Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1952)
I I BRARY Mr o eugene. ore Tcps State in 4-H Achievements Single Copies 10 cents Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, March 6, 1952 Volume 68, Number 51 Cost of Proposed New Sewer Svstem. ppner h 4 r P- -v N I I ; 4 , " ' l . f J i I . ' ' ; 0 ' ' . ' f r? -- v V . ' " . ' ' Jj " ' ' I I 1 ,. - RONALD BAKER, 4-H member, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Baker, lone, is shown above with Governor Earl Snell Achievement trophy. Ronald was chosen as Oregon's outstanding 4-H member in achievements during 1951. Ronald, who is now attending Wash ington State College enrolled in animal husbandry, was one of four from Oregon chosen to attend national 4-H club camp at Washington, D. C last June; Chosen Grand Champion livestock showman, highest individual livestock judge and exhibited the champion shorthorn steer at Oregon Wheat Growers League fat show and sale in June, 1351. Grand champion fat steer at the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo was fattened and shown by Ronald. The Governor Snell trophy, champion showmanship and judging trophies, with the Rhina Kramer trophy won by the Morrow County 4-H judging team ot Pacific International are exhibited in Humph reys Drug store window as a part of the 1951 4-H achievements during national 4-H club week, March 1-9. Cut Courtesy East Oregonian A "DUSTER" Council Abandons New Well As Hopeless Heppner council members Monday evening voted to aban don drilling of the new cily well about one and . one-half miles east of town on Willow creek and Investigate a possible new site for another well. The present loca tion was given up as a "dry hole". The group decided to stop fur ther drilling when it was reported the drilling contractor A. A. Du rand of Walla Walla, had reached a depth of 590 feet without find ing water in any quantity. Mem- Mcny Suggestions Mode at C of C Meet Chamber of commerce members Monday had what was classified on their program calendar as a "grip? session." It proved to be a meeting filled with more ideas than just gripes. Robert Tenland, publisher of the Gazette Times, asked whether the counly or the state was re sponsible for road signs through out the county and urged a pro gram to obtain proper marking of roads throughout the area. County judge Garnet Barratt ex plained the state installed them, on county roads, but that the county was responsible for main tenance. Wayne West told of the forest service's troubles in keep ing the signs up after they were placed stating the upkeep was higher than the original cost. He said much of the loss of road signs was attributable to hunters who used them for target prac tice. Dr. A. D. McMurdo suggest -1 ed the use of the slogan "shoot the porkys instead of the signs", might aid in cutting down on the ( porcupine population in ine mountains and also save many signs. While on the Blatter of signs it was suggested by other mem bers that a campaign be started urging city residents to install house numbers on their homes. It was pointed out that very few houses in Heppner had numbers, making it extremely hard for visitors or newcomers to find an address. The city council also came in for discussion when it was suggested that many inter sections are in need of street signs. Mayor J. O. Turner urged all chamber members to attend the council meeting Monday night to hear the engineers report concern ing the proposed sewer system. hers felt that even should a vein be struck, the present depth was too great, to allow pumping the flow at a reasonable cost. Members expressed the belief that a crack, which was encoun tered at slightly over 200 feet, had probably siphoned off the water which had been expected at that depth. The drilling contract with Du- rand allows the city to abandon the present well if desired, and move to a new location. Several new sites have been proposed, one being about four miles up Willow creek from Heppner near the end" of .the present new steel pipe line. j The need for additional water was stressed when a proposal was presented requesting the exten sion of an adequate water main; up Hinton creek to the city limits1 to accommodate several planned new houses in that area and also to provide sufficient water pres-l sure to allow for irrigation of the Rodeo field when it is turfed, j Adequate fire protection for the! fair buildings and county shops j would also be provided by the! new main. The council agreed to I do everything possible to extend the main ad provide the water if it could be done, but pointed out that during the driest summer I months last year the city was hard pressed to keep up with the demand for water. It was hoped the now abandoned well would alleviate the shortage. The council also granted build ing permits to Cleve and Martha Van Schoiack for a $12,000 resi dence being built on Gales street and to Harry Duvall for a $20, 000 residence on south Court street. Also granted by the council was a new two-year garbage contract to Herman Green. o CREDIT BUREAU SOLD Gertrude AnnlPfatp who has operated the Merchants Credit Bureau in Heppner for some time announced this week that she has sold the business to Marvin Wightman and Harold J. Sanders Jr. They will operate it in con nection with their insurance business. o Mrs. Douglas Ogletree return ed Monday to her teaching posi tion in the Heppner grade school after an absence of several weeks due to illness. isposal County Fishing Expected Good, Stocking Due Morrow county fishermen are assured ample fish again this year according to a letter received last week by the Morrow county Hunters and Anglers club from the state game commission. The letter was read at the first meeting of this year by the or ganization February 26 and stat ed the commission planned to