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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1961)
12 A SUNDAY. JANUARY 22. 1SB1 MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, ORE. irogrooi Reviewed by Peportmmerot Parks Cooperation With Civic Groups Is Success Factor By GREG NOKES Mail Tribune Staff Writer Providing a good parks and recreation program has been universally accepted as necessary and vital function of municipal government during the past decade. The city of Med ford was slow in realizing its obliga tions in this field and it has spent the past two years try ing to catch up. The year 1960 was the most successful parks and recreation year in the city, and 1961 promises to be just as good, if not better, A partial list of the activi ties and accomplishments of the city's park and recreation department during 1960 would include: the opening of a new swimming pool at Jack' son park; the development of a play apparatus area at Haw thorne park; the development of union park; and an ex tensive summer and winter youth recreation program. Results of Efforts ' All of these and many more are not the solo accomplish ments of the parks and recre ation department, as such. Many of them are the result of efforts in this field by serv ice clubs, individuals and public agencies. But, the parks and recre ation department has served as the coordinator, and often the Instigator, of these proj ects, and it . must therefore receive much of the credit. The start of this city's pro gram dates back to early in Mayor John W. Snider's term of office. Mayor Snider and the county in October, 1958, directed that a study of the city's parks and recreation needs be undertaken. Appoint Commission The city had been offering some recreation facilities and programming, but they were shown to be woefully inade quate for a city of this size. As a result of the study, the mayor early In 1959 appointed a parks and recreation com mission. The commission, in ; turn, hired Robert Hnworth from the Spokane, Wash., parks and recreation depart ment, to serve as Medford's first parks and recreation director. That was in June, 1959. Since then the department has established itself. In May of last year it received the go ahead to hire Ken Lyons from the Boise, Idaho, parks depart ment to, serve- as Medford's first recreation supervisor. Has Definite Views Haworth, who, next to Mayor Snider, has been the individual primarily respon sible for the growth of parks and recreation in the city, has some definite views on what a parks and recreation pro gram should try to do. Ho defines recreation "as anything that occupies an in dividual's worthy use of leis ure time." This, then, would explain the Increasing impor tance of municipally-sponsored recreation activities in re cent years. People have more leisure time now than they have ever had before, according to Ha worth, and they need some thing worthwhile to occupy their time. This is where a good parks and recreation pro gram comes in. "But," he cautions, "I don't think we should ever be in the position of where the state and I use that term loosely is entertaining the Individual or providing completely for his recreation activities, cith er in facilities or leadership." Family Recreation Haworth is a firm believer in family-wide recreation ac tivity, and to this end, he hopes the department will be able lo offer more recreation services for the family. He also declares that "the Ameri can public should strive more toward finding their own leisure activity." Because the possibilities to be offered In a recreation pro gram are endless, tho depart ment concentrates on those things which can be done by people of all ages, such as ten nis, swimming, dancing and aits and crafts. Also, because the depart ment is limited In staff and budget. It attempts only to give recreation participants the necessary skills and in formation so that they can continue with a particular activity on their own. Haworth Is of the opinion that recreation and education "go hand In hand" and "it Is folly, to try and separate the two. The skills that a person picks up in school can be ap plied to leisure time activity In the future. There are two kinds of roc realion activity, according to Haworth. These are passive And active recreation. He says "everybody needs a little of fcsfSSSi 'Sk. S Statu iui-.,.. ' . ' C:'.'-: ' ' - B-'- 9,.,.,. w.-j., l s ,f,M :Z1. 1?Y. '.V"--,!'..'