Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1999)
The personal side of mill closure U BESSIE OF ORE ïFTZELt I I . Jodi Brisbois works final days at Kinzua scale shack V VOL. 118_______NO. 6_______ 8 Pages Wednesday, February 10,1999 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Snow makes late arrival in Heppner !} I Logan Anthony, a third grader at Heppner Elementary School, shovels snow from his neighbor's driveway on Tuesday afternoon. Snow had fallen Monday evening and most of the day Tuesday in the Heppner area. Logan is the son of Ron and Maryanne Anthony. f 4 IUCC to collect Beanie Babies for Doernbecher's The lone United Church of Christ is collecting Beanie Babies for Doembecher Children's Hospital in Portland. "We hope to bring a little cheer to the children at Doembecher with the popular Beanie Babies," said an IUCC spokesperson. The toys will be delivered to Portland the first weekend in March. 4 . Anyone who would like to donate a Beanie Baby is asked to get them to Jannie Allen at 210 Third Street in lone or call 422- 7563 by March 1. Horse club sign-up set Sign up for the new Heppner 4-H horse club will be this Friday, Feb. 12, from 1-6 p.m. at PepCo. Enterprises on Main Street in Heppner, next to the DMV office. Those who would like to sign up, but who can't make the open sign up from 1-6 p.m. Friday, may call Connie Farrens, 676- 8080 at PepCo or 676-5591 evenings. Churches plan Lenten, Holy week services All Saints' Episcopal Church, Hope Lutheran Church and Valby Lutheran Church have released their Lenten and Holy Week worship schedules. Each Wednesday, beginning with Ash Wednesday, February 17, a soup and sandwich supper is planned at 6 p.m., followed by worship at 7 p.m. Worship will be based on the scriptural account of angelic activity and the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The Feb. 17 supper and worship is planned at Hope Lutheran, with the worship topic "A cherub with a flaming sword guarding the entrance to Eden"; Feb. 24-Valby Lutheran, "The angels on Jacob's ladder"; March 3-Hope Lutheran, "Angels cry, holy, holy, holy"; March 10-All Saints' Episcopal, "Christmas angels announce who 'will save his people from their sins"; March 17-Valby Lutheran, "Angels attended our Lord after his temptation"; March 24-Hope Lutheran, "Christ will come 'with all his holy angels"; Maundy Thursday, April 1 - All Saints, a Lord's Supper tableau-a dramatic recreation of the Last Supper in the upper room in Jerusalem on the night before Good Friday. The scene in the upper room is recreated according to Da Vinci's painting, "The Last Supper." Members of All Saints, Hope and Valby parishes will participate. Holy Communion will be a part of the service and the communion table is open to all. Everyone is invited to attend. Good Friday, April 2-All Saints and Hope Lutheran will be open for prayer, meditation and Bible reading. Easter Sunday, April 4-services to be held at each church. Museum offers evening hours The Morrow County Museum will be open for visitors and researchers until 8 p.m. on Wednesday evenings from February 17 through May 26. This trial period will determine if there is sufficient demand to warrant making the additional hours permanent. The museum's normal schedule is Tuesday through Saturdav from 1-5 p.m. The additional Wednesday hours will be from 5-8 p.m. Both the exhibits and the Genealogical Research Center will be available to the public. Rodeo court plans can drive The Morrow County Fair and Oregon Trail Pro Rodeo Court has planned a can drive in lone on Monday, Feb. 15, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For pick up, call Kathy Rankin, 676-9748, after 6 p.m. The seemingly endless line of loaded trucks, that for years rolled into the log yard is indeed coming to an end. The head ng, that cut so many logs, is weeks away from silence. The trimmers, loaders and other equipment needed to produce lumber, are now being eyed by auctioneers. And the end is in sight for the Kinzua saw mill. But forget the high sounding talk of changing economic times and the end of an industry. The end of this mill is the beginning of uncertainty for many of the people who work there. Perhaps no one typifies the personal side of a mill closure so much as Ron and Jodi Brisbois of Heppner. Both husband and wife work at the mill. She at the scale shack, he on a loader. The Bnsbois have a home here, raised a family here, and love the community. He coaches softball and basketball, she does the service work that helps keep a community together. But without a job, "times they are a changin'." • "I honestly don't know what we are going to do," says Jodi, as she looks out of the scale shack over the company where she's worked the past eight years. Her husband Ron has worked at Kinzua for 13 years. "Sometimes I imagine they will just come out and say it isn't so. That they refigured everything and they will be able keep the mill