Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 1958)
LIBRARY f U OF 0 . EUGENE. ORE. k ..k. ...... PJk E Copies 10 Cents Hunter . Irivasion Gets Under Way The annual influx of hunters on their way to the Blue Moun tain deer areas south and east of Heppner got underway the middle or the week with the big rush expected to start Friday. The season opens Saturday. Prospects are reported good by game officials for a heavy kill in this area though all who take to the mountains are urged to take extreme care with fire in the forests. Rains over a week ago dropped the fire danger con sidcrably, but warm dry weather since then has dried out the en tire area. Most of the usual areas ap parently will again be open to hunting, though much of the pri . vate lands will be accessable by permission only. Quite a few en tire ranches In the hills border- Heppne r Pine Wins Big Timber Bid Heppner Pine Mills was high bidder on 17,000,000 feet of for est service timber in the Black Mountain east of Heppner at a timber sale held Monday at Pen dleton. They made the high bid of $2G05 pre thousand for the pine. Total value of the timber has been placed at about $150,000 by the forest service. Six firms entered bids on the stand 'which is close to timber now being cut by the Heppner firm, ihey were Kinzua Corpor ation, Pilot Rock Lumber Co, Blue Mountain Lumber Co of Rie.th, Ukiah Lumber Co of Rieth, Moore Logging Co and Heppner Pine. The timber, which is about evenly divided among ponderosa pine and fir and associated spe cies will be harvested in the near future, Paul Koening, Hepp ner Pine manager stateij. It -is planned to start cutting as soon as contracts are completed. In addition to the pipe bid of $26.05, the Douglas fir brought $4.15, western larch $5.00, spruce $5.70 and white fir $2.20 per thousand. All bids on the latter species were at the advertised minimum. County Unit School Measure Slated for Heppner P-TA Talk A school issue on the Novem ber ballot will be fhe subject of the Heppner P-TA program Wed nesday evening, October 8. Ro bert Abrams, Morrow county dis trict attorney, will present a pan el on the county unit plan to discuss the facts and problems of school reorganization and how they will affect the county? Fol lowing the panel will be a ques tion and answer session. Interest is expected to be particularly keen on taxation and admini stration. Katherine Case, state P-TA president and Ruth King, state treasurer, were in Heppner Mon day evening conducting a presi dent's workshop for the Midland council. More Wires Homegrown gunslingers are currently causing Pacific Tele phone almost as much trouble as their TV counterparts do for the likes of Wyatt Earp, Mat Dillon and the rest. So'far this year In Oregon the company's cables, wires, and other equipment have been shot up more than 100 times. It's the worst record for several years and with the huntiag season still ahead officials of the company are concerned. Last year 143 cases of damage to equipment by gunfire cost the company more than $5,200 in re pair bills. "Worst of all," a company spokesman said, "We've had long distance service to entire communities cut off by rifle bul lets through cables. Mobile tele phone transmitters that handle many emergency-type calls have been knocked off the air by gun shot damage to control cables. Local cables and wires have been shot up, too." if If ITU Ox - gazette ing the timbered lands are again closed to all trespassers because of farmers' having suffered loss of cattle and other animals through carelessness in past years. As far as is known, no one in this area is following the ex ample of a big group of land owners in Wheeler county who are closing over 900,000 acres to open hunting and allowing en try only on payment of a special fee ranging , up to $25 per per son for the season. The "fee" hunt seemingly is legal, but Is being frowned on by the state game commission. Bird Season Due Soon One week later, on Saturday, October 11 the waterfowl and up land game bird season will open at 8 am and another influx of hunters is expected to take ad vantage of one of the biggest crops of pheasants and other game birds ever seen in Morrow county. Game officials here state that the light winter brought a big hatch and that there are more game birds in the area now than has ever been counted since the game commission has been keep ing a census of the birds. In addition, the commission releas ed another 300 adult pheasant roosters in the county Tuesday which should provide excellent shooting prospects for the sea son. The game commission strongly urged all hunters to adhere to the Red Hat day pledge of good sportsmanship, and emphasized that all trespass regulations should be observed to prevent further land closures in the county. ' Elks Plan Drive For Deer Hides The Heppner Elks lodge has announced that it will again col lect deer, elk and other hides which will be used for the lodge's veteran's rehabilitation program for the state. The lodge entered the program last year and collected 1102 hides during the season to place second in Oregon and third in the United States in the number of hides col lected. The Baker, Oregon lodge beat the local organization bv ust a few hides. Collection points will be Far ley Motor Company, Jack's Chev ron Station, Howell's Union Ser- ice and the Elks Lodge in Hepp ner; Genes Chevron Station in Lexington and Barnett's Chevron Station at lone. All kinds of Jiides are usable, it was said. WEATHER Hi Low Thursday 67 53 Friday 70 . 