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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1973)
Mro Froncco Schoen-’.ewspapar Pcoo U tilv r o l t y o f ( ston L ib ra ry tu re n e , O r. :;n 97433 O BSERVER PO H T LA N D Volum e 3, N o . ^ P o r t la n d , O regon THE O N IV NEWSPAPER IN AN E O U A l OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD THAT REALLY CARES A»OUT PEOPLE T h u rs d a y M a r c h E l 9 7 3 1O< p e r copy > State debates equal opportunity U illia m Jones is a Black man who owns his own dump tru ck. He is also the only m in o rity dump truck d riv e r in Oregon. Two weeks ago Jones had a hearing before the StatePublicl u litie sC o m - rr.ission on his application fo r a license. Before buying his truck, Jones researched the dump truck txisiness in Oregon and found that there are no Blacks o r other m in o rity people in this business. He also found that Executive O rder 11246 requires that all federally funded o r federally supervised projects are required to hire Blacks at all levels of em ployment, and that contractors in Oregon were unable to ob tain Black dump tru c k d riv e rs fo r th e ir jobs. None of the dump truck companies employ Black d riv e rs . Indecision, confusion M ayor Nall Goldschmidt (left) visits the opening of Chuck’ s St. Johns Cyclery at 7017 N. Lombard. Charles Cruse (center) Is the owner of the Northwest’ s only Black owned cycle shop. Clinics aid taxes The Oregon Tas Project is sponsoring lax climrs which offer free preparation of tax returns to low and moderate income groups in the Port land metropolitan arcs. The Project is a citizens' effort to help people with their indl vidual tax problems and to provide tax payers with in formation about the present tax structure. "The tax climes will oper ate out of the existing facili ties of various community organizations, neighborhood centers and churches." ex plained Bill ('roes. Project Coordinator. T h e urgent need for such clinics is em phasized by a Department of Health, Education and Wei fare study of the 1971 forms in which they concluded that in order to completely under stand the tax instructions the taxpayer would have to read at the level of a college graduate.** Present plans encompass the operation of six clinics d u r i n g weekday evenings and Saturdays from March 15th to April 16th. The clinics will be staffed by volunteers who will have completed the V o lu rteer In come Tax Assistance course, a training program designed by the Internal Revenue Service. The training pro gram quickly equips assistors to handle ninety percent of the problems they are likely to encounter in assisting low and moderate income tax payers. The Oregon Tax Project's volunteer staff of profes sional accounting consultants will handle the more complex tax problems as well as assist in the auditing of tax forms. Cros.i indicated that ad ditional professional and clinic volunteers for the program are needed. For further information, call the Oregon Tax Project at 222 1118. The 4-C funded child care programs and the families they serve are awaiting word from the State Children's Service Division as to when new state policies Rule 10 will go into effect. The confusion mounts as C S I) continues to be unable to give concrete instructions. As the Observer goes to press Wednesday evening, the Metropolitan Area 4 C Council expects to hear from CSD the morning of March 8th. In question are: Which children will be eligible for federaly subsidized child care and which children will be dropped from programs and which families will have to pay. when, and how much. Mrs. Edie Kyman, Acting Director of the Metropolitan Area 4 C Council, said 4 C will take no action until directives are received in w riting from Don M iller. Director of the Children's Service Division. A number of conflicting orders and directives have been received from CSD staff members during the past few days and there appears to be either con fusion or conflict within CSD. Rule 10 was filed and put into effect on February 15th, however, the effective date was postponed until March 1st so that a public hearing could be held on February 26th. Child care agencies were then told that the effective date w o u l d be March 1st. Parents were informed and had to deter mine whether they would be able to pay fees, would place their children in less expen sive private child care, or woud have to quit jobs or drop nut of school. Then on March 3rd parents and day care mothers of the Albina Ministerial Alliance Family Day and Night Care Program, j o i n e d by con cerned parents and citizens, met with M ayor Neil Gold schmidt to express their con cerns over the stringent state regulations and high