Page I, THE GAZETTE-TIMES, Heppner, OR, Thursday. Sept. 11, 1975
1
By ERNIE CERESA
Residents of Heppner are faced with another serious
problem, the relocation of the present Post Office.
According to Postmaster Hubert Wilson, "The need for
more space to handle the influx of people is not my decision
but that of the postal authorities. Surveys have been
conducted within the past week and the results are
staggering. There is insufficient parking space in the front of
the present post office for the patrons and there is no parking
available for the employees. At present there are three
parking spaces that can be utilized for postal patrons, on
Main Street ; however, the parking meters hinder the patrons
from conducting their business in the post office. As happens
so many times, people park their vehicles in front of the post
office and rather than move their vehicles to allow others to
park and conduct their business in the post office, they will
feed the meters and continue their business elsewhere.
Although it was proposed in the past to remove the meters
and allow limited parking for post office business only, this
request was refused by the city fathers. If the common
council would recommend 10 minute restricted parking only,
this would alleviate the problem at the present time.
The postal authorities have looked at numerous sites for a
new post office, and although they have not reached any
definite conclusions they are taking a long hard look at a site
near the present Forest Service Building.
If this site is chosen it would inconvenience the people of
Heppner. Merchants would have to drive to the post office to
receive their mail and return again later in the day to
complete their mailing.
For the older residents of the community it would create
even a greater problem.
Many of the older people would have to depend on their
neighbors to get their mail, as many of them do not drive.
Most senior citizens rely on the post office for their pension
: checks the first of each month. One alternative of getting the
mail to the towns people would be the setting up of mail boxes
in the middle of each block. The mail would be centrally
deposited by carriers, and it would be up to the individual to
get his own mail.
Hubert Wilson, though opposed to the idea said. "My hands
are tied in this matter, as the postal authorities will make the
final decisions."
If the pension checks were to be deposited in the middle of
the streets, this would invariably lead to the theft of many of
the checks.
Here are statistics on the growth of the post office and of
the amount of mail that is handled each day. The present
building w as first occupied in 1940 and it contained a total of
480 postal boxes. Today there are 671 boxes and all are
rented. Many boxes serve more than one member of a
household, due to the shortage. At present there are 10
applicants aw ailing the rental of postal boxes, however, none
are available. 30-75 people are also served in the general
delivery service. In 1940 there were 120 patrons receiving
mail on the two rural routes, today there are 283 on the
routes.
Receipts for the post office totaled $9,982 in 1940. and
during the fiscal year from June 30. 1974 to July 1. 1975 the
receipts totaled S81.415.33.
The present post office has a working space of 2.150 square
" feet, and the proposed building would have to have at least
4.000 square feet to meet the demands of the projected
growth over the next 15 years.
The proposed post office would require parking facilities
for 10-15 patrons in the front of the building plus an additional
parking area in the rear of the building for the employees. At
present there are 7 postal employees, including the two rural
carriers parking their vehicles on private property, with the
consent of the owners.
The decision to relocate the U.S. Post Office rests with the
postal auihorities. What a shame a few people can decide the
fate of an entire citv.
A 51.1 million bond issue goes before the voters Tuesday.
Sept. 16. and although I am opposed to the issue. I am certain
the voters of this count) will approve the bond issue
One of the many reasons I am opposed to the issue is that
while certain new facilities are needed for the school system,
many of the older facilities, presently being used are
completely outdated. It would be interesting to know if the
present Heppner Elementary School the older building,
meets the state building code. $46,000 is going to be spent
replacing w indows and the like for the building, but what is
the future life expectancy of the building after the work is
completed? With luck, perhaps it might last another 10 years
before it is condemned by the state and a new school will
have to be constructed in its place.
Should the bond issue pass, w hat w ill be the increase in the
school budget for the coming year. With the addition of 12
new classrooms, new teachers will be hired to teach the
influx of students. The present influx of students within the
county is not due to any new construction in the area, merely
normal expansion, and an increase of 149 students in all of the
county schools in a year is not that great an increase. The
present schools were built with a student capacity of 24-30
students per classroom. Now. a few classroom! have more
than that number, so a $1 1 million bond issue is in order, to
fill the present needs. What about the future needs of the
schools in a few years, when PCE and Alumax Hart
construction'
The only logical solution is that you will be faced with
another bond issue soon and where will it end?
Tuesday's decision is yours, however, the bond issue will
pass" Why? Because the people of the community are lazy.
Too lazy to go to the polls and vote against it.
