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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1963)
I 2 B SUNDAY, JANUARY 13. 1963 MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFOHD, OREGON Rural Fire District Election Will Climax Two Years of Work By Cleve Twitchell Mail Tribune Sl Writer Talent-An election will be held at the old agronomy sta- Hon on Colver rd. Friday, Jan. 18, climaxing some two yean of work by a group of Talent and Phoenix area resi dents. At the election voters will be asked to approve the for mation of the Talent Rural Fire Protection district and elect five directors. There will be five names on the bal lot: Dean R. Blackburn, How ard DeYoung, Eddie M. Heim, Lee Floyd Quinn and Esper C. Silvester. The district would encom pass most of the rural area around Talent and about the south side of Phoenix. All homes and businesses In this area would be served by a fire department with mod ern equipment operated by full-time, . permanent person nel, proponents of the district say. Present Fir Department This t y p e of operation would compare with the vol untccr Talent Rural Fire de partment that is in existence at present. The department has one fire truck,, a rather old model. There is no paid, full-time personnel. Persons in need of help to extinguish a fire are depend ent upon enough volunteers being available to respond to an alarm. The old truck takes a while to get warmed up. Like most districts, the Tal ent Rural Fire Protection dis trict would, of course, cost money tr -pcrate. It would have the power to levy a tax. List Some Advantages Backers of district forma tion feci, however, that the advantages provided by an or ganized district would far outweigh its cost. Some of the advantages they list are these: 1. The district could place a bond issue before the voters, which if approved, would make it possible to obtain modern firef ightlng equip ment, and thereby offer bet ter fire protection service to the area than it now has. 2. Once the district had modern equipment and full time personnel on duly, the area served by the district could get a better fire Insur ance rating than it has at present, thereby saving prop- 1 '' l liW . Al. 4 j:-r-rr - m m, foi wtm muh mt 1 1 mm ira PRESENT EQUIPMENT John Tompkins, left, and Ralph (Jiggs) Conner, two mem bers of the group seeking to form the Talent Rural Fire Protection district are shown along side the truck presently used by the Talent Rural Fire department, a volunteer organization of which Conner is chief. By forming a district, the men feel, the Phoenix-Talent rural area could be served by modern firefighting equipment and full time firemen. crty owners money on Insur ance premiums. 3. The district subsequently could offer fire protection to the cities of Phoenix and Tal ent, both served by volunteer departments at present, on a contract basis, thereby Im proving their insurance rat ings as well. Equipment Standardised 4. With the creation of a fire district, equipment could be standardized, so that in limes of emergency firemen from other departments could come In and run it. 5. The district could also provide such services as an emergency ambulance and a clothing bank foi victims offire district here .began when destroyed homes. It could also enter inlo a contract with the Talent Irrigation district for water to be used for firefight ing, perhaps in the form of sumps dug at designated loca tions in more populated areas. Bringing the matter of forming a Talent Rural Fire Protection district to a vote has been the work of a small group of area residents. One of them is John Tompkins, re tiring Talent city councilman. Another is Ralph (Jiggs) Con ner, who is chief of both the Talent rural and Talent city fire departments. The movement to set up a Tompkins was appointed to a two-year term on the Talent city council. He was given the responsibility of working on the matter of fire protec tion. "I soon found that there was virtually no fire protec tion for the area," Tompkins explained. "It appeared to me as if the city's money (a small amount in the city budget for the fire department each year) wasn't bringing in any return." The Talent Rural Fire de partment has been in exist ence, more or less, for seven or eight years. Its effective ness has varied, Tompkins ana Conner indicated. During the past year a Tal ent city fire department has been organized. Its truck is somewhat more modern than the Talent rural truck. The two are housed side by side in a fire station next to the raient city hall. Both are available to fight fires either in the city or outside. : From Subscriber Feet The rural department In come comes from $5 a year subscriber fees, while the city department is maintained by the city. While Tompkins, Conner and others were working on building up these two depart ments, they were also going through the steps necessary to get formation of a district on the ballot. Signatures of 200 property owners within the district who also were registered vot ers had to be gathered. It took many months of work The first set of petitions turned in to the county court fell