25 years ago this week — 1999

Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo tries to be an accommodating sort of fellow, but he is at a loss to understand the complaints of local attorney Bob Ehmann.

Ehmann staged a one-man protest in Circuit Court earlier this week, refusing to represent a client lodged at the new jail. Citing the lack of attorney-client privilege, Ehmann said he would not violate his own ethics.

“I’m not going to go in there,” Ehmann said. “They can hear everything I say to my client.”

Unlike the old jail, where attorneys sat in the same room as their clients, the new jail separates the attorneys and clients into different rooms, with a window between the two. There is a hole to speak through and an opening to pass legal documents back and forth.

The rooms are soundproof, with heavy metal doors, which are being fitted with sweeps, all in an effort to ensure confidentiality.

It’s a set-up that is widely used, Trumbo maintained.

“A lot of these fellows don’t get out-of-town very much. If you go over to Ontario or La Grande, you will find the identical set-up. Almost every new jail is the same. It’s the trend, in an effort to make things secure,” he said.

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The Umatilla River Basin, including all of its tributaries, covers about 1.5 million acres, stretching from Umatilla to Tollgate and from Helix to Pilot Rock. Every drop of water that touches that 1.5 million acres and ends up in the Umatilla River carries with it whatever is on and in the ground.

That’s a concern to the federal government — especially the Environmental Protection Agency — which is requiring governments to clean up the rivers in their jurisdictions. The Federal Clean Water Act has listed more than 40 stream segments in the Umatilla Basin that are “impaired” due to factors including sediment, temperature, chemicals and wildlife issues.

Heading up the effort locally to bring the Umatilla Basin into compliance with federal regulations is Tracy Bosen, coordinator of the Umatilla Basin Watershed Council.

“This is an issue everybody will be affected by,” Bosen said. “Every single person in the basin will be held responsible, whether it’s their lawns that they fertilize, whether it’s their backyard horse pasture they have, or whether it’s their 10,000 acres of farm ground.”

An agricultural work group has been working with farmers to help create farm management plans to bring them into compliance with clean water laws.

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A breach in the Stanfield Irrigation Canal north of Echo early Monday washed out a portion of Thielsen Street, closing the highway from the city limits to Interstate 84.

Echo city officials said a citizen on his way to work noticed water leaking over the roadway at around 5:30 Monday morning. By 6 a.m., sections of the road north of town were beginning to buckle.

Not much later, the roadway and bridge spanning the irrigation canal gave way, creating a deep canyon where once there had been a road, Echo City Manager Diane Berry said.

More than 80 feet of pavement washed away, and the bridge across the canal suffered major structural damage. Officials from the Umatilla County Road Department said the bridge would have to be replaced.

The cause of canal breach is still under investigation, but officials suspect an eight-inch water pipe recently installed in the area may have been the source of the problem.

“It may be related to the new pipeline crossing the road that caused the ditch to fail, but we’re not sure right now,” said Bernie Meskimen of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. “There was a normal flow of water in the irrigation canal when this happened.”

50 years ago this week — 1974

An investigation of alleged misconduct by assistant secretary of state Jack Thompson apparently was triggered by Thompson’s handling of voter pamphlet material submitted by state sen. Richard Groener, D-Milwaukie.

Thompson, suspended last week, said Monday that he had held Groener’s hand-written voters pamphlet material past the March 21 deadline to wait for a typewritten copy.

When the typed draft arrived, a few days past the deadline, it was taken right to the printer, Thompson said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman from the offices of the attorney general and the secretary of state said Monday that there will be no official comment until the investigation is complete. The results may be known as early as this afternoon, a spokesman from the attorney general’s office said.

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The Umatilla County Planning Commission in a surprise action Wednesday asked that two injunctions be obtained to halt S. D. Spencer and Son gravel removal and crushing operations along the Walla Walla River north of Milton-Freewater.

“Why hasn’t the county board of commissioners stopped them?” asked planning commission member Charles Hoeft.

