50¢
VOL. 145
NO. 6 8 Pages
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Ione Elementary School
reenacts the 60th
Presidential Inauguration
District school board prepares for next steps in
bond process
Morrow County – The
Morrow County School
District and its Board of
Directors are moving for-
ward to complete the next
steps toward the district’s
General Obligation Bond.
The district’s Com-
munity Bond Advisory
Committee (CBAC) pre-
sented two bond draft rec-
ommendations to the board
on January 13, 2025. The
board will further discuss
the recommendations and
get a few more questions
answered at a work session
on January 29.
Matt Combe, MCSD
Superintendent, said the
district and the board ap-
preciate all the hard work
the CBAC members have
completed. The CBAC met
for nine months to devel-
op the bond draft recom-
mendations. Comprehen-
sive reviews of all MCSD
schools and facilities were
conducted by certified as-
sessors from the Oregon
Department of Education.
CBAC members reviewed
these facility assessments,
toured buildings with
school principals, reviewed
bond financial options, and
prioritized projects. The fa-
cility assessments indicate
that several MCSD schools
need to be replaced, while
others require important
remodels or upgrades, in-
cluding safety and security
improvements.
“Over many months,
these community members
attended meetings, dis-
cussed options, reviewed
data, asked questions, and
developed detailed bond
project recommendations,
and we are very grateful for
their time, dedication, and
work,” Combe said.
The CBAC is com-
posed of 19 community
members from Boardman,
Irrigon, Heppner, and Lex-
ington who are volunteer-
ing to guide this process.
The members are: Zac
Acock, Doris Brosnan, Luis
Campos, Andrew Cemore,
Dave Cooley, Pamela Cuts-
forth, Jose Dueñas, Frances
Glenn, Torrie Griggs, Brett
Harrison, Jan Huddleston,
Karla Jimenez, Angela
Jones, Tia McNamee, Sue
Oliver, Brandi Orem, Mad-
ison Rosenbalm, George
Shimer, and Gina Wilson.
Combe said the district
and the board also thank
everyone who provided
feedback about the bond
draft recommendations,
which the CBAC reviewed
and used while creating the
proposed bond projects.
After the board work
session at the end of Janu-
ary, the district and board
anticipate that the board
will approve the bond reso-
lution for the ballot in May
2025.
The district was re-
cently notified that it has
qualified for a matching
grant of $6 million from
the Oregon School Capital
Improvement Matching
Program (OSCIM). This
grant will be provided if the
proposed bond is approved
by Morrow County voters
in the spring.
Taxpayers in the Mor-
row County School District
are not currently paying for
a school district bond or
levy. The last General Ob-
ligation Bond was passed in
2001 and expired in 2021.
The last operating levy
(which was not for facility
construction or upgrades)
passed in 2012 and expired
in 2016.
More information will
be communicated in the
coming months about the
MCSD proposed bond. To
view bond draft recommen-
dations or facility reports
of MCSD schools, please
visit mcsdbond.org for the
latest information, email
bondinfo@morrowsd.org,
or contact the District Of-
fice at 541-676-5705.
County BOC selects general contractor
for circuit court project
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Morrow County
Board of Commissioners
selected Bouten Construc-
tion as the Construction
Manager/General Contrac-
tor (CMGC) for the new
circuit court building at its
Jan. 22 meeting in Irrigon.
The county had issued
a request for proposals
(RFP) Dec. 2. Earl Eastman
of Alliance told the BOC
that they had received nine
proposals.
“We attracted some
good attention on it,” added
Morrow County Adminis-
trator Matt Jensen.
All of the proposals
had been for the Boardman
site, since that was the site
the county had selected at
the time. After the decision
was reversed at the Jan. 8
meeting and the site moved
back to Heppner, Eastman
said they had checked to
make sure every applicant
was comfortable with the
change, and all were.
The scoring commit-
tee—consisting of East-
man, Kelli Stewart of DLR
Group, Jensen, Morrow
County Assistant Adminis-
trator Vincent Guerra and
Morrow County Public
Works Director Eric Imes—
met on Jan. 10 and scored
the proposals.
Eastman said the
scoring was “very tight”
between Bouten and the
committee’s other choices,
Kirby Nagelhaut of Pend-
leton and Chervenell Con-
struction of Kennewick, but
that the scoring committee
was unanimous in its rec-
ommendation.
Eastman said the fees
in the proposals ranged
from 2.75 percent and five
percent, with Bouten at
3.75 percent. The fee gets
applied to the total cost of
construction.
“So all of the fees are
very consistent with what
we see in the industry for
projects this size,” said
Eastman.
Cost wasn’t the only
factor, though. Eastman
said the committee used
eight factors to score the
proposals and thoroughly
checked references, even
for companies they were
familiar with.
“The design team and
your construction man-
agement team had experi-
ence with all three of these
contractors, some of them
significant experience with
working with them, but we
still called references,” he
told the commissioners.
Based on the commit-
tee’s recommendation, the
commissioners voted unan-
imously to issue an intent to
award for Bouten
Also at the meeting, the
three commissioners dis-
cussed the need for a long-
range capital improvement
plan for the county.
“I’ve been getting quite
a few interactions with the
public all over the coun-
ty about different capital
projects,” said BOC chair
David Sykes. “And I’ve
thought for some time we
need a long-range plan.”