The Bureau of Land Management will have to spend S55
million over 13 years to prepare detailed environmental
impact statement on 150 million acres of western grazing
land The Federal District Court of Columbia ordered BLM to
unit with plaintiffs for a satisfactory schedule of
enviionmenlal statements. Under the agreement BLM
cannot implement any allotment management plan until an
impact statement is completed. Stockmen expect big
increases in grazing rates to cover the costs.
THE GAZETTE-TIMES
lolt KW I Ol TVX EW SPARER
Box tt7. Heppner. Ore t7S3
Subscript ion rate: 16 per year in
Oregon. t7 elsewhere
Ernest V. Joiner. Publisher
hiblishrd every Thursdiy and entered at
wvnnd-class matter al the post office at
Heppner. Oregon, under the act of Marcs S, 1171.
Second-class portage paid al Heppner, Oregon.
The mail pouch
EDITOR:
Tuesday. Sept. 16. Morrow County voters will be asked to
approve a bond issue in the amount of $1,100,000 for the
purpose of construction of new shop buildings and
classrooms for Morrow County Schools.
The need for these facilities is the result of population
increases in the school district as w ell as increased demand
for career emphasis in school curriculum.
Population of Morrow County Schools has increased from
1106 to !413or a total of 307 over the last two year period. This
increased population has occurred as a result of industrial
and agricultural development in the county. This population,
as well as increased demand brought on by new graduation
requirements and the demand for career centered courses
has placed a heavy burden on the present facilities of the
school district. Classrooms within the district in several
schools are already heavily overloaded with prospects for ,
even heavier classloads every month.
The bond proposal is designed to take care of current
needs. It cannot possibly take care of future projections
which are very difficult to predict at this time.
Any delay in taking care of these current needs w ill only be
complicated further by a failure to pass the bond issue on
Sept. 16.
The bond issue includes shops at Heppner and lone,
classrooms at Riverside and A C. Houghton Schools, all of
which are directly connected to current needs in the district.
A YES vote w ill mean approximately 66 cents per thousand
of true cash value increase in' your taxes based on current
evaluation. In these days of soaring costs, it is doubtful that
building costs will be any less than they are at the present.
I urge you to vote YES on Sept. 16.
LOUIS CARLSON. Chairman
Morrow County School District
Long Range Planning Committee
EDITOR:
I have enclosed photocopies of two items from this month's
Issue of "Oregon Wildlife", published by the Oregon Slate
Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The first item is a short article by Jack Melland. Wildlife
Biologist from Heppner. Hit topic is "Hunter Access
Landowner Relations", a matter of increasing concern each
year. This article is very timely in view of the upcoming
hunting seasons. The "Oregon Wildlife" grants a blanket
permission to reprint, asking only that credit be given for its
original publication.
Since lite issue of handgun regulation is also of concern to
the people of Morrow County, the second item should be quite
interesting to your readers. From (he results of a poll of 13
convicts in Folsom Prison, it emphasizes a point that has
been argued, but never resolved: knowledge that weapons
may be present at places of residence or business does
operate as a deterrent to crime.
Finally. I am enclosing a copy of an article from the Sept. 3
edition of "The Oregoman." In it. Jack C. Landau reports on
a revision which is presently proponed to the Federal
Criminal Code If enacted into law. this revision will severely
rest net the right of a citizen, in his or her home, to lake
protective action against intruders. The Folsom Prison Boll,
if it means anything, should stand for the proposition that this
type of legislation would encourage an increase In crimes of
stealth and illegal entry and would unfairly handicap the
citizens in their efforts to resist these types of crime.
DENNIS D. DOHERTY.
Heppner.
EDITOR:
I fell my letters concerning our telephone service were
becoming boring so I decided to discontinue them, but in view
of recent events I feel one more is in line.
On Thursday. Aug 28 I called the head telephone office of
Eastern Oregon Telephone in Pilot Rock and told them I
couldn't get a dial lone on my Boardman channel. I asked if
they would check and see if maybe one of us was off
frequency again as this had happened before. I was assured
this w as not the case and it would be necessary to install a
different unit in my car. They said they did not have a unit in
stock al thai time but they were expecting one any day. With
the Labor Day weekend nothing happened On Tuesday. Sept.
2. I called the office again and was told thev still had not
received the new unit. Wednesday morning I received a
phone call from the phone company asking how my service
had been. I summed it up in one word "LOISY." I explained
m problem to her and she transferred me to the service man
I hud Urn dealing w ith. He-said the unit I till had not arrived,
but he had railed and checked and it had been shipped. I
questioned from where? Japan maybe?
During this time any calls we made had to go through the
Pilot Hock channel, which w as so noisy it w as very difficult to
Ik- understood. Most, but not all. incoming calls on the
lio.irrim.in channel were coming through.
