Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1974)
THE EUTE-THME. Vol. 90, No. 52 Heppner, Ore., Thursday, Feb. 14, 1974 15c i Computerized irrigation Sabre Farms' operation: cattle and alfalfa "We don't plan to get rich in a year, nor is this a tax dodge gimmick, " Charles Kyd, one of 14 corporate members of Sabre Farms, told Chamber of Commerce members Monday. "We are here to farm, not on a speculative basis, but to bring waier lo the area and make way for future develop ment," Kyd said. At present Sabre Farms is installing seven miles of 72-inch diameter pipe and another seven miles of con crete lined canals for irriga tion purposes. The canals, When completed, will be 32 CHARLES ,6? feet wide, seven feet deep and seven miles long. The water for irrigation will come from the Columbia Hiver. It will be a gravity flow and pumps will be used in the canal area to irrigate the present circles. The circles consist of large rotating sprinklers capable of watering from 135 to ItiO acres at one lime. When the system is completed 99 circles will be under irrigation. Sabre Farms plans to have the entire system completely automated and computerized, with a computer located in a " 0 KYD BEAl'TY IS WHERE YOU FIND IT. I could be in this lonely stiimpage atop a windy hill, or a cirrus-streaked sky above it. The Gazette-Times welcomes from our readers photographs such as this, if they are good quality black and white prints. central headquarters. The computer will record the amount of water required for each circle as well as the depth of water penetration. Another feature of the computer will be the notifi cation of workman if a sprinkler is not functioning properly. There is always the chance that a piece of tumble - weed may fall into the canal and clog one of the sprinklers, said Kyd. Should this occur the computer would auto matically shut off the sprink ler in question. The canal will be fenced on both sides to prevent persons from wandering into the water. Also provided will be special steps for any animal, especially deer, that become trapped inside the fenced area. Although the circles provide us with a method of watering at present, they are not the solution for much of the land outside the circle can not be watered, according to Kyd. At School budget up $200,000 The Morrow County School District Board and Budget Committee held their third and final meeting at Heppner High School, Feb. 5. The receipts section of the budget was increased by $1,200 in anticipation of selling the diesel activity bus. Three hours were spent discussing the section dealing with site improvement, re modeling and purchase of equipment. As a result of the discussion, the following items were removed from the budget: - 4 ' ''-''fH- present Sabre Farms is in vestigating the use of a new type sprinkler that waters in a square area. Some of these are on order by Sabre Farms; however, it will probably be 1975 before they are put into use. "We have had to make some re-adjustments in the plan ning of our irrigation system," he said, "but it was due to our failure in not reading the county ordinance." As a result, one of the contractors is presently mix ing concrete on Sabre Farms Land for the canal. No use permit for it was secured from the county for the operation. As a result a special hearing will be held in Irrigon Feb. 25 by the County Planning Com mission to discuss the use permit. "This could be a costly delay," Kyd said. "Many people have offered to purchase water from us. At the present time we have had to refuse them until we have Athletic field expansion sur vey at Heppner High School, $500; concrete curb for track at Riverside, $1,500; remodel board meeting room at the district office, $400; hinged windows in lone gym, $300; portable P.A. system at Heppner High, $260; systems 80 teaching machine at lone, $500; baseball backstop at Heppner Elementary, $550. The 1974-75 budget was approved in the amount of $1,926,297. which is an in crease of $252,687 over the current budget. This reflects a 15 per cent increase. Anita Davidson top Oregon 4-H member Morrow County can claim one of Oregon's top 4-H Club members in Anita Davidson, Lexington, who was one of four Oregon 4-Hers selected to attend National 4-H Club Conference in Washington, D.C., at the 4-H "Know Your State Government Confer ence" in Salem, last week. The national conference will be held April 20-25, providing those attending the opportun ity of seeing the nation's government at work. Anita's response to the honor was one of surprise as described by Morrow County 4-H Agent, Mike Howell, who accompanied her to Salem. Anita is the first Morrow County 4-H member to have won the trip in recent years. She said she hoped that now Morrow County 4-H members will be encouraged to apply for more awards and scholar ships state-wide as they stand as good a chance of winning as anyone in the state. In the 1950s Ron Baker and Pat Wright won the honor as Morrow County 4-H'ers. Two boys and two girls from each state are selected an nually because of their out standing record of achieve ment and leadership in 4-H and other activities. In Ore gon, the selection is made from those delegates attend ing the two-day conference. Each county sends its out standing 4-H members to the conference. Each participant submits records which are studied by a panel of judges. checked all of the city, county and state ordinances. Should there be no objection from any of these groups. Sabre Farms may sell some of the tail water. In any event many of the existing wells will be recharged by the amount of water Sabre Farms plans to use. "We are cattlemen from