Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1955)
1 1 IRA Ft Y .CENE. ORE appro tme Copies 10 cents Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, July 7, 1955 72nd Year, Number 17 State Hear Plea For Meeting Set For Friday at State Capitol Word was received here this morning from senator Elmo Smith of John Day, chairman of the state emergency board, that he has called a meeting of the board for Friday at 2 p. m. at Salem to hear the request of the Morrow County Livestock Grow ers Association fox state aid in an - emergency program to control a serious grasshopper infestation in this area. It has been known for some time that there was the possibil ity of a serious hatch of hoppers in the county, and a continual survey has been made by U. S. Bureau of Entomology men and local ranchers which now has shown a heavy hatch. The spraying program as now planned will cover about 170,000 acres on Butter Creek, Balm Fork, Hinton Creek, Johnson Creek, and upper Rhea Creek. The infested area includes practically all of the southeast corner of the county. Cost of the program is set at about $103,000 which it is hoped can be divided three ways, with the Bureau of Entomology, local ranchers and the state each put ting up one-third of the money. Board To Meet Efforts have been made for over a week to interest the state emergency board in the program and considerable work has been done by the livestock growers to gather evidence of the immedi ate need for funds. Government funds are already available and according to reports ranchers in the infested areas are ready to pay their share. Smith told the Gazette Times this morning that the emergency board will convene at 2 p. m. on Friday at the board of control room in the state cajritol building to hear the plea for funds. A special meeting of the insect con trol committee of the Morrow County Livestock Growers has been set for tonight and it is understood that a sizeable dele gation is planning to make the trip to Salem tomorrow. The county court was also holding a special meeting today and hope was expressed that some money "could be obtained from county funds. The seriousness of the hopper problem in this and other areas prompted the introduction of a bill in the last legislature which would allow the formation of grasshopper control districts and permit the levying of a tax to finance spraying and other con trol operations. The measure was passed the last day of the legislature but it did not contain an emergency clause and there fore is not operable until after the first of August this year. Be cause of the delay it would have been impossible to get a tax levy on the rolls in time to do any good this year. Just how good the possibilities are that the local organization will get the requested $30,000 from the state is not known, but it is known that the funds avail able for emergency board were cut from $2,000,000 to $700,000 for this biennium. John Schaffer Dies Tuesday at Pendleton Word has been received of the death Tuesday in a Pendleton hospital of John Schaffer, follow ing a long illness. He was over 80 years of age. Mr. Schaffer was a long time resident of Morrow county and for many years was connected with the Hynd Brothers ranching operations. Funeral services will be held at 10 a. m. at Folsom Funeral Home chapel in Pendleton with burial to be in the family plot in Salem. He is survived by one son E. R. Schaffer of Cecil and two daugh ters thought to live in California. Visitors at the Harold Wright home over the Fourth were Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Jackson, Portland; Mr. and Mrs Wilbur Flower and Mrs. Wave Jackson, Monument; Mr. and Mrs. Loren Naley and family, Condon; and Mr. and Mrs. Jack Flower and family of North Powder. memencv uoaro to Porky Seals Doom With 'Noisy' Meal Ono Blue Mountain porcupine probably got the surprise of his life the other night. 'The porky, apparently even hungrier than usual, chewed through a tire on a car parked at Tupper guard station. The noise of the resulting blowout awakened several men sleeping nearby who investi gated and discovered a be wildered porky that had taken one bit3 too many. Coburg Man Named New School Head The Heppner .school board was informed this morning that Joe H. Stewart of Coburg, Oregon has accepted the position of new superintendent of the Heppner schools. He will replace H. C. Reed who announced his resigna tion last week. Stewart is a native of Wheeler county and graduated from high school at Spray. He received his bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Oregon and has been superintendent of schools at Coburg, near Eugene, for the past nine years. He had previously taught at both Spray and Kimberly He has three children, twin girls who are jun iors in high school and a girl in the fourth grade. The Stewarts plan to move to Heppner about August 1, or as soon