Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 1980)
FOUR-The Heppner Gaiette-Tlmes, lleppner, Oregon, Thursday, July 3, 1980 - - 'w;,""t- '! , ' I n- j " -Z". .I- jLZ' "y s -fl Proposed County (Coo tinned ha Page 1) Director Don Briggs. She said he started here after coming from a 26 .000 job in Multno mah County and he took a cut for four months at a rate of 22.360. Krebs promised him he would make $24,960 beginning in July and she will not go back on her word. Krebs said he has a lot of responsibility taking care of tshe county grounds, county buildings, solid waste, airport and the roads and bridges and he has done it without an office, secretary or book keeper. She said a road crew of 18 needs a director and Briggs must inspect all of the bridges in the county by Sept.l. He is an engineer and in managment and it takes 1 1 rJloFtro vj County j j imln Gtrooir s n ! Closed Friday & Safurdayj j II JuBy 5 II Eif eetiue liuly 1 llo outside burning within City Limits of lleppner St. Jude'a Children's "Wheels For Life" EIK - A - Ruggs to lone City Park cltitllTClcl July 19 Registration Ruggs 8:30 a.m. Departure 9:30 a.m. Lunch served at lone city Park for all participate a Prizes for both boys and girls Rides will be available from Market in Lexington, and lone rides. ..Departure time from these ..Pledge cards are available at Pel's Market. Lexington, and ''thaspovi'''''' !e!nmlia Basin "Scfvmf Mffw, WIimIt The gamt AotcI fnfam to dump a scoop load of that kind of money fo get a man with his qualifications, she said. All county employess will receive a cost of living pay increase of 1 1 .4 percent. Assessor Greg Swwek said Morrow county property own er are lucky because this county is the richest county per capita in the state and the utilities pay for 49 percent of the county taxes (Portland General Electric pays one third ) so the tax rates are low compared to the rest of the state. On the Austust 26 or Sept. 16 ballot, depending on whether an "emereencv election" was declared yesterday by the county court or not, voters will FlrtChltf Forrl DrfcnbhM if THOM lleppner City Park. Del'sl City Park for those needing points is H::WI a.m. Murray's Irugs. lleppner Bank of K.O.. lone. Ekctstc CcksiI and Gilliam Ctmlhl" oatl into the 130 ton track budget cut $98,100 see the figure $1,014,082 which is outstanding the six percent Imitation increase allowed by law. The total requirement needed to balance the budget from county taxes is $1,577, 072. The Morrow county Salary Committee met with members of the public June 27 to discuss county salaries for both elect ed officials and county em ployees. Greg Sweek, county asses sor and chairman of the salary committee, invited about eight members of the com munity to present their view on what they think would be an adequate salary for county workers. Krebs opened the meeeting by saying, "The county is in serious trouble after the defeat of the budget." Represented on the salary committe were Sharon Biddle, secretary at the district at torney's office; Greg Sweek, county assessor; Norma Groce, mental Health secret ary; Dorothy Krebs, county commissioner; Barbara Bloodworths. county clerk; and Margo Sherer, county tax collector. Missing were Pat Wright county nurse and Deane Seeger, county plan ner. Merlin Cantin said he talked to approximately 55 people about the county budget. He said 15 of them did not vote but said they would next time because the vote was so close (June 24. ) Cantin said 25 voted "no" and 15 "yes". Of the 25 that voted no, the main objection they had to the county budget as previously proposed was wages and elected officials salaries. Cantir said the second pro blem is the amount spent on roads. "People are not happy with I Umatilla Ready -Mix is Still in Business in Heppner Cement deliveries scheduled twice weekly to South Morrow County Regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays call collect ti - 567 - 6173 for dispatch the way money has beeen spent on roads in the past," Cantin said. "I have made my own personal complaint to the county court. I have asked for for some gravel to be put on a road near my home and I was told I would have to wait my turn because the gravel trucks are in the north end (of Morrow County.)" Cantin criticized the county for not sticking with an independent study that was done in 1977. "Studies cost the taxpayers money and when my money is spent, I would like to see them use that study, " he said. "That study was done by an outside group and I object to Dode (Dorothy Krebs) doing a salary study." Krebs said that study done by LPGI was not working because there were no job descriptions in it while the one she has proposed and recom mended be adopted by te county does include job de