All this time we have been paying $50 a month for phone
sen ue- feeling secure in the knowledge that in case of an
rniergency we would have a phone Well. Wednesday
alternoon came the test.
Our 5 ear-old son and I were home alone. At about 2.30
pin a fire started in the hay slack at the corrals Sitting
nearby were our farm storage tanks, a 1 .000 gallon gas tank
and a Jon gallon diesel tank There w as no w ay I could control
the fire alone and fearing the gas lank would explode I tried
In call for help The Boardman channel was not working at
all I got the operator on the Pilot Rock channel. I told her my
n.iine. lh.il I had a fire and asked that she call one of my
neighbor. She told me the connection was bad and she
vmiMn'l hear me and to please hang up and try again ! was
unable to gel the dial lone Later when I went to try again the
busy light was on and w ith a mobile phone there is no way to
break through
Thank God for good neighbors -they read my smoke
mii.iK and came immediately. Isn't it great in this day and
atfe with modern technology thai smoke signals are slill
more reliable lhan our phone.
Thursday morning the phone company called and said .that
they would work on my phone if I would bring the car to
Hojrdman I had other plans for the morning but I quickly
ch.iiiged them and look Ihe car in They made some
frequency adjustments, said they hoped lhal would keep me
working tor a while and icnl me home. I fail to understand if
lhal was all that was necessary why couldn't it have been
done Ihe first day I reported the problem?
Vt hat is going to have to happen before we gel decent phone
M,rHe'' Dors our home have to burn down? Does someone
hate to die? Just what? I feel that would be a rather high
price to pay Considering how simple it would be for us to
have a reliable phone in our home if only Mr. Karnopp would
release us from his territory or even allow us to go Foreign
Exchange.
LEANN REA
P S Sal Morning -The phone is again out of order and there
is no way to get service on a weekend.
Court proceedings
"Sorry we're late Mm Hubbs . . . the driver of the
bus broke down!"
ihool
County Treasurer Sylvia
McDaniH Is leaving Heppner
tomorrow to attend a Slat of
Oregon Treasurers and Fi
nance Officers convention at
Gold Beach Margaret Cra
benhont, Gilliam County
Treasurer will accompany
her
The ladies ire planning to
lake Ihe mailboat trip to
Agnes on the Rogue River,
Sunday before attending the
meeting
Steve Anderson met ith th
court concerning the Patter
ton Ferry Road crossing
which Is under construction.
The federal government, the
state and the county will be
paying proportionate amounts
to cover the cost of the project .
The Solid Waste Manage
ment Board will meet Mon
day, Sept. IS. 7:30 p m. at the
courthouse The Board will
present a final recommenda
tion to the county court for
adoption and Implementation
of the solid waste ordinance.
The Planning Office Is
continuing work on revisions
to Ihe county toning ordin
ance. The next meeting of the
Manning Commission will be
held ( Irrlgon, Sept. 23.
Zoning permits have been
issued to Dan Duvall. Irrigon
and Maude Craber, Heppner,
both for mobile homes.
Lkyor of Hardman
DEAR MISTER EDITOR:
It looks like ever time a feller gits settled dow;n to enjoy the
show he wakes up to find out they turned the film around and
started running it backwards when he went out fer popcorn.
The fellers at the country store Saturduy night was talking
about how the only thing certain is change, but Clem Websler
said he never thought that went so far as to chunge sweet to
sour and black to white ever few year.
What got the fellers started on change was this piece Clem
had read w here a Government economic expert said farmers
ought not to git any more technical advice and equipment
cause we have reached the place where the more farmers
and ranchers perduce the less they gil paid fer it. Clem said it
use to be that the Department of Agriculture measured
success by how much ever acre perduced and how quick the
meal was ready fer market, but according to thia economic
egghead success has spoiled the deal. Clem said he was going
to wait til this situation settles, cause Ihe last he heard we
still was trying to raise all the food we could, and farmers
was being ask to draw their land out of the soil banks and
cash in on the demand fer food. Now along comes another
expert to say Ihe more we perduce the less we'll make.
Josh Clodhopper, that seldom is moved to speak at our
sessions, got the floor to allow that situation reminded him of
Ihe two fellers selling watermelons. They were buying em $9
a dozen, trucking em all over the country and selling em 75
cents apiece. Ever lime they sold a load and counted their
money they found they didn't have anything left fer
expenses, not to mention profit. They studied their situation,
and they final figgered out the answer was to expand their
operation, so they bought a bigger truck.
