25 years ago this week — 1999

At 86 years of age, Rose Hoosier is the Grand Dance of neglected and abused animals in Umatilla County.

Homeless animals have long been the passion of the retired teacher, who was born on the same piece of property where her double-wide trailer now sits in Stanfield.

“The bedroom where I was born was situated right where my front porch is right now. The old house burned down in 1991, and I had a trailer put up on the same piece of property,” Hoosier said.

Since the inception of the Pioneer Humane Society more than 20 years ago, Hoosier has devoted most of her time and energy, not to mention a considerable amount of her own money, to the promotion of animal welfare in the Umatilla County area.

She graduated from Stanfield High School in 1930 and has lived in the area nearly all her life. After graduation she attended Eastern Oregon State College, and graduated from Southern Oregon with a teaching degree.

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Several generous donors have stepped up to pay for the former Phoenix Suns floor that now graces the Pendleton Convention Center.

Enough money was donated to purchase and install the portable floor, with some left over to begin construction on a climate-controlled facility for off-season storage.

“The community has really gotten behind this project, and I’m really proud of that,” said Convention Center Manager Pat Kennedy. “I’ve always been proud of living in Pendleton because of the support you get for the youth.”

The first donor was Wal-Mart, which pitched in before the floor even arrived. During the purchasing negotiations, Kennedy had assumed the floor would arrive stored on moveable carts. But after the sale was complete, he learned workers at America West Arena moved the portable floor with a forklift and pallets.

Kennedy convinced the Phoenix Suns to pull shipping costs off the tab, and Wal-Mart volunteered to pick up the floor and buy wheeled transportation carts.

The solution ended up costing about the same as was originally planned, Kennedy said. “Absorbing that shipping cost really helped us,” he said.

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Members of the Blue Mountain Community College Foundation Board and its supporters got an update on the impact their scholarships have on the lives of students at the recent annual meeting.

“Thank you, you have made a tremendous difference,” was the message conveyed by Dustin Smith, recipient of the Lloyd M. Ralston Civil Engineering Scholarship, and Sandra Vandever, who encouraged the foundation to help honors students afford membership fees to the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

Smith told the foundation that his decision to continue his education beyond BMCC was made in part as a result of encouragement provided by his benefactress, Alice Ralston. Ralston provided the scholarship in memory of her husband, who was a strong proponent of a college education.

After Vandever learned some students could not afford the fees related to membership in Phi Theta Kappa, she approached Karen Hill, executive director of the BMCC Foundation, with the idea of a dues scholarship. The honor society have gained five new members since the Foundation has provided scholarship funds.

50 years ago this week — 1974

Youths under 16 will be permitted to continue ushering at Happy Canyon, the night pageant that is staged during Pendleton Round-Up week.

Anonymous complaints were lodged last fall against the traditional practice of having the youngsters work the night-time shows. The Oregon Wage and Hour Commission ended the uncertainty over the status of the Happy Canyon ushers when it granted a special waiver Tuesday.

Oregon regulations do not allow a minor to be employed after 6 p.m. without commission approval not while a school term is in session. Some 120 youngsters annually serve as ushers at Happy Canyon.

In granting the waiver, the commission told officials of the Happy Canyon Association that parents must be required to sign a letter assuring they will pick up the youngsters after their ushering duties are completed.

Mike Kilkenney, Pendleton, new association president, told the commission that the ushers, mostly 13 and 13, have always been carefully supervised by adults.

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Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore, said Thursday Congress is approaching petroleum industry legislation with “anger” and said the industry is “in for rough sledding” on tax legislation.

Packwood said the Congress could have prevented to some extent the showdown it is having with the petroleum industry if it had acted years earlier.

The senator commented in a conference phone call with the East Oregonian and some other Oregon newspapers, which was cut short by a senate vote.

Asked what information the Congress needed most in order to draft energy shortage legislation, Packwood said legislation needed to know the petroleum reserves held by U.S. firms. Answering a question, the senator said he approves of President Nixon’s call this week for greater leasing of federal off-shore lands for oil exploration and drilling.