stock Willow, Rock and Rhea creeks and possibly Little Butter creek, if necessary arrangements can be completed. President L. D. Tibbies appointed a committee to investigate the stocking of the latter stream. Dr. L. D. Tibbies was reelected president of the group, Mrs. Paul Brown secretary-treasurer, both for their third term, and Carl Me Daniel was chosen vice president to replace F. C. Tolleson who has served for the past two years. It was decided to again reserve fishing grounds for the young sters on Willow Creek as was done last year. With the cooper ation of Steve Thompson and Frank Wilkinson the younger set enjoyed some fishing, and they have agreed to again allow their property to be posted for the sole use of boys and girls. The clever signs made by Mrs. Henry Tetz will be placed in prominent spots marking the area reserved. The Crow, Raven, and Magpie Contest will also be hnld this year.. The committee in charge, headed by Gar Swanson of lone, will announce opening date and farther details of the contest. The Hynd Brothers of Cecil have again contributed $25.00 to be used as a prize. Wayne West of the Forest Ser vice made a plea to members present to help rid the forests of porcupines, and it was decided to hold a porcupine contest. Frank Andresen donated $15.00 in trade to be set up as one of the prizes. When the committee in charge completes details they will be announced. Considerable discussion was held on the pheasant situation and Bob Corthell of the game commission urged the group to undertake methods of preserving cover for birds. A new game bird called the Chukker Partridge may be released in Eastern Oregon this year by the game commission and the secretary was advised to write and ask for a share of these to be released in Morrow county, The Morrow County Hunters and Anglers voted to join Oregon Wildlife Federation. the Paul Brown showed the group some fishing movies. o Lexinqton Schools to Lose Two Teachers Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus P. Balser who have both taught in the Lex ington schools for the past two yeas stated this week that they are resigning from their positions at the end of the present school year, Balser taught the 7th and 8th 'grades and Mrs, Balser the 3rd and 4tn. Balser was also in charge of elementary grade ath letics and served as cub scout master in Lexington. They made no statement as to their future plans other than that they hoped to get into a larger school system. o Heppner FFA Tops Hermiston Hoopsters Heppner FFA chapter came out victors over Hermiston FFA mem bers Friday night in two basket ball games played here. The A team won 57 to 37 and the B squad easily conquered the Her miston boys 35 to 10. Jim Sumner and Melvin Piper , officiated both games. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Walter had as their guests over the weekend his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Walker and his brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Laine Walker of Goldendale, Washing ton. LaVerne Van Marter, Sr. arrived Sunday from Portland and will remain for a time in Heppner with his son and dauehter-in-law. Mr. ' and Mrs. Laverne Van Marter, Jr. Plant: HEPPNER ELIMINATED IN TOURNAMENT PLAY, DROPS SECOND GAME TO MAUPIN Ileppner's Mustangs, though winning their first game of the district 6B basketball tournament at The Dalles Monday from Dufur by a score of 47 to 27, couldn't find the basket Tuesday and went down to defeat before a Moupln squad to the tune of 36 to 32. A strange floor and tournament jitters apparently accounted for the loss of shooting eye as most of Ileppner's top. scorers through- Snow Survey Shows Water Content High Water content of the mountain snow pack averages 43 percent above normal and 30 percent higher than last year at this time according to snow measurements taken Friday. February 29, on the Arbuckle mountain snow course, Tom Wilson of the Soil Conserva tion Service and Walt Ray of the Forest Service skiied into the snow course and reported 44 inches of snow with a water con tent of 15.2 inches. Measure ments taken on February 26 on the course last year showed a snow depth of 33 inches and a water content of 11.7 inches. A water content of 10.6 Inches is the average for this time of year according to records of the federal and state cooperative snow surveys. Representative Race Gets More Entries Interest picked up this week in the race for the two open state representative seats from this dis trict as one more man filed and another indicated his intention. A Condon Democrat, Robert Smith announced his candidacy and R. B. Rands of Boardman in dicated Wednesday that he would seek the seat on the Republican ballot. Previous filings have placed two Republicans in the race for the two open positions. They are C. A. Tom, Rufus and J. P. "Jack" Steiwer of Fossil. Rands is the first Morrow county man to show interest in the positions. Deadline for filing is March 7. o Heppner Boy Scouts Visit McNary Dam 29 Heppner Boy Scouts accom panied their scout leader, Brad ley Fancher, spent most of Satur day at McNary going through the dam. The boys were taken up in a school bus driven by Harry Mun kers, and dam officials spent over three hours showing the scouts through the giant operation. "BOYS TOWN OF THE TELLS OF OPERATION The history and operation of Camp Columbia, the Boys Town' of the West, at White Salmon, Washington was explained to members of the Soroptimist club and many interested visitors last Thursday by Major F. H. Blake, camp superintendent and founder of the project. Major Blake explained the camp was established two years ago for the purpose of giving leadership to wayward boys from 8 to 16 years of age. There are now 19 boys at the camp who have come from juvenile courts and private families in Oregon and