Willow Creek Dam
issue not decided
As of this writing, the future
of the Willow Creek Dam is
still undecided as the U.S.
' Senate re-grouped after Presi
dent Carter's veto of the
public works appropriation
bill last week and resubmitted
a bill with drastic cuts for his
signature. The Willow Creek
Dam is included in the second
go-around.
"We have a bill the House of
Representatives will accept
and the President will sign,"
Senator Mark Hatfield told the
Gazette-Times Wednesday
morning.
The Senate appropriations
committee went into a sp?cial
session Tuesday afternoon to
revise the bill Carter vetoed
last week. The new measure
will restore $63-million for
Oregon projects, including
Willow Creek.
Steve Hickok, field repre
sentative for Hatfield, said the
committee was reacting to a
concern that passing a contin-
uning resolution which
would have permitted funding
for projects already started
would stop many worthwhile
projects that needed to be
funded.
The committee cut 17 pro
jects from the first bill - more
cuts than President Carter
had requested including
those that were on the
President's "hit list" last
year. None of the Oregon
projects were considered to be
cause of the veto.
The revised bill should be on
the President's desk for his
signature by Friday morning,
the day Congress adjourns.
President Carter is expected
to take action that day on the
bill and political observers
predict that he will sign it.
Included in the bill is
$500,000 for the Willow Creek
Project, to be used in preli
menary design and right-of-way
acquisition. If Carter
signs the bill, the Corps of
Engineers is expected to begin
their preliminary work within
a couple of months.
The $22-million Willow Cre
ek Dam would be constructed
under authorization given by
Congress in 1965, but would
follow design specifications
for water allocation based on
the 1974 try for funding.
Physically, both dams are
basically the same, with
differences being in designa
tion of purpose. The 1965 plan
included water for irrigation
and recreation, while the 1974
proposal is based on flood
protection, with capabilities
for multiple-use in the future.
The City of Heppner faced
with a flood plain that
encompasses all of the down
town commercial and much
residential property could
benefit directly from constru
ction of the dam in relocation
of major water lines and a
reservoir. Added capacity
would improve the city's
water supply and storage, as
well as increasing pressure to
homes located on the hillsides
surrounding town.
In addition, construction of
the dam would effictively
eliminate the flood plain,
ensuring economic stability in
the commercial area of downtown.
The Heppner
iorrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper
Weather
Wed. Oct. 4
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VOL. 96 NO. 41
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1978
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School building h
icl come in
ai expect
d
Bids for constructing a new
multipurpose room at A.C.
Houghton Elementary School
and a new shop building at
Riverside High School came
back higher than expected,
forcing Morrow County school
officials to hold a special
meeting Monday night to
decide whether to accept or
reject the bids.
Low bid on the A.C. Hough
ton gym-multipurpose room
was submitted by Eastern
Oregon Construction Co. of
Pendleton at $378,916. The
amount the school board had
budgeted for the new Irrigon
school building was $325,750.
The board voted to follow
recommendations by arch
itect Bob Smith to trim more
than $53,000 in equipment
from the building contract, to
bring the project cost down to
$325,766 $16.11 above what
was budgeted for the building.
Equipment removed from
the contract included lockers,
bleachers, basketball back
boards, a portable handball
court and benches. The board
also voted to substitute a
synthetic gym court surface
for a hardwood floor.
Superintendent Matt Doh
erty noted that the school
board has a total of about
$150,000 budgeted for,,, new,,
equipment for the new school
buildings, plus interest money
from bond funds on deposit
that could possibly be used for
buying some of the equipment
that was pared from the
contract. Board members in
dicated that at least some of
the equipment could be pur
chased with funds from these
sources.
"I doubt if we could get as
much as we got if we re-bid the
building," Smith told the
board, before it voted to
accept Eastern Oregon's bid,
minus the equipment costs.
The Riverside shop building
was a different story.
Eastern Oregon Construc
tion was again the low bidder
on this project, turning in a
proposal for $478,000 well
above the $330,500 budgeted
for the building.
Smith presented the board
with a study outlining costs for
building similar structures in
the area, which he said
showed that Eastern Oregon's
bid "was not out of line.. .We
were just asking for more than
we could afford."
