TWO The Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon, Thursday November 16, 1978
The Heppner
GAZETTE-TIMES
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Heppner High School's Mustangs and lone High
School's Cardinals have given a real and certain pride
to those of us who have followed their football seasons
this year.
lone is pitted against the North Powder Badgers in
a semi-final game this Saturday in lone at 1:30 p.m.;
the winner advancing to the State Class B playoffs.
Last Saturday the Mustangs traveled to Elgin for their
quarter-final playoff game against the Huskies and
although it didnt turn out quite the way everyone from
South Morrow County hoped it was a heck of a
football game and our boys showed their stuff.
We encourage your attendance at the lone-North
Powder tilt this weekend and following the game the
lone Booster Club is sponsoring a spaghetti feed.
Swanson doesn't sound Italian but Jim assures us the
spaghetti and trimmings will hit the spot after the
game.
A special section is included in this week's
Gazette-Times, featuring the lone Cardinals, and
supportive staff. Our thanks to Janet McElligott IHS
senior who writes lone sports and helped on the
special section.
The table tennis match and luau scheduled by the
Heppner Elks Club this weekend is sure to be a couple
evenings of fun and excitement.
A massive undertaking, Elks members have
worked hard over the past several months to carry off
a top-notch show, which it promises to be. The
Professional World Championship match gets under
way at 5 p.m. Saturday in the Heppner High School
gym with teams bearing Haitian and Thailand colors
meeting at the table.
Tickets for the match are on sale in Heppner at
several locations and while up-front seats are a little ,
steep in price the $8.50 general admission assures a
good view and worthwhile investment.
Proceeds from the match will be used by th
Heppner Elks for capital improvements at the Lodge.
Each year BPOE 358 sends thousands of dollars to
charities both at home and across the state including
major contributions to Meadowood Springs Speech
Camp near Tollgate. Those contributions do a world of
good and your support of this Saturday's match will do
a world of good for your Elks Lodge.
Shop at home! A well-worn phrase that is often
times heard but not heeded because of general feeling
that "a better deal" awaits the person who travels to
shop.
Not so. To start with, the differences in price
between local merchants and those in bigger cities is
generally not that great when one really compares
apples-to-apples. Secondly, the gas it takes to get out of
Heppner and back eats up the savings most shoppers
would realize on a normal shopping trip.
Also one should take a look at the services local
merchants provide their customers such as charge
accounts, personal service, easy return and refund
policys. service after the sale and on ad infinitum
Then one can look at what keeps a community
healthy. The central business district is the backbone
of a town's economic health and every dollar you spend
at home circulates through the community three or
four times before leaving. The dollar you spend here
pays the salary of your neighbors and friends that
greet you with a smile when you walk in the door of that
store. The dollar you spend here pays the
businessman's taxes, which in turn provide a healthy
chunk of the money that paves your streets, keeps
teachers in your schools, and water flowing to your tap.
Stores and businesses from outside the area will
continue to entice customers and under the free
enterprise system they should. It helps keep local
businesses on their toes, prices right and service better
than what you receive in a metro area.
But the best deal is to shop at home...
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LETTERS
FROM THE READERS
'Thanks for a
great season
Editor:
There are many things that make an athletic season
successful not the least of which is the support of the fans. We
have had a successful football season and fan support has
been great all year. Fan support was never more evident
than at last Saturday's playoff game with Elgin. The large
number of supporters there indicates to the coaching staff
and players that people are behind us all the way. We
certainly appreciate everyone's help and support.
We would also like to thank the many groups who
supported us this season. Among these are the band,
cheerleaders, dance team, students, school personnel and
parents.
Lastly, the coaches would like to thank a fine group of
players who worked hard to make this a memorable season
for everyone.
Sincerely,
John Sporseen
Dale Conklin
Les Payne
'Nuclear wastes not a threat9
By Rostum Roy
All this business about
nuclear-waste disposal is get
ting out of hand. After nearly
30 years of neglect by all of
us the scientists, the govern
ment, the public and the
press the problem has sud
denly taken on enormous
proportions in the minds of
many people.
