Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 1978)
t z c The Library Uaiversity of Oregon Eugene, Or 97403 For Microfilm. The Heppner , 1 1 - 4 I 1 4 M Morrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper VOL. NO. 32 HEPPNER, OREGON THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1978 12 PAGES PRICE 20i Heppner polling heavy Piling up Yields look This year, an average of 30 to 31 bushels of wheat is being gleaned from each acre of dryland grainland, compared with the county norm of 26 bushels and in sharp con trast to last year's disap pointing 12 bushel per acre average harvest caused by drought. The midharvest averages are nearly identical to esti mates made in June by Larry Mills of the Morrow County Grain Growers and County Extension Agent Harold Kerr. Earlier this week, soft white wheat for immediate delivery was selling for $3.78 per bushel in Portland. Japanese youths experience many jir&is in Seeing a wild deer or hearing the lonely nighttime yipping of a coyote may not be unique experiences for Mor ; row Countians, but they open ' up a whole new world to a f person like Keiko Kaneko. Miss Kaneko, a 16-year-old eleventh grader from Kashi wa, Japan, is one of 14 La bo International Exchange Foun dation students spending a month with families in the area. A total of 142 teenage and seven adult Japanese arrived in Oregon late last month to take part in the exchange program, now in its sixth year. The Oregon 4-H pro gram cooperates in the ex ' change. While the Japanese youths learn what life with Oregon families is like, 23 Oregon teenagers are now in Japan, living with families and at tending Labo camps and programs. Miss Kaneko is staying with the James Bloodsworth family good at wheat harvest The new Stephens wheat variety seed crop being pro duced by three Morrow County growers was report tedly doing remarkably well. An ample amount of the new variety seed should be avail able to Morrow County farm ers for planting this Fall, according to Kerr. Participat ing in the Stephens variety's first year of seed production are Ken Turner, Gary Grieb and Eastern Oregon Farming Co. At Oregon State Univer sity's wheat variety test plot at the Tad Miller ranch near Lexington, the Twin variety, a spring wheat, topped all other morrow between Heppner and Lexing ton, a far cry from Kashiwa, located an hour's ride by bullet train from Tokyo, one of the world's largest cities. Aside from sightseeing trips and observing firsthand the workings of a ranch operation, the Japanese teen has at tended a Bloodsworth family wedding, a ceremony quite different from those held in her native country. Brides in Japan, she said, may change costumes several times during the wedding day, then host receptions in which more than 500 persons may attend. Her first impression of her American youth counterparts are that they are a bit more sophisticated than those in her Japanese peer group. Strong Japanese emphsis on educa tion may have a lot to do with the difference, since it's more difficult to be sophisticated when there's little time for anything but study. Miss Kaneko, whose father v - 1 Wheat is piled on ground from full-to-capacity North Lexington grain elevator as the county's abundant harvest season passes the midpoint. varieties with an average yield of 32.4 bushels per acre. Kerr noted that while Twin topped production at the test plot, the spring variety may not be suitable for planting during years marked by severe winters. The Hyslop variety of winter wheat averaged 31.9 bushels per acre at the test site, followed by Stephens at 29.5; Luke at 28.4; Nugaines at 28, and McDermid at 26.5. Protein tests have not been completed on the recently harvested test grains. In barley results at the Miller test plot, the Steptoe county visit is a manager of a metal plant, hopes to pursue a career as a tax consultant or a teacher. She said she has strong interests in mathematics. Also experiencing a number of firsts during her stay in Morrow County is Hideko Nabeshima, a tutor for Labo, and a chaperone on the current exchange visit. A guest of the Leslie Paustian family in Heppner, Miss Nabeshima has had her first experiences at milking a cow, petting a horse, baking pumpkin pie, taking in a rodeo and getting bitten by a dog. She characterized the rodeo as 'exciting," noting that she had never before seen "wo men riding horses so beauti fully. ..and the cowboys looked so manly." Miss Nabeshima said she was also impressed with the county's huge sprinkler irriga tion systems, the harvest workings of combines and the fact that you could actually midpoint variety, also a spring grain, topped production with an average yield of 2,386 pounds per acre. The Kamiak variety yielded 2,054 pounds, and the Hudson variety 1,898. While devaluation of the dollar has caused headaches in most sectors, it may have some positive effects on area wheatgrowers. Japanese grain importers, backed with the increased buying power of the yen, may now find Northwest wheat more attrac tive than Canadian wheat, in light of the dollar's decline in value. Cont. on page 3 get a feeling for the world's roundness by viewing the county's wide-open horizon. The area's scenery is "so peaceful and so quiet, it makes you wonder why there have to be wars," she told Mrs. Paustian. The local Labo exchangees will be in Morrow County until Aug. 21. ISi; Weather by Don Gilliam Hi Low Wed., Aug. 2 94 53 Thurs.,Aug.3 99 59 