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About The times of Willamina. (Willamina, Oregon) 1972-1974 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 1973)
Page 2 WILLAMINA TIMES, WILLAMINA, OREGON W ednesday, August 8, 1973 Police urge bicycle safety help RT jj 1 f t' ? ' ;« ! ' • Known as “ Gordie the Raccoon tam er’’ to his family, Gordon Shoff, seven, is pictured with Rory giving Leo Lion a big kiss. Gordon inherited the baby coon July 4 after its mother was run over by a car. At night Rory sleeps in his cage built around a dead tree in their back yard, but during the day he is a constant companion of Gordon and follows him everywhere. And how does one so young learn to train “ wild animals? According to Mr. Shoff, poor Rory probably gave up in self-defense after Gordie crawled in his cage and talked to him for over two hours. Rory eats almost anything but his favorites are cooked meat, dry kitty food, and fresh grapes. Gordon is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Buford Shoff, Grand Ronde. Salem Scene: by Jack Zimmerman" Associated Oregon Industries Gov. Tom McCall vetoed a record number of bills passed by the 57th regular session of the Oregon Leg islature. Taken together, the gubernatorial objection to 16 new laws is consid ered by most observers another rebuke of activity during the six- month-long meeting of the assembly in Salem this year. And many of the same observers figure the chief executive could have vetoed ten times the number he did without inflicting serious damage to the legislative process. Consensus appeared to be the other 140-odd questionable measures just weren’t that important. And all this despite the fact Gov. McCall earlier declared the session was a good one and the people got their money’s worth. In three previous sessions the governor had exercised his veto power an even dozen times. Nor mally, measures passed are signed by House Speaker, Senate President and the chief executive before be coming law in the course of events. About the only thing the governor can’t veto are measures referred to the voters for final approval. The Willamina Police Department urges parents of children who ride bicycles to help the police depart ment in training them in the proper way to ride. The laws for bicycle riding are the same as for motor vehicles. Always ride on the right side of the road,, give signals and stop at all stop signs. Recently there have been some near accidents in which bicycles have been involved and instruction is needed. In the summer months it is in convenient to hold classes of in struction due to vacations, etc., , but Chief Bill Hale states there are plans for training within the school program this fall and he will be more than happy to answer any ques - tion that may arise. Chief Hale also states he will be glad to talk with any young person who has a problem. review of vetoed bills Sometimes a governor will express displeasure with a piece of legisla tion by simply refusing to sign it. The Constitution provides, however, that such measures become law automatically after a specified time period. McCall style has been to either sign or veto. The McCall veto was first exer cised during the 57th session when he turned thumbs down on SB 162, requiring independent political candidates to be so registered six months before an election. Since the action was taken before the session’s July 6 adjournment, 1 lawmakers overrode the veto and the measure became law anyway. The other 15 vetoes followed ad journment and quite likely all will be considered for action during the scheduled special session early next year. But a few gubernatorial vetoes might prompt sponsors to launch initiative campaigns to place mea sures before voters for approval. Vetoes that will stick -- at least until subsequent legislative action or a decision by voters -- include: SB 324 .-- to create a three-mem ber public utility commission; The governor likes the present single commissioner system. SB 491 -- to create an Energy Conservation Board in the Com merce Department. McCall be lieves this can be accomplished in SB 73, enacting a statewide building code. SB 715 --. exempting political party organizations from filing reports of contributions and spending before primary elections. He said it would insulate candidates who received party funds from disclosing ulti mate sources. SB 841 - - to reduce truck speeds to 50 miles an hour on wet road surfaces creating spray. The gov ernor doubted enforceability and effectiveness of the act. SB 899 - - to transfer Occupational Health Section from Health Division to Workmen’s Compensation Board. McCall believes this is at odds with ah already federally- approved health and safety plan and would lead to duplication. HB 2242 -- to award runners-up an elective office if the winner was otherwise disqualified. The gov ernor objected to seating candidates not favored by most voters. The law now creates a vacancy and party organizations nominate some one to fill the vacancy. HB 2529 -- requiring financial (continued on page 7) O ur Readers W rite To the Editor: In reference to the letter written last week by Concerned, I feel that it isn’t any of their business who spends their time in the tavern knee slapping with their buddies or what ever. If they weren’t asleep at midnight they might know what is going on in this city and what a mess it has turned into in the last two years. I have lived in this area all my life with the exception of two years, and the shape this town turned into in that time was unbelievable. The school system has gone downhill and the police force . . . well, leave that for your own judgment. Karen