100 years ago

Members of the supertax commission of Umatilla County and the secretary of the commission have returned home after attending a meeting of the members of the various commissions from all over the stature. The members of the Umatilla county commission include Judge P. T. Gilliland, J. T. Lieuallen and M. L. Watts. A. C. Funk is secretary of the commission.

“We secured quite a lot of information from the Multnomah commission as to the scope of our duties,” Judge Gilliland said today, in commenting on the meeting. “For one thing, we found out that if we remove any item from any budget submitted to us for our action, the members of the board must all be in favor of such amore. We were in some doubt as to whether majority action or unanimous action would be required, but from the advice we secured at Portland, the members of the Umatilla county commission are convinced that all three members must be in favor of deleting any item before the item can be eliminated.”

50 years ago

The tussock moth is now moving into its dormant stage for the winter after its second and most disastrous year of defoliating northern Oregon forests.

Now the U.S. Forest Service is faced with the task of salvaging the remains of the moth’s devastation.

Gordon George, timber management staff officer for Umatilla National Forest office in Pendleton, said the Forest Service is planning to salvage 235 million board feet of timber from infested forests this year.

Salvage of moth-killed timber is not new. As a result of 1972 moth defoliation, the Forest Service conducts direct salvage sales of 32.5 million board feet of timber.

Forest management officials had hoped a natural virus that follows about a year behind the moth infestations would check the spread of destruction. But the tussock moth was found feeding on about 500,000 acres of public and private timber in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The Blue Mountain area east of Pendleton is one of the areas hardest hit by the moth.

25 years ago

Umatilla neighborhoods soon will be a little safer, thanks to the addition of two bicycles to the police force.

The bicycles were purchased by a $4,500 grant from the Two Rivers Correctional Institution. The Umatilla Police Department received the bokes in a brief ceremony Thursday afternoon at City Hall.

“The officers are pretty much chomping at the bit to get going,” said Umatilla Police Chief Travis Enyon.

Enyon said Thursday officers will start using the bikes on neighborhood patrols within the next few days.

“It’s really a good way for the police officers to have face-to face contact with the community,” Enyon said.

“The chief said while the officers— called “bike cops” in areas like Portland and Seattle — won’t wear normal police attire, they will have “recognizable uniforms” consisting of shorts, shirts, helmets and badges.”