Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 29, 1969)
LIBRARY u or 0 EUGENE, ORE 07403 Sales Tax Package Faces Voter Verdict Tuesday (Sample Section 2). ballot on page 2, Morrow county's reentered voters, like those In the rest of the state, will go to the polls Tuesday, June 3, to cast bai- lots on the "sales tax package' referred to the people by the state legislature. Polls will be open from 8 a.m until 8 p.m. and the polling places In the county will be as follows: Riverside High School, Boardman; the old school build lng, Irrigon; lone City Hall; Lex lngton City Hall; and the Coun ty Courthouse, Heppner. For this special election, the four Heppner precincts and the Hardman-Ruggs precinct will all vote In the same place the courthouse. Other voters throughout the county will cast ballots in their usual precincts. The one Issue will be the on ly matter on the ballot. Constitutional Amendment In voting, the public will ap prove or reject House Joint Res olution 8, a constitutional amendment. It provides: 1. A new tax base for school districts to be established by combining four 1969-70 items the districts' operating budget, the basic school allotment, the county school fund levy (I. E. D.), plus 57o of this total. This new school base could be increased only 5 a year without a vote of the people. No more than two elections for this purpose could be held in one year. 2. A 3 sales tax with proceeds ded icated to the Property Tax Re lief Account. If the constitutional amend ment is approved by the voters. House Bills 1126. 1127 and 1055 will take effect automtically These include: 1. A 3 sales tax exempting food; drugs; wa ter; motor vehicles and aircraft fuel; animal life, feed, seeds plants, fertilizer (limited to that portion which will become or used in the preparation of food for human consumption); food products; one-half the fuel and electricity for industrial, agricultural and agricultural ir rigation purposes; meals in cer tain public places (schools and churches); motor vehicles sold to nonresidents; new vehicles purchased from out-of-state dealers (for out-of-state use); prescription medicine; - oigar ettes; and several other items. It is estimated that such a tax will bring in $71.9 million for the three-quarters of the 1969-70 fiscal year, and $101.2 million for the full 1970-71 year. 1. A ceiling on property taxes of senior homeowners, begin ning at age 65, provided the home has a market value of less than $20,000. 3. A partial refund of prop erty tax to low-income home owners or renters. It would be paid in the form of an income tax rebate, to families with in comes of less than $3,500 per year. 4. An increase in the Corpor ation Excise Tax on financial institutions from 8 to 9, and on other corporations from 6 to 7. Rate of the sales tax could not be increased without an other constitutional amendment approved by the people. Money collected from the sales tax could be used for nothing ex cept propoerty tax relief. Projections Given It is estimated that in 1969 70 if the referendum fails to pass, the average property tax rate is projected to become $25.50 per $1,000 of true cash value. If the referendum pass es, the tax rate is projected to be relieved an additional $4.21 per $1,000 true cash value. Hence, the adjusted property tax rate would become $21.29 per $1,000 TCV. For the first year, then, if this referendum is ap proved, the average property tax relief would be about 16.50. In the year 1970-71 if the ref erendum fails to pass, the aver age property tax rate is pro jected to become $26.70 per $1,000 TCV. If the referendum passes, the tax rate is projected to be relieved by an additional $5.58..per$lJ0X)0TCV,..This would make the adjusted property tax rate $21.12 per $1,000 TCV. For the second year, then, if the ref erendum passes, the average property tax relief would be 20.9 or greater. Opponents of the sales tax ar gue, however, that lor tne aver age person the sales tax pay ments would exceed the prop' erty tax relief that he obtains from the tax. Proponents say the measure Is sound and vital to relieving the distressing property tax burden across the state. They say that increase of the corpor ation excise tax will help to equalize the property tax sav ings that the big concerns will obtain from the sales tax. School Pros. Cons Listed The Oregon School Boards Association sees both advant ages and disadvantages in the "package. it cues these advantages: 1. Up-to-date tax bases for each school district would add flex ibility and stability to public school finance. 