50¢
VOL. 145
NO.24
8 Pages
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Heppner votes to sell land for two projects
Move opens the door for new library, day care
By Andrea Di Salvo
The Heppner City
Council voted Monday
night to move forward with
two land deals, one for a
proposed new library build-
ing and one for a new day
care facility in Heppner.
The Oregon Trail Li-
brary District (OTLD) was
given an option to purchase
city-owned property at the
corner of Chase and May
streets. The plot is currently
an empty gravel lot used for
parking.
Meanwhile, the council
agreed to sell Heppner Day
Care (HDC) about half an
acre of land that’s currently
part of Hager Park, with
certain contingencies.
OTLD Director Kathy
Street had previously ap-
proached the board about
using part of Heppner City
Park for a new library build-
ing. However, pushback
from both the city and the
public put a stop that idea.
Street was at the June 9
meeting to discuss options
for a new library building
on the corner lot beside
Willow Creek. She present-
ed two design options, one
with a porch along the creek
and one with a courtyard
behind the entry lobby.
Street said she preferred
the porch design, since the
courtyard would break the
line of site between the
adult and children’s sec-
tions of the library. How-
ever, she said she would
be in town to gather public
input on Museum Day this
Saturday, June 14.
Both versions of the
design would have a com-
munity room that would be
available for reservation
after hours. The planned
Design option 1: porch scheme. - Contributed Image
building would have a gross
area of 5,362 square feet
compared to the existing li-
brary, which has only 1800
square feet. It would also
have 11 off-street parking
spaces.
Street said the process
ahead of the library district
was to acquire land, work
on the final design and then
work with a consultant to
find funding and put the
project out for bid—not a
process that would finish
any time soon.
“Probably not next
year, or the year after,” she
told the council.
Heppner Mayor Corey
Sweeney asked if the land
could be returned to the
city if the construction fell
through for any reason, and
Street said the library board
would likely agree to that.
After a brief discussion
in executive session, the
city council voted unani-
mously to give the OTLD a
three-year option to buy the
plot for a new library, with
the land remaining with the
city if the library doesn’t
use it in that time.
The choice to grant a
portion of Hager Park to
Heppner Day Care was a
more difficult decision, with
the city’s need for more
childcare balanced against
the loss of precious green
space within the city.
HDC Board Chair Ka-
tie Murray told the board
that the day care didn’t
make the request light-
ly. The childcare facility
started researching expan-
sion nearly two years ago.
Despite making headway
with funding—more than
$1 million committed so
far—HDC has stumbled
over finding suitable prop-
erty in Heppner.
“We have, for those
two years, tried to find
somewhere to put it,” said
Murray. “We’ve worked
really hard to not take any
kind of existing city asset
away, and we understand
that that field is a nice park,
so we’re not coming to you
without a lot of efforts to
find a space that going to
fit our needs and also the
community needs.”
The day care board told
the council that Morrow
County is classified as a
childcare “desert,” defined
as a county in which fewer
than 33 percent of the chil-
dren have access to a child-
care slot. That percentage
drops to 14 percent when
considering zero- to three-
year-olds.
In fact, HDC board
member Petra Payne said
Heppner Day Care is the
only nonprofit certified
childcare center in South
Morrow County.
“That comes with the
licensing and some higher
expectations and stipu-
lations that we’re trying
to meet, and we’d like to
County cancels public
hearing for CDA
annexation into
BFRD
The Morrow County
Board of Commissioners
has cancelled the public
hearing scheduled for June
11 at 9 a.m. to discuss the
Columbia Development
Authority’s (CDA) appli-
cation to annex portions
of their property into the
Boardman Fire Rescue Dis-
trict (BFRD).
The application was
made under ORS 198.857,
which outlines a proper-
ty owner’s right to annex
property into a fire district.
The application requires a
public hearing to be held
within 20 to 50 days of re-
ceipt. This was the original
intent of the public hearing
on June 11.
Irrigon Rural Fire Dis-
trict (IRFD) has filed a
legal challenge to this an-
nexation. IRFD holds that
annexation should follow
ORS 478.702, which was
adopted into law in 2023.
Unfortunately, this
places the county in a po-
sition where two processes
are provided for annexation
in statute without a clear
priority outlined for which
would prevail.
Each of the three par-
New DMV scam on
the rise
If you receive a text message
or email from Oregon DMV
telling you to ‘Pay Now,’ don’t
click any links—it’s a scam
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT
Hard work pays off for MCSO with department accreditation
By Andrea Di Salvo
Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office and the Morrow
County 9-1-1 Communica-
tions Center have received
professional accreditation
from The Northwest Ac-
creditation Alliance.
Northwest Accredita-
tion Alliance Executive
Director Scott Hayes pre-
sented the accreditations
to MCSO at the Morrow
County Board of Commis-
sioners’ meeting June 4 in
Heppner. This is the second
accreditation the sheriff’s
office and dispatch have
received through the orga-
nization.