40' Saturday 73 42 Sunday 76 47 Monday 78 45 Tuesday 72 48 Wednesday 71 45 Rainfall for the week, none; for September .36; for the year 10.94 inches. , Than Birds Suffer From Bullets The company is reluctant to say the damage is malicious. Most of it officials believe, is Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, October 2, 1958 Population of County Said Down 4.9 Since 1950 Morrow county is one of 13 counties in Oregon which has shown a drop in population since 1950, it was revealed this week by the state census board. The state as a whole dropped a frac tion of one percent according to the report. Morrow county's population is listed at 4550 which is a drop of 4.9 percent since 1950, but al most exactly the same as the estimate made last year by the board. Jn 1950 the county was credited with 4783 persons. It is generally believed that the Morrow county population has remained approximately static since the completion of McNary dam, several years ago. During its construction a size able number of workers lived in the Irrigon area and were coun ted in the 1950 census. Most of these left when the dam work ended and since the time the county figure has remained close to the same. Though the county figure is down, it is thought that at least the towns of Heppner and lone have shown considerable increase since 1950 credited somewhat to the fact that quite a few farm ers have moved into the towns to make their homes. No cen sus has been taken locally, but it has been .roughly estimated that Heppner's population is now about 1850 persons. This reflects an increase of about 200 from the 1950 figure of 1648. Wheeler county showed the greatest loss of people with a drop of 27 percent since 1950 to 2420 persons. Other counties to loose were Wallowa-7.1; Un-ion-11.9; Malheur,-5.0; Lake.-O.l; Deschutes,-9.0; Hood RIver-6.0 and several in the northwest corner of the state. Counties which registered an increase in people included Uma tilla, up 1 percent; Gilliam, up 13.6; Wasco, up 29.9; Grant, up 2.8. The report stated that even though many counties lost pop ulation, most cities and towns showed a gain during the same period. One of the few exceptions was Portland which dropped 2.4 percent since last year. In that case it was felt that most of the gain there was in the suburban area around the city. Pendleton is up 24.5. percent since 1950 to a new high of 15,300 persons. State Leader to Be Christian Speaker Mrs Idella Osburn, state presi dent of the Christian Women's Fellowship for the Christian churches of Oregon, will be guest speaker at the First Christian church in Heppner Sunday at the 11 o'clock worship service. World Wide Communion will also be observed during the service. Sunday will also be Ladies day in the church and two mem bers of the guild will serve as elders at the Communion table and four of the senior high girls will serve as deacons. The 15 member junior choir will sing and Rev Knox will sing the well known sacred number, "Hymn of the Last Supper." A potluck dinner will be served at 12:30 for members and friends of the church. . accidental. "There's something irresistable about a bird on a telephone wire Times 75th Year, Number 30 REGISTRATION DEADLINE SATURDAY The last day to register to vote in the November 4 gen eral election it Saturday, October 4. the county clerk reminded voters. The clerk'i office in the court house will be open on the final day from 8 a m to 8 p m to accommodate last minute registrants. Last week the Gazette Times erred in the deadline date stating it was October 5. Saturday, the 4th is the correct date. Fair Committee Suggests Changes; Names Members Many recommendations that may lead to a better Morrow county fair and wider use of fa cilities were made Monday at a meeting of members of the fair committee and fair superinten dents. New members were also named to the committee. In discussing shortcomings of the recent event, several recom mendations were made and will be studied during the year. among those were an Increase in premiums for open class beef en tries in an effort to create more interest in this division; the add ing of bee and honey exhibit divisions; and numerous other di vision changes. The group also will ask the fair committee to appoint a spec ial committee to draw up a con stitution and by-laws for the group and it is planned to have a fall meeting annually shortly after the close of the fair to elect members to the committee. It is planned to have six mem bers on the fair cbuimtttee and to elect two each year to three- year terms. Following this plan, the group elected Bernard Doherty and Mrs Walter Wright for 3 year terms; Mrs L A McCabe and Don Green up for 2 year terms, and Don Robinson and Robert Jones to one year terms. The latter two replace John Graves and Alvin Bunch who resigned from the committee. The group also discussed at length the possibility of chang ing the dates of next year's fair to Thursday, Friday and Satur day, feeling that a weekend fair would draw bigger crowds. The possibility of holding it a week! earlier was also talked, though no definite action was taken on either. The group will also ask the fair board to consider making a complete survey of the fair grounds and facilities including water lines, etc which would aid in future planning and develop ment. The committee also felt the new annex should be made avail able to the public