short of the 200 needed When success was finally achieved, the petition circula tors had gathered nearly 550 signatures in order to get the ZOO good ones they needed. Public Hearing Held A public hearing was held by the county court in Decem ber, at which time no opposi tion to the district was voiced. A few days later the election date of Jan. 18 was set. The boundaries of the dis trict are roughly as follows: Starting at the noint. south of Talent, where the old Paci fic highway joins the new highway, the boundary ex tends south on Highway 89 to Valley View rd., then east to Eagle Mill rd., southeast to Butler creek rd., and north to East Valley View rd. From that point the bound ary extends west along East Valley View rd. to Myers rd.. where it turns north to Will-! son rd., then west to Ashland Climax rd., north to Carter lane, and finally west to Sta ples lane. It turns southward again on Staples lane to West Val ley View rd., then west to Suncrcst rd. At this point it goes north as far as Royal Crest rd., from which it con tinues north to Hughes rd. Here the direction changes to west, as far as Payne rd., then north again to Fern Valley rd. From this point the bound ary becomes a little less com plicated. It merely extends west along Fern Valley rd. to the Phoenix city limits. Then it follows the Phoenix bound ary around the south end of the city to Houston rd. The boundary from this point goes west on Houston rd. to Coleman Creek rd., then north to Carpenter Hill rd., then west to Pioneer rd. It runs along Pioneer rd. In a westerly direction to Dark Hollow rd. i After reachlnu Dark Hol low rd., the district boundary turns south back to Pioneer rd. again, where it extends east to Colver rd., then south aiong tolver rd. to Adams rd. It continues south on Adams rd. to Anderson Creek rd., One of Newest Resorts Becomes Area 'Hot Spot' Mt. Shasta, Calif. - One of the West's newest winter re sorts, Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl has become the "hot spot" of northern California ski areas this season with snow condi tions rated the best in the Sierra region. Located at the 7,850-foot level of the volcanic peak that gives the area its name, Shas ta Ski Bowl already has drawn crowds that have broken all previous records. Center of the resort is an ultra-modern lodge, accessible via a 15-mile all-weather road through snow-banked forests that reach down to the edge of Pacific Highway 99 at the town of Mt. Shasta. Enterine the town, the alpine setting for the resort is easily antici pated inMhe monutain chalet architecture of the newer inns and lodgings along the highway. At the resort at timberline are a chair lift, carrying skiers to the 9,338-foot level, and two rope tows that reach to the 8,050-foot elevation. The facilities can accomodate as many as 2,700 skiers per hour. Boasts Skiing Season The west slope of the peak. which dominates the horizon of southern Oregon as well as northern California, boasts a skiing season that normally begins in late November and lasts until early summer. Dur ing the spring months, skiers claim, Shasta's corn snow is among the best in the West. But most of the year the high and dry climate results in a fine powder cover. Last week the average snow depth was 38 inches, and this will build up as the season progresses. The resort almost became the site of the training camp for the U. S. Olympic ski team this month when slopes of the Rocky Mountain region failed in December to have suffi cient snow. When word got out that Mt. Shasta was being considered for the Olympic tearn's runs, the holiday-season rush from Sacramento and San Francisco -Oakland was on. The "chic" city crowds normally have headed for Lake Tahoe and other Sierra resorts, but have now learned of Shasta. In addition In the patroniz ing of motels and inns and restaurants at Mt. Shasta, the overflow has spread north into Yreka and south to Duns- muir to bring a new boom to these cities. then turns east until it runs into Wagner Creek rd. The boundary finally runs south on Wagner Creek rd., then zigzags gradually over to Old Pacific highway south of Talent to the point where this description began. The boundary follows the center line of all the roads mentioned. Italic Handwriting Exhibited at SOC Ashland- An exhibit of calligraphy, Italic handwrit ing, by Lloyd Reynolds, pro fessor of art at Reed College, Portland, is presently on ex hibit at Southern Oregon col lege in the Britt Art Gallery through Feb. 1, Miss Marion Ady, art department member, has announced. Italic handwriting reached its highest development dur ing the 15th and 16th centur ies in Italy and is generally believed to be the most per fect form of cursive writing, Miss Ady said. Reynolds is listed as one of the top three calligraphers in the world and has done much to initiate this type of art form on the Pacific coast. I (ORTHtf) SEPTIC SEEP Gets Rid of Septic Tank Troubles! Opens Drain Fields Get Septic Seep at C!3 Iff A REAL BEAUTY 19S8 Chevy Impala Convertible, with V8 Motor, Automatic Trjnimiuion, RIH, Power Steering and Brakei. 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