Parhams retire from Basin Meats

On a personal note

Fellow classmate of the Moses Lake High School Great Class of 1965 Bob Parham, along with his Wife, Gerry, are now retired, as of June 30, from Basin Meats. They have been cutting meat there for, well has it been 40 years or more?

Friends and family are having a shindig this Saturday, July 20, beginning at 4 p.m. in the old sale barn at the Grant County Fairgrounds.

From Gary Russell:

"I will be cooking a pig. Customers should bring their congratulations and appetite."

While at the retirement party, attendees will also be able to meet the new owner of Basin Meats, Doug Horn, who is a Columbia Basin native and veteran of the meat cutting business.

Contact Gary at 750-7807.

Bob, or Bobby as I call him, and I were on the Moses Lake High School track team together. We both threw the discus, but Bobby always beat me and a bunch of the guys on the other teams as well.

Bobby was quite the business man in high school, too. He would hire me to buck hay, a lost art today.

One of Bobby's twin brothers would set out moving the bails so they were in a row and straight. The second brother would then drive the truck and we would fly across the field in second gear, catching and stacking the bails as they moved up the chain at a fast pace.

Congratulations Bobby, and Gerry, too.

Lake treatment meetings planned

State fishery managers will host public meetings in July to discuss proposals to treat three lakes in eastern Washington with rotenone, a naturally occurring pesticide commonly used to remove undesirable fish species from lakes and streams.

Fish and Wildlife is proposing to treat Badger Lake in Spokane County, Spectacle Lake in Okanogan County, and the Hampton and Pillar-Widgeon Lake chains in Grant County this fall to remove species ranging from bass and bullhead to stunted panfish.

The Pillar-Widgeon chain is made up of 10 waters, including: Pillar, Snipe, Cattail, Gadwall, Poacher, Lemna, Shoveler, Sago, Hourglass and the Widgeons. The Hampton Chain is made up of Upper and Lower Hampton, Hampton Slough, Hen, Dabbler, Marie and three small, unnamed ponds.

Public meetings to discuss the lake treatments proposed by WDFW are scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. on the following dates at the following locations: July 29 - Olympia, at the Natural Resource Building, 1111 Washington St., Room 175; July 30 - Tonasket, at the City Hall Council Chamber, 209 S. Whitcomb; July 31 - Cheney, at the Cheney Library, 610 1st St.

In addition to input received at the public meetings, WDFW will consider written comments received through Aug. 23. Comments should be addressed to Bruce Bolding, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091.

Final consideration of the proposals will be made by the WDFW director in early September.

Rotenone is an organic substance derived from the roots of tropical plants, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved for use as a fish pesticide and as an insecticide in the agriculture industry. It has been used by WDFW in lake and stream rehabilitations for more than 70 years, and is commonly used by other fish and wildlife management agencies nationwide.