25 years ago this week — 1999

Pendleton’s Sunridge Middle School may have a solution to motivating the vast majority of students who toil somewhere between the honor roll and obscurity.

The new program holds the promise of reviving the way students, staff and the community look at student achievement.

The school’s student leadership committee chose “Renaissance” for the name of the incentive-based recognition program designed to encourage academic excellence, scholastic improvement and positive leadership by offering all students the opportunity to become involved.

“‘All’ is the key component,” said LaDonna Ourada, leadership teacher and program coordinator. The goal is to join students at all academic and performance levels with educators, administrators, parents, businesses and community organizations to motivate and inspire higher achievement.

“We will be looking to the community at-large as a partner in supporting the citizenship and academic aspects of the program, as well as financially,” Ourada said.

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Tamastslikt Cultural Institute is coming to life.

The meeting rooms are being booked by various groups. The classrooms are used to teach the native tongues. On Sundays, language classes are followed by social dancing.

And during the week, even the hallways come to life, thanks to tribal elders such as Cecelia Bearchum of Adams.

Bearchum sets up a table across the hall from the gift shop, just within sight of the front entrance. She spreads the table with a bright woolen blanket and covers it with artifacts, precious items she encourages visitors to touch, to pick up and look at closely, “because what’s in the museum itself is under glass,” she pointed out.

Here in the hallway, outside the exhibit wing, she can answer questions and provide a more hands-on approach to the cultural experience.

“This way they can actually see it, see the artifacts. So we explain things, what they are used for,” she said. “The tourists seem to like that because they get more information from the Indian people.”

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In response to low prices last year, wheat farmers nationwide cut back on seeding winter wheat, according to recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — and Oregon farmers are no exception.

Oregon wheat farmers seeded an estimated 710,000 acres of winter wheat last fall for harvest in 1999. That is down 100,000 acres – about 12 percent – from the previous year’s planting, according to Homer Rowley of the Oregon Agricultural Statistics Service. That is the least acreage in wheat in the state since 1988.

“Low prices have caused the sharp decline, with prices the lowest since the crop of 1989,” Rowley said in the January crop report. “Growers are undecided what their 1999 crops will be. Some will plant spring wheat if prices increase to acceptable levels.”

Oregon State University extension agent Mary Corp said she has not noticed any significant cutbacks in local winter wheat planting.

“There has been some planting of alternate crops like canola, but nothing exceptional,” Corp said. “I would expect areas that had other options to maybe go with something else — like irrigated areas — but our options are pretty limited around here.”

50 years ago this week —1974

Tuesday was the warmest Jan. 15 in Pendleton’s history, the National Weather Service reported.

The mercury soared to 68 degrees at the airport, eclipsing the record high set Jan. 15, 1958, by eight degrees. It also eclipsed the previous high for the month, topping the 65-degree readings recorded Jan. 1, 1939, and Jan. 19, 1968.

Meanwhile, the Umatilla River was expected to crest at least a foot below the average flood stage today. The river was running at 7.25 feet in Pendleton and 5.7 feet at Gibbon today.

Tuesday’s soaring temperatures followed by a day wind that was blamed for power outages near Pendleton. Pacific Power & Light Co. Manager Mel Joy said power was off for a time near Mission and in the vicinity of the Pendleton Experiment Station when some poles were blown down.

Elsewhere in Eastern Oregon, two ice jams on the Grande Ronde River near the Union County community of Island City caused some flooding. One of the jams was one and one-quarter miles long.

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Official fears were turning to the Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, Wash., areas Friday as floodwaters in northern Idaho and eastern Washington continued to recede by emptying downstream.

A Washington Water Power Co. spokesman at Spokane said Lake Coeur d’Alene rose more than three feet Thursday and was expected to climb another 2 ½ feet today as the St. Joe and Coeur d’Alene rivers emptied into it.

Joseph Clegg, WWP operating engineer, said the lake was 3 feet above its normal spring runoff maximum and 7 feet above the maximum level of allowed control.

