Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 1976)
Page 2. THE GAZETTE-TIMES, Heppner, OR, Thursday. July , 197 Kinzua accident rate drops with incentive f ?. - f '.1 Two young Heppnerites ready their own fireworks. (G-T Photo) H I1U r.r-7 v.- GAZETTE-TIMES Editorial & Viewpoint A fffng birthday present Heppner s Dig birthday party has to go down in history as one of the most successful, people oriented, people participated Fourth of July's ever. The entire day, celebrating our great, nation's 200th birthday, went off like clock work. The Bicentennial Committee and all those that helped should be commended. The day started at 7 a.m. with a super breakfast, moved through dedications of the Democrat Gulch schoolhouse, the new flag pole and Hager Park. All the while, activities, including jackpot team roping, Softball games and swimming were going on. An evening dinner was highlighted by fireworks displays a little later. The sky filled with colors and bombs bursting in air at the fairgrounds. Easily, more than 2,000 people witnessed the fireworks display on the cloudless night. Two groups should be publicly thanked. First of all, the Bicentennial Committee, headed up by Terry Hughes. Their work produced a day to be long remembered. And second of all, and certainly not least, thank-you Mother Nature. You started the day off with a cool breeze and a cloudy sky. But, when you saw all the work that had been done, the time, the effort, the money ... you gave in and let the sun shine. We think America received a fitting birthday present from Heppner, Oregon, U.S.A. w.c.p. Communications & Comments- Gov. Straub writes Dear Mr. Phinney: Thank you for attending my recent town hall meeting and visit in Heppner. The many comments and suggestions I received were helpful to me in gaining a better understanding of the issues of concern to you and your neighbors. Good luck on your new assignment. BOB STRAUB Governor We 7 miss Giles French BY REP. ROGER MARTIN is the philosophy of a sage, cast in proverb form, with flashes of humor to illuminate his thought." These words were spoken by the late Gov. Charles Sprsgue about Eastern Oregon's Giles French, who was laid to rest last week in his beloved Sherman County. French was best known as a country editor who did his own thinking But he was also a laborer, farmer, stockman, clerk, legislator and historian. His writings, spanning the past 50 years, will be a living legacy to a man who was as big as the big country he loved. Am man, of them lake on added meaning In our KKXh year at a rrpiiMic. Here - some samples of the Giles French wit and wisdom; There ,, in any organized society, shortage of men tiling to evolve a theory or take a stand and readers or l...!ewrs react to them favorably. Such men clear the air, provide a basis for decision and are respected . . ." ". . . V. have been told that few hastily passed laws would make everyone happy, provide for the underfed, underclothed, under privileged, under washed and underdog, and lead ui to a day of peace and security beyond the dream of an economic royalist ... Is it plbl that people are going The Heppner Gazette Times to have to take a hand in preparing their own happiness?" "There is little evidence to show that the people are winning their battle for more freedom. Whatever security they have been given has been at the price of part of their freedom . . . During 1946, therefore, this newspaper will endeavor to speak for the people, for their freedom. Let them obtain their security from the exercise of that freedom, not as a gift from government." "No man knows enough to govern other men . . . that is why we have this system. It gives us a check on those who have not yet learned that no man knows enough to govern others." 'The easier we make it for the weak to escape responsibility for the results of their weakness, the more weak people we will have. As a nation we are making too many excuses for ourselves." "There is no limit to things people will think they need if someone else will pay for them." "Early in the session the chaplain prays for the legislators, that they might have strength and wisdom and character. Later the chaplain will pray for the people." "There is no way for the government to do something for the people without doing something to them at the same time." "No wonder socialists like government ownership. They couldn't hold a Job under any other system." "Taxation is a mean of making everyone pay for what a few want." "A government that protects the weak will always have lots of that kind of people; a government that lets the strong develop will have that kind." This generation seems to expect the government to do more for it than the passing generation expected to do for itself." In commenting on the death of several others. Giles French put to paper words which may describe our feelings of hit passing. The death of Jim Coleman leaves one fewer of that group of Americans who ere guided by conscience alone." When the spirit of any of us ventures beyond this mortal coil, something goes out of the life of those who remain and occasionally such passing seems to definitely terminate an era." And. statement of his which could well provide an epitaph for Giles French reads thusly: "Maybe II Isn't that the last frontier Is gone, but the last frontiersman." So long Giles French. We'll miss you. Kinzua Corporation has of fered monetary prizes to em ployees for the fewest acci dents and the companies lost time ratio has dropped by 40 per cent. The safety program, the first of its kind at Kinzua, splits working mill divisions into teams that compete for the fewest accidents. There are 12-18 members on each of the 20 teams in the contest that runs for 13 con secutive months. The pro gram started in February of this year. The first phase of three months found five teams with zero accidents. For their ef forts, each team members received $15 cash and