Montana, and are interested in raising cattle and having feed lots on the premises, so we plan to raise alfalfa and other grains needed for cattle. We plan to plant some potatoes, but only lightly this year." Sabre Farms plans to take whatever methods are needed to prevent any further soil erosion in the immediate area. Much of the land will be seeded as soon as possible to prevent any further erosion, Kyd promised. "This is a large venture for us boys from Montana, and the results should prove very interesting," Kyd concluded. The tax levy necessary to balance the budget will be $1,486,057, which is an in crease of $202,103 over the 1973 levy. It will require an additional $2.02 per $1,000 of true cash value to raise this amount. A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held at the School District Office in Lexington at 7:30 p.m., March 4, 1974. The public is encour aged to attend this hearing, Supt. Ron Daniels said. The budget election will be held on March 26, 1974. These same judges then interview each contestant. Anita described the interview experience as being very complete. She said she had never been interviewed and didn't think she stood much of a chance to win. Sixteen-year-old Anita is the youngest of six children. Her father, Robert Davidson, works for Inland Chemical. Her mother, Mildred, has been a 4-H leader for 19 years. Anita is presently a junior leader for her mother's tole painting club. She has achieved a high degree of perfection in her 4-H projects, clothing, food prep aration, knitting, tole paint ing, junior leadership and empire builders. She has won numerous top prizes at the county and state fair. In 1971 her tole painting demonstra tion won the championship at . state fair. She says of 4-H that the program has given her an opportunity to do things and go places she never would have been afforded. Last summer a Japanese girl, Anita's age, stayed three weeks in the Davidson home as a part of the 4-H Labo exchange program. Her activities are not con fined to 4-H. She is an honor student at Heppner High School. Presently she is as sistant student body treasurer and next year will move to the position of treasurer. This past weekend she returned to Lions Club to organize A Lions Club is being planned for Heppner. An organizational meeting will be held Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m., at the Wagon Wheel Restau rant, to which all interested men are invited to attend. The Heppner meeting is being sponsored by the lone Lions Club. Attending will be Paul H. Sanstrum, district governor, Hood River, and Harvey Calame, state secre tary of the Lions Clubs, Eugene. Special notices have been mailed to more than 100 men in the Heppner area inviting them to the meeting, but lone Lions admit they couldn't contact everybody and "hope anyone interested will show up." Lions International is the world's largest service club organization, with more than a million members in 26,400 clubs in 149 countries. Twenty members are re quired before a charter is granted. Salem as one of four repre sentatives of the Oregon Association of Student Coun cils to observe the State Board of High Education meeting. Last spring she was presented the John Phillip Sousa award for her outstanding partici pation in the school's pep band. She belongs to Thes pians (a drama organization), pep club and is orr the journal ism and yearbook staffs. She finds time to work after school W ( h ) vm . ANITA March of Dimes response good This year's March of Dimes campaign in Morrow County was a success, according to Pauline Bier, county publicity chairman. Collections from flyers, mailers, coin cans and the Mothers March totaled $1,587. With mailers still comingnrrr Mrs. Bier hopes Morrow County will reach its projected goal of $1,600 for 1974. The county-wide Mothers March drive total was $805.80, which far exceeds past year's effort. Donna Bergstrom, Morrow County March of Dimes chair man, said, "This is the most we've ever collected and I can't praise the volunteers enough for their hard work. Special credit goes to Carolyn Cole, Leice Martin, Marie Struthers, Diana Hams and Mary Lou Daltoso who or ganized the drive so well." W I Y M TTr ill h u The first new birds of spring. All these local residents made their first solo airplane flight last Saturday. They had been taking instruction through last month, and with warm weather last week they were "pushed out of the nest" to flutter their own wings. From the left, Gerald Bunch. Gary Graham, instructor, Steie Peck and Al Bunch. --Photo by Mel Boyer and on Saturdays for Heppner Auto Parts. Birdine Tullis, Morrow County Extension Aid, in commenting on Anita's a chievments, summed it all up by saying, "Anita is very much an individual. She knows what she wants and has the drive to achieve it. We're very proud of her and the fact that a Morrow County 4-H Club member has won this honor." DAVIDSON The precentage of , funds collected, which will remain in the county chapter, will be reported when the figure is determined. Funds received from the Trannie B. Parker estate have been put into savings ac countsT $4,000 in a time savings account for four years and $3,500 in regular savings for county emergencies. The interest from these accounts will be used for scholarships. Any senior in high school in Morrow County who plans to enter any field of medicine is eligible to apply through his or her high school counselor. The scholarships go toward books and tuition. Two Morrow County re cipients for spring term are Jeanne and Patti Daly, Hepp ner, who are taking medical training at Blue Mountain Community College.