Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1981)
The Heppner GAZETTE-TIMS Precip. VOL. W. Third record wheat harvest With 90 percent of this year's harvest completed, it looki like another record wheat crop for Morrow County farmer. According to figures supplied by the county Extension office, total wheat production should be up around seven percent over last year. With 200,000 acres in production this year, the county is expected to harvest "about 10.8 million bushels of wheat," says county Extension Agent Bob Costa. Costa emphasized that the figures were still predictions, but this year would still be another record breaker. Last year the county harvested 9,960,000 bushels of wheat, and the year before that 8 3 million, which makes this year's harvest the third record breaker in a row. Favorable weather conditions and advances in agricultur al science were the reasons for the big harvest, said Costa. "Most Morrow County growers planted the potentially high-yielding, disease resistant winter wheat variety "Stephen"," Costa said. "With the modern wheat farming techniques of early seeding, fertilization, and the use of herbicides, the improved varieties can respond to favorable weather and give outstanding yields," he added. In a break-down between dry land and irrigated the projected figures look like this: 19B1 200.0(10 170.000 30,000 10 8 million bb 7,990.000 2,850.000 Total acreage Iry land Irrigated Total Yield Dry Land Irrigated Aver. Yield acre Dryland Irrigated 54 2 bb-acre 47 bb-acre 95 bb-acre Morrow County Gr.in Growers General Manager Larry Mills, as well as Costa, said total acreage in wheat in the county this year was down, because some farmers put in barley instead "For this county the barley was heavy," said Mills. He estimated about 370.OO0 bushels of barley would be taken in, against a normal harvest of about 100.000. "It's three to four times as good a yield," he said. Despite the gxd showing on hurley. Mills said he doesn't see a lot of it in the future for the county. "I don't see a lot of barley down the road. I think it will fall back." He said the price on barley has been good the past couple of years, but "You need good spring rains." Part of the reason for a good wheat harvest in the county, is the use of Stephens wheat by area farmers. "Stephens helped," says Mills, "but we have to have the spring rains." Both Mills and Costa pointed out that farmers may switch Boardman uses 911 emergency than Heppner, DA charges By MAKY ANN CEKUI.I.O Boardman uses the service of the 911 emergency number more than Heppner while paying the county less, Ann Spicer; district attorney, told Morrow County Court last Wednesday. For the use of the 911 emergency number, the city 4 tiOOl Wayne Plocharsky, John Kindle, Mike McBride and Will Welborn check city streets for trash early Saturday morning. The Scouts turned out to brighten city streets in time for Fair and Rodeo this week. Morrow County's NO. 35 1980 209,000 169,000 40,000 9 96 million bb 8.76O.O00 3,200,000 47 bb-acre 40 bb-acre 85 bb-acre of Heppner currently pays Morrow County a fee of $6,000 in addition to fines that the city collects. Boardman only pays the county in fines for the same service, stated Spicer. "The city of Boardman and the city of Heppner should be charged equally," Spicer told the court. County Court agreed to studv the matter. Tidying up for fair f (I LJ.i m . 1W' VT Home-Owned TIU'RSDAY. AUGUST 27. 1981 0 PACK8 r i I Q! . t . ... ,5' County Extension Agent Bob Costa checks out the wheat stored on the ground at North Lexington elevator. The county is experiencing its third record harvest in a row. - from Stephens to another strain later. "It's susceptible to winter kill." said Mills. "Stephens wheat has performed well and held its own against disease, but it's only a matter of time before a new disease type catches up with it," Costa adds. With the bumper crop for the past two years, the Morrow County Grain Growers has found a shortage of storage space. Mills said the co-op is now storing about 900.000 bushels on the ground at the North Lex elevator, and about 550,000 at its newly-opened Columbia River Hogue-Warner site. (Hogue-Warner opened up with 1.6 million bushels of under -cover storage at the start of harvest.) "There's no problem when it's stored on the ground." said Mills. "It holds up real well." In other business. Morrow County Court appointed Cathy Halvorsen to the Juvenile Service Commission, County Court next accepted the resignation of Ron Plug from the North Morrow Vec tor Control Board of Trustees and appointed John