Disabled Services Advisory Council (DSAC) meets every fourth Thursday at the State Office Building small conference room, 809 West Jackson, at 1:30 p.m.

Harney County Soil and Water Conservation District board of directors meets the fourth Thursday of each month at the Rory and Ryan Best Western in Hines from 5-7:30 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.

A book club for kindergarten through fourth-grade students is held each Thursday at the Harney County Library, from 10:30-11:15 a.m.
Tai Chi  is held every Thursday at the Harney County Senior and Community Services Center, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. All ages are  welcome to participate.

Kiwanis Club of Burns-Hines meets for a no-host luncheon each Thursday at Glory Days Pizza, 690 Oregon Ave., at noon.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS #630) meets each Thursday at Hines City Hall, 101 East Barnes, at noon.  Anyone who has pounds to lose is welcome. Call 573-2896.

The Boys & Girls Club holds karaoke each Thursday. Members of all ages are welcome to join Hanna in the education room for a program that promotes the art of singing, as well as a fun way to practice reading skills.

Teen Night is held at the Boys & Girls Club each Thursday, from 6-7 p.m. for all teenagers.

Alcoholics Anonymous meets each Thursday at the Foursquare Church, at 7 p.m.

The Boys & Girls Club has the Club Bucks Store open each Friday. This is an incentive program in which members earn “club bucks” by doing good deeds and helping out around the club.

Alcoholics Anonymous meets every Friday at Foursquare Church at 7 p.m.

The Valley Golf Club Men’s Labor Day Tournament will be held Aug. 30-31. Tee-off time  is at 9 a.m. both days. For more information, call the Valley Golf Club at 573-6251.

Alanon holds an open meeting each Saturday at Foursquare Church at 7 p.m.

The Harney County Ministerial Association holds services every fifth Sunday. The community is invited to join in a time of music, fellowship and praise. For information, contact Pastor Jean Hurst, 573-4141.

Alcoholics Anonymous meets every Sunday at Foursquare Church for 12X12 study, at 7 p.m.

A 4-H Working Ranch Horse Show will be held on Sept. 1 at 10 a.m. at the Kerby Training Stables, west of Burns on Highway 20. For more information, call the Harney County Extension Office at 573-2506.

Medicare Assistance Program, through the Harney County Senior and Community Services Center is held the first Monday of each month from 1-3 p.m. Call 573-6024 to make an appointment.

Harney County Search and Rescue meets the first Monday of each month at the Parole and Probation office on N. Court and W. Adams, at 7 p.m.

Masonic Lodge meets the first and third Monday of each month at the Burns Masonic Lodge, 1210 West Taylor, at 7 p.m.

The Torch Club, a teen leadership and service group at the Boys & Girls Club, meets each Monday from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

ImageMakers, a photography program is offered to members of the Boys & Girls Club each Monday from 4-5 p.m. All ages are encouraged to learn and practice black and white, color and digital photography skills as well as image editing.

PRIDE meets each Monday in the Courthouse basement meeting room, 450 North Buena Vista, at 7:30 a.m. to network for community betterment.

The Burns Lions Club meets each Monday at noon at the Burns Elks Lodge, 118 N. Broadway, for lunch. Those interested in serving the community are welcome.

HDH Sports & Physical Therapy will offer a free athletic injury clinic at that facility, 559 West Washington, every Monday from 5-6 p.m. A physical therapist will assess and treat athletic injuries and provide education for athletes and parents on self management of injuries. For more information call 573-1543.

Narcotics Anonymous holds an open meeting each Monday at 7 p.m. at Foursquare Church.

Medicare D assistance is available on the first Tuesday of each month, from 1-3 p.m., at the Harney County Senior Center. If you need help before that date, call 573-6024.

Harney Hospital Foundation meets the first Tuesday of each month in the Hospital Conference Room at 7 p.m.

Sylvia Rebekah Lodge meets the first and third Tuesday of each month at the I.O.O.F. Hall, 348 North Broadway at 6:30 p.m.

Harney County Democratic Party meets the first Tuesday of each month at the Harney County Courthouse, 450 North Buena Vista, at 7 p.m.

Tai Chi is held every Tuesday at the Harney County Senior and Community Services Center, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. All ages are welcome to participate.

Boy Scout Troop 440, sponsored by the Burns Lion’s Club, meets each Tuesday from 7-8:30 p.m. at the LDS Church in Hines. Boys ages 11-18 are welcome to join.