.. -. p -nen i -Ww (I'll rJV'-JufiS NEW SWIMMING POOL Pictured above is a view of the city's new swimming pool in Jackson park which was opened last June. The pool was built with money given to the city by the old Jackson County Housing both," and It is the function of the good recreation depart ment to provide for both Active recreation is defined as any activity involving phys ical effort, or that activity which an individual may create for himself. Passive recreation, on the other hand, includes those activities where the individual is not involved physically in his own enter tainment. This latter classifi cation would include such things as watching television, going on a picnic or walking through a park. Haworth points out that it is important for the depart ment to coordinate its activi ties with other groups, such as schools, the YMCA and scout ing organizations. This is necessary, he said, because by working together and avoid ing duplication of effort, they can combine to offer many things that they could not offer individually. Willing to Work As a newcomer to the val ley, Haworth said he found these agencies "very willing to work with us." He also points out that Med- ford and the Rogue valley are fortunate in having so many natural" recreation possibili ties. And, a function of the department, he said, is to make the public - aware of these possibilities and' then promote their use. . . Also Invaluable to a parks and recreation program, are the many efforts in this field by- Individuals and commun ity groups, according to Ha worth. Some of these efforts during the past year include: Monetary donations for play apparatus In various city parks from the Elks club, the Kiwanis club, the Moose lodge, the T.W. Miles estate, Kogap Lumber company and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Wading Pool The financing of a wading pool in Jackson park by the Crater Lions club. The donation to the city of a historic logging locomotive for park use by the Medford Corporation. -The financing of the Jack son park swimming pool and donation of land for Jackson park by the old Jackson Coun ty Housing authority. -The development of Union park by residents of the Union st. area. Haworth said this effort was particularly com mendable because the resi dents of this area did almost everything In the park them selves. Total Outcome -Tho development of Ear hart park by the Hubbard and Bauer Construction company at tile same time as they were building the Earhart park sub division. Commenting on these ef forts, Haworth said: "The total outcome from the effort "J$ . hL.L.m -H JjtTT K"?tl : v WEIRD APPARATUS Donations from various service clubs In Medford were used to finance the construction of the above "modernistic" play apparatus In Hawthorne park. The design and construction of the apparatus was m I JLs '-IAj. 1W . i i I IT! I' f&.l i ta ;u i if ' r -i it' ir-r-i - -i h K-4in mt.mhmmmmtn A . JKJ If P MM LlJ , h wlih 4ml h ; writ Ak'rh i ?' ; i M wAuiC rl ;Vf vl 1; . 5 ts , ? . -1 M i -rwt; il HOLDS ON Little Deston Nokcs, age Vz, can barely hold on to one of three "horses" constructed in Hawthorne park recently. They are several of a number of modernistic we (the department) put in would be considerably less than it would if we didn't have the help, that these peo ple have given us." The city's park program did have one setback of sorts dur ing tile year, when it was an nounced that the new freeway will go across tho west end of Hawthorne park. This will al most completely destroy the passive recreation possibilities of the park, he said, and at the present timo there is nothing in the city to replace it. But, he noted that the city received more than $160,000 for the park property from the state, and said this will probably be used to acquire land for a new park site, which should provide for even better passive recreation. Budget Consideration Budget considerations serve to limit the scope of activities that a parks and recreation department can offer. During the 1960-61 fiscal year the de partment has a budget of $97,- 000. A big chunk of this, $32,000, goes for park main tenance alone. But despite this, the depart ment was able to offer a recre ation program last year that the city should be proud of. During the summer months tile department had a recre ation program operating on four centrally-located school playgrounds and Hawthorne park. The activities in the summer program ranged from organized baseball games to quiet reading sessions. Each recreation center was super vised. During the Christmas holi days the department arranged """""" te$H liMfcfi -1 'l ifT i fiia- -rti nT-ritiniV , l" JfiY . ii f "i TfyiiT'iW' iwiriwiwi m nm! M -...i. RESIDENTS EFFORT Residents of the Union st. area in west Medford developed a small neighborhood park for their children called Union st. park. Doing all the work themselves they even raised the money to pay for the play to have a number of school gyms remain open for indoor activities. Also, from Novem ber through February, the department offers a regular indoor recreation program at school gyms. With the opening of the city's second swimming pool in June, the department step ped up its swimming instruc tion program. The year also v the organization of the done by Charles Forrester of Ahland, who did the work at cost. Bob (standing) and Jack Peterson, ages 8 and 5, are two newcomers to Mlford who don't care what the ap pn (5' us is supposed to be they just like to play oQit. authority. Also at the site is a wading pool donated to the city by the Crater Lions club. The land in the foreground is being leveled in prepara tion for development of the rest of the park. pieces of play equipment constructed in the park with service club donations. Also in the area are a turtle, a