“There are some low-lying areas in Spokane which will be flooded,” Clegg said. “I wouldn’t think there will be real serious property damage. But what’s of concern to us now is new storms.”

Clegg said the Bonneville Power Administration and Federal Power Commission contacted WWP yesterday to express concern. It was possible, he said, that Spokane River flow could exceed 50,000 cubic feet a second — surpassing a record set in 1933 — and “there’s nothing we can do about it.”

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More concern over increasing prices than energy shortages was expressed by those surveyed by the East Oregonian last week.

A let-up in the extreme cold probably was the major factor that eased worries about energy shortages.

The cost of fuel oil for three Hermiston schools went from $5.58 at the end of November to $13.36 per barrel this month in four price increases within a 35-day period.

Gasoline prices for operation of buses increased six cents a gallon for many school districts during the same period.

Gasoline station operators hadn’t been informed of any changes in their allotments despite a warning from Washington that less gasoline would be forthcoming.

“No change, but I look to hear any day,” said Leon Helton of Leon’s Westgate Shell, Pendleton. Helton said his January allocation was about 4,000 more gallons than he received in December.

Bob Lockwood of Lockwood’s Service, Pendleton, hadn’t heard of any change, but said he wasn’t receiving enough gas. He has an “awful low allotment” because during the period in 1972 on which it is based, a highway construction project was going on in front of his station.

100 years ago this week — 1924

High rentals, coupled with other high costs of the production of wheat, are compelling wheat farmers to take a loss on their operations, according to the consensus of opinion expressed yesterday afternoon in a meeting of wheat growers held at the Pendleton Commercial association rooms. The meeting was called under the auspices of the farm bureau and was then turned over to reservation farmers who rent Indian lands.

The greater part of the meeting was given over to a discussion of costs, and charts prepared by Fred Bennion, county agent, were displayed which showed graphically the relation of wheat prices to rentals. The matter of production costs was also discussed by a number of farmers. Roy Ritner presided as chairman of the meeting.

A committee headed by L. L. Mann and consisting of O. N. Wright, F. S. Curl, Herbert Thompson and Will Wyrick was appointed. This committee will make a thorough investigation into the cost of production of wheat on the reservation and will make a definite recommendation to another meeting which will be held later.

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The plant of the Pendleton Packing & Provision Co., operated for the past 12 years in Pendleton, will continue strictly as a local concern and will not be affiliated with the Rainier corporation of Seattle, according to a statement of George Singer, vice-president of the company. An option of the Seattle concern was not exercised.

“The plan to run the plant as a subsidiary of the Seattle corporation did not meet with the approval of local investors,” Mr. Singer said, “so we have decided to run it as a strictly local concern, backed by local capital. Our plans for improving the plant, the yards, and securing federal inspection so we can ship our products into other states remain the same and will be carried out in the spring.”

Feeding, buying and selling will be carried on by the company, and poultry will be bought and shipped. The concern has been capitalized at $300,000. The common stock of $75,000 has been taken up, and $225,000 of preferred stock is being floated by the company through W. A. Jenks and A. F. Fisher, the brokers in charge.

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A defense consisting of a plea of insanity was foreshadowed in the case of the state of Oregon against Miss Nora Ellis, charged with murdering in the first degree for the shooting of Gordon Mettie, by questions asked this morning by counsel for the defendant of prospective jurors. The case started at 9:10 o’clock in circuit court before Judge Gilbert W. Phelps.

Miss Ellis, the defendant, appeared in court in the custody of Deputy Sheriff Lavender, and was accompanied by her brother Walker Ellis, and by a sister, Mrs. Elsie Kamrath of Twin Falls, Idaho. Attired in a dark tailored dress, Miss Ellis said near the table of her counsel between Mrs. Kearney, the private matron who has been her companion since her confinement in jail, and her brother.

Attorneys had barely begun asking questions of prospective jurors this morning before the court room crowded, and standing room was practically exhausted. Spectators must be kept quiet if the room continues to be crowded, according to instructions given the bailiffs this morning by the court. The majority of those in attendance were men, but the faces of women were apparent in every section of the court room.