Grand Island

July 11th, 2010

Grand Island

Am forwarding this email to each of you because you have some connection to Grand Island.  You can write letters to the County Commissioners, 525 N.E. 5th Street, McMinnville, OR  97128.  I am also going to forward an e-mail from Ken Clow which outlines what Baker Rock is trying to do on Grand Island.  If you’re familiar with where the “Noble Peach Orchard” was, this parcel is only about 1/2 mile down along the river road (The Wild Way, as us kids used to call it).  If you’ve got any questions, let me know.  I bet Grandpa Clark & Dad are madder than hops. Judy Bennett

Grand Island Update

We are pleased to announce that we had a victory in the first step to protect Grand Island.  Last night the Planning Commissioners voted against approval of the Baker Rock application (5/2). It is important to note that the Planning Department recommended that it be approved. They are likely to make the same recommendation to the County Commissioners.

The next step is to reopen the comment period and the application will be considered by the County Commissioners. Their decision is the final word for this application unless one of the parties chooses to file an appeal with the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA.) We do not want to have to take our position to LUBA. We need the County Commissioners to vote against this quarry now! The next hearing will be within the next month, if not sooner.

It is important that we act now, visibly! We have some good plans to discuss. There is much more than we can do. We will hold an important planning meeting at 7:00 PM this Wednesday, July 7th at the Unionvale Church. Please come and bring others with you! Come and learn how easy it is for you to continue to make a big difference in this fight. Tell everyone you know: your neighbors, former Grand Island folks, school mates, church friends, family, other farmers, your buyers, the family dog:) Just talk about it, all of the time:) If you know someone who would like to be added to this list have them email: kris@bledsoes.net Also send everyone to our fabulous website:

http://protectgrandisland.wordpress.com/

Everyone who has participated so far has already made a big difference. Thanks! After last night we are reenergized and reorganized!

Kris Bledsoe

Ron Schindler

Sam Sweeney

Here is Ken’s email which outlines what is trying to be done.  Any questions, you can email me or him.  Please get on the band wagon with this group and write some letters to the County Commissioners.  Thanks

Judy

From: Ken Clow [mailto:2ksathome@onlinemac.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 12:27 PM
Subject: Grand Island

You are receiving this email because you have a connection to the Grand Island, Dayton, Unionvale area either in the past, present or both.  (And you are in my email address book)  You may or may not have heard that a gravel company (Baker Rock) is applying with the Yamhill County planning board and commissioners to mine 225 acres for aggregate (sand and gravel) on the South end of Grand Island.  A small group of impacted people from the community have been meeting to oppose the approval of the conditional use permit.  Approval of the application not only jeopardizes the island itself because of the history of flooding and process they propose for the actual mining, but also the farms and livelihoods of those now located there.  In addition the loss of farmland, the company states they will be making 75 trips per day from the mining site to Baker Rock in Dayton, 6 days a week, from 7am to 6pm.  While this does not impact the loss of farm land directly as the mining does, it definitely impacts the quality of life and safety for residents living between Grand Island and Dayton.  By my estimates, 75 trips per day would mean a truck would pass in front of my house on Wallace Road every 15 minutes, along with all the farm machinery, farm workers, commuters, school buses, etc. and we that live and work here.  These estimates are for the one mine being proposed, but 2 others have already been approved in other parts of the island.  If all 3 mines are working at the same time, God knows how much traffic will increase and land will be lost on the island.  And, that is not to speak of the negative impact on air quality, potential impact on domestic and irrigation wells, impact on county and state roads and bridges and the loss of private property values in addition to what the current economy has already demonstrated.

The group could use your help combating the approval of this additional site.  If you are interested in helping you can go to this website protectgrandisland.wordpress.com/ or contact me by responding to this email or calling 503-949-0358 and I will put you in touch with the people leading the group.  The website is still in development, but it will give you a flavor for what is about to happen.

Also, if you don’t have the time to give to this project, please forward this email to other people you know who have a connection and feelings for Grand Island and look back fondly on the quality of life in this farming community.  Letters in opposition to the newspaper, county commissioners and elected officials are great and support the mission of the group.

Thanks for listening,

Ken Clow

Here is Ken’s email which outlines what is trying to be done.  Any questions, you can email me or him.  Please get on the band wagon with this group and write some letters to the County Commissioners.  Thanks

Judy

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President’s Letter: July 2010

July 11th, 2010

Dear Family,

I’m in Ohio attending a Montessori training for teachers of adolescents this summer. While researching for a project on the U.S. Western Migration, I opened up the book Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lilian Schlissel.  The purpose of the research was to find information we could use to act out roles of people who migrated to the West.  We were practicing how if our students imagine themselves as people in the history they are studying, they will not only learn the history better but will gain a sense of themselves in the progression of mankind.

