Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1978)
1 The Library University of Oregon "Eugena, Or 97403 For Microfilm The Ileppner Morrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper VOL. 96 NO. 29 HEPPNER, OREGON THURSDAY, JULY 20. 1978 12 PAGES 20c . 1 I iiV4 ' The Heppner Gazette-Times was one of four Northwest Oregon Newspapers that won awards of excellence in the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspaper Contest presented at the group's annual meeting at Sunriver last weekend. The Gazette-Times collec ted five of the 11 awards won by the four newspapers, including first place for Best News Story and Typographi cal Excellence and third place awards for Community Lead ership, Best Editorial and Special Section. The Hermiston Herald took first place in the prestigious General Excellence category for the second consecutive year for newspapers with more then 2,700 circulation. The Herald also placed first in sports coverage, second in Typographical Excellence and third in Best Editorial. The East Oregonian earned a first place award among daily papers in the Special Section category and the Milton-Freewater Valley Her ald earned a third place in the Feature Story category for weeklies with more than 2,700 circulation. The Gazette-Time's Best News Story award was for coverage of the Mary Lindsay murder, of which judges said, "...complicated legal enganglement handled with clarity. An unpleasant subject presented with good taste." The Best Editorial award Ateard of Excellent IN. 0O0N Msoc(AT Third Place Third Place 5ytflat issue--- .... Gazette-Tillies wins 5 newspaper awards was for a column on the proposed move of state wel fare and family services office from Heppner, which the state reconsidered. Community Leadership came to The Gazette-Times for its stories surrounding the Heppner UoDer Willow Creek road 1 A will be closed to traffic The road connecting upper Willow Creek with Ukiah will be closed from Monday through Friday of next week for paving, the U.S. Forest Service and Morrow County Court announced. According to Ben Seminoe of the Heppner Forest Service office, the road will be closed from the end of existing pavement near Cutsforth Park to the junction with Forest Service Route 53-26, about halfway to the point where existing hardtop on the Ukiah side of the route begins. By Friday night, the road is expected to be open from Willow Creek to the top of Coalmine Hill. During the following week, from July 31 to Aug. 7 an eight mile section of the road will be closed from the beginning of existing pavement on the Ukiah side to the junction with route 53-26. A uetour will be provided, so that traffic will be able to proceed around the construction site. 4 ra I J mii-.. - - . I lCtMi, I Z . v Child Development Center's problems last year. The Special Section that received a third place award was last year's Fair & Rodeo section and the first place in Typographical Excellence was for the newspaper's Persons wishing to travel to Penland Lake during the coming week will have to do so from the Tupper side. Motor ists may still reach the Ukiah area through the Umatilla National Forest by driving the 't Dial "911" (Nine-one-one) if you need emergency police, fire or medical help in Heppner, lone or Lexington. The three communities activated their 911 systems last week. According to Pacific Northwest Bell, that brings to 18 the number of PNB communities in Oregon which use the simplified emergency call number. "Because of the great distances and the time it takes to respond to emergencies in Morrow County, being able to get emergency help by dialing one number is important," said Moriow County Sheriff Larry Fetsch. "Before, it was sometimes necessary to make four to six phone calls to get an ambulance, a fire truck and the police. Now we can take one call and dispatch all of them at once." Heppner, lone and Lexington agreed to tie their communities together with one emergency number in February this year. eice VJj over-all readability, use of clear and concise headlines, photos and printing quality. The awards were presented for the 1977 publishing year and newspapers were judged by the Nebraska Press Asso ciation. Shaw Creek Grade. Any questions on how to reach various points along the route during the paving period may be answered by contact ing the Heppner Forest Ser vice Office at 676-9187. 1 Emergency phone system installed H ospital Board public meetings 6to clear air9 In an effort to clear the air and ask voter approval of its $150,582 special levy on Tues day. Aug. 8, the Pioneer Memorial Hospital Board of Directors has scheduled two public meetings for next week. The first meeting will be held Monday. July 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Courthouse, Hepp ner and the following night a meeting will be held at 8:00 p.m.. Riverside High School. The Hospital Board will have a moderator handle the meeting to keep things moving in an orderly fashion, accord ing to Dick Sargent, board member setting up the meet ings. In recent months the Hospi tal Board and Administrator Bob Byrnes have come under lire from hospital employees and county residents for increased costs and personnel management. Hospital Board Chairman Fred Martin replies, "We have some personnel prob lems that have been attributed to the administrator, whereas they are actually board policy decisions, but as the admini strator, he carries them out." The board will- also explr.in the need for the special levy request of $150,582, cut some $39,500 from the last election on June 27 when voters turned it down. School Board defers zone changes ; hires new teachers The Morrow County Board of Education deferred action Monday on a proposed school district zone change aimed at equalizing representation on the school board as county population patterns shift to the north. A committee which has been studying county population projections with an eye to wards more evenly distribu ting school board representa tion submitted a report during Monday's meeting. The report recommended converting two zones currently representing Heppner into countywide "at large" zones. Under the recommenda tions, the Heppner zones would not be converted to at-large zones until the terms of the district's two current board members, Dr. Wallace Wolff and Pauline Winter, expire. Winter's term expires in 1980 and Wolff's in 1981. In its report to the board, the committee noted that "the original distribution of the district representation on the board was inadequate to provide equal representation