A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018
NEWS
Neighborhood watch
group formed in Heppner
Morrow County looks at housing options
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Morrow County is pro-
viding a growing number
of jobs in the region, but at
the end of the workday, the
majority of those people go
back to their homes some-
where else.
That may be slowly
starting to change.
Morrow County Plan-
ning Director Carla McLane
said the county is looking
seriously at how to house
the many people who work
in the county but don’t live
there.
“The commute pattern is
out of sync with the housing
pattern,” she said. “As the
port has grown, we haven’t
seen the residential part of
Morrow County keep pace
with that.”
In the last two months,
the Morrow County Plan-
ning Commission has
approved permits for new
housing and rental units in
the area, and will launch
a committee to study the
developable land in the
county next month.
At a meeting on last
week, the commission
approved a request for the
Ruggs Ranch, near Hep-
pner, to use the facility
as a guest lodge all year,
and approved a land parti-
tion for a non-farm dwell-
ing unit, also near Heppner.
In July, the commission
approved a permit for the
Gala Springs Subdivision,
comprised of 14 two-acre
More than 200 Morrow
County residents showed
up at a meeting last week
to talk about crime in the
city of Heppner, and poten-
tial solutions to the concerns
many community members
have.
The complaints have
ranged from a perceived
increase in criminal mischief
and vandalism to drug use,
to an influx of people that are
not working or attempting to
get jobs.
The meeting was orga-
nized by county commis-
sioner Melissa Lindsay,
the City of Heppner and
the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce.
Lindsay said there had
been a growing conversa-
tion in several different cir-
cles about those issues. She
added that there were also
two parks in Heppner that
were vandalized recently.
“For me, instead of every-
one talking and complaining,
let’s come together and find
a solution,” she said.
Community
members
agreed to form two groups
— a neighborhood watch
group and a community
pride organization.
Both Morrow County
Sheriff Ken Matlack and
Undersheriff John Bowles
were at the meeting.
Bowles said he hadn’t
noticed any major spikes in
the number of calls the sher-
HH FILE PHOTO
Representatives of R.D. Offutt Company, BC Contracting and Boardman broke ground on a
new 240 unit apartment complex in Boardman last fall.
lots west of Boardman that
will be used for residential
development.
McLane said when that
parcel was up for approval
at last month’s planning
commission meeting, some
people were concerned
about the impact it would
have on other residents in
the area.
“There were a number of
people testifying with con-
cerns about the water table,
14 new septic systems,” she
said, adding that the area is
already designated for high
nitrates. “They don’t want
to say no to development,
but they want to be consci-
entious of how to balance it.”
She said the planning
commission acknowledged
those were concerns that
may need to be addressed
down the road, but seven
of the nine commission-
ers voted in favor of the
development.
McLane said there has
been some growth in the
northern part of the county,
both in and out of city
limits.
“I’ve been here 17 years
and have probably seen
half a dozen subdivisions
approved and built,” she
said.
But she added that many
of those subdivisions are
reaching full capacity now.
“I think (Gala Springs)
will begin to meet this next
set of demands,” she said.
She said they have not
yet found a developer
for the land, and that it’s
unlikely there will be any
construction on the site
until spring.
A 120-unit apartment
complex being built in
Boardman, McLane said,
may soon pave the way for
more housing within city
limits.
“Depending on how
quickly that fills up, they
have another phase planned,
another 120 units,” she said.
McLane said as the
north end of the county has
attracted business, the south
end has struggled, both with
jobs and with housing.
“The demographic of
south county — it’s an
aging population,” she said.
She noted that the area
saw a lot of foreclosures
between 2007 and 2009,
and there has been a push to
get those homes back on the
market.
iff’s office gets for property
crime.
“Criminal mischief is
basically vandalism calls,”
he said. “I don’t see those
increasing at all.”
The sheriff’s office com-
piled data from 2015 to
2018, looking at calls from
January to August in each
of those four years. In 2015
there were 19 criminal mis-
chief calls, dipping to four in
2016, and holding at 15 calls
in 2017 and 2018.
Calls for juvenile com-
plaints were similarly irreg-
ular, with 17 in 2015, 16 in
2016, 46 in 2017 and 29 in
2018.
“We really encourage
people to call and report, so
we’re seeing a lot more peo-
ple calling,” Bowles said.
He said he doesn’t attri-
bute problems in the com-
munity to any one specific
group, though he did say a
couple of groups of teens
have been contacted multi-
ple times about vandalism.
Community
members
agreed to start two groups
they feel will address their
concerns: a neighborhood
watch group and a commu-
nity pride group.
The neighborhood watch
will be similar to those in
many communities, with
residents serving as the
facilitators.
Lindsay said those groups
are starting to be organized.
“Citizens want to step up,
and help put more eyes on
more places,” Lindsay said.
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