as suitable housing can be found. County Road Oiling Jobs Completed A total of 26 miles of road oil ing has been completed during the past year in Morrow county, it was revealed this week by the county court which only recently accepted the last of the several projects. Much of the work was financed jointly with federal se condary road funds, state and county money". Most recently completed was the oiling of the 5.1 miles of the new Paterson Ferry connecting road which joins highway 730 and 30 near this end of the Pater son ferry road. It was completed July 1. On the Boardman project 12.1 miles of county roads were oiled during the past month by Babler Brothers company of Portland. Practically all of this work was financed jointly. Another one- quarter mile of oiling within the city of Boardman was completed following an agreement between the county and the city. Contractors also finished the oiling of 8.6 miles of the Rhea Creek road which was started last fall but stopped by bad weather. A seal coat had been placed on the road last year, but the final lift was put on last month, the court reported. Graveling, of the recently built bombing range road is progress ing according to schedule the court said Wednesday. Eleven and one-half miles of the 14 and one-half mile road has already received gravel and it is expected the job will be completed within two weeks, well ahead of harvest. The new road extends from the D. O. Nelson ranch north of the north Lexington elevator and fol lows the east side of the bombing range to connect with highway 3q a short distance east of Boardman. When finished it will be the first north-south route, entirely with in the county, connecting the two ends of the county. lone Voters Approve Special School Levy A total of only 15 lone school district voters went to the polls last Thursday to vote on a spe cial tax levy to make up a dis trict deficit of $9,999.54. The measure was approved by a vote of 11 to 4. The deficit had been carried on the lone school district books for over five years since the forma tion of the rural school district in the county. The one year levy will amount to slightly over two mills it was said. Hopper Aid Tri-County Weather Meeting to Hear S. Dakota Man Dean Eberly of South Dakota State College and member of Eisenhower's advisory comittee on weather modification will speak at the annual meeting of Tri-County Weather Research in Condon Tuesday. The committee has been studying cloud seeding for the past year. George Wilson, Kent, president of Tri-County Weather Research announced that the program will get underway at 1.30 p. m., July 12. Anyone interested is invited he said. Three cloud seeding firms have been asked to present bids at the meeting for the 1955-56 season. They are. Weather Modification Co., a Redlands, California firm that has been employed the past two seasons; North American Weather Consultants of Pasa dena, California and Water Re sources Development corporation of Denver, Colo. Representatives o f farmer groups in Connell, Washington, Prosser, Washington, and Pendle ton, have been asked to report on results in cloud seeding in their areas. The two Washington groups have conducted programs for 5 years in an effort to increase precipitation. Weather Modification Co., will report on cloud seeding done in Gilliam, Morrow and Sherman counties. The firm has been seeding clouds with silver iodide smoke in an effort to artifically induce nucleation in clouds to increase precipitation. Clouds were seeded frort Sept 1 to June 30 with the exception of January, February, and the first part of March. One airplane has been used along with a number of ground generators. Seeding was directed from a company office in a trailer (equipped with radar) East of Condon. 4-H Summer Camp Opening Delayed by Continuing Rains Wheat farmers were rejoicing over the past week's rainfall in the county, but those with hay down were joined Wednesday by another group in condemning the continuing sprinkles. The latest organization to com plain about the unseasonal rains were 4-H club members and their advisors who at the last minute had to postpone the annual sum mer camp at Cutsforth park be cause of too much mud and water. The camp was scheduled to open Wednesday" but was called off until the weather changes for the better. No defi nite date has been set but offi cials said they hope to start the camp Today or Friday if the weather breaks. Though the past holiday week end weather was cloudy here most of this time little rain fell during the four days, only an unofficial .04 was recorded. Tues day's storm however added .33 inches to bring the week's total to .37 inch. County Enjoys Wreck-Free Fourth While Oregon and the rest of the nation were chalking up one of the worst Fourth of July acci dental death records in history, Morrow county enjoyed an acci dent and injury free