Washington. Major Blake emphasized that the camp is de pendent entirely upon public do nations for its source of revenue It receives no state or federal aid.. The Idea of starting such a camp was the majors, and he was assigned three men from Fort Lewis to aid him in the project. All three of the men became so engrossed in the plan that they assigned their GI life insurance to the camp and this Insurance, from Sgt. Jerry Capwell, who was later killed in Korea, provided the necessary funds to see it through the first year of its aper ation. The camp, located eight miles from White Salmon, consists of 80 acres of land and a single farmhouse when it was taken over by the major. Since that time additional dormitories have been built by the boys as they were needed and could be con- Estimated out the season failed to connect consistently. , Though eliminated from further competition by the Tuesday night defeat, the squad and coach Hal Whitbeck remained in The Dalles to watch the rest of the tourney. Monday's games found the fol lowing teams coming out on top; Troutdale won over Mosier; Fos sil over Arlington; Wasco over LaPine; Culver over Sisters. Cas cade locks over Condon; 'Moro over St. Marys; Maupin ofer Ru fus and Heppner over Dufur. Tuesday's encounters found Parkdale measuring Fossil 46-34; Culver taking Wasco 59-25; Cas cade Locks defeating Moro 38-36 and Maupin eliminating Heppner 36-32. Scores of Wednesday's games were not available. Speech Festival Set At lone March 12 The Morrow county school speech festival will be held at lone Wednesday, March 12 at the lone school. lone superintendent, Henry Osibov is festival manager and Mrs. Gladys Ely is county chairman for the event. The festival is scheduled to open at 1:30 with both elemen tary and high school speaking to be completed during the after noon and a series of one-act plays presented in the evening. Miss Helen McCune and Mrs. Ellen Coffey of the Pendleton schools will act as judges. Winning schools will enter the district speech meeting to be held at Whitman college in Wal la Walla, March 14 and 15. o February Rainfall Stays Below Normal February rainfall, though still below normal, reached nearly to the average with the late month snow and rain bringing the total precipitation for the month as recorded at the Heppner weather station, to 1.14 inches. Rainfall during February a year ago to taled 1.31 inches. Reports from the Gooseberry weather station, operated by Leonard Carlson, showed a slight edge over the Heppner recording with 1.22 inches falling during the month. CITY HALL DEDICATION DATE CHANGED Date of the dedication of the new lone city hall building was erroneously given as March 15 in last week's story about the plans. The dedication program will be held on Sunday, March 30 and it is planned to have several former lone mayors present for the event. WEST" DIRECTOR OF BOYS' CAMP structed. At the present time, Major Blake and his wife are the entire staff, though each boy has own jobs to do around the area. There is no set charge, in the case of a boy received from a private family, and two-thirds of the boys there at the present are on a "free" basis. Families who are able to or wish to, may donate towards the boys care. No tax funds are accepted, as in the case of boys assigned to the camp from courts. Though the direction of the operation is entirely handled byMajor Blake, an advisory board of nine persons handles the fi nancial end of the project. Major Blake told the group that for the first time, the camp will soon have a definite budget to operate on, for the Eagles lodge of Oregon recently voted at a con vention in Klamath Falls to "big brother" the camp and provide a set amount for its continuation. "Our past record has been ex ceptionally good," explained the major, practically all of the boys have been returned as useful members of society. The major stated that though they were in need of many things to enlarge the camp, which they expect to increase to 30 boys this spring, one of the most pressing is transportation as they must take the boys several miles to school. The Soroptimist club brought Major Blake to Heppner and the meeting was attended by many Interested members of other groups. Council Accepts Engineers Plans; Bond Issue Vote to be Called Soon Plans, specifications and cost estimates for a sewer system and sewage disposal plant designed to care for the present and future needs of Heppner were presented to the city council Monday evening by L. K. Clark and Gilbort Groff, Salem engineers. The plan, as presented in detail to the council, and accepted by the group, would include a complete system of main trunk lines and laterals to collect sewage from every part of the city, all neces sary residential and business hook up lines extending from the laterals to the property lines and a disposal plant designed to pro vide waste treatment up to 90','!). The estimated cost of the entire Extension of lone Gooseberry Oiled Road Probable A four to five mile extension of the lone-Gooseberry oiled road seemed a certainty Wednesday when a delegation of residents from that area appeared before the county court with a petition requesting the improvement and checks totaling nearly $8,000 to be used as match money with the county for the project. The court agreed to go ahead with the project in the immediate future and the length of the oiling extension would depend upon whether the group could raise additional funds. Cost for oiling the requested five miles would run $20,000 and if a total of $10,000 is raised among the residents in the area the entire five mile stretch will be surfaced. However, enough funds are avail able at the present time to oil four miles of the road. The court assured the delega tion that the grading and gravel ing preparatory to the oiling would be