Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2011)
Local man converts own electric car "Works pretty good around town," says Ed Struthers, who took his '87 Colt off gasoline By David Sykes University of Eugene, O R A local man with a knack for doing things him self has taken another step and cut his dependence on gasoline, at least for some o f his ‘around tow n’ transportation needs. Ed S tru th e rs o f Heppner has gone electric, and not with a $40,000 Volt 3 azette imes VOL. 130 NO. 13 8 Pages Wednesday, April 6,2011 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Valby Lutheran Church celebrates 125 years o f service One o f the oldest Lutheran Churches in the northwest is celebrating its 125th anniversary. Founded April 16, 1886, Dr. Nore- lius came to a place called “Alkali”. He was met there by John Peterson and John Johnson, a section boss at the O.R. & M railroad. A n y o n e c o m in g into this area m ust go as far as Arlington and be met by buckboard, horseback or walk the long distance o f 40-50 miles to Valby’s location. Thanking the two Johns, they proceeded to a site 17 miles south o f a small village called lone. On Sunday, services were held at the John Johnson home where two baptisms were performed. On April 19 a meet ing was called to order and a fte r d isc u ssio n , it was unanim ously decided to form a new church high atop a hill o f native bunch- grass. T his area had a t tracted Swedish homestead ers for a number o f years. The group decided to call the new church, “ Sw ed ish Evangelical Lutheran Congregation”, or in Swed ish language, “Shepherds Dell”. At that time, mem bership had grown to 261. either. “I have wanted to do something like this for the past 20 years,” Struthers says of his efforts to make him self an electric car and get off gasoline, at least for around town driving. So fi nally he says he just ordered the electric motor, pulled out the gas engine, made the necessary conversions, and put the electric components back in. It took him about three weeks and cost be tween four and five thou sand dollars, but he ended up with a real electric car. There are six 12 volt bat teries in the back part of the car that supply power. And how does it run? Apparently not too bad for getting around town. “1 drive it to the grocery store, and out to the golf course and it does pretty good,” says Struthers, adding that he got it up to about 53 m iles per hour. Struthers has to go up a pretty steep hill to get home, he and his wife M arie live on Rock Street, and he says it does okay with that too. A quick tour around town in the car shows that it does have good pick up. It has a five speed transmis sion with no clutch. “You know how you used to do it when you had a manual transmission?” he says o f changing gears. “Just kind o f slip it in there.” It d o e s n ’t n e e d power steering and so far there is no heater. “I haven’t figured that out yet but 1 am thinking about maybe a catalytic h eater,” says S tru th e rs w ho is p retty handy, having built tw o o f his own homes in Hep pner, as well as having al ways enjoyed working with cars and other mechanical things. Struthers spent time as an electronic technician in the US Navy. The motor is a 17 horsepower electric engine. “You can buy a whole “kit” but I just bought some of the components,” Struthers says. He said M iller and Sons in Heppner did some Top Photo: Ed Struthers of Heppner shows where he replaced gas engine with an electric motor. Bottom Photo: No more gas stations. Struthers shows where he plugs in his self built electric car. -Photos by David Sykes fabrication to make things all fit. He basically bolted the electric motor, which fits sideways in the engine compartment, to the trans mission just like a regular engine. There is o f course no starter or flywheel. The speed o f the vehicle is controlled by increasing the current, us ing the former gas pedal, to the motor. He says he has stripped off a lot o f the extra metal and other un necessary parts to decrease the weight and make the vehicle lighter and thus more efficient. A nd, o f c o u rse , there are no maintenance costs like oil, and forget about the price o f gas bump ing up against four dollars per gallon. Struthers smiles as he holds the reg u lar 110 volt plug-in placed, ironically, right where the former gas tank intake used to be. Did he enjoy con verting over the car to elec tric, Struthers was asked? “I did, but I would have liked it more if I had a garage to work in.” He says all the work was done out in the weather, some o f it during the winter months. lone School Board aligns school calendar more