Harrington News

Teacher Grace Moeller and her 5th- and 6th-grade students mixed horticulture and civics when they transplanted flowers grown by Erica Whitmore's FFA horticulture class. The group met behind the Memorial Hall where the students learned to successfully remove the plants from their growth containers and place them into planters donated by local businesses and the city in previous years. The students learned that the plants will now survive with soil, sun and water. The most frequent question asked by the students was, "How are they going to move the large planters?" Late Friday afternoon the answer was provideded. Scott McGowan was to use a fork lift to carry one at a time to its summer station.

Studio Cascade

Chaz Bates of Spokane consulting firm Studio Cascade visited Harrington Tuesday, May 20, and met for an hour each with Cassandra Paffle-Dick, Gordon and Billie Herron, Aileen Sweet, Terry Howe, and Jerry Allen to collect ideas from the citizenry on what they would like to see happen in Harrington and what they believe would cause change to occur in town.

On the sidelines some citizens have expressed concern that the grants seem to involve more talking and planning and that there is rarely money in them for actual projects to make even minor changes in the town's appearance or appeal to non-residents. People have been reviewing the PDA agendas (1992 to present) and have greater expectations from the $10,000 grant than more of the same. The grant that the Harrington Historic Preservation Commission acquired is to be used for Studio Cascade. Following these meetings, Celeste Miller, president of the Harrington Historic Preservation Commission, expressed hope for potential change in the near future. At the time of Studio Cascade approaching the city council with their contract, Bates assured the council that he would be working with professors and students from Eastern Washington University who had participated in the design charrette earlier in the year. Apparently this is not likely to occur, however, as only one student was inclined to come back to Harrington to work with him. The design charrette and the initial meeting with Studio Cascade focused on updating the 2000 Plus planning for Harrington.

Harrington Public Library

Librarian Marge Womach opened the library board meeting Tuesday with Susan Larmer, Betty Warner, Katy Steward and Jacob Bang attending. Stacey Rasmussen was excused due to her teaching schedule.

The board was informed of ongoing work on the computers and the upcoming meeting with the Wheatland librarians. The outline given to the Harrington Library stating requirements for receipt of the $1,000 grant (obtained by Kylie Fulmer of the Ritzville Library) was read and discussed: visit by Mobius Science Center staff at the Harrington gym June 17 at 1 p.m., the science project boxes that will be used and shared during the summer reading program (beginning July 10) and the need for ordering $1,000 worth of books. Susan Larmer offered to order books that would not duplicate books already available to junior readers.

The message from Carolyn Petersen of the state library was that Harrington "needs to remove older books that are outdated and replace them with the new order." With this in mind, as well as the need to reduce the library holdings before the bar codes are applied, the board decided to have a book sale the day of the Mobius Science Center visit, when there would be additional traffic coming through town.

A suggestion was made to ask the Harrington Opera House Society to conduct a rummage sale the same day to help slow down traffic. Numerous VHS movies for children were donated to the Harrington Library which is attempting to coordinate with the HOHS to show movies for children during the adult swim time, so parents could drop children off at a safe location where they would be occupied. The library is looking for adult volunteers to make this happen.

Old issues of the Harrington Citizen newspapers are in need of repair. The board offered to work at restoring the bindings if supplies are ordered. Jacob Bang offered to investigate the possibility of getting the microfilmed Citizen converted to digital copies.

Susan Larmer said the 5th- and 6th-grade classes would visit the library next week.

On May 20, Gary Bortel came from the state library to upgrade the two library computers to save the Harrington Library the expense of new equipment and new programs. Deep Freeze was loaded on each machine to preserve the integrity of the computers while patrons use the units. The state donated a used laptop computer for staff use for the bar code program, which most of the Wheatland libraries have joined. Bortel completed work on the computers Wednesday afternoon.

Representatives from each of the seven Wheatland Libraries met May 22 with several members of the WSU Extension program to discuss the STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) grant. Included was Bridget Rohner who will conduct the summer reading program in Harrington from July 10 to the end of the month each Thursday from 3 to 5. This working meeting had 15 participants making decisions as to which Science Box Project each library would prefer for a topic. Julie Jantz from Odessa selected botany and biofuels; Davenport chose engineering, catapults and bridges; Harrington math, probability and sorting; Suzanne Schulz from Reardan astronomy, calculating weight on other planets; Catherine Miller and Shirley Goodlake from Wilbur's Hesseltine Library picked water tension with "float your boat;" Judy Boutain of Sprague selected entomology; Heidi Harting of the Ritzville Library chose robotics, technology and the jitterbug.

Sarah Aldridge of Ritzville, a high school junior, spoke regarding Washington Aerospace Scholars and online courses for juniors in high school. She expressed the need for "caution" to be taught in conjunction with all science projects.

Heidi Harting said she would arrange the Mobius Science Center visit. Members of the WSU Extension program left prior to the noon break. The Wheatland representatives and Carolyn Petersen from the state library had lunch at the Harrington Golf & Country Club. The meeting resumed at 1 p.m. where the focus was primarily the summer reading program and ordering of the juvenile science books using the grant money.

