Page 2. THE GAZETTE-TIMES, Heppner, OR, Thursday. July , 197
Kinzua accident rate
drops with incentive
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Two young Heppnerites ready their own fireworks.
(G-T Photo)
H I1U r.r-7
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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.
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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.