New public works director on the job
C : 3 3 l e '.Vitaall
U o * J •» - j .
-
*n o , OR
A new public works
director is on board w ith the city
o f Heppner. C raig S. ('anham
from
Portland
started
employment in that capacity on
December 3. I'm real pleased
with the job so far," said
( anham. "I've got a great crew o f
gentlemen working with me and
great support staff at the city,
including Mayor Hob Jepsen."
( anham said that he
wanted to emphasize community
relations and is initiating citizen
service requests whereby city
residents can bring maintenance
requests to the attention o f the
public works department.
" I he most important tool
I can have in my tool box is the
citizens." said C anham. "Any
concerns
the
public
has.
maintenance-wise, w ill be dealt
with. A ll we need to do is know
about them." ( anham says that
anyone with concerns about city
maintenance issues, such as a
pothole, broken swing at the
park, broken street sign or bad
street light, for example, should
stop by city hall to fill out a
request or just give him a call at
676-9618
"I'm open to any and all
input in the community." added
C anham. "M y priority is having
the town be clean and safe. It's
pretty enough just as it is. but
everything can be cleaner:
everything can be sharper."
Canham says that the
public works department w ill be
taking preventative measures and
has some future campaigns laid
out. Ills agenda for January
emphasizes water resources. In
addition to the crew's regular
duties, he plans to focus on
repairing meter boxes and
straightening and repairing water
hydrants
February's
focus
is
community cleanliness, that
month and the first week in
March, the city crew w ill focus
on cleaning up the town in
preparation for St Patrick's
weekend. "W e'll be making sure
this town is pristine," said
Canham. "No paper, no garbage."
"W e'll do the same in
August for lair and rodeo,” he
continued. "When people conic
from all over to Heppner. I want
them to come in and go. 'Wow .'"
Canham. 40. was raised
in Portland and graduated from
Henson High School in 1979.
After graduation he entered the
family white water ratting
manufacturing business. When
he was 25 he began working for
the city o f Portland, "doing a
little bit o f everything." including
street repair and maintenance,
sidewalk
repair,
sewer
maintenance and water line
repair and maintenance. After 11
years with the city he went to
work
for
Storm
Water
Management, a private water
purification company. Prior to
coming to Heppner, he worked
for the Mannex Corporation,
which
contracted
industrial
maintenance, facilities repair,
welding and fabrication.
closed o il the bridges and
tunnels, though, so we didn't
know how we were going to get
back." They weren't able to get
into their school, but instead
were dropped o ff about 10 blocks
away. "A lot o f people were
walking back (home)." he said.
"It took a lot o f people all day to
get back. A co-worker lived in
I he Bronx and she had to spend
the night in New Jersey because
she couldn't get home."
Van Liew says the
incident won't deter him from
returning to school. "I like it a
lot." he said. " There's a lot going
on. a lot more to do. People were
pretty concerned about their own
safety at first. But it's kind o f
( raig ( anham
Canham and his wife
.lymme (pronounced Jimmy),
have four children. John, 15,
Jesse. 14, 1 uicina. 11. and Shane,
seven, .lymme works in the
billing department at Woodland
Park Hospital. I he family plans
to join him in Heppner alter the
school year.
Park district
meeting slated
A Willow C reek Park
District
strategic
planning
meeting w ill be held Monday,
January 7, beginning at I p.m. at
Columbia Hasin Electric in
Heppner.
Local college student witnesses September 11 New York attacks up close
What are the chances o f
someone from Heppner being in
New York during the September
11 attacks on the World Trade
Center? Pretty dam good.
Matt Van Liew. bom and
raised in Heppner and attending
college in New Jersey, was right
on the scene.
The
morning
of
September 11. Van Liew had
been working on the Hudson
River as an intern as a part o f his
civil engineering studies at
Steven.- Institute o f l echnology
at Hoboken. New- Jersey. The
Hudson River Hows between
Hoboken and Manhattan. He and
others were collecting water
samples on a boat in the river and
just happened to have a digital
camera on board to document
their work. He heard o f the attack
on a radio on the boat and then
took a series o f photographs from
the boat-after the first attack, the
second attack and the aftermath-
and then downloaded the images
to his laptop computer.
"When the buildings fell,
people started panicking and
became a lot more concerned,"
said Van
Liew'. "It was
unbelievable that they (the
terrorists) got the building to
fall."
He said that they on the
boat were not too concerned for
their safety. "Afterward, you
started worrying about gas
attacks and stuff, but because we
were out on the water, we could
get away from it i f we needed
to."
He said at first they were
advised to stay away from the
area, but then were asked to ferry
people away. "They had been
telling boats to stay away,
because they were worried about
the towers falling in the water
and I guess some people
panicked after the towers fell and
they were jumping in the water,"
said Van Liew. "But then they
called all boats to come and help
evacuate people."
Smoke was billowing
from the w reckage, but Van I icvv
said it wasn't too smoky on the
river, but rather "kind o f hazy"
and "smelled like burnt plastic."
His boat loaded some 50-
60 people up at the South Street
Seaport nearby, transported some
to the base o f the Brooklyn
Bridge and some back to Liberty
State Park which is behind the
Statue o f Liberty. "We went back
and tried to pick up more people,
but couldn’t, because there was
no room." he said. By then the
rescue procedure was more
organized and the larger boats
and ferries were lined up at the
ports to board passengers.
"We were doing what we
needed to help out. but we were
kind o f removed from it. so we
weren't in any immediate
danger," he said. "They had
gotten back to normal. People
generally feel pretty safe about
traveling and that sort o f thing.
Security's a little hit tighter and
there are a lot more cops around.
I was more concerned directly
alter it happened. Now it
(traveling) is more o f an
inconvenience. 1 feel secure that
Continued page 2
Photos by M att V an Liew
People were ferried away from the disaster area on the boat from which Van l.iew and his co-workers
were conducting studies.
I he World I rade ( enter buildings after the second airplane hit, but before the buildings collapsed.
wm
M all \ an l.iew of Heppner shows photos hi* took of fhe Sept. 11 trageds in New N ork using a digital
camera.
>/«
T I I K O I CW II ■
.v .
** ! 23*iiË ■
Morrow County Grain Growers
After the collapse-the World trade ( enter buildings, which were a little over twice as tall as World
Financial ( enter, the three larger buildings on the left, arc obviously missing from this photo.
Lexington 989-8221 * 1-800-452-7396
For farm equipment mil our web site at www megg net