scriptions. Krebs said II 4 percent of the wage increases is for the cost of living so any thing more than that is the raise. Elected county officials would would have received any where from a 20 to 45 percent increase if the county budget padded June 24. Sweek said the state aver age for elected officials is $21,720 and Morrrow County was asking for $19,618. He asked Steve Powell what he thought a fair wage would be. Powell said he thought the salaries as proposed' ma v be fair but that it was too big of a jump all at once for the voters. He said elected u. ficials should receive about 18.500 and the judge about $21 .000 instead of the proposed $19,618 and $25,000 Reclaiming land important . The following Is the second of a two part series on the trip made by lleppner Gaiette Times News Editor Steve Powell to the Amnx Coal Mines In Gillette. Wyoming. By Steven A. Powell Reclamation is an ongoing process at the two Amax Coal Mines in Gillette. Wyoming. It , is also the area with the most government supervision, said Amax Media Relations Repre sentative Don Warfield. Reclamation is the con ' touring and rebuilding of the land once the coal is removed. Reclamation on the land mines is a continuing process. When topsoil is dug up in one area, it is moved to another area lor the finishing touches for reclamation. After the ' topsoil is put on. the land is contoured as close as possible to how the land originally was. Of course with the coal gone, it is at a lower elevation. The overburden soil is transported the same way. Recontoured overburden is covered with 18 to 24 inches of topsoil before seeding. To finish off the reclama tion, seeds and trees are planted to cut down erosion. Meadowlark Farms Inc., a In last year's budget, elected officials received about $16,000 and the county judge about $17,000. Powell said it would still be a healthy increase but instead of the county ofticials receiving a 21 percent increase, they would have about a 15 percent increase of a 45 percent increase for the judge, he would get about a 23 percent increase. With the cost of living factor, that would mean about a four percent raise for the county elected officials and an 11 percent raise for the judge "In one year, I do not think we should try to make up for the past 30 years (of county officials being underpaid)." Cantin said. "I will not support it." it." Heppner golfer makes top 8 Former Heppner golfer Charles Rawlins placed in the top eight at the recent Oregon Amateur Golfing Champion ship He was one of 32 partici pants in the tourney. He made the cut to the top 16 after the first two days of golf and then went on to make the top eight on the final. "My driving was good but my putting was off. Rawlins reported. $1,000 grand prize given A $1000 grand prize will be awarded in the Sixth Annual Poetry Competition sponsored by the World of Poetry, a quarterly newsletter for poets. poems of all styles and on any subjects are eligible to compete for the grand prize or for 49 other cash or merchan dise awards. Rules and official entry forms are available from World of Poetry. 24.11 Stockton Blvd. .Dept. N, Sacramento, California 95817 Eon McDonald Thank You, one Ik all for making our grand openinga smashing success!! subsidiary of Amax, farms and ranches Amax Coal mines before and after they are mined. The goal of the Amax reclamation program is to return the mined areas to productive dryland farming and rangeland. Cotton wood and willow trees and rock formations are planted In selected areas and streams and creeks are reformed to resemble the original body of water. There are about 541 acres at the two mines in various stages of the permanent reclamation. At the Belle Ayr Mine, in 1979,156 acres were affected by mining and another 180 acres were seeded in the reclamation process that re stores mined land to agricult ural use About 1,000 trees were plant on reclaimed areas of the mine last year. At the Eagle Butte Mine, the younger of the two Amax Mines, the reclamation pro cess is not as advanced. Last year, 78 teres of land were affected by the mine and 20 acres were seeded. Randall Shinn. reclamation supervisor, said the goal of his job is to get the land "back to productivity that equals or exceeds its abilities previous to the mining of It." Shinn said he must make sure the new reclaimed land scape is stable and will not erode so it can be used as farm land. The success of the reclamation process is judged by the productivity of the land. The reclamation work force has 15 employees and a $3 million budget. Studies have been done on how the mining affects the supply of antelope and small mammals in the area and Shinn says the effect seeems tn hp minimal Despite all of the mining activity, antelope, deer , rabbits