2. Local voters will have an opportunity to express their ap proval or disapproval of new Droerams at the polls without fear of totally destroying their school system. 3. Reducing property taxes should help schools by making voters more receptive to Improv (Continued on page 8) Picnic on Friday To Attract Many County Oldtimers One of the most enjoyable oc casions of the year for former residents, county oldtimers and even some of the newcomers the annual Pioneer Memorial Picnic will be held Friday at the fair pavilion, starting with registration at 10:30. This will be the 16th annual event, and Carl Troedson of lone is chairman. It was learn ed some time ago that it is fu tile to plan an impressive pro gram because most of those who gather want to spend the time reminiscing and visiting. There fore, Chairman Troedson has kept the formal program to a minimum. A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. with Gerald Rood, commander of Heppner s American Legion post, in charge of the honor guard. Taps will be sounded by Gene Rietmann. The buffet lunch will b at noon with Sans Souei Rebekah lodge in charge of the kitchen. Invocation will be by Pastor Ru dolph Mensch of Hope and Val by Lutheran churches. Rainbow Girls will serve. During a 15-minute period, starting at 1:45, guests will be recognized and door prizes will be given for the oldest one at tending and the one traveling the farthest distance. Election of officers for next year will follow. Benediction is scheduled for 2:15 by Pastor Mensch. The Golden Age club will conduct the registration. Mrs. Wallace Matthews is secretary for the picnic. After the event, those attend ing are invited to join the crowds at the intercollegiate re gional rodeo which will be at the adjoining rodeo grounds with the performance starting at 3 p.m. CoIIeg e (Regional Rode Fifteen crack college rodeo teams from Oregon, Washington Idaho and Montana will be In Heppner this week end to par ticipate In the Intercollegiate rodeo finals at the Morrow coun ty rodeo grounds. Sponsoring the thue-aay ro deo here is the Blue Mountain Community College Rodeo club, and the BMCC team, which has made a fine showing through the season, Is counted upon to show some of the top perform ers. The event will kickoff Friday, May 30, with the first show at 3 p.m. Others will follow on Saturday and Sunday with grand entries scheduled to start promptly at 1:30 p.m. Teams will, participate from these colleges: western Mon tana State of Dillon, Mont.: Mon tana State University, Bozeman; Eastern Montana Mate, Billings; Northern Montana, Havre; Uni versity of Montana, Missoula; Treasure Valley Community College, Ontario; tverett com munity College, Everett. Wash.; Eastern Washington College, Cheney, Wash.; Yakima Valley College, Yakima; Washington State University, Pullman; Uni versity of Idaho, Moscow; Lewis and Clark Normal, Lewlston, Idaho: Walla Walla Communitv College, Walla Walla, Wash.; Eastern Oregon college. La Grande; and Blue Mountain of Pendleton. Blue Mountain men's team, gram for the men calf roping, headed by such performers as bulldogging. saddle bronc, bull Bill MeCoin. Mark Rosenberg 'a'D and John Rhoden. won one of Wom wl" !al'. prt '2 breakaway roping. the Intercollegiate rodeos earlier in the season and has ranked high in other meets through the year. They together with other teams will be working for the right to enter the National Fi nals In Deadwood, S. D. College women will partici pate with their teams, too. Among the outstanding contend ers Is PattI Pettyjohn McCoin, Burs wife, who Is from lone. She Is favored to be the nat ional collegiate winner in bar rel racing. Six events will be on the pro- Six men compose the men's teams and three women are on each women's team. Jim Bothum and Les Kamm are scheduled to be judges for the 3-day rodeo, and Bob Cham bers will be announcer. First show of the rodeo will start late (3 p.m.) in order to avoid conflict with the annual Pioneer Memorial picnic at the fairgrounds. Those attending are invited to round out their day by Rolng to the rodeo. Admission to each show la $2 for adults, and two for