toward college calendars Valby Lutheran Church -Photo by Sheryl Parrots Longer Thanksgiving, later summer dismissal By April Sykes The m em bership decided to form an orga nization called “Onward.” Its mission was to interest folks from Sweden and also the surrounding area to join this C hristian congrega- G-T Trophy Corner Bev Crum of lone caught this 44-iach sturgeon on March 26 during a Ashing trip on the Columbia River. - Contributed photo tion. It also held weekly classes to study Swedish and English and especially to study the Oregon Board of Immigration to become American citizens. T h ro u g h o u t the many years that followed, membership grew from all o f the lone and surrounding comm unities. A w om en’s “missionary society” was form ed with m eetings at the various homes once a month. A s tim e m o v ed on, m any changes have evolved. T ran sp o rtatio n evolved, w heat farm ing took over from cattle and sheep. Farms and ranches grew larger as children of the families attended local schools and then proceeded to their own careers in dis tant lands and places. To c e le b ra te the history o f Valby, on May 1 the church is welcoming all o f its church families, those whose were members generations ago, friends o f those w ho have fond memories o f their younger days at Valby, ands all of our Christian brothers and sisters of the many denomi nations within the area serv ing the one true God. T he sc h e d u le is as follows: At 10 Sunday morning. May 1, there will be coffee for those who will be traveling from afar, and for those who wish to visit prior to the festivities. From -See VALBY CELEBRATES ’ 125 YEARS/Page FIVE I 1 The lone School Board, at its regular meet ing Tuesday, M arch 29, approved a 2011-12 school calendar that m oves the d is tric t’s calen d ar m ore with in line with college calendars. Principal Jerry Ar cher said that since the district is participating in the Eastern Promise, a pi lot program which would allow lone School students to earn college credits while still in high school, it is fit ting that the school calendar com e m ore in line with colleges. The new calen dar provides for a longer Thanksgiving break, a two- week Christmas break and a later dismissal for summer vacation. A rch er said that another reason for extend ing the Thanksgiving and C hristm as breaks was to cut down on absences, since p aren ts often take their children out o f school for e x te n d e d h o lid ay v a c a tions. He also touched on traditionally low attendance during state playoffs. “We all believe that school is more important than sports. School is number one, but if we’re going to lose 50-60 kids...” “ If we qualify for a state tournament, we will close school. We will make up those day(s) up on the Friday(s) immediately fol lowing the tournam ent,” said Archer. B o a rd m e m b e r L isa R ietm ann asked if having no classes on Friday would become a problem for students obtaining col lege credits. A rcher said that he had played with the idea o f five-day school week and also o f not start ing school until late Sep tember, more in line with college classes. Archer said that he had met num erous tim es with staff concerning the calendar and said they were in agreement, but the actual schedule was not seen by sta ff p rio r to board a p proval. In the 2011-12 cal endar, teachers would start Tuesday, August 23; stu dents would start Monday August 29; Thanksgiving break w ould be a w eek from Monday, November 21 through Friday, Novem ber 25; C hristm as break would be two weeks, from M onday, D ecem ber 19, through Sunday, January 1 ; spring break would be from Monday, March 26 through Friday, March 30; gradua tion would be Friday, June 8, with Wednesday, June 13, the last day o f school for students and Friday, June 15, the last day for teachers. S u p e r in te n d e n t Mark M ulivhill said that an Eastern Promise mini session, a four-week inten sive study period to get kids ready to qualify for classes they need to obtain college credits, is being planned. In other business, the board: -discussed the pur chase o f a new or used boiler or HVAC system to replace the current aging system. -learned that the district's computer server has been u p g rad ed and will include the G oogle Apps (w eb applications) program. Google Apps for -See ¡ONE SCH O O L D IS TRICT Page FIVE AT MCGG GREEN FEED & SEED IN HEPPNER: L awn thatcher & rototiller for rent y Garden Seeds • Onion Sets Seed Potatoes • Vegetable Starts Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed ii^ 4 ^ A / ^ i n d e f ^ W a ^ H e g £ n « i ^ ^ 7 ^ 4 2 ^ ^ 9 8 i^ 2 2 ^ M C G O im jii^m c2^>i<
