100 years ago

Plans and surveys have all been completed and the actual construction of a new power line to serve Pendleton with electricity will be under way within a few days, according to a statement today by Dr. F. W. Vincent, local manager for the Pacific Power & Light Co.

The new line will be built from Pasco and will carry 66,000 volts of power, or just double the present voltage carried by the line from the plant on the Walla Walla River. The Columbia River will be crossed at Umatilla, and from there the lone will be built directly to Pendleton. Approximately $350,000 will be spent on the lone and for a new sub-station and apparatus in Pendleton, Dr. Vincent states.

The work is all expected to be completed by this fall. The completion of the new line will not be necessary before the company can serve the government with power to operate its big shovels in the contraction of the McKay Creek dam, according to Dr. Vincent. The route of a power line from Pendleton to the dam site has already have established and the company is waiting for the government to accept the plan submitted for furnishing power before the line is actually constructed.

50 years ago

Pay increases averaging seven per cent were approved Tuesday for city employes by the Pendleton City Council.

The raises include a cost of living adjustment of four per cent for all employes, some job classification changes that result in additional four to eight per cent increases, and an increase in fringe benefits.

The council approved and flat eight per cent increase for City Atty. John Walker, Municipal Judge Arthur Barrows and City Manager Rudy Enbysk.

The pay proposal for city employes came before the council two weeks ago but council members tabled it then for study.

The increases generally had already been included in the proposed 1973-74 budget, on which work by the budget committee is under way.

City employes last year accepted a three per cent cost of living increase with the understanding that the pay question would be examined more closely this year.

25 years

It seems almost poetic that Dr. Stephen Lamb would be closing his practice after 10 years in the Pendleton community. Especially since Lamb, who has delivered more than 1,500 babies, can be credited with ushering in nearly a 10th of Pendleton’s total population.

Yet, all poetry has its bittersweet moments. Lamb and his family are moving to Utah. It will be a return home for Lamb and his wife, Margu. Three of their older children attend Brigham Young University and their extended family resides in Salt Lake City. But while they will be closer to family they must leave a community that has been like family to them.

“We love Pendleton,” Lamb said. “The decision to move has come with a lot of pain and a lot of second-guessing. The greatest people I’ve ever met live here. I think Pendleton is one of Western America’s best kept secrets.”

“I won’t miss having women ask me about personal issues in aisle 9,” Lamb said with a gentle laugh.