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About Vernonia eagle. (Vernonia, Or.) 1922-1974 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 24, 1964)
Oregon H is t o r ic a l S o c ie ty 235 SW Mârkeï S t > »**► -«*& *<37 r - **30» WATER was about six inches deep in high school shop building and covered much of parking lot back of high school. Tractor wheels indicate depth of water in low point in lot. Stormy Weather Brings Problems To Valley Area Vernonia, like the rest of Oregon, has had adverse weather for the past week. Snow flurries and ice hampered travel early last week and then the mercury dropped to the zero level to cause many frozen pipes and attendant difficulties. Wednes day night, December 16, was the coldest night, with some residents reporting a reading of zero. More snow last week end brought mea surements of from eight to 14 inches in the area. This week, heavy rains and warm ing temperatures melted snow and swelled streams, with the high water crisis coming Tuesday night. Streams were out of their banks by Tuesday afternoon and the water rose rapidly in the evening hours. By 9:00 p.m., the volunteer fire men went into action as a rescue unit to help evacuate those who needed it. Mrs. Leah Hotchkiss was assisted in getting out of her home at the city park about 10:00 p.m. when water was several inches deep in the house. Mr. and Mrs. Julius Hytrek and family was assisted with leaving their house by boat abou: 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The fire men were on standby at the hall all night. Telephone outages posed prob lems in case there had been fires. At times Tuesday evening, water was over practically every road out of Vernonia. The street at the high school remained flooded Wednesday morning. Schools were closed Monday be cause of ice and snow on bus routes and Wednesday they were closed due to the high water. About six inches of water was in the high school shop but none entered the main building or furnace room. School grounds were considerably flooded and water entered the Wash ington school basement. The crest came about 6:00 a.m. Wednesday when water came to a standstill, then began to drop. It is believed to have crested several inches higher than in 1955 when the resident of OA Flats had to be evacu ated and a canteen set up in the Union hall. At Dessy’s Bowl, there was six inches of water back of the pin setting machines. The Pine Cone closed Tuesday evening when water began to rise. As much as possible, motors and other items were placed above expected water levels.. They remained closed Wednesday, await ing recession of the water for mop- up operations. The shop area of the Vernonia Auto company was flooded to a depth of 18 inches. Deans Market probably suffered greater damage than any other busi ness. Backed up water from melt ing snow had entered the building heavily Monday morning and the store was unable to open for busi ness until mid-afternoon. Water con tinued to enter the store and a con stant mop-up operation was in effect Tuesday. Much stock in the storage rooms was ruined. Water was. dropping rapidly Wed nesday and barring the onset of new storms, the danger was thought to have passed. Disappointments occasioned by the storm included cancellation of the Christmas Ball Saturday night and the school closure Wednesday which cancelled room parties and the high school program. Fortunately, weather conditions permitted the grade school program Friday night which drew a capacity crowd. Fanners Elect ASC Committee Farmers recently elected to serve as the Columbia county Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation (ASC) committee for 1965 include: Everett Skeans, Rainier, chairman; Elmer Loyd, Deer Island, vice-chairman; J a c k Minkoff, Clatskanie, regular member; Max Oblack, Nehalem Valley, first alternate; and William Kessi, Scappoose, second alternate. County Extension Agent Don Coin Walrod serves on the committee as an ex-officio member. The election was held at a county convention Thursday, December 10 at St. Helens. Electors were farmers chosen as convention delegates at recent ASC community committee elections throughout the five com munity districts of the county. County office manager, William Armstrong points out that the ASC county and community farmer-com mittees are in charge of local admin istration of such national farm pro grams as the Agricultural Conserva tion Program (ACP), the feed grain program, the voluntary wheat pro gram acreage allotments and m ar keting quotas, the National Wool Pro gram. commodity loans, storage fa cility loans, and several other USDA programs. NEHALEM river rose to level of lowest part of swinging bridge between Anderson park and Bob ücrncnia Eagle VOLUME 42, NUMBER 52 VERNONIA, OREGON THURSDAY, DEC. 24, 1964 Power Service Hindered by Snow, Flood West Oregon Electric Cooperative has been plagued by outages for the past week, according to Guy I. Thomas, manager. First came the snow and then the floods. Telephone service was knocked out along with the power service in many areas and the members were not able to report outages. Line crews have been working almost continuously restoring service. With the exception of Vernonia, all ■of the areas served by this Coopera tive have been out of service at one time or other, Thomas stated. The Birkenfeld-Jewell area seems to have been the worst hit. As soon as service was restored another tree, would crash through the lines and' back would go the crews. It is not known at this time now many members were out of service or how many times, but it was ex tensive. The telephones at West Oregon’s office were ringing constant ly with reports of outages and lines down. High water in some areas forced crews to take circuitous routes to the troubled spots. This caused con siderable