Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1978)
' ' " v. v " i TWO The Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, March 2, 978 Sifting through G-T announces the I IlMl-j- f i -1 s 3 price increases Increased production costs have prompted The Gazette-Times to raise the price of annual subscription and newstand copies effective March 1. The yearly subscription rate is now $8 for subscribers in Morrow, Gilliam, Wheeler and Umatilla counties; $10 per year elsewhere. Single copy or newstand price of The Gazette Times has been increased to 20-cents per copy. The last subscription price increase for The Gazette-Times was in 1974 when the annual subscription price was raised to $6 per year for local readers. Friday meeting to air farm programs A farmers' meeting sponsored by the Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) for the purpose of explaining the new farm program is scheduled for Friday, March 3, at 1:30 p.m. in the Elks Lodge, Heppner. Judy Buschke, ASCS executive director, will present details of the program, assisted by Ken Nelson, ASCS county chairman, and Harold Kerr, county extension agent. Such aspects of the program as the requirements for set aside, eligibility for deficiency and disaster payments, and the federal loan program will be explained. "This is a voluntary program and growers need to know all the details in order to decide whether or not they want to participate," said Buschke. All county wheat growers are urged by ASCS to attend the March 3 meeting. Where to write Federal Following is a list of Oregon and Eastern Oregon public officials for the information of readers who want to communicate with them: U.S. Sen. Mark O. Hatfield, Russell Senate Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. - 20510. - Member of Appropriations -Committee, Interior Committee, Rules Committee and Indian Policy Review Commission. Portland office , Pioneer Courthouse, Rm. 107, 520 SW Morrison, Portland, Ore. 97204, phone 221-3386. U.S. Sen Bob Packwood, Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Washington, D.C, 2O5J0. Member of Finance Committee and Commerce Committee. Portland office, 1002 NE Halladay, Rm. 700, (P.O. Bos 3621), Portland, Ore, 97208, phone 233-4471.- U.S. Rep. Al Ullman, of the Second District, House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. Member of Ways and Means Committee. Salem office, 150 N. Church, Rm. 219 (P.O. Box 247), Salem, Ore. 97310, phone 399-5724. State Gov. Robert Straub, State Capitol, Salem, Ore. 97310, phone 378-3100. State Sen. Ken Jernstedt (Morrow, Gilliam and other counties), 311 Pine St., Hood River, 386-1393. State Rep. Jack Sumner (Morrow, Gilliam and other counties). Route 1, Heppner, 676-5364. Picture Credit Sabrina Lear, Heppner Elementary School first grader, pensively contemplates the flag given to her Monday by Lions Club members Don Cole and D.O. Nelson. The Lions Club gave away approximately 50 flags to the schools first graders, an annual February project to inspire patriotism and love of the country's flag among the children. Sabrina is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dwane Grissom and a student in Marilyn Post's class. n Vf' -J fijgt k JL J i J in mtT00001- ' I Added state support may cut property tax for schools One of the biggest problems facing Oregon lawmakers every time they meet in Salem is how to pay for public education. The so-called free public education that is part of the American birthright has be come mighty expensive. It will cost something more than a billion dollars this year to educate this state's 456,350 elementary and secondary students. By tradition, property own ers have paid the biggest share of this bill through property taxes. But as the cost of education has increased, so have complaints from proper ty owners. Resistance to rising proper ty taxes grew to the point last year that voting tax payers in some districts refused to approve budgets and a few schools closed temporarily. Consequently, the 1977 Le gislature redoubled efforts to keep the schools open and provide a measure of relief for property taxpayers at the same time. With a consider able surplus of income tax revenue remaining after the state paid its biennial bills, lawmakers voted a signifi cant increase in state support to schools. The theory is that the more money the state contributes, the less each district will have to obtain from local property owners. The state contribution this year is 40 per cent up from 34 per cent last year and 29 per cent the year before. With this kind of increase in state support, it would appear property owners should find their taxes going down for a change. And in some districts that could be the case this year. However, school finance is a complicated procedure. Some revenue comes from the federal government, some from the state and the balance from local sources. All of these resources are consi dered in distributing state support. The amounts each district receives depend on many factors devised to make the distribution as equitable as possible. For instance, districts with lower property wealth per student receive relatively more aid than districts with higher property wealth per students. One particular provision of the new distribution formula is the key for speculation that property tax reductions may occur in some districts this year. It establishes that any state funds in excess of 108 per , cent of the district's 1977-78 distribution must be offset from the district's property tax levy rather than consi dered as a budget resource. The Department of Educa tion estimates nearly $52 million will fall into this offset category from districts' certi ' fied levies in 1978-79. On a statewide basis, the offset represents a maximum poten tial property tax rate reduc tion of $1.27 per thousand of assessed value based on the $40 billion of taxable property value for 1977. v Following this line of rea soning, hypothetical tax rate reductions for selected dis tricts have been computed by dividing the 1978-79 offset by the districts' 1977 taxable values. The amounts of reduc tion range from a high of $4.70 per thousand in Oregon City No. 62 to a low of 24 cents per thousand in Portland Dist. No. 1. Most of the hypothetical examples however, are in the $2 per thousand range. It must be remembered however, that these projec tions are purely hypothetical. Each district has its own ideas about how to operate its particular educational pro gram. And certain special education requirements vary from district to district. Consequently, the potential property tax rate reductions could be influenced substan tially by voter-approved levies for specific purposes not available during this specula tive computation. Another factor that makes estimating tax rate reductions difficult is variable increases in assessed value of property from district to district. In essence, there's no real guarantee the additional state money will actually result in a reduction of anyone's particu lar property tax bill. At the same time, it's interesting to note that we still have to pay for our free public education. One should remem ber the state money being distributed to districts comes from income taxes. What Oregonians are seeing is a shift from education's reli ance on property taxes to taxes on income earned by working people. A statement descriptive of our economic system claims there's no such thing as a free lunch. And that truism applies also to our free public education. THE! GAZETTE -TIME The Off icial Newspaper of the City of Heppner and the County of Morrow Published every Thursday and entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Heppner, Oregon, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Second-class postage paid at Heppner, Oregon. G.M. Reed, Publisher Dolores Reed, Co-publisher Terry M. Hager, Managing Editor Jim Summers, News Editor Eileen Saling, Officer Manager Elane Blanchet, Reporter Gayle Rush, Composing Chloe Pearson, Composing Justine Weatherford, Local Columnist LOVE Love is an ember glowing in the night. As time passes the ember glows more bright. Love is quiet. Love is still. Like the shadows of evening coming down the hill. Love is constant; Love is true. Spoken in words old, yet forever new. Love is tempestous; almost mad. Tender even sad. With the coming of life's night, The ember even grows more bright. Love is forever Though in life's evening, one heart may be still. by Katherine Rozelle Farrar Stories about honors earned by county youths monopolized the front page of the Gazette-Times ten years ago this week. The Mustangs were headed for state tournament competition for the fourth time in four years after beating Sherman County in Moro in their last game of district play. They were scheduled to meet Vale in LaGrande during the weekend for the first round of tournament play. Dave Hall, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Hall, was winner of both the annual Elks Youth Leadership Award, and the top honor in the Heppner FFA chapter, the Star Farmer trophy, presented at the annual FFA banquet. Merri Lee Jacobs, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Jacobs of lone, shared the Elk's leadership award with Hall. Both winners were announced at afternoon ceremonies during the 71st Elks Annual celebration. lone High School chose Kathy Keene, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bryce Keene, as valedictorian for the school's 1968 graduation ceremony. Janice Snider, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Snider was selected salutatorian. Sue Greenup, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Don Greenup, was selected by the Lena Community to serve on the 1968 Morrow County Fair and Rodeo court as its fourth and final princess. Elks scholarship winners were also announced this week in 1958. Jim Morris and Joann Brosnan, both of Heppner, each won $200 in scholarship money, while Tom Currin, Heppner, and Mardine Baker, lone, won $100. A service organization very active in Heppner today got its start here this week in 1948: "HeDDner.took another step forward this week with formation here of a chapter of Soroptomist, an international women's civic organization. While the charter membership is comparatively small, there is no doubt but that as meaning and aims of Soroptomist become better known the membership will increase.. .Sorop tomist is one more organization looking to civic improvement, and being a women's group it can be expected that any program taken up will be prosecuted with more vigor than is the usual custom of the opposite sex..." Street problems in Heppner caused by 1948's wet winter were the subject of a Times editorial : "With March winds stirring up the dust, conditions on Heppner streets have been somewhat reminiscent of the pre-paving era the past few days. An exceptionally moist winter has washed no little amount of good top soil from the hillsides down onto the streets and as the soil has dried it has started moving, hither and yon, according to the fancy of the wind..." An out break of smallpox in Fossil this week in 1938 caused the sub-district 13-B basketball tournament to be moved abruptly to Heppner. Scheduled to compete in the tourney were Irrigon, Umatilla, Heppner, Lexington, ' Boardman, lone and Condon. Luckless Fossil, with three cases of smallpox reported, were eliminated from the competition. An item- this week in the Times fifty years ago commented on the passing of a social phenomenon: "A magazine said to be the national organ of the younger generation. ...has just published an account of the passing of flapperism. The flapper, however, has been dead for some time. Poor little thing, she died, not of exposure, as some might think, but rather of lack of it. "The flapper began to fail when grandmother first bobbed her hair and lopped a couple of inches of cloth from the bottom of her skirts. From then on she languished and the final blow came when the accounts of her goings on caused people to shrug and say 'What of it?' "A shy demure little girl is peeking from the wings. Soon she will trip modestly upon the stage so lately occupied by that brazen flapper. "But the flapper had her good points and they were obvious. She has passed many of them along to the modest little girl who has taken her place. And in ten years or so, the flapper will be back with us. It was ever so." A prediction, meant as a joke, printed in the Times fifty years ago: "Probably the next gre'at boon for the common people will be the invention of the electric can opener." Other humorous shorts of the day : Washington was the father of our country, but if it hadn't been for Lincoln he probably would have been the father of twins," and "Now that Lindbergh has brought good-will to our foreign relations some one should persuade him to visit Congress." ' Wheat farmers in the area must have read this item, published in the Times this week in 1918, with great interest: "lone was the center of proposed building activities Tuesday, whpn county ftgent Brown met with thre different representatives of Morrow County farmers who will begin construction of concrete elevators for the reception of the 1918 wheat crop.. .The new Jordan Elevator Co.. ..has fully decided to erect a concrete elevator of 100,000 bushel capacity at an estimated cost of $35,000. OBITUARIES Noah Pettyjohn Noah Edgar Pettyjohn, 92, late of Ava, Mo., died Sunday, Feb. 26, in Springfield, Mo. He was born May 26, 1885 in Vera Cruz, Mo., the son of William and Mary Ellen Pettyjohn, and came to Ore gon as a young man. He lived in Morrow County for most of his life, farming in the Buttercreek, lone, Lexington and Rhea Creek areas until his retirement, when he moved back to Missouri. Funeral services were con ducted in Ava, Mo. Monday, Feb. 27. Local services were held Wednesday, March 1, at Sweeney Mortuary Chapel at 2 p.m., with the Rev. William Graham of the lone United Church of Christ officiating. Carl and Betty Marquardt sang "Amazing Grace" and "In the Garden", with Mrs. Marquardt as accompanist. Concluding services and inter ment were at the Morgan Cemetery. Casket bearers were Lee Palmer, Paul Petty john Jr., James Pettyjohn, Richard Sherer, Wayne Hams and George, Milller. Mr. Pettyjohn is survived by his wife, Donea, Ava, Mo.; three sons, Paul and Lee, both of Jone and Roy, Portland; two daughters, Beulah Sherer and Geneva Palmer, both of lone; two brothers, Archie Pettyjohn, West Plains, Mo.; and Raymond Pettyjohn, Ar lington; two sisters, Myr Medlock, Ava, Mo. and Minta Webb, Walla Walla, Wash.; ten grandchildren and twenty one great grandchildren.
