn about their
experiences and work.
“Firefighters from
across the country are work-
ing around the clock to sup-
port these communities,”
Ruiz-Temple said. “I thank
them, their communities,
and their families who sup-
port their efforts during this
deployment. The ability to
share resources across state
lines ensures states have
the extra capacity needed
during critical times.”
In total, the Oregon
State Fire Marshal has sent
21 strike teams, 370 fire-
fighters, and 105 apparatus
to support California’s re-
sponse to historic wildfires
in the southern part of the
state. This is the largest
out-of-state deployment for
the agency.
Ione Martin made a donation to the local Elks lodge in memory
of her late husband, Jerry Martin. Pictured at his celebration
of life are Ione Martin with children Scott Martin of Roseville,
CA (front left), Lisa Mort of Richland, WA (back left) and Cindi
Doherty of Heppner (back right). -Contributed photo
Ione Martin of Herm- go toward someone seeking
iston donated $1,000 to to become a teacher.
the Heppner Elks Lodge
#358 in memory of her late
husband, Jerry Martin. She
presented the check to Elks
Chaplain Tim Dickenson at
the celebration of life held
at the Elks last week.
Martin was a mem-
ber of Lodge #358 for 57
years, and his family says
the Elks was always dear
to his heart. He was also a
long-time Morrow County
teacher with a passion for
education and coaching.
The donation will be
split, with $500 going to-
ward the Elks youth night
and the other $500 going
to a scholarship in Martin’s
name. The scholarship will
State Rep. Greg Smith
of Heppner wants to add
two commissioners to the
Port of Morrow Commis-
sion.
Smith’s House Bill
2797 would expand the
port from five commis-
sioners to seven. In some
ways, that makes sense. The
Port of Morrow is the sec-
ond-largest port in Oregon.
The Port’s annual budget is
nearly half a billion dollars.
H o w e v e r, M o r r o w
County voters would not
be able select the two new
commissioners.
Rather, HB 2797 calls
for the governor to appoint
two new commissioners
who “have knowledge or
experience in the trade sec-
tor.” That’s not all—the bill
also states that the governor
will appoint successors
when the four-year terms
end, with commissioners
eligible for reappointment.
The other five com-
missioners would still be
elected.
The proposal is among
21 bills Smith filed ahead
of the 2025 legislative ses-
sion. Others include barring
members of the Legislative
Assembly from serving on
juries, ensuring a person
with a concealed handgun
license is automatically
qualified to get a gun pur-
chase permit, and creating a
new tax credit for volunteer
firefighters, among others.
CALL
541-989-8221
ext 204
for more
information