Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1979)
0 OF ORE NEWSPAPER L I 8 V G E ?: E OH 9 7 4 0 3 AZETH Morrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper Donald F. Gilliam, official Tues., Sept. 4 weather observer for Hepp- Wed., Sept. 5 ner, reports the following high Thurs. Sept. 6 and low temperatures and Fri.,Sept.7 measured rainfall for the past Sat., Sept. 8 week, starting Tuesday, Sept. Sun., Sept. 9 4. Mon.,Sept. 10 VOL. 97, NO. 37 20 cents 12 PAGES THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1979 HEPPNER, OREGON Hi Low Pre. 74 50 81 45 82 47 88 50 79 56 72 47 73 41 Congress appropriates Willow Greek funds; bill sent to President Carter An appropriations bill au thorizing $3.2 million for construction of the proposed Willow Creek Dam has been passed by both Houses of Congress and sent to the White House for signature by Presi dent Jimmy Carter, Keith Kennedy, an administrative aide of Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield said Monday. The President has 10 work ing days in which to sign the legislation approving the om nibus bill containing alloca tions for other water projects. Approved in a House-Senate conference committee, HR 4388, also contains several appropriations for energy pro jects including the Tellico Dam project in Tennessee. Environmentalists say if the Tellico Dam is constructed, it would endanger the survival of the snail darter, a small fish. For that reason, Hat field's aide held out the possibility of a veto. Congress could override the veto, Ken nedy said, or it could approve legislation deleting the Tellico Dam project from considera tion with the bill. Five years ago, President Gerald Ford vetoed similar legislation appropriating funds for the Willow Creek Approximately, 45 per cent of Dam project along with other projects. Dugger Edwards, Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, told the Gazette-Times Monday that it would be guesswork to deter mine "how many people would move here or live in the community because of the anticipated dam construc tion." However, with the proposed project starting in fiscal year, 1980, the Corps projects 35 in 1980, 140 in 1981, 155 by 1982, and 22 by 1983, the year of the Mayor urges study of future water sources Authorization for the Phase I Master Water Study of Willow Creek was given last week by the Heppner City Council which approved a $10,000 contract with Barrett and Associates, an engineer ing consulting firm. As the study continues and more money becomes avail able, the city will pay another $5,000 to the firm, according to Mayor Jerry Sweeney. Sweeney and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials are confident that President Jimmy Carter will sign legis lation September 17 allocating $3.2 million for the proposed Willow Creek Dam project. The plans also call for relocation of the city's water reservoir in Willow Creek Canyon and restoration of an old water line, connecting the Wrestling program sought in school district A group of citizens and students interested in having a -school district wrestling pro gram will submit a list of petitions in favor of the proposal Monday night at the Morrow County School Dis trict meeting beginning at 8 p.m. at the District office in Lexington. Ken Hutchison, one of the backers of the proposal, said he has eight or nine pages of petitions to submit to the board. He said a wrestling program would provide "a real benefit to a great many kids." The county school board turned down a request at its August meeting to add cross country to the sports program citing the need to cut down on gasoline use and the expense of adding other sports. The petitions for the wrest ling program were collected last spring and the drive restarted this fall through the efforts of Hutchinson and Dick Rice. city wells on Willow Creek to the city limits, with a new system. . Mayor Sweeney also asked Councilman Cliff Green and the other members of the city water committee to consider a hydrological study of the wells, the city's primary source of water relative to the future potential of the Willow Creek watershed. Sweeney says no such study has ever been made of the water resources and he wants to know how much water will be available 25 years from now. He noted that Rock Creek recently went dry and years ago, the ghost town of Hard man was no longesr used as a stage coach run because its well dried up. The extent of the proposed study would be from the water resources from the headwat ers of Willow Creek at the falls at the top of Coal Mine Hill above Willow Creek to the city of Heppner. In the September 6, 1929 issue of the Heppner Gazette Times, it was reported that 50 years ago, the first well-drilling efforts were made on Willow Creek from authoriza tion by the city council. An ordinance was approved by the Council regulating removal of abandoned vehi cles on city streets or parked on private property. Passage of the ordinance is expected to provide City Police Chief Dean Gilman more authority to deal with the problem and part of the enabling legislation to cities granted by the states. The Council signed an agreement with Peck's Auto Salvage to remove the vehicles. Annetta Spicer named Deputy District Attorney Annetta Spicer, attorney with the Heppner firm of Abrams, Kuhn and Spicer, has been named as the new Deputy District Attorney by Morrow County Prosecutor Dennis Doherty. Spicer, a 1977 graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland and a 1972 graduate of Portland State University is married to Bill Kuhn, also a partner in the firm. The couple has one child, Phillip Aaron Spicer-Kuhn. After graduation from Port land State where she majored in special education, Ms. Spicer taught special educa tion for two years at the Clackamas Intermediate Edu cation District. She is active with the Methodist Church and AAUW. At present, she and her husband are actively engaged in fixing up their home. The new deputy district attorney will work part-time in the position during the month of September and starting October 1 will work full-time. anticipated completion date. There could be anywhere from 30 to 300 families and according to the Corps, the impact of the anticipated dam construction would fall mainly on the school system. After land acquisition pro ceedings are carried out and contracts let for the various construction phases, the Corps expects to have a firmer idea of what to expect. "Several years ago, people would have commuted from Tri Cities to Heppner but with the higher costs of energy, it's out of range," Edwards said. One thing which would help the situation, the official said, would be installation of a trailer court. Board to select Administrator Frederick Martin, chair man of the Pioneer Memorial Hospital board, said the hospi tal directors will meet Mon day, Sept. 17, to select a new hospital administrator. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the conference room of the Columbia Basin Electric Co-operative. "This is a meeting of the board to make a decision," Martin said. "We have the resumes of a couple c candidates and a choice will be made." . Nii niiill ... jj Festival Fun Seekers Children enjoyed themselves on a float in Saturday's Harvest Festival Parade in Boardman. There were 45 entries in the annual parade including horse groups and antique cars. Harold Peck of Heppner won the antique car division and the Morrow County Fair and Rodeo Court was voted the best of the royalty. estival celebrates harvest time Boardman celebrated the end of summer Saturday and Sunday with its Harvest Festival activities. The highlight of the annual celebration was Saturday's Festival parade drawing 45 entries incli.j g many color ful floats. Inland Empire Bank of Boardman won the com- ercial division of floats and The Tops Club placed second. In the non-commercial divi sion, the Boardman-Tillicum Club placed first trailed by the Boardman Community Church in second place. The specialty division was won by Kay Trumbull, the Boardman Lions Club's Mother of the Year pedaling a three wheeled bicycle. Harold Peck and the Morrow County Historical Society claimed first prize in the antique car division and in second place was an old truck owned by the Riekkola Farms of Boardman. The custom car-boat division was won by Mike Denton with his display of a racing boat. The Morrow County Court, Queen Debora Palmer and her two Princesses, Lori Edwards and Jennifer Wenholz, won the royalty division and Gilliam County placed second. The novelty horse group was won the Combewood-Hackney New workers escalate housing demand in Heppner area Highway construction be tween Heppner and Lexing ton, anticipated influx of workers to construct the proposed Willow Creek Dam and new teachers have school, industry and real estate offi cials searching the area for available housing. The biggest demand for housing, according to Bob Harris of Northwestern Real Estate in Heppner, is for mobile home parks. "People are buying mobile homes, then expecting to find places for them. While they look, they are paying their monthly payments." Harris says county zoning regulations are a factor in discouraging mobile home developments around Hepp ner, citing the 20-acre mini mum lot size in farm-zones property. Asked about the situation, County Planning Director Dean Seeger said there was little land around Heppner which was zoned farm resi dential, which would allow development of one-acre mobile home tracts, and he doubted whether the State Land Conservation and De velopment Commission would allow such development out side the city's urban growth boundary. Harris says he generally has 4 or 5 inquiries a week from people interested in purchas ing retirement property as well as interest in mobile home property from Kinzua workers. Workers from the temporary construction area between Heppner and Hermis ton are also searching for housing further adding to the heavy demand for housing in the south end of Morrow County. Recently, the Heppner City Planning Commission ap proved conditional permits for location of trailers on existing plats within the city in R-2 zoned property. Asked by the G-T if there had been any proposals from citizens to enlarge the farm residential zoning around the urban growth boundaries of Heppner, See ger said no. The housing crunch has been with the community for a number of years and local school principals in Heppner, Don Cole and Jim Bier, have been helping out new teachers by finding available housing. Principal Don Cole said he was able to find housing for nine teachers. "We really have been fortu nate and since the first of September, have been doing pretty good." Cole said the rumor M 1, has made the rounds in Heppner that several teachers decided not to accept positions with the school system be cause of the housing situation was probably not accurate, but could have been in the early stages of the teacher recruitment process. Says Cole: "It's tight, but it's not impossible to find housing." Many landlords locally pre fer renting to teachers, says Cole. "This town could still use a half dozen rentals," he said. The Elementary principal remembers that in 1961 when he first came to this commu nity with his wife that housing was also tight but they have managed to find housing ever since. Cole has personally loaned his old home to a teacher without housing. He has known teachers who would like to install their trailers on lots here but could not find property. Allen Nistad. owner of the Evergreen Apts. in Heppner and general manager of the Kinzua Corporation, said the apartments have 40 on the waiting list. At one time, there was a committee attempting to alle viate the housing crunch in Heppner. according to Cole, but il obtained only verbal committments to create mor. housing in the city. To newcomers to the city in search of apartments, the effort can sometimes be frustrating. Some come to the city and find nothing for the first two or three weeks; others are lucky and find what they are looking for in a matter of days. At present, there is no housing referral agency in the south end of the County. House and apartment hunters scan the want ads in the Gazette Times, check with Far Wes tern Real Estate or listen to word of mouth news about someone leaving. Word of mouth is apparently the easiest means of locating a place to live. Office closed Sept. 17 -21 The Heppner office of the Motor Vehicles Division will be closed Sept. 17 through Sept. 21. Manager Rose Mc Coy says the one week interruption of service is needed to allow her to attend an office managers confer ence in Portland. Pony Farm of Mosier, Oregon and winning the horse division group award was the Mustang 4-H group of Irrigon. In second place was the Melvin Bozarth family which wore buckskins in the morning parade. The adult winner in the individual horse division class was Mary Thompson of Boardman riding a Tennessee walking horse and junior division winner Betty Slocumb and Karen Carlso of the Boardman Community Club. The festival started with a barbecue Friday night and on Saturday morning before the parade, a breakfast was held. Following the parade, a produce auction was held with the sale of produce, a beef, airplane rides, merchandise donated by Boardman mer chants, grape plants from the local winery, gravel, lube and oil and other miscellaneous items. There were games at the Boardman Park and a pet show with awards to most unusual. On Sunday, hydroplane races were held on the Columbia River. Port meeting slated Thursday in Heppner The Port of Morrow Com mission meets Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Bank of Eastern Oregon in Heppner. On the agenda were to be discussion of a proposed foreign trade zone by Vern Chase. of the Port of Portland, effluent land lease, Gourmet bonding, techite pipe update, effluent system improvement plan "A" revised, R.L. Jensen Associates proposal, center pivot payments, port revol ving plan, the Morrow County Court and Charles Lands- , kroner of Union Pacific Kail-road. (''. . . :
