T hursday, July 25, 1957
THE IftOOKJNGS - HAftftOI P I L O T
Letter to Editor
T h e B r o o k in g s -H a r b o r
EDITORS NOTE:
This is a complete' copy of a
letter sent by Congressman
Charles O. Porter, of this dis
trict, to Postmaster Arthur E.
Summerfield.
P IL O T
AN IN D E P E N D E N T
N A T IO N A L
K> I T 0 • I A L
A S S O C IA T IO N
NEW SPAPER
N IW P A M I
At tim es I am driven to the con- clean llfe
sta,*‘ a* a> from
elusion that education of today is R9uor tn<i l l KartttfcS> •
m ore concerned with supplying might som eday b* a g re a t a < e.
Enfere I as second cla&-> mailer al th« postoffiee a r Brooklnm. O r *
March 7, fc>46. under an Act uf March 3. 187a
ru le s and regulations than with N eedless to say, I did not be< om<
providing good exam ples. A nd a s ta r , but certain ly my failure to
Ray Pisarck, Joe Murphy
when I say "education", I am not do so was not due to the fact that
E d ito r i and /'uM uh er*
S U B S C R IP T IO N R A TE S :
re fe rrin g to schools and teachers no stan d ard s w ere available,
l.n e Year in Advance (in C u iry Countyi
coo
but
ra th e r to the environment in
Today, how ever, I feel so rry
One Year in Advance louta.de Curry County!
......
KUO
which the v ery young a re being for theyoungster seeking an ideal,
re a re d . For aft»r all, we m ust He listen s to the baseball game
adm it that in spite of the vast sum ant! the account is sponsored by a
spent for form al education, ¿ a r ^ r company which t r i « to con-
QUESTION’S ON' THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PORT
ch ild ren get m ost of th e ir know -vinre
^ at tbls b<M‘r bas lts
ledge from the world around them ,birtb *n
co°l» green glades
People are fo rev er asking questions on the plans for the d e
Specifically, I feel that the c h ild -°f our 0WB C ascades. And tennis
velopment of the Port of Brookings. It is exceedingly difficult
re n of today a re being deprived p la y e rs, baseball h e ro e s, and
at this stage of the game to d eterm in e ju st what the answ ers a re .
of examples aft»r which to p a tte rn f °C t ball g re a ts are all pit tu red o n
th e m se lv e s. In my own younger
dragging deeply in o rd e r to
We have five com petant men in office as P o rt C om m issioners days^ Ile a rn e d th a t George W ash-
th e ir lungs with smoke from a
tor the d is tr ic t, and we m ust tru st to th e ir good judgem ent, and
ington never told a lie ’ and 8om e-“e r ta *n c ig a re tte ; and the young-
leave the developm ent of the P o rt in th e ir hands both by choice
how th e re was a pro m ise th e re Bter doubts if he can go out for
and by n ecessity . We all know, what rem ark ab le p ro g re ss has been
it if I never told a lie , I might basebaTl since he does not have
made during the past y ear. The Federal G overnm ent has appro com e to be presid en t som e day. enough money to buy a m itt and
And then th tre w ere honest Abe, e ig a rd te s to.
p ria te d some $-125,090 for the building of two Jetties at the mouth
and P atrick Henry, and Thomasi All
which rem inds me that
of the Chetco. We have set up a port d is tric t. We have a working
Je
ffe
rs
o
n
--a
ll
g
re
a
t
men
whose
someone
once said that the father
body of c o m m issio n e rs. We have watched them set up a budget,
lives
a
young
fellow
might
w
ise-
who
whips
his son for sw earing
vhieh c a lls for some m onies to be expended tn the acquisition of
ly take as a m odel.
**
and sw ears h im self while he whips
Lind and oth er n e c e ssitie s.