The Boys & Girls Club holds a cooking class, open to all members, each Tuesday.

Alcoholics Anonymous holds an open meeting each Tuesday at Foursquare Church, at 7 p.m.

Cyclist hopes his own tragic experience will raise awareness

By Debbie Raney
Burns Times-Herald

While bicycling near his home on June, 2006, Pearson Constantino of upstate New York, was hit from behind by a sport-utility vehicle. The impact knocked Constantino off his bike and broke his left femur, crushed his lumbar vertebra and left him with head trauma. The driver who hit him fled the scene, leaving Constantino unconscious under a parked vehicle.

Two years and hundreds of hours of physical therapy later, Constantino and his brother, Peter, are traveling from the West Coast to the East Coast to promote safe co-existence between bicycles and motor vehicles. Constantino said that while recovering he has, “dreamed of that irreplaceable sensation and freedom that comes with riding. I willed myself to heal faster.”

On Aug. 12, Constantino’s 30th birthday, the brothers left Newport on their cross-country trek to Cape Cod, Mass. The trip is expected to take approximately seven weeks, following U.S. 20 about 3,500 miles. Along the way, Constantino hopes to share the story of his come-back with schools, cycle organizations and communities through 12 states.

The trip is also being filmed by Constantino’s wife, Julia Wrona, and will be made into a documentary. Wrona has chronicled Constantino’s recovery and training, and will be with her husband every mile across America. The project has been given 501c3 non-profit status through the Film Forum in New York City.

Constantino said he would like to use the film to lobby Congress, saying that  accidents such as his happen more often than people realize. In 2006, 44,000 cyclists were injured by motor vehicles in the United States. Of the driver that hit  Constantino’s, he said, “I want him to know his habits behind the wheel that morning forever altered my life. But I am using anger as motivation to ride, to share my story and to work to change the driving culture of our roads.”

On Saturday, Aug. 16, the cycling brothers and their two-person film crew, made their way through Harney County, reaching Juntura by evening. During the long pedal across the desert between Bend and Riley, the brothers said there were very few motorists who were not respectful to the cyclists. “There’s usually one or two a day,” said Constantino.

For more information on Constantino’s bicycle trip, and the film, go to:
www.longbikeback.com.

Water and sewer rates increase

By Lauren Brown
Burns Times-Herald

The Burns City Council is down one council member.

Mayor Laura Van Cleave began the Aug. 13 meeting by reading a resignation letter from Councilor Len Vohs, who was not in attendance.
In the letter Vohs stated that, “due to recent events and on the advice of my physician,” he had decided to resign from his seat on the council and would not be running for mayor in the November election.

He wrote that it had been an honor to serve the city and the community.

Vohs had been in charge of ordinance enforcement concerning junk and weeds. City Manager Justin Boone said that he would be taking that task back over from Vohs.

In a five to one vote, the council voted to approve Vohs’ resignation. Councilor Bill Renwick was the lone nay vote.
In other business:

• the council approved resolutions regarding the increase of water and sewer service rates, a police car loan and a fire department grant. Water rates for most residential/commercial customers inside the city limits went from $17 to $17.45 per month with a volume charge of $.0019 per cubic foot (same as last year).

Sewer rates for single family residential homes increased from a base rate of $25.10 per month to $25.60 per month;

• the council approved donation requests for the Desert Dash Rally in the amount of $50 and the Senior Nutrition Program at the Harney County Senior and Community Services Center in the amount of $75;

• the council approved an airport commercial sub-lease for Matt and Carla Davies who will sub-lease a hangar from Darrell and Sharyn Williams  at the Burns Airport;

• the council decided to hold a retreat/workshop with a representative from the League of Oregon Cities around Sept. 10. The retreat will be an opportunity for council members to go over the city handbook and set goals for the future. Further details will be decided later;

• the council approved an invoice for City Attorney Steve Finlayson in the amount of $2,750 for work done on the Burns/Hines Joint Wastewater Project and an invoice for Ferguson Surveying and Engineering in the amount of $826.99 for research done on the cemetery and pre-construction work on the Monroe Street sidewalk project;

• the council discussed city cleanup and ordinance enforcement and expressed some frustration with residents who don’t keep up their properties. “The one thing we can’t mandate is people taking pride in their property,” said Councilor Craig LaFollette.

Citizens Toni and John Steiner offered to help clean up properties in violation of weed and junk ordinances and encouraged the council to take a tougher stance against those who repeatedly violate city ordinances. They also suggested instituting a neighborhood watch program, which City Manager Boone said he would look into.