Within the past few weeks,
two Senate committees have
held hearings on the subject,
the President of the United
States has appointed an inter
agency task force to study it,
Penthouse magazine ran a
major article replete with
warmed-over nuclear scare
stories from the 1950's and
60's, and an Australian scien
tist announced in World War
III headlines that he had
found the way to make nuclear
wastes safe. It's no wonder
people are confused.
The truth of the matter is
that mastery of the technology
of radioactive waste disposal
is not impossible and, in fact,
is not too far in the future.
Experimentally, it has been
shown that we can make
synthetic minerals, incorpor
ate into them the nuclear
wastes, and immobilize the
radioactive atoms so that,
when they are buried, even
exposure to groundwater, heat
or pressure will not seriously
affect them. We have been
doing it at Penn State for five
years now, and similar pro
cesses are in various stages of
development in Sweden, Aus
tralia, the Soviet Union and
other countries.
Over the course of 1,000
years or so, the wastes
become as inert as many
natural ones.
Why, then, haven't we put
this technology to use? Be
cause there are five or six
options at this point, and it will
save us all time and money in
the long run to choose the best
combination of solid form and
SUBSCRIPTION RATE
$8.00 In Morrow, Umatilla, Wheeler & Gilliam County; $10.00 elsewhere
The Heppner
GAZETTTE-TIME
Morrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper
The Official 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
Rick Steelhammer, News Editor
Gayle Rush, Composition
Dolores Reed, Co-publisher
Eileen Soling, Office Manager
Kyra Query, Composition
Ron Jordan, Printer
Terry M. Hager, Managing Editor
Justine Weatherford, Local Columnist
Cindi Doherty, AdvertisingOffice
rock type. We are not, after
all, in a life-and-death race to
find a solution.
While it is certainly de
sirable to complete this re
search as quickly as possible
and get on with building
factories, no one is going to
die, no one is going to suffer in
any way, from delaying a final
decision long enough to give
rational consideration to the
alternatives.
Currently, spent nuclear
fuels are being stored in pools
near the reactors, where they
do no damage and stand no
chance of being stolen. Over a
period of 10 years in storage,
their heat and radioactivity
will become smaller by a
factor of 10, so the problem is
even being reduced of its own
accord. The major portion of
our wastes are from the
defense operations of the past
30 years, and they, likewise,
are stored on federal land
under relatively safe condi
tions. If we panic and rush into
production of a waste-storage
system now, before we have
had a chance to explore the
possibilities, we may force the
American taxpayer to spend
billions of dollars needlessly
and find ourselves in the
position, two or three years
from now, of retracting our
steps to find the most cost
effective solution.
The panel on radioactive
waste solidification of the
National Academies of
Science and Engineering,
which I chaired, recently
presented a major report to its
sponsoring agency, the Nuc
lear Regulatory Commission.
Included in that report, along
with very specific, technical
recommendations, were some
general speculations on the
potential for mastery of this
problem. Most members of
the panel believe we can have
a safe, efficient, ready-to-use
method of well-managed re
search and development ef
fort. It is regrettable that the
world's scientists did not solve
this problem 30 years ago,
before we had begun to build
nuclear power plants. It was
quite simply a lack of fore
sight and a misplacement of
priorities. New, highfalutin
science took precedence over
a mundane job of scientific
garbage disposal.
But the current arena of
wild speculation, from Pent
house's declaration that radio
active waste "is the monster
at the end of the nuclear fuel
cycle, the problem without a
solution..." to the banner
headlines in the Australian
newspapers that nuclear
wastes have been "made
safe," is no way to approach
the problem. There is no cause
for panic, no reason for alarm.