the price of one ($2) for those of ages 6-15. Pre schoolers will be ad mitted free. Cowboy breakfasts will be provided at the fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday mornings from 7 until 11 a.m. with the Morrow County CowBelles put ting on the breakfast Saturday and the American Legion doing the job on Sunday. Dances will be held Friday and Saturday nights at the fair grounds, starting at 9:30 p.m. with the Western Gentlemen furnishing the music Friday night and Sheldon and His Cow pokes Saturday night 86th Year THE niSi EflEPFMEn ETTE-TIME Number 14 A Few More Drops Another .34 Inch of rain came this week but May Is still be low normal, Don Glllam, offic ial weather observer, reports. One day's temperature climbed to a very warm 90 degrees, how ever. That was on Friday. Com plete report for the week is as follows: Heppner, Oregon 97836, Thursday, May 29, 1969 Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Price 10 CentS Tuesday HI Low Prec, 75 42 82 48 90 55 80 56 .02 78 44 67 45 .01 67 41 .31 imm i"i:;r T Farm Deferral Reduces Valuation $11 Million School to Dismiss At 1 p.m. Thursday Heppner Elementary school will be dismissed at 1 p.m. Thursday (today), the last day of school in the county, Alan Martin, principal, announces. The elementary school de cided to dismiss at the early hour because testing is con cluded at the high school here at noon. Thus, buses will de part at 1 p.m. on their last trip of the year in taking the students home. SECOND GRADERS in the class of Mrs. Lucile Peck (back to camera) proved to be an interested and alert audience when they toured The Gazette-Tunes plant Thursday. Mrs. Wes Sherman, co-publisher, (upper left) is explaining to them how news is gathered and processed for the paper. The youngsters have published a little paper of their own and were profuse in their "thank you" letters following the tour. (See Chaff and Chatter column, page 2). G-T Photo). Heppner Seniors Receive Diplomas, Achieve Honors at Graduation Ceremony Seated under the banner, edge, and this is good, but it Larry Mills Named Manager of MCGG Larry Mills of Odessa, Wash., has been employed by the board of directors of Morrow County Grain Growers, Inc., to be man ager of the cooperative, Barton Clark, president, announced Tuesday. Mills, currently operations manager of the Odessa Trading Company, will assume his du ties here about June 15. He and his family were here recently to visit with officials of the coop erative and to get acquainted with the county. Included in the family are the wife, Betty, and two children, a daughter who is a sophomore in high school and a son in the upper elementary level. Mills has been with the Odes sa firm for the past 11 years. The family has purchased the home of Mrs. Rose Marie Stroe ber in Heppner. Mills will succeed Harlan McCurdy, Jr., who recently re signed as manager of Morrow County Grain Growers. . "America's Destiny is Our To morrow their class motto Heppner High School's seniors received their diplomas at com bined baccalaureate-commence ment Sunday afternoon. Many of their number were awarded scholarships and other recognitions for academic a- chievement with presentations being made by Principal Dick Carpenter, in his last public appearance at the school, and by others in the community. Car penter has accepted a new po sition at Central-Linn High school as principal. The seniors heard addresses by the Rev. Melvin Dixon and by two of their number, Terry Peck, valedictorian, and Sara Miller, salutatorian. "We live in a time when our know-how so far surpasses our know-why," the Rev. Dixon said. "We clamor for more knowl- Judge Jones to Appeal For Willow Creek Project County Judge Paul Jones will leave by airplane Friday morning from Pendleton to keep a scheduled appoint ment Monday in Washington, D. C, to plead for appropria tion for the Willow Creek pro ject here. He will appear before a sub committee on appropriations with the appointment arrang ed by Congressman Al Ull man. Judge Jones has compil ed a six-page brochure to pre sent to committee members to tell the need for the project He will be allowed about five minutes to make his presen tation. Quentin Bowman, Salem, of the State Water Resources Board will also be in Wash ington, D. C, to speak for pro jects in Oregon endorsed by the board. He has advised