Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 6, 1979)
o or oaE ' Mpo APES t 1 B EUGENE OR fl?403 The Heppner T TV TTT" (S VOL 97 NO. 36 Morrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1979 Donald F. Gilliam, official weather observer for Hepp ner, reports the following high and low temperaturea and measured rainfall for the past week, starting Tuesday, Aug. 28. Tues., Aug. 28 Wed., Aug. 29 Thurs., Aug. 30 Fri.,Aug.31 Sat., Sept. 1 Sun., Sept. 2 Mon., Sept. 3 Hi Low Pre 76 51 55 59 54 53 54 51 84 79 82 84 82 72 .19 .03 .12 .06 .17 pages if ) i iirimriif IT 0. TV' is in1' . t -ft j KliK fp at dawn in typical wheat harvest, home at dark School ;Daze By Birdine Tullis Whea (hearts Chairman Morrow County Som e things don't change all that much. Take wheat har vest on a family farm in eastern Oregon, for instance. It's still up at dawn...work till dark. Still the sense of urgency to get the crop in as soon as possible. Everyone in the family is still involved... and everything else stops for harvest. Some things do change. Equipment, gas diesel, and machinery parts become more costly. Costs for labor increase. Machinery is ef efficient, and more comforta ble for the operator. The cost of producing a bushel of wheat and the price received varies. The wheat market goes up... and down. To those who live on the land, or grew up on farms, the sight of the combines moving into the field are welcome sights. A symbol of the harvest. ..the culmination of a year, or really two year's work, in our summer fallow country. The combines are rolling in our county now. They may look like large clumsy machines, gobbling up the grain to a city dweller, but to the farm family they are a thing of beauty, taking in the precious heads of wheat, efficiently cleaning the ker nels from the straw, and pouring out a golden stream into the truck which takes the wheat to storage. Equally important is the truck, and the driver. That driver may be the farmer's wife, or daughter, or young son. ..but whoever it is, they are a part of the team. The driver must keep attention on the combine and be ready to move up along side quickly and "take it on the go" to eliminate slow down and loss of time. The truck is filled and off to the elevator or storage bin. Quick! Unload and get back, ready for another load ! Keep everything moving. ..get the crop in! Don't overlook the import ance of the gal in the kitchen to this operation! Lots of good food and snacks are tradition al to the harvest. Someone back at the ranch is turning out loads of food. While the big harvest noon meal may have given way to the lunch packed to the field, crews still look forward to good eating... and lots of it! Gallons of lemonade, ice tea, or other drinks disappear quickly, for it is hot, dry work in the harvest fields. Some things don't change. In spite of modern improve ments in machines, the dust, dirt, chaff, heat, bugs and cont. on Pg. 3 First graders listened attentively as Mrs. Judy Maas read passages from a book entitled "I Don't Want to Go to School" Tuesday on the first day of school for Heppner Elementary students. Secondary and elementary students had to go to school for only half a day Tuesday to enable educators to plan better arrangements for the remainder of the first week of nine months of school. It's A No Man's Land on Highway 207 orrow students back in classes County schools opened with out a hitch Tuesday and elementary and high school students received a shortened school day to allow educators to shift desks around. Students were dismissed at 1:30 p.m. at lone and Heppner Elementary, Jr. High and High Schools. Heppner High School Princi pal Jim Bier said the opening day at the school began with an assembly arranged by student body leaders. Student Body President Ron Young urged the students to become involved academically as well as in the extracurricular activities while Principal Bier explained procedural matters. The new student body lead ers are Ron Young, Joe Mollahan, Jo Lynn Daly., Jackie Gentry and Nancy Harvest fun this week At Boardman Miller. The school will be holding its first pep assembly Friday before the Heppner-Stanfield game at home and a mixer dance is planned after the dance. Students attending Tuesday attended 7 periods in an abbreviate schedule and were dismissed at 1:30 p.m. The first day of school was reported to be running smooth at Heppner Elementary School. One of the largest jobs of the teachers and administration was directing the youngsters to their class rooms and getting acquainted with their new instructors. Principal Don Cole said the school was down slightly in enrollment and few new students enrolled on the open ing day. During recess, a group of boys was playing football and lists were posted on the window for youngsters to find their classroom. Classes were also reported running smooth at lone schools. The Boardman Harvest Fes tival is slated this Friday, Saturday and Sunday and promises to bean event for the entire family. Kicking on the festivities Friday night at 6 p.m. is the annual Barbecue dinner fol lowed at 8 p.m. with the football game between River side and Union. On Saturday, the Cowboy breakfast is set for 7 a.m. at the Marina area and at 11 a.m. will be the Harvest Parade featuring over 70 entries and the festival Princesses, Heidi Conboy, Lisa Mettelsdorf, Kathy Petteys and Lorie Russell, all juniors at River side High School. The parade is expected to draw some groups scheduled to appear in the early evening hours at Pendleton's Dress-up Parade in anticipation of next week end's Pendleton Roundup. At 12:30 p.m. is the court's luncheon. Chaperones this year are Karyn Peck, Marie Dies, Dale Reed and Betty Slocumb. The court's colors are navy and light blue. The event will be held at Riverside High School. Starting at 1:30 p.m. is the annual produce auction