25 years ago this week — 2000

PENDLETON — The search is on for a new police chief in Pendleton. The city began advertising the position last week.

The city has known for more than a year that Pendleton Police Chief Ed Taber would be retiring soon. He officially notified the city in November that we would retire at the end of June, said City Manager Larry Lehman.

The city has placed advertisements in regional and national publications, such as the Oregon Police Chief’s Association newsletter and the International City Managers Association newsletter. Deadline for job applications is April 20.

Lehman will make the final decision on selecting a new chief but will seek assistance from both an applicant review board and a finalist interview panel made up of members from local law enforcement, the school district and the community at large. Lehman also said he will involve police officers in the selection process.

“Our goal would be to offer the position to the chosen candidate by the end of May,” Lehman said. “We’ll select one finalist to be interviewed by a panel.”

Lehman said it is unfortunate that taber, 50, is retiring after 15 years as Pendleton’s police chief.

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PENDLETON — Letterman’s sweaters will likely be the garb of choice, providing they still fit, as athletes and spectators with ties to Umatilla County Historical Society Museum to reminisce about basketball and memorabilia at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 28.

Tom Melton will start the evening with a brief history of basketball and its adoption by players and fans alike.

“As much as we’ve all followed sports, I’m sure we’ll find even more history we were unaware of Tuesday night,” Melton said. “The history of sports in our local area has been as big a motivating factor in keeping our communities close, as anything.”

Monk Carden, “the Hawkins boys” (Don, Wray and Bob), Frank Harkenrider, Jack Sweek, and Dallas Price and others will discuss their playing days, and the rules, attire, equipment, teammates, and rivalries established over the years.

An informal get-together of some of the speakers Thursday was a hint of what to expect Tuesday evening.

“We didn’t have any choice whether we plated, there were only nine boys in the school,” Dallas Price, a 1954 graduate of St. Joseph’s Academy who played at Gonzaga University.

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PENDLETON — The Oregon Wheat Growers League has criticized a study prepared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on management options for the lower Snake River.

The Corp’s draft environmental impact statement evaluated four options for managing the federal dams on the lower Snake – dams that have been targeted for possible breaching in order to enhance salmon runs. OWGL officials say there is no regional consensus in favor of dam breaching.

“Simply put, breaching is too expensive, the benefits are too uncertain, and there are other non-breaching options that exist which can do equally well, than the breaching options at saving fish,” said a recent press release from the League.

The OWGL pointed out what it says are several flaws in the study.

League officials say there is no accounting in the Corps’ study for the impacts on shipping rates with the loss of barge competition if the dams are breached.

“Common sense dictates that rail and truck rates will rise without the presence of barge transportation,” the League says. “The transportation cost estimate of moving from barge to rail or truck is suspiciously low and the Corps has not fully disclosed how it manipulated these costs.”

50 years ago this week — 1975

No March 1975

100 years ago this week — 1925

The Flying Mare vs. the Airplane Spin! That’ll likely be the real contest in the Elks wrestling match here on Friday night when Abe Caplan of Chicago, Hebrew light heavyweight champion tangles with Ira Dern, the northwest’s premiere 175 pound grappler.

Unless Abe leaves his Mare in the stable there’s likely to be some real spectacular heaving to and fro between these two stallion grapplers. Against an ordinary grappler or rather against one who Dern is confident of beating he does not uncork his “spin.” He doesn’t have to and he uses his other stuff, of which he has plenty. In this regard he is opposed to Edwards who uses his best bet. The chiropractic headlock against any and all which is about Edwards has got.

“The bigger they are the easier Dern spins ‘em” is the way some of the boys who have seen him use his famous twirl, put it. Caplan will fall in this category but the Hebrew figured that Dern is made to order from the standpoint of size and procedure for his “flying Mar” so there you are.

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That William Sprague, 18-year-old Pilot Rock lad who died Monday night came to his death by reason of poison in moonshine was the belief expressed by two physicians in the inquest which was conducted today at Pilot Rock by Coroner Garfield.

Dr. W. G. Oliver of Pilot Rock attended the lad during two attacks of illness preceding his death, and he declared that his observations caused him to believe that something in the moonshine caused the boy’s death.

Dr. E. O. Parker of Pendleton testified that he conducted an autopsy of the body. The abdomen was opened and the interior of the stomach examined. The mucous membrane of the stomach was literally eaten up, Dr. Parker said, and the condition of the organ indicated that sufficient poison has been taken into the system to cause death.

Both physicians were of the opinion that death was not caused by any external mechanical means. A slight abrasion of the skin on the forehead was noted, but the wound was just a superficial scratch, and there was no concussion or fracture disclosed in the examination made by either physician, they testified.

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Testing of dairy cows for tuberculosis will start in the county Monday afternoon with Dr. Thistlewaite of the bureau of animal industry in charge, assisted by County Agent Bennion. On Monday the testing will be done east of Pendleton, Tuesday, will see the men at work west of Stanfield and on lower Butter Creek and on Wednesday they will be in the Hermiston district. Checks on the work will be made the last three days of the week.

The dairy herds that are to be inspected Monday include those of Ramsdal & Davis, A. P. Knight, Willian Courter, N. D. Swearington, W. A. Wilson, Finis Kirkpatrick, Elmer Turner, Lester Hurst, F. H. Mytinger, Ben Eastridge, J. E. Delashmutt, Phil Dendeau, Pete Murray and S. C. Bittner. The work is carried on in the interest of public health, the county agent declared, and is maintained out of federal appropriations and carried on where communities can be organized for testing so work can be done in a short time.

During the past three years approximately 10,000 tests have been made in the county, and slightly less than one per cent of reactors has been found. Last year 80 per cent of the reactors were found in herds that had not previously been tested.