delay in restoring service. Thomas expressed his thanks to all the members for their patience and consideration, and for their phone calls which are the only means the company has for learn ing of outages and their location. TOP AWARD in chamber oi commerce holiday lighting contest in the Santa theme division was given the Bob Curl home display and the Sweepstakes award Sweepstakes honors in the Christ mas lighting contest went to the Robert Curls for the second year in a row. They had entered the Santa category competition this year and took first place in that division, but their overall display entered into the sweepstakes award. Judges had difficulty getting here to do the judging and finally braved floods Tuesday night in order to get the job done in time for publica tion this week. Service Less For Saturday The Vernonia Eagle Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Kamholz Melvin Schwab, Larry Gamer Lest a Gamer, Jean Schwab, Ethel Larson, Irene Kyser Mildred Tupper, Grace Peachey ments had six inches of water back of pin setting machines. also went to this display on the decision of judges Tuesday evening. Weather conditions prevented judg ing last Friday as originally planned. Judges Decide Lighting Contest Awards Tuesday Postmaster O. T. Bateman has an nounced that based on past exper ience when Christmas fell on a Fri day, postal requirements for the next day, Saturday, Dec. 26, were min imized to where they could be met by providing reduced service on that day. Therefore, a decision has been reached to maintain certain services and reduce others on De cember 26. Services maintained will include rural deliveries on all star routes, the distribution of incoming, outgo ing, and transit mail on a current basis, distribution of mail to past office lock boxes in the office after receipt of incoming mail, and deliv ery of special delivery mail, perish able articles and gift parcels. Regular holiday schedule of col lection of mail will be maintained in order to provide prompt movement of mail. No window service at the post of fice will be provided nor will there be regular city delivery service, ac cording to Bateman. UF Names Added HIGH WATER in Riverview flooded back of Burton apartments and nearly topped picket fence around back yard. D essy’s Bowl just across river from apart Sword home, but at peak had not quite reached level of 1955 flood. Mrs. R. M. King, co-chairman for the United Fund drive in this area, this week added three names to the list of business and organization con tributors previously listed. They are Mar-Lee Beauty Salon, The Cof fee Break and the Nehalem Chapter, Order of Eastern Star. Winners in the various categories were as follows: Santa theme: first, Robert Curl; second, Bill Ritz; third, Don Huss. Religious: First, Joe Grosche; se cond, Fred Lundgren; third, Wesley Bolmeier. Illumination: First, Merle Cline; second, Allen Ray; third, Nels Hog- berg. Commercial: Fabrics ’n Fashions, West Oregon Electric and Spofford flower shop, all equal honors; Enco Service, honorable mention. The judges highly commended all the commercial displays and many local residents have expressed their great appreciation for the festive ap pearance of the downtown area this ; ear. Also, there has been much favor able comment about the beautiful decorations at the schools which were not included in the competition. Many people have driven by the schools repeatedly just to see the displays. Two-Game Series Split With Santiam, Stayton The Vernonia Loggers were able to gain a split in their basketball games last week end as they defeated the Santiam Wolverines Friday night 58- 55 and then were badly beaten Sat urday night 66-39 at Stayton. The Loggers played near flawless ball in a very close and exciting game at Santiam. Led by center Jerry Hanson, they had three men score in double figures. Hanson, Dan Steele, and Jim Bellingham scored 19, 14, and 11 points respectively. The Loggers, using a tight zone defense, forced the Wolverines to shoot from the outside and with Ter ry Larson, Bellingham and Hanson controlling the boards against their much taller opponents were able to race to many fast break scores. Den ny Holsey and Steele, playing top defensive ball out front, were able to intercept many enemy passes. The Wolverines jumped out to a 12-8 first quarter lead but the Loggers were able to chop one point off this margin by outscoring their opponents 18-17 in the second frame. The half time score was 29-26 in favor of the Wolverines. In the third period the Loggers were able to gain their first lead of the ballgame. With Steele and Bellingham scoring six and four points, the Loggers outscored San- tiam 15-10 and held a two point ad vantage, 41-39, at the quarter's end Midway in the final period the Log gers were able to gain a seven point lead and were able to hold off a last minute rally by Santiam. Scoring: Bellingham 11, T. Smith 1, Larsen 5, Hanson 19, F. Smith 0, Steele 14, Holsey 8. The Loggers were never able to get started Saturday night against the Pirates of Stayton and were soundly beaten 66-39. Numerous mis cues and turnovers in the first half allowed the Pirates to race to a 19-8 first quarter lead and increase this to a 30-13 lead at halftime. The Loggers played a little better in the second half but not good enough to get back in the ballgame. The Pirates, with two men in their lineup at 6’ 4” and another at 6' 3” , completely dominated the backboards and picked up many easyshots. Guard Denny Holsey led Vernonia scorers with 13 points gained on sax fieldgoals and one freethrow. Scoring: Bellingham 4, T. Smith 6, Larson 3, Johnston 0, Hanson 1, F. Smith 4, Steele 8,Bateman 0. Holsey 13, Redmond 0. The Logger game with Hood River which was scheduled for Tuesday was postponed and will be played at a later date.