Jensen to fill Flug's four-year position. With the recent forest fires I v . Weekly Newspaper 20 CENTS for less within the county, the question of allowing county equipment to be put to private use was brought before Morrow County Court. County Court agreed" that the Forest Service would be allowed use of county equip ment, but otherwise Morrow County will not release equip ment for private use. Thanks to the efforts of local Cub Scouts, the Morrow County Search and Rescue team and concerned citizens, Heppner's streets look a little bit cleaner this week. Ten scouts from pack 661 turned out first thing Saturday morning to scour the main streets leading into town for trash . and debris, an effort which will spruce up the city before Fair & Rodeo this week. With the Search and Rescue team providing pickup trucks to haul the trash and local den mothers and Boy Scouts serving as flag holders, the boys took bright yellow bags and headed out from the city park to pick up trash along the main thoroughfares. After the work was done the boys gathered back at the city park for a treat of ice cream and soda pop donated by the three local grocery stores. MKPPNFK. OREGON Concerned consumers to present petitions to CBE Co-op Thurs. Following a well-attended meeting last Tuesday night, a group calling itself "concern ed consumers" will present petitions to the Columbia Basin Electric Co-op's board of directors Thursday asking that a recent electrical rate increase be rescinded, and replaced with one the group says is more fair to all classes of electrical users in the co-op. Headed by Dexter Miles and vie Groshens, the group held a meeting last Tuesday in the Heppner High School cafe teria. About 350 people attended to voice concern over a recently imposed rate increase which saw residential rates go up between 44 and 54 percent. The main concern of the group is that large users of electricity, mainly large irri gators, saw only between a 12 and 16 percent boost in their rates. "The rate schedules adopt ed on July 30th vary unjusti fiably from the rate study Its that time ; Heppner looking good The familiar crack of pads, shouts of enthusiasm and getting-back-into-shape exer cises returned to the Heppner High School football field this week, as Mustang football began gearing up for its 1981 season. The Mustangs are looking pretty good this year, with 16 returning lettermen and a total of 45 boys out for the team - and Coach John Sporseen is pleased. "Forty five is a pretty good turnout." Sporseen told the Gazette-Times. VAnd we've got nine senior lettermen and seven junior lettermen return ing." Although the offense has six returning starters from last year, Sporseen says there are still some holes to be filled, and starting positions to be sorted out. "The interior of the offen sive lines looks pretty strong." the coach said in assessing the Mustang offensive unit. But he adds, the end positions, although there are some good candidates, are still up in the air as to who will play there. In the backfield the quarter back spot is apparently a toss up between Jeff Orr and Doug Holland. Last year's starter John Bier has graduated. "Those are the two leading candidates right now, said Sporseen. Holland has some experience at the QB spot, however, either he or Orr could play the spot. "They'll both play, somewhere," said Sporseen. At the running backs, John Murray, Doug Holland and Earl Hammond look to be strong there, but the coach says nothing is for sure this year until he has a chance to look over all the candidates. The Mustangs open the season September II against Weston-McEwen at Heppner. In the interior offensive line, Sporseen points to six players "with good potential." Lee Rice, Wes Marlatt, Bruce Way, Jeff Sumner, Don Kinds father and Mike Nolan could be the picks. Weather JY THE CITY OF IIEPPNKIt Tues., Aug. 18 Wed, Aug. 19 Thurs., Aug. 20 Fri.,Aug.21 Sat., Aug. 22 Sun., Aug. 23 Mon.,Aug.24 recommendations. As adopt ed, they allocate increased costs of service and power unfairly among co-op custom ers. Residential and smaller business consumers will incur significant increases and pay rates disproportionately high compared to the quantities of energy consumed by them. Larger consumers will incur smaller increases and pay rates disproportionately low despite their increasingly greater requirements for pow er," said a petition that has been circulated around town and will be presented to the board of directors Thursday. Aug. 27. Last Tuesday's meeting was orderly, and several members of the co-op board of directors spoke to the