Fri., Aug. 4 97 62 Sat., Aug. 5 92 60 Sun., Aug. 6 95 53 Mon.,Aug. 7 95 59 Tues.,Aug.8 101 59 County levies are paed by substantial margins The Pioneer Memorial Hos pital and Morrow County operating budget levies were both approved by substantial margins Tuesday, when both measures faced county voters for the second time this year. Unofficial results show the hospital levy passing by a 711 to 398 margin, and the county operating measure winning voter approval by a 641 to 468 margin. Turnout was light in nor thern Morrow County, where those who did vote generally cast their ballots against both measures. The situation was different in Heppner. how ever, where nearly half of the city's registered voters showed up at the polls to vote 3!Mi-188 for the county mea sure, and 387 to 196 for the hospital levy. Only about one in seven voters turned out in Irrigon. where the vote was 46 to 66 against the county levy, and 1K-94 against the hospital. Less than one in five voters made it to the polls in Boardman. where the hospital measure Went down" 22-85. and the county levy was approved by 11 votes 62-45. lone voters supported the county levy by a comfortable 142-45 margin, and gave Fairgrounds workday set for Saturday Everyone is invited to a workday Saturday, Aug. 12 at the Morrow County Fairgrounds. The fun and games start at 10 a.m., according to Extension Agent Harold Kerr, with general clean up and setting up of livestock pens in mind. Hideko Nabeshima, left, taste of life in the saddle at Creek. Miss Nabeshima and I XX r j nearly identical support to the hospital measure with 140 voting yes and 47 voting no. In Ixxington. the poll was 65-45 for the county general operat ing fund, and 74-46 for the hospital. The county levy approved by voters Tuesday was identi cal to one that was deadlocked in a 513-513 tie on June 27. During the same election, the hospital measure was defeated 450 to 568. More than $43,000 was pared from the hospital levy during the second go-around at the Morgan Bridge project scrapped, council approves Chase Street subdivision Hopes for a new Morgan Street Bridge over Willow Creek went down in flames during a Monday night Hepp ner City Council meeting. During a second round of bidding held on the project last month, the low bidder turned in a figure of $118,800 14 per cent higher than the $105,000 budgeted for the project. In June, the low bid on the project was $134,500. The lion's share of the project would have been paid for with federal matching funds, with the city of Heppner chipping in $18,000. During Monday's meeting, the council had to decide whether to scrap the project, or somehow come up with the extra funding totaling some $26,000 needed to trigger the construction. Roger Lang, federal-state programs coordinator for the Oregon Department of Tran Home on and Keiko Kaneko. get first the Wilgers' ranch on Rhea Miss Kaneko are in Morrow polls. The revised budget also included a $20,000 item ear marked for physician recruit ment, to find and secure doctors to staff the troubled medical facility. Currently, only one physician, Dr. Wal lace Wolff, is located in Morrow County, and there are no physicians to staff county subsidized clinics in Heppner and Boardman. Passage of the hospital measure means that $146,598 in property tax funds will go to offset the facility's current operating loss and purchase sportation, told the council that the bridge project could proceed if the ,city made a $5,000 deposit, and paid off the balance of the extra costs within three years. Several councilmen noted that the city did not have $5,000 for the down payment, and expressed reluctance to commit the city to paying off a three-year debt before a new budget was drafted. Others complained that the pricetag for the span was simply too high, and unlikely to get any lower should it be put out to bid again. "We've got to get away from that concrete monstrosity," commented councilman War ren Plocharsky. "The city can't afford the luxury of having this kind of bridge," said councilman Larry Mills. "We've got to get a bridge that we can live with," stated councilman Cliff Green. ": ' 1 J. '; J i ? , f the range County to take part in the program. k v 4 ' several badly needed items of equipment, as well as toward finding new doctors. The County's operating bud get will include $246,665 out side the six per cent limita tion, in order to balance the budget while maintaining on going programs and services. No major new capital im provements are included in the county budget. Both measures combined will cost county property tax payers less than $3 per $1,000 assessed valuation extra. The council voted unani mously to withdraw from the bridge project. The move will mean that the city will have to pay engineers' fees totaling about $11,000 for a bridge that will apparently never be built, leaving only about $7,000 in the city's budget for the bridge. Council membei s expressed hope that the $7,000 could be applied towards making re pairs to bring the bridge up to standards. Steve Anderson, the city's consulting engineer, last month disclaimed any responsibility for keeping the decrepit span open to traffic. Councilman Plocharsky said he would tour the bridge site with County Roadmaster Doc Sherer to determine what repairs would have to be made to bring the bridge up to par, and report back to the council. Lang said his department Cont. on page 12 - t a." U.S.-Japan Labo exchange ,w
