Harrington News

This school year, 2013-14, is a walk down memory lane for one of Harrington's finest school teachers who has retired after 34 years of teaching, the first five years in Reardan Public School and the remaining 29 years at Harrington, serving the fifth and sixth grades.

Moeller began her memories in Harrington schools in 1956-57 when she was enrolled in the first grade at which time her class consisted of: Kenneth Wagner, Roger Rieth, Ronnie Timm, John Carstens, Marc Andersch, Michael Lucht, Devin Smith, Diane Kloster, Linda Everheart, Laurel Timm, Stephan Sauer, Deborah Wilber, Cynthia Schuh, Barbara Long, Karol Watson, Susan Graham, Vicki Bull, Grace Lust, Wendell Kruger, Jimmie Roth, Shirley Houck, Michael Bailey, Donald Bramer, Craig Moeller. Her teacher was Miss Jenne.

Like ever so many students from that era, Moeller was taught by Mrs. Sibert in the second grade, a slender woman with firm and strict discipline. New students that became familiar names to Moeller were Shirley Houck, Sandra Zicha, Terry Timm and Tommy Paul.

Moeller's third grade teacher was Mrs. May, the school year in which her life-long friend, Shirley Dean moved to Harrington. Mrs. Mary Lybecker taught her fourth grade class when new students joining were: Jay Dee Miller, Darrel Connerly, Terry Timm, Diane Kloster, Harold Moeller, Donny Bramer, Mike Bailey, Jim Roth, Vicki Bull, and Linda Everheart.

Her fifth grade teacher was Mrs. Gingrich, followed by Willard Burns, sixth; C. Louis Christensen, seventh; and Mr. Milne, eighth. Moeller began high school in the 1964-65 school year and graduated from Harrington High School with the Class of 1968.

Grace Lust attended Eastern Washington University and during her acquisition of a B.A. degree, she mysteriously changed her name to Grace Moeller, having now been married 44 years. She continued her education and completed her masters, principalship and certification for middle school.

Grace Moeller's parents were the late Ed and Mina Lust; her father was employed as a fuel deliverer and as a telegrapher for the railroad in Harrington. She was raised with her siblings: Clain, Mona, Don, and Bruce.

Moeller received two retirement parties recently, Friday, June 6, with the school and Saturday, June 7, at the Memorial Hall where her family welcomed Craig and Grace to celebrate their simultaneous retirements.

Grace wrote in her final newsletter, "thank you for entrusting me with your children and letting me be such an important part of their lives." And Harrington can well say, "Thank you, Grace Moeller, for being worthy of the trust of the parents in our community". Harrington has been blessed to have such a caring attitude in many of its instructors.

Harrington City Council

Wednesday evening the city council met at 7:30 at the city hall. Paul Gilliland opened the meeting with all members present: Terry Howe, Levi Schenk, Rick Becker, Mike Cronrath and Peter Davenport. Bunny Haugan was recorder and Scott McGowan was present to respond to all city projects. Guests included Ashley Schenk, Sharon Schultz, Sue Harding, Jen Mallery and daughter, Joyce Vogel, Paul Charlton and Marge Womach.

It was announced that Matt Kennedy had resigned his maintenance position, and for the interim, Keith Stai would be a temporary assistant to McGowan. The council and mayor will draft an advertisement to fill a city maintenance position. Minimal discussion was held regarding the need to advertise and eventually begin a position of deputy city clerk to train to replace Bunny Haugan at the end of the year 2015. The newly initiated dog license fee has resulted in about 50 or 60 dogs being registered thus far, which will mean a considerable number of citizens will have fines to pay when the dogs are identified. The city council again discussed the sidewalk at the Hotel Lincoln, a topic that has recurred for five years, which resulted in the council deciding an August 15 deadline.

Repair of the Tokio Road in town from the park to the cemetery was discussed, at a cost of $4,800 for chip-sealing. Rick Becker announced that the county has set up a rock crusher at Mohler, if the city wants to purchase gravel. Discussion was held on the Association of Washington Cities grant award which would pay for security cameras for the rest rooms and for road signs that need to be replaced. One member was opposed to having a security camera in a public area, such as the park, while others felt it was justified to reduce the potential vandalism that might otherwise occur. A recommendation was made to post a sign stating that a security camera was monitoring the area.

McGowan informed the council that the old locked restrooms had been broken into and used even though there was no water to them. Water leaks at the park and dead grass at the cemetery were also reported. An ice machine was made available to the Memorial Hall if McGowan would install it. No decision was made regarding this.

Concern was expressed by several council members that there are lawns that are not being cared for and with the intensity of the summer heat coming, these yards will become a fire hazard. Letters are to be send to property owners of the need to remedy this, or the city will mow and charge for it. A letter had been received from Mike Hardy informing the city that the computer back-ups are here. The replacement computer for Scott's use has not arrived.

Wheatland Bi-County Librarians

With the approaching Summer Reading Programs, and the Mobius Science Center Programs, the Wheatland Bi-County Librarians met Thursday, June 12, at 9:30 a.m. with Kylie Fullmer leading the group which consisted of Catherine Miller of the Hesseltine Library at Wilbur and board member, Suzanne Schulz of Reardan, Bridget Rohner of WSU Extension (Summer Reading Program), and a group from Odessa in lieu of Julie Jantz not being available.

Supplies for the science project boxes were received by each library, funds for which came from the grant. These supplies included oreo cookies, marshmallows, yarn of various colors, paper clips, glue, sugar, bran, plastic spoons, rubber bands, beans, noodles, glitter, construction paper. Following the counting and packaging of these items, most of the science projects selected for this summer's reading program were discussed by the person that selected each topic. Some samples were provided. Each library will have available the supplies to provide seven working project boxes. Also mentioned were the rapidly arriving science books to each library.

The Harrington Public Library's book order has begun arriving, including such books as: 100 Deadliest Things on the Planet (Claybourne), All About Light (Trumbauer), Amazing Dolphins (Thomson), Atoms and Molecules (Aloian), Chemical Changes (Brent), Bones (Simon), Idaho Falls (McKeown), Into the Volcano (O'Meara), Locomotive (Floca), National Geographic Readers: Rocks and Minerals (Tomecek), Secrets of the Garden (Zoehfeld), Sea Mammal Alphabet Book (Pallotta), The Tiny Seed (Carle), Weather (Cosgrove), What Is Electricity (Trumbauer) and Zoom, Rocket, Zoom. The cost for the books including postage was $986.49. The grant for the entire Science Project was from Inland Northwest Community Foundation, awarded to "increase STEM awareness through summer reading".

Inland Northwest Community Foundation in 2013 awarded 83 grants that totaled more than one million dollars. Their grants covered issues such as human services, economic development, education, community development, arts and culture and the environment. The foundation's location is on W. Riverside in Spokane.

Older books were weeded out of the library in preparation for the book sale, June 17, which will make adequate space for the new books to be placed in the library.