and other animals can be seeb within only a few yards of the mine. Shinn and Warfield agreed rmt-mummimwfA H0tmm a Mini mini m i mi mi n ibkwmb iiiiii w - v ( 1) j - r V' , I J Bud MmhiU ukt Ruaont biuod pnmnn to mike mm mvrjthiag k aoiif anomhly. Marshalls cautious with kidney machine (CootiniMd iron Pig 1) everything that is done, "Nurlition is very important because of the loss of nutrients while I am on the kidney machine." Mrs. Marshall said Other precautions also have to be taken. Bud Marshall has to wear (7(y(j2 I Unc that it should be up to the states to monitor the coal mines. The federal govern ment first got Involved with the Surface Mine Reclamation Act of 1977. When the federal government sets the reclam ation standards, It Is the same for all states and It should not be that way because states have different types of climate and land, Shinn said. "Have to use some of the same type of reclamation practices that they do In southeast states even though the lands are quite different," Shinn said. Shinp added that in 1980. the states are scheduled to regain control of the supervision of the mines but the federal government will still make inspections. Currently the mines are inspected quarterly by the state and twice a year by the federal government but with the states In control, they will inspect the mines monthlv with the federal government inspecting quarterly. "If we do not do what theydhe Inspector) tell us to, thev can fine us or close us down," Shinn said. Even though Amax owns the and. it has to lease the rights to mine It from the federal government. The present lea se for the Belle Ayr Mine runs to the late 1990's and the lease for the Eagle Butte Mine runs until 2015. Warfield said the federal government has not allowed new leases for coal mining in the U.S. since 1971. Amax owns the land it ines and plans to either sell it back to private owners or lease the land to farmers after the land has been mined and reclaimed. Amax owns 6.000 acres at the Eagle Butte Mine and 4.000 at the Belle Ayr -Mine. Geologists say it is 600 feet to the next coal seam so to mine that would be unecon omical using toduv's mining mrthiHls. Warfield said. The City of Gillette is a sterile gloves whenever he works with the kidney mach ine equipment. He takes her blood pressure periodically and watches her weight very closely to make sure it does not fluctuate too much. The kidney dialysis machine is cleaned once a week with formaldehyde and once a month with Purex. "We run tests to make sure it is cleaned out." Bud Marshall said "It tells us if something is wrong. It (the machine) has a blood leak (teds Grasshoppers Canvas Casuals 1 oe to Amax young, the average age Is 25, boom town that has grown from a town the size of Heppner in the I9MVs to 7,000 In r population In the 1960's be cause of the oil booom and then 18.000 now with the coal movemnet. "The city was drilling for water recently and struck oil but we need water worse thannil" Warfield said. There Is only three unem ployment in Campbell county and they have "an excellent school system with a $36 million budget for 5,000 stud ents." Warfield said. The county gets 14 Inches of rain a year and wheat farmers get an average of22 bushels per acre. The Amax company has a good working relationship with Its employees. Amax employees voted to stay non union in 1979 by91.5 percent.The reason, accord ing to Warfield is because "We treat our people right." Warfield said they deal with their employees face to face, one on one. The mines are operating 365 days a year but the pay is "good" he savs. A starting general laborer can make $11.50 an hour or $28,000 to 30.000 a year. Amax recei ves about 4.000 applications a year and has about a nine percent turnover. And the Amax Mines are sale too. At one time, accord ing to Warfield. thev went three years without having an accident. Underground mines are more dangerous Ihun surface mines. "he said , The surface mines are also ' very clean. The machine operators work in air condi tioned cabs so they do not even get dirty. We looked all over the mines trying to find a dirtv miner and could not find one. "We don't build the sexiest mines, but we build the most efficient." Warfield conclud ed "We have to tM-causdc it is our onlv business." detector. If everything is not right, a beeper goes off." Bud Marshall shoots a syringe full of the anti-coagu-lunt "hepper" inyo the blood lines to prevent his wife's blood from clotting. "If there is too much hepper. she can bleed too easy," he said. "Someone has to he around nil the time to watch the machine to see if her bloid pressure drops or if she needs a soda cracker to prevent muscle cramps." 6t atf H wl'I b cktd July 4-5 Joe, Joan, Eon McDonald 676-9146 4
