In the first Morrow County Board of Commissioners meeting of 2025, two split votes reinstated a plan to move Heppner’s courthouse to the Morrow County Fairgrounds location.
August Peterson, whose first meeting as the newly-elected commissioner was Wednesday, Jan. 8, proposed repealing the board’s November 2024 decision to move the Morrow County Justice Court location to Boardman. His motion received support from David Sykes, chair of the board, with Commissioner Jeff Wenholz opposing.
After repealing the vote, Peterson motioned to move the courthouse at the Heppner fairgrounds, the site the county board first selected more than a year ago. He again had an ally in Sykes and the pair’s vote in favor overrode Wenholz’s opposition.
The county initially received pushback from community members in Heppner when the fairgrounds location was proposed, and even selected, because of concerns about parking for the county fair and its close proximity to a school. However, Peterson said, residents’ opinions changed after they learned not having it at the fairgrounds would mean not having it in Heppner at all, as other considered sites in the area — like the old Kinzua Mill site — were not feasible.
When the commission voted in September to create a courthouse annex in Boardman, and then expanded its decision to include the justice court in November, leaving limited work out of Heppner, Wenholz and Peterson’s predecessor Roy Drago Jr. voted 2-1 against Sykes in favor of the move. It makes sense, then, that Sykes voted alongside Peterson to return the court to Heppner.
During the Jan. 8 vote, 6th Judicial District Presiding Judge Dan Hill spoke in support of the Boardman location on behalf of the state. According to Hill, 85% of civil and 95% of criminal cases come from the county’s north end, meaning those residents have to travel to Heppner to access the court facilities.
Furthermore, Hill said, moving the court to Boardman actually would create four state-funded jobs to support a sixth judge for the circuit courts in Umatilla and Morrow counites. Right now, he said, it’s hard to staff the courthouse in Heppner fully and consistently.
“The shift back to Heppner will result in the district not getting a sixth judge and those positions for Morrow,” he said to the commission. “We will not be able to expand services and we will continue the current level of services, which will not eliminate barriers to equal access to justice for all Morrow County’s residents.”
He said there is no economic benefit to having a new court facility in Heppner, though residents of Heppner have said previously they worry about losing money from people who visit the town for court appointments.
Despite Hill’s arguments in favor of the Boardman annex, Peterson’s position was unchanged. He said one of his stances during the campaign last year was to fight for the courthouse to be in Heppner, so he was going to stick to that promise.
“If we are going to be a body that people can trust, then we need to be consistent with what we say that we are going to do,” he said, “and I am going to hold with what I said I was going to do.”
In response, Wenholz said, “I think it’s more important to do what’s right for the citizens.”
Wenholz also emphasized his vote in favor of the Boardman location — and his continued stance of support for that spot — was based on feedback from residents around the county, including Heppner, who said they did not want a new courthouse to take over the fairgrounds.
With no further comments or discussion, the 2-1 vote repealed the commission’s previous decision. A second vote, also 2-1, put the courthouse location back at the fairgrounds in Heppner. These were Peterson’s first substantial motions as commissioner.
