Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1975)
0 7 " THE GAZ TIME Vol. 92, No. 39 Heppner, OR, Thursday, Nov. 13, 1975 15c Corporate Farms 11,1,1111 ILf l""" J ' l-'Vf 1H " ii.iiL.aiw iiinLii-m;wi.iii.iii i i m . mjf,m iVfc. ' ShK- fa. tf ii i - "r-' 1 -A 4, Autumn scene along Willow Creek 'he other of the coin side "Five years ago I farmed 400 acres and the cost of raising potatoes was $400 per acre; this year I farmed 8.000 acres and the cost had increased to $1,200 per acre," said Dennis Logan, president of Western Empire Builders, Boardman. Logan made the statement speaking before the Chamber of Commerce. Monday, speaking in favor of corporate farming in Morrow County. His primary objection to the proposed amendment to the Stale Constitution, which if passes by the voters would abolish corporate farming in Oregon, is he feels would ban free enterprise. "Free enterprise was started by our forefathers and should be allowed to continue," said Logan. "We have one world supremacy left and that is in the field of agriculture, last year we had an $11 billion credit in agriculture, while we had a $15 billion deficit in industry. With this in mind the government should not tell us how to run our corporate farms," said Logan. Corporate farms have developed over 100,000 acres in the Columbia Basin area, on land the government said was worthless and could not be developed. If Boeing had not come into this area the land would not be developed today, said Logan. If we had waited for the government to develop the land, we would still be waiting." Presently corporate farms are paying approximately 40 per cent of the Morrow County tax roll. In the past three years the tax roll has increased 200 per cent in the county and this is being paid by the corporate farmers. Last year the corporate farm paid out over $5 million in wages. Responding to the quote that most workers do not spend their money within the county, Logan estimated that 90 per cent of his budget is spent within Morrow and Umatilla counties. If the proposed farm area in the north end of the county were divided into 640 acre plots and given to veterans as they plan, what would be the cost of developing the land?" asked Logan, and who would loan the money to develop the land on speculation?" With the increase in farm machinery prices, 640 acres would not be enough land for a farmer to make a living. If the land were divided in 500 farms for family farming at the end of 20 years there would probably be 20 farms left as the successful farmer would continue to purchase the property of the unsuccessful farmer. , Other questions posed by Logan were: "Who will pay for the necessary roads and power Will this be paid for by the average taxpayer? Why should the land only be given to veterans, why not to the children of non-veterans? Logan said. "The fairest way would be to auction off the land and give the money to the state." "The idea behind the proposed amendment to the constitution is to get more people on the land. This has been tried in other slates and the result has been a total failure." said Logan. "What is the fear of large corporate farms in the area?" asked logan We need free enterprise in this country and if corporate farming is restricted, what happens .to free enterprise? Corporate farms are the only ones with enough money to farm this area, A family farmer could not compete with corporation farming. Presently the family farmers are selling their produce to the corporations. Once the family farmer has established the price of a commodity, corporate farm will spend the necessary money to maintain the price. Residents object to Boeing, C.W. Brewer. Simplot. and other large corporation farmers in the county. If the proposed amendment is passed it will not affect either P.J. Taggeres or J R. Simplot. as both of these men are sole owners of their respective companies. Logan'concluded his talk saying, this amendment is going to be dangerous if it is placed on the ballot. If the people of this community do not support corporate farms, their loss will have a tremendous impact on the community. The people residing in the valley have the idea that corporate farming is terrible, yet. if the issue is placed on the ballot, they will decide the fate of large farms as they have the population and will cast the majority of the votes. Next week's guest speakers will be Alice Abrams. Janette Piper and Cathy Palmer. These three girls will tell the members of their recent visit to Japan. ten - S . V" h f. I. DENNIS LOGAN 31st annual Co-op meeting draws throng to Fossil loo residents of Morrow . Wheeler and (lilliam Counties attended the 31st annual meeting of Columbia Basin Klectric CiMiperatur. Fossil. Thursd.iy Following the luncheon served by the Methodist Ladies, director Herb Wright welcomed the guests to the City of Fossil Wright told of the various businesses within the city and asked the mernliers to take (he lime lo visit (he antique ciir displ.iv and the museum Manager Dac Harrison, using color slides, told the members of the progress made during (he past year Between lone and Heppner the power poles were located near the edge of the existing shoulder of the road, since last er the power poles have been relocated Harrison also told of limping the lines from the Condon substation to better sene the community. He sKkr of the (Ilex line and of plans In h.ie the circuit completed in the near future Harrison told of the Increase in the load limit by saying many new homes are all electric and some of the older homes are converting to electric heat The Wheeler High School choir, under the direction of Arnold Melby entertained the visitors with their singing as well as trumpet and saxophone numbers Secretary treasurer Paul Tews read the proof of mailing report and gave a short resume of last year's meeting In Heppner Our fiscal year ends June 30 and an audit was