weekend. Police said they have received no reports of any serious accidents anywhere in the county. The only fatal accident in this immediate area occurred at Fossil Monday when a private plane crashed near the airstrip there. Killed outright in the crash was Donald Creighton Lynn, 28 of Ashland. His wife, Edih, 20, died in an ambulance enroute to Pio neer Memorial hospital here. The cause of the crash was given as engine failure. Mrs. John Heltzel (Margaret Barratt) was a Heppner visitor Monday and Tuesday of last week at the home of her brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Garnet Barratt. i i Funeral Services Held Today for Frank Fraters Funeral services were held this afternoon (Thursday) at 2 p. m. at Creswick Mortuary chapel for Frank Fraters, 73, who passed away July 2 at San Leandro, Call fornia. He had been in poor health for several years. Mr .Fraters was born July 1, 1882 at San Pablo, California, but had lived in Morrow county since his marriage to Amelia Sawyer on January 17, 1903. Mrs. Fraters died here in 1947 and he had made his home with his son Tom on the family ranch in the Eight mile area. Rev. Lester Bouldon, pastor of the Methodist church officiated at the service and burial was in the Heppner Masonic cemetery. Survivors include two sons, Tom, Heppner and Charles of The Dalles. Two daughters, Mrs. Irene Marciele, San Leandro and Mrs. Celia Needham, Citrus Heights, Cal.j four sisters; Mrs. Mary Sota, San Pablo, Calif.; Mrs. Anna Murray, San Francisco; and Mrs. Kate Roderick, Berkeley, Calif.; Mrs. Rose Biana, Richmond, Calif. He also leaves eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Free Instruction In Swimming Plan At Heppner Pool The Heppner swimming pool opened last weekend following installation earlier in the week of the new filtering equipment, but, because of unfavorable wea ther over the weekend, didn't get much of an opening crowd. Larry Dowen, lifeguard and water safety instructor at the pool, announced today that the pool will be open to the public from 3 to 7 p. m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and from 1 to 5 on Wednesdays, Fri days and Sundays. It will be closed on Mondays. Dowen announced that he will give free swimming and life sav ing Instruction to all who desire it with classes to be started in the near future. He asked that all persons, children or adults, who are interested in such in struction sign up at the pool within the next 10 days. He also said that he will give an adult class in survival swimming if a sufficient number of persons show interest in such a course. The instruction classes will probably be given in the morn ings, Dowen said, with the exact time schedule to be worked out later. COHNS HAVE GRANDSON Mr. annd Mrs. Philip Cohn of Hermiston are the parents of a 8 lb. boy born Monday July 4 at the Hermiston hospital. He has been named Philip Andrew. Grandparents are Mr. and Mrs. Harold Cohn of Heppner. The Story of (The following is the first of a series of seven articles disclosing the highlights and sidelights which have accompanied the na tion's development of atomic energy. Prepared at the Hanford atomic energy plant' the series will deal with the human things which followed in the wake of the first historic announcement that man had harnessed the atom. It will touch upon the things which lie ahead. By Bill Jury General Electric News Bureau Hanford Atomic Plant Seldom in American history have three neighboring villages seen such violent change as Han ford, White Bluffs and Richland in southeastern Washington dur ing the infancy of the Atomic Age. One of the tiny communities billowed almost over night into a brawling boom town and quick ly faded away and was lost i i t'.e desert wind and sand. The second village was swal lowed up, its value as a poten tial orchard center overshadowed by the need for an atomic energy Council Passes New Ordinance On Solicitation The Heppner city council Tues day passed and put into immedi ate effect a new ordinance gov erning nearly all types of solici tation within the city. The ordinance does not pro hibit legitimate solicitation but do?s require any person doing such work to register at the city hall and obtain a permit from the city "recorder. It applies to anyone soliciting for donations or subscriptions to magazines, peri odicals of publications of any kind. A fee of $1.00 will be charged for the permit and at the time of application sufficient evi dence must be shown that the solicitor is working for a legiti mate company, church or orgi nation and has express authority from such organization to work for it. The ordinance carries a penalty for violation of not over $100 fine or 50 days in jail. The ordinance had been read at pevious meetings of the council and was given final approval Tuesday night. New Officer Named The council accepted the resig nation of Kenneth Green, day police