Purdom staff who have resigned were coaches? Of the six that I know of, five also coached. In 1971-72 the coaches received a 5 per cent salary increase. Including the com ing year, this is the only increase in three years', an average of 1 2/3 per cent per year. This does not even keep up with the cost of living increase. I received $603 last year as Head Wrestling Coach and I know that, in the same amount of time I spent coaching I could have worked for $1 an hour and made more money. This is one aspect of what I think is a de-emphasis of athletics, one of the very im portant ways of maintaining school spirit. Of course, the teaching salary is also one of the lowest, if not the lowest, in the state. I hear the old To the Editor: argument that teachers are sup I taught at the high school for posed to be dedicated people who three years before resigning in are in the profession because of June. the satisfaction derived. This is The first year I taught at Wil a very real thing. There is a great lamina I though things were real amount of satisfaction when things ly going great. There was good are going good (also, though, it is student spirit, teacher morale was very depressing when they are not!), high, and I think the academic and but when I made more money work athletic programs were upgraded. ing in the trucking industry while Then along came budget voting time going to school for four years to and it took three tries before it get a teaching certificate I won finally passed. der sometimes what the satisfac This was very demoralizing to me tion has cost me. To get good and I think that teacher morale has teachers they must be paid accord been suffering since. This has ingly and six teachers resigning out resulted in lack of student spirit of 22 when the supply of teachers and discipline in the school. It by far exceeds the demand these is very difficult to keep up a good days should say something! attitude in the school when the com Salary is not the main reason I munity does not back the school. resigned, however, and I do not think Has anyone noticed how many of the it was the dominant factor for the other resignations either. I think the administration is in a better position to know what kind of atmosphere is the most bene ficial to the students. It seems to me that the school board is setting policy when they should be allowing the administration more freedom in this respect. In the meetings that I attended I got the impression that the administration was ‘ ‘feeling out’ ’ the school board before expressing their opinion. I think that a stron ger stand by the administration on policy, with only a questioning at titude on the part of the school board, would result in a more stable atttiosphere and, hopefully, better school spirit and more mean ingful and uniform discipline. I am happy to hear that the bud get finally passed, but again, not before it was cut to the bare min imum. I hope that in the future the community will lend stronger support to their schools in term s of having more confidence in their ad ministration and teachers and pass ing school budgets the first time around. I suppose it would be too much to hope for to have the bond issue for construction and r e modeling pass the next time it is proposed! I graduated from Willamina and I suppose this, along with getting to know these students the last three years is a reason why I think they are “ special.” I think they de serve the best education possible under the most enjoyable conditions. Sincerely, Darold D. Halstad Traffic volume up V ance W e lty E d ito r and P u b lis h e r The Willamina Times is published every W ednesday_ at Willamina. Oregon, entered at the Post Office at Willamina as second class matter. The local subscription rate is ¡152.00 per year. All correspondence should be addressed to Willamina Times P.O. Box 127, Willamina, Oregon 97396. SSL Traffic volume on most of Oregon’s highways showed an increase in vehicular traffic in April, 1973 com pared to April of 1972, according to the monthly report compiled by the Oregon State Highway Division. A summary of traffic recorder data for rural and urban state high ways showed an increase of 11.2 per cent in vehicular traffic in April, 1973 compared to April, 1972. The first four months of 1973 showed an increase of 10.5 per cent in vehicular traffic compared to the first four months of 1972. behind "The Times by Vance Welty ■ Events of the past few weeks, both national and local, have led me to the rather cynical conclusion that there are basically two types of people: those who lead, and those io gripe about them. >w, before anybody thinks that I casting stones, let me make it sar that I am no more innocent this shortcoming than anybody ise. We all tend to make judge- ients on the basis of emotion (“gut reactions” ) rather than reason, and I have caught myself at it several times lately - - expec- ially as regards the Watergate scan dal. While I outwardly try to put up a front of “ objectivity” -- whatever that means - - deep down inside lurks a very different attitude. I have never exactly harbored any great love of Mr. Nixon, either before or after he became president. As each new scandal breaks, as each witness delivers some damning evi dence or evades questions, as each new challenge to the president’s authority arises, my gut-level r e action is “ Good! I hope they im peach the so-and-so!” But turning briefly to reason; for alt I know, Mr. Nixon might be a very dedicated public servant whose motives are above reproach and who is entirely innocent of any wrong doing. After all, he has not yet been found guilty of any wrongdo ing in office. That