The Northwest Ac-
creditation Alliance is an
organization that provides
professional standards for
law enforcement and 9-1-1
communications agencies
in Oregon and Alaska. It
was formed as the Oregon
Accreditation Alliance in
April of 2001 and changed
its name to Northwest Ac-
creditation Alliance in Jan-
uary 2024.
Created under the di-
rection and authority of the
Oregon Association Chiefs
of Police, the Oregon State
Sheriff’s Association and
the Association of Public
Safety Communications
Officials, the Alliance is
designed to evaluate and
improve law enforcement
agencies’ overall perfor-
mance. It does that by es-
tablishing and measuring
professional standards of
L-R: Morrow County Board Chair David Sykes, MCSO Lt.
Nathan Braun, Morrow County Undersheriff Brian Snyder,
Morrow County Sheriff John Bowles, Sgt. Sarah Baker, Lt.
Kristen Bowles, and Morrow County Commissioners Gus
Peterson and Jeff Wenholz, with Scott Hayes on the screen in
the background. -Contributed photo
accountability, manage-
ment and operations.
“Law enforcement is
experiencing a changing
society with the increased
demands for police ac-
countability and transpar-
ency,” said Hayes. “Our
profession must face these
challenges and work with
our communities to address
their concerns.
“Accreditation is one
step toward building com-
munity trust in the legitima-
cy of our profession.”
To receive accredita-
tion, MCSO had to adhere
to 110 law enforcement
standards, and the 9-1-1
communications center had
to adhere to 56 standards.
“This is really a mon-
umental step for any agen-
cy to be evaluated by an
outside, independent or-
ganization and have its
policies and procedures
scrutinized,” said Hayes.
“This is quite an ac-
complishment for any law
enforcement agency,” add-
ed Morrow County Sheriff
John Bowles.
Bowles said MCSO
first started the process in
2016.
“When we got into it…
it’s a lot of work,” Bowles
said.
The accreditation in-
volved both having ap-
propriate policies and pro-
cedures and proving the
departments could follow
them over time. Bowles
said they received their
initial accreditation in 2022.
“Now you’ve got to
maintain it and get all the
reporting and the require-
ments for that three years,
so when the reaccreditation
comes up, you have all
this proof that you’ve been
following these rules and
regulations and policies
for that three-year period,”
Bowles said.
He added that writing
policies was a small part of
the process.
“To the office, follow-
ing all that policy, proce-
dures and reports through-
out the three years, that’s a
big part of the work,” said
Bowles. “It’s more on my
agency and my team, not
me. So, a big part of the
credit goes to them.”
“It’s one thing to have
the rules. It’s another thing
to follow them,” agreed
Wenholz, congratulating
the MCSO on showing a
high level of profession-
alism.
All three commis-
sioners congratulated and
thanked the sheriff and
his team for the work that
went into the accreditation
ties—the CDA, BFRD and
IRFD—have agreed to have
a judge make a ruling on
which statute takes prec-
edent.
With that agreement
made, and a judge since
signing a temporary in-
junction, the board of com-
missioners cancelled the
public hearing during their
meeting on June 4. The
BOC says it will wait for
the determination from the
courts or until July 31, as
stipulated in the agreement
between CDA, BFRD and
IRFD.
“Morrow County ap-
preciates the interest and
passion on this issue,” the
county said in a statement.
“The board of commission-
ers is dedicated to preserv-
ing legal rights of property
owners and is committed
to following the law as out-
lined in ORS and the county
code. The county looks for-
ward to the legal resolution
of this annexation dispute.”
For more information,
please contact the Morrow
County Administration Of-
fice at 541-676-2529 or
email mjensen@morrow-
countyor.gov.
SALEM – If you re-
ceive a text message or
email from Oregon DMV
requesting payment or per-
sonal identifying informa-
tion, do not respond or click
any links. The best course
of action is to ignore, delete
and block the message.
“These messages are
not from Oregon DMV,”
said Oregon DMV Public
Information Officer Chris
Crabb. “These are fake
messages designed to get
you to click on a link and
provide personal informa-
tion or send money.”
In the latest scam, bad
actors are claiming you
have an outstanding traffic
ticket or other violation.
The text cites a phony Or-
egon State Administrative
-Continued to PAGE EIGHT Code and claims if you do
not pay by a certain date,
you will face vehicle reg-
istration suspension, sus-
pended driving privileges,
service fees and damage
to your credit score. The
scam says to pay immedi-
ately before enforcement
to avoid license suspension
and further legal disputes.
“Oregon DMV will
never ask you for personal
information or payment
through an unsolicited text,
email or phone call,” said
Crabb. “DMV transactions
should only be completed
online at dmv2u.oregon.
gov or in person at a DMV
office.”
Oregon DMV offers
secure online services and
sends text or email messag-
es in some instances, but
only for transactions that
you start, and the messages
never include links to con-
firm personal information
or payment. We would only
ask for proof of identity or
payment through DMV2U
or by requesting copies of
your identity documents in
person at a DMV office.
CALL
541-989-8221
ext 204
for more
information