The Steiners said they wished more residents would get involved in cleaning up their neighborhoods. “Doesn’t anybody have the ooomph in them to change things?” asked Toni Steiner.

The next Burns City Council meeting will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27, at Burns City Hall.

By Randy Parks
Burns Times-Herald

Butterflies or moths? Harmless or a threat to the forest? Those are questions people have been asking after encountering a large number of the winged insects north of Burns.

While some have wondered if they are tree-eating moths, the truth is they are Pine White butterflies. If you drive north on Highway 395, you’ll more than likely see hundreds, if not thousands of the flitting creatures.

According to the Web site www.butterfliesandmoths.org, the butterfly’s scientific name is Neophasia menapia and other facts are as follows:

Identification: The upperside of forewing has a mostly all white cell and black band along costal margin, and the underside of hindwing has black veins. The female of the species resembles the male, but is duller; hindwings often have red edges, tinged with yellow

Life history: Males patrol near host trees for females. Eggs are laid stuck together in a row on a conifer needle. Caterpillars feed in groups when they are young and move apart when they are older. Caterpillars pupate at the base of the host tree after descending from the tree on a silken thread. Eggs hibernate.

Flight: One flight June-September.

Wing span: 1 3/4 – 2 1/4 inches (4.5 – 5.8 cm).

Caterpillar hosts: Needles of various conifers including pines (Pinus species), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and true firs (Abies species).

Adult food: Flower nectar including rabbitbrush, other yellow-flowered composites, and monarda.

Habitat: Western coniferous forests.

Range: British Columbia east to Alberta, south through Rocky Mountain states and California to Mexico; range just extends into western South Dakota and western Nebraska.

Conservation: Not usually needed.

NatureServe Global Status: G5 – Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.
Management needs: Caterpillar outbreaks occasionally defoliate ponderosa pine stands (Pinus ponderosa).

Linda Marie Beal died on Aug. 2, at her home in Burns.

She was born on Aug. 7, 1942, in San Bernardino, Calif., to Furness (Jack) John Taylor and Rose Marie McNamara Taylor.

Beal’s parents moved to a dairy in Vale when she was 10 years old. She helped her parents with all of the dairy chores. At the age of 15, she had 15 registered Jersey cows, heifers and calves, which she entered in the Malheur County Fair. She won the title of Oregon Jersey Queen and was awarded a trip to Chicago. When not milking and feeding calves, she enjoyed riding her horse and being around all animals.

Beal was a majorette in the Vale band, and also sang in the choir. She graduated from Vale High School in 1960.

She married Michael Gillespie, and they both attended college in Logan, Utah. The couple had two sons, Wendell James and Warren Carl before divorcing.

Beal and her sons moved back to Vale to the family dairy, and them moved to Prairie City when she married Alfred Fleming. She worked at the John Day Hospital as a certified nursing assistant (CNA). The couple had a son, Alan Laurance and daughter Ann Marie. After divorcing, Beal moved back to Vale.

In Vale, she lived in a cinder-block house on six acres, where she started raising a few horses and a cow. Beal worked for her parents and in the onion sheds in Vale.

She then married William Henry Beal, a neighbor boy she had met when she first came to Vale. To be near her husband’s job, the family moved to Brooks, near Salem on a 10-acre farm.

While living near Salem, Beal went to school for a nursing degree at the Salem Hospital.

Three years later, before Beal completed school, the family moved to Burns, again following her husband’s work.

Beal helped her family build their home, barn and shop in Burns, and also helped her husband in the Watermaster office of the Water Resources Department. She also worked at Harney Hospital as a C.N.A.

Beal was a 4-H leader for 20 years and introduced the first goats to the Harney County Fair. Her club members all excelled in market lambs and dairy goats. She was a member of the Harney County Church of the Nazarene, and through singing, delivered the Lord’s word. Her other talents included writing poems, acrylic painting and pencil drawing. She was a good organizer and hard worker.

Beal is survived by her husband, Bill; sons, Wendell, Warren and Alan; daughter, Ann; stepsons, Will, Dennis and Mike Beal; brothers, John and Tad Taylor; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Jack and Rose Taylor.

A memorial service was held on Aug. 8. Internment was held on Aug. 9 at the Valley View Cemetery in Vale. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Beal’s memory may be made to the Harney County 4-H, Harney County Extension Office, 450 N. Buena Vista, Burns, OR 97720.