The school board voted to
follow Smith's recommend
ation to reject the low bid, and
redraft the project. Smith
submitted a preliminary floor
plan for the building that
slightly decreased the square
footage to 10,500, but was
similar to the layout that was
bid on by Eastern Oregon.
The second go-around on
bidding the Riverside shop
will be based on constructing a
steel modular building, with
an alternative plan for a
combination steel and block
structure based on the same
layout.
Voting was unanimous on
both the decision to accept the
Irrigon bid and the decision to
reject the Boardman bid.
The school board will meet
in regular session on Oct. 16.
2-Hour parking begins
Winn L. Crist was sworn in
as parking control officer for
the City of Heppner Tuesday
at City Hall.
His duties will be to monitor
parking and write citations for
non-moving violations. The
fines for violations are $2 if
paid within 24 hours, $4 after
24 hours. If not paid within 5
days, a warrant will be issued
for the persons arrest with a
fine of $10.
Since removal of parking
meters, the downtown parking
is now limited to two hours,
except in front of the Post
Office, which is 15-minute
parking.
The one that got away! I
f
Many out-of-town hunters
left Morrow County last week
with only stories about the
"one that got away."
But one Portland hunter can
add a new and truthful
twist to her "buck that got
away" story.
Janice Novak of Portland,
hauling a dressed and tagged
four-point buck in her pickup
after a successful opening
week of hunting, stopped in
Boardman before returning to
the Rose City.
When she returned to her
rig, parked in the lot of the H
Bar W Tavern, she discovered
her deer had been stolen and
notified the Morrow County
Sheriff's Department.
A possible moral to this
story may be to never figure
on pulling off the freeway at
Boardman without dropping
a buck or two.
MOONLIGHT MADNESS
Merchants
open tonight
from 7-9 p.m.
Heppner merchants superstitious about
Friday the 13th have scheduled their annual fall
Moonlight Madness Sale for tonight (Thursday)
from 7-9 p.m.
Most downtown merchants are participating
in the sales event with tremendous price
markdowns on regular and special merchandise.
Stores will close at their regular times tonight
and reopen at 7 p.m. for the two-hour sale.
Moonlight Madness advertising appears on
pages six and seven of this section.
'First of its kind9....
inzua Corporation dedicates revolutionary new sawmill
More than 130 leaders from
the wood products industry
gathered in Heppner at Kin
zua Corporation's facilities
last Wednesday, to take part
in ceremonies officially dedi
cating the company's new $4.5
million computerized sawmill.
In opening ceremonies Kin
zua Operations Manager Har
ry Kennison said, "I never
thought I'd see the day we cut
logs with a computer" ex
plaining how the sawyer only
needs to make a determina
tion as to the grade of the log.
From that point, the log is
scanned by photo-electric
cells determining the best cut
d
ic ' -,; t. i"
overhead carriage with an
end-dogging system and in one
trip up and a second trip back,
the log is cut into the most
productive combination of
boards which automatically
go on their way to another part
of the mill for further cutting
or finishing.
Size is no object for the
computer either, accepting
logs ranging in size from six to
50 or more inches in diameter.
This capacity will enable
Kinzua Corporation to utilize
the small diameter logs killed
by the pine beetle as well as
other small logs that have
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of its kind in the pine industry
and when operating at full
capacity will turn out about
200.000 board feet per day.
Included in the construction
project was a new sorter-stacker
system also computer;
ized and fully automatic. The
sorter scans each board and
directs it to a bin for that size
and grade of lumber until a
full pallet is ready to be
stacked and taken to the new
dry kilns. The stacker de
signed and built by Kinzua
personnel is one-of-a-kind
unit.
Kinzua Corporation has
scheduled public tours for
anyone wishing to see the new
mill on Friday, Oct. 20
between the hours of 9-11 a.m.
Anyone wishing to tour the
mill should go to the com
pany's main office on that
day.
Mrs. Harry Stuchell breaks
a bottle of champagne on the
new dry kilns at Kinzua
Corporation's' $4.5 million
computerized sawmill. Indus
try leaders from throughout
the Pacific Northwest were in
Heppner last Wednesday to
view the new mill. At right,
Harry Kennison, operations
manager for Kinzua, watched
as a log is scanned by the
computer for cutting while a
second log prepares to go
through the combination of
saws and chippers on the
overhead carriage.
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