officer, who had served in his present capacity for the past several months. Green said that the press of private business made his resignation necessary. On the recommendation of the police committee, the group ap pointed Melvin Piper of Heppner to replace Green on the police, force. Before taking over his duties here, Piper will be sent to Pendleton for a two-weeks train ing and indoctrination course with the Pendleton police depart ment. No Bids Received Last month the council ordered a call for bids on the construc tion of a new concrete footbridge across Willow creek between the Tum-ALum Lumber company and the school grounds with bids to be opened at Tuesday's meet ing. Apparently no contractors were interested in the job at the present time for city superinten dent Vie Groshens reported that no bids were received. The council decided to issue another call in the near future and to include the construction of another new footbridge to re place the old wooden one across the creek at Lover's Lane which was recently closed by the city because of its very poor condition The Lover's Lane bridge was originally built by the owners of the private land on which it stands, but is in the process of being deeded fo the, city by the owners, it nas neen used as a public thorofare for nearly 50 years according to reports, and the council agreed previously to take It over if the owners would deed it to the city. Permits Issued Six building permits totaling $17,600 were granted by the coun cil to the following persons: Ray Taylor, a garage, $100. Norman Case, a new house on Riverside street, $8,000. Kemp Dick, remodeling house, $6,000. Wilbur Worden, remodeling, $400. Claude Buschke, remodeling, $1,000. Richard Calvin, remodeling, $1,800. Hanford-The plant site. The third outlived the roaring boom period and since has grown into an unincorporated city of 27,000 persons, its future secure as a business and residential area for atomic plant personnel. Deep inside the barricade boun daries of the Hanford atomic energy project today lies the rem nants of the town which once was given great promise of be coming a leading producer of orchard crops. The town was White Bluffs. Once a small orchard, commun ity on the banks of the majectie Columbia, it since has been ab sorbed by the sprawling, bustling Hanford project. Now it is a crossroad in the center of a 600-square-mile government reserva tion where General Electric com pany operates the Hanford plu tonium plant for the Atomic En ergy Commission. The town which gave its name to the Hanford project also was a quiet community of 300 persons before its selection as site for the huge atomic energy plant turned it into one of the biggest Special Prosecutors Are Named for Murder Case Circuit judge William W. Wells early this week set Monday, Aug ust 29 as the date for the trial of Mrs. Ann Avent on a charge of second degree murder in the shooting of Dellmore Lessard, Portland attorney, June 4. It was also announced this morning that attorney general Robert Y. Thorn ton has appointed two special prosecutors to handle the case against Mrs. Avent. Thornton announced the ap pointment of George Corey, Pen dleton, former Umatilla county district attorney, as a special as sistant attorney general for the case. He will prosecute the case against Mrs Avent in place of Bradley Fancher, Morrow county district attorney who had re quested governor Paul Patterson that a special prosecutor be as signed because Fancher had previously represented Mrs. Avent as an attorney and had gained confidential information. He said that in the interest of justice he felt that he should be relieved of the requirement that he prosecute this particular case. Patterson accepted the request and asked Thornton to make the special ap pointment. At the same lime the attorney general announced Corey's ap pointment, he revealed that he has also assigned Wolf D. Von Otterstedt, as assistant attorney general from Thornton's office to assist Corey with the case. Mrs. Avent, who is now being Rev. John R. Reeves Accepts New Post Thp Rev. John R. Reecs, rector of All Saints Episcopal church, announced this week in a parish letter to the congregation his ac ceptance of an appointment to St. James Episcopal church in Green Ridge, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. In his letter Mr. Reeves expres sed regret at leaving Heppner but explained that at his age he could not refuse the unusual op portunity that St. James church offered. He also pointed out that the climate there is better suited for Mrs. Reeves' health and that they will be close to their child ren in New Jersey. The church tb which Mr. Reeves is going has a long history as a pre-revolution, down-town city church. The original property was finally sold as business en croached and the new church was built in 1952 in a rapidly grow ing suburban community of