where area farmers will sell some of their crops and produce to local buyers. At 3 p.m. are kids' games at the Boardman city park, at 4 p.m. is the pet show and 8 snow is a new event this year and will be held with the other events at the city park. The action begins again at 7 a.m. Sunday with a Cowboy Breakfast. At 10 a.m., there are hydroplane time trials and at 1 p.m. the boat races begin on the Columbia. Court to consider special street action Hospital workers near settlement Non-licensed employees and the Pioneer Memorial Hospi tal Board negotiating team have reached tentative agree ment on a new contract, Hospital Board Chairman Fred Martin reported Friday. The next step to conclude negotiations will be approval by the non-licensed employees and further approval by the Hospital Board and Morrow County Court. Martin was not certain when final ratification of the con tract would be made because the negotiator, Don Scott, left on vacation following the settlement. The Hospital Board planned to meet in executive session at 7:30p.m. Wednesday, Septem ber 5 in Boardman to consider labor problems and employing a new administrator. The Morrow County Court will convene this week as a special contract review board to consider immediate action on awarding a construction contract for First Street in Irrigon. The street needs construc tion work because of the new Columbia Jr. High School. As explained by county officials, the court must meet as a contract review board when it decides not to adver tise for bids for work based on weather, timing or cost. A week's notice of the decision must be made. In other business, Bob Van Schoiack's petition to vacate the Martin Prairie Road was accepted and awaits fu ture approval and a hearing set October 10 on a petition to consider vacating the Tollrock Road. Property-owners re quested the vacation about a month ago. Vacation of Can yon Road will not be consi dered. The Court was also sche duled to meet at 1 p.m. with the Road Committee to deter mine road maintenance prior ities and whether to ask for a serial road levy for future repairs. Radio Theft Reported The Boeing Corporation has f reported the theft of radio equipment from a leased building from PGE to the Morrow County Sheriff's De partment. The theft, which was be lieved to have occurred be tween August 24-27 involved three mobile radios valued at $3fi0each. a transceiver worth $1,153, a $50 control box and a typewriter valued at $100. Entry was made through a front door of the building. There was also a report of a butchered calf. Vic Groshens of the Oregon State Police investigated the incident. "Gee Charlie, they've turned the road into a cow , rath.watchout for that dozer, you're sure we should have gone this way to Heppner?" Those might have been some of the reactions of Labor Day visitors to Heppner last weekend as they negotiated the road construction area linking Heppner to Lexington via State Highway 207, 12 miles of which is being resurfaced rast of Lexington to the Boardman junction on the Lexington-Hermiston Highway by the contractor, Peter Kiewit Sons' Co. of Vancouver. By Wednesday of last week, construction had reached a point where a pilot car with the instructions "follow me" clearly labeled on a sign above the vehicle was directing one lane of traffic about a mile east of Lexington. The Gazette-Times drove through the area several times and no ticed in one drive through that when the pilot car pulled off to a side road, a woman driver attempted to follow him. And that incident wasn't limited to women a male driver of a pickup truck made the same mistake. In some places where the road is being widened, local drivers used to finding smooth highway found rough driving with heaps of asphalt lying on the shoulders and yellow helmeted men and women holding their stop and slow sligns plus hand held mikes. Most of the traffic seemed to .v 1 I rtftZ-m&V&ZZmC' k. ... . - t v tot "Wfj!wr-."5 1 ivy 1 Til , .... W.-. be running through the area with little difficulty as they followed the pilot car. One of the drivers noted that in two hours, he had put 25 miles on the speedometer leading mo torists through the area. Coupled with the sight of bulldozers, graders and ma chines which tear up the Bumpy Express Highway 207 between Hepp ner and Lexington has become a no man's road of broken up asphalt, rough driving and highway traffic equipment as Peter Kiewit and Sons of Vancouver begins its initial resurfacing work on 12 miles of road bed between Heppner and Hermiston. asphalt, was the ongoing construction of an asphalt plant to resurface the new road bed at the side of the road. Lexington Grange to Celebrate 50 Years With potluck birthday Sunday, September 16 The Lexington Grange will celebrate its 50th Anniversary Sunday, Sept. 16 with a potluck dinner, speeches and a get together of long-time members. State Grange Chaplain Allen Wheeler will be featured speaker at the 2 p.m . program and the Sweet Adelines from Umatilla will perform. A potluck dinner is slated at noon. The Lexington Grange was first organized May 27, 1929 at the Lexington Schoolhouse and in September 29, 1929, moved to Leach all. The Grange met there until 1935 when the present hall was completed largely from dona fed materials and the land for the hall given by Elsie Beech, a member of the ukmeer Beech family. Originally, the Grange star ted with 35 members. Charter members still living are Orville Cutsforth and Flor ence McMillan. Fifty year members include Norman and Fred Nelson, Hortense Marin, Orville Cutsforth and Flor ence McMillan. There are currently about 60 Grange members and face lifting of the Grange Hall is going on. Members are paint ing the walls and adding new card tables. is An anniversary cake being readied for the special event. Barbara Cutsforth is Grange president and Delpha Jones, lecturer.