Finally, a decision was made to rotate the Wheatland libraries collections at the next meeting on June 12. The meeting concluded at 3 p.m. when the Harrington Public Library opened for patrons.

HOHS rummage sale

The Harrington Opera House conducted a rummage sale Saturday with a steady flow of people. In the days just prior to the sale, two estates donated wonderful boxes of items for the Elevator Fund. This was one of the most successful sales since the origin of the rummage fundraiser idea. Most of the large furniture donated found homes. Visitors from the west side left feeling as though they made "wonderful bargains," which is half of the idea that the HOHS tries to communicate, the other half being "make a donation that you feel comfortable giving." The rummage sale is solely for the benefit of the Elevator Fund; no monies are removed and all help is volunteer.

Visitors commented on the completed new sidewalk which is continuing to cure, and customers for the most part did not cross into the roped-off area. Midnight Finishings of Davenport was responsible for the nice sidewalk that makes the building wheelchair accessible.

The Tacoma Photographic Society, a camera club, came from the Studebaker Garage to the Opera House to take photos and were given a tour of the building by Karen Robertson. Tim Clifton seemed to be their spokesman and left his business card. Jay Kane offered them directions to view a specific barn near Coffee Pot Lake, which they wanted to see en route to the Govan school building, and the cause of their arrival in Harrington.

Shields-Gooley Reunion

Over fifty years ago Mary Shields Huber and her two daughters, Mary Lou and Dolores, and their children started coming from Spokane to the St. Francis cemetery in Harrington where Mary's husband, Eddie Huber, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Shields, and other relatives had been laid to rest. They would decorate the graves and have a picnic in the park. They were often joined by Mary's mother-in-law, Mary Fallert, and two half sisters, Eleanora Gooley and Katherine Yarwood, and their families. Over time the families grew and expanded, and there always seemed to be enough young folks, as well as a few older ones to have competitive baseball games at the school's baseball field after the picnic. One stormy picnic day, at least 45 years ago, the families moved their gathering into the basement of St. Francis Catholic Church. The baseball teams are smaller these days and happen in the park across from the school but are no less enjoyed by the younger folks and the parents who used to be the younger folks! This year, three little boys present were of the fifth generation of those who have been coming to St. Francis cemetery to honor their loved ones through the past 50-plus years. Over the years, Shields relatives from the Yakima area have joined the group to decorate the graves and get reacquainted at the picnic.

Nearly 20 years ago, Margaret Lyons contacted Marge Womach in regard to gathering information on her parents, Jim and Tillie Shields, and her grandparents, John and Mary Shields. Until this Sunday, Lyons had not met Womach. Sunday they met at St. Francis Cemetery in Harrington, and Lyons introduced her to the many relatives in the St. Francis social room.

Lyons also explained her relationship to Margaret Mahoney Shields, her great grandmother, and her aunt Miss Margaret Shields, her namesake. Lyons appeared to thoroughly enjoy rehashing history: Margaret Mahoney was born in County Limerick, Ireland in 1833, came to America at age 14 and married Hugh Shields in Goshen, N.Y. when she was 17. They had four children. Of the four, Lyons focussed on John Shields. Through the years Lyons has created three large notebooks of data and family photos and marriage records that she shares with all the family. She acknowledged that Richard Hecker of Montana was thrilled to come to Harrington several years ago and locate the old windmill on the Hecker ranch south of Harrington. It means so much for relatives to have a piece of the past, or a photo signifying the labor of their ancestors.

Those attending the Shields- Gooley reunion this year included Kellee and Blake Barden; Don and Colleen, Hunter, Kendall and Mason Brock; Jim and Whitney Beck; Kelsey Lavelle; Margaret Shields Lyon, age 94, and daughter Nancy Doubleday; Beatrice Shields Lovell; Laurie Shields; Jeanne and Terry Leaf; Mike Lavelle; Jackie and Jared Klingele; Katherine Stout; Rick and Lori Stout; Angela Stout Larson; Don and Kathy Beck; Scott and Loretta Thompson; Rod and Lori Gooley Rieth; Dolores and Steve Witt; Kevin Witt and son; Jim and Naomi Shields; Ron and Carolyn Gooley; Shanna Wilhelm, Collin and Tyler; and Jim and Jo Gooley.

Two large tables were laden with dinner and desserts, with enough food for twice the size of this group. The younger crowd enjoyed the Harrington City Park while the less active compared history, recollections and photos. Email addresses were exchanged and local historian Marge Womach left realizing how much out-of-town people appreciate trivia from days gone by.

The close of the afternoon meant a trip to the old John and Mary Shields homeplace to view a doorpost that had "Clara" and "Mike" carved into it nearly 100 years ago, which incidentally is the home of Marge Womach at Mohler. Photos were taken, and then they began their journey home to Yakima.