Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1979)
L. l; The Heppner (See page 8 for shopping specials) A. 'u"ii'ii-ji'MJb Morrow County's Home-Owned Weekly Newspaper S ,, ... ,1 ) VOL. 97 NO. 43 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1979 20 cents 14 pages HEPPNER, OREGON ri -livsrn i ill IkWi I N v r fc ;j l J A -rr-C-. 1 ' , 'Moonlight Madness' sale set tomorrow night Heppner merchants will open their doors Friday night, from 7 to 9 p.m., for their Halloween "Moonlight Mad ness" sale. Randall Peterson, chairman of the Retail Merchants Com mittee of the Heppner-Morrow County Chamber of Com merce, said the sales tradi tionally have drawn a good response from the buying public. Store owners and their clerks are to don costumes appropriate to the Halloween theme, he said, and customers will have the chance to vote on their favorites. Coupons will be distributed for the voting. As part of the promotion for the sale, junior high school students have prepared post ers under the direction of their teacher, Ron Forrar, and these have been placed in store windows. Cash prizes of $20, $15 and $10 are to be awarded first, second and third place winners. "Many of our students are participating in this Hallo ween activity," Forrar said. "The poster art is part of the design portion of the occupa tional versatility program at Heppner Junior High School," he explained. "Simplicity and readability are just a few of the many design guidelines which the students are re quired to follow when creating their works of art for the Halloween decor in downtown Heppner." The Chamber of Commerce will host the winners to a restaurant dinner. To add a festive air, Peterson said, student cheer leaders from Heppner High School are to sell hot cider at various locations downtown. Prior to the sale Friday night, stores are to observe their regular closing hours and then reopen for the sale at 7 p.m. Columbia Basin Cooperative plans 40 percent rate increase Randall Peterson, chairman of the Retail Merchants Committee, prepares his jewelry store for the "Moonlight Madness" sale. Queen Edwards Rate increases averaging 40 percent systemwide have been authorized for customers of Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative, Inc., effective in December, Fred R. Toombs, manager, has announced. He said the increases were authorized by directors of the cooperative this past week under the pressure of a pioposal by the Bonneville Power Administration to in crease its wholesale rates by County rodeo royal court chosen Lori Edwards of Lexington was recently chosen to be the rodeo queen for Morrow County next year and Nancy Miller and Lottie Laughlin will be the princesses. Edwards is the daughter of John and Dorothy Edwards, 360 S. B St. in Lexington. She goes to school at lone High School and participates in volleyball and basketball. She was a princess last year and was one of four applicants to apply to be queen. Nancy Miller and Lottie Laughlin were chosen to be the princesses by the rodeo board. Miller is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tad Miller, also of Lexington, t'he goes to school at Heppner High School. She is active in 4-H, 4-H horse shows, 4-H riding club and volleyball and basketball at the high school. She helped out at the Heppner rodeo last year by carrying a flag and that helped her in being named princess, according to Faye Seitz, court director of the rodeo board. Laughlin also helped out at the rodeo last year by carry ing a flag. She is active in sports at Heppner High school She participates in volleyball, basketball, golf and swim ming. She also enjoys horse back riding. "She is reliable, cheerful, easy going and is a good rider in rodeos which is mandatory for a princess," Seitz said. Laughlin is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Laugh lin, 265 East Cannon in Heppner. A requirement for queen is that the candidate must have been a princess in either of two previous years. Princes ses must 16 years of age or a junior in high school. Applicants for princess had to fill out an application. All the Morrow County High Schools had applications. The candidates for queen do not have to fill out an application because the rodeo board picks someone who has already been a princess. "We used to have more girls before but now more girls are in the rodeo itself so there are not as many trying to be queen and princesses," Seitz said. Seitz added this year the fair board had an opportunity to have a say in the choosing of the royal court but only one member showed up. Edwards, Miller and Laugh lin will represent Morrow County at the rodeos in Spray, Arlington, Condon, Umatilla, Hermiston, Boardman and at two rodeos in Pendleton and Heppner. Seitz said the num ber of rodeos have been cut down because of the cost of gas. "We used to go to LaGrande for an overnight trip but with the cost of gas, we though parents would be more willing to take the girls if they only have to go to the closer ones," Seilz said 90 percent. The new rates will go into effect with the meter readings in December or by Dec. 23, Toombs said. Discussion of the rate hikes and the cooperative's current cost-of -service study will be on the agenda for the annual meeting to be held in Condon Nov. 7. The meeting, open to all members of the cooperative and their families, will be held in the Condon Elks Club at 117 South Main Street. Registra tion will star t at 1 1 a .m . Lunch will be served at noon, and the business meeting will follow at 1:15 p.m. Toombs said rates will be increased by 37.6 percent for residential, general service and large users; by 45 percent for irrigation customers, and 56.1 percent for street and security lighting. A letter is to be sent to all customers "explaining the dollars and cents of the rate increases," Toombs said. V If -? i -k -Mios" mm v . ) v ,. .11 - " - rr " mm " if ' New Morrow County Judge Donald C. McElligott was sworn into office by Sadie Parrish, county clerk, last Friday. McElligott sworn in a new county ju Donald C. McElligott is the new county judge of Morrow County, having been appoin ted by Gov. Vic Atiyeh and sworn in by Sadie Parrish, county clerk, in an informal ceremony in the judge's office last Friday. He succeeds County Judge Delwin O. Nelson, who re signed. McElligott, a farmer and former county school board member for 10 years, will serve until Jan. 1, 1981, under the current appointment. If he wishes to retain the office beyond that date, he will have to seek election in 1980. McElligott will serve as chairman of the three-member county commission and, as judge, preside over the Morrow County Juvenile Court. Because of nature of the the judicial position, the vacancy created by Nelson's resignation had to be filled by the governor's appointment. The new judge had to be in the same political party as Nelson, who is a Democrat. The job currently pays $17,028 per year. Atiyeh 's appointment of Mc Elligott, announced from Sa lem Wednesday morning, Oct. 17, came as a surprise to many local people, for the Morrow County Democratic Central Committee had nominated former sheriff John Mollahan for the vacancy. Denny Miles, press secre tary to the governor, said about 50 letters and telephone calls had been received in support of McElligott's ap pointment. The governor's office was not represented at the swearing-in ceremony because of the necessity to fill the position quickly, Miles said. There were a number of juvenile cases pending that needed prompt attention. McElligott had the distinc tion recently of being desig nated as one of 10 representa tive farmers from throughout the United States to receive Communion from Pope John Paul II at Des Moines, Iowa. Daniel Creamer of Irrigon, a retired Columbia River tugboat skipper, gave the following statement to the Heppner Gazette-Times: "I would like to thank the residents of Morrow County for their support of me in letters to the Governor's Office" for the position of county judge. Creamer had sought the appointment in an application sumbitted directly to Atiyeh, and had made a bid for the Morrow County Democratic Central Committee's nomina tion, which went to former sheriff John Mollahan. 'Quite an experience9 jl nr iiiy jxjim mswxa hat s p - --- - -rl A - w X - - II I,, .- Morrow County princess Lottie Laughlin, queen Lori Edwards and princess Nancy Miller will represent the county at the various rodeos in the area next year. Morrow County's new judge, Don McElligott, spoke at the Chamber of Commerce meeting Monday in Heppner. "I have only been judge for two hours so I can't talk much about that so I will talk about my visit to see the Pope," McElligott said. "It was quite an experience." McElligott said he was one of 10 rural people selected to represent the rural communi ties in the United States when Pope John Paul II came to Des Moines, Iowa on his recent visit to the United States. A farmer in Des Moines invited the Pope to the city to talk about the farming problem. "Bishops of the Catholic Church realize there is a farm problem," McElligott said. "Farmers are moving off the land and rural towns are folding up. The soil in Iowa would make anybody here die of envy. With the high interest rates, young people are not able to get into business. "Farms are getting smaller there," he went on. "Farm land six years ago that cost $1,000 an acre is now $3,000 an acre. Inflation is so fast. The rural people back there are religious people. That's why its called the 'Bible Belt.' But the farms are going to pieces and people are moving out and being retrained for other jobs." McElligott said the Pope comes from a rural area in Poland so he has sympathy for the farmers. He said he did not know why he was selected to represent the northwest in front of the Pope. "It was a dream-type thing," he said. "I was one of the five men and five women to have communion with the Pope." McElligott said the other people who took communion with him included people from Vermont, Texas, Montana, California and Louisiana. The Californian was a Chicano woman who worked all her life in the lettuce fields and she put her kids through college with that job. The black man from Louisi ana worked in the cane fields all his life and he was self educated. "He was a devout Baptist and when the TV people found that out, they never inter viewed anyone else," McElli gott said. The reason he may have been chosen even though he was a Baptist, McElligott said, is because he is working in Louisiana to educate the cane field workers with voca tional training for other jobs. The Baptists and the Catholics are working together in that project. McElligott said Interstate 80 was blocked for eight miles to provide parking for all the people who came to see the Pope. He said the crowd was estimated to be more than 350,000. "Just to see the crowd was an experience," McElligott said. "I have never seen 350,000 of anything. There must have been 2,500 sanitary facilities. It was the most God awful bunch of humanity you ever saw. There was a monumental traffic jam and I missed my plane. "They expected six babies to be born and 30 fatal heart attacks to occur," McElligott said. "But I don't think there were any deaths or babies." McElligott said the message from the Pope was that Christian rural people should have gratitude for all their great gifts. The Pope said the stewardship of the soil is a God-given duty and the farm ers must preserve the soil for their kids by using the best scientific methods for croD cont. on page 12 Weather by Don Gilliam Hi Low Pre. Tues.,Oct. 16 68 45 Wed., Oct. 17 62 36 Thurs.,Oct. 18 51 40 .36 Friday., Oct. 19 55 44 .54 Sat., Oct. 20 53 37 .31 Sun., Oct. 21 55 40 .26 Mon.,Oct. 22 ;'-8 47