for greatest general use and will ask the fair board to budget funds for maintenance of the annex so that it may be used even by organ izations or groups, though they might be unable to pay a nom inal fee. They felt the building was ideal for many meeting pur poses and should be used to the fullest advantage. It was reported that a total of 2284 exhibits were checked in at this year's fair, a considerably greater number than ever before. or cable when a person has a rifle in hand. Unfortunately the cable seems to be hit more often than the bird." Telephone cables with their outer covering of lead or plastic are easily damaged by gunfire. Soft copper wires 'inside offer even less resistance. Oregon law makes willful dam age to telephone or telegraph lines a misdemeanor or felony punishable by fine, imprison ment or both. "Preventing damage is our aim," officials of the company say. "Nearly all fire, police or other emergency calls are hand led by telephone. Shooting a ca ble tan be more serious than the inconvenience to users or the company's expense in repairing it." At least the telephone company hasn't had Indian trouble lately. A few years ago an arrow cut a cable near Oregon City. That hasn't happened this year. I : 1 BIG IMPROVEMENT Tavincj of ourav nignwav over tli" mountains hn ro-onil hu - picted. This photo shows one of the new wide, smooth straight stretches which replaced the former narrow rough road. The new paving takes the improved road within about five miles of the summit. (GT Photo) EASY TURNS Photo shows the motorists as they wind up the narrow canyon about two miles south of Chapin Creek on the Heppner-Spray highway. The $250,000 Improvement program on the highway is supposedly the start on a continuing plan to pave the highway to its; junction with the John Day highway near Spray. (GT Photo) 15 OF STATE'S LARGEST SOIL BANK PAYMENTS MADE TO COUNTY FARMERS Fifteen Morrow county wheat farmers were among the 30 in the state of Oregon to receive large soil bank payments for the present year, it was announced early this week from Washing ton D C by the department of agriculture. The list carried only the names of those who receiv ed payments of $10,000 or over for putting wheat land into the soil bank program. The largest payment in the county went to Bafus Brothers of Cecil who received $20,158 for :930 acres. Others included Frank Ander son, Heppner, $15,911 for 526 acres; Lewis Halvorsen, lone, $15,851 for 524 acres; Delbert Emert, lone, $14,607 for 503 acres; Civic League Sets Fall Rummage Sale For October 24-25 The Civic League fall rummage sale will be October 24 and 25 (Friday and Saturday) at Empire Machinery Company's Heppner showrooms, announce co-chairmen Mrs Bill Glennie and Mrs Kemp Dick. Deadline for pickup of gar ments to be cleaned is Monday, October 13. Cleaning, done through the courtesy of Heppner Cleaners, multiplies the sales value of many articles. Mrs Harry Bongers and Mrs Jack Healy are chairmen of the pick up committee. Their phone numbers are 6-9437 and 6-9929. They plan to do as much of the gathering of the donated articles as possible on Monday, October 13, and ask that donations be left on porches on that date. Veterans of the many former rummage sales held by the Civic League and its predecessor, the Jay Cee-ettes, remind donors that rummage received at the last minute often does not sell as well as it would had it been received in time for careful sort ing, pricing, and advertising. The work of preparing items for the sales continues from the time they are picked up till the day before the sale, when the mer chandise is moved, arranged, and priced. The women hope to have all articles ready when the doors open as more than half the pro ceeds of the sales are realized in the opening forenoon. The 43 . youngsters attending the Civic League kindergarten this year are the tenth class to attend the school. Many of the freshmen attending Heppner high are kindergarten alumni. Since the kindergarten opened in 1949 the rummage sales have contributed substantially to its finances. Tuition has been kept low to enable as many parents as possible to send their pre schoolers. At no time in the school's 10 year history has it been even close to self-supporting. This year's large enrollment has necessitated two sessions, which substantially increases the cost of operation. Civic League member hope for a particularly successful fall rummage sale to cover the extra expense. nearly Ufa miles of the Heppner jTft ?tr it' t wide easy turns which now greet William J Doherty, Lexington, $14,527 for 522 acres; Milton Mor gan, lone. $13,683 for 435 acres; John Eubanks, lone, $13,052 for 490 acres; Harold G Campbell, Echo, $12,871 for 560 acres; H and H Evans, Heppner, $12,871 for 225 acres; Edward and R B Rice, Heppner, $12,523 for 414 acres; Jasper E Myers, Heppner, $11,650 for 458 acres; Beamer ranch, Heppner, $11,412 for 364 acres; Garland Swanson, lone, SI 1,438 for 411 acres; Harold S Beach, Lexington, $10,754 for 404 acres; Noel K Dohyns, lone, $10, 30(r for 341 acres. The report said that many of (he biggest payments were made lo farmers in Texas and Arkan sas. The biggest individual pay ment made to an Oregon farmer was to Martin Hereford, Inc, Madras, $69,757 for 2486 acres. Morrow county had more big par tk'ipanrs in the soil bank than any other county in the state. In all, 2,200,000 farmers par ticipated in the program putting 21,354,108 acres out of