A decade or so from now, we
have every reason to believe,
we will be ready to begin
storing radioactive wastes as
artificial minerals or concrete
or glass in a salt, gypsum or
granite repository for burial
2,000 feet or more under
ground. In the meantime, the
public and congressional role
should be to assure vigilance
and diligence in attending to
this task by the nation's
scientists and engineers.
That's what's been missing all
along.
Rustum Roy is director of
the Materials Research Lab
ratory at Pennsylvania State
University. He wrote this
article for The Washington
Post.
As it is today, the seemingly elusive Willow Creek Dam
was in the news 30 years ago this week, when Heppner City
Council pledged full support to the Army Corps of Engineers
to proceed with the flood control project. At that time, the
cost for the dam was estimated at $5.5 million.
The proposed dam was also in the spotlight fifteen years
ago this week, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was
asked to make a detailed study of irrigation possibilities that
could arise from construction of the impoundment.
Willow Creek ranchers Kenneth Palmer, Lewis
Halvorsen, Herb Hynd and Dick Wilkinson were appointed by
the County Court to meet with representatives of the federal
agency to discuss possible irrigation improvements.
During the same week in 1963, Bob Abrams of Heppner
and Bob Jepsen of lone were in Portland to hear Mt. Everest
conqueror Luther Jerstad speak to the Mazama mountain
climbing club. Abrams was a member of the Mazamas.
Sixty years ago this week, the recent signing of the
' Armistice agreement ending World War I shortened
considerably the military careers of eight recently drafted
Morrow County men.
The eight local draftees, headed for boot camp at Ft.
Lewis (then Camp Lewis), Wash., were stopped at Troutdale
and ordered to return home. Ending their brief stints in
- military life were Pat Curran, Lewis Cason, Wilbur Goodrich
Harlan Swift Edward Letrace and Fritz Her of Heppner, and
Everett Zink and Bernal Bewley of lone.
Fifty years ago this week, an influenza outbreak that was
sweeping the nation claimed the life of a Morrow County
man.
Eldred L. "Unk" McMillan, 23, a former sports standout at
Lexington High, died at Morrow General Hospital two days
after contracting the disease during a visit to Portland.
Forest Service personnel were battling a 25-mile-an-hour
wind to put out a forest fire in Stahl Canyon near Camp Five
25 years ago this week. The blaze ruined about 10 acres of
virgin forest, making it the largest flare-up during the 1953
fire season.
Ten years ago this week, Morrow County voters followed
state and national trends in favoring Richard Nixon over
Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 Presidential race. The county
gave Nixon a 300 vote margin over the loquacious Humphrey.
GOP challenger Bob Packwood also received the approval of
Morrow County voters in his successful effort to unseat
long-time incumbent Senator Wayne Morse.
During the same week in 1968, the lone Cardinals earned
a berth in state B-League playoff action, by defeating
previously unbeaten Riverside 53-20.
A seven-inch snowfall in Heppner five years ago this
week heralded the formation of the new Four Corners
Snowmobile Club. Among officers of the new organization
were directors Jerry Samples (then of Kinzua), Rudy
Bergstrom of lone, Lyle Cox of Lexington and vice-president
Butch Laughlin of Heppner.
If you think it's cold in Heppner, Frank Lovgren, a Navy
seaman from Heppner could have told some chilly stories
about the true meaning of cold two years ago this week.
Lovgren had returned to the United States after spending
February to October in Antarctica, where he helped
maintain the Navy-National Science Foundation base at
McMurdo Sound as part of the Navy's "Operation
Deep-Freeze."
Picture credit
A full-to-the-brim log yard at Kinzua Corporation's Heppner
plant becomes a winter wonderland as cold weather and
sprinklers combined with stacked logs for this unusual effect.
Kinzua has been stockpiling logs from the local area and
points in Idaho and Washington to carry their new
computerized sawmill through the winter.
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, 20510. 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, 530 Center St. N.E., Rm.
330, (P.O. Box 247) Salem, Ore., 97308, phone 399-5724. .
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