Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 29, 2012)
1 1 1 a 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 1 1 • 111 1 • 111 11 1 1 1 11 Rising sun puts on light show on Heppner Hill 1 Bessie W etzell Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene, O R 97403 HEPPNER ■§(K The rising sun put on a glorious display of color over Heppner Hill recently...a sight only en joyed by true early birds like the one who captured this sunrise on film. Photo by Dick Paris ^ ^ *> 3 VOL. 131 N 0. 9 8 Pages azettte im es # Wednesday, February 29, 2012 2C 27 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Local man collects WWII memorabilia By Andrea Di Salvo Local history buffs will have a chance to peruse a stunning collection o f World War 11 memorabilia this weekend. The collection be longs to Lexington resident Charles “Chuck” Nelson. The 61-year-old began col lecting World War II ar tifacts six years ago, but says his fascination with the period goes back much further. “ To u n d erstan d my love o f history,” says Nelson, “you have to un derstand my history, where I’ve been.” A tru e M orrow County native, Nelson was one o f the first children born at Pioneer M emo rial Hospital when it first opened. (Interestingly, his daughter, Courtney, was the last scheduled birth at the hospital.) He was raised on the Nelson family farm near Lexington and gradu ated from lone before going on to attend Oregon State U niversity in Corvallis, OR. He later obtained a four-year science degree in agronomical crop science from OSU. N elson inherited a love o f history from his mother, Jean, who was one of the founding members of the Morrow County His torical Society. His interest in World War II began later, when he served in Germany Part of Chuck Nelion’s (inict) extensive WWII traveling dis play. -Contributedphoto at the end of the Vietnam War. He was drafted while in college, Nov. 2, 1972, in the first lottery for Viet nam. “I was sitting in the TV room in the dorm at Oregon State,” said Nelson, who recalls that his draft num ber was 48. “A ny body who went through that might forget their wedding date, but they won’t forget their lottery number.” Nelson entered the U.S. Army. When the Army saw his math scores, he was assigned to fire di rection control in the 5lh Corps Artillery. His job dealt with the technical, computer-related aspects of big artillery guns, such as the amount o f powder needed, firing direction and angles, and accounting for wind, temperature and the rotation of the earth. Rather than being sent to Southeast Asia, though, Nelson ended Piece of history comes down The McNab grain elevator west of lone was last week in the process of being torn down. An exact date of the elevator’s construction was not available; however, the Gazette-Times did learn that on April 1, 1940, Morrow County Grain Growers purchased the assets of Fanners Elevator Company, adding Heppner, McNab and lone elevators. -Photo by Terry Harper up in Darmstadt, Germany, near Frankfurt. There, the U.S. troops were housed in World War II barracks. In fact, everywhere Nelson looked, he says, he saw history. He saw the Berlin Wall and the Eagle’s Nest, stayed in a hotel that once housed Hitler’s gener als, and went to former con centration camps all over the country. He bought a car and traveled throughout Europe, drinking in the his tory, especially the history of the second world war. “There are some things in human history that have changed the history of the world,” Nelson says. “This man (Hitler) was in the right time to do this. It wasn’t in a good way, but the things he did are still felt now.” Nelson says Ger many was ripe for Hitler’s rise, with hyperinflation at an all-time high after World War I. He remem bers, especially, seeing a picture of a woman going out to buy bread and cheese with a wheelbarrow full of money. “Hitler promised work and food. Everything he promised, happened. He just didn’t mention he’d start a war to do it.” It was while sta tioned in Germany that he met his wife, Lisa. Her fa ther was an Army chaplain from North Carolina, and she was attending school in Munich. After Nelson’s deployment ended, they were married and moved back to Oregon. Nelson has worked on the family farm ever since, while Lisa spent 16 years as a teacher in Heppner. Nelson’s collection didn’t begin, though, until a trip to visit his wife’s family in North Carolina. It was while browsing an antique -See WWII ARTIFACTS/ PAGE THREE Simulated hot air balloon tour part of new visitor center Port o f Morrow Commissioners talk to Heppner Chamber o f Commerce By David Sykes All Port of Morrow directors, as well as general