fee scale and to request assistance from city revenue sharing money. M a y o r Goldschmidt ex plained that he cannot change the slate policy, but that he is in favor of continuing child care at its current level. He will not commit the city to financing child rare until the council is able to deter mine which social programs are loosing federal funds and which should be continued by the city. The State Children's Ser vice Division, u n d e r Rule 10. w i l l eliminate many families from the federally funded 4 C child care pro grams. Only those families earning 133 per cent of welfare standards (welfare standards are set at 85 per cent of the estimated cost of a menial standard of exis tence) would be eligible to receive 4-C child rare. Of those eligible for child care, many would be expected to pay fees higher than they would have to pay for pri vate care. The parents were ci cerned that without child (Please turn to page 8 col. 2) Tired of jive people? Berkeley mayor visits by Rosemary Allen Mayor W arren Widener, first Black Mayor of Berkeley. California, received a warm welcome in Portland Tues day evening at the home of M r. and Mrs. Paul Harris. There to greet him were various residents of Port land, among them M r. and Mrs Paul Knauls, M r. and Mrs. Aaron Brown Jr., and M r. and Mrs. C h a l m e r s Jones. M ayor W idener was in Oregon for a speaking en gagement at W'illamete U n i versity, February 28. He spoke primarily about the student role in government and the "Berkeley Experi ence". A former city councilman in 1969. M ayor Widener com mented on his new position, acquired in 1971. He ex pressed that in his position as the only Black mayor in California, he is looked upon by Blacks in Oakland. San Francisco, etc., as "Their Mayor". Mayor Widener feels that he is a Black •nayor. coming from a Black experience. However, he knows he must deal with all problems. The issue that he feels is of grave importance nationally to Black people now is the relationship of the N ix o n Administration to Black people. He feels that Black people must plan now or have our future planned for us. by Rosemary Allen Tired of community rip off programs? Fed up with empty promises and starved to feel anything for real? I'm w ith you; 1 feel the same way tool But I think I've come up on something on the for real side in my recent visit to POIC. "This is s training center, not a school." explained M r. Washington. Public Relations man and Operations Manager for POIC. "Our concept is to train people f o r employ inent." There are 105 O IC s across the USA and in 7 other countries. The main headquarters is in Phil« delphia. 50% of all trainees in these programs are from the target area, the other Every day is pay day with true daily interest. At the Benj. Franklin, interest on passbook savings is compounded constantly, from day of deposit to day of withdrawal. For maximum earnings on your savings, pay yourself first in a safety-insured account at the Benj. Franklin 5$ Passbook S avin g « par annum C e rtific a te » o f D e p o a lt per annum com pounded daily and paid quarterly «ft OOO m inim um for ? year« Franklin a.v.M .. • . . . . . . . m Robsil H Haisn, Prss . 21 O iliest * Phons 248 1234 Home O llie s Franklin Bldg Portland. Oregon 87204 50% consisting of low in come, unemployed, students put out of public schools, etc. POIC is not an ethnic group organization, although it is run basically by experienced Blacks." “W hatever is required to get a job," is what is taught at PO IC . Courses range from mechanics to G E I) pre paration; from speedwriting to consumer («duration. Each course is taught on an indi vidual basis. There is no bulk teaching. Now, after hearing that their basic concern was to get people a job, I knew they were for real. Learning how to help yourself is the only way you're going to survive. Forget about "making it”. So as M r. Washington con tinued our tour, I saw the Consumer Education c l a s s where people of all ages were being taught how to compare prices in the com munity with those of stores the suburbs, and how to buy from stores like Cohn Bro thers, Lampus, etc. Then I had a talk with clerical teacher assistant Cheryl O li ver, w h o explained how trainees can learn how to type 20 to 25 words per minute in only two weeks. Robby Harris, adult basic e d u c a t i o n instructor ex plained that his course con sisted of English, Math, His lory and English Literature. Another course taught there (Please turn to page 8 col. I) Jones, who had driven trucks fo r his uncles firm in Los Angeles, McNeal T ruck ing, applied to ttie Teamsters Union in Portland forem ploy- ment as a d riv e r. He was sent to the hiring hall by Team ster o