Santa visits Artifactory
Bessie Wetzoll
U of 0 Hewapaper Library
Eugene# OR
S74U3
HEPPNER
Makenna Ramos, 10 years old, (left) and Hannah Padberg, also 10, enjoy the company of
a friendly guy in a red suit Saturday at the Artifactory in Heppner. Santa stopped by at
the Artifactory to take early requests for Christmas
Search is on for old school sites
What do the names
Willow Way, Caplinger,
Missouri Ridge, Shilo and
Green C o ttag e have in
common9 Guess again They
are missing country schools
located here in M orrow
County.
A ccording
to
historical records, there were
at least 62 separate
community schools active
with their own school taxing
districts These were formed
in the late 1800s and early
VOL. 123
NO 47
10 Pages Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon 1900s and provided the
educational foundation for
early settlers in Morrow
County They also provided
a location for community
activities such as pie socials,
Saturday night dances and
holiday festivals. Each
community was bonded by
the school in that area
Little by little, the
major schools, Heppner,
Lexington, lone, Boardman
and Irrigon lured country
students into their folds and
soon small country one room
schools disappeared as fast
as they appeared A very few
were preserved, one was
converted to grain storage,
one to a museum and for the
most part the rest rotted
away into range land or
wheat land
The Morrow County
Winning “Last Place” at the trivia contest was the team “The Oldies, but Goodies.’
Historical
Society is making
Members included: (L-R): Lil Boyce, Betty Gray and Mary Jean McCabe.
an effort to relocate these
school sites and place white
Mr Bill’s Traveling the needed funds to donated their prizes back to
“
School Site” markers as
Trivia Show worked the complete the mural on the the Mural C om m ittee
near the actual site as
brains of local and out-of- Riverside Drive portion of Second place was the
tow n com petitors on the Ag Museum in Heppner “Factoid Fanatics” and third
Twenty-six teams place was “Big Dawgs ” The
Saturday, Nov. 20 in
C olum bia Basin
Heppner The trivia show participated in the event, last place finishers were “The
Electric Co-Op Manager
was a fundraising event for with prizes going to first Oldies, but Goodies ”
Jerry
Healy said last week
the FARM Foundation through third place teams
“ It was pretty loud
that
the
co-op's financial
Mural C om m ittee and and the last place team
and crazy,” said Doris
First place was the Brosnan, a com m ittee position is now improving,
brought in $2700 after
expenses This amount is “ Strange Bedfellows” team member “Mr Bill does a after several years o f soft
sales
approximately one-third of from Salem The group good job ”
“ While 2 percent
(increase in sales) may not
seem like a lot, we are
showing an upturn in sales
now that we did not see for
several years,” Healy told the
gathered crowd at the co­
op's annual meeting last
T hursday held at St
Patrick's Church in Heppner
Healy said that
Columbia Basin “ is in a
healthy state with a 64
percent equity position,” and
that he expected sales to
increase in the future
The co-op did have
to raise rates 3 4 percent this
year, with another similar
increase set for next year
“ R ates increases are a
imes
Trivia show raises $2,700 for Ag Museum mural
Tony Dougherty lives near the Blackhorse School Site.
possible In some cases, the
actual site is located in the
middle of a field inaccessible
from public view In that
case, the sign is located on
the county road right-of-way
as close as possible
About 50 signs have
been placed and the rest will
be in place early spring 2005.
“ If any M orrow County
residents
have
clear
knowledge of any lost school
site, I would appreciate your
contacting me so that I can
place a sign on the spot and
locate it on a map of lost
school sites,” said Louis
Carlson
Co-op’s financial position improving
Mustangs to play Lost River in quarterfinals
necessary evil,” Healy told
co-op members, adding that
neither the board nor
management like to raise
rates
He said 2006 would
be the real test when
Bonneville Power is set to
raise power costs to the co­
op by 30 to 35 percent He
said the
expected
Bonneville
increase is
o n e
reason
Columbia
Basin is
raising
rates in
increments
now
in CBF.C Manager
order to J e m Healv
mitigate the impact to local
rate payers o f the coming
Bonneville increase
Healy added that in
an effort to attract new
± 0%
photo b\ Kathv Carlson
businesses and consequently
new customers to Columbia
Basin, the co-op is actively
involved with economic
development throughout the
service area He pointed to
efforts at industrial parks in
both Fossil and Heppner
“What we really need is
more jobs, more kids in
schools We need businesses
to locate here,” Healy said
“As long as we can keep our
(power) sales up. we will be
fine in the future," he added
G-T closed for
Thanksgiving
holiday
The
H eppner
Gazette-Times office w ill be
closed on Thursday and
Friday, Nov 25 and 26 for
the Thanksgiving holiday
The office will reopen
Monday, Nov 29 at its
regular time
O
The Heppner Mustangs will play the Lost River Raiders, of Merrill, OR, on
Saturday, Nov. 27 at 1 p.m., in Heppner. This is the quarterfinals of the US Bank/Les
Schwab/OSAA2A state football play-offs. The Mustang beat Nvssa 34-0 Saturday to advance
to the next level. See page 3 for more photos and story.
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
\
rrow County Crain firowers
Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396
For farm tquipmont. visit our wtb lit* at www mcgg.not