in light of present and future population trends." The committee considered, but finally rejected, increas ing the number of board members from seven to nine, with the two additional board members to come from nor thern Morrow County. Currently, school board members are nominated from single zones representing the communities of Boardman, Irrigon, lone, Lexington, and rural Heppner, and two zones representing metropolitan Heppner. Candidates then must win countywide elections to receive seats on the board. Action on the proposed zone changes was tabled during The hospital needs equip ment in nearly every depart mentfrom the laundry to the front office, according to Byrnes. In addition, the board and administrator are at tempting to equalize wages for hospital employees that are grossly underpaid. Board member Dick Sar gent commented, "If the budget fails again and we're forced to cut back to within the six per cent limitation, we'll still have a hospital but we'll have to get rid of some people and some services a substan tial amount." Workers stop at Carty for safety reasons A work stoppage at the Carty coal-fired power plant near Boardman was continu ing at press time, idling most of the 700 construction work ers involved with building the facility. The walkout began last Friday, following the death on Thursday of a construction worker at the site. Loyal A. Vick of Spokane died en route to St. Anthony's Hospital in Monday's meeting, since several board members were absent. Should the board approve the committee's re commendations, an election would be required next Spring in order for the zone changes to be made. No real change in board representation would occur until 1980, when Win ter's term expires. In other developments Mon day, the board accepted the resignation of Heppner music instructor John J. Dawson and A.C. Houghton teacher Lee Ann Wilkes. The board hired Kim Coop er, an Eastern Oregon State College graduate, as third grade teacher at A.C. Hough ton; Kay Dawson, also an EOSC graduate, as kindergar ten teacher at Boardman; Carol Faith, Eastern Wash ington, as speech therapist; Rod Fife, Lewis and Clark, as science teacher at Riverside Junior High; Joanne McGov ern, University of Oregon, as language arts teacher at Riverside Junior High; Ralph Schubothe, Whitman, as math teacher and assistant track and basketball coach at Hepp ner High; Vanessa Thew, EOSC, as sixth grade teacher at lone Elementary; Donna Weed, Idaho State, as Hepp ner kindergarten teacher; and Robert Carson as fourth grade teacher at A.C. Houghton. The board re-elected Pau line Winter as its chairman, and voted to approve of a September field trip for Hepp ner and Riverside High art students to Seattle, to view the Egyptian King Tut exhibit. In another development, the board accepted an early graduation policy for excep tional students. , s Under the terms of the policy, students would be able "People here must decide what level of health care they want available in Morrow County," echoed board mem ber Hubert Wilson. Faced with yet another problem the lack of doctors in the community the board has some thoughts and opin ions to share on that issue. Also on the agenda will be discussion surrounding the formation of a health care district in Morrow County, that would administer health care services to all residents and would have the taxing powers of a special district. Pendleton, after his chest was crushed while he was loading heavy boxes at a location about 10 miles from the main construction area. Vick's death sparked a protest over safety conditions by fellow workmen- at . the plant, who contend that im proved communication sys tems and more immediatly available medical care could possibly have saved Vick, and to receive high school diplo mas in less than four years if they complete the board's re quired credits and competen cies agree upon a plan for early graduation with their high school principals submit early graduation requests in writing no later County to get less federal funds than thought The Morrow County Court learned this week that is would receive less revenues than anticipated for 1978-79, from the federal government for payments in lieu of taxes. The money is received for federally-owned lands in Mor row County and in the past has amounted to about $65,000 annually. In a letter received from the Oregon Association of Coun ties, the county was told that allocation would be made based on a different formula this year, amounting to $17,000 in revenues, a cut of $48,000. Judge D O. Nelson said the cut in revenues puts the county in an even more precarious position financial ly. "That's nearly $50,000 that we were counting on to help with the budget and we'll have to find some places to cut it from." said Nelson. "It also means that we need voter approval of our request for $246,655 outside the six per cent limitation." The board of directors of the special district would be elected from various parts of the county. Three petitioners are needed to obtain signatures for the hospital district and the board has two persons from the south portion of the county, Mrs. Harry (Mary) Kennison and Orville Cuts forth. A person from the Boardman-Irrigon area is needed for a prime petitioner. The petitioners must obtain all of the signatures on the petition themselves, attesting to each signature. may save other workers who might suffersevere injuries at the construction site. A number of workers began returning to their jobs after noon on Monday, kindling hopes by Portland General Electric and Bechtel Corp. officials that the protest was ending. However, on Tuesday morning, protesting workers Cont. on page 7 than one semester prior to the planned graduation date, ex plaining the educational or vocational reasons for seeking early graduation convince school officials that the early graduation would be in the student's best interests, on the basis of high school records, and post-high school plans. The county's levy request will go before voters on Tuesday, Aug. 8 for the second time at the same amount. The last vote on June 27 ended in a deadlocked 513-513 tie. This year marks the first time in over a decade the county has sought monies outside the six per cent limitation. The budget is bare-bones, according to Nel son, who said there are no funds earmareked for new construction projects or other major capital improvements. Weatlicr by Don Gilliam Hi Low Wed., July 12 83 45 Thurs., July 13 92 53 Fri.,July 14 96 59 Sat., July 15 94 60 Sun., July 16 78 61 Mon.,Julyl7 79 45 Tues., July 18 82 47 ,4 I A