I can even ru n e m b e r by high him , does m ore h arm by his e x
school days when my ideal was a ample than he does good by his
W e refer» d e a r lie r to the questions which the public has been
s ta r football player, o r a big le a -|c o rre d io n . A rule may be m em -
asking about the Port developm ent. We will attem pt, as a new s
gue
baseball p itc h e r, o r the w orldiorized and quickly forgotten; an
p ap er to set those questions d o w n--figuritively to bunch them .
heavyweight
champion; and I was, exam ple se t by a loved one can
W e don't expect answ ers from anybody now, because we a r e
lead to believe that if I follow a live fo rev er
convinced that nobody has all the an sw ers. However, it seem s
apparent that the P o rt C om m ission, as a group, will attem pt to
answ er them in the coming m onths. We would like to think that
an a rtic le such as this might a s s is t them in some sm all way in
knowing what a trem endous task they face.
3
/
F U B IIIH IIS
A S S O C IA TIO N
PIPE DREAMS
ONE: What about dred g in g ? Will the c u rre n t appropriation
leave any money left for d redging? And if not, will the scouring
action of the riv e r c le a r the channel enough to make it usuable
during the next y e a r? How much would it co st to dredge the
channel, and does the Army E ngineers e v e r do such w ork?
TWO: A sm all boat basin: Will p riv ate e n te rp rise build such
a b a sin ? Has any p riv ate p arty made o v e rtu re s, as to the p o ss
ibility of such a v en tu re? If no p riv ate capital is planning on a
m ove, would th e re be any likelihood of th»' Port D istric t itself
building the b asin ? Would the local and to u rist demand for the
basin w arran t the expenditure of such funds?
THREE: Fishing fleet. We have heard about the p o ssibility
of fishing boats moving into the h a rb o r. Has th ere been a n y
attem pt mad»' to-contact fish erm en in the N orthern C a lifo m ia -
Oregon area to see p re c ise ly what effect the Chetco H arbor will
have on th e ir o p eratio n s? We know that a good many of them
would like a h arb o r here in ea se of a sto rm o r an em ergency,
but how many would make use of it for a full tim e b a se ? Has
any c an n eri people, o r fish m ark et people been contacted as to
the p o ssib ility of putting in a co m m ercial plant h e re ?
FOUR: Barging and long range plans: Would dredging make
Would It be
th is p o rt a b a rg in g s ite , such as C rescen t C ity?
p ra c tic a l o r d e sira b le to install barging fa c ilitie s? Would a firm
such as S.ius»' B ros, of C rescen t City be in terested tn moving a
p a rt ot th» ir o perations h e re , seeing that they now ship out *som»
Brookings lum b er? Long range planning has been p ro g ressin g
too, obviously. Does the governm ent o r arm y en g in eers h a v e
an\ long rang» plans for developm ent of th«> h a rb o r?
FIVE: Pl. asu re c ra ft boating and launching: We know that the
port c o m m issio n feels that it is th e ir duty to provide launch
ing fa c ilitie s. Do they have any co n crete plans for work in the
n. a r futur- " Next sp rin g ? How far along are the negotiations
with the state on the acquisition of a s ite ?
In an effort to resolve at least some of these questions in the
m inds of the general public we think that it would lx ex trem ely
helpful, and a g n at public se rv ic e , If the P ort C om m ission in
cooperation with, and a ssista n c e im m the B rookings- H a r b o r
C ham ber of C om m erce could arran g e a public forum on the Port
of Brookings. We would suggest Inviting down the P ort m anager
of one of the other Oregon p o rts, such as say, C harleston, or
Depoe Bay, as well as having .in Army Engineer official on hand
We a re coni meed that such a public m eeting would brighten the
minds of a lot of people.
JOE MURPHY
.4’’ »‘¿i
r ’ " tar«
1
I'-fcw
W .
Honorable Arthur E. Summerfield
The Postmaster General
Washington 25, D. C.
Dear Mr. Summerfield:
Please refer to my letter of May
3 regarding the Post Office at
Harbor, Oregon, and to your re
ply of May 14.
You referred my inquiry to Mr.
S.G. Schwartz, Regional Director
Main Post Office Building, Port
land, Oregon. I received a reply
from Mr. Schwartz dated June 5.