Judge Jones that he will in clude the Willow Creek pro ject in his presentation and said that this project is rated by the Water Resources Board as among the top three in the state in priority. Also going to Washington, D. C. for Congressional com mittee appearances will be some 25 leaders in water re source development represent ing the Inland Empire Water ways association, of which Oscar Peterson of lone is a director. The association has strongly backed the Willow Creek project. Judge Jones' trip east is being made at the urging of Cong. Ullman, who, with other members of the Oregon Con gressional delegation has pressed for appropriation for the local project. The project was authorized by Congress in 1965 but appropriation has been delayed principally be cause of the demands of the Vietnam War. The Heppner-Morrow county Chamber of Commerce is con tributing $200 to help defray expenses of Judge Jones' trip. He is first vice-president of the organization and will rep resent it as well as the coun ty. Mrs. Jones will accompany her husband on the trip, her first to the nation's capitol. They plan to return Wednesday. is not good only for itself." New Resolve Needed He told the seniors that there should be a new resolve among them for a "great infusion" of love, courage, faith, hope and wisdom. "The challenge comes to ev eryone of us that we can be very much alive with meaning, purpose, and direction," he said. Declaring that the older gen eration has given the younger generation "a pretty messed -up world," the minister told the seniors to find the good in it, take it and build upon it. "We are the crowning act of God's creation. Let us not let Him down," he urged. In her salutatory, Miss Miller said that graduation, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, receives much emphasis. "But the actual ceremony is not important," she said. "We will be the same people after graduation." She told her classmates, "Each one of us must now accept the responsibility for our own lives. But what do we want to do with ourselves? We must use what we have learned in high school to make our futures a success." The salutatorian said that she felt Socrates had the key to (Continued on page 8) Morrow county's assessed val uation will be cut by $11,023,170 as a result of farm land defer rals this year, Mrs. Joyce Ritch, special county assessor, said Monday. Applications granted for the 1968-69 roll decreased the coun ty valuation by 3,717,360, but for the coming fiscal year the number of applications for farm deferrals increased. A total of 246 filed this year, as compared with 144 last year. Thus," the valuation loss for 1969-70 tax able year will be about $ 7,000, 000 more than 1968-69. Total valuation for 1969-70 is figured by the assessor at $90, 290,685. On the 1968-69 roll it was $97,319,003. Without the farm land deferrals the valu ation would be $111,313,855 for the ensuing year. ixss oi the valuation wm De reflected on the 1969-70 tax roll, 71 Pints Given Af Blood Drawing Seventy-one pints of blood were donated at the Red Cross blood bank visit here Tuesday. This was 19 pints less than the quota but a considerably better response than many or the prev ious prior drawings. Six or eight willing donors were rejec- ieu lor pnysicai reasons. Jaycee wives assisted with the drawing and with recruiting of donors. Mrs. Gene (Faye) Pierce was in charge of arrangements as blood program chairman for the Morrow county chapter, Red Cross. and it will result in sharply higher levies to property tax payers who are not benefitted by the farm land deferral. Mrs. Ritch was unable to say at this time what the Increase in property taxes might approx imate around the county. Bud gets of many of the taxing ag encies and districts have not yet been certified to her, and she has not yet received figures from the State Tax Commission on valuation of public utilities. It is expected, however that the utilities valuation will be about the same as for 1968-69. Indications are that budgets of most taxing bodies will be Increased. The county school district budget was increased by some $42,000 over last year. Oth ers, though they hold within the 6 limitation and consequently do not require a vote, may, nevertheless, Increase to the 6 limit. Combination of the decrease in valuation and increase in budgets bring of