crowd. Board Chairman Randall Peterson told the group that the co-op was facing possible legal action from the large irrigators if it had not been able to work out a compromise rate increase agreeable to both parties. A V" Grideon Coach John Gregg Conor, Mike Currin and Robert Bier could play at split end, says Sporseen. As far as offensive forma tions, Sporseen says he plans to go with the I formation -split end, flanker and tight end. "We plan to pass more this year," he says. "I always say that but we do hope to do a little more than before." On defense, the Mustangs have only five returning starters from last year, how ever, three of those were all league. Lightning causes outage Lightning last Wednesday night iiMhe Heppner area took its toll1 Thursday in an hour-and-a-half-long power outage. According to Columbia Bas in Electric Co-op spokesper son. Bill Gentry, lightning the evening of Aug. 19 broke three high voltage (69,000 volt) insulators on one pole below the mill on Bunker Hill Road and another main feeder going into Heppner from Boardman. According to Gentry, broken insulators were too dangerous to be repaired "hot" and the damage necessitated the out age, since there is only one High Low 97 63 1 49 88 45 83 49 89 52 92 49 81 48 He said the irrigators, who had hired their own rate analysts and attorney, had contested an earlier study done by the co-op laying down new rate increases. The irrigators had contend ed that the study was "dis criminatory" against their class. It would have raised their rates by about 43 percent. Residential would have gone up by about 35 percent. In July rate analysts from the co-op and the irrigators reportedly arrived at a com promise rate schedule which drove large irrigators' rates down, and residential and others users rates up. "We petition the board to rescind its July 30th rate decision and to adopt the rate recommended by the rate analysts who were retained by ihe Co-op to study the rates structure," says the petition. Peterson told the meeting Tuesday that a court battle between the co-op and the . 1 1 -w,- yyixi , ,v r S , : t- ':" Sporseen leads football players in exercises John Murray on the line, Dale Holland in the backfield and Earl Hammond at one linebacker spot were named to all league in 1980. Cliff Doherty and Lee Rice are the other returning start ers on defense. Sporseen says the line probably needs the most work this year, and he plans to switch to a four-man instead of five-man line this year to make up for weakness. "This year we'll run a four -four. Last year we went source of electricity coming into Heppner. Gentry said that the lightn ing also caused other minor damage to individual feeders. Fair results to appear in next G-T Fair results will not be published in this week's issue of the Gazette-Times. Complete Fair & Rodeo results will appear In the next several issues of the G-T. Xf7 large irrigators could have end up costing the co-op between $30 and $50 thousand. He said the court case might not have solved the problem anyway, and that a judge could possibly send the matter back to the co-op with orders to reach an agreement with the irrigators. Miles said last Tuesday that the first action of the concern ed consumers would be to present the petitions, which, he says, had over 350 signa tures, the day after they were distributed, to the board Thursday. "I think there's other ave nues to take." Miles told the group. "I think we should work through the board of directors. If the board fails to take action there are other avenues." He said another meeting ' would be called if the board doesn't change the rate in crease. He said the concerned consumers should not hire an attorney at this point. Nri ert mom iJr '" with a 5-2," he says. , In the kicking department, the Mustangs look good with returning kicker Doug Hol land handling the kickoffs and extra points. Punting duties are a toss-up between Orr and Holland, says Sporseen. Who to look out for in the league this year? "Sherman County will be strong. Weston McEwen looks to be good this year, and Watonka could surprise everyone, they could really improve," says the coach. HHS picnic planned Sept. 1 A picnic for all Heppner High School students and faculty will be held Sept. 1, the first day of school at the fairgrounds in Heppner, 3:30 p.m. Food and games will be provided but everyone is asked to bring his own drink. The two-hour picnic is to commemorate the beginning of the school year and incoming freshmen are sche- , duled to change the "H" formation and the year on the hill, said a school spokesperson.