is the argument that reason dictates, but being human, I dislike the MAN and therefore reduce the level of Watergate from issues to personalities. It is easy to form opinions on some thing like Watergate because it is at the national level. I have never personally met Mr. Nixon nor have I any experience at reporting at the national level. But I have to report each week at the local level. Forming opin ions, let alone putting them into print, is a much more difficult job when I am familiar with the people involved in any given con troversy and when the outcome of •issues is likely to affect me and people I know directly. A few examples . . . We all know by now about the charges against one of our more prominent citizens (and his friends) brought about by an incident at one of our local taverns. A trial almost seems an after thought. Everybody with whom I have spoken on this matter is either convinced that this person is some sort of power-mad monster who is above the law, or that the police (as personified by their chief) are brutal sadists ready to club any body at the drop of an unkind word. So the issue has descended to one of personalities -- not facts. Personally, I find it difficult to believe all the rumors that I hear about this man who is about to stand trial for escaping arrest and, possibly, other charges. I will not pass on any of the rumors here, but let it suffice to say that if true, I would have to nearly believe that this man eats babies for break fast. But looking over past records, I find that this person and his fam ily have made many selfless con tributions to the community. On the other side of the coin, I find many people who do not like our police chief at all. I have heard him accused of everything from petty avarice to incompetence to outright brutality. Especially following the recent drug arrests, I have heard the charge of “ police brutality” leveled at him from sev eral persons. In one of our recent letters to the editor, a reader ex pressed the not-uncommon opinion that this person is O. K. unless one gets on his “ Wrong side.” However, experience dictates otherwise. I know our police chief and cannot really believe that he is capable of the base motives many would ascribe to him. I find him a very humane persons who is try ing his best to be of service to Willamina. I didn’t know the p re vious police chief, so cannot com pare the two; but from experience with other police chiefs I have known, I would have to conclude that Wil lamina is fortunate to have the one we do. Then, of course, we have the prob lem with our schools. I am not about to deny that there IS a prob lem -- there is, indeed, a very outstanding problem. Let’s face it, large numbers of teachers do not resign at the same time from a school system that is functioning properly. - And with two children myself, who will soon be entering the Willamina schools, I have a more than passing interest in the kind of education they will receive. I have been spending a lot of time, and will spend a lot more, trying to pinpoint exactly what is wrong with our schools and what can be done to correct the problems. The difficulty lies in pinpointing actual i causes and issues, for this contro versy, as others, has descended to the level of personalities. ' We have many concerned parents in the community -- and that’s a good sign. A parent who is not concerned about his child’s edu cation is not fulfilling his duties as a parent. The problem here lies in how to direct that concern to positive action. Now, this is one area where I am relatively in the dark. I don’t p re tend to know all (or even any) of the answers, and appreciate any sug gestions as to how the newspaper can be of service in improving our schools. The most common “ solution” I have heard so far is that we should get rid of our superintendent. But I know our superintendent and can’t help but believe that he is as con cerned about the welfare of our young people as the rest of us. How ever, I could be quite mistaken about this. What the whole situation seems to boil down to at this point is a clash of personalities again. School board members, principals, p ar ents, superintendent -- everybody, in fact, but the students themselves who stand to be helped or hurt the most by our actions. Perhaps if we forget about person alities and keep the students’ wel fare as priority number one, we can get somewhere. While this newspaper is in no position to tell the school district how to run it self, we are open to suggestion for any positive courses of action that would benefit our young peoples’ chances of getting abetter education and will be more than happy to pass those suggestions along to where they might do the most good. And, of course, the city council comes in for its share of criticism. The whole point of democracy is, of course, the right to criticize those in charge. But I can think of no more thankless job than coun cilman or mayor. As far as is sues are concerned, I have heard legitimate complaints which this paper will try to deal with. But the majority of complaints have dealt with low opinions of individual coun cil members. These solve nothing, and airing them publically would hurt, not help, the community. No doubt there will be those who, after reading this article, will con sider me “ chicken” for not blasting Roy Zimbrick or Bill Hale or Donn Mitchell or Eugene Mack or c e r tain members of the school board or city council. My only (rather weak) reply is “ What good would it accomplish?” A person in my position, editing a newspaper, often finds himself in a bit of a quandary. From where I sit, I hear both (or sometimes three or