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Looking Back for Oct. 19, 1958

Owner to tear down Mt. Harris school

From the Thursday, Oct. 16, 1958, edition of The Steamboat Pilot:

The schoolhouse at Mt. Harris, which was sold to George Watts, of Hayden, for $288 at an auction this summer, will be torn down. Watts said he planned to use it in the construction of a tourist court.



Under the original agreement with the Wadge Coal Company, the school was to be used to District 3 on a continuance basis as long as it did not remain unoccupied as a school for more than two consecutive years. Coal company officials told Mt. Harris District 3 officials they would demolish the building on their land at the end of this two-year period.

County school superintendent Geraldine Elkins said the total sale of the schoolhouse, furniture, teacherage, school fence and miscellaneous items netted $2,621. This money goes into the general operating fund of school district 3.



Superintendent Elkins said the coal company’s decision to demolish the building left officials here with little alternative. “It was not feasible to use it as a schoolhouse with Mt. Harris closed down, and private parties would hardly be interested in it under these terms,” she said.

Mrs. Elkins said there are several former schoolhouses in the county no longer in use that could be sold through an auction if the voters in those districts would empower their school board to do this. “As it stands now, these public properties are being destroyed through vandalism,” she said.

Local church voices oppose Amendment 4

The Methodist Church is opposed to Amendment No. 4, which would legalize bingos, raffles and lotteries for churches, lodges and other nonprofit organizations, said Reverend George M. Burnworth, minister of the Methodist Church, of Steamboat Springs.

The Methodist Church is in harmony with the position taken by the National Council of Churches of Christ on this issue, the minister said.

Bishop Glenn R. Phillips, resident bishop of the Denver Area of the Methodist Church, has recommended the opposition of all Methodists of the state to the amendment. In keeping with this policy, the Official Board and the Commission on Christian Social Relations of our local church have gone on record as being opposed to the adoption of Amendment 4, Rev. Burnworth said.

The Methodist opposition to this amendment is based on a belief that it is just another step in a plan to open Colorado to the practice of gambling on a wholesale scale. Rev. Burnworth said it is a well-known fact that all forms of vice tend to thrive, delinquency is much more prevalent and the cost of law enforcement is greatly increased where gambling is practiced.

Junior college in area

possible by 1960

Mrs. Arthur Bogue, chairman of the planning committee for a junior college in Northwestern Colorado, learned this week there is a possibility of opening the college by the fall of 1960.

This was learned from Dr. Leroy Good, who is the leader of the move toward locating several junior colleges in Colorado for the State Department. Mrs. Bogue said the latest thought is to establish a school of mining engineering at Rangely with the main liberal arts campus in the eastern portion of the area.

Eugene Voris told Mrs. Bogue on Monday he will probably complete his thesis on the most feasible location for the main campus in the couple of months. He now is conducting questionnaires on what students want as their environment and the job potentials offered by towns throughout Northwestern Colorado.

Meetings of the planning committee will again be in full swing, Mrs. Bogue said. A tentative date of Nov. 8 in Kremmling has been set by the chairman for the next meeting of junior college committee members.

Ray Bennett, who is the committee member in Steamboat Springs, is optimistic about the possibility of having the main campus located in Steamboat. “We are interested in having the facts speak for themselves,” he said, as far in determining the location of the college.


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