Responding to questions about congressional mood on the presidential Watergate situation, Packwood said senators with whom he had talked had been told by their constituents that they want “the cloud” of Watergate to be removed from the country, one way or antioner, but wanted it to be swept away.

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A new zoning ordinance plus extension of water and sewer facilities the last couple of years may do more to increase Pendleton’s population than anything in the last 10 or 15 years.

Rudy Enbysk, city manager, said the new zoning ordinance makes more places available for mobile home dwellings, parks and subdivisions.

He doesn’t know how much the lack of adequate facilities to locate mobile homes has affected the population.

“Some people with homes undoubtedly had to locate outside the city because the old ordinances were so restrictive.”

The new zoning ordinances took effect only about six months ago.

Enbysk said there really haven’t been any new subdivisions in the last 10 or 15 years.

He cited construction costs and lack of availability of utilities as the main reasons.

“Living in a valley the last couple of years, utilities have been extended to Indian Hills, down Riverside Avenue to serve the Indian Housing projects at Mission, toward Rieth to serve Prowler Industries and Pendleton Grain Growers’s new plant, and now up Tutuilla Road to serve Grecian Heights.

100 years ago this week — 1924

There is probably no more interesting personality before the public than Douglas Malloch, the American poet, who will address the joint banquet meeting of the Exchange and Rotary clubs on Ladies’ Night, which is Saturday of this week.

The Chicago Tribune says of him: “Douglas Malloch is a rare man— thoroughly a man’s man and yet with a fineness of spirit, a cleanned of vision which has kept his boyish ideals as bright now as they were at 20. And he has a sense of humor that no one can withstand.” The St. John’s N. B., Telegraph calls him: “A young, alert and happy soul, treading lightly the ways of men and seeing every cloud in a silver lining.”

The New York Tribune says: “The muse of wit is his steady companion, typing his tongue with a wonderful humor. He reveals the spirit of the thinker beneath the garb of the jester,” Judge, the New York humorous publication, declared that he “seasons every contact with wit of an electric quality.”

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An effort to secure the attendance at the Oregon Wool Growers convention here Monday and Tuesday of C. J. Brand, and employee of the department of agriculture, to address the state gathering of sheep men on the Wallace export plan for the benefit of producers was made by the Pendleton Commercial association and business men today.

Mr. Brand is said to be the author of the bill that is now in committee under the title of the McNary-Haugen bill, to secure the passage of which state organizations in western states are being rapidly effected .

The bill was scheduled to receive the endorsement of the National Wool Growers at their meeting in Salt Lake City today, according to a telegram received from Fred W. Falconer, and it was Mr. Falconer’s suggestion that an effort be made to secure the presence of Mr. Brand, who is now in Los Angeles.

Telegrams to have Mr. Brand here were sent this morning to Secretary Wallace of the department of agriculture and to Mr. Brand.

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Fifteen thousand dollars damage is the estimate following a fire which was discovered at 4:30 a.m. today and which wrecked the greater part of the Simpson Auto CO. plant, 224 Water street. The loss is covered by insurance, according to J. H. Sturgis and Robert Simpson, the owners.

It is uncertain just what caused the blaze, but William Ringold, fire chief, states that it originated in the basement and was burning in the coal stored there. Before the fire department arrived, the three large plate glass windows in the building were blown out and the blaze had burned through the roof. The blaze was a stubborn one and the fire was not completely extinguished until 8 a.m. today.

The showroom and office were completely wrecked, the floor and roof of each room being burned out and the walls scorched. In the showroom was a Ford sedan, which was badly damaged. The repair ship escaped with the least damage so far as the building was concerned but machinery is a loss. The cars stored in the garage with faces on Jonston streets were not badly damaged. The Lincoln car, which was recently purchased by Mrs. Lina Sturgis, and which was in the garage, was scorched and the top slightly injured. All the office records were saved.