Commissioners Gus
Peterson and Jeff Wenholz
agreed that a plan is needed.
“This is something that
I don’t know if the county’s
had,” said Wenholz. “If
there had been something,
it’s time to update it.”
The commissioners
discussed having a work
session to begin work on a
plan. Jensen added that it
might be good to include
county staff in the conver-
sation in order to delve be-
yond the obvious projects.
“There’s other projects
that even I’m not fully up
to speed on, that would be
helpful to have facilities,
public works, fair and ev-
erybody come in that work
session just to discuss,” said
Jensen. “So I think a work
session with the entire BOC
and many of the chief staff
members would be very
helpful.”
Wenholz agreed, and
added that he would like
to clearly outline project
funding so discretionary
funding would be used for
appropriate projects.
“Personally, how I’d
like to see us budget out the
dollars having all that in-
formation as we start going
down this road of a capital
improvement plan, I think
that’d be helpful,” he said.
The BOC decided to
hold a work session regard-
ing a long-range capital
improvement plan after the
regular board of commis-
sioners meeting Feb. 19.
Lexington council discusses RV permits
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Jan. 14 meeting of
the Lexington Town Coun-
cil was Lexington Mayor
Sheila Miller’s first meeting
in her new position. She
was sworn in at the begin-
ning of the meeting, as was
returning council member
Will Lemmon. Another
returning council member,
Bill Beard, was not present,
and will be sworn in at later
meeting.
Councilor position four
is still vacant following
Carol Dougherty’s resig-
nation from the council.
Lexington Town Recorder
Autumn Crumpton said the
vacant council position had
been in the paper but there
had been no interest as of
the Jan. 14 meeting.
The council had previ-
ously tabled an ordinance
regarding temporary RV
permits within Lexington
city limits but moved for-
ward with the draft ordi-
nance at January’s meeting.
Permit requirements
and how to enforce them
were main topics in the
discussion. Lemmon said
he didn’t have a problem
with someone living in an
RV for a few weeks.
“But if they’re dump-
ing sewage on the ground,
then it becomes an issue,”
he said.
Council member Ka-
tie Imes said there would
always be questions or
maintenance issues for any-
thing the town does, but she
wanted to move forward
with the ordinance.
“We have wind energy
projects here, where people
are looking for places to
stay, and our residents could
make some extra income
doing that,” she said. “I feel
this is for the good of the
community.”
With the draft ordi-
nance accepted, the town
will move forward with
public hearings before a
formal resolution can be
adopted.
The ordinance is for
a single RV, since two or
more would be considered
a recreational vehicle park
under state rules. Anyone
wanting to create an RV
park would have to go
through the state process
and meet all state require-
ments, regardless of what
the town would require.
The council tabled the
issue of new gutters for
Lexington Fire Hall. The
town had already request-
ed bids for the project and
received several, but Miller
questioned the cost and
budget process for the re-
-Continued to PAGE FIVE
(Top) Color Guard – Ione 2nd and 3rd Graders
(Bottom) Luke Neiffer portrays President Trump being
sworn in by Matthew Bailey as Chief Justice Roberts.
- Photos by Chris Sykes.
Ione Elementary
School reenacted the 60th
Presidential Inauguration,
featuring a presentation of
colors, an introduction of
dignitaries, a flag salute, the
Preamble, the oath of of-
fice for the Vice President,
the oath of office for the
President, the President’s
speech, a performance of
“You’re a Grand Old Flag”,
a benediction, the Grand
March, and the Inaugural
Ball. More pictures
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
CREZ II distributes
more than $13 million
throughout county
At its Jan. 22 meeting,
the Columbia River Enter-
prise Zone (CREZ) II board
determined the recipients of
more than $13 million in
enterprise zone agreement
revenues.
Nearly half of the
$13,864,965 disbursement
went to the CREZ’s three
sponsoring agencies. Mor-
row County, the Port of
Morrow and the City of
Boardman each received
just over $2 million, for a
total of $6,036,021.
More than $3.5 million
of the funds went to hous-
ing and community devel-
opment funds throughout
the county. CREZ records
show that those funds were
distributed according pop-
ulation.
Boardman Commu-
nity Development Asso-
ciation (BCDA) received
$1,986,169, the City of
Irrigon received $859,622
and Willow Creek Valley
-Continued to PAGE THREE
Community seeks donations
to help mobile pet groomer
stay in business
HEPPNER, OR —
Community members are
working to support Yolanda
Munoz, a local mobile pet
groomer, as she faces un-
expected mechanical issues
with her grooming van.
Since her business relies
entirely on mobility, these
vehicle problems have tem-
porarily halted her oper-
ations, prompting a fund-
raising effort to help her
return to serving local pet
owners. Munoz’s grooming
services are well-regarded
in Heppner, particularly in
the rural community where
access to pet care options
can be limited. Howev-
er, because she operates
as a mobile business, she
does not qualify for certain
grants that could assist with
repairs. A fundraising cam-
paign has been launched,
with donations being ac-
cepted through GoFundMe
and local collection efforts.
Supporters have expressed
appreciation for Munoz’s
-Continued to PAGE SEVEN
CALL
541-989-8221
ext 204
for more
information