manager Gary Neal, attend ed the Heppner Chamber of Commerce meeting last week and gave a report on the current activities at the Port, especially the new visitor center. The new in te r active visitor center is in construction and, when completed next year, will feature among other things a 13,000-square-foot, two- level exhibit space, gift shop, 200-seat theater and other displays that will provide an inside look at not only the Port of Morrow facilities but the rest o f the county. Called the SAGE Center, the facility will also show the economics of the county in a broad range, from farms and dairies to the food-processing facili ties and tourist opportuni ties. C o m m is s io n e r Marvin Padberg from lone talked about one o f his favorite activities at the center, the simulated hot air balloon ride. The bal loon tour was filmed by a helicopter crew and will show all of Morrow County, including the south end. “The simulated hot air balloon ride will tour the whole county,” Padberg An oversized basket hanging beneath what seems to be a hot air balloon is a portal for visitors to the SAGE Center to visualize an aerial overview of the region’s key features and industries. told the Chamber. “This (the SAGE Center) is not your old dry museum; ev erything is interactive.” Padberg went on to describe how the virtual balloon ride would take 10 people at a time, rise high into the air, and take partici pants on a bird’s-eye view tour of the county. Padberg said the tour would show, among other things, how irrigation has changed the north end, a look at the OHV park, dry land wheat farming and other activities. “ We are natural- resource based and this will educate people from the west side on what we do here,” added Gary Neal when explaining the SAGE center experience. Neal said the cen- ter would not only cater to tourists off the freeway (it is being built along Interstate 84 between the Port and city of Boardman exits) but would also accept field trips and provide educational op portunities for students. A Portland design company, the same one that designed the Maritime Mu seum in Astoria, is behind the design of the center. Seed money to con struct the center came from $2.7 million of state lottery funds previously secured by state Rep. Greg Smith. In addition to serv ing as an interactive visi tor center, the facility will serve as an event center for fundraisers, wine-maker dinners, and civic and so- See VISITOR CENTER/ PAGE EIGHT Health district to proceed with Irrigon Medical Clinic plans By April Sykes G ail S argent o f Sargent Architects, Herm- iston, presented prelimi nary plans for the proposed remodeling of the Irrigon Medical Clinic at the Mor row County Health District Board m eeting Monday night in Boardman. The board voted to go forward with the plans, which would increase the size of the clinic from 1,694 square feet to 2,670 square feet w ith an estim ated building cost o f around $194,800. Board Chair Larry Mills estimated that the total project will come to around $250,000 with ad ditional costs for architect fees and clinic furnishings. The remodel would add a fam ily-size exam room at 110 square feet; increase the size o f the nurse’s station from 51 to 75 sq. fit.; increase the size of the lab from 46 to 100 sq. ft.; increase storage from 65 to 150 sq. ft.; increase a provider office from 80 to 100 sq. ft.; add a flex work station, which could be used by various clinic employees, at 80 sq. ft.; add a private office for use by the district’s EMT, who is currently using a small space at the Irrigon Fire Hall, at 100 sq. ft.; increase the size of the staff restroom from 22 to 50 sq. ft.; add a break room/conference room/kitchen at 200 sq. ft.; increase the janitorial space from 10 to 36 sq. ft.; increase the space for electrical/computer server/ phone system from 14 to 20 sq. ft. Sargent told the board that they should be ready to bid by the end of April or May with construc tion to begin in mid-June and completion hopefully by the end of October. Mi l l s d i r e c t e d MC H D CEO Mi chae l Blauer and Chief Financial Officer Nicole Mahoney to come to the board’s next regular meeting with fi nancing options for the remodel. Also at the meet ing, the board approved spending in the neighbor hood of $35,500 to replace the fire protection sprinkler system at Pioneer Memorial Hospital, as mandated by the state fire marshal. The board opted to go with Gen eral Fire Equipment out of Baker City. They had also -See HEALTH DISTRICT/ PAGE SEVEN r ---------------------- PURINA HORSE FEED ON SALE Equine Senior & Strategy GX $3 OFF/Bag X Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed A. Seed