In his letter to me Mr. Schwartz
said that "budgetary limitations
will not permit negotiations for
new quarters at this time, but
recent arrangements with the
lessor of the Harbor post office
and others should alleviate the
problems of flooding and struct-
rual deficiency".
On July 15 a representative of
mine in the district called the
lessor of the Harbor Post Office
and asked him about these al
leged arrangements. The lessor
told my representative that as
far as any changes are concerned
he knows nothing about any im -
provements on this building or
any other improvements.
Mr. Summerfield, I really feel
that the Post Office building in
Harbor, Oregon, is a disgrace
to the Post Office Department.
They laughed when Bud and Joe sat down to play the piano—
o r when they switched to "o ff-se t" . Although we a re fa r from
having all the bugs Ironed out yet we have had som e d e f i n i t e
encouragem ent in the p ast few days. At the request of the Pub
lis h e r 's A uxiliary—a tra d e publication that goes to alm ost every
new spaper in the co u n try —we w rote an a rtic le telling of t h e
many problem s involved in the sw itchover from "hot le a d " to
the very new "cold type" p ro c e ss.
»»♦»♦»♦»♦»♦«♦♦♦♦»»♦»♦♦♦»♦»»»I
I am informed that half of the
building was at one time a chick
en coop and the other half was a
milk shed. The two sheds were
put together and a little paint
applied and for the past ten years
it has been called the United
States Post Office.
The Auxiliary’ printed the a rtic le in full, giving it a two c o l
umn headline on the front page of th e ir la st issu e , a rriv in g here
Thursday. Saturday we had two req u ests for copies of the P ilot,
and on Monday we had another half dozen re q u e sts for fu rth e r
inlorm ation on the p ro c e ss. Some of the new spapers even had
the kindness to send along money and sta m p s. All of them w ere
extrem ely In terested , and se v e ra l said that they wished t h a t
they had had the "guts" to attem pt to do what we have done. It
seem s nice to be a "p io n eer" in a field. Maybe we can w rite a
book. At le a st those people having th e ir nam es in this i s s u e
know that c ritic a l e d ito rs from Pennsylvania, C olorado, A rkan
sa s, T exas, South Dakota and other p a rts of the U.S. a re now
reading the P ilot.
I have been told that on several
occasions water has stood on the
floor of this building several
inches deep. The Postmaster
has had to put up sheets of
plastic next to the ceiling to di
vert the water coming through
the roof. The water thus divert
ed runs down one wall of the
building and in this manner the
mail is protected during the
rainy season.
I have been told that there are
several times d u rin g the y e a r
when the Postmaster and his a s
We understand that Velma Erb alm ost got tossed in the
sistants are wet up to their knees
mighty blui Pacific the o th er evening. Fortunately h u s b a n d
while working in the building .All
Sam was right there to rescu e h e r. Incidentally, speaking of
packages
and other items of mail
the Pacific — my beautiful , sm elly, white pipe washed out in
the sea a few days ago. If it washes back in --d o not hang it
must be put on high tables and
over the m antle as an exam ple of p retty driftw ood. I will pay
moved to are as of the building
a re g a rd for its safe re tu rn . A fter all I have paid a Rotary
which are relatively free from
to get it back any rew ard will be' a mere pittance.
leaks.
I have also been informed that
there is at least one person in the
town of H a rb o r vtowculd be
Post will play host to the district willing to construct a modest
Jerry Evans of Crescent City met'ting of the 40 et 8 organiza-
c o n c r e t e , brick or lumber
showed his boat movies l a s t tion.
structure for the Post Office De
Friday evening at the regular
♦♦
partment under any fair lease
meeting of the Chetco American
Twelve Navy ships steamed arrangement.
Legion Post.
300,000 miles during Antarctic
I certainly feel that this sit
The group is looking forward
Operation Deep Freeze Two,
uation
deserves more considera
to August, when the Brookings
tion than it has so far received.
Sincerely,
Jackie Felipe.
a ••*♦ **•*** * * *
BOATING MOVIES
Charles O. Porter
Member of Congress
SKETCHBOOK
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