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
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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.