Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 11, 1978)
BESSIE WETZELL U OF ORE NEWSPAPER LIB EUGENE OR 97403 fTi. A THE VOL. 96 NO. 10 HEPPNER, OREGON THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1978 : 8 PAGES 2() Kathleen VanSchoiack Cindy Doherty Cindy Doherty Queen of Junior Rodeo 1978 The recently chosen 1978 Morrow County Junior Rodeo Court, Queen Cindy Doherty and Princessed Kathleen Van Schoiack and Jana Steagall, will make their first grand entry in Prineville on May 27-78, as the first of 11 Western States' Junior Rodeos get underway. The eighth annual Morrow County Junior Rodeo, to be held at the fairgrounds, will , follow close on its heels on June 2-4. Queen Cindy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Doherty of Heppner, is a member of the Western States Junior Rodeo Association and of the Hepp ner High School Rodeo Club, as are both the court princes ses. A 17-year-old senior at Steelhammer named Gazette- Times Editor Gazette-Times Managing Editor Terry M. Hager an nounced this week the hiring of Rick Steelhammer as Editor of the Heppner news paper. The new Editor fills the position previously held by Jim Summers, who has been with the Gazette-Times for the past year. Summers is return ing to his home state of Virginia. Steelliammer, 28, who was raised on a cattle Tanch in the Prineville area, comes to the Gazette-Times following a four-year stint with the Char leston (W.Va.) Gazette, a daily newspaper with state wide circulation. While in Charleston, he covered at various times, the paper's labor, po'ice, City Hall, and School Board to discuss bond sale The sale of bonds and the investment of proceeds from the bonds will be discussed during a May 15 meeting of the Morrow County District School Board meeting at Riverside High School in Boardman. School board members will meet with a financial advisor to discuss the bond sales and short-term investments. The board will also discuss a request for annexing school property in Irrigon to the City of Irrigon, and talk about the sale of surplus board-owned property, including a school bus. Heppner High School, Cindy participates in all senior girl junior rodeo events including breakaway roping, pole bend ing, team roping with princess Jana as her partner, barrel racing and goat tying. In addition to her rodeo activities, Queen Cindy is also a member of the HHS band and active in Future Farmers of America. Princess Kathleen, 17, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Van Schoiack of Heppner, is a junior at Heppner High School. She is a participant in all junior and high school rodeo events except for roping competition. She is a member of the HHS stage band and was a counselor at the Tupper Outdoor School last week. A 15-year old sophomore at feature beats. While pursuing his political science degree at Antioch College in Ohio, he held jobs as intern reporter for the Staten Island (N.Y.) Advance, The Troy (Ohio) Daily News, and the Oregon Statesman in Salem. Steelhammer has also Rick Steelhammer In othef action, the board is expected to review renewing the employment of classified and extra-duty workers. The meeting will start at 8 p.m. Weather Hi 55 55 55 64 71 78 70 Low Pre. 37 . 38 T 31 34 38 43 Wed., May 3 Thurs.,May4 Fri., May 5 Sat., May 6 Sun., May 7 Mon.,May8 Tues.,May9 51 .23 .... m mmmmum s ... I . I Jana Steagall Heppner High School, Prin cess Jana is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Steagall of Lexington and is active in all rodeo events. She was a member of the HHS varsity basketball team and junior varsity volleyball squad dur ing the current school year. Members of the Court met at the Steagall's residence in Lexington on Sunday for photographs in their denim and plaid cotton outfits, top ped by straw hats, purchased at a discount from Woods Western World in Hermiston during the weekend. All three girls said they were eager for the junior rodeo season to get underway, both as contestants and offi cial representatives of Mor row County. worked as a copyboy for Newsweek magazine and ser ved as a production assistant for the Current Digest of the Soviet Press in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Antioch in 1973, and is a 1968 graduate of Crook County High School in Prineville. TUT alive Eric Anderson donates turf The Hager Park site near Heppner's southeast border received a complete green face-lift this week, as many businesses and individuals contributed to the movement and installation of 13,000 square feet of turf donated to the City of Heppner for the park by Eric and Marne Anderson of Iontr's Earth Carpet enterprise. Installation of the turf began on Monday by a city crew under the direction of project manager Winn Crist. The turf laying was made possible only after combined efforts paved the way for the laying of the Earth Carpet. Pettyjohn's Farm and Building Supply and Morrow County Grain Growers cooper County bud. percent Iby With union wage negotia tions still pending, the tenta tive Morrow County budget for the coming fiscal year stands at $185,227 above the six per cent limitation. A contingency fund was added to a budget approved last Friday by the budget committee, following four daylong work sessions. The new budget is scheduled to be submitted for County Court approval during the Court's May 10 meeting. Court members were expec ted to center their discussion around possible salary chan ges based on a grade and step scale in use by the county. Pointing out that as of last year, Morrow County had the second lowest property tax rate of any county in the state, Judge D.O. Nelson commen warrants the increase in the budget." He added that the proposed increased budget "is needed for effective county operation." The county's assesed valua tion last year increased by about $129 million, Nelson said, adding that the valuation raise expected this year would substantially offset any possi ble increase in the tax rate caused by the county going outside the six per cent general budget limitation. A loose end still needing to be tied up before the budget can be finalized and put before county voters will depend on the results of wage negotia tions between the county and union workers, which could effect wages for all other county employees. With only a few exceptions, the budget now shows a straight across-the-board salary increase of six per cent. On the agenda at the County Court meeting yesterday was discussion with the Hospital Board about the $167,000 request for the county's esti mated share of hospital opera tion. A special tax levy has provided funds for the hospital in the past, and a levy was expected to be one option the Court would "seriously consi der for the coming