Talking about gilting things backwards. Ed Doolittle
reported where this sycologisl said we hurt a child's
development by making him do chores al home. When you
force him lo feed Ihe chickens, this expert claimed, you keep
him from doing somepun better w ith his lime that would let
him explore hisself. Ed said this don't do much fer Ihe old
wive s lale about idle hands being the Devil's workshop, but
he said il tells him a heap about all the younguns running
around today that has lost theirselves and don't know where
to look.
And there was the case raised by Zeke Grubb where the
poM office is charging more fer mailing less. He had saw
where a newspaper had put a football supplement in all
copies sold local, but had lei! it out of the papers that went in
Ihe mail. The post office ruled Ihe papers It got were not full
issues, so they charged an extra $."00 fer the supplements
they didn't handle. With that kind of figgering. the mails
ought In show a profit, said Zeke
Along lhal line. Mister Editor. I would rather Include
Russia nut of meetings like Helsinki. We may not gain
nothing without Russia, but we don't lose near as much.
Yours trulv.
MAYOR ROY.
Wil l) Bit I. MMtMIVF.K.
St ill ll;F OF HERETICS
B I F.STF.HKIYSOI UM,
The scene: The press room of the annual U S, Conference
of Catholic Bishops
At the head table are sealed three bishops and two
Cardinals, each behind a specially printed nameplale and a
microphone. They are facing some loo reporters, from both
Ihe secular and Ihe Catholic press: national, diocesan and
independent fiercely so. from both the Catholic left as well
as Ihe right i.
A hush comes over the room as a tweedy, pink -cheeked
young man with a Meerschaum pipe raises his hand and Is
recognized by Ihe able, affable and long suffering National
Catholic Conference PR men. either Russ Shaw or Bill Ryan.
They seem almost to w ince as they look towards this young
man. standing almost defiantly, the gleam in his eye
manifesting obvious relish in the anticipation of his annual
inquisition of assorted prelates and primes of Ihe Church.
"Mr Marshner:" says Shaw or Ryan-tn a lone of voice
suggesting either a condemned man or the recipient of a
swifi kick in the solar plexus.
Mr Marshner is the Washington correspondent of The
Wanderer, a weekly newspaper which Is several degrees to
the right of the Spanish Inquisition. He speaks In a
completely confident and thoroughly challenging lone:
" Your Eminence." he opens, focusing his piercing glare
upon John Cardinal Kroll (former President of the Bishops
Conference and overpoweringly conservative Archbishop of
Philadelphia!, "would you be good enough to give us your
estimate of the present extent of Jansenism in the Jesuit
Order, and precisely Just how much of this epidemic heresy
is due to Ihe pol" 'co-expediency of Fathers Drlan and
Wassmcr in their countenancing fcdicide-on Ihe one
hand-as well as Ihe Influence of the Pscudo Isadorean
Decretals on the other?"
William ("Wild Bill"l Marshner-i sort of young Bill
Buckley with a meat axe-has struck again.
As one of Ihe most colorful oft wide resurgance of Catholic
Lllraconservatives. Marshner travels about the nation
smiling heresy in his own inimitable way. Like Buckley, his
fellow Yale alumnus. Marshner is well laced with droll wit.
however more frenzied.
Marshner 's headlines are classics: "
"Heretics and Buffoons Meet n Washington"
"Communion in The Hand -Smashed!" . "Sexual
Dysfunction Al Loyola Medical School" ...
Perhaps his most devastating was a smashing three part
series entitled "Saginaw: Portrait of a Collapsing Diocese".
"Under Ihe first two bishops, Murphy and Woznikl, the new
diocese of Saginaw. Mich., grew and prospered. Then came a
third bishop, Francis F. Rch. followed by ruin."
As examples of what he termed "tales of horror" In the
Saginaw diocese, Wild Bill reported:
"In tone parish) the collection is taken up by four girls in
mlcrominis. The offended parishioners have discussed
various strategies of protest, including pinching, as well as
depositing contributions marked as 'cover charae for
Father's skin show.' "
One young priest "grabs his guitar and lets altar boys pass
out Communion . , ." Another "parades around with a staff
composed of palm branches, like a Druid, or a vegetation
god "
One sister "teaches sex education but It scornful. of
existing books on the subject. So the teaches from
mimeographed sheets, which are a complete how to-do It
when todolt and where IokJo It."
"Bishop Reh'i pals smong the clergy wanted to give him
nice present on his fifth anniversary as Ordinary of Saginaw
But what do you give a bishop? Think about It. What would
you give successor to the Apostles? Well, Bishop Ken I
friends gave him barrel (that right, a barrel) of
wbiskey."