open." Then she is silent. "I can't believe it's happening. We've got to have faith that somehow God will take care of us. Down deep in my heart I just didn't believe that the mill would shut down," she says. Jodi says both she and Ron have applied for the jobs opening up at the Pilot Rock Mill, but "there is no guarantee. And that's a ways to drive," she says. Jodi says both she and Ron fell in love with Heppner after moving here from Hermiston. "We didn't like the school," she confides. "We wanted to come to a smaller town. In the sixth grade Nikki's (their now 25 year old daughter) friends were car dating. We said 'no thank you' and moved to Heppner." They bought their first home here, raised their daughter here, and enjoyed all the benefits small town living can bring. "This town has been good to us," says Jodi, who grew up in Condon and was a cheerleader in high school there. She still takes part in Mustang community pep rallies, and remembers the time several years ago at a basketball game in Pilot Rock, when the crowd was quiet and the Mustangs needed a pick up."I grabbed this basketball thing and put it on my head, and started getting the crowd pumped up. My daughter died a thousand deaths. But I got the crowd cheering," she recalls. "We absolutely love it here. The people here have been so good to us . We hate to leave. We had hoped to retire here." The Kinzua mill will close on March 14. One hundred thirty people will lose their jobs, 70 of those workers are from the Heppner, lone and Lexington areas. W illow Creek Park reservations can now be made on-line campground). The form is "simple to fill out and easy to operate", says David Sykes of the Heppner Gazette-Times, which developed the web page and reservation form for the park. People who would like to make reservations at the Willow Creek RV Park, can now do so on the Internet. A reservation form is part of the park's new web page at: www.heppner.net (click on Wal-Mart reps to come to Heppner Representatives from the Wal- Mart Distribution Center will be in Heppner to discuss career opportunities on Monday, February 15, from 2-3 p.m. and from 5-6 p.m. at the Bank of Eastern Oregon Operations Center conference room. Workers who may be displaced by the closure of Kinzua Resources are invited to attend. Salary ranges, benefits, job descriptions and other employment requirements will be discussed. The session is sponsored by the Heppner Economic Development Corporation. Flue bug strikes local students Cold and flu bugs have been out in force at Heppner and lone schools this past week. Around 25 percent of the students at Heppner High School were absent because of illness on Monday. Over 45 students missed school that day and 35 were absent Tuesday. Eighteen students were absent at lone in grades six to 12 Monday, which amounts to about 20 percent of the enrollment. MCGG Customer Appreciation Day Saturday The Morrow County Grain Growers will hold their annual Customer Appreciation Day this Saturday, Feb. 1, at their store in Lexington.. The day begins with a free pancake breakfast. Many door prizes will also be given away. A free 32 ounce pop will be given away at the convenience store with any fill up and door prizes will also be awarded there at 3 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend. Usually only three to 10 students in those grades are absent on a given day. At Heppner Elementary School Monday and Tuesday, 12 percent of the students missed school, compared to a usual day of eight to nine percent absentees. Thirty students were absent those days. Basketball teams have also been decimated by illnesses. The absences have mainly been attributed to the flu, colds and bronchial infections. HHS to sponsor baked potato-chili feed Governor’s visit cancelled The governor's visit to Heppner scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 9, was cancelled because of poor flying conditions. The Heppner High School (HHS) senior class is sponsoring a baked potato/chili feed on Sat urday, Feb. 13 from 2-6 p.m. in the HHS home ec. room. The feed will take place during the last HHS home basketball game against Culver. The meal will include baked potato, a choice of chili, broccoli cheese sauce or sour cream and cheese, and homemade bread, brownie and beverage. Proceeds from the dinner will go towards the Class of '9 9 ’s graduation trip to Disneyland The senior class will also be selling raffle tickets for a quilt made by Pam and Kristi Worden, a perpetual calendar made by Deena Reid and a hand-painted saw donated by John and Millie Hanna. The winning tickets will be drawn during halftime of the boys' game. GROWERS CHEMICAL MEETING Friday, February 12 ~ 8 a.m. to noon with lunch following at Willows Grange, lone (Chemical Applicator Credits Applied) S ponsored M Lexington by : orrow 9 8 9 -8 2 2 1 • C ounty 1 -8 0 0 -4 5 2 -7 3 9 6 G r a in G row ers For farm equipment, visit our web site at www.mcgg.net