over 6,000 persons. It is the only Pro testent church in the section, he said. Rev. and Mrs. Reeves came to Heppner two years ago from Mad ras where he was serving St. Mark's church as a missioner. In his two years here, 56 members have been added to the church by confirmation and $8,000 In im provements have been added to the church and rectory. The Reeves will leave for the east about September 1. o Mr. and Mrs. Frank Turner have returned from Portland where they spent a few days on business and visiting with Mrs. Turner's sister, Mrs. Sophia Barr. West's Atomic Center boom towns the West, has ever known. More than 50,000 persons, com prising workers and their famil ies, moved into the area early in 1943 to help construct giant plant facilities. They were people from ail over the country, re cruited from wartime labor mar kets to build the original Han ford works. When their job was completed most of them moved on. Those who stayed behind to operate the atomic energy plant moved to little Richland village, some 25 miles away from the nearest plant area. Today, the town of Hanford Is a ghost town, its blacktopped streets and wind-swept wooden frame skeletons offering only slight evidence of its brawling past Richland, village of 250 persons which stood 30 miles downriver from Hanford and White Bluffs, survived its, sister communities and the fickle prosperity of the era. It expanded and absorbed its new people until today it is one of the largest cities In East ern Washington. held in the Wasco county jail at The Dalles, is being represented by attorneys Ralph Currin, Pen dleton and John Bassett, Port land. About two weeks ago the grand jury returned an indictment for second degree murder against Mrs. Avent who since has entered a plea of not guilty to the charge. Wrestling Under Field Lights Set For July 16 The first major sporting event to be held under the new lights at the Heppner rodeo field is to be a lighting benefit wrestling matcli it was announced today by Jack Loyd, committee chairman for the sponsoring organization, t h e Heppner-Morrow county Chamber of Commerce. The matches will be held Saturday night, July 16. The matches will be put on by Jack and Maurie Kennedy, well known Pendleton promoters, for the chmber of commerce with proceeds to go into the fund to pay off bonds which were sold las year to raise money for the lights. A big double main event card has been scheduled with a six round boxing match and a one hour tag team wrestling match to be the feature events. The box ing will feature Harley Breshears of Parma, Idaho who will meet a suitable apponent to be named within a few days. Breshears now holds the heavyweight title of Idaho. In the tag team match Doug and Red Donovan, two brothers from Edmondton, Alberta will meet Bill Fletcher of Boise and Cal Roberts of Seattle In what promises to be a bang-up affair. Plans also call for two 5-minute special event wrestling matches, Loyd said. Fletcher is a former inlermountain junior heavy weight champion and the Dono vans have spent the winter meet ing some of the oustanding grapplers on the coast. Loyd said that tickets for the matches will be placed on sale this weekend at Turner, Van Mar ter and Bryant insurance office, Aiken's Place, Cal's Tavern, Buck nums and O'Donnell's. They will also be available at the gate on Saturday night. The matches fall on the same night as the fair and rodeo kick off dance, but sponsors of the show made it plain that the bouts would be over by the time the dance is to start at the adjoining fair pavilion. o New School Board Members Take Office Ileppner's first five-man school board met Tuesday evening with three of the five members taking the oath of office as new mem bers. Taking their place as new mem bers were Alvin Bunch and Ray mond French with Howard Cleve land returning by reelection. The other members of the board are L. E. Dick, Jr., chairman and Ed gar Collison. Because of the almost complete absence of facilities for caring for Its increased population in the early days of the Hanford project, the responsibility of providing the necessities of a big town was placed with the plant contractor, in those days, E. I. duPont de Nemours, prime contractor to the Army Engineers. The essential, activities, of a municipality police and fire protection, supplying the neces sary utilities and recreational fa cilities are now provided by the Community Services Section of GE, This group covers all normal departments of most cities in the nation; everything from public works and safety, to parks and library boards. In addition, it manages .most of the town real estate rentals and operates the plant administrative area. The communities of Hanford and White Bluffs now are chap ters in American history, but Richland a child of the Atomic Age is making history as this nation's first atomic city. (Next Week "Desert Miracle")