“I couldn’t get any backing,” said county commissioner Raymond Bevans.

The planners also decided to hold a hearing on a Spencer zone change request in Milton-Freewater Community Building.

Several Milton-Freewater area residents who attended Wednesday’s planning commission meeting to object to the Spencer operation that is now under way left the meeting before the commission took its unexpected action.

The commission charged Wednesday that Spencer is violating a conditional use permit because the firm is crushing gravel excavated from other than the river channel, as the permit specified.

It also charged that Spencer is violating the county zoning ordinance by excavating gravel in a rural residential zone.

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Nine-year-old Michaele Boylen hopes to get up long enough Sunday to hunt a few Easter eggs.

Michaele, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Boylen, Pendleton, has been at Seattle hospital since Nov. 8 with aplastic anemia, which destroys bone marrow.

When a bone marrow transplant failed to take Feb. 15, another transplant was performed two weeks ago. Her father said, in a call from Seattle Friday, that it was too early to say how strong the second graft was, but tests indicated that it was taking.

It will be another two weeks before a more definite prognosis can be made, Boylen said.

He recalled that the first graft appeared to be taking, too, after two weeks, but then “it kicked off.”

Boylen said his daughter continues to receive mail. “Everybody has been tremendous about writing,” he reported.

Michaele looks forward to mail call “like she was in the service,” her father said.

Letters and cards may be sent to Michaele at Providence Hospital, 17th and Jefferson, 3rd floor — South Seattle, Wash., 98122.

Meanwhile, a fund drive for the youngster continues.

100 years ago this week — 1924

The Pendleton high school now has a bronze tablet upon which there will be enrolled each year the name of the high school class making the highest honors for various activities including scholarship, student body affairs, athletics, activities, debating, dramatics, democracy, good sportsmanship, etc. The tablet is the gift of the Pendleton exchange club and the official presentation was made yesterday. The tablet hangs outside the assembly room entrance.

That the idea is an excellent one and that so far as he knows no other high school in the United States has such a plan in operation was declared by J. A. Churchill, one of the speakers on the occasion.

The principal address of the day was made by Dr. Carl Gregg Doney, president of Willamette University at Salem. Dr. Doney’s address was both entertaining and instructive. He set forth the value of the all around student who becomes prepared for his true place in the life of the world.

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Three men entered pleas of guilty to charges of larceny in circuit court this morning and sentences to the state penitentiary for various terms of years were given them by Judge G. W. Phelps. The men whose pleas were entered were J. J. Murray, George Carlson and James Willos.

Murray pleaded guilty to breaking into Sawtelle’s jewelry store a few weeks ago. He broke the front window of the store about 1 o’clock in the morning, grabbed some watches and jewelry and ran. Officer Stanley of the city police force and a posse of citizens gave chase and Murray was brought down by a couple of shots fired by the office. He was sentenced to serve five years.

George Carlson, one of the two men charged with larceny in connection with the robbery of the Cunhamill at Echo in February, was sentenced to four years. Carlson was one of the three men who escaped from the county jail. He was recaptured at The Dalles.

James Willos, the other man implicated in the robbery at the Cunhamill, was sentenced to serve seven years in the penitentiary. Willos is said to have been under two federal sentences during his life.

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Three new candidates have entered the political arena within the past 48 hours by filing their declaration with County Clerk Brown. W. W. Green filed his declaration as a candidate for the office of county superintendent of schools Saturday. New candidates today were Aubrey E. Perry and John D. Brammell, both of Pendleton.

Mr. Green has served for several years as county superintendent of schools. He was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of I. E. Young and was afterward elected to a four-year term. His slogan is “If elected I shall continue to work for efficiency in schools.”

Aubrey E. Perry seeks the republican nomination as county surveyor. He asked for the following to be printed after his name on the ballot: “Present county surveyor, six years experience in office.”

Mr. Brammel seeks the democratic nomination as county commissioner. He is a resident of Pendleton. His slogan is: “Economy and efficiency with 15 years’ experience in road and bridge building.”