four) sides of every ques tion. When one knows the arguments for all sides in an issue, it is soon obvious that very seldom is any situation all black or all white. Usually it is several shades of gray, making it difficult to take a firm stand on anything and still be fair. It is often impossible to do both. Most readers are not aware that I have written many editorials which,' at my own decision, never were printed. After “ cooling off” and re-reading the editorial, I would of ten decide that while it sounded good, it was based on emotion, not reality. Fairness, in short, is a madden ingly difficult goal. in e a rlie r days b y Lee P e rk in s EARLIER DAYS August 4, 1938 Announcement is being made this week of the transfer of ownership of the Willamina Service Station which has been operated the past two years by J. A. (Bud) Jensen, Jr. The station which was built in 1927 was formerly operated by G. W. Gapen and was purchased by Mr. Jensen about two years ago. The new owner is Austin Brazeau who has been employed at the Wil lamina garage the past eight years. Mr. Jensen has not as yet made definite plans for the future but says he will take a much deserved vaca tion for a few weeks. He will r e main at the service station about a week helping Mr. Brazear. Mr. and Mrs. Brazeau will move into the house just south of the station soon. ***** In view of recent world events, the people of this vicinity will particu larly welcome the opportunity to hear an address on things we can be doing to make war less likely to happen. J. J. Handsaker will lec ture in Willamina on Sunday even ing, August 7 at 8 o’clock in the M.E. church. Mr. Handsaker has a wide and intimate knowledge of international affairs, having conferred with peace leaders in Europe and attended ses sions of the League of Nations. He has been connected with peace groups for a number of years and is now associate secretary of the National Council for the Prevention of War. 3*c sfe 3fc “ Relief Bums” A news item tells of a Negro taxi driver who was unable to work for a time because of illness. . He obtained $50 from the government relief agency to tide him over. Now he is back at work and is trying to return the money. When it was pointed out to him that he was not legally obligated to do this, he ob served that, “ That was the way I was raised and that is the way I’m raising my child.” A great many other Americans can learn a lesson from this Negro taxi driver. One of the most omi nous portents of the horizon is the fact that thousands of people have apparently come to look on relief as a profession. They plan to make it their life work. Productive jobs in private industry hold no attrac tion for them when they can take it easy at the taxpayers’ expense. They figure someone owes them a living. This isn’t a criticism of those peo ple who have turned to relief only as a last resort and are eager to get off the rolls as soon as oppor tunity for a real job comes along. Nor is it a criticism of relief per se. The hungry must be fed, the homeless sheltered, the cloth less clothed. Honest beneficiaries of relief aggressively seek real employment. Professional “ relief bums” are a menace to the demo cratic government. The Negro’s statement was news because his attitude was so unusual today. It should be printed on every relief check and public grant. ***** Local News The Millers had the misfortune of losing several cows last week. He had been pasturing stubble and they became poisoned on vetch. A 9 1/2 lb. baby daughter named Caryl Ann was born to Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Zetterburg June 26. The Orlando Myers family, to gether with her father, Jesse F arn ham moved into the Farnham place Sunday. ***** Mr. M. Petersen of Old Grand Rqnde writes: The women of today don’t know how good they got it. When I look back 70 years in my mother’s kitchen and spinning room, so many bal oneys were hanging in the chimney beside bacon finely smoked. I helped my mother card the wool and she would spin and knit socks and stockings. She had a good garden. We never used any medicine. We had vegetable soup every day for dinner, using curly kale, parsley, root celery, carrots seasoned with ginger and nutmeg. Whole rye flour bread was our every day bread. Only Sunday morning we had wheat flour bread buns. Our school hours were from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. She even made socks from the wool of our poodle dog. Once a year my father clipped the wool. Our streets were so clean. They were swept twice a week by each home owner. Horse manure was gathered at once for the fertilizer bin. Once a year I took the hogs to the beaches and scrubbed them in ocean water. Our hogs were two years old before butchering. The hogs had a bedroom and a feeding room kept very clean in the spring. I gathered nettles in the field, chopping them very fine and mixed them with swill made with ground rye. The net tles are what kept the hogs in good shape. M. Petersen has fruit jars and bottles for rootbear with caps. He also has some more of that four dollars per acre land that includes sunshine, rain in season, running water, fuel and highway, milk route, bus route, high school bus, prospects for crude oil and coal considered fine. Do you want to be a millionaire? Bore a hole deep enough and you will become one. ***** From around the house: If a slice of breaci is put in the kettle whem making pea soup the peas will not sink to the bottom and burn. To remove clinging fish odors from your hands, wash them in water to which salt has been added. ***** To avoid being talked about after you leave, talk about yourself all the time you are there.