production and were compensated by the government in the amount of $613,838,570. The biggest pay ments were made for taking cot ton and rice lands out of pro duction, it was slated. Cemetery Seeks Financial Help Persons interested in the Hard man IOOF cemetery are being asked to donate $5.00 to aid in making needed repairs and doing clean up' work, it was decided Sunday at a special meeting of the Hardman cemetery board. A special cleanup day has been set for October 19, starting with a potluck lunch. Persons are ask ed to bring cleaning tools. Donations to the fund may be mailed to Boj Lovgren, treasur er. Heppner. Raymond Steers Dies At Klamath Falls Word has been received of the death at Klamath Falls of Ray mond Steers, 69. He passed away Sept 16. Mr Steers was born in Lost Valley, Gilliam county, April 2, 1889 and had lived in this area until moving to Klamath Falls 31 years ago. He is survived by his widow Annie, one daughter, Louise Cross of Cloverdale, Calif; one brother Robert Steers, Klamath Falls, one sister, Rose Collins of Hardman, two granddaughters and five great-grandchildren. Air Force Band To Play At Hermiston The internationally acclaimed United States Air Force band will present two concerts Monday, Oct 6 at the Hermiston high school auditorium, it was announced this week by members of the Hermiston Kiwanls club, spon sors of the concert. The band is directed by Col George S Howard, past president of the American Bandmasters Association. County Taxpayers To See Tax Rate Climb For 1958-59 All county taxpayers were greeted with real and personal property tax statements this week as the tax collector's office sent out its annual message to residents. In all cases an increase in tax rates was noted by the recipients. Boardman holds the dubious honor of having the highest taxes in the county with a levy of 100.7 mills. This is an increase of 11.9 mills over the 1957-58 tax year Running a close second Is Heppner which has a millage of 96.8 mills, but the Increase here was only 2.4 mills over last year due to the fact that a spec ial city levy of 5 mills for water bond redemption was dropped because the bonds were paid off last year. The town of Irrigon showed the largest increase since last year, a jump of 17.3 mills to a present 80 6 mills. This is only the sec ond year the town has been In corporated and the rise reflects the added city budget costs. Lexington will have a jump of 7.2 mills to 69.0 and lone property-owners will pay on the ba sis of 85.9 mills which is an increase of 6.1 mills over last year. As usual, the greatest increase In taxes is in the rural school this year to a total of 41.4 mills. The levy for state and county government rose 1.2 mills to 19.7. In rural areas where the only tax. is for state and county and the rural school levy the tax will be 61.1 mills which is an increase of 7.2 mills over last year. While total taxes to be col lected by the sheriff's office for all purposes rose approximately 62,000 to a high of $1,010,294.63, the assessed valuation in the county dropped nearly one-half million dollars to $13,549,588. Last year the valuation was $14,033,918. Real property valuation, county-wide, less than $2000 higher than last year at $10,270, 695 but personal property valua tion dropped irom $2,109,465 in 1957- 58 to $1,840,522 this year. Public utilities assessed by the state were also down from SI, 681,818 last year to $1,463,821 for this year. Valuation within the city lim its of Heppner showed a slight increase, climbing to $1,284,710 from $1,272,295 last year. First payments are due on 1958- 59 taxes on or before Nov ember 15. Hatfield to Mate" Talk Here Sunday Secretary of State Mark Hat field, Republican nominee for governor, will make a personal appearance before voters of this area Sunday afternoon when he will be in Heppner for a coffee hour starting at 2 p m at the multipurpose room of the grade school. His meeting is being sponsored by the county Hatfield for Governor committee and the county Republican Central com mittee. Hatfield will arrive In Pendle ton Saturday and make talks that day there and in the north end of Umatilla county. He will be in Heppner for about an hour Sunday and then go on to Hood River for a meeting that night. Price Support Plan Change Needed Says Weatherford "The flexible price support pro gram Is not the plan to lead us out of our present dilemma," Marlon Weatherford, Arlington told a group Wednesday In Hep pner. The Republican candidate for Congress said he was In com plete accord with the objectives of the administration In agri culture, but In disagreement with It on the price support program. Weatherford said that some way must be found to let agri culture share In the current econ omy of the nation. He continued that deficit spending by the gov ernment is the greatest cause of inflation, and that inflation is the greatest danger facing the United States today. The Arlington rancher, in speaking about federal aid to education, said that he is not con vinced that the people In this district have reached the place where they want to turn over financing or administration of schools to the federal govern ment. He favors some federal aid, but In scientific fields and re search. Weatherford stated that he is running for office because more persons should accept personal responsibility for good govern ment. Weatherford was introduced by Mrs Kenneth Peck, county Re publican central committee chairman.