each team dropped their names into a hat and drew for the grand prize of a 19-lnch black-and-white television. The prizes, each month, in crease with the time period and eventually reach $60 per person for the winning team. The grand prizes also climb and the 19 Inch black-and-white gives way to such prizes as a microwave oven, dishi washer, hunting set including rifle and scope, a 25-inch color console TV, a washer-dryer combination and-or an elec tric range. After the first three month phase, the five television win ners are Don Quarry, con- Road work set Three miles of Homestead Road will be graded, watered, rocked and finally oiled, to ready it for heavy traffic from potato and grain trucks. Sabre Farms is doing the grading and watering while the county will take on the tasks of graveling and oiling the road. Completion is set for July 15. Soil project (Continued from Page 1) Work now, is being done by O.J. Kemmerer of Ukiah. The operation, also in conjunction with the Soil and Water Con servation District, Bob Adle man, coordinator, is about halfway finished on phase one. About 120,000 feet of ditch and about 40 dams are complete on the 36 square mile first phase. There are four more phases for ditches and dams and one other for channels that are eroding. Some of the grades are too steep for ditches, causing some concern with local con servation authorities. Adleman said that annually, farmers are losing five to 40 tons of toll, per acre from normal rain and winter run off. In the Shobe Canyon floods, one inch of soil over many acres was the average yield lost. "This will do a lot towards keeping the water out of the valley," Pierce said. . "If everyone gets Involved It will work as well as a dam." Pierce said run off waters In Shobe Canyon, since the con struction, has been virtually nill. The project is a Joint coop erative effort between the Heppner WCD, Morrow SWCD, Columbia -Blue Moun tain Resource Conservation and Development Project and the Soil Conservation Service. strucUon division; Wayne HI att, plywood maintenance; Larry Angel, logyard; John Hill, night sawmill; and Del mar Buschke, day sawmill. The next phase ending period will be August 31 and employees will be vying for $30 each in cash and chance at either a 19 inch color TV or a stereo console. The incentive program has paid off, according to Kinzua officials. In June this year, there were four lost time accidents, compared with 11 in June of 1975. 3 r 5k- . - i i Harold Erwin Song is over melody lingers on Harold Erwin was born into a musical family. The Erwin family orchestra brought joy to them and to their friends and neighbors. All his life Harold shared music with friends and he didn't know strangers. He sang many western, cowboy songs and many lovable melodies. He sang at country gatherings, around campfires, in taverns and in small-town churches. He is remembered here for many evenings of music with the Leonning Family; Harold's last public singing was on Memorial Day 1976 when he got out his guitar and sang with folks gathered at Bull Prairie Park. Now his song Is ended but the melody lingers on. Harold's melody was so honest and so truly western. His big. handsome body and rugged face were cowboy In every inch. He was active and well known in rodeo circuits around the northwest for over 40 years. He loved working with cattle men. He loved horses. He loved family life and his own extended family. He loved America and Oregon. Washington, Morrow County and the Little Butter Creek area. The Heppner Rodeo Association and the Pendleton Round Up recognized that no other man was as qualified and as colorful as Harold Erwin in 1968 and in 1971 when he was honored by being made grand marshal of their parades. It is known that Harold spoke with such knowledge and authority on cowboy ways that he set some national advertisers and TV producers right about cowboy gear. Harold participated in the Round Up's Happy Canyon pageant for many years. He was part of the cavalry and acted in the roping and bank robbery episodes. He was a familiar figure riding his outstanding pickup horse, Little Chief, in many rodeos during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1949 Harold started announcing rodeos and parades and continued that work for several years. He was president of the Heppner Rodeo for 10 years and served as arena director. He was very proud to be one of the two Morrow County residents holding gold cards from the Rodeo Cowboy Association of America which entitles them to free admission to any RCA. sponsored rodeo. (Verne Evans holds the only such card now.) Many Heppner children loved Harold. He worked with them through 4-1! and the Morrow County Wranglers for many years. , The friends who attended the final rites for Harold last week had moist eyes as the Erwin's dear neighbor Kathrya Hoskins sang "When it's Round Up Time in Heaven" and "This is My Father's World." , " When Harold was carried out of the Heppner United Methodist Church, his widow Inez knew that those who bore his casket must be real cattle men. Four of them were the Krwin's special friends from the Little Butter Creek area with whom Harold and Inez spent many happy hours and with whom Harold loved to work: the three Hughes, Ebb and his sons Allen and Merlin, and the former pickup man Jerry Brosnan. The other two were also longtime rodeo friends Heppner's working cowboy Pat O'Brien and the perennial team-roper Howard Bryant. Most of these men served with Harold In the Heppner Rodeo Association. Yes, Harold Erwin's song is ended but the melody lingers on. HITPNEB GAZETTE-TIMES The official newspaper of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow. G.M. Reed. Publisher itolorrs Rred. Co publisher WllC.I'hlnnry.F.dllor Published every Thursday and entered si a srrond class mailer at the post office at Heppner, Oregon, under the act of Marra 3. 171 . Reeond class postage paid at Heppner, Origan.