Here is a passage I came across:

Marriages on the frontier were often made before a girl was half through her adolescent years, and some diaries record a casualness in the manner in which such decisions were reached.  Mrs. John Kirkwood recounts that her brother Jasper decided to get married Christmas Day but was unable to find a minister or justice of the peace to marry him:

“The night before Xmas, John Kirkwood … the path finder stayed at our house overnight.  I had met him before and when he heard the discussion about my brother’s Jasper’s wedding, he suggested that he and I also get married. I was nearly fifteen years old and I thought it was high time that I got married so I consented.  Jack Kirkwood volunteered to go to Bethel and get Rev. Glenn Burnett … He came back with Elder Burnett early in the afternoon.  Shortly after he arrived, my brother Jasper and his girl, Mary Ring, who had just come from Missouri, stood up and were married.  Immediately after the ceremony had been performed, Jack and I stepped out and Elder Burnett married us.  No one knew that we were going to be married and they all were very much surprised.  I remember that we had a mighty fine wedding dinner and a big celebration.  One of the things I remembered best about the wedding dinner was a pie my mother had made from dried tomatoes.  You need not turn your nose up at it either for it was mighty good.”

Marriages arose out of a sense of mutual congeniality and the conviction that a man and woman together were necessary to do the work of living on the frontier.  Both young men and young women were free to follow their inclinations, and weddings were made expeditiously.  The young couple was expected to set off on their own, sometimes with a ‘chivaree’ or communal celebration, and sometimes with only a tomato pie.

Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey, Lillian Schlissel, Schocken Books NY c.1982 pg. 45

My first thought was, “I know these people!”  Of course, these were the memories of Charlotte Matheny Kirkwood.  That certainly made it easier for me to role play and relate to the history we were studying and my connection to Charlotte’s family also brought my colleagues a little closer to it.  Even without a personal connection, though, this passage offers a chance for adolescents to more clearly examine their own present day identities and responsibilities by reflecting on the past.  Connecting with our past improves our future.

Does anybody have the recipe for dried tomato pie?!

I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the Reunion when I get back to Oregon.

Thank you to all who helped out at last year’s anniversary celebration.  This year the council has made one change and we have a treat for the kids:

THE COUNTRY STORE

This year instead of the raffle, the Family Council has decided to have a good, old-fashioned, country store.  Preserves or fresh bounty from your garden, hand crafts, plants and seeds, books, and items that would have been raffled off will be sold in the Country Store all during the Reunion in the interest of allowing more time for visiting.  So bring your “egg money” to spend on treats and treasures.  And bring your items to donate to the store.  If you were the lucky winner of one of the many books in the raffle last year and want a new volume to grace your coffee table, consider donating back last years’ copy and buying a new one at the store. Or do you have books, cd’s, or dvd’s that might be of interest to family members that you’d like to find a good home for while helping out the Family Association?

OUR SOUTH OF THE BORDER ROOTS

Arnie Young’s family, William S. Cooper descendants, will be bringing a piñata for the kids in recognition of Jasper Matheny’s life on the plantation in Mexico.

See you there,

Barbara

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Charlotte, Barbara, and Roger Shipman and the tunnel (Charlotte Matheny Kirkwood descendents)

July 11th, 2010

By Roger Shipman  8/2/2009

At age 7 or 8, we lived near downtown Everett, Washington, “kitty-corner” from the fire station, which was right next to the opening of the train tunnel which ran ¾ mile under downtown.  That mysterious dark mouth always appealed to all us Shipman’s.  One day my sister Charlotte, 7 years older, announced (Mom and Dad being away) that she was going to explore it.

Barbara and I jumped on the chance to come along.  Bright daylight disappeared far behind us as we trekked into the gaping maw.  Suddenly we saw the headlights of a train coming toward us.  Charlotte, the fastest runner in our family, turned and ran with all her might, Barbara behind her.  I ran, too, but not so fast, and thinking I might not get out, kept stopping to hug the side of the rough tunnel, and looking apprehensively behind me at the rapidly approaching train.

Finally I decided stopping was no help, and I ran until I was out of breath.  Louder and louder behind me, the train kept me running, terrified, and I did not dare look back.  I ran out into the welcome sunshine, but the sides of the opening consisted of a dusty ravine.  I scrabbled on hands and knees to gain purchase on the slippery slope, fearing all the while that the awesome train would crush my legs.

Only three feet up, I slipped, and was face down on the dirt, calling out to the firemen in the building scant six feet above me, when the train thundered out of the tunnel.  My feet were only two feet from the tracks, and the train’s passage shook the earth, as I lay there in dread and terror, not daring to move, for the next two minutes – it seemed like two hours – while the train finally passed by.  Seeing the red caboose left me quivering with relief.

I think it was twenty years before any of us told my mother about that day.  Dad never did learn, as he passed away only about eight years later.  When, years after the event, I read that the suction and wind pressure would prevent even a strong man from clinging to the sides of a tunnel through which a train was passing, I trembled all over again.

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