sand-pool and a climbing wall. city's first municipal swim ming team. In addition, the department issued a series of four party suggestion booklets, sponsor ed three teen-age dances, .of fered a women's physical fit ness course, and worked to assist the Senior Citizens with their recreation program. During the coming year, the department will continue with its existing recreation pro- apparatus. Pictured above are Mary and Annette Butchino, ages 2 and 4, who are two of the neighborhood children who frequently play in the park. gram, and, if possible, will expand it. They will also con tinue with the development of Jackson park and a necessary redesigning of Hawthorne park. In summing up the past year's activities, Haworth said, "we have made rapid strides" in providing a parks and rec Officials Inspect Irrigation Ditches Medford Irrigation district officials have been advised to consult with the district at torney concerning raw sew age being dumped into an irrigation ditch in the Lozier lane district, T. M. Gerow Jr., sanitary engineer for the Ore gon state sanitary authority, said Friday. Medford Irrigation District Manager Jack Hoffbuhr took Dr. A. Erin Merkel, public health officer, Chief Sanitar ian Orle Moore, and Gerow on an inspection tour of the ditches in the Lozier lane area Friday. Gerow said that one resi dent of the area was piping septic tank effluent directly into the Irrigation ditch, and had not tiled the ground around the tank. Earlier, former District At torney Thomas J. Rceder had sent letters to all residents of the area south and west of Medford warning them of the legal consequences of violat ing state sanitary laws. He postponed prosecution ien it appeared residents of the problem area were attempt in. to H0t(gct9re Organizing of Farm Expected The Agricultural Workers Organizing committee of the AFL-CIO probably will not come to Oregon for some time, Joe Bianco, agricultural editor for the Oregonian told a meet ing of the Jackson County Fruit Growers league nere Friday afternoon. Bianco said much of his in formation comes from the Cal ifornia Growers' council and some from Louis Krainock, AWOC's publicity man. During the 18 months AWOC has been in operation it has not been able to form a local. A month ago, Krainock reported AWOC "is having trouble." It had only 3,500 to 5,000 migrant workers organ ized and was reported in fi nancial trouble. Several weeks later the growers council con firmed this report. Shortly after Krainock's talk with the Oregonian writ er, he was reported ill and un able to attend the Oregon Hor ticultural Society meeting at which he was scheduled to speak. This indicated some dif ficulty within the organiza tion, Bianco said. Political Climate Unchanged Bianco said he does not think the California political climate which favors the AWOC operation has changed. Now the United Packing house Workers' association has joined forces with AWOC. On Jan. 5, a meeting of some top union officials such as Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers' un ion, and the president of the United Chemical and Oil un ion, met in Washington, D.C. An unofficial report indicates AWOC was voted $300,000 in additional funds, Bianco said. UPWA is a strong estab lished union with 20,000 mem bers at one time. With closure of some meat packing-houses the membership dropped to 5,000, the Oregonian writer said. Bianco said he learned through a press association reation program for a city, which, two years ago, had no real program at all. He credits not only the city for these accomplishments but also "the cooperation of other agencies and the general atti tude of the public which has made it exeremely easy for us to get the ball rolling." Hamburger Pushing Steaks From Table Raleigh, N. C. -fflPD- A gro cer's reputation is built on his hamburger instead of his sir loin steak, Cornell university economist Herrell de Graff told a cattlemen's conference Thursday. De Graff said 30 per cent of all beef sales now is hambur ger, and ground beef is push ing the steaks off the dinner table in the United States. Research Institute Receives NSF Grant McMlnnille - Linficld Re search Institute (LRI), a sub sidiary of Linficld college, has been awarded a grant of $10, 000 by the National Science Foundation to support basic research on the Lampyroid Beetles of North America. Work through the four-year grant will be under the direc tion of Kenneth M. Fender, McMinnville. Fender is an ex- j Linlicld student and holds an honorary master's degree from the college. ' Fender has studied beetles for many years. The new; grant extends for a four-year I period an ,000, two-1 year gra in State at that UPWA is now trying to penetrate Yakima, Wash, fruit growing areas. UPWA and AWOC will help each other so that both packing-house and field workers will be organ ized, the farm editor told fruit growers. "The most important thing is to study the labor situation the best you can, then try to plan and tell your story to the people," Bianco advised the growers Friday, "and have courage." UPWA and AWOC want the following, Bianco said (1) Recognition of the