done immediately as the county rock crusher was being moved and could be set up in the area within the next few days. Considerable graveling would be done in the area at the same time. Oiling could not be started un til later in the spring due to the weather conditions. County judge Garnet Barratt pointed out that several stretches of county roads have been oiled or improved in recent years through the cooperation of the ranchers using the roads. Last summer a section of Reitmann grade, north of lone, was oiled by means of matching money put up by the ranchers. State and National Problems Discussed at Farm Bureau Meeting The regular meeting of the Morrow County Farm Bureau was held at the Markham Baker home on February 20. There were sev eral important questions discus sed at this meeting among which were the Blanket Primary of Ore gon, Reappraisal of property, Re apportionment of the Legislature, the Pelton Dam, and Universal Military Training. While no defi nite action was taken on these questions they will be further discussed at the next Center meetings and then brought up again at the next county meeting for action. All members should watch for the dates of their cen ter meetings and plan to be pre sent to express their views on these subjects before our recom mendations are sent in to the slate. Kenneth Smouse reparted on information which has been re ceived regarding the development of North Morrow County and that further surveys will be made In 1954. Ralph Crum announced that the Interim Committee on Rain making will hold a hearing in Arlington on March 22 and asked that recommendations be made at that time as to what we want in the way of legislation on this subject. The Centers are being asked to make such recommen dations. Though the Centers at lone and Lexington have been active for over a year, the Hepp ner Center has not yet been or ganized and those members will be invited to attend the Lexing ton Center until such time that the Heppner center can be organ ized. The next county meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 25, the place to be announced later. Mr. and Mrs. Whitmer Wright returned Mnday evening from a five day visit to Portland and Salem. In Salem they were guests of Mrs. Wright s sister and hus band, Mr. and Mrs. A. Burr Black, project was established by the engineers at $318,500 and was designed to meet all state and city sanitary requirements. The two men, in explaining the various phases of the collection and disposal system, described the operation of the disposal plant, which would be located near or below the northwestern city limits, and that the sewer system was planned to give grav ity drainage throughout its en tire length and also for practical ly all basements. A breakdown of the cost estimates showed $168,000 for the main sewer col lection system, $21,618 for the house connection spurs, and $128,882 as the cost for the treat ment plant. Clark told council members the sewer system was planned to ac commodate a population of 3,500, and the treatment plant would serve a city of 2,500. He stated the plant was designed smaller than the collection system be cause it could readily be added to in future years at a minimum cost should the need arise, where as the cost of enlarging the sew ers would be extensive. The two men stated their future popula tion figures were based on an ex amination of growth figure for the area for past years. Financing Plan The engineers also suggested a financing plan which included a bond issue of $250,000 and indi vidual assessments amounting to approximately $100 per lot. The actual amount of the necessary bond issue and basis for deter mining just how it would be paid was discussed at length by the council members and although no definite plan was decided upon concensus of the members ap peared .to be that the city would probably ask for a bond issue of $300,000 which would finance the entire project and eliminate the extra individual lot assessments. The assistance of bonding attor neys will be sought before a defi nite plan is established. If such a plan is set up the only additional out-of-pocket cost to property owners would be the cost of extending their present home or business sewer system to their property line. The engi neers plan called for running the individual resident's connections up to the property line from the sewer. The engineers "also suggested that the bonds be written for a 25 year period, or at least a por tion of them, and showed that they could be paid off with not more than a 10 mill tax levy, the same amount now assessed which was voted last year, and a con tinuation of the present $1.00 flat residential sewer use fee now be ing paid by city residents. Pos sibly, they suggested, this fee might need to be raised to $1.50 per month. The council, in accepting the plans, set in motion the necessary procedures to call for an early vote of the people on the proposed bond issue. City attorney, J. J. Nys was instructed to immediate ly contact the Portland law firm which must pass upon municipal bond issues and request their as sistance in setting up the most feasible plan. The council ex pressed the hope that the meas ure could be put up to the people at the Primary election on May 16. The bond issue must be passed by a vote of the people before the bonds can be sold and bids called for on the construction. Maps Shown The engineering firm presented maps of the sewage system and the disposal plant which show in detail the recommended plan. The main trunk collector system would start with an eight inch main at the upper ends, near the school on north Court street and up Willow creek on south Court and gradually increase to a 15 inch main at the lower end of the system. The disposal plant was designed to require practically no Continued on Page 8