fficia l L a rry M ill, but was told at the hall that no work was available but that his name would be plac ed in ;be «Atra lis t . He never heard from the union again. He then went to the P ort land A irp o rt, where the P o rt e r Yett Company was build ing. He was told by a cle rk that his name would be taken fo r the employment lis t, but the foreman would not place him on the lis t. He did not see Blacks working on that job, federally funded and under the auspices of the P o rt of Portland. Hoping to buy his own truck and begin a business, Jones went to the Small Business Adm inistration. His applica tion was not accepted and he was told to go to Media, that they were set up to assist Blacks. Jones said he knows that the average white man can go to SBA and obtain a business loan. But that Blacks are refused without even the opportunity to apply. Jones saved money from his job as a building contractor, traded in his w ife's car and bought a second-hand dump tru ck. He obtained a tempo rary p e rm it which allows him to work only two firm s , Hoff man Construction and A lert. If one of these firm s does not have work fo r him, the truck sits idle. Jones has now applied fo r a Stale license thatwould allow him to accept trucking jobs anywhere in Oregon. State law requires that anyone applying fo r a perm it, prove the need fo r additional trucks. However, this law was made at a time when all trucking companies were White and it perpetuates on all-W hite industry. However, Joies believes he has complied with the re quirements of the law in prov ing the need fo r additional dump trucks. Before apply ing fo r the license he attended a meeting of the Oregon Dump T ruckers Association andwas urged by them to apply. How ever, 15 members of that association, supported by the association’ s attorney, at tended the hearing to protest his application. These dump truckers testified that they earned from $20,000 to $25, 000 a year, working part tim e. They do not work full time, and claimed there is not work fo r them, yet they do not ad vertise o r lis t in the yellow pages. They said there is not enough work, yet buy new trucks fo r $30.000. Jones claims that there is available work and thatduring the peak season there are not enough dump trucks a- vailable to meet the needs of the construction companies. The Public U tilitie s Com m ission must now decide whether Jones is to belisenc- ed. A decision against him would place the State of Ore gon in the position of perpe tuating an a ll White indus try . When Jones receives his lisence he plans to buy an other truck and hire a second d riv e r. As the business grows he w ill be able to hire other m in o rity employees. He does not see his business as just a lucrative income fo r him self. but as a way to get Blacks into this trade which has been closed to him. Benson students build houses Career Education building and construction program at B e n s o n Polytechnic High School has taken on a new look since its beginning a little more than a year ago. Students in the Career Education cluster are using updated techniques to learn building a n d construction trades while keeping the cost of instructional mater ials down. Sophomore students in the program can elect a number of courses which help them get exposure to building and construction trades. Stu dents in the finish carpentry class re use the forms and most materials as they learn interior carpentry. Bv use of the new technique, four groups of students or about 90 a day can work on dry wall, l a y o u t techniques, painting, roofing and floor covering. When the project is completed at the end of the 9 week grading period, the sements are taken down and re usable materials are stored until the next class comes ill to start the project over again. Currently more than one half of the members of the sophomore class are enrolled in the project, according to Sterling Borquist. chairman of the shop department at Benson. Borquist said there are some 85 students in junior and senior classes building two houses. He said the class is working in groups framing the buildings near the school. Upon comple lion, they will be taken down in panels and assem bled on foundations at the permanent location. He said that perhaps in the future, students will be able to work on a modular constructed home. This will provide the students with the same experience as the framing does, but will also offer additional finishing ex perience, Borquist concluded. Dan Hartzong, son of M r. and M rs. Ernest Hartzog, was appointed by Representative B ill McCoy to be an honorary page at the House of Representatives on March 14th. Dan, who Is 14 years old. Is a student at Wllson High School. t
