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June 30, 2009

Picher packing it in



By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

PICHER, Okla. — Hoppy Ray was surprised when he watched the story about his life in Picher on CNN’s Web site.

“It kind of surprised me,” Ray said. “I didn’t expect them to do all that. But it was nice.”

During a town reunion last month, a film crew with CNN visited Picher and filmed Ray, age 84, in his museum. A story, a timeline, photos and a video accompany John Sutter’s June 30 report: “Last man standing at wake for toxic town.”

The site is www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/30/oklahoma.toxic.town/index.html.

Also appearing in the video is Rebecca Jim, an environmental activist who has been involved with public-health issues in the Tar Creek Superfund Site for many years.

“They came down the day of the Picher reunion (June 13),” Jim said. “It was a sad story. And, they didn’t let me say the one thing I kept saying to them, and that is Congress needs to reauthorize the Superfund law so that the polluter pays for these cleanups.”

The story focused on Ray’s reluctance to leave Picher and how his son secretly moved him out of Picher into a dwelling 10 miles away in Miami.

David Ray, the son who moved him out, said: “I had to play dirty pool when he was out of town. I moved out everything while he was gone. When he came backed to his apartment, I told him, ‘You moved.’

“Boy, was he p---ed off — totally. I had two choices: It’s his way, and it’s his way. There was not much wiggle room on that.”

Jim said: “Hoppy, well, he saved face. He did not do it. Someone else moved him. That was the kindest way to do that. His son just did it, and that was it. But, he was still the last man standing.”

Said Hoppy Ray: “I went to pay the utilities. I was gone for a couple of hours. When I turned the door key, there wasn’t a damn stick of furniture left in the apartment. That teed me off for quite some time.”

Ray’s museum remains in Picher.

The ever-defiant Ray said: “It’s not going anywhere if I can help it. There’s too much history there.”

Picher is continuing to shut down as the state, with federal money, buys out the last remaining residents. The population may be under 50. A couple of years ago, the town had a population of more than 700 people.

A spokeswoman for the Picher post office said the office will close Monday. Plans call for the closing of city offices in September.

And on Tuesday night, graduates of the Picher-Cardin School District marked both the end of the school system, which closed Tuesday, and the return of Bobo, a concrete statue of the school district’s gorilla mascot.

The statue was sold to a Conway, Mo., resident last month when the school district put much of the remaining property up for auction. Local residents rallied to buy the gorilla back, and it was returned Tuesday. It ultimately is to be donated to a museum.





Treece proposal



U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., has introduced federal legislation that would authorize a buyout of Treece, Kan., because of dangers posed to residents from past mining operations.

“One hundred years of mining near Treece has left the approximately 100 residents with toxic soil, dangerous conditions and no hope of rebuilding,” Jenkins said in a news release. “While I appreciate the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to clean up Treece, I am convinced cleanup is not sufficient.”

Treece is just north of Picher, Okla. Jenkins said in the release that residents of Treece and Picher were victims of virtually the same circumstances.

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