Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 2025)
St. Patrick’s weekend schedule on page 9 50¢ VOL. 145 NO.11 10 Pages Wednesday, March 12, 2025 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Torres sworn in as new MCHD board member BOC hears circuit Health district board adopts new public comment guidelines court update, approves contract increase Changes, delays add more than $900k to design costs Morrow County Health Dis- trict’s newest board member, Laura Torres of Boardman, was sworn in by Zoom at the last regular meeting of L-R: MCHD board members Donna Rietmann, Stephen Munkers and board chair Diane the health district board. Kilkenny discuss new public comment guidelines during last month’s meeting in Irrigon. -Contributed photo -Contributed photo By Andrea Di Salvo Morrow County Health District saw a leadership change during its Feb. 24 meeting in Irrigon, as Laura Torres was sworn in as the newest councilor, taking over for Trista Seastone. After several meetings throughout the county, the MCHD board also voted to approve revised guidelines for public comment during meetings. None of the topics cov- ered in the discussion were a surprise to those who have been following the conver- sation so far. Public comment has been moved to the end of the meeting but before any executive session. Members of the public wanting to comment will need to sign up and list the topic they want to comment on. While the board opted not to confine comments to topics on the agenda, the members did agree that they would not allow public comments about specific patients or personnel. The board’s new guide- lines also state that public comment “is not a time for dialogue between the board members and members of the public.” Each person will be limited to three minutes, for a maximum of 30 min- utes of public comment per meeting. Multiple com- ments on one topic will need to be combined in one speaker. Finally, public com- ment “will be conducted in a civil manner at all times.” Anyone who violates the guidelines or causes a dis- turbance may be asked to leave the meeting and may not be allowed to comment in the future. “Any board member may object to public com- ments not following these guidelines, which may re- sults in limiting the com- mentary in question and or other limitations to the public comment period necessary to maintain order and productive discourse,” the guidelines state. MCHD board member Scott Ezell said he thought a sign-up sheet with space for topics was a good start. “Manage the public comments a little better,” he said. “I want to encour- age the public to be here and hear what they have to say.” However, he did say he liked the idea of mov- ing comments to the end, as people might have their concerns addressed or questions answered before they got up to comment. “Hopefully they can hear the dialogue and un- derstand that we are ad- dressing issues,” he said. “I think it’s more inter- active,” agreed board chair Diane Kilkenny. “Because they can hear what’s going on, they can make a com- ment, they can learn what we’re doing, we can hear what they think.” “I’d like to see it stay as simple as we can,” said board member Stephen Munkers of the draft guide- lines, “and this outlines everything really well.” Torres said the City of Boardman had adopted similar guidelines for pub- lic comment, and requires people submit a form in writing before the meeting if they want to comment. Comments also must be pertinent to the agenda. Torres said she had only seen one disagreement over the guidelines in Boardman, and the community member had been asked to leave. Also at the Feb. 24 meeting, the health district approved a supplemental budget for fiscal year 2024- 25. The budget reflects the ambulance service contracts with the county, which took effect after the 2024-25 budget was adopted. That means about $2.6 million in additional revenue the health district expects to By Andrea Di Salvo The Morrow Coun- ty Board of Commission- ers approved an increase of more than $900,000 to the county’s contract with DLR Group at its last reg- ular meeting in Heppner. The price increase, which was anticipated in the $35 million construction bud- get recently approved by the county, reflects the de- lays and changes that have dogged the circuit court’s progress over the past year. In January 2024, the board of commissioners approved an initial con- tract with DLR Group for $2,235,200 for work on the new circuit court building. The contract was based on an initial cost estimate of $17.6 million for the pro- posed site near the Heppner fairgrounds. As the county pivoted away from Heppner to ex- amine the Kinzua Mill site and Boardman properties over the past year, there were two small contract amendments for additional work not included in the original contract. Now, with the return to Heppner as the county’s site and the resulting addition of 12 months to the project schedule, a revised con- struction cost estimate of $35 million total has been established. The BOC voted Dec. 18, 2024, to approve the new budget. Morrow County Ad- ministrator Matt Jensen told commissioners that the DLR Group’s increase of $941,904 was captured in the $35 million construc- tion budget, which encom- passes all additional design work, engineering evalu- ations, and other services that were required due to -Continued to PAGE TWO H is for Heppner a hit with local readers -Continued to PAGE NINE Group seeks to bring stronger radio to Heppner, Lexington Mollie Rhea, author of H is for Heppner, and son, Maverick, present a first edition copy to Annette Sherman, librarian at the Heppner branch of the Oregon Trail Library District. -Photo by Kay Proctor Sam Bellamy goes up to inspect the old KVIP tower on Black- The KVIP radio Transmitte. -Contributed Photo horse Canyon. Dale Bates says the new setup on Cross Hill will be much smaller. -Contributed photo Does Heppner have a radio station? Yes! Well, kind of. Believe it or not, about 18 years ago, a Christian Radio Station, FM 90.5 KVIP from Redding, CA, installed a translator/trans- mitter here in the Heppner area. The problem is, few people know about it. Why don’t they know about it? When the radio station was installed, they were looking for a place high on a hill with access to power and out of the weather. The place that fit the bill was a transmitter site used by Columbia Basin Electric and the sheriff’s office at Blackhorse Canyon. This site is almost four miles from Heppner, and large portions of the signal are blocked out by the steep hills and terrain. This means that the signal, though rel- atively close, is still very weak for Heppner. “This station offers great Christian program- ming and music, which the people of Heppner and Lexington would enjoy if the signal was stronger,” says Dale Bates of Heppner. “Let’s face it; it is nearly impossible to pick up a ra- dio station, and here is one that could be very strong!” With that in mind, a committee was formed to determine a new location for the transmitter, a loca- tion where it can reach all the people in Heppner and Lexington. After looking at all the options, Cross Hill above Heppner appeared to be the perfect place for the transmitter. Not only will it provide a strong signal for Heppner, but it also has a clear path to reach Lexing- ton from there. Like most things, mov- ing the transmitter will come with some costs. The committee will need to ap- ply to get the FCC license changed, get power to the site, relocate the antenna and translator, and create a small weather-proof build- ing. The estimated cost will be a minimum of $6,000 to $7,000. To that end, the group is looking for donations from local churches and com- munity members to move forward with the relocation. Meanwhile, some business owners have agreed to per- form their services at a discounted rate. More information can be found on Facebook, at Heppner Christian Radio KVIP. A tax-deductible online donation can be made there or by mailing a check to “Heppner Christian Radio KVIP,” PO Box 158, Hep- pner, OR 97836. The group hopes to complete the project by the end of June. Anyone with questions may contact Bates at 541- 980-5694. By Kay Proctor Mollie Rhea has always wanted to write a novel, but it turns out her first pub- lished work is an alphabet book for Heppner. That book, H is for Heppner, was written in one week. Rhea designed its wa- tercolor illustrations on her iPad with a little help from AI (artificial intelligence) for “faces and animals.” “I was inspired by some children’s alphabet books and thought, ‘Someone should do this for Heppner! It would be a hit,’” said Rhea. While the book can be read to and enjoyed by young children, the adult public appreciates her thor- oughly researched histor- ical details so much that Mollie is in the process of ordering a second printing. When asked what his -Continued to PAGE EIGHT CALL 541-989-8221 ext 220 for more information