the prospect of considerably higher tax rates. Columbia Basin Pays $15,158.11 As Tax Donations Cowboy Breakfasts Offered to Public At College Rodeo A hot, hearty breakfast will be offered to rodeo fans and performers this Saturday morn ing by members of the Morrow County CowBelles organization, who will cook and serve break fast at the rodeo grounds, from 7 to 11:00 a.m., preceding the Saturday performance of the college rodeo. The menu will include pan cakes, beef sausage, eggs and coffee and admission will be $1.35. The public is invited to attend. Members of the American Legion Auxiliary will be on hand Sunday morning, June 1. to offer breakfast to the public prior to the Sunday performanc es of the rodeo. Sunday morning breakfast will start at 6:30 a.m.. and will run until 10:30 or 11:00. Break fast menu will feature ham and eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns and either coffee or milk, all for $1.50, announces chairman Mrs. Mabel Heath. i I ft f f WW: FRANK HALVORSEN EDDIE SHERMAN lone's 2-Man Team Ties For 3rd in State B Meet Columbia Basin Electric Co op, Inc., has made payments to three counties Morrow, Wheel er and Gilliam totaling $15, 158.11 as tax donations for the 1968-69 year, Harley Young, manager, announces. Morrow county received $4, 794.29, Gilliam $5,419.71 and Wheeler, $4,944.11. This Is addition to the pay ment of 2 of the gross revenue of the utility in lieu of ad val orem taxes, which is required by Oregon law. At the time of the exchange of utility properties with Pacific Power and Light Company in 1964, the cooperative agreed to make up any difference in tax receipts to the counties which might occur as a result of the acquisition by the cooperative. The $15,158.11 represents these payments for the current year. with tne donations, total tax es paid to the counties are as follows: Morrow, $12,820.63; Gil liam. sn.345.52: and Wheeler. $5,656.96, totaling $29,823.11. Included in the total is the 2 of the gross revenue as re quired by Oregon statute. Bro ken down, this is as follows: . Morrow. $8,026.34: Gilliam. $5.- 925.81; and Wheeler, $712.85. franchise tax paid to the cit ies in the three counties Is an additional $6,678.30. This is dis tributed as follows: Heppner, $2,850.44; Condon, $2,139.90: Fos sil, $903.06; and lone, $784.90. lone High school had only two entrants in the Class B high school track meet at Pleasant Hill Friday and Saturday, but the "two-man gang" was pow erful enough to bring back a third place trophy for the Card inals. Between them, Frank Halvor- sen and Eddie Sherman, scored 38 points, enough to tie lone with Wasco county for third place in the B championships. Sherman won the 100-yard dash and the 220. Halvorsen won the high jump, placed fourth in the high hurdles and fourth in the low hurdles. In making the excellent show ing, the two-man team was in competition with approximately 50 high school teams in the state. Wallowa captured the track championship with 62 points, and Gilchrist was second with 54. Thirty other schools placed in the meet. Scores of some nearby schools were: Umatilla 8, Arlington 8, McEwen (Athe na) 6, Prairie City 4, and Con don 2. Sherman ran the 100 in a time of 10.2 and the 220 in 23.0. Hal vorsen cleared the bar at 6'2" In the high jump, an inch below his 6-3 of last year. He ran the high hurdles in time of 15.4 and the lows in 21.2. Sherman also was the only man to win two first places in the meet. This brought 20 points for lone and tied the fleet-footed star with Alan Mayhew of Wasco county for high point honors. Mavhew scored his 20 on a first in the discus at 137-4, fourth places in the shotput and long jump and fifth in the pole vault Lucore to Take Pendleton Post Loren Lucore will assume duties as fire dispatcher for Um atilla National Forest Service, effective June 15, with head quarters in the supervisor's of fices in Pendleton. He has been employd as fire control officer for the Heppner Ranger District for the past five years, and was notified of the new appointment last week. Mr. and Mrs. Lucore and fam ily plan to move to Pendleton as soon as they can complete housing arrangements and dis pose of their home here. They have been active in community work during their years here and he has helped with many of the extra educational tours sponsored in the interest of conservation.