union as a collective bargaining agent. (2) Minimum wage for field workers of $1.25. UPWA wants piece rates for field packing lettuce. AWOC wants piece rate incentives on sKinea work. (3) Establishment of sanitary facilities, including toilets and drinkable water. (4) Ten minute rest periods every two hours. (5) Transpor tation to and from day haul points. (6) Close shop provid ing for employment of all workers in a union hiring hall similar to what the Long shoremen now use. Establish Themselves "If AWOC and UPWA are able to establish themselves as bargaining agents. . .you may see the inauguration of the six major goals," the agricultural editor pointed out. The California growers feel their problem points directly to the California department of employment, Bianco said "When the farmers found the department of employ ment could offer no aid to a farmer surrounded by picket lines. . .the farmer developed his own referral service. Ac cording to the Wagner-Peyser act, the state employment agency, which does receive federal aid, cannot refer workers to an area that has a labor dispute. The referral service in some eases involves Mexican nationals. Borrows Workers "Early this week in El Cen- tro, Calif., one of the lettuce farmers, whose ranch was struck by AWOC and UPWA, borrowed Mexican workers al located to a nearby farm be cause his farm was struck. However, the U. S. and Mexi can governments ordered the braceros off the ranch for the duration of what the govern ments call labor unrest. Some proposed "pro-labor" laws now before the Califor nia legislature at Sacramento are worrying growers. A pro posed minimum wage bill for agriculture would set the min imum hourly wage at $1.25 per hour. However, some bills favor ing agriculture are being in troduced. The "strikes at har vest time" measure is aimed at preventing strikes when the crop is to be harvested. State Employment Director Irving Perluss is reported to have said this will not pass unless labor s position is con sidered. Another bill would prevent "stranger picketing" where AWOC men work in an or chard for a few hour then strike for higher pay. They are not regular migrant work ers. Bianco explained. Interested In Organizing In answer to questions, Bi anco pointed out that AWOC is mainly interested in orga nizing 2 million migrant work ers, iney have been given two L Mortuary Cemetery Mausoleum Crematory We honor All Funeral Insurance Plans Joe Hosick-Funeral Director-Manager SISKIYOU And SISKIYOU MEMORIAL PARK L. G. (tew) Miles, Mgr. SP 2-2344 605 Labor Not This Time years in which to do it by the AFL-CIO organization. Money to support AWOC ac tivities comes from all AFL CIO union members' dues. During the first year AWOC spent $300,000. UPWA is not as strong as it once was, but does provide a strong frame work by joining AWOC, Bian co said. The fact that the Medford pear district pays top wages will not deter union activities, Bianco s,aid. He advised grow ers to consider the "check off" plan in their strategy. Accord ing to this plan, the union would require employers to deduct union dues from wages paid. One local grower said he didn't think the AWOC could operate effectively without the plan. Charles Henry, outgoing league president, advised all local growers to use the Med ford Pear Shippers office for an information clearing house on all labor problems. Ho urged all growers with ideas to attend the league's commit tee meetings and present their ideas. 59 Disease Cases Reported in Area A total of 59 cases of com municable diseases were re ported to the Jackson county health department last week, according to Dr. A. Erin Mer kel, public health physician. Influenza headed the list with 10 cases in Phoenix and six in both Medford and Ash land. Medford also had one case each of mumps, measles and infectious hepatitis, and two cases of chicken pox. Ash land reported two cases o mumps," one pneumonia, one case of German measles, and two chicken pox victims. Phoenix had two cases of mumps, eight strep throat, and one poliomyelitis. Central Point reported one case o both measles and German measles, and one chicken pox; case. Six' cases of chicken pox were reported at Jacksonville. Rogue River had one case o pink eye. Three scarlet fever cases were reported in Talent. Bonanza, Ore., in Klamath county, reported one case o infectious hepatitis, and Myr tle Creek, in Douglas county, reported one case of rheu matic fever. Army Reserve Unit Contributes to Area One hundred and seventy members of the United States Army reserve units in Med ford contribute a substantial amount to the local economy, according to figures announc ed by Major Ray E. Stewart, Medford subsector com mander. During the taxable year of 1960, local reservists received, after federal income tax de ductions, the sum of $67,508. 53. The pay to members of the Army reserve was gained through attendance at regu larly scheduled drill assem blies, and for periods of active duty. The pay is additional income to many men engaged in varied vocations in this area. NVESTIGATE and SAVE with One Call In One location SP 2-5488 Highland Dr A 0 O