made at lhat lime. We have a new audit firm this year and they submitted an excellent report to the Board and Management Income for the past fiscal year was over $13 million and the margin of Income over expense was over one third million It was by far our best year ever financially. There were few significant Items Tews noted, Rural residential member showed only a tper cent Increase in billings for the year. Our town residential users made an increase of 23 per cent for $57,M 00 Increase. Tne irrigation umts were up over $75,nofl 00 for a 24 per cent gain and the large commercial rlnss of user were up $ai,22l 00 for a 31 per cent gain Our total revenue Rain was 20 per rent while our rxM'iise increased at II per cenl for the fiscal year. Of (he total expense Increase, our cost of power increase amniinlod to 6 4 per cenl or more than half of the total expense increase. We also show payment of capital credits made lo (he maximum permlssahle under our mortgage agreement with IlKA Our patronage credits to decedent estates and to active member for the margin for IWIMM were paid al $53,551 18 Thl compared lo $1J,7M 2J paid the prcvloua The Coop has made 7 5 million in investments of line facilities in our five county area to provide belter service. We on the Board are pleased with the strong financial progress of our local elivtric business It apears we are ery (ordinate in comparison to other electric utilities of the area who hae had to place large rate increases into effect and plan others almost immediately Such is not the case with Columbia Basin Klectric Coop in spite of (he large increases from BI'A and most other things we buy. Good management lcchni(tics have really helped control costs as (Continued on Page 7) r 1 U i I J . I III JL W -I' -1 I I.I.,' Hit . IT . . Ill Revenue sharing discussed City council holds special meeting VAN RIKTMANN A special meeting of the Heppner common council was helu Monday night to consider a building permit for Oscar Crook During the last regular meeting. Nov 3, a motion to approve his building permit had been tabled allowing the city to receive written com plaints concerning the placing of a mobile home on his property. Although the permit had been accepted by the planning commission. the council had to wait the required 15 days for any letter of protest lo be filed with the city recorder. As no written complaints were filed the council voted to approve the p rmit. The council discussed the possibility of hiring a certified building inspector as of Jan. I, 1976. for under the new building code all buildings will have to be inspected by a certified inspector. No action was taken on the matter until further information is review ed by the rouncil a lo the specific qualifications of a building inspector. The council adopted a reso lution stating the specific duties of the planning com mission, which include com prehensive plan, land use permits, variances, subdivi sion and boundary change roadway and rotating the planning commission chair man every six months by alphabetical order. Mayor Sweeney read a letter taken from the League of Oregon Cilie which stale that Oregon cities may not receive revenue sharing fund for the next fiscal year. The letter states, "Failure of Congress lo act this ewion means that re-enactment can not occur until after May 15. 1976, because of new congres sional budget procedures that will go into effect starting 1976. Smce the present revenue sharing program expires Dec. 31. 1976 cities in Oregon will probably need to prepare bud gets next spring on the basis of only a half year of federal revenue sharing funds being assured, with the availability of the second half not known until after July 1, 1976." Mayor Sweeney speculated that if the revenue sharing funds received by the city are cut in half, the budget will probably have to be submitted to the voter for their appro val. If the voters refuse the city 's budget, it could result in the loss of some of the city services. The council voted approve free parking residents Nov. 29, and following Saturdays In cember, thereby allowing re sidents to do their Christmas shopping without receiving a parking ticket. Free parking w ill be allowed Dec. (, 13, and 20. IVrsonnel problems were discussed and an executive meeting is scheduled Nov. 25, t p.m. to for the De- SCIIOOL BOARD TO MEET . Tne Morrow County School Board will hold their regular meeting Mon., Nov. 17, 7:30 p m at Riverside High School, , Boardman. The State School Board meeting will be held Nov. 19 21, Hilton Hotel. Portland. BPA Outage Electricity will be turned off Sunday A BPA scheduled outage at their Boardman substation will affect customers of Columbia Basin Electric Coop, in the Sand Hollow, North lone, town of lone, rural areas south of lone, Hardman area, Heppner, Little Butter Creek, Gurdane and Ruggs areas. The outage is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 16, 1975 from approximately 8 a.m. to 12 noon. The work is necessary to provide larger capacity for rapidly grow ing loads of Umatilla Electric Coop. Columbia Basin crews will take advantage of the outage to perform a limited amount of maintenance in replacement of gun "shot" suspension insulators. It's that time again Last year some of the families of All Saints Episco pal Church decided to cook their Thanksgiving birds at the parish hall and invite all the lonely persons in the community to have dinner with them. It was such an enjoyable day that they are planning lo do It again this year. The affair is for those who cannot be with their families for the holiday because of distance or other reasons. "Just don't eat alone on Thanksgiving Day." a spokes man said. The dinner will be served Thursday, Nov. 27, 3 p m., at the parish hall on Gale Street. All that is required Is a call for reservations to 676 9496. Food trays will also be delivered to shut ins lhat day.