year. -and we. ated in moving the tons of turf and unloading it in stacks at the park site. Also involved i.i the project were Doug Tash of Morrow County Creamery and Her man Blettell who loaned trac tors for discing and leveling the area; Dick Wilkinson who helped haul equipment and loaned the city his roller to level the turf; and Forrest Burkenbine of Central Market who loaned a tank truck to carry water to the site to keep the turf damp. Because the underground sprinkling system could not be completely revamped and made functional before the turl arrived. Winn Crist is asking for citizen volunteers to help water the newly-laid The largest budget increase approved by the Budget Com mittee for any single depart ment was for the Sheriff's Office. The proposed $171,527 budget would enable the department to add two depu ties and an additional com munications clerk to its staff. Almost $22,000 was pared from Sheriff Larry Fetsch's budget request only by shift ing vehicles to a new line item in the non-departmental bud get. The 1978-79 proposed budget for the Sheriff's office is up $46,500 from last year. A $37,000 budget request from District Attorney Dennis Doherty was pared sharply down to $19,146, as compared with $14,563 for the current year. A courthouse budget of Patching joins Veteran's Affairs loan office Charles Patching, chief appraiser for the Morrow County Assessor's office, has been named farm appraiser supervisor for the Oregon Department of Veteran's Affairs Northeast Oregon Farm and Home Loan office in Pendleton. In his new job, Patching, a native of the Condon area, will direct all farm appraisals for a five-county region, including Morrow County, where more than $6 million have been loaned to local veterans. Patching joined the Morrow County Assessor's staff in 1973, eventually moving up to the chief apraiser's position. He is a graduate of Oregon State University's agricultural economics program, and is a licensed real estate broker and appraiser. Patching has more than 30 years experience as a cattle and wheat rancher in eastern Oregon and Washington. Morrow County Assessor Everett Harshman said Patching's duties will be performed by other staff members in his office until a new appraiser can be hired., Heppner, lone 8th grade graduation next week "It looks like we've made it" will be the theme for the dinners and dances to be held in honor of graduating eighth graders from both Heppner and lone Junior High Schools this month. o HQ green stuff several times a day. "This Saturday (May 13) the Boy Scouts will be at the site to help finish leveling and landscaping the turf," Crist said. "Any and all others who can help there will be appre ciated." He asked that volun teers come to the park at 9 a.m. or as soon after that as possible, and added that help would also be apprecieted in daily watering for the next few weeks until he can get the sprinkler system in working order. With the community behind the Hager Park project, Heppner should be the home of a healthy green space on the banks of Willow Creek in time to beat the summer heat. I. $13,940 was approved, up from its current $9,190, and included salary for a full-time janitor. The new proposed county court budget of $44,397 showed a substantial increase over the current $25,171 bud get, mainly because the $14,740 salaries item for the two county commissioners was previously paid out of road department funds this year. The initial request for the non-departmental budget, $142,499, increased to $277,902 with the addition of a $32,000 line item for vehicles (trans ferred from other depart ments), a $50,000 general emergency (contigency) fund, $18,000 for a tax roll assessing machine, $3,000 for a gas pump at the Irrigon office, and NEWS BRIEFS I v.- T-X ', N V. Instant park .. : ' v 7 - t -"X ';.. over a few other items. The non-departmental budget for the current fiscal year totals $273,254, including $125,000 for tax refunds to pivot irrigation owners. Other major department budgets were approved gener ally as requested, and were within a six per cent increase over the current fiscal year. They were: Circuit Court, $22,323; County Clerk, $31,596; Health, $21,427; Justice of Peace, Irrigon, $17,850; J. of P., Heppner, $14,915; Juve nile, $19,411; Planning office, $62,900 (request cut by $4,000), Tax Collection, $19,823; Trea surer, $11,588, and Assessor, $92,582 (minus shifted vehicle requests and minor cuts). Final discussion at Friday's budget meeting, centered Plans for the separate events are now being finalized by the mothers of eighth grade students from both schools. Heppner students will celebrate the end to their junior high days at a dinner served at 6:30 p.m. followed by a dance on Friday, May 19, at the Heppner Elks Lodge. The students will be joined by their teachers, Principals Don Cole and Jim Bier, and guest speaker County Judge D.O. Nelson at the dinner. A buffet-style banquet scheduled for Saturday, May 20, in the lone School cafetorium at 6:30 p.m., will also be followed by a dance for lone eighth graders. The buffet will be prepared by parents who plan to join their children and the teachers for the meal. Seventh grade students have been invited to the graduation dance. A will and prophecy for next year's freshmen will be read for students from both schools. Linda LaRue appointed Mayor for City of lone Linda LaRue, two-term member of lone City Council, has been named the city's acting mayor. Mrs. LaRue will complete the term of the former Mayor Robert Drake, who resigned April 5. Drake stepped down from the mayor's post after selling his business, the Independent Garage in lone. The current mayor's term expires later this year, as do three positions on city council. The city is seeking civic-minded citizens to run for the posts during the November election. Mrs. LaRue is wife of Del LaRue, teacher-coach at lone High School. r lcY 'it"" i- " , 11 u,.-i- --' .- -1. . City Foreman Randy Krueger and Winn Crist heave-ho with a piece of sod at Hager Park. The turf Earth Carpet was donated by grower Eric Anderson of lone. ix around what to do with approximately $79,000 of reve nue sharing money ($15,000 carryover and $60,000 the county expects to receive). The Revenue Sharing Com mittee decided to budget $15,919 for the Neighborhood Center ($8,746 federal money to be repaid to the general fund, and the rest into a Morrow County Capital Im provement Fund). Future uses of the money from the fund could include a jail, senior citizens center, parks, ball field and other such projects. While the budget is not yet completely finalized. Morrow